FCC accessibility rules covering emergency information should be flexible enough to make sure new technologies can easily comply with them, NAB executives said in meetings with staff from the Media and Consumer & Governmental Affairs bureaus. “Because Mobile DTV utilizes different transmission architecture for audio and video mix than the main signal, [the] Commission should not require accessible audible emergency information to be transmitted on a second audio channel,” an ex parte notice said (http://bit.ly/11VHuvp). CEA attorneys and attorneys for some of its members also met with advisers to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to push for flexibility in the rules, ex parte notices show (http://bit.ly/XxFh1P, http://bit.ly/12nXqSW). The meetings largely allowed CEA and its members to highlight arguments the trade association has made already in filings in dockets 12-107 and 11-154.
FairPoint Communications seeks a waiver of the requirement that the amounts of frozen high-cost support derived from interstate access support, interstate common line support and local switching support be excluded from the obligations of Section 54.313(c). That section of the commission’s rules require that the FairPoint LECs demonstrate that, starting in 2013, at least one third of their frozen high-cost support was spent on deployment and operation of broadband. “These funds are already ’spoken for,'” FairPoint said. “They help FairPoint recover investment it already has made in its existing facilities. FairPoint cannot spend the same dollars twice. Effectively, the FCC is requiring FairPoint to spend approximately $9 million of frozen high-cost support twice.” Without a waiver, FairPoint would be “unduly burdened” and its customers would be harmed by end-user rate increases, it said (http://bit.ly/WV4shl).
The Satellite Industry Association wants the FCC to deny Qualcomm’s petition for a proceeding to establish a new terrestrial-based, air-to-ground mobile service in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band. SIA reiterated its concern that Qualcomm’s proposed ATG operations in the Ku band, “even on a secondary basis, would put many services at risk and retard further innovation in the satellite sector,” it said in an ex parte filing in RM-11640 (http://bit.ly/X0wLwb). Such a network will receive more interference from primary fixed satellite services than feasible for operation, it said. Satellite earth stations in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band “can be blanket-licensed and can be deployed anywhere at any time, which heightens the interference potential into ATG ground stations and aircraft,” SIA said. It may be possible for a terrestrial ATG network to share spectrum with other services in frequency bands, SIA added: But in the Ku band, skyward transmission paths, high satellite receiver sensitivity and other factors “suggest that such a shared use of the spectrum will not be viable.” The filing recounted a meeting between SIA members including Harris Corp. and SES and staff from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s office and with International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre.
Significant consumer benefits would flow from a dual band 12/17 interoperability rule, U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/XxDnOC). Dillon discussed the company’s recent cost-benefit analysis, which found that an interoperability order providing a single development platform to support lower 700 MHz operators could save over $200 million in annualized device and platform development costs. U.S. Cellular urged the chairman to schedule a vote on the item for the March commissioners meeting.
Violent videogames are a “bigger safety threat” in the U.S. than guns, according to Republicans polled by Public Policy Polling, it said. The question was one of many asked of 800 U.S. voters that included Democrats and Republicans, but the Democrats weren’t asked that same question about games and guns, according to PPP’s website. Of the Republicans asked that question, 67 percent said games and only 14 percent said guns, while 19 percent weren’t sure which was the larger threat, PPP said. The voters were polled nationally via automated phone interviews Jan. 31-Feb. 3, and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, it said. The Entertainment Software Association didn’t immediately comment on the poll. Violent games were again targeted by industry watchdogs and others after the recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., defended games somewhat in an interview on Fox News Sunday. “We don’t need another study” about the “connection between popular culture and violence,” said interviewer Chris Wallace. “We know that these videogames where people have their heads splattered” have some sort of connection to real violence, he claimed, asking Pelosi why she didn’t go to her “friends in Hollywood” and challenge them on violent games and movies. But Pelosi said “the evidence says that in Japan, for example, they have the most violent” games, but “the lowest mortality” rate from guns. “I don’t know what the explanation is for that except they might have good gun laws,” she said.
The Amazonas 3 multi-mission satellite is performing post-launch maneuvers, Space Systems/Loral said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bogbyf). The satellite, designed by SS/L for Hispasat Group, was launched last week, it said. It began “firing its main thruster to complete its journey to geostationary orbit.” SS/L said Amazonas 3 will provide a wide range of telecom services, “including direct-to-home television, corporate fixed and mobile telephone networks, and broadband in the Americas, Europe and North Africa.”
Correction: The amount Charter Communications is paying Cablevision for the former Bresnan systems is $1.625 billion (CD Feb 11 p13).
The FCC needs to enforce penalties against call completion offenders, NARUC told the agency in a Monday letter sent one year after the commission’s declaratory ruling on the issue (http://xrl.us/bogbos). As expected (CD Feb 5 p16), state commissioners “urge the FCC to take the decisive steps necessary within the next several weeks to see that rural consumers and businesses do not face continuing disconnection from the rest of America,” the letter said. “Additional data collections that might help identify additional non-compliant carriers are welcome, but are no substitute for immediate enforcement of the rules outlined in the January 2012 declaratory ruling.” The letter included eight pages of signatures from scores of state commissioners, totaling 112 from 44 states. State representatives had voiced a mixture of disappointment and skepticism when first hearing last month details of the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking, which would mandate data collections to assist FCC investigations (CD Jan 28 p13). The NPRM was released Feb. 7, and the FCC may have an order as early as this fall, Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach told NARUC audiences. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., credited his own efforts with leading to the NPRM, in a release Monday (http://xrl.us/bogbra) expressing “frustration that no enforcement action has yet been taken.” While appreciative of the NPRM and ongoing FCC staff investigations (CD Feb 6 p14) into call completion, NARUC President Philip Jones noted that “we've known about these problems for years, and no companies have been punished.” The “inability to complete a simple telephone call is more than just a minor irritation, it is a significant safety and public health concern,” he said in a written statement (http://xrl.us/bogbrz). “Effective enforcement is essential, and it has been missing for some time."
BringCom, a Virginia-based telecom provider, partnered with companies in Djibouti to revitalize and manage the daily operations of the Djibouti Teleport facility. They'll establish Djibouti Teleport, a private company, BringCom said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bogbti). The partners plan to upgrade the Djibouti Teleport “with new buildings, backup power security hardware and an iDirect hub to create a first-class teleport facility serving the African region,” BringCom said. It said Djibouti Teleport also will provide competitive international connectivity through five large-capacity undersea cable systems connected to the facility.
The First Amendment may protect citizen access to municipal telecom networks, said Internet-company attorney Marvin Ammori of the Ammori Group in a Monday post on his blog (http://xrl.us/bogbe9). The law firm represents technology companies, including Google and Prism Skylabs. Judges “might pick and choose the doctrine that protects speech and conforms to our intuitions -- that municipal networks should be free, not censored,” Ammori wrote. Courts could decide municipal networks are designated public forums and that the speech on them is protected, which would affect a judge’s ability to ensure site access, according to the post. Ammori questions how such laws would hold up even if the networks aren’t considered such public forums: “Some laws for a municipal network would be unconstitutional if they suppressed a speaker or site based on its views. Even if a law, on its face, didn’t target a particular view, it could be unconstitutional for being so vague and covering so many activities that it gave the city officials wide discretion to pick on and censor only those speakers whose views they opposed."