The FCC’s Technology Transitions Task Force should promptly update the commission’s last-mile access and interconnection policies for a packet-mode environment, Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom, Level 3 and tw telecom told FCC officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bob2h3). In the process they should follow four major guidelines, the CLECs said: First, avoid redundant proceedings. Second, consider only those issues that “would not arise ‘but for’ a technology transition,” such as, for example, wholesale access to ILEC last-mile facilities, they said. Third, the FCC should prioritize issues based on their potential effect on consumer welfare. Finally, the commission should utilize “appropriate procedural mechanisms,” such as a rulemaking, to effectuate new rules. The CLECs also encouraged the FCC to reject AT&T’s petition to launch a proceeding on the IP transition, and its proposed wire center experiment where many of the interconnection rules would be lifted. Most of the issues raised in AT&T’s petition, such as service discontinuance, network change notification and federal eligible telecom carrier rules, are already the subject of pending FCC proceedings, the CLECs said. AT&T’s wire center tests are unnecessary, would divert FCC resources from updating existing competition policies, and wouldn’t help to identify the markets where ILECs have market power, the CLECs said. They also opposed NTCA’s petition for a new omnibus rulemaking proceeding to address the IP transition, arguing the rural association’s proposed “smart regulation” approach is too broad and will unnecessarily divert FCC resources. The CLECs did support NTCA’s request for clarification that ILECs must provide Session Initiation Protocol interconnection under Section 251 of the Telecom Act.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood further urged the MPAA to prohibit the marketing of violent PG-13 movies to young children by starting a letter writing campaign to MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd. The film industry “is doing everything and anything it can to undermine parents and ensure that violence-packed movies are the talk of elementary and preschool playgrounds,” CCFC said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bob2i6). “Young children exposed to violent media have a higher tendency for violent and aggressive behavior later in life.” The Parents Television Council asked citizens to urge Vice President Joe Biden to further push the entertainment industry to be more responsible following the broadcast of The Following on Fox. PTC commended Biden for meeting with videogame and entertainment representatives this month to discuss proposals regarding violence (CD Jan 10 p3). The show is “one of the most unrepentantly violent television shows in recent memory on network television,” PTC said in a news release. It appears that Fox is only concerned with ratings, “scheduling the program in a primetime slot at 9 p.m. ET and carrying a low TV-14 rating,” it said.
Sprint Nextel asked the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling saying it won’t owe an anti-windfall payment to the federal government as a result of the 800 MHz rebanding. When the commission approved its landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in 2004, it required Nextel, then an independent company, to pay the full value of the 10 MHz national spectrum license it got as part of the rebanding agreement. Other carriers pushed for the provision as a matter of fairness. The FCC set the value of the license at $4.8 billion and the value of spectrum that Nextel would contribute as part of the rebanding at $2 billion. That left $2.8 billion in costs for Nextel to cover. The FCC has repeatedly put off the day of reckoning for Sprint to tally up its rebanding costs as the process took much longer than projected. Sprint has “substantially completed reconfiguring the 800 MHz Land Mobile Radio Band in the United States,” the carrier said in a petition filed at the FCC Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bob2gw). “Over 99 percent of all non-border U.S. and U.S.-Canada border area public safety incumbents have executed Frequency Reconfiguration Agreements with Sprint to retune their systems and over 80 percent of them are operating on their new channel assignments in the reconfigured 800 MHz band.” Sprint has already spent more than $3.1 billion, the carrier said. “When added to the Commission-determined $2 billion value of the 800 MHz spectrum Sprint contributed to make 800 MHz Reconfiguration possible, Sprint’s expenses and contributions far exceed the Commission determined $4.8 billion value of the 1.9 GHz ‘G Block’ ‘replacement’ spectrum the Commission assigned to Sprint in exchange for its financial and spectrum contributions to carrying out the Reconfiguration Plan."
Comcast’s appeal of a FCC carriage order on its distribution of the Tennis Channel is effectively an attempt to eviscerate statutory discrimination protections for independent TV networks, Bloomberg said in a would-be amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Comcast appealed an FCC order requiring it to distribute Tennis Channel to as many subscribers as it distributed some of its own networks, and the D.C. Circuit blocked the order’s effectiveness while it hears the appeal (CD Sept 4 p2). Comcast’s interpretation of section 616 of the Cable Act would give the FCC’s program carriage rules “limited application and certainly not enough to warrant the significant time and expense required to bring forward a program carriage complaint,” Bloomberg said. By arguing such relief must be restricted to pay-TV operators that have bottleneck monopoly power, Comcast reveals a “fundamental misunderstanding of the scope and purpose of Section 616,” Bloomberg said. It’s not an antitrust law, Bloomberg said. “Rather, the law is intended to promote diversity in programming and protect against competitive harms inflicted by vertically-integrated cable operators seeking to bestow advantages on affiliated programmers.” Moreover, changes in the industry don’t justify “dismantling” section 616, Bloomberg said. If Comcast believes otherwise, it should argue that before Congress, not the courts or FCC, it said. “Unlike other provisions of the Cable Act, Section 616 has no sunset provision,” Bloomberg said. “This court should decline Comcast’s invitation to manufacture one.” The court has yet to rule on whether it will accept Bloomberg’s brief.
Retailers will spend $55 billion on mobile marketing by 2015 -- up from $28 billion expected this year -- said a report from Juniper Research (http://bit.ly/W0z56k). The “mass tablet market ha[s] created new opportunities” for retailers to advertise to consumers, and retailers that have not yet done so should optimize their website for mobile browsing, said a news release on the report (http://bit.ly/1443uUe).
The FCC Wireless Bureau issued a protective order limiting access to proprietary or confidential information in petitions by carriers seeking eligible telecommunications carrier status in order to participate in any Mobility Fund auction. “We anticipate that such materials will be necessary to develop a more complete record on which to base the Commission’s decisions,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bob2e8). “We therefore will make such information available, but only pursuant to a protective order.”
Nothing has changed that would permit the Greenlining Institute to have access to confidential information on Deutsche Telekom’s proposal to buy MetroPCS and merge the company with T-Mobile USA, DT and T-Mobile said in an FCC filing Tuesday. The institute, which represents the interests of minorities, said in a recent filing it may consider asking the FCC to block the deal if its concerns are not addressed (CD Jan 18 p17). “The Applicants reiterate that Greenlining’s lack of participation in the ... proceeding renders it ineligible to access the unredacted Information Request response. The Applicants also categorically deny that T-Mobile USA promised Greenlining access to confidential and highly confidential materials in exchange for delaying filing in the FCC proceeding.” The FCC has previously found “that entities who have not filed pleadings during the comment cycle are not entitled to access to confidential and highly confidential materials filed in the proceeding, and should do so again here,” they said (http://xrl.us/bob2fr). The institute, meanwhile, went on the record with comments in the proceeding, also filed Tuesday. “Based on its initial and limited review of the proposed transaction, Greenlining believes that the proposed transaction could serve the public interest,” it said, while noting that is based only in the public interest statement filed by the carriers. “Without further information, Greenlining cannot determine whether the proposed transaction would ultimately benefit low-income consumers,” it said (http://xrl.us/bob2fc). “Greenlining intends to continue investigating the merger, and will supplement these comments as needed."
The House Homeland Security Committee plans to examine and monitor the Department of Homeland Security’s role in hardening networks from cyberattack, according to its oversight plan which was published Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bobz3g). The committee will review the federal government’s cyber missions and monitor DHS’s role in “fulfilling its goals in order to prevent a catastrophic cyber attack,” the plan said. The committee will ensure that DHS “facilitates the improved security of our nation’s critical infrastructure while earning and building on the trust of the owners and operators of that infrastructure.” The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies will examine DHS’s ability to detect the incursion of malicious activity; attribute the source of that activity; and promote best practices, risk assessments, and share threat information across all levels of government and the private sector, the oversight plan said. The subcommittee will examine the resiliency of the nation’s critical infrastructure and “the need to optimize supply chain risk management in order to protect against manipulation without unnecessarily impeding commerce,” said the plan. The Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications will monitor the development of FirstNet and the public safety interoperable wireless broadband network. The oversight plan said the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will evaluate DHS’s ability to deter and respond to emerging threats. Specifically the plan said GPS navigation systems are “highly susceptible to being jammed and hijacked” and an attack on such devices could “disrupt civil aviation and emergency communications, attack global financial exchanges, and corrupt the energy grid.”
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) urged the FCC to dismiss several petitions for waivers of the commission’s closed captioning rules. TDI, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and other groups opposed petitions from Sharing Faith Ministries, Walled Lake, Mich., The Justice Foundation, San Antonio, Texas, and other broadcasting entities in a filing in docket 06-181 (http://xrl.us/bobzz7). The petitioners haven’t sufficiently demonstrated “that captioning their programming would impose an undue economic burden,” it said. “No petition appears to document any attempt to negotiate with captioning providers to seek a more affordable rate after receiving an estimate."
Comments on the proposals in the FCC’s inmate calling notice of proposed rulemaking are due March 25 in WC docket 12-375, the FCC said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bobzxa). Reply comments will be due April 22. The commission’s NPRM asked whether incentives, regulations or a combination of both will best ensure just and reasonable Inmate Calling Service rates for end-users, while still dealing with the security concerns and expenses inherent to inmate calls (CD Dec 31 p6).