The Library of Congress’s Copyright Royalty Board said it received a notice of intent to audit Last.FM’s Section 112 and 115 royalty payments from 2009-2011 (http://xrl.us/boaer4). SoundExchange filed the notice with the board on Dec. 20, it said.
State representatives and a regulator asked the FCC to grant LightSquared’s proposal to modify its ancillary terrestrial component to help improve mobile broadband accessibility in their constituencies. Replies to the company’s proposal to relocate its terrestrial downlink operations from 1545-1555 MHz to 1670-1680 MHz, and share 1670-1680 MHz with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were due Friday in docket 12-340. The 4G wireless service that LightSquared can bring to rural Mississippi “represents an entire new age of telecommunications,” said the Mississippi Public Service Commission (http://xrl.us/boad66). Wireless technology is at a point “where its infrastructure is so strained that new technology must be incorporated in order to support its growth,” MPSC said. Elected officials in Mississippi remain optimistic “that the FCC will find a solution that will allow LightSquared to deliver broadband access to every corner of Mississippi,” said Republican State Sen. Will Longwitz (http://xrl.us/boad7g). The proposal seems like a reasonable and fair compromise “to avoid any continuing discussion regarding interference with GPS devices,” said Theresa Ruiz, a Democrat who serves on the Jackson County (Mo.) Legislature (http://xrl.us/boad4d). If LightSquared is unable to deploy its network, “major economic and consumer benefits could be lost,” she said. LightSquared invested more than $4 billion in its network, said Democratic Councilwoman Cindy Circo of Kansas City, Mo. (http://xrl.us/boad5t). “The government ought not hinder this kind of significant investment in a critical infrastructure.” Broad recognition exists “that the proposed license modifications would facilitate the extension of additional mobile broadband capacity to hundreds of millions of Americans, at a time when such capacity is critically needed,” LightSquared said (http://xrl.us/boaerm). It said the FCC acknowledges that failing to make additional spectrum available for wireless broadband could lead to “higher prices, poor services quality, an inability for the U.S. to compete effectively on an international basis ... and ultimately, a drag on innovation."
The Application Developers Alliance thanked California Attorney General Kamala Harris for her “thoughtful recommendations on mobile app privacy,” which her office released in a report on Thursday. “App developers are committed to ensuring consumers know what information apps are collecting and how it is being shared,” said Alliance President Jon Potter in a statement. “The Alliance is focused on working with consumer advocates to build consensus on mobile app privacy through the multi-stakeholder process convened by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. We're hopeful an agreement can be reached that protects consumers while promoting innovation,” he said.
Joshua Wright was sworn in as FTC commissioner Friday, the agency announced (http://xrl.us/boaepu). Wright, a professor at the George Mason University School of Law and former scholar in residence at the FTC Bureau of Competition, was sworn in by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.
Hamilton Relay spoke with aides to FCC commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday about improvements to the Telecommunications Relay Service (http://xrl.us/boaek6). The TRS provider agrees with consumer groups that adopting a 70 dB standard of hearing loss for eligibility is “unsupportable in either the record or the scientific literature,” it said. Hamilton opposes any eligibility standard tied to decibel loss; rather, consumers could have additional eligibility options to receive a free Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service phone if they provide a certification, Hamilton said. Third-party certification is unnecessary when consumers need to pay a sufficient amount for an IP CTS telephone, Hamilton said. He said “$99 is a sufficient price point to confirm that the user legitimately needs the service while also helping to offset the cost of the phone.” Hamilton said it could quickly implement a “default-off requirement,” in which its phones’ caption feature be defaulted to the off position. The company opposes referral fees, kickbacks and other marketing practices that are “inconsistent with precedent and good government of the TRS Fund,” it said.
The Yukon-Waltz Telephone Co. asked the FCC Wireline Bureau for a waiver of its reporting rules in order to “correct an accounting error” (http://xrl.us/boaego). In March, Yukon-Waltz discovered that, due to a billing system error, it had not yet billed 171,000 intrastate terminating minutes to its largest carrier. The telco back-billed the carrier for that usage in April, and payment was received in July. Now the telco wants a waiver to let it include the minutes in its total base revenues for October 2010 through September 2011. “To ignore this very significant usage materially understates YWTC’s baseline intrastate access revenues,” it told the FCC.
The FCC should work with the Department of Justice as the commission reviews transactions, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. Such reviews could “consider the many variables as to what constitutes the market, including whether the company serves traditionally underserved populations, and what impact a merger would have on those consumers,” MMTC officials told an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said a filing posted Friday to docket 09-182 said (http://xrl.us/boaejp). It said the commission should “continue to focus on entrepreneurial opportunity as a way to further the public interest.” The council said it hopes the overdue Section 257 report, due to Congress Dec. 31 under the Telecom Act on barriers to entry for small businesses, will be completed.
Same-market broadcaster/newspaper owners said that after what may be the last round of comments on media ownership before a draft FCC order is voted on (CD Jan 11 p16), docket 09-182 still has “no empirical data to substantiate the few generalized claims made about the newspaper/radio rule.” The companies, Bonneville International and Scranton Times LP, want the order to allow future common ownership, such as what those companies now have, but some nonprofit groups opposed deregulation. “The record contains widespread agreement that access to capital is the most significant barrier to entry that confronts minorities, women, and other aspirants hoping to own broadcast stations,” said a Bonneville and Scranton Times ex parte filing posted Friday to the docket (http://xrl.us/boaeqe). The filing said lawyers for the two companies asked in a meeting with Media Bureau officials that the commission “focus its efforts on initiatives designed to help open greater access to financing and operational support."
A product-review platform provider that bought its nearest rival acted against competition, the Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed against Bazaarvoice in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Justice said Thursday (http://xrl.us/boaegw) that Texas-based Bazaarvoice’s $168.2 million acquisition of San Francisco-based PowerReviews in June “substantially lessened competition” and harmed innovation, and that the acquiring company didn’t file the required Hart-Scott-Rodino notice to the department. Both companies provide product-review platforms to manufacturers and retailers that let consumers review their products online. “Without competitive pressure from PowerReviews, Bazaarvoice will be able to increase prices to retailers and manufacturers for its product ratings and reviews platform,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Antitrust Division: The suit “demonstrates that transactions that are not reported to us are not immune from scrutiny.” Bazaarvoice and PowerReviews were such fierce competitors before the acquisition that “many retailers and manufacturers received substantial price discounts,” Justice said: It quoted one Bazaarvoice co-founder’s internal document that the acquisition would help stem “price erosion” and remove its “primary competitor.” Bazaarvoice’s website says (http://xrl.us/boaeib) it helps “over 30 percent of the world’s leading global brands ... to turn social data into smarter business decisions.” Its clients include Panasonic, About.com, AutoTrader.com, Best Buy, Big Fish Games, Cisco, Dell, GoDaddy.com and Hewlett-Packard, among others. A Bazaarvoice spokesman told us his company gave Justice “extensive documents, data, and information” showing the PowerReviews acquisition was “procompetitive,” explaining for “more than six months” there’s “robust and ample competition” for what it called “social commerce engagement tools.” Justice has an “overly narrow definition of the product market,” he said, calling ratings and reviews “one of many tools” in a social-commerce strategy. Justice based its case on a “series of dated documents” that were “taken out of context” and “ignored virtually all of our recent ordinary course documents and substantial economic evidence,” the spokesman said. Bazaarvoice wasn’t required to report the transaction under Hart-Scott-Rodino because PowerReviews was “so small” -- bringing in less than $12 million revenue in its most recent fiscal year -- “it failed to meet the government’s own required ’size-of-person test'” for mandatory notification and preclearance, he said. Bazaarvoice expects to be “fully vindicated” in court, he said.
The FCC International Bureau accepted Intelsat’s request to amend its application for authority to launch and operate Intelsat 30. Intelsat seeks to provide fixed satellite service through the satellite using frequency bands including 3400-3700 MHz, 6425-6675 MHz and 14-14.5 GHz, the Satellite Division said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/boaecw). Intelsat wants to change the requested orbital location from 95.1 degrees west to 95.05 degrees west and it “requests a waiver of the full frequency reuse requirement ... of the commission’s rules with respect to the C-band payload,” the bureau said.