The FCC Media Bureau dismissed a Dish Network complaint and Media General’s request for sanctions following the resolution of the companies’ carriage agreement. The companies jointly requested “that the commission dismiss the pleadings and terminate the proceeding,” the bureau said in a letter to the companies (http://bit.ly/IkRpU2). The companies reached a carriage agreement in November (CD Nov 19 p21). That month, Media General and Dish asked the FCC to dismiss their requests (CD Nov 21 p23).
Several industry voices backed changes to the wholesale reseller certification form of the FCC Wireline Bureau. AT&T, BT, CenturyLink, Orange, Sprint, Verizon and XO Communications filed joint comments with the FCC last week outlining several proposed edits to the Draft 499-A Instructions, which the Wireline Bureau had released as a redline document open for comments. “If a wholesale provider’s customer (or another entity in the downstream chain of resellers) actually contributed to the Universal Service Fund ('USF') on revenues from offerings incorporating particular services, there should be no double collection of USF contributions from the wholesale provider, even if the wholesale provider cannot demonstrate that it had a reasonable expectation that the customer would contribute when it filed its Form 499-A for the relevant calendar year,” the industry filing said (http://bit.ly/1c1dIW6). The joint comments ask for a footnote added to the form to clarify this point. It also asked for language “explaining how providers should account for services purchased after the date that the annual certificate is signed,” among other changes.
Online sales on Thanksgiving were up 20 percent this year from 2012, according to IBM data released Friday (http://ibm.co/1a0nuqe). Mobile device Internet use also surged this year, according to the data. Mobile traffic made up 43 percent of overall Internet traffic on Thursday -- a more than 32 percent increase from Thanksgiving 2012 -- and mobile sales were 26 percent of all online sales, a 49 percent increase, the data said. Consumers preferred smartphones for general browsing (27 percent of overall online traffic), but more mobile purchases were made on tablets (17 percent for tablets versus 9 percent for smartphones), according to the data. IBM’s data were collected using IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, a cloud-based analytics platform tracking data from roughly 800 U.S. retail sites, IBM said.
Comments on a U.S. proposal to limit ads and online posts by social welfare groups are due Feb. 25, as are requests for a public hearing, said the Treasury Department and IRS in a Friday Federal Register notice. The agencies’ NPRM last week to consider some political ads and Web content not part of promoting the social welfare as 501(c)(4) groups under the IRS tax code are expected to draw concern from disclosure advocates and a lawyer for such groups (CD Nov 29 p3). Comments can be made to www.regulations.gov referencing IRS REG-134417-13, said the notice (http://1.usa.gov/1b8Dx5C).
A recent spectrum deal between the Department of Defense and NAB is likely to help the FCC in preparing for an upcoming spectrum auction, an observer told us. NTIA had announced the DOD-NAB agreement for sharing the 2025-2110 MHz band of spectrum last week (CD Nov 26 p1). “While they certainly did not need the NAB’s blessing, the agreement makes it a whole lot easier for the FCC to move forward confidently to pair the 1755-80 MHz band with 2155-80 MHz band for an auction ahead of the February 2015 statutory deadline,” said New America Foundation’s Michael Calabrese, director of its Wireless Future Project. Observers and industry stakeholders pointed to the deal as a major sign of progress as well as federal agency and industry investment in spectrum sharing (CD Nov 29 p1).
Despite widespread EU access to broadband services at the end of 2012, “significant challenges still remain in delivering high speed broadband” to all of the EU, said a European Commission report released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1cv6eg7). The report, by broadband market research company Point Topic, showed 93 percent of EU households had DSL Internet (standard broadband) coverage, but only 12.4 percent of rural EU households had access to next-generation broadband at the end of 2012. The EU has made it an agenda item to spread next-generation broadband access to all citizens by 2020.
The American Cable Association urged the FCC to do a review of license applications involving shared services agreements (SSAs) in permit-but-disclose proceedings, “rather than have them acted upon by the Media Bureau under delegated authority,” ACA said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1cOoFvO). Only by doing so can the FCC “ensure that the public values of competition, localism and diversity are fully served by its reviews of transactions involving U.S. broadcast licenses,” it said. The association also supported a letter from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., that recommended the FCC avoid making decisions on pending transactions on SSAs until the GAO finishes its review on such transactions, it said. Rockefeller sent the letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler this week (CD Nov 27 p3). GAO started the study on SSAs and hasn’t determined when the report will be issued, a GAO spokeswoman said.
Connect America Fund Phase I incremental support should go only to areas where a price cap LEC demonstrates that a competitive provider is not providing broadband service, said NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1aZ4trQ). The CAF Phase 1 incremental support challenge process is a burden “imposed on cable operators that have nothing to gain from the process other than protecting their service areas from universal service fund-subsidized competition,” said the filing. When conflicting evidence is submitted by both an LEC seeking funding from USF and a provider, CAF Phase I incremental support shouldn’t be awarded, said the filing. “The [Wireline] Bureau should focus on the availability of service, not the provision of service.” LEC evidence that shows only that a portion of a census block is not served by a provider shouldn’t be given weight, said the filing. “The Commission has denied price cap carriers’ attempts to receive CAF Phase I incremental support in partially served census blocks based on evidence that some locations are unserved."