NCTA slammed a new bill to regulate ISP data caps. The Data Cap Integrity Act, introduced Thursday (CD Dec 21 p13) by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., seeks to standardize Internet data caps and offer consumers more control over their data usage (http://xrl.us/bn7c28). The bill “ignores the substantial pro-consumer benefits of usage-based pricing,” the cable association said in a Friday news release. “Tiered pricing is common throughout our economy, consumers both understand and appreciate it and the FTC and FCC have said it is sensible and fair,” it said. “While congestion management may be one effect of tiered pricing, the primary benefits are consumer choice and fairness. Usage tiers give consumers more choices to better fit their bandwidth needs, and they rightly distinguish between low-volume users and high-volume users as is true for many products and services."
All federal agencies and executive branch departments will be closed Dec. 24, according to an executive order issued by President Barack Obama on Friday.
Deals letting TV stations share services were the focus of more lobbying (CD Dec 20 p20) at the FCC last week, docket 09-182 showed (http://xrl.us/bn7g5r). Draft media ownership rules would attribute joint services agreements (JSA) as ownership to a station brokering about 15 percent or more ads for another separately owned outlet in the same market. Broadcasters continued to say JSAs shouldn’t be attributed, while cable operators and a nonprofit opposed to consolidation want more types of arrangements counted toward a market’s ownership limits. Schurz Communications, with three TV stations in JSAs, asked the agency to not “change its established way” of handling such arrangements. The “one exception” to the commission not grandfathering existing ownership arrangements when new rules are adopted was the 2003 order attributing radio JSAs, Schurz noted. “But that occurred after the local radio limits had been significantly relaxed, in contrast to the television rules which remain unchanged.” Asked by FCC staff about waivers for local ownership of media assets, executives of Schurz, owner of cable systems, newspapers and radio and TV stations, said there are often delays getting such exceptions. That “would make that an unattractive option since stations could be tied up for an indefinite period while the waiver was under consideration,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bn7g6w) of meetings with Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau, Commissioner Ajit Pai and aides to the other four FCC members. Because eight years have passed since a rulemaking notice proposed attributing TV JSAs, “interested parties should have the opportunity to update the record that would be permitted by a delay in action,” Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber emailed Lake Thursday, two days after they met. That would let the agency “reach conclusions based on current marketplace conditions,” said the email, included in the company’s ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bn7g66). Lake and other bureau officials were asked during the meeting by Faber “to slow down [the FCC’s] apparent rush to judgment” on TV JSAs. Faber has criticized attributing them (CD Nov 29 p5). LIN Media, part of four JSAs, thinks any arrangements already OK'd by the agency as part of station transactions “should be permanently grandfathered,” a filing said. LIN would prefer the pacts not be attributed at all, it said of “situations where the parties have invested millions in arrangements approved by the Commission.” Radio has seen “necessary deregulation in ownership caps while the television ownership limits have remained tightly constrained, especially in small markets,” a LIN executive told Lake and others in the bureau. NCTA meanwhile continued lobbying for the agency to deem attributable ownership of any TV station that has its retransmission consent deals negotiated by another nearby outlet, to the negotiating broadcaster, executives said in meetings with bureau officials and aides to commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. The current draft order’s focus on JSAs “is puzzling” to Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood, he recounted (http://xrl.us/bn7g8q) telling an aide to Rosenworcel. “News co-production and ’sharing’ arrangements seem more likely to allow for control or influence over another licensee’s programming than do JSAs.” Wood sees a “growing consensus” the agency should study the impact on ownership opportunities for minorities and women of changing newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules, before changing the regulations, he said. Minority and woman ownership remains “disproportionately low,” NAB said (http://xrl.us/bn7g9a) in early-filed comments on Form 323 ownership figures for those and other demographic groups. The association, though, cited “some positive developments in the numbers of minority and female owners, attributable interest holders, and positional interest holders.” Form 323 initial comments are due Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn7g9r).
The FCC can distribute Connect America Fund Phase I money “more efficiently” in the next round by instituting a competitive bidding process, Mediacom told Wireline Bureau officials and aides to each commissioner Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn7g4d). Competitive bidding is how the wireless industry drives fiber deployment to cell towers, and is familiar to all industry players “as a successful way of securing the most efficient builds leveraging the best scalable nearby networks,” which are not always shown on the National Broadband Map, Mediacom said. The cable company also cautioned against over-subsidization, which it said can devalue privately funded facilities investment, and provide disincentives to future privately funded investment. The commission should require that CAF funds are only used for previously unserved locations, Mediacom said. It discouraged adoption of Windstream’s proposal for middle-mile support, “as such facilities traverse served areas and are easily leveraged to serve adjacent served areas."
The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge raised questions about tests Progeny did on a joint basis with three other parties, examining whether Progeny’s Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service (M-LMS) network would cause harmful interference to unlicensed devices in the 902-928 MHz band. Multilateration systems use spread-spectrum technology to locate vehicles and other moving objects through wide geographic areas. “NAF/PK have reviewed the test reports and the record in this proceeding, including ex parte letters filed since the test reports were submitted to the Commission,” the groups said (http://xrl.us/bn7gyb). “Based on this review, we believe that it appears likely that the operation of Progeny’s system would adversely impact the operational performance of unlicensed smart grid and broadband wireless devices.” The reports suggest the system could have “potentially devastating consequences for unlicensed use of the only contiguous unlicensed band currently available in superior propagation frequencies below 1 GHz, effectively removing 4 MHz (of 26 MHz) of spectrum from unlicensed use in the 902-928 MHz band.” The reports were conducted by Progeny and Itron, Landis + Gyr Co. and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. Itron, which manufactures automatic meter reading systems used by utilities, also raised concerns in comments at the FCC. “The Progeny system should not be allowed to commence operation because of the severe adverse impacts it will have on many unlicensed users of the 902-928 MHz band,” Itron said (http://xrl.us/bn7gy2). “Legacy Itron devices can perform frequency hopping, but only over a limited number of channels, and thus their operations are disproportionately centered in the middle of the 902-928 MHz band, near the center M-LMS block (on which Progeny operates). More than 100 million Itron meter modules, which include the legacy devices, have been shipped nationwide for use on this band.” Magnum Wireless, which operates fixed wireless broadband networks in northwest Indiana, also raised concerns. “In reviewing the findings ... we were deeply troubled by the interference levels reported,” Magnum said (http://xrl.us/bn7gza). “If such interference levels existed in our current network many of our 900 MHz customers would fall below our standards for acceptable signal strength."
NATOA asked for more time to file reply comments on FCC-proposed cable signal quality and interference rules. Replies are due Jan. 7, and NATOA asked the commission to extend them through Feb. 8. The extra time would allow NATOA, NCTA and others to attempt to “narrow differences in their proposals,” NATOA said. It said the holiday period makes meeting the Jan. 7 deadline difficult (http://xrl.us/bn7gvg).
Time Warner Cable asked for more time to respond to recent pleadings related to its petition to the FCC Media Bureau to reconsider a must-carry order requiring the operator carry Mauna Kea’s KLEI-TV Kailua Kona, Hawaii, on its Honolulu cable systems. “Grant of this motion would serve the public interest by allowing the parties sufficient time during the holiday season to fully address matters presented in the Petitions for Reconsideration and the Oppositions,” the cable company said (http://xrl.us/bn7gva). It said Mauna Kea Broadcasting consented to the motion.
The FCC Media Bureau issued a protective order to guard confidential information submitted in a proceeding to determine whether Comcast is subject to effective competition in some New Jersey communities. The telco asked (CD Dec 17 p17) the bureau to issue such an order to keep its subscriber information from becoming publicly available. “Based on the representations made by Verizon, we conclude that a Protective Order is needed to provide enhanced confidential treatment for certain information submitted in these proceedings,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bn7gud).
Granting a Montgomery County, Md., request that the FCC ignore (CD Dec 13 p23) local subscriber data about DBS operators when considering a cable operator’s effective competition petition would go against “the governing effective competition test … and prior Commission rulings,” Comcast said in a Media Bureau filing. Te Communications Act requires the FCC to consider competition from satellite providers when evaluating whether there’s sufficient competition in a local franchise area, Comcast said in a reply to the county’s opposition to the company’s petition to be let out of local rate regulation in some Montgomery County towns. “Congress did not leave open to discretion whether DBS service should or should not be counted under the Competing Provider Test,” Comcast said.
Journal Broadcast Corp. agreed to buy WNOX(FM) Oak Ridge, Tenn., from Oak Ridge FM, the buyer said in a news release Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn7gxa). WNOX will be added to the company’s radio stations in the Knoxville market, including WCYQ, WWST and WKHT, it said.