The FCC on Friday let the National Exchange Carrier Association’s revised special access rates stand, ending an investigation into the group’s recent tariff filing (http://xrl.us/bnsrsw). The Wireline Bureau Pricing Policy Division had suspended the tariff at the request of AT&T to investigate NECA’s 5.4 percent rate increase (CD Sept 10 p2). The division said NECA’s reply brief and additional information from Eastex “satisfied our concerns."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., plan to release a report Monday on their investigation of security threats posed by Chinese telecoms Huawei and ZTE, Ruppersberger’s office said. Rogers and Ruppersberger will comment on the report at a 10 a.m. news conference in the U.S. Capitol, room HVC-201. At a hearing Sept. 13, Huawei and ZTE executives told the committee their companies do not use their products to help the Chinese government spy on or steal information from U.S. entities. Rogers and Ruppersberger indicated after the hearing they were not satisfied with the executives’ answers, which they felt were inconsistent and lacked transparency. The version of the report to be released Monday is considered unclassified, but a classified version will also be produced (CD Sept 14 p7) .
CompTel nominated economist Joseph Gillan to the Universal Service Administrative Co. board as CLEC representative, a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnsrpr). Gillan has been on the USAC board since late 2008, and is currently vice chairman of the High Cost and Low Income committee, and of the audit committee. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance nominated its president, Genny Morelli, to fill the vacant board seat as an ILEC representative for non-Bell Operating Companies with annual operating revenue more than $40 million. ITTA said Morelli has “significant expertise and knowledge of the industry."
The transition from TDM-based to IP-based services does not justify deregulation of interconnection arrangements, XO told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Ajit Pai and the Wireline Bureau chief. XO was responding to AT&T’s August proposal to “establish a date certain” for a TDM sunset, after which no carrier would be required to interconnect in TDM (CD Sept 13 p11). “Continued regulation and oversight is critical to ensure competition and innovation in the telecommunications marketplace,” XO said. XO also discussed the upcoming launch of its native 100 Gbps coast-to-coast broadband service, and the importance of special access reform and the preservation of copper facilities.
Purple Communications recommended reforms of the Video Relay Service (http://xrl.us/bnsrfj). In meetings with several FCC officials, Purple discussed its proposed per minute reimbursement model, a unitary rate structure applied gradually over three to five years across the industry, and a temporary continuation of a modified tiered rate structure with expansion of minutes in each tier. Continuation of that structure is “critical for a defined period to address the scale issue, prior to adoption of a unitary rate,” it said.
Communications Daily will observe the Columbus Day federal holiday on Monday, October 8. Our next issue will be Tuesday, October 9.
The FCC is still expected to let expire a ban on exclusive contracts between cable operators and the networks they own Friday, despite strong opposition from multichannel video programming distributors that don’t own content, Stifel Nicolaus analysts wrote investors Thursday. That’s the day before program access rules sunset without renewal. “While changes are still possible, our sense is big cable is winning and the FCC is not going to extend the ban or bolster the competitors’ presumptive rights much beyond the chairman’s proposal,” they wrote. “Instead, the FCC seems likely to impose a ’shot clock’ on complaint proceedings and examine various issues” in a further notice of proposed rulemaking, they said.
U.S. tower companies addressed the financial implications of T-Mobile USA’s proposed purchase of MetroPCS. T-Mobile said Wednesday it had a deal to buy MetroPCS from its shareholders for $1.5 billion in cash and 26 percent ownership of the merged company (CD Oct 4 p1). T-Mobile accounted for 7 percent of American Tower’s consolidated operating revenues for Q2 and MetroPCS 2 percent, the company said in a news release Thursday. American Tower has separate leases for antenna space with T-Mobile and MetroPCS on the same site at about 1,000 of its sites. The combined revenue from T-Mobile and MetroPCS leases at those sites represents about 1 percent of American Tower’s consolidated operating revenue for the quarter. The average remaining term on American Tower’s long-term lease arrangements with T-Mobile and MetroPCS is about nine years, American Tower said. About 1 percent of SBA Communications’ revenue in Q2 was generated by redundant T-Mobile and MetroPCS leases on the same site, company Finance Director Mark DeRussy told us. Crown Castle International said it has received about $54 million in revenue from redundant leases by T-Mobile and MetroPCS, which represents about 2.3 percent of its ‘12E revenue. CCI said that figure includes revenue from its recent deal to get control of 7,200 T-Mobile towers (CD Oct 1 p16).
NAB hired ex-FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan in a new position where he'll lead the association’s efforts on spectrum policy. He left the bureau earlier this year, and was seen as crucial by agency and industry officials to helping Chairman Julius Genachowski begin efforts to get more spectrum including from TV stations for mobile broadband, and reviewing the AT&T deal to buy T-Mobile before the companies withdrew it over government concern. “There may be differences with respect to policy” issues with spectrum legislation, before it became law in February allowing the FCC to hold a voluntary incentive auction of TV stations’ spectrum, Kaplan told us Thursday regarding broadcasters and his old boss. But “everyone shares the goal of having efficient use of spectrum,” as shown by broadcasters with mobile DTV, he said. Earlier at the commission, Kaplan helped lead the agency’s work for the DTV transition in summer 2009, and then was chief of staff to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn later that year and early next. He starts Oct. 22 as executive vice president-strategic planning at NAB, the association said in a news release Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnsnre). Genachowski has “recognized many times that there is a major role, an essential role, for broadcasters to play with regards to spectrum policy, and I think you will see that happen,” Kaplan said. NAB CEO Gordon Smith wants to “be constructive and helpful with the auction, and I can help play that role,” Kaplan continued. “And ensure that the broadcasters who do not participate are protected” in any auction and repacking of TV channel positions, “and I know the FCC certainly has that goal as well,” he said. Kaplan said he can lobby the commission on any rulemaking matter that doesn’t involve a transaction as long as he doesn’t divulge confidential information, though the extent to which he'll visit his old building hasn’t been determined. The new post “seems like a perfect match to me,” with his “experience with spectrum and innovation policy,” Kaplan said. Smith said “his expertise on spectrum issues will benefit broadcasters greatly as we work with policymakers to ensure a robust local television business for decades to come.”
The Game Show Network and Cablevision agreed to give each other two weeks to complete document production in their FCC program carriage dispute, a joint filing shows (http://xrl.us/bnsnqq). “The parties anticipate that this additional period will necessitate a modest extension of the hearing schedule by 30 to 45 days,” it said. “The parties have been expeditiously and cooperatively producing documents” in line with a Friday deadline, but the volume of documents to be produced led to the delay, they said.