Bill-and-keep is not an appropriate compensation mechanism for SDN Communications, the telecom company told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/HMSCmt). Bill-and-keep is inappropriate because the company “does not have end users and it does not receive any federal or state universal service support,” it said. SDN is a South Dakota centralized equal access provider and tandem transit provider. The company’s network provides “efficient connections to rural markets” in the state, it said in a presentation (http://bit.ly/HMSC5W).
Five technology companies filed a motion asking the government for more transparency about its response to their ongoing petition to disclose more information about government surveillance requests they receive (http://1.usa.gov/18qDQIV). Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn in a motion made public Tuesday are asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for the right to provide more exact numbers on government information requests and the number of users affected by them. Sept. 30, the Justice Department filed a response urging the court to not grant the requests (CD Oct 3 p5), but gave the companies “only a heavily redacted version of its submissions, and it has rejected all requests for greater access,” the motion said. The redacted response doesn’t comply with court rules, the motion argued, since it does not “clearly articulate the government’s legal arguments” behind its stance. The government’s refusal to be more transparent violates the First Amendment and the due process clause, said the motion. The five companies initially had to Oct. 21 to respond to the Justice Department, and that deadline was pushed back indefinitely during the government shutdown and hasn’t been reset (CD Oct 9 p18).
The Weather Channel is optimizing its network to deliver more regionalized data and linear services while reducing bandwidth demands with Arris Group integrated receiver decoders (IRDs), said Arris and Weather Channel parent The Weather Co. in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1cUUJ6c). The Weather Channel is upgrading its satellite network to address the “immediate needs” for network capacity for more regionalized data and to create “future unique content experiences,” said the companies. The multiformat IRDs will enable MPEG-4 distribution via satellite to affiliates and backward compatibility with legacy systems, said the companies.
Google Fiber started installing fiber for its first residential customers who are transitioning from the local Veracity Networks service in Provo, Utah, over the past week, said the company in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1hFUyhd). Google Fiber hopes to finish this first wave of installations over the next six months, said the company. Residential sign-ups for all Provo residents will be available in January, said Google Fiber.
The FCC’s prison calling order will be effective Feb. 11, according to the Federal Register. The text of the order was published Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1hFGELL). Certain sections containing information collection requirements must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget before they can become effective, the text said. The prison calling order requires that interstate inmate calling service rates be just, reasonable and cost-based.
The databases used by the FCC to detail road miles and crossings contain errors for Silver Star’s study areas, the Wyoming telco told Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1hFG28Z). Silver Star thinks the errors occurred because its study areas experienced “significant new development” before 2010, but the databases were not updated to reflect the new data. “Silver Star believes that other local exchange carrier study areas with significant development will experience the same type of errors in ESRI,” it said.
The Senate Commerce Committee voted the nomination Terrell McSweeny for a seat on the FTC out of committee Tuesday night. McSweeny was approved unanimously by voice vote, said a spokesman for Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., in an email to us Wednesday. “Her extensive public policy background will serve her well at the FTC as she fights for consumers,” said Rockefeller Tuesday night. It remained unclear on Wednesday when, or if, the McSweeny nomination would move to a full Senate vote. McSweeny was originally nominated in June (CD June 24 p12), and her nomination hasn’t been able to move forward, despite Rockefeller’s previous efforts (CD Oct 3 p9). “Now … it’s time for the Senate to act with the same vigor and confirm Terrell,” Rockefeller said.
Universal service needs to remain “a pillar upon which the IP evolution is built and sustained,” National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield told new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter Monday (http://bit.ly/1cl1BEP). NTCA mentioned its 2012 petition proposing various “policy paths” that the FCC could pursue as it deals with the IP transition. It’s important to “avoid clinging as a matter of routine or comfort to old rules in the face of changes in technology, competition, and consumer preference,” Bloomfield said -- but it’s also important to have clear “rules of the road.” The “rural call completion epidemic” is a “canary in a coal mine” that shows the risks that can arise without clear rules, she said. The FCC should also work to reduce regulatory uncertainty, she said, and reform the quantile regression analysis-based caps on high-cost USF support that have frozen broadband investment.
T-Mobile US said Monday it plans to sell more than 66 million of its shares -- valued Tuesday at about $1.8 billion -- to buy additional spectrum. The sale would reduce majority owner Deutsche Telekom’s stake in the company from 74 percent to 67 percent, although DT said it is not selling its own shares in the carrier (http://t-mo.co/1gHaA8T). Former MetroPCS shareholders currently own 26 percent of T-Mobile. New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin said in an email to investors Tuesday that the sale could mean T-Mobile is raising funds to purchase spectrum on the 700 MHz A block, though the H block and the LightSquared spectrum are also possible contenders. “The A-Block seems most likely,” Chaplin said. “The only other low-band spectrum we could think of that is unused is the D&E-Block,” which he doubted Dish Network and AT&T would be willing to sell.
Bob Wells, 94, a former broadcaster turned FCC commissioner for two years, died Thursday in a nursing home in Lawrence, Kan. President Richard Nixon appointed the Republican in 1969. Prior to and following his FCC tenure, Wells helped run radio stations in Kansas and other parts of the Midwest. He had been president of what’s now called the Kansas Association of Broadcasters and chairman of BMI. He’s survived by wife, two sons, five grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Contributions in his honor can be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044, and send online condolences at http://bit.ly/HPSzXo.