The Wireless Bureau Friday released an order adopting procedures limiting access to proprietary or confidential information that may be filed as the FCC seeks information from market players as part of its review of the proposed Verizon Wireless/T-Mobile spectrum swap (http://xrl.us/bngrwe). A second order released by the bureau provides “more limited access to certain especially competitively sensitive information that may be filed in this proceeding, which, if released to competitors or those with whom the Submitting Party does business, would allow those persons to gain a significant advantage in the marketplace or in negotiations” (http://xrl.us/bngrwa). Such orders are standard as the commission reviews proposed transactions, including mergers and spectrum sales.
The co-chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus said in separate statements Friday they remain concerned that Facebook plans to offer its services to children. The comments came after Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan told lawmakers in a letter made public Friday (http://xrl.us/bngrn2) the company had made “no final decision” on whether it will change its policies to allow children to join. Caucus Co-Chairman Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged Facebook to “resist the impulse” to harvest children’s personal information for advertising revenue. “The privacy of personal information for pre-teens should not become a post-script in Facebook’s drive for profits,” he said. Co-Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, asked the company to “carefully consider” privacy protections for children as it contemplates giving them access to Facebook services. Markey and Barton are both sponsors of the Do Not Track Kids Act (HR-1895), which has been before the House Commerce Committee for more than a year. Facebook did not comment.
A GPS manufacturer asked the FCC to adopt the agency’s proposal to revoke the ancillary terrestrial component authority of LightSquared. Garmin executives met with Commissioner Ajit Pai; John Chambers, special advisor to Chairman Julius Genachowski and other FCC staff, Garmin said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://xrl.us/bngrsx). Garmin said it participated in the testing described in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bngrto) and noted that “the evidence produced in the testing conclusively supports the FCC’s recommendations in the public notice.” Garmin also had a separate meeting with International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s staff and other FCC staff (http://xrl.us/bngruc).
DirecTV added Disney Junior to its programming lineup on Saturday. The channel launched last year and will be permanently added as a basic channel for subscribers, DirecTV said. It blends Disney’s storytelling and characters with learning components, “including early math and language skills, as well as healthy eating and lifestyles, with an emphasis on social and emotional development."
Syringa Wireless received conditional approval as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC), the Idaho Public Utilities Commission ruled in an order Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bngrgf). “Granting Syringa Wireless conditional ETC status in those select areas in order to facilitate the deployment of broadband and voice services in heretofore unserved areas in Idaho is in the public interest,” the commission said. The condition of the ETC approval is, as in other recent state decisions, based on “submitting a successful bid in the FCC’s upcoming Mobility Fund Phase I auction,” the commission said. The auction required ETC status by its submission deadline of Wednesday. The South Carolina Public Service Commission conditionally approved a carrier July 6 (CD July 9 p11) and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission conditionally approved T-Mobile West as an ETC in an order issued July 10 for the same reason. T-Mobile West’s ETC application “completely ignores and disrespects the tribal sovereignty of the Mescalero Apache Tribe,” said Mescalero Apache Telecom, Inc. in June 25 comments filed with the commission, which requested the commission “deny T-Mobile ETC designation within the Mescalero Apache Reservation or require T-Mobile to provide service within the entire service area.” In response, the New Mexico commission granted conditional approval “based upon all of the New Mexico census blocks that will be included in the [Mobility Fund] auction, except for census blocks in the Mescalero Apache Reservation,” the commission said in its order.
Representatives of the Writers Guild America West raised concerns in WGAW meetings with FCC officials on commercial agreements between Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox, which are part of the proposed spectrum sales from the cable operators to the carrier. Among those WGAW met with were Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai. “WGAW disputed Verizon’s contention that the Commission is precluded from modifying the spectrum screen in this proceeding or that is limited in its review,” said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bngrzs). “The Joint Operating Entity (JOE), Agent Agreements and Reseller Agreements are relevant to the Commission’s review and should be considered in tandem with the License Transfer issue. DOJ review of the commercial agreements does not preclude FCC from considering those agreements in determining whether to approve the transaction.” WGAW said the commission “is fully within its mandate to consider the effects of the commercial agreements because of the substantial threat the proposed entity poses to competition."
SES will supply Northrop Grumman with satellite capacity and services for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance System. The company said it “will deliver Ku-band capacity over the U.S. and Europe, as well as engineering support in the design and development of the system."
The American Cable Association urged Viacom to restore access to online programming of channels that were dropped from DirecTV’s lineup after the cable programmer and DBS company failed to reach a carriage deal. Viacom’s decision to deny access to its online content across the Internet “is another example of Viacom’s total disdain for consumers in pursuit of its goal of dominating distributors in order to reap windfall profits,” ACA CEO Matthew Polka said in a news release late Thursday. Viacom insists on being richly rewarded not for the quality or popularity of its content “but for its sheer ability to muscle distributors … into overpaying for marginal services,” he said. Twenty-six channels were blacked out to DirecTV subscribers last week (CD July 12 p10). Viacom blocked online access to episodes of shows on Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and other channels -- withholding them from all viewers, not just DirecTV customers -- after the DBS provider directed its customers to those sites because of the blackout (CD July 13 p12). Viacom did not respond by our deadline to a request for comment.
An FCC staff decision denying NAB’s petition to stay online public-file rules (CD July 13 p6) had a twist that the president of a think tank that often opposes regulation found ironic. “The FCC denied the broadcasters['] own proposal because the Commission was concerned that it would be too burdensome on them,” Patrick Maines wrote Friday on the Media Institute’s blog (http://xrl.us/bngrgq). That’s “surely the first time in recent memory that the FCC has been moved to action out of concern for broadcasters’ welfare,” he continued. Maines cited the Media Bureau order saying that keeping both paper public files in TV stations’ main studios and uploading to fcc.gov new data on some but not all information contained in those documents’ political files would be more burdensome than online-only posting.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged the FCC and Justice Department to carefully scrutinize the market impact of the pending Verizon/SpectrumCo deal, in a letter sent to both agencies Thursday. He expressed concern that the agencies’ review of the transaction “may miss the overall impact on competitors,” specifically with respect to the proposed marketing and joint venture agreements. There are “serious concerns that the terms of these exclusive arrangements will allow the parties to bundle and market content and services in ways that restrain and make it impossible for their rivals to compete, adversely affecting consumers,” Rockefeller said. “Some also have voiced fears that if competitors are harmed directly by the joint operating agreements in particular areas of the country, their ability to gain the scale and scope necessary to serve rural customers in other parts of the country may be indirectly put at risk.” Both the FCC and DOJ are closely coordinating their review of the deal, a commission spokesman said Friday.