The European Commission cleared Vodafone Group’s proposed takeover of Cable & Wireless Worldwide, it said Tuesday. Both companies provide fixed and mobile telecom services in the European Economic Area, and the EC said the transaction raises no competition concerns because the parties’ activities are largely complementary. CWW’s main activity relates to fixed telecom, Vodafone’s mostly to mobile, it said. They overlap in several fixed and mobile markets in the U.K., but the impact of the combination there will likely be small as the combined entity will continue to face strong competition from other players, the EC said. The acquisition also raises several vertical relationships in the fixed and mobile markets in the U.K. and Ireland, because Vodafone will be able to use CWW’s assets to deliver fixed-mobile combined services to end users, it said. The antitrust inquiry showed that the parties won’t have enough market power to shut out fixed or mobile operators from the combined services, the EC said.
The proposed transfers of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap to Verizon Wireless and between T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless “are strongly in the public interest and prove that the secondary market can serve as a means for the industry to redistribute spectrum in accordance with the marketplace’s needs,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said during a meeting last week with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and other commission officials. McAdam also stressed the importance of spectrum sharing. “In addition to ensuring that spectrum in private hands can be put to its best use, Mr. McAdam stressed the need for the FCC and the Administration to free up government spectrum that could be better used for commercial mobile services,” Verizon said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bndr37). The filing said McAdam “stated that industry and government should work together to explore options for commercial companies and government entities to share spectrum. He stated that Verizon Wireless is working with CTIA and other companies to develop trials on spectrum sharing with government entities and reiterated that Verizon Wireless is prepared to commit our personnel and $5 million to work with the federal government to develop workable methods of sharing spectrum."
Telecom relay service communications assistants need “a faster speed-of-answer benchmark, skills-based routing, and national certification,” consumer advocates for the deaf told the FCC in a June 28 meeting, said a recent filing (http://xrl.us/bndrzz). The advocates supported a speed-of-answer benchmark faster than the 30-second average if feasible, the filing said. Relay service priorities will include split-screen technology, the filing noted. Challenges are that “VRS must be compatible with nextgeneration 9-1-1;” “interoperability tests that show more than one-half of all VRS phones have problems talking to one another;” and “the roles of VRS provider and equipment/SIP registrar are not clearly separated in the VRS reform proposals,” said Christian Vogler, director of Gallaudet University’s Technology Access Program, the filing said. “Just as teachers and other professionals are required to receive certification, so too should interpreters receive certification,” the advocates noted, despite apparent opposition from interpreters. They also want to choose specific CAs: “Consumers want to be able to select the communications assistant who handles their VRS calls, just as they are able to do with community based organizations that provide interpreters,” the filing said. The advocates included representatives from the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, National Association of the Deaf and the Association of Late Deafened Adults.
Sprint Nextel representatives explained the importance of the FCC moving quickly to make mobile satellite service and the AWS-2 H block available for commercial use, in a meeting at the commission. “Sprint noted that licensing and auctioning H Block produces tremendous public benefits,” said a filing (http://xrl.us/bndr3g). “As the only spectrum ready for immediate auction and deployment that is entirely cleared of incumbents, the PCS H Block offers near-term, deployable spectrum for wireless carriers. By incorporating the H Block frequencies into existing operations, PCS licensees such as Sprint can provide additional capacity, higher peak speeds, and expanded services to customers. Sprint explained ways in which carriers could incorporate this spectrum into existing PCS portfolios, including through the use of two duplexers in H Block devices for a short period of time until a single duplexer solution could be implemented.” The recent spectrum law instructs the agency to auction the H-block, provided doing so won’t cause interference to users of PCS spectrum, Sprint noted: “The Commission has developed an extensive record demonstrating that H Block services can co-exist with PCS operations through a variety of standard interference management techniques and service rules.”
Say yes to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht urged European Parliament members Tuesday. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote July 4 on the controversial pact and appear headed toward rejection (CD June 22 p8). The EC has asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to ensure the text doesn’t breach fundamental rights, and De Gucht said he'd have preferred that lawmakers wait until the court rules before voting. He repeated assurances that ACTA poses no threats to human rights, saying in a written statement that it’s simply a “defence of our livelihoods” that’s necessary to safeguard European intellectual property rights and boost the economy. There are no quick fixes if Parliament rejects ACTA, he said. “Those who think that we can come back anytime soon with a revised agreement or with a new treaty have been misled.” If Parliament nixes the treaty, the EC will still wait for the ECJ ruling and review it closely, because citizens have raised concerns about its impact on human rights, De Gucht said. It will also consider how the debate on intellectual property rights evolves in coming months, particularly on issues such as the definition of “commercial scale” infringement and what sharing information means with regard to intellectual property rights, he said. The EC will also discuss the court’s ruling with other ACTA signers and decide what route to take, he said.
Vonage representatives discussed the FCC’s net neutrality rules and “the importance of prohibiting discrimination by network operators who have the incentive and capability to engage in anticompetitive practices, especially in light of the changes in the wireless and wireline broadband industry,” in meetings at the agency. “Vonage further addressed concerns regarding the potential misuse of the managed service exception under the Commission’s net neutrality rules and the need for unification of provisions related to wireless and wireline providers given the potential for discriminatory conduct to arise based on the current differences between those obligations,” the VoIP provider said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bndr2d). “Vonage also discussed Verizon announcement to eliminate standalone DSL service and decreasing availability of standalone DSL or alternative standalone wireline broadband services to U.S. consumers. Vonage encouraged the Commission to reexamine the need for instituting a global requirement for the provision of such service so as to continue to promote competition in the provision of voice and other over-the-top services."
The National Hispanic Media Coalition asked the FCC’s two newest members to not back “any relaxation” of media ownership rules before the agency gets and analyzes data on minorities and women as required by a remand from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. A study on the subject that was the topic of a commission workshop last month (CD June 27 p7) is a good “first step,” CEO Alex Nogales and other NHMC staff reported telling commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel during separate meetings. There should be “a much large[r] examination of ownership of media outlets by women and people of color,” the coalition said in ex parte filings posted Tuesday to docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bndr2o, http://xrl.us/bndr2q).
The Rural Broadband Alliance protested various petitions to the FCC filed by companies seeking a waiver of rules that would enable non-telecom carriers to obtain numbering resources directly from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, including a recent petition by Bandwidth.com. “The Commission’s rules regarding the assignment of numbers are based on thorough and thoughtful policy considerations, and are the product of established and applicable rulemaking processes,” the alliance said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bndryq). “The resulting rules were not adopted to foster the interests of one class of provider over another, or to promote the use of any one technology over others. The rules were adopted through the established rulemaking process in order to address consumer needs and protect the overall public interest. In contrast, the pending waiver petitions reflect the business interests of individual companies that have a common objective: they seek rights to foster their business plans and concurrently seek freedom from all regulatory responsibilities adopted to protect consumers.”
The FCC got Office of Management and Budget approval for three years of information collection requirements for putting TV stations’ public and political files online. The requirements are effective Aug. 2, the commission said in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bndrzg). “At least theoretically” starting that day, “all full-power and Class A TV licensees will have to start uploading to the FCC’s online file system all newly-created documents required to be placed in the public file except for letters/emails from the public and, in some-but-not-all cases, political file materials,” broadcast lawyer Harry Cole wrote on Fletcher Heald’s blog (http://xrl.us/bndrzp). “The Commission has not yet announced that it has, in fact, developed the online system to which the files will have to be uploaded.” Cole noted the NAB has sued the agency in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit over the April order, and industry officials have said OMB approval could prompt the association to seek a stay from the agency and the court (CD June 7 p2). NAB had no comment.
The FCC should recognize that Section 652(b) of the Telecom Act “clearly limits mergers between cable companies and all local telephone companies within their respective service areas,” said the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors in a meeting with FCC officials, a Monday filing recounted (http://xrl.us/bndrv9). NATOA Executive Director Steve Traylor wrote that he expressed “our continued objection that the” Wireline Bureau “consider negating the rights of local franchising authorities in these types of transactions by granting NCTA’s request for forbearance from applying Section 652(b) to transactions dealing with CLEAs or, at the least, from requiring LFA approval.” There’s “nothing to date” supporting NCTA’s position, Traylor wrote, citing that only one cable company has ever been documented seeking a waiver of Section 652. The commission will grant NCTA’s petition by September “in the absence of a commission denial of the petition for failure to meet the statutory standards for forbearance,” the commission said in a May 30 order (CD June 1 p19).