AT&T and Verizon will have to make the case for deregulation as the IP transition unfolds, said Stifel Nicolaus analysts Christopher King and David Kaut in a research note Wednesday. That’s their takeaway after reading new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s blog entry his first full day on the job (CD Nov 6 p1). Wheeler’s insistence on upholding a social contract between telecom networks and users “will provide some reassurance to smaller telco competitors” and “liberal public-interest advocates” as AT&T and Verizon seek deregulation, the analysts said. Bell critics will be comforted by Wheeler’s assertion that a change in technology “does not change the rights of users or the responsibilities of networks,” King and Kaut said. “We don’t believe AT&T and Verizon will object to the concept of continued rights and obligations, but will argue that legacy phone regulation should not be imported to IP systems unless demonstrably justified."
The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning another surveillance oversight hearing Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen, the committee said Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1hNJ48R). Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., invited testimony from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander and Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Leahy’s office said in a notice. Leahy recently introduced legislation, S-1599, that would end many of the government’s surveillance practices. HR-3361 is its companion bill in the House. “The intelligence community faces a trust deficit, and I am particularly concerned that the NSA has strayed and overreached beyond its core missions,” Leahy said in a statement, saying NSA should “spend less of its time collecting data on innocent Americans, and more on keeping our nation’s secrets safe and holding its own accountable."
Restricting AT&T and Verizon’s participation in the incentive auction could discourage participation and cause the auction to fail, CEA and the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition told Commissioner Ajit Pai and FCC staff in a meeting Monday, according to an ex parte (http://bit.ly/17NnRba) released Wednesday. In the meeting, the groups presented a paper on maximizing the auction’s success, saying restrictions on bidding in previous auctions have delayed the provision of wireless services to 68 percent of the public by an average of seven years, the filing said. “Even the perception that forward auction revenue will suffer based on FCC-imposed bidding restrictions could deter broadcaster participation, raising the prospect that the auction will fail,” said the filing. The paper also argued against scoring the value of TV stations in the reverse auction, which would also make the auction less attractive for broadcasters, the filing said. The commission should “forego any restrictions on participation or pricing that will interfere with an efficient market driven outcome,” said the filing.
The Astra 5B satellite from SES is being processed for launch on an Ariane 5 rocket scheduled for liftoff Dec. 6. The satellite was built by EADS Astrium and it’s equipped with 40 Ku-band transponders and six Ka-band transponders, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1778Jlf). It’s set to orbit at 31.5 degrees east.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 fine against Turner Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/18ZY2kl) and reached a $39,000 consent decree with a Kentucky TV station (http://bit.ly/1cSYkgW), both over misuse of Emergency Alert System tones, the bureau said in a news release Wednesday. By including simulated or recorded EAS codes and attention signals in programming that wasn’t related to an emergency, Turner and MMK, licensee of Kentucky station WNKY, created a “cry-wolf scenario,” said the bureau. Along with putting out a news release on the violations, the bureau issued an enforcement advisory on false or fraudulent use of the EAS system (http://bit.ly/1bZkf50). “It is inexcusable to trivialize the sounds specifically used to notify viewers of the dangers of an incoming tornado or to alert them to be on the lookout for a kidnapped child, merely to advertise a talk show or a clothing store,” said acting bureau Chief Robert Ratcliffe in the release. According to a notice of apparent liability issued against Turner, the company’s proposed fine stems from a TBS promo for the April 26, 2012, Conan show, which used sounds intended to simulate EAS tones. Produced in-house by Turner, the promo spot was created within “a tight timeframe” and wasn’t submitted for a standards and practices review, the NAL said. “We find that the sounds used in the material are substantially similar to the sounds made by the transmission of EAS codes such that an average audience member would reasonably mistake the sounds for the sounds made by actual EAS codes,” said the bureau in the NAL. Though the base forfeiture for such a violation is $8,000, the bureau increased the amount because the promo aired on both the East Coast and subsequent West Coast TBS feeds, and because TBS reaches “approximately 99.7 million U.S. television households,” the NAL said. “The fact that Turner’s violations reached such a potentially vast audience greatly increases the extent and gravity of the violations,” said the bureau. Turner’s ability to pay was also a factor, the NAL said. MMK violated EAS rules by broadcasting actual recorded EAS tones in a commercial for The FanWear & More Store, said the consent decree. Though the decree doesn’t provide many details of the violation, MMK’s significantly higher voluntary contribution compared with Turner’s proposed forfeiture might indicate repeated violation -- especially considering Turner’s likely much larger audience, said Pillsbury broadcast attorney Scott Flick in an interview. Along with the $39,000, MMK agreed to a compliance plan that includes public education about EAS, a manual and training program for employees, and regular compliance reports to the bureau, said the decree. An FCC spokesman said NALs such as that issued to Turner don’t typically include compliance plans, which are usually the result of a settlement. Since the bureau has already issued an NAL that involved an extended investigation, it’s unlikely that Turner’s violation would be resolved with a consent decree similar to MMK’s, said Flick. “Those discussions typically happen during the investigative phase,” said Flick. He said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1b6L5Kh) that Wednesday’s enforcement actions are the biggest penalties for EAS misuse the enforcement bureau has issued, though the bureau did issue an urgent advisory after a security breach led to a bogus alert about zombies being issued over common alert protocol systems in Michigan (CD Feb 14 p). The penalties to MMK and Turner show the bureau believes “it is time to crack down on violations,” said Flick, and he pointed to a line in the enforcement advisory about ongoing investigations as “ominous.” The penalty against Turner suggests the bureau might have a bigger problem with content that violates rules when it’s produced by networks themselves rather than advertising agencies that don’t know any better, said Flick. “If there’s a distinction and they're gonna be harder on people that produced it themselves, it would be helpful for the FCC to provide those guidelines,” he said in an interview. Turner and MMK didn’t comment.
The Senate Privacy Subcommittee announced the witnesses for its Nov. 13 hearing on the Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013. Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., recently re-introduced the legislation. The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. One witness is Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who introduced the bill with Franken. Other witnesses include Robert Litt, general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Brad Wiegmann, Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general-national security division; Google Law Enforcement and Information Security Matters Director Richard Salgado; and Kevin Bankston, formerly with the Center for Democracy & Technology and starting as Open Technology Institute policy director Monday.
Boingo Wireless announced an agreement with Marine Corps Community Services to provide Internet Protocol and broadband Internet services at all U.S. Marine Corps bases worldwide. Initial deployments will include all Marine Corps bases within the U.S. and two bases in Japan in 2014, said the provider in a Wednesday news release (http://bit.ly/18ZQvBP). The company also has long-term contracts with Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, said Boingo.
The FCC proposal to permit Globalstar to deploy terrestrial mobile broadband service under Part 25 rules is better than the company’s initial request of adhering to Part 27 rules, Globalstar executives said Wednesday during a teleconference. The FCC’s proposed rules provide substantially everything that Globalstar requested in its petition for terrestrial relief, said Jay Monroe, Globalstar CEO. The commission released the NPRM last week (CD Nov 5 p5). The FCC didn’t propose a separate terrestrial license under Part 27 as Globalstar requested, and as the FCC adopted for Dish Network when it sought authority for a terrestrial service (CD Dec 13 p8), said Barbee Ponder, Globalstar’s general counsel. The proposed rules “all but eliminate the gating criteria that would have otherwise been applicable to our provision of low-power mobile broadband services,” Ponder said. Under Part 27, Globalstar would have been required to adhere to additional buildout requirements, he said. The proposed rules recognize that under Part 25, the satellite company has already met any buildout requirements with its $1 billion investment in a new constellation, Ponder said. The technical rules, including power and out-of-band-emissions limits proposed by the FCC, are just as Globalstar requested, he said: “We see no need to seek modifications to them during the proceeding.” The regulatory path under Part 25 “gives us tremendous flexibility,” Monroe said. The entire comment period will last 105 days from publication in the Federal Register. The executives attributed the length of time to the technical analysis requested in the NPRM, the upcoming holiday season and the weeks leading up to the seating of Chairman Tom Wheeler.
Clarification: What proper network management can do is reduce congestion, said a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group report, the authors of which include the entire Congestion Management Committee of BITAG’s technical working group (CD Oct 23 p10).
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission opened a proceeding to create a new area code in all or portions of the 740 area code in central and southeast Ohio, said the PUCO in a news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/1hjG729). The North American Numbering Plan Administrator notified the PUCO that the 740 area code is projected to run out of available phone numbers by Q2 2015, said the commission. The PUCO opened the proceeding to decide between two options: An overlay to permit the retention of all current 740 numbers but require 10-digit dialing for local calls in the 740 area, and all new subscribers receiving a new area code; or a split where seven-digit dialing of local calls would remain in the code area but about half of the wireless and landline customers in the current code area would have to change their phone numbers. Comments on case number 13-0700-TP-COI are due Nov. 27.