Comments are due July 23 on an NCTA petition (CD June 6 p13) to exempt set-top boxes made before July 1, 2016, from rules that require advanced communications services such as VoIP and video conferencing to be accessible to those with disabilities, an FCC public notice said (http://xrl.us/bnck2r). Replies are due Aug. 2 in docket 10-213.
There’s no need to adopt rules banning interactive TV product placement in children’s programming, the Association of National Advertisers said (http://xrl.us/bnckxf). It responded to a letter from Children Now (CD June 12 p12) that called for enforceable rules in that area. “The Children Now letter presents no new information to justify regulatory action by the Commission,” the ANA said. “To the contrary, it states that it ‘is not aware of any commercial interactivity on children’s television programming at this time,'” the ANA said. “New regulation always run the risk of causing unintended consequences, but the danger is especially high when rules are adopted to anticipate problems that have not materialized."
The FCC Media Bureau ordered Bethany College to pay $6,500 for violating FCC rules at WVBC(FM) Bethany, W.Va. The fine was levied for remaining off-air without commission authorization for more than 30 days “and failing to timely file a license renewal application for the station,” the bureau said in an order (http://xrl.us/bnck6k). It said the college gives no reason for the station’s silence “or its failure to timely request permission for the station to remain silent."
An FCC administrative law hearing in the Game Show Network’s program carriage dispute with Cablevision would start Jan. 29 under a proposed schedule submitted by the parties last week (http://xrl.us/bnckug, http://xrl.us/bnckuk). The schedule calls for document production to begin Aug. 6, with a Dec. 14 deadline for completing deposition. Cablevision said in its filing that it expects to call six fact witnesses, acknowledging the number could change as the hearing approaches. Cablevision said it sees little or no need to depose witnesses, but has been informed by GSN that “it may seek to take ten (10) depositions and that it will not agree at this time to even limit the number to that.” The network said in a filing that it may need to conduct 10 fact witness depositions in addition to expert witness deposition, but “GSN will re-asses as document discovery ensues."
Time Warner Cable asked the FCC to relieve it of rate regulation in 13 local franchise areas in Indiana and Kentucky because of DBS competition and/or because the company serves fewer than 30 percent of an LFA’s households. The petition seeking a Media Bureau effective competition order covers areas with about 50,000 households, and was posted Thursday to docket 12-1 (http://xrl.us/bnckrf).
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a domestic Section 214 application for transfer of control of Network Billing Systems to Fusion Telecommunications International (http://xrl.us/bnckme). NBS is a New Jersey company that provides voice and data telecom services to small and medium-sized companies. Comments are due July 6 in docket 12-157, replies July 13.
The State Educational Technology Directors Association asked for clarification on the use of funding from the E-rate program for remote access by teachers and students to virtual private networks. SETDA asked the commission to clarify that remote access is an “educational purpose” under the E-rate program. Comments are due July 23 in docket 02-6, replies Aug. 6.
Several rural telecom providers wrote the FCC Wireline Bureau to seek “clarification and further details” on the quantile regression analysis and related caps on USF support, said letters posted Friday. Twin Valley Communications in Kansas, Filer Mutual and ATC in Idaho and Nelson Telephone Cooperative in Wisconsin asked how their study area boundaries were established to develop the caps applicable to them, and what can be done to avoid falling under the caps in the future. Filer and ATC haven’t been affected by the USF caps, but Twin Valley and Nelson said they were both affected, and asked which specific costs are deemed “excessive” under the caps. Without that information, the companies fail to see “how the caps will encourage ‘efficient’ or ‘prudent’ behavior or provide a predictable support mechanism because we will not know what is expected by the new rules or how they will affect future support distributions,” they wrote. ATC sent a separate letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to ask him to suspend implementation of the USF/intercarrier compensation order, including the July 1 date for implementation of the regression methodology, “until the FCC can provide greater certainty that the rules will not jeopardize the services provided by rural rate-of-return carriers and the consumers that rely on them for broadband and other telecommunications services” (http://xrl.us/bncj99).
The FCC denied an application for review of a Wireless Bureau order by two Auction 65 applicants controlled by Warren Havens. The two sought reversal of a series of staff-level decisions on their request for clarification of section 22.853 of the commission’s rules, which prohibits anyone from holding a controlling interest in more than 3 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz commercial aviation air-ground radiotelephone service bands, sold in Auction 65. “The two applicants further seek to overturn the results of the auction, and they challenge the long-form applications of the winning bidders,” the order said (http://xrl.us/bncjr5). “We find that the staff correctly rejected the applicants’ earlier requests for relief and conclude that further clarification of section 22.853 is unnecessary and that the challenge to Auction 65 is without merit.” Intelligent Transportation and Monitoring Wireless LLC and AMTS Consortium LLC, both controlled by Havens, were among the nine bidders which had qualified to participate in the 2006 auction.
The New America Foundation suggests some major changes in spectrum policy as part of a policy paper. “Public Media, Spectrum Policy, and Rethinking Public Interest Obligations for the 21st Century,” considers “reforms and innovations in spectrum policy that would enable and sustain an expanded public media to better support quality news, journalism, education, arts, and civic information in the 21st century,” the paper said (http://xrl.us/bncjnt). Among proposals are “supplementing ill-enforced public interest obligations on commercial broadcasters with spectrum license fees that could support multi-platform public media,” getting rid of spectrum auctions in favor of a fee system supporting public media and “requiring spectrum licensees for mobile broadband to adhere to non-discrimination rules for Internet content, applications, and services.” CTIA wasn’t impressed. “In the interest of saving you the time it takes to read the paper, so you can put your time to more productive use or just enjoy the day, the punch line is this: NAF and its backers want to expand the scope of the regulatory state in a broad and radical way,” said Jot Carpenter, CTIA vice president-government affairs. “In other words, it offers nothing new or helpful, and certainly nothing that will help advance the cause of American leadership in the broadband age."