The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed fines for Vision Latina Broadcasting, owner of KBPO(AM), Port Neches, Texas, for violating FCC rules. The licensee is liable for $25,000 for providing incorrect factual information regarding KBPO’s inspection file “without a reasonable basis for believing that the information was correct and accurate,” the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability for forfeiture (http://xrl.us/bnbvtt). In 2010, a bureau agent found that the file “did not contain a current copy of the station authorization, service contour map, the most recent ownership report, public and broadcasting manual or any issues-programs lists,” the notice said. VLB also is liable for a forfeiture of $15,000, the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnbvuq). It failed to make available a complete public inspection file, it said. Last year, a bureau agent found that the file didn’t contain issues-programs listings, the notice of apparent liability for forfeiture said.
NTCH representatives pressed the FCC to make roaming conditions part of any order approving Verizon Wireless’s buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox. “We pointed out that current roaming rates offered by the Big Two carriers are neither just, nor reasonable, nor non-discriminatory,” the smaller carrier said in an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://xrl.us/bnbvsq). “We noted that roaming rates are universally subject to Non- Disclosure Agreements that prevent carriers (and the Commission) from knowing what rates are being offered to whom. Transparency of roaming rates and arrangements could only serve to reduce discrimination and ensure that everyone is being treated justly and fairly."
The E-rate program’s eligible services list should include teacher and librarian staffing and labor costs, said representatives of the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Free Press, in a meeting with members of the FCC Wireline Bureau, NHMC reported (http://xrl.us/bnbvtv). The coalition recommended that the agency’s proposed funding for a digital literacy training program be administered through the E-rate program.
The FCC’s chief technology officer urged “solid engineering” to meet the challenges of transitioning to an all Internet Protocol telephone service environment. The remarks came Friday at a conference on the IP transition. It’s important to maintain the established qualities of the circuit-switched PSTN and associated customer expectations, like reliability and low cost, while also fixing some of the legacy technical restrictions, Henning Schulzrinne said. “We want to avoid a protracted transition. The public can’t afford to have two different systems for 20 years,” he said. Schulzrinne encouraged companies and regulators to think of VoIP as more than just a voice system, but rather as “an opportunity to have real-time communication as a base level service that is available everywhere."
The Senate Appropriations Committee offered the FCC more than a handful of suggestions on how the commission should focus its resources in the coming year, including political file disclosures, consumer privacy guidelines and landline cramming rules. The committee’s position on FCC policy was included in its draft financial services and general government appropriations bill for FY13 (http://xrl.us/bnbvn7). The committee urged the FCC to implement the USF reform waiver process in a “transparent, timely and equitable manner.” Senate Indian Affairs Committee members recently took issue with the hurdles and cost of the FCC’s waiver process for telecommunications companies that serve native and rural communities (CD June 8 p6). The Appropriations Committee urged the commission to consider changes to its wireline cramming rules by implementing an opt-in requirement for third-party wireline charges rather than its proposed opt-out rules. The draft also suggested that the FCC consider solutions to the problem of cramming on wireless bills. The committee commended the FCC’s requirements for broadcasters’ public inspection files as a means to increase the transparency of campaign advertising purchases. The draft bill urged the commission to work with the FTC to issue guidance on best practices for protecting the privacy of consumer information over wireless networks. The committee directed the FCC to study the privacy policies that govern how major communications companies collect and use personal information online. The bill is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor following committee approval Thursday by a 16-14 vote along party lines (CD June 15 p8).
The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee announced the witnesses for its upcoming hearing on the Universal/EMI merger Thursday: Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music; Roger Faxon, EMI CEO; Irving Azoff, executive chairman of Live Nation and CEO of Front Line Management; Edgar Bronfman, director of Warner Music; Martin Mills, founder of the Beggars Group; and Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge CEO.
Time Warner Cable and CFY extended their partnership to bring discounted broadband access to eligible New York City families until 2013. CFY aids students, teachers and families with grasping digital learning, they said. Time Warner Cable and CFY first partnered in 2010 when the cable operator offered discounted home broadband service to families involved in CYF’s New York City Connected Learning programs, they said. The company has pledged $1 million in public service announcements for the Broadband Opportunity Coalition, it said.
DirecTV supports the proposals an FCC rulemaking notice on terrestrial use of the 2 GHz band. The proposals dealing with Dish Network’s spectrum would serve the public interest “by ensuring that this spectrum is put to productive use expeditiously,” DirecTV said in a filing in docket 12-70 (http://xrl.us/bnbvn3). Chairman Mike White met with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, where DirecTV executives expressed concerns with programming costs and retransmission consent. They urged the FCC to “improve and update the computer model used to predict whether subscribers are ... served by broadcast stations” so that customers who are unable to receive off-air signals can receive distant signals instead, DirecTV said. The commission should consider the effect that the proposed SpectrumCo arrangements would have on the video marketplace, it said concerning Verizon Wireless’ intent to purchase AWS spectrum licenses in docket 12-4.
The growing popularity of mobile money, or financial activities via cellphone, in the East African Community (EAC) requires rules to coordinate and harmonize regulations, said a U.N. Conference on Trade and Development study (http://xrl.us/bnbvk7). UNCTAD also recommended building trust and confidence in the mobile money system and addressing a variety of rising concerns including consumer protection and registration and transaction limits. The EAC leads the world in mobile money services, with three of its platforms providing service to over 1 million people, UNCTAD said. Mobile money services provide the primary financial services in a region where most people have difficulty reaching formal financial services, it said.
A telco-video provider and a radio station sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol, which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 13 p5). Windstream seeks a temporary, “brief” waiver because of an “unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance” until it gets the gear, tests and installs it. Windstream’s Lakedale, Minn., unit “exercised diligence in placing an order for the CAP-to-EAS converter that would be delivered prior to June 1, 2012 to allow sufficient time to install and test the new equipment prior to the implementation deadline,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvnx). “Unfortunately, Windstream Lakedale recently learned that delivery of its order has been delayed until mid-July, reportedly due to the large number of other EAS participants ordering such equipment for delivery at roughly the same time so as to comply with the Commission’s mandate.” EAS participants and vendors told us of such delays due to some other orders they contend needed to have been placed earlier for gear that converts alerts in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s CAP format into EAS alerts that radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers send to customers. Kenai Broadcasting wants a waiver for KKNI Sterling, Alaska, because the FM station can’t get Internet service at its transmitter. “Even if KKNI were to acquire and install CAP capable equipment, it would not be able to communicate with the CAP system,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbvn5). The filings were posted Thursday to docket 04-296.