Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced a bill aimed at curbing unauthorized third-party charges on wireline and wireless telephone bills (http://xrl.us/bnbsgw). The Fair Telephone Billing Act would prohibit unauthorized third-party charges on wireline bills with exceptions for bundled services or long distance and collect calls. A 2011 committee report said wireline customers pay $2 billion every year in “cramming” related charges, in which they're billed -- often on behalf of third parties -- for products or services they either didn’t order or don’t want (CD July 14 p5). “With a couple of exceptions, there’s simply no justification for allowing third-party billing on wireline telephone bills to continue,” Rockefeller said in a press release Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnbsg4). The legislation would build upon the FCC’s recently adopted cramming rules that require phone companies to notify subscribers at the point of sale, on each bill and on their websites of the option to block third-party charges from their landline bills (CD April 30 p7). The legislation would also require the FCC to work with the FTC to develop rules for wireless carriers that protect users from wireless cramming charges. The bill’s proposal for new FCC rules would compel wireless carriers to offer users a way to avoid receiving third-party charges; ensure that any third-party charges are authorized by users; and reimburse users for any unauthorized third-party charges. Rockefeller’s bill avoided a prohibition of third-party billing on wireless bills, but he said “now is the time” for the FCC to create new rules that ensure cramming on wireless bills is prevented. Consumers Union hailed the bill as a “much needed step” in protecting consumers from cramming charges. “The same cramming abuses that happen on landlines can easily happen to wireless users,” said Parul Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union. “It is imperative that any directive for the FCC to develop these wireless cramming rules be carried out quickly and efficiently.”
Broadcast incentive auctions appear to be the FCC’s top priority, and this and other issues will likely precede an order on Dish Network’s 2 GHz rulemaking proceeding to use the spectrum for terrestrial wireless applications, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said. The statements reflect perspectives from telecom executives and government officials who participated in an event in Washington hosted by the bank. While the commission wants the auctions to be as competitive a bidding process as possible, “they also want T [AT&T] and VZ [Verizon] to bid lots of money for lots of spectrum,” Ryvicker said: For the auction to move forward, the Congressional Budget Office must be convinced “that the potential proceeds will cover auction administrative expenses as well as fulfill other budgetary and economic policies.” A Dish spectrum order isn’t likely until the end of the year, she said: There are several other matters “that the FCC is involved in -- namely SpectrumCo. … and the broadcast incentive auctions.” A windfall clause on Dish’s spectrum that was proposed by some carriers is highly unlikely, Ryvicker wrote. “It isn’t fair to change the rules particularly in this situation.” The commission seems to commend Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen “for spending as much money as he did to buy these spectrum assets out of bankruptcy,” she added. Participants in the event included former Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan; Gary Epstein, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s senior aide; and Kathy Grillo, a Verizon vice president.
The U.S. and India agreed to form a working group to “further discuss international norms in cyberspace and Internet governance,” a State Department fact sheet said(http://xrl.us/bnbsim). The group will be chaired by officials of the State Department and India’s Ministry of External Affairs, it said. “The group will also work to coordinate national positions in advance of important cyber events,” it said. There’s “robust cooperation” between the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and India’s Computer Emergency Response Team, it said.
The CLEC industry has “significant” concerns about a series of “unresolved regulatory issues” in connection with petitions from Vonage and others for limited waiver of the rules on direct access to number resources, representatives of Level 3, Bandwidth.com and Comptel told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbsgh). Granting the petitions would be “discriminatory, essentially providing carrier rights to certain non-carriers that do not also shoulder carrier obligations,” they said, arguing the petitioners have not met the “heavy burden” necessary to demonstrate special circumstances that warrant deviation from the rules. “There is no question that granting direct access to Vonage or other Petitioners will accelerate number exhaust,” they said. If the commission intends to grant VoIP providers direct access to number resources, it should do so in “an orderly and nondiscriminatory rulemaking proceeding” instead of on a waiver basis that will lead to “amplified regulatory confusion,” the CLECs said.
Mediacom executives met with aides to each FCC commissioner this week, as well as the chief of the Wireline Bureau, to argue that Connect America Fund money should not go to areas where the cable operator already sells broadband services, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbseo). CAF funds should be limited to “substantially unserved areas,” the operator said, not to areas where unsubsidized competitors like Mediacom already provide broadband service. Mediacom discussed its fiber buildout to cell towers, which it said enables fiber-based services for many rural communities and businesses. Funding such areas with CAF money would be “inefficient” and lead to “oversubsidization,” thereby devaluing current privately funded facilities investment, and providing disincentives to future such investment, the company said.
Companies on both sides of the special access debate continued their eighth-floor FCC rounds this week. USTelecom met with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Tuesday to encourage the commission to pursue mandatory data requests it said would demonstrate “robust competition” for high-capacity special access services to business customers (http://xrl.us/bnbsdn). The group urged the agency to make no “rush to judgment,” but rather to wait until it had all the data it needed to make an “informed decision.” Meanwhile Tuesday, Sprint Nextel met with Clyburn and aides to argue against the current pricing flexibility triggers, saying there’s already an “extensive record demonstrating lack of competition in the special access marketplace,” and additional evidence is “not needed” for the commission to suspend the triggers while it develops a new pricing flexibility framework (http://xrl.us/bnbsdv).
Ninety-one percent of respondents to a CellPhoneNumber.com poll want a cellphone directory, the website said. The unscientific online poll of people visiting the website that used to host a directory of numbers for wireless phones received more than 8,000 responses to the question “Should there be a cell phone directory?,” it said. CellPhoneNumber.com, launched by Phonebooks.com, cited the growing number of mobile phone users and the dependence of scientific research on phone data collection as reasons for creating a directory. Cellphone directories have been attempted in 2004 by carriers like AT&T, in 2007 by Intelius and in 2010 by Phonebooks.com, but none were successful, CellPhoneNumber.com said.
Nokia said Thursday it will cut 10,000 jobs, 19 percent of its work force, by the end of 2013, close research centers and shutter factories in Germany, Canada and Finland. Nokia also warned that its loss is likely to be higher in Q2, ending June 30, than it was in Q1. “Nokia continues to struggle for traction in major markets against Android and Apple,” said Jennifer Fritzsche, analyst at Wells Fargo. “The company is taking significant cost reduction actions and is investing in targeted areas of future growth to ensure future profitability and a sustainable long-term model. We expect Nokia to struggle as it undergoes this massive transformation and cuts back on R&D and distribution, which were two prior areas of strength for the company."
Comments are due July 25, replies Aug. 14, on an FCC notice of inquiry on the role of deployable aerial communications architecture (DACA) in emergency response to quickly restore communications capabilities following a catastrophic event (http://xrl.us/bnbr7i). The FCC approved the notice at its May 24 meeting (CD May 25 p3).
Carriers disagree on whether subscribers will pay as much as $600 for an iPhone, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said in a research note, reporting on a meeting Wednesday between sell-side analysts and AT&T officials. Piecyk noted he downgraded Apple in April because of cost concerns. “The growth of the iPhone has largely been driven by the subsidies of post-paid operators but the impact of those subsidies on the operators’ margins has resulted in push back in the form of stricter upgrade policies,” he said. “In addition, we believe the next and much larger leg of growth for Apple will come from pre-paid operators, who in large part offer no subsidies to customers. So, in the absence of a price cut or a cheaper ‘nano iPhone,’ the question remains.” Piecyk quoted AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, who said at the meeting, “We have done a lot of research on this and we have not seen our customers say to us, `We welcome paying $500-$600 for a phone.'” Other carriers disagree with AT&T, he said. “Leap Wireless believes the answer … is yes … and just committed to buy nearly $1 billion of iPhones over the next three years that it hopes to sell at a partially subsidized price of at least $400 for the iPhone 4 and $500 for the iPhone 4S. Sprint thinks so too and plans to offer full price iPhones through its low cost pre-paid Virgin brand."