Debut Broadcasting faces a possible $14,000 FCC fine for not telling the Federal AviationAdministration right away about a lighting outage at an antenna in Indianola, Miss., failure to light it and failing to run WNLA(AM) there within authorized nighttime power levels. That’s according to an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability released Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnbosn).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, widely expected to stay in the post through early 2013, said emphatically Wednesday he has no plans to leave before the upcoming election. “I am not planning on leaving,” Genachowski said in a news conference after the agency’s monthly meeting. “I am working hard everyday on items that are near-term, medium-term and long-term. It’s an important agency, an important job and I'm working very hard everyday.” Genachowski was also asked about a vote by the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee approving a FY2013 spending bill with a provision that cuts funding for the FCC to implement and enforce its political file rule. (See item below.) “We'll, of course, let the process in Congress run its course,” he said. “The order that we adopted is one that fulfills the letter and spirit of the Communications Act, the long history of our rules. Moving information from dusty paper files to online is a simple, obvious, 21st Century thing to do.”
Nokia is closing in on the sale of its Vertu luxury phone unit to Swedish private equity firm EQT Partners, according to various reports. The deal reportedly values Vertu at about $250 million.
Comments are due July 13, replies July 30, on a May 25 FCC public notice seeking comments on “the privacy and data-security practices of mobile wireless service providers with respect to customer information stored on their users’ mobile communications devices, and the application of existing privacy and security requirements to that information.” The notice was published in the Federal Register Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnbog8).
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions released two additional standards that address the future support of multiple languages, including Spanish, to send emergency alerts to wireless devices through the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). “The standards will allow users to select additional languages in which to receive CMAS alerts beyond English once a national policy is established and alert messages in additional languages are available and being broadcast in their geographic area to CMAS-compatible devices,” ATIS said (http://xrl.us/bnbodx).
The FCC Wireless Bureau agreed to provide “limited, interim support” of $40,104 per month -- for at least three months and up to six months -- for Windy City Cellular, which serves remote parts of Alaska including Adak Island. Under the USF reform order approved by the FCC last year, support for eligible telecommunications carriers serving remote parts of Alaska was limited to $3,000 per line per year ($250 per line per month) beginning Jan. 1. WCC has warned that it would have to cease operations without additional funding. WCC said it saw the USF support it receives fall by some 84 percent, from $136,344 in December 2011, to $22,356 in January. “The Bureau finds that this limited relief is appropriate to ensure that WCC can maintain its wireless operations until we have a full opportunity to evaluate its Petition based on the totality of relevant information,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnbocq). Adak Island, part of the Aleutian chain, is among the more remote parts of Alaska with a year-round population of 326. Adak is Alaska’s southernmost town.
The FCC plans a workshop on supplier diversity for small businesses owned by minorities and women July 10 at 9 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, the agency said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bnbooc). There will be two panels at the event hosted by the Office of Communications Business Opportunities with speakers from the Defense and Transportation departments, the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, FCC, AT&T, Comcast, Microsoft, Sprint and Verizon. The office will coordinate “confidential meetings” where small firms “will get individualized advice on supplier strategies and information on current contracting opportunities,” the commission said.
Frontier Communications provided several tips for Internet safety as part of Internet Safety Month this June. Passwords based on personal information offer more safety than passwords like “12345,” the telco ISP said: Never place financial information or personal contact information on sites like Facebook or Twitter; limiting the number of joined networking sites and followers on those sites also reduces the risk of hacks and viruses; frequently updating privacy settings on networking sites as well as security updates on computers provides additional protection. Frontier also recommended never clicking unfamiliar links, exercising caution when searching the Internet and checking the credibility of discount opportunity links.
The FCC should use the Remote Area Fund (RAF) to overcome the lack of robust middle-mile facilities in Alaska, the Alaska Rural Coalition (ARC) told Wireline Bureau officials and aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Jessica Rosenworcel and Robert McDowell last week, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnbohv). Currently, the RAF is conceived of as a direct consumer subsidy to provide service where extending last-mile service can’t be justified, but this is “not a solution for Alaska,” ARC said, because consumer satellites can’t be adequately positioned for service. “The RAF presents an excellent opportunity to use universal service funds already set aside to tackle the core issue preventing robust broadband from reaching the people who need it most,” ARC said, promising to work on a proposal to allocate the $100 million annual fund between middle-mile construction and access.
The FCC is actively working with the Universal Service Administrative Co. to hire a vendor to begin development of the national Lifeline database, AT&T executives were told at a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials Friday, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnbogw). After database specifications are finalized, it will take AT&T 8-12 months to implement the accountability database within its systems, the telco said.