The FCC should confirm that a text message reply to a subscriber choosing to opt out of receiving future text messages isn’t a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said SoundBite Communications, CTIA and other companies and groups in a series of meetings at the FCC. SoundBite has a petition before the agency asking it to address the issue raised in the meetings. “The group emphasized that without such a clarification, the tens of millions of confirmatory opt-out messages that have been sent out over the past four years by thousands of organizations, including those sent by the FCC, USA.gov, other government organizations, political campaigns, and the vast majority of both for-profit and non-profit organizations, are exposed to wasteful and harassing class-action lawsuits that seek to extort millions of dollars from organizations sending a one-time confirmation receipt costing some small percentage of consumers at most twenty cents,” said a filing (http://xrl.us/bnbhbn). “The group emphasized that such a clarification is not only correct under the law, but is a matter of simple, common sense.” The group noted that “the vast majority of text messages sent to consumers apply standard rates” including from such organizations as the Center for Disease Control, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Obama for America, Romney for President, USA.gov and Consumers Union. Also attending were representatives of Neustar, the Mobile Marketing Association, Council of Better Business Bureaus, Center for Regulatory Compliance for the American Bankers Association, and Consumer Bankers Association.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., commended Verizon Wireless’s deployment of a 4G LTE network in Huntington and Logan County, W.Va. 4G LTE service in those counties will be available starting June 21, Rockefeller said in a Monday news release.
The State Department released protocols signed by U.S. and Mexico officials covering 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum along the countries’ border (http://xrl.us/bnbg8h).
Dissenting on a draft order on special access pricing is not the only option for Republican commissioners concerned about suspending the pricing flexibility triggers. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai could simply decline to vote at all until the commission rules require them to, FCC officials said. If that happens after June 25, the AT&T petitions for pricing flexibility in San Francisco and San Antonio would be “deemed granted,” under the Communications Act. Windstream’s petition for pricing flexibility in Houston, Tulsa, Okla., and Lincoln, Neb., would also be automatically granted in the same timeframe. The FCC’s rules on pricing flexibility say a petition pertaining to special access “shall be deemed granted” unless the Wireline Bureau chief denies the petition no later than 90 days after the close of the pleading cycle. The Republican commissioners have not decided whether to approve the order, dissent, or wait, but they do have substantive concerns about the draft order which would suspend the pricing flexibility triggers, officials said. Suspending the triggers would mean any party that meets them would not be entitled to relief -- and this would have the effect of indefinitely suspending the waiver requests, an FCC official said. Pai is still studying the draft order, and has just begun having meetings with affected stakeholders. Meanwhile, AT&T Senior Vice President-Federal Regulatory Robert Quinn posted a blog entry Friday excoriating the commission for releasing 10,000 pages of documents (http://xrl.us/bnba3p) only after it presumably relied on this evidence in its proposed order. “Why was the evidence not submitted into the record until after the Order went on circulation?” Quinn wrote, arguing the “last minute submission seems intended to thwart” any opportunity to respond to the evidence, and is “at odds with the spirit” of the Administrative Procedure Act. “They dump 10,000 pages into the record after their Order is circulated, giving no time for anyone to consider that evidence, let alone respond. Then they conclude that they now have a sufficient basis to overturn a well-established, judicially affirmed deregulatory decision … this does not represent the gold standard for openness and transparency.”
U.S. and Mexican officials signed protocols covering 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum along the U.S.-Mexican border, the FCC said Friday. The signing of the protocol was a key step so the U.S. could wrap up the reconfiguration of the 800 MHz band, a process which has been stalled along the border (CD June 7 p7). “These actions will help support commercial broadband services and public safety mission-critical voice communications along the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout the United States,” the FCC said. The 800 MHz agreement allots band segments between the two nations, specifies technical parameters for operations within 68 miles of the border and creates a task force on the transition of incumbent operators along the border, the FCC said. The 1.9 GHz protocol allows Sprint Nextel to deploy CDMA service along the border. “These agreements with Mexico will unleash investment and benefit consumers near the borders by enabling the rollout of advanced wireless broadband service and advanced systems for critical public safety and emergency response communications,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
Viacom said it will raise $400 million by selling $300 million in 3.125 percent senior notes due 2022 and $100 million more of its 1.25 percent senior notes due 2015. It said it expects to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including paying back other debts and buying back shares. Moody’s gave the debt a Baa1 rating.
The FCC extended an operator’s CableCARD waiver -- with conditions. Baja Broadband can keep deploying set-top boxes with combined security and navigation functions, a Media Bureau order said (http://xrl.us/bnbaub). It said the cable company must order digital transport adapters -- cheap set-tops lacking DVRs and interactivity -- and can only purchase and give to customers non-compliant devices until it gets the DTAs. “Baja has demonstrated extraordinary financial hardship and indicates that it is unable to obtain one-way set-top boxes without recording capability,” said the order signed by bureau Chief Bill Lake. CEA opposed “additional waivers of the integration ban due to DTA shortages as a matter of principle,” he wrote, “but no party specifically argued the facts of Baja’s request or filed a formal opposition.” The small Western U.S. cable operator originally has gotten waivers that were extended (CD March 5/10 p14) and in March it requested more time.
The FCC fined a Cosby, Tenn., man $22,000 for unlicensed broadcasting on 87.9 MHz and refusing to allow the radio station to be inspected, said an Enforcement Bureau forfeiture order Friday to Arthur Young (http://xrl.us/bnbatx).
The FCC issued equal employment opportunity rule audits. About 100 radio stations got Media Bureau letters seeking copies of EEO reports from the licensees’ public-inspection files and asking how jobs were filled. Staff yearly audits 5 percent of all broadcasters and multichannel video systems for compliance, and proposes penalties when rules aren’t followed (CD Jan 5 p2). Among radio stations picked at random to get last week’s letters are those owned by CBS, Cox Radio, Educational Media Foundation, Entravision and Radio Disney, according to a list that accompanied an agency public notice Friday (http://xrl.us/bnbas8).
Verizon does not object to a grant of limited waivers to VoIP providers so they can get direct access to numbering resources, but the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association’s argument that the commission must first address overarching regulatory questions regarding VoIP interconnection “muddies the waters unnecessarily and should be rejected,” Verizon said in a letter to the commission Friday (http://xrl.us/bnbakg). Verizon was referring to a recent NTCA letter asking for clarification on several VoIP interconnection issues (CD June 1 p16). Verizon urged the commission to “facilitate the ongoing market-led transition away from the circuit-switched PSTN towards IP-based networks for voice by eliminating unnecessary legacy regulations” that “needlessly impose costs and complexity."