The FCC won’t enforce a Puerto Rico court order that A Radio Co.’s WEGA(AM) Vega Baja be attached and delivered to a “bailee,” the Media Bureau wrote Monday (http://xrl.us/bnab3t). The agency’s “long-standing policy is to accommodate the actions of state courts, thereby avoiding conflicts between state and federal authority,” but a broadcast license can’t be attached as an asset, wrote Audio Division Chief Peter Doyle of the Media Bureau. “A proposed transaction that, as here, involves a ’substantial change in ownership or control’ must be filed on either an FCC Form 314 or 315,” he wrote in denying the request to assign WEGA from A Radio to Carmelo Santiago Roman. “The Court’s attachment of the Station’s license exceeded its authority."
Vendor help is needed to get more cable broadband-connected devices ready for longer Internet Protocol addresses, Comcast’s chief IPv6 architect said. The approximately 5 percent of Comcast users now ready for IPv6 could rise “dramatically if vendors act to enable IPv6 by default in software updates for existing devices and in newly shipping devices,” John Brzozowski wrote. “There is a significant opportunity for consumer electronics companies, including home networking equipment vendors, to improve IPv6 deployment by shipping IPv6-capable devices and enabling IPv6 by default.” Comcast made “hundreds of thousands” of customers IPv6-ready ahead of Wednesday’s World IPv6 Launch, Brzozowski said. IPv6 is enabled on more than a third of the operator’s broadband network in areas served by Arris cable modem termination systems, he said. All Arris CMTS systems will be ready “in a few months,” at which point there will be work on Comcast’s Cisco CMTS platform, Brzozowski wrote Monday on the operator’s blog (http://xrl.us/bnab2s). “In parallel, we plan to continue to work with cable modem and home router vendors to deploy IPv6-capable firmware to more customer devices."
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on its proposed data specifications for collecting study area boundaries to implement reforms that are part of the USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnabtn). The bureau proposed to collect boundary data from all ILECs using the same data specifications, and seeks comment on the proposal. The data collection is in response to concerns over the accuracy of Tele Atlas wire center data used to determine benchmarks to limit recovery of capital costs and operating expenses for high-cost loop support, a public notice said. Accurate service area boundaries will also be necessary in order to implement the Connect America Fund Phase II reforms, which will use a combination of competitive bidding and a forward-looking cost model to provide USF money in areas served by price-cap carriers. The bureau sought comment on a voluntary process for state commissions to resolve overlap claims. Comments are due July 2 in docket 10-90, replies July 17.
In deciding whether to grant direct access to numbering resources “without the related obligations,” the FCC shouldn’t favor one competitor over another based on the technology they use, NARUC officials told Commissioner Ajit Pai Thursday, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnabpe). The waivers requested by VoIP and Internet Protocol-enabled service providers are broad, and should be handled in the context of a rulemaking proceeding, NARUC said. The association passed a resolution in February stressing the importance of requiring all service providers to comply with numbering utilization and optimization requirements, regardless of technology used, NARUC said.
The National Exchange Carrier Association requested an expedited temporary waiver of FCC rules on the calculation of interstate access recovery charge rates and reporting of initial estimated eligible recovery amounts (http://xrl.us/bnabos). “NECA proposes to utilize interstate switched access demand to calculate a composite interstate rate to be multiplied by intrastate demand,” the Friday filing said, arguing it’s “nearly impossible” to obtain the necessary data for more than a thousand NECA tariff participants and develop methods to “map” dozens of interstate rate elements to intrastate demand units over a “broad spectrum of inconsistent state rate structures."
June 5 FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski speaks at FCBA annual luncheon, noon, Grand Hyatt, 1000 H St. NW -- http://xrl.us/bimfn6
The licensee of WBBZ-TV Springville, N.Y., asked the FCC to require Time Warner Cable to respond to the station’s request that it be carried in the Buffalo, N.Y., designated market area (DMA), a must-carry complaint said (http://xrl.us/bm932o). The complaint said TWC isn’t carrying the station in all of its Buffalo DMA systems. The broadcaster requested “the Commission (1) find that WBBZ-TV is entitled to carriage on TWC’s cable systems in the entire Buffalo DMA; (2) require that TWC respond to [licensee] ITV’s notification ... that it is not being carried by several TWC headends; and (3) require that TWC respond to ITV’s requests ... that TWC enable ITV to cure its signal deficiencies.
Comments on petitions for the FCC to revisit Internet Protocol captioning rules requiring broadcast-TV and subscription-video shows to be captioned once sent over IP are due June 7 in docket 11-154, replies to those oppositions on June 18, an FCC public notice said Friday (http://xrl.us/bm9324). The CEA (CD May 3 p12), TVGuardian and several groups representing those with hearing impairments had sought reconsideration of the FCC order.
Sea Launch AG launched the Intelsat 19 satellite Friday from a mobile launch platform in the Pacific Ocean, Intelsat said. The satellite will provide C-band and Ku-band capacity “for media, government and network services customers in the western U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region.” It carries Ku-band mobility beams that will provide maritime and aeronautical users “with always-on broadband connectivity throughout the northern and southwestern Pacific Ocean,” Intelsat said. Intelsat has three other satellite launches planned this year.
Comcast said its video customers can watch CNN and HLN’s live feed on xfinitytv.com/tv. It also began supporting authentication for Time Warner’s Max Go app, the TV Everywhere app for its Cinemax network, Comcast said.