FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s support for usage-based broadband charges (CD May 23 p2) “marks at least the third time that he has demonstrated his independence from the louder voices among communications policy outfits,” said a sometime-critic of regulation who backs that type of billing. The first such show of independence was the 2010 “net neutrality lite” order and the second a report on the future of media last year “that steered clear of the most intrusive and inappropriate kinds of recommendations that had been proposed for it,” said Media Institute President Patrick Maines. “None of this is to say -- nor would the gentleman necessarily welcome our saying -- that Mr. Genachowski is the very model of what one looks for in an FCC chairman,” Maines wrote on the group’s blog Friday (http://xrl.us/bm9d3q). “Still, in an environment as divisive as Washington’s, it’s probably a good idea once in a while to step outside of it all and give credit where credit is due. So props to Julius Genachowski for his embrace of usage-based broadband billing."
Comcast noted there are “various ways” cable customers with devices using quadrature amplitude modulation can get channels on the basic tier the company wants the ability to encrypt in all-digital systems. Makers of clear QAM devices including Boxee, which has said the FCC may decide in the next few months whether to allow any all-digital system to scramble the basic tier (CD May 17 p6), oppose encryption. There are “substantial consumer and other public interest benefits associated with basic tier encryption,” Comcast reported top legal executives told new FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. Benefits include “remote service connections and disconnections and reduced theft of service,” the cable operator said, seeking an “expeditious” okay. Thursday’s ex parte filing in docket 11-169 on the meeting, held as the Cable Show occurred in Boston, said it was attended by Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, Comcast/NBCUniversal Washington President Kyle McSlarrow and Comcast Senior Vice President Kathy Zachem (http://xrl.us/bm9dzy).
The U.S. imposes “fairly strict restrictions on the Internet, and its approach ‘remains full of problems and contradictions,'” the Chinese government said Friday (http://xrl.us/bm9dr6). It quoted its new report responding to a U.S. report earlier last week on China’s human rights practices. The U.S. uses “Internet freedom” as “just an excuse” to “impose diplomatic pressure and seek hegemony,” said the report, “Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011” (http://xrl.us/bm9dzj), released by the information office of the State Council of China’s Cabinet. The Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act both have “clauses about monitoring the Internet, giving the government or law enforcement organizations power to monitor and block any Internet content harmful to national security,” it said. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 also stipulates that the federal government has “absolute power” to shut down the Internet under a declared national emergency, the report said. It cited a report by The Guardian “which said that the U.S. military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas.” That project “aims to control and restrict free speech on the Internet,” China’s report said. The State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011 said “deterioration in key aspects” of the China’s human rights situation continued during the year (http://xrl.us/bm9dv8). “The authorities increased attempts to limit freedom of speech and to control the press, the Internet, and Internet access,” the U.S. report said.
The Florida Public Service Commission said it partnered with several senior centers to educate the elderly about the state’s Lifeline program, as part of a statewide effort for May, which was designated Older Americans Month. Commission staff will meet with seniors one-on-one during workshops, the agency said. The state’s Lifeline program provides a $12.75 monthly credit on local phone bills for eligible seniors. Most phone companies serving the state offer the program, including some wireless carriers.
Windstream and Frontier met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials to discuss the steps needed to calculate eligible recovery of revenue reduced by access charge reform. Frontier said that in order to determine its net collected switched access revenue it would take the amount of revenue attributable to switched access or reciprocal compensation traffic, and then remove late payment charges, open disputes and write-off charges. The figure would be divided by net billed revenue, creating a percentage of collected revenue to be applied to the billed revenues during fiscal 2011. Windstream’s methodology is “a bit different” but “conceptually yields the same result,” an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bm9dqv). The telcos also discussed plans to apply the access recovery charge, and said they plan to calculate eligibility on a wire center basis.
Skytower Communications was fined $5,600 for moving WULF(FM) Hardinsburg, Ky.’s main studio to two locations outside its boundaries before getting FCC permission, said a Media Bureau forfeiture order released Friday (http://xrl.us/bm9dr4). An Enforcement Bureau consent decree with Fisher Broadcasting released the same day included a voluntary payment of $7,000 over allegations KVI(AM) Seattle violated the agency’s contest rules. A company audit “discovered that a former employee may have taken actions to manipulate the outcome of the Contest by placing the names of suspected friends and acquaintances on the list of names to be announced on air, thus making them potential winners,” the settlement said (http://xrl.us/bm9dtj). “Winnings may have been shared between the former employee and the winners” and the company, which discovered the incident after the employee left Fisher, contacted the police, the bureau recounted.
The U.S. should lead by example as it seeks to promote Internet freedom around the world, said panelists at a Google event in Washington late last week. Efforts are under way in India to draft a privacy bill, and “we are looking toward the EU and to U.S. law” on how privacy rights can be protected, said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society. The U.S. must build a “broader coalition of governments” committed to human rights, and “it’s beginning to happen,” said Cynthia Wong, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Global Internet Freedom. When talking to other governments, the U.S. should “address the economic benefits of Internet freedom,” Mohamed El Dahshan, an Egyptian economist and journalist, told the conference on “Internet at Liberty.” There’s also need for interaction with the end user, he said. One concern with U.S. policy is “selective export of various parts of U.S. policy without exporting the full framework,” Wong said. An example is the “selective export of very strong copyright enforcement without exporting some of the safeguards that we have in the U.S. that may not exist in other countries,” she said. That could have some negative consequences for access to knowledge and free expression, she said. As for whether U.S. companies have a moral obligation to promote free expression online, Wong said multinational corporations have not only a “moral obligation, but a human rights responsibility to assess what human rights” implications result from their products and services such as surveillance and filtering technologies. They should work to “mitigate” any “harm” from such services, she said. Abraham wants U.S. companies to be “polite” and less “condescending” when making their case for Internet freedom in foreign countries. He cited the instance of a Google lawyer telling the judge of a New Delhi magistrate court that he didn’t “know or have a full appreciation of the freedom of expression” that people had in the U.S. “This type of condescension to the judiciary doesn’t really help your case,” Abraham said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a Consolidated Communications petition for a limited waiver of the call signaling rules adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bm9dqe). The company said it required the waiver because “the Commission’s rules impose burdens with respect to call signaling that Consolidated cannot reasonably meet, particularly in the instances where Consolidated uses Multi-Frequency Signaling or Dual Tone Multi-Frequency Signaling Technology in its network.” Some enterprise customers have multiple phone numbers routed through a single private branch exchange, and populate the calling party number field with a number that’s not their own, making complete compliance with the call signaling rules “unreasonably burdensome,” Consolidated said. Comments are due June 22 in docket 10-90, replies July 9.
Ion Media wants to move WEPX-TV Greenville, N.C., off Channel 51, the only channel the FCC is processing broadcaster changes from (CD May 23 p5). Ion wants to switch to Channel 26 “to expand service beyond that allowed on Channel 51” and “eliminate potential interference with wireless operations in the adjacent Lower 700 MHz A Block,” the company said in a petition for rulemaking posted Thursday to docket 12-130 (http://xrl.us/bm9dqp). The next day, a Media Bureau rulemaking notice was released seeking comment on the move (http://xrl.us/bm9drh). Using a non-directional antenna, WEPX on Channel 26 “would serve all viewers currently receiving digital service, and it would reach more” than 100,000 additional people, Ion said.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy largely endorsed a call by small carriers, led by the Rural Cellular Association, for an interoperability mandate in the lower 700 MHz band. The SBA office filed comments on an FCC rulemaking notice adopted by the commission in March (http://xrl.us/bm9dhx). “In light of the small business interests at stake, Advocacy supports the FCC’s decision to adopt this notice of proposed rulemaking and encourages the FCC to move forward with final rules mandating interoperability if an industry solution does not present itself in the immediate future,” the agency said (http://xrl.us/bm9diq). “Until this issue is resolved, valuable spectrum that could be used to create jobs and foster innovation will continue to be underutilized.” The office also mentioned special access rules. “After speaking with competitive carriers, Advocacy remains concerned that the current special access rules may be resulting in higher costs and lower quality service for business broadband consumers who could be using those extra resources to grow their businesses and hire more employees,” the filing said. “Advocacy encourages the FCC to continue to examine the growing concerns regarding special access that have been raised by competitive carriers and move forward with rulemaking to address those concerns if necessary."