Windy City Cellular asked the FCC to move forward on its proposed waiver seeking relief from the agency’s recent “flash-cut” of annual per-line support for competitive eligible telecom carriers. The carrier noted the broad support from Adak, Alaska, the state’s congressional delegation, Aleut Corp., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Icicle Seafoods -- a leading employer in the area -- the Adak Community Development Center and the Eastern Aleutian Tribes, among others. “Without a waiver, WCC will be forced to shut down all operations on July 1, leaving entire portions of Adak completely without wireless service,” the company said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bm9dkj). “It is undisputed that WCC is the only entity that serves Adak Island beyond the downtown area. WCC provides crucial coverage to parts of the Adak area that include maritime locations and in the Aleutian wilderness. Wireless coverage in these areas is necessary to support the many government and research activities that occur outside of the downtown area, as well as to ensure that subsistence hunters and fishermen and others who are traveling beyond downtown Adak have wireless access, particularly in times of an emergency. Without WCC, this important coverage will be lost."
The FCC should once again decline to find in the 2012 version of the wireless competition report that the U.S. wireless industry is effectively competitive, the Rural Cellular Association told the FCC Thursday. “The dominance of AT&T and Verizon is getting steadily worse, and the duopoly’s control over critical inputs continues to be detrimental to competition and consumers,” said RCA President Steve Berry. “As with its previous two wireless competition reports, I don’t see how the FCC could find the wireless industry effectively competitive without data roaming, interoperability and spectrum policies in place to support a competitive ecosystem.”
House Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, co-chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, asked Twitter for more information about the company’s data collection practices in a letter sent Thursday. The congressmen hailed Twitter’s recent decision to adopt a do-not-track mechanism but asked the company to explain the extent of its consumer data collection practices and how the information is stored and deleted.
The FCC Thursday approved an order allowing channels larger than 25 kHz in the enhanced specialized mobile radio (ESMR) portion of the 800 MHz band, a step it was asked to take by Sprint Nextel. “The FCC’s action today will spur investment in and deployment of wireless broadband networks and improve spectrum efficiency while benefitting consumers through increased access to advanced wireless services, including in rural, unserved, and underserved areas,” the FCC said in a statement. Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan said he “got some strange looks” when he asked that the order be slated for a vote at the May meeting. “They reminded me the item was fairly short and straightforward and in no way was it controversial,” Kaplan said. But the order also “demonstrates our unfailing commitment to doing everything that we can to eliminate rules that no longer make sense and that stand in the way of innovation and investment in consumer welfare,” he said. “This vigilance is essential.” The order also shows that the FCC can move quickly, putting out a rulemaking notice and wrapping up an order in just 76 days, Kaplan said. “While we are just beginning to sort through the complex issues associated with freeing up more spectrum for the longer term, I am pleased that we have taken another baby step today to allow wireless providers to take better advantage of the spectrum already available in the market,” said Commissioner Robert McDowell. Sprint hailed the decision. “Today’s unanimous vote by the FCC paves the way for Sprint and other 800 MHz licensees to deploy advanced 3G and 4G technologies in the band,” the company said. “Doing so will enable a better customer experience for consumers and a more efficient use of spectrum.” Holly Henderson, external affairs manager at SouthernLinc, said in an interview the order was also important to her company. “Its definitely relevant to SouthernLinc because we operate in the same spectrum band,” she said. “As we move off of iDEN technology, then we need this part of the rules clarified and eliminated so that we have flexibility.”
The FCC’s third order on reconsideration, responding to several petitions for clarification of the USF/intercarrier compensation order, was published Thursday in the Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm9a62). The order took “several limited actions” clarifying details regarding reporting requirements for differently situated carriers, reporting of end user rates, and universal service support in Alaska (CD May 15 p12). The order will go into effect June 25, except for amendments made to Section 54.313(h), which contain information collection requirements not yet approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
The FCC’s report on video competition began circulating Wednesday for a vote, agency officials said. They said it may be a while before commissioners vote. They're expected to first consider an item that must be adopted by June 12 if viewability rules for must-carry stations on cable systems are to continue. (See report in this issue.) The commission’s last report on video competition, which Congress requires be done every year, covered a period that included 2006 (CD May 18 p10). A Media Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment on the draft.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, acknowledged Thursday that even getting his proposed Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act through the House Judiciary Committee this year is a “longshot.” He told us his office is “working with law enforcement to tighten up some of the definitions” in the bill, including the one for business records. “It’s going to be a long process,” stretching beyond the Congress, getting the measure through Congress, Chaffetz said after speaking at a Silicon Valley event hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and the High Tech Law Institute of Santa Clara University’s law school. He’s a member of Judiciary’s Internet subcommittee and the chairman of the Oversight Committee’s national security subcommittee. The Supreme Court’s Jones ruling against warrantless location tracking “was very pivotal,” Chaffetz told the audience. “I can’t tell you how important that was. Particularly because it was nine to nothing.” He challenged the government theory that warrantless tracking through communications technology should be allowed because agents could follow people in person. “Why don’t we follow everybody?” Chaffetz said. “Then we'd all be more safe.” But he said he doesn’t want to go overboard with restrictions. Tracking should be allowed in order to find people with Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, Chaffetz said. And technology users should be allowed to trade off their locations to providers in exchange for services, he said. But Chaffetz said he gets worried when government authorities and others want access to the information. He said he supported the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act because the information-sharing between government and businesses that it would enable would be voluntary. That made it nothing like the Stop Online Piracy Act that opponents compared the bill to, Chaffetz said. If the National Security Agency “knew there was a cyberattack coming, wouldn’t we want that information given to the McAfees of the world” to prepare a response, Chaffetz asked. Now that the House has passed the bill, “the challenge to the Senate becomes: ‘OK, if you don’t want to do this, what do you want to do?’ And there don’t seem to be many answers.” Nothing is “going to happen this Congress” on broad intellectual-property legislation, he told us. “I'd be shocked it if did.” But the subject will be “revisited” next Congress, partly out of concern about China’s role in infringement, Chaffetz said.
The Montana Public Service Commission withdrew its petition Thursday for waiver of the effective date for adopting uniform eligibility criteria for the Lifeline program (http://xrl.us/bm9azx).
The FCC seems to have made “a real change” from previous approaches to forming World Radiocommunication Conference advisory committees, attorney David Gross told us. Gross is a former State Department assistant secretary-international communications and information policy and led multiple delegations to such conferences. Participation in the advisory group for the 2015 conference will require a nomination for participation and agency approval, the FCC said May 18 in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bm9ajq). In the past it has been an open and very inclusive process, Gross said. The FCC advisory groups have traditionally played an important role, he said. An official said the FCC changed the policy to achieve better compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, we've learned. It will take time to know if the new procedure results in the same variety of represented views and perspectives, Gross said.
Future revisions of Form 499-A and its instructions that impose substantive requirements should be submitted to a notice and comment process consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act, representatives from the Rural Independent Competitive Alliance and Blackfoot Communications told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm9ayy). They also asked the bureau to act on a petition for declaratory ruling that the commission has never applied its jurisdictional separation regime to competitive LECs, and that the instructions to Form 499-A “do not in and of themselves have the force of binding rules and may not impose new substantive obligations on filers."