US Link wants the FCC Wireline Bureau to reverse a Universal Service Administrative Co. decision that reclassified to interstate private line revenue originally reported as intrastate, said a public notice released Thursday (http://bit.ly/16pchSB). Comments in WC docket 06-122 are due Nov. 29, replies Dec. 16.
Hawaii Pacific Teleport requested special temporary authority to communicate with Astra 3A for drift operation as the satellite is relocated, HPT said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/17vlOux). The satellite is being relocated to provide tracking, telemetry and command services, it said. HPT also seeks authority to add a new 8.1 meter antenna to the E030115 earth station license, it said in a separate application (http://bit.ly/1aIBtDu).
The FCC authorized more than $32 million in support for broadband buildout to Alaska Communications Systems, Hawaiian Telcom and Puerto Rico Telephone Co., the Wireline Bureau said Thursday (http://fcc.us/16paDjZ). It’s the second round of funding for Phase I of the Connect America Fund. “Because no parties challenged the elections of ACS, Hawaiian Telecom [sic], or PRTC, funding is hereby authorized,” the bureau said. PRTC will receive $31.5 million, Hawaiian Telcom $1 million and ACS just under $174,000. The bureau also upheld an ACS challenge of the National Broadband Map’s designation of 52 census blocks as already served by broadband. The blocks were shown as served by Yukon Tech d/b/a BBN, a fixed wireless ISP. That ISP did not respond to ACS’s allegations. “Given the evidence presented by ACS, combined with the lack of any evidence to the contrary from BBN, the Bureau concludes that it is more likely than not that the census blocks challenged by ACS are not currently served by fixed Internet access with speeds of at least 3 Mbps/768 kbps,” the bureau said.
"Like Godzilla, who arrives and destroys great human accomplishments,” some state and federal bills and laws are threatening the Internet’s future success, said NetChoice in a Thursday release on its annual list of the worst Internet laws. California’s SB 568 law, the federal e-commerce sales tax bill and numerous state-level digital descendant bills were on NetChoice’s most-destructive list at http://netchoice.org/iawful. NetChoice said California’s SB 568 law is particularly egregious, saying it violates federal law and the First Amendment. The law, which takes effect January 2015, is intended to make two major changes. First, websites and apps “directed” to minors will have to provide the option to registered minors to delete any publicly posted content. Second, those websites may no longer advertise items that minors legally cannot purchase. All other websites will have to take “reasonable actions in good faith” to avoid presenting ads for these restricted items to known minors. “This makes for a discriminatory law,” the report said. Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act protects websites from liability for content or commerce posted by users, according to the report. “Sites we use everyday could not exist without it,” said NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco. By making these sites liable, the state law not only violates federal law, but also “violates the First Amendment by chilling advertisers’ free speech,” the report said. “SB 568 represents a major threat to the use of the Internet and snubs the federal protections that allowed e-commerce to flourish."
A delegation from the Department of Health and Human Services met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials in late September to discuss how its health grants are awarded and administered, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1bGjwp8). Office of Advancement of Telehealth grant applications are reviewed by an “objective review committee” and winning applicants are selected in coordination with a separate division at the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS, said the filing, written by the deputy chief of the FCC’s Telecommunications Access Policy Division. HHS representatives also discussed the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Pilot Program, which decides which patients to accept at their facilities, and gets its revenue from Medicaid, Medicare and private payers. SNFs are not eligible for “meaningful use” incentive payments for adoption of electronic health records, the filing said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is “deeply concerned by reports that the [National Security Agency] is breaking into the overseas communications links between” Google and Yahoo’s data centers and has asked the administration to brief him on whether the reports (CD Oct 31 p9) are true, according to a statement issued Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, Leahy introduced the USA Freedom Act with Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. (CD Oct 30 p4). The bill would end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata and allow companies to disclose information about the surveillance requests they receive, but not address the type of overseas surveillance known as MUSCULAR. The Washington Post first reported the program’s existence Wednesday (http://wapo.st/1dNYzxr). “If the reports are true, this infiltration could be sweeping in the communications of millions of Americans who use the services of these two U.S. companies every day,” Leahy said. “I will be asking whether this report is accurate, what legal authority the government is using, and how they are protecting the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans."
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is seeking comment on recommendations for public safety use of 4.9 GHz spectrum offered by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council in an Oct. 24 filing by the group (http://bit.ly/19V2zbp). The FCC has sought to encourage use of the band by first responders since it was set aside for public safety use 10 years ago. “In its comments, NPSTC encouraged the Commission to develop a national plan for developing the 4.9 GHz band, and it offered ’to develop [guidelines for a national plan], in collaboration with established frequency advisory committees and regional planning committees,'” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/17zxNVN). Comments are due Nov. 22, replies Dec. 13.
The National Association of Manufacturers opened DATA (Driving the Agenda for Technology Advancement) Policy Center. NAM said the center is designed to educate the public and policy experts about the important stake manufacturers have in technological advancement. Leaders from 23 manufacturing companies are “serving” the DATA Center, including AT&T, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft and Verizon, said NAM in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1f69P64).
The key to the increasing number of gigabit broadband networks in the U.S. has been “enlightened local leadership,” Gig.U President Blair Levin said at the Web Summit in Dublin Thursday, according to his written remarks (http://bit.ly/1bGaWXp). Such leadership “recognizes how the quality of the network their community has 10 years from now will affect everything they do and everything they do today affects the quality of the network they will have 10 years from now,” Levin said. A “desert” just a few years ago, America how has a dozen Gig.U communities moving forward, municipal gigabit service in Chattanooga and Lafayette, and Google Fiber “capturing the imagination of many,” he said. Incumbents like CenturyLink, AT&T and Time Warner Cable now look favorably upon upgraded networks, he said. “It is still early in the transition to the digital economy but the presence of such networks will accelerate innovations in how we solve society’s problems with smarter use of chips, bits and bandwidth."
AT&T is relinquishing the eligible telecommunications carrier status of Corr Wireless in Alabama effective Dec. 31, the carrier said in a filing at the FCC (http://bit.ly/1ag0CTs). The FCC approved AT&T’s buy of Corr in August. Corr has fewer than 300 Lifeline customers, AT&T said. “Following relinquishment of Corr’s ETC designation ... AT&T Mobility will provide written notice to the former Corr Lifeline customers that it no longer participates in the Lifeline program,” AT&T said. “The notice will inform these customers that they will receive courtesy credits in the amount of their Lifeline discount for 45 days. After that period of time, these customers may select an alternative calling plan from AT&T Mobility or they may obtain discounted Lifeline service from another provider."