The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy recommended a legislative proposal to reduce double utility poles (CD April 13 p7). The proposal is the end product of a dozen bills in the state that, in various ways, attempt to encourage utilities to remove double poles in a timely fashion. The proposal would require the state Department of Public Utilities and the Department of Telecom and Cable to issue new rules to reduce double poles. It would also require the governor to set up an 11-member advisory council on double poles, led by state regulators and including representatives from utilities, the attorney general and two local governments. The council would study ways to speed up pole removal and make recommendations to state regulators by the end of this year. However, the proposal, pending House and Senate approvals, didn’t clearly define municipalities’ authority to fine utilities that don’t remove double poles within 90 days, said Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith. The group will work with legislators to ensure municipalities are authorized to issue fines, he said.
Harris Corporation’s broadcast equipment unit is for sale, the company said. Over time the Broadcast Communications Division has become less aligned with Harris’s overall strategy, said Harris Morris, the division’s CEO, in a letter shared with press. “Operating independently or as part of a broadcast or media-focused enterprise will provide us with strategic investment, increased competitive flexibility and customer focus,” he said. Until a buyer can be found, the unit will continue to operate under Harris’s corporate umbrella, but Harris will begin reporting its results as discontinued operations, it said. Harris plans to use the proceeds from selling the unit to pay cash to shareholders and invest in its core business, said William Brown, its CEO.
U.S. efforts at promoting independent media and an open Internet overseas are having an impact but “face a lack of funding, growth in online censorship and surveillance and a rising attack on journalists,” said a report by Center for International Media Assistance (http://xrl.us/bm5wja). Authoritarian governments are using Internet surveillance, censorship and attacks on those who publish online, the report said. Governments in more than 40 countries now “censor” the Internet, affecting a half-billion users, the report said. In response, the U.S. State Department and USAID spent about $76 million on Internet freedom initiatives from 2008 to 2011, it said.
The FCC’s workshop on TV channel sharing is May 22 at 10 a.m. in the commission’s meeting room. It will focus on how “broadcasters are approaching the financial and strategic opportunities presented by channel sharing,” the agency said Monday (http://xrl.us/bm5wmi). Commissioners approved a channel-sharing order Friday (CD May 1 p7), and FCC staff have been touting the workshop when speaking with industry executives. Panelists are Eric De Silva of Wiley Rein, John Cunney of Santander, John Hane of Pillsbury and Lonna Thompson of the Association of Public Television Stations. Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake will speak.
A U.S. court agreed with the FTC that infomercials for “John Alexander’s Real Estate Riches in 14 days” plan falsely claimed that viewers could complete a real estate deal including getting their money back in two weeks. “The infomercial fails to adequately disclose that ‘John’s Club’ is actually a continuity plan which, upon expiration of the free trial period, charges consumers $39.95 per month unless consumers take the affirmative step of canceling their memberships,” Judge Jacqueline Nguyen of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles wrote in an April 20 decision (http://xrl.us/bm5wkh) that the FTC publicized Tuesday. The decision granted the agency’s request for summary judgment against John Beck Amazing Profits LLC, but because a “small number of purchasers of the kits” have benefited from the program, Nguyen ordered the agency to “address why Defendants’ arguments are not meritorious.” The “get-rich-quick systems ... deceived nearly a million consumers” and the commission seeks more than $450 million in damages, the agency said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bm5wko). A lawyer for John Beck Amazing profits had no comment.
The U.S. wireless industry is a catalyst for economic growth, supporting 3.8 million jobs and adding $195.5 billion to GDP in 2011, according to a CTIA-sponsored report by Recon Analytics founder Roger Entner. Based on historical data, every 10 MHz of additional licensed spectrum boosts GDP by more than $1.7 billion and adds 7,000 jobs, Entner said during a briefing at the Progressive Policy Institute Tuesday. Wireless services produced $33 billion in productivity improvements for U.S. businesses in nine categories and industry tax, fee, and surcharge payments contributed $88.6 billion to local, state and federal governments in 2011, the report said. Over the next decade, productivity gains attributable to wireless are expected to total more than $1.4 trillion, it said. The need for more spectrum is driven by consumer demand of wireless services, said Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president at AT&T. He urged removing regulatory barriers to allow more wireless deployment. Legislators need to re-examine outdated telecom regulations, which were designed to oversee a wireline monopoly which doesn’t exist today, he said. Policymakers also need to address “the function of the FCC in the Internet age,” he said. Protecting consumers against abuse and fraud instead of picking winners and losers might be a more appropriate role for the agency, he said. Meanwhile, regulators need to examine the use of government spectrum and spectrum management, he said. The spectrum legislation passed in February is a good start, he said. “We need to be able to bridge the gap between now and when that broadcast spectrum becomes available,” he said. Much of the spectrum is in the hands of entities that are sitting on it, he claimed. The FCC needs to act quickly to allocate spectrum to entities that would make the most out of it, he said. The agency needs to recognize the importance of the secondary market, he said. The Progressive Policy Institute is a “centrist” that favors innovation and growth and is supported by various entities that support innovation and growth, said Chief Economic Strategist Michael Mandel when asked if the group has accepted financial contribution from wireless companies.
The Communications Workers of America delineated the problems it has encountered trying to obtain, open or read some of the thousands of documents filed by Verizon Wireless and the cable companies answering questions from the FCC on the proposed sale of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox to Verizon. “CWA renews its request for the Commission to stop the 180-day clock to allow for a meaningful evaluation and sound analysis of the record,” the union said in a letter to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bm5vna). “In light of the delays in document production, the volume of documents recently produced, and the manner of production, including CWA’s difficulty in searching some documents without indexes or tables, stopping the clock is the only way that CWA can be afforded the opportunity to evaluate the information submitted by the Applicants in a meaningful way.” CWA specifically cited documents filed by Verizon it said its counsel couldn’t open at all. “CWA and CWA’s counsel do not have the ‘MapInfo’ or ’shapefile’ software which is apparently required to open these files,” the letter said. “In order to review these files, CWA would have to purchase a license that would cost $1,699 per person for each counsel or consultant reviewing the files. In the interest of allowing the public the opportunity to meaningfully review, CWA respectfully requests that these files should be provided in a format readily accessible to interested parties.” Verizon said in a letter to the FCC it is willing to work with parties like CWA to make various files accessible. Verizon said company officials had spoken with FCC officials last week and that the SpectrumCo partners and Cox also were willing to make documents accessible. “The Applicants explained that they have complied with the technical and formatting specifications contained in the Commission’s instructions accompanying the Information and Discovery Requests and have fully satisfied their obligations to make their documents available to third parties pursuant to the Protective Orders in this proceeding. However, the Applicants expressed a willingness to take certain additional steps to facilitate third-party review of the materials by Protective Order signatories.” “Verizon Wireless has made a strong case that putting unused spectrum to use to serve consumers is in the public interest,” a Verizon spokesman said. “We are working closely with the FCC to provide it with the information it has requested and to ensure that other parties engaged in this transaction have a full opportunity to review the appropriate information."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to schedule a vote on FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel on Monday, Reid’s spokesman told us. The Senate is expected to approve the nominees following an announcement from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Friday that he would remove his hold after a year-long row over the agency’s handling of the LightSquared wireless project (CD April 30 p1). Reid’s spokesman was optimistic that the Senate would approve the nominees and told us “that pair should pass Monday,” in an e-mail. If approved, Pai would replace Meredith Baker and Rosenworcel would replace Michael Copps as commissioners for five-year terms. Rosenworcel, a Democrat from Connecticut, is currently an aide to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Pai, a Republican from Kansas, was an aide to former Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has worked as a lawyer at the FCC and is now in private practice.
Allband wants the FCC Wireline Bureau to expedite approval of its petition for waiver of various high-cost universal service rules, it said Monday (http://xrl.us/bm5vu2). Comments on its request for waiver were due in March (CD Feb 15 p17). Allband’s petition “clearly demonstrates that good cause exists for granting” it, and that without it, Allband will face “immediate irreparable harm in the nature of the financial destruction of Allband,” and an inability to pay its Rural Utilities Service loans, the telco said.
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a case challenging a bankruptcy filing of Idearc, formerly a directory publishing division of Verizon, according to an order published Monday (http://xrl.us/bm5vum). Idearc was formed in 2006 as a spinoff of Verizon’s domestic print and Internet “Yellow Pages” directory publishing operation. When Idearc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, shareholders sued to have the bankruptcy dismissed on the ground that it “was part of a scheme orchestrated by Verizon for the purpose of reducing its liabilities while leaving Idearc’s shareholders with crushing debt,” according to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (http://xrl.us/bm5vus). The district court denied the motion to dismiss, and the 3rd Circuit affirmed. With the denial of cert, that decision will stand.