Comments on whether the FCC should let program access rules sunset Oct. 5 are due June 22, replies July 23 in docket 12-68, the commission said in Monday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm4ui7). A program access rulemaking notice sought feedback on various scenarios, including extending the ban on withholding cable-operator-affiliated channels from other pay-TV companies when those networks are distributed by satellite (CD March 22 p8).
An owner of a Florida FM translator station agreed to pay $11,500, and another was fined $11,000, in FCC actions disclosed Monday. Capstar is making the voluntary payment to the U.S. Treasury to settle an Enforcement Bureau investigation of whether the company’s translator in Vero Beach violated underwriting laws by airing ads, and transferred the station without agency permission, said a bureau consent decree (http://xrl.us/bm4uhb). The Ace of Hearts Disc Jockey Service was fined because a Cape Canaveral translator had unauthorized antenna equipment and transmitted at more than authorized power, said a bureau forfeiture order (http://xrl.us/bm4uhs).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to testify at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services hearing on the commission’s 2013 resource needs for “expanding broadband access, promoting innovation, and protecting consumers in a communications revolution,” the committee said. The hearing will be Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. in Room 130 of the Dirksen Building.
The Communications Workers of America said it has asked the Department of Labor to grant Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) benefits to 3,300 T-Mobile USA customer service representatives at seven U.S. call centers set for closure in June. The workers are qualified because T-Mobile has indicated it will offshore call center jobs, a CWA spokesman said. If approved, a TAA designation would make employees eligible for things like enhanced unemployment benefits, tuition assistance for job retraining programs and tax credits for family health insurance. T-Mobile announced last month that it’s closing seven U.S. call centers, including two in Texas and one each in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The closures are expected to be completed within 60 days.
Chicago enacted an ordinance regulating satellite dishes that is based on Philadelphia’s ordinance, the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bm4mr5) in docket 12-1. It shares the Philadelphia ordinance’s flaws, “but in some ways, it is even worse.” The Chicago ordinance has a second set of rules “governing antenna placement when installation in its preferred location is infeasible,” the filing said. The rules “contain no exceptions for cost, delay, and signal preclusion.” If these restrictions are allowed to stand, “millions of consumers will lose their choice of TV provider, tens of thousands of jobs will be lost and satellite will lose its ability to compete with cable in urban areas,” they said. SBCA members include Dish Network and DirecTV.
Four out of five commissioners at the California Public Utilities Commission criticized a VoIP deregulation bill, SB-1161 (CD April 18 p5), Thursday during a commission meeting, but they didn’t vote to oppose the legislation. A decision to oppose, support or call for amendments to the measure is scheduled for the commission’s May 10 meeting. The bill would ban the commission from regulating VoIP.
Some groups representing deaf and hard of hearing individuals urged the FCC to dismiss a petition from Hillcrest Baptist Church in El Paso, Texas, and require Hillcrest to comply with closed captioning rules. Hillcrest’s programming doesn’t qualify for exemptions because it “is not a video programming distributor,” the National Association of the Deaf, Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization and other groups said in a filing (http://xrl.us/bm4mp7). Exemption rules “are only applicable to channels of video programming.” Hillcrest isn’t seeking an exemption for a channel, the groups said: Denying Hillcrest’s petition wouldn’t represent any unwarranted incursion on its free speech rights, but merely a recognition of its inability “to demonstrate that it cannot afford to caption its programming.” In letters to several programmers seeking a closed captioning exemption, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau requested additional information on applications judged deficient because they were missing information. The letters were posted last week in docket 06-181, which is where the deaf groups’ opposition went.
Arkansas Sens. Mark Pryor (D) and John Boozman (R) have asked the FCC to delay implementation of the USF/intercarrier compensation order until rural providers can determine the full impact of the proposed reforms on their future business and investment plans, according to a letter sent Thursday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Changes to the Universal Service Fund must be balanced, ensure regulatory certainty, provide predictable support, and encourage further public and private investment in rural areas,” they wrote, saying many small service providers in Arkansas are concerned the commission is moving too fast in its implementation. Rural lenders and service providers have told the senators that “no meaningful broadband access will be deployed in 2012 due to regulatory uncertainty,” they wrote. The senators encouraged Genachowski to “send a representative from the Wireline Bureau to Arkansas before the proposed reforms are finalized” to “see first-hand the unique needs and challenges that rural areas like Arkansas face and communicate with the people that will be directly impacted by the Commission’s proposed reforms."
Inmarsat and LightSquared reached an agreement that amends certain terms of their cooperation agreement. LightSquared also paid Inmarsat $56.25 million, an outstanding amount that had prompted Inmarsat to issue a default notice in February (CD Feb 22 p11). Inmarsat agreed to suspend the next phase of the agreement until March 31, 2014, Inmarsat said. Notices of default “in relation to previous non-payment events will no longer have any effect.” The amended terms allow LightSquared additional time to secure regulatory consents “that may ultimately lead to the deployment of its ancillary terrestrial component network in North America,” Inmarsat said.
Time Warner Cable added sports channels to its app and website for video subscribers to watch networks using computers and mobile devices at home. ESPN and TNT were among the national channels added for the cable operator’s subscribers in the New York, Dallas and Charlotte, N.C., markets, which also had regional sports networks added, Time Warner Cable said Friday. “We're also working hard with our industry partners to implement a broader technical solution that will enable us to deliver more sports programming on TWC TV in additional markets,” said General Manager Mike Angus of Time Warner Cable’s video business.