Bill introduced in Ore. House (HB-2659) would abolish earnings-based regulation of large incumbent telcos and put all Ore. incumbents over 15,000 lines under price cap regulation. Currently, only Qwest is under price caps, with Verizon (formerly GTE), Sprint and Century Tel under rate-of-return regulation. Present law allows them to elect price cap system prescribed by state law, provided they put amount equal to 20% of that year’s revenues into special infrastructure development fund for rural and advanced services over next 4 years. Proposed bill by Rep. Jim Hill (R) would make price caps and infrastructure fund mandatory for those telcos in 2002.
Urging AT&T to explain why it announced it would raise its cable rates 4.8%, United Homeowners Assn. (UHA) said carrier’s control of cable systems serving more than half of nation’s cable consumers hadn’t benefitted consumers in terms of lower prices and increased competition. UHA said another key concern was that AT&T had deployed vast majority of its cable high-speed Internet services in upper income neighborhoods. “Cherrypicking the marketplace” will further digital divide between consumers, it said. Noting that cable rates continue to outpace inflation, UHA said it was concerned that, unlike other telecom services such as local and long distance phone, cable rates keep increasing.
Investors took well to News Corp.’s rumored takeover of DirecTV as shares in company increased 4% in Sydney stock market Mon. Company is in talks with GM on joining Sky Global Networks satellite TV arm with DirecTV (CD Feb 8 p9).
Mark Crosby, longtime pres. of Industrial Telecom Assn., is stepping down to head Access Spectrum, separate guardband bidding unit set up last year by ITA, Motorola, others. He also will remain senior policy adviser to ITA. ITA spokesman said move was “strategic shift” designed to “make sure Access Spectrum succeeds as a healthy source of frequency coordination for ITA.” ITA “already has been molded,” allowing Crosby to concentrate on unit that as band manager paid $69 million for 19 licenses in guardband auction, spokesman said. Crosby, who joined ITA’s predecessor Special Industrial Radio Service Assn. as intern 31 years ago, has been pres. for 26 years. He will be succeeded by ITA Exec. Dir. Laura Smith, ex-FCC staffer who moved to ITA in 1998. Smith worked at FCC for 8 years in Mass Media and Wireless bureaus.
FCC continues to work with frequency coordinators on recently implemented universal licensing system (ULS) under which coordinators have complained they haven’t been able to file applications electronically. Some land mobile radio service licensees have contended system implementation issues have caused delays for frequency coordinators and that more rigorous beta testing could have avoided problems. “Both groups might have to change their program a little bit to make this thing work,” one FCC official said. “We're trying to work with the frequency coordinators.” Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) officials said no public certified frequency coordinator had been able to submit application electronically since ULS system went online last fall (CD Feb 6 p3). APCO also is concerned that large number of applications are returned to filers for simple errors. FCC official said agency had discussions throughout last year with frequency coordinators, including timing of phased-in approach for starting ULS for land mobile applications. Second phase of ULS began operating in Oct. for public certified frequency coordinators, followed by industrial and business frequency coordinators in Dec. When asked earlier in year if deployment targets gave coordinators enough time to modify their systems, FCC official said, “there wasn’t any resistance to the time frames that we established.” On testing issue, she said: “We were for testing but the coordinators weren’t ready to send us any files.” First phase of ULS deployment of land mobile licensees involved Nextel, so one class of licensees already was filing earlier in year without problems, official said. “Our goal is to have everything on data entered within 5 business days of receipt. Now we are working on 10 days,” she acknowledged. Many of frequency coordinators have been successful in testing in last few weeks as they approach deadline for making electronic filing within 6 months of ULS deployment date for particular group of licensees, official said. FCC has asked coordinators if they need extension of this 6-month date and hadn’t received word that more time was needed, she said. On applications returned for simple errors, for example, agency is trying to work with companies “to efficiently process these transactions during the transition period.” Applications returned as result of minor errors, such as missing zip codes, emerged during transition with other licensee groups and were worked out, official said. In regularly scheduled meetings with frequency coordinators, coordinating bodies have aired concerns and discussed with agency how to address problems, FCC official said.
Copyright holders claimed win Mon. when a federal appeals court refused to overturn lower court order barring Napster from facilitating transfer of copyrighted songs on Internet. “The District Court correctly recognized that a preliminary injunction against Napster’s participation in copyright infringement is not only warranted but required,” 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, said in Feb. 12 opinion. However, 3-judge panel sent case back to U.S. Dist. Judge Marilyn Patel, San Francisco, to craft narrower injunction that would: (1) Require Napster to remove infringing material only after record labels notified it of copyrighted works available on Napster system. (2) Force Napster to actively police its service to keep out pirated music. Unanimous, 50-page decision went down line in favor of music labels and against Napster, said lawyer Russell Frackman. Decision “pretty much writes Napster’s epitaph,” said lawyer Chuck Cooper.
Moody’s lowered ratings outlook for Deutsche Telekom (DT) to negative from stable, reflecting its view “of an increased uncertainty” over DT’s plans to complete its asset disposal plan. DT is trying to raise cash to reduce its debt by $30 billion this year. DT already has reached 1/3 of its debt reduction target by disposing of cable TV and other assets, Moody’s said. Some of more “challenging” cash-raising actions are set for later this year, including IPO of T-Mobil International, Moody’s said.
Cable industry-backed Ia. bill (SF-47) would require cities granting more than one cable TV franchise to make terms and conditions of additional franchises no more favorable or less burdensome than incumbent’s. If preferential terms are provided to overbuilder, then same terms would apply to incumbent, under proposal. Ia. Cable TV Assn. Pres. Tom Graves said bill was prompted by preferential terms sought by overbuilders. Lobbyists for Ia. cities had opposed bill on ground that it wouldn’t permit cities to require state-of-art technology of overbuilders, he said. Bill wouldn’t affect municipal overbuilders that already were required to meet same obligations as private operators. Bill has been assigned to Senate Commerce Committee.
Qualcomm expanded Kenwood’s CDMA subscriber unit license agreement to include development and manufacture of subscriber equipment for 3rd-generation variations of CDMA, including cdma2000 and Wideband CDMA. Previously, Kenwood’s licensing agreement had covered only cdmaOne applications. Companies didn’t disclose terms.
Alaska Superior Court denied petition by incumbent telco ACS for stay of Alaska Regulatory Commission (ARC) Oct. ruling approving local interconnection agreement with competitive carrier GCI Communications, which will open Fairbanks and Juneau markets to competition. ACS had appealed ARC’s action opening markets, saying they were too rural to support multiple local exchange providers. Court dismissed ARC’s claim of irreparable harm if GCI began competitive service before appeal was decided. GCI said it plans to begin competitive service by Dec.