NCTA and a member lobbied the FCC against extending what they call dual-carriage rules now set to expire June 12 (CD April 18 p15), which broadcasters want renewed. Executives from Bright House Networks and the NCTA each had a meeting with front-office staffers in the Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staff, ex parte filings in docket 98-120 show (http://xrl.us/bm4iaj). The Communications Act says a signal delivered on a cable system is “'viewable’ if it is capable of being viewed using readily available equipment,” NCTA said of a requirement that TV stations guaranteed cable distribution be sent in HD and standard definition on some systems. “While there is no evidence that requiring signals to be carried in analog as well as digital format carriage is necessary to further any important government interest, such additional analog carriage imposes substantial additional burdens on cable operators’ protected speech,” the association said (http://xrl.us/bm4ia2). “Extending the rule beyond its three-year limit would raise serious First Amendment problems under strict or intermediate scrutiny.” The dual carriage rule makes it harder for Bright House to manage its spectrum, the company said (http://xrl.us/bm4ibe). “Dual Carriage goes well beyond the original must carry mandate -- because it requires duplicate and inefficient carriage."
Connect America Phase I support must be used only to provide an immediate boost to broadband deployment in areas unserved by any broadband provider, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and the American Cable Association told aides to FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell (http://xrl.us/bm4h86). The FCC should “reject attempts by the price cap LECs to expand CAF Phase I support beyond this objective,” the cable associations said. The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance, CenturyLink, Frontier and Windstream proposed last month that the FCC expand eligibility for incremental support funding to include partially served census blocks (CD March 8 p10). The cable groups also urged the commission to reject a recent ex parte request that it permit a price cap LEC to get Phase I support in areas where higher-speed broadband service is not yet offered. The commission should “refrain from agreeing to this mission creep,” the cable groups said, arguing that request was best dealt with in Phase II.
The retransmission consent process “is working as Congress intended” and there’s “no need for the FCC to intervene,” Chairman Julius Genachowski was told by Belo Corp. CEO Dunia Shive, the company reported (http://xrl.us/bm4h84). The broadcaster was among several that met with Genachowski, who earlier this week was in Las Vegas for the NAB Show. The FCC’s work on an order to require all TV stations to post online their paper public-inspection files and information contained in them on political ads also came up during meetings with Genachowski, ex parte filings in docket 00-168 show (http://xrl.us/bm4h8y). Belo continues to be concerned about disclosing online what political ads sell for, and “many other broadcasters share” that worry, Shive said. “Posting commercially sensitive rate information online, and making it instantly and easily available to advertisers and to other stations, would affect the broadcast advertising marketplace.” CEO Richard Boehne of E.W. Scripps also spoke with Genachowski to lobby against such disclosure. “By requiring broadcasters to post sensitive business information and rates online, the law may have the unintended consequence of putting broadcasters at a disadvantage against their competitors in the marketplace,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bm4h9g). Genachowski used his speech at the Las Vegas convention to address broadcasters’ concerns about the public-file order, which is tentatively scheduled for a vote at next Friday’s commissioner meeting (CD April 18 p7).
The Alaska Rural Coalition and its member Ketchikan Public Utilities made “mistaken factual assertions” in recent filings in support of its request for reconsideration of various aspects of the USF/intercarrier compensation fund, General Communication said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm4h4h). “ARC has either failed to present accurate facts or has applied an unfounded interpretation of how the urban local rate floor would apply to GCI,” the telco wrote. GCI said neither its tariffed wireline basic local service rate nor the local component of its “No Limits” bundle falls below the local urban rate benchmarks. If a rate floor is applied to a competitive eligible telecom carrier, as ARC suggests, there would be no reason to continue to pay full support to the ILECs because “any other rule would create the anomalous result of paying one competitor more in USF support because they failed to lower their rates to meet the competition,” GCI said. GCI also took issue with assertions that the order provides for “identical support” to CETCs, and that ARC’s proposal for a two-year delay in implementation of RLEC reforms in Alaska would be “budget neutral."
The FCC is thinking about ways to reduce fraud in the IP Relay system, according to an ex parte letter from Purple Communications, which provides relay services (http://xrl.us/bm4h2f). A commission staff member asked Purple how long it would take to implement process and technological changes necessary to restrict issuance of 10-digit numbers only to IP Relay registrants who have completed an identity-verification process, the letter said. Purple explained that it already requires new registrants to complete such a process before getting a 10-digit number. “Purple supports the Commission’s focus on addressing the challenge posed by ‘guest access,'” it wrote. “Absent an industry-wide solution, dial-around functionality exposes the industry to the ‘lowest common denominator’ for registration standards as all providers are required to process traffic from or to a ten-digit number registered with the Neustar database."
The FCC’s public notice seeking comments regarding continued funding of Rural Health Care Pilot Program projects in anticipation of a permanent support mechanism “puts the cart before the horse,” the Montana Telecommunications Association said in comments filed Wednesday in WC docket 02-60 (http://xrl.us/bm4hyj). The public notice “assumes that pilot projects that will run out of funds in 2012 should continue to be funded despite the temporary nature of the Pilot Program,” and despite questions raised by the Government Accountability Office, MTA said. “Before extending funding to certain Pilot Program projects or transitioning pilot projects to the Primary Program on a piecemeal basis, the Commission first needs to apply lessons learned from the Pilot Program, and establish appropriate policies based on GAO’s findings and the issues raised and comments received in the NPRM,” MTA said.
The FCC should cap originating access charges for intrastate toll traffic that originates and/or terminates in IP format at the level of intrastate originating access charges in effect as of Dec. 28, 2011, one day before the USF/intercarrier compensation order took effect, counsel for Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom and tw telecom told advisers to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell (http://xrl.us/bm4hxv). The CLECs could implement changes needed to comply with this rule within 40 days of the release of an order, counsel said.
Dish Network teamed up with Pandora to expand in-home music service for Dish’s Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR system. With Hopper, users can stream their personalized radio stations through their television, Dish said Thursday. The system features three satellite TV tuners and a two-terabyte hard drive that stores up to 2,000 hours of video, Dish said.
Verizon’s apparent willingness to divest some of its 700 MHz assets in exchange for getting U.S. approval to buy AWS spectrum from four cable operators (CD April 19 p1) reinforces the value of Dish Network’s 2 GHz spectrum, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors. While Verizon’s decision to sell its 700 MHz A and B spectrum licenses would make additional spectrum available, “we believe weakness in Dish’s stock … was overdone and that the spectrum remains just as valuable,” the analyst said: The A-block has known interference issues with TV stations, “meaning it’s not fully usable until the FCC cleans up the broadcast spectrum, which could take up to a decade.” The news reinforces the value of AWS spectrum, Ryvicker said. Verizon likely decided to make the trade because it “has obtained all of the reach it needs,” she said. Throughput is likely needed to make a larger chunk of nationwide AWS spectrum better suited for LTE Advanced deployment, she said. “This is an important point as the FCC has already begun the preliminary steps to reclassify Dish’s 40 MHz of 2 GHz spectrum as AWS.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged Congress to conduct a spectrum inventory in order to figure out “what is actually out there.” His remarks came during an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “We have a lot of spectrum sitting out there that is semi-fallow because a lot of government operators do not want to identify their lack of usage of this spectrum,” he said. Warner is the author of the Spectrum Optimization Act (S-415), the Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act (S-522) and has advocated in the past for legislation to mandate national radio spectrum inventories in legislation such as S-455, the RADIOS Act. Warner also urged lawmakers to accelerate the process of delivering broadcaster spectrum from the coming voluntary incentive auctions. “The process and speed of relocation in terms of the broadcasters getting the auctions right, we are talking five to seven years. We ought to see if we can speed that up.” Warner also said he wished public safety operators would have given back some of their narrowband spectrum in exchange for D-block spectrum. “If we are going to give public safety this whole new spectrum revenue stream I think they need to have skin in the game,” he said. “I would love to have gotten a give back from public safety for some of their under-utilized spectrum.”