FCC said Time Warner was subject to effective competition in Lima, O., and more than 30 surrounding franchise areas, rejecting opposition from Watch TV Co. (WTC) which provides competing multichannel video service, and cities of Piqua, Sidney and St. Marys. Granting TW petition, Commission said company had provided evidence that: (1) Competitive service was provided by LEC or its affiliate. WTC hasn’t disputed that it’s wholly owned subsidiary of Benton Ridge Telephone Co. (2) WTC provides comparable programming. Commission said neither Communications Act nor its rules mandated station-specific comparability to extent argued by cities, and agency was satisfied WTC’s channel lineup met its programming comparability criterion. TW had asked Commission to dismiss its requests relating to Piqua and Sidney saying it was unable to confirm whether WTC’s service was being actively marketed in those communities.
FCC denied applications for review of International Bureau’s authorization to General Communications Inc. (GCI) to land and operate Alaska United Cable System. Bureau’s Telecom Div. authorized Alaska United as non-common carrier undersea fiber cable system, spanning Pacific Northwest of U.S. and Alaska. ATU- Long Distance, TelAlaska/ASTAC Long Distance and Alaska Network Systems each had asked FCC to review order in Dec. 1997. Challengers contended GCI should have been required to operate cable on common carrier basis to preclude competitive harm. FCC stood by division’s decision, pointing out availability of other telecom facilities along route, including Northstar Cable System. Commission adopted order Feb. 1 and released it last week. Comr. Furchtgott-Roth issued separate statement that dissented in part, citing his “longstanding view” that FCC lacked authority over undersea cable landing licenses. He has said he doesn’t believe President can grant authority to FCC to approve undersea cable systems under Cable Landing License Act. Apart from that objection, Furchtgott-Roth said “perhaps the most troubling aspect of today’s decision is that it took 3 years for the Commission to reach it.” He apologized to companies, saying they deserved better treatment. “Parties are entitled to the expectation that their Commission business will be resolved in a prompt manner,” he wrote. “By any measure, today’s order fails that test.”
Ind. House Commerce Committee passed 2 bills that would give Ind. Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC): (1) New power to discipline telephone companies and other utilities that violated its rules. (2) Jurisdiction over utility mergers and acquisitions. Both bills passed on 8-5 party-line votes Thurs., with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. HB-1181 would give IURC power to fine utilities up to 3% of annual Ind. revenues for violating service quality rules and other regulations. Originally, bill called for 15% fine but Democrats agreed that was too harsh. HB-1924 would give IURC oversight over all utility mergers and acquisitions. Both bills were legislature’s response to Ameritech-SBC merger of 1999 and Ameritech’s severe service quality problems last year. Merger bill addresses Ind. Supreme Court ruling on Ameritech-SBC merger that agency had no legal authority over utility mergers. Fining bill was written because of IURC’s lack of legal power to fine Ameritech directly for its massive service problems, officials said. IURC Chmn. William McCarty said he supported bill as passed by committee. “We're not interested in a ‘death penalty’ fine,” he said. “Three percent would still have a meaningful impact on a large utility but it wouldn’t put them out of business.” He said fining authority would give IURC enforcement powers similar to those of utility commissions in neighboring states. Currently, IURC must get a county prosecutor to sue offending utility in state courts to collect fines, and law limits fines to $1,000 per day per violation. Had Ameritech been subject to 15% penalty last year, it could have been fined $210 million, about 75% of its Indiana profits, while a 3% fine would total $42 million. Utility groups said they were opposed to any fine based on percentage of revenue and protested that other utilities were being punished for Ameritech’s transgressions.
Group of Tenn. counties filed state court suit challenging property tax break state law gives to cellular companies. They hope suit filed Thurs. in Tenn. Chancery Court, Williamson County, will counter pending bill in state Senate that would give similar break to BellSouth and other landline phone providers. Under 1989 tax law, property of cellular companies is taxed at lower rate applied to commercial/industrial property rather than rate applied to property of telecom and energy utilities. Result is that cellular companies pay 20% lower property taxes than BellSouth on equivalent property value. Pending bill (SB-1484) would give BellSouth and other utilities credit on state business franchise taxes equal to difference between commercial and utility property tax rates. To cover resulting revenue shortfall, bill would raise sales tax on business long distance to 6% from 3.5%. It also would require that any net tax saving from changes be applied to reduce access charges. Counties’ suit said special tax treatment for wireless companies, originally granted to help development of affordable, widespread wireless service, was unlawful because it treated essentially similar companies unequally for tax purposes, and pending bill would extend unlawful discrimination to more companies. Bill sponsor, State Sen. Bob Rochelle (D-Lebanon), said localities should support lower taxes for wireline companies rather than higher taxes for cellular companies. He said portion of business phone sales tax increase would be paid to counties to offset property tax losses, while balance of sales tax rise would offset treasury losses from franchise tax credit.
Corning unveiled $150 million capital investment plan to expand its Italian optical technologies operation, which it recently bought from Pirelli. Corning said part of investment would go toward modifications to expand its long-haul fiber products.
Miss. Senate passed bill (SB-2362) to establish “no-call” telemarketing list administered by Miss. PSC for residential customers who don’t want to receive such calls. Bill hasn’t gone to House because some Senators want reconsideration of amendment that would ban all telemarketing calls after 5 p.m. weekdays and anytime on weekends. Under bill, telemarketers would be forbidden to call phone subscribers on state list unless they had preexisting business relationship. Bill would require all telemarketers to register with PSC and consult no-call list before soliciting any Miss. phone subscriber. Telemarketers who ignored no-call list would face PSC-imposed fine of up to $5,000 for each number on list that they called. PSC would be given explicit jurisdiction over telemarketers and individual agents, even though they're not public utilities.
Satellite terminals in world’s 3 largest regions are expected to grow to 7.2 million in 2005 from 293,500 current base, Dataquest predicted. Bulk of base is in N. America followed by Europe and Asia/Pacific. By 2005, Dataquest said it expected N. America to account for 54%, Europe 30%, Asia/Pacific 16% of all satellite broadband access. Most terminals are in consumer market, and Dataquest forecast consumer and business markets would have similar growth rates in next 5 years.
Research firm IDC predicted that international DSL subscriber base would reach 4.5 million by end of this year and 66.4 million by end of 2004, when it projected that number of U.S. installed lines would account for 39% of total.
European Parliament (EP) should allow incidental copying of broadcast material that’s needed for technical reasons, European Bcstg. Union Pres. Arne Wessberg of Finnish Bcstg. said in keynote speech Thurs. at International Institute of Communications. EP Legal Committee adopted copyright provision backed by EBU Mon., but narrowly voted down incidental recording rights, such as copying portion of CD onto soundtrack of radio or TV program before broadcast. Wessberg said incidental recording was opposed by record producers who are seeking additional compensation for recordings that already are covered by copyright licenses.
U.S. Internet Service Providers Alliance (USISPA) told Congress Thurs. that further deregulation of Bell companies would create more denial of service to American Internet users. Coalition, composed of 800 ISPs, was formed to “educate federal policymakers on the real risks of what the Bell companies are proposing and to warn them that further deregulation will only deepen an already growing consumer crisis,” it said. Phone monopolies are “holding the infrastructure hostage,” USISPA said, infuriating consumers who want high-speed Internet access. What’s needed is not more laws, group said, but better enforcement of those already on books.