Two industry groups assured FCC Wed. that they were moving forward with formation of industry council to oversee streamlined Part 68 certification process for terminal equipment. Telecom Industry Assn. (TIA) and Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions (ATIS) were selected by FCC to form Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments (ACTA). FCC announced schedule Wed. that calls for selecting ACTA members in 90 days. TIA and ATIS said they already had held planning session and would meet deadline. Process is part of FCC’s decision to transfer to private sector Part 68 requirements aimed at making sure customer-premises equipment (CPE) doesn’t harm telephone networks or equipment. ATIS said 2 groups would keep industry up to date on progress through news releases, e-mail, Web. To get on e-mail list, contact Megan Hayes, mhayes@atis.org.
Qwest said its entire N. American IP network now operates at OC-192c capacity, or 10 gigabits per sec., which it said makes it first to offer customers nationwide IP transport and connectivity at that speed.
Heeding requests of some wireless carriers, FCC’s Wireless Bureau Wed. pushed back start date of 700 MHz auction to Sept. 12 from March 6. “Under the current circumstances, the bureau believes that a brief delay is warranted to provide additional time for bidder preparation and planning and for reasons of auction administration,” it said. Agency had been working against Feb. 2 filing deadline for bidders to file short-form applications to participate in 700 MHz auction.
Avaya had net income of $16 million for fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 31, down nearly 77% from $69 million in same quarter year ago as revenue dropped to $1.78 billion from $1.85 billion. Excluding expenses associated with Avaya’s spinoff from Lucent, income was $51 million, down from $67 million year ago. In first fully independent quarter, Avaya data networking sales more than doubled and sales outside U.S. grew 20%. However, expenses were higher due to increases in incentive compensation and R&D investments. Avaya CEO Don Peterson said company expected to see “midsingle-digit revenue growth and more than double our net income in 2001.”
While countries such as Japan and Mexico are starting to remove obstacles to competition, serious problems persist, telecom companies and equipment makers told U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office. USTR sought comments in Jan. as part of annual review on effectiveness of U.S. trade agreements involving telecom products and services, including World Trade Organization’s (WTO) basic telecom agreement. Commenters also pointed frequently to competition hurdles in European Union (EU) member states, urging U.S. in some cases to seek stricter implementation of existing EU directives. Concerns raised by telecom companies, which in part centered on interconnection rates, provide road map of lingering telecom market-opening issues that would face USTR under Bush nominee Robert Zoellick.
Mich. Supreme Court said this week that users of cordless telephones have same privacy rights as users of corded phones. Decision reverses lower court rulings that persons using radio- based devices without encryption shouldn’t expect privacy. “Although a person talking on a cordless phone may know that technology makes it possible for others to overhear the conversation, that person can [legally] presume that others will obey the criminal laws” that prohibit eavesdropping on phone calls without a court order, state’s highest court said. Decision came in invasion-of-privacy case in which St. Clair, Mich., man persuaded friend to intercept and record conversations of his ex- girlfriend over her cordless phone.
Parallel bills in Wash. legislature (HB-1528/SB-5380) would allow Utilities & Transportation Commission to waive or relax any state regulatory requirement for competitive telecom carriers. Measures would allow different degrees of regulatory relaxation for different types of competitive carrier and would end mandatory price listing of CLEC services except where regulators imposed listing requirement on particular carrier. Competitive carriers still would be required to notify their customers of rate changes. Bills are pending in telecom committee of their respective chambers.
FCC suspended its broadcast and cable EEO rules in response to court decision that rules were unconstitutional (CD Jan 17 p1). Suspension is pending Commission’s assessment of final court decision, FCC said. Comr. Tristani concurred with decision, but said agency should have suspended only filing requirements, at least until Commission petitions for rehearing.
Satellite digital audio radio service (DARS) operators could install more than 1,000 high-power terrestrial repeaters under rules proposed to FCC by DARS operators, Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) said. In ex parte filing at FCC, WCA said “such proposed rule is unacceptable” but said it would be willing to consider more limited approach. DARS officials said they don’t plan to use nearly 1,000 high-power repeaters, but rules were crafted to allow some flexibility. “We currently plan to install only about one hundred repeaters nationwide,” Sirius Senior Vp- Gen. Counsel Patrick Donnelly told us. XM Satellite Radio has indicated it plans to use mostly low-power repeaters. DARS terrestrial repeaters, which are used to fill gaps in satellite- delivered service caused by terrain or buildings, use same frequency as microwave transmitters used by wireless communications service (WCS), former wireless cable. WCA didn’t object to low-power repeaters (below 2 kw), but said too many high-power repeaters (up to 40 kw) would cause undue interference. Rules proposed by Sirius Satellite Radio would allow unlimited number of low-power repeaters, plus hundreds of high-power repeaters based on several criteria, including specific numbers per geographic area and unlimited numbers where they have been coordinated “on a co-equal basis” with WCS. WCA said it urged DARS operators to provide information on exact deployment plans as soon as possible so it could fully analyze impact of proposed rules.
“Optical, privacy, network solution, convergence, intelligent network, VoIP,” were words most often heard or seen while cruising exhibit hall at Comnet show in Washington that was filled with startups -- only Verizon, AT&T, Hewlett Packard represented well- established companies. Generally, attendees were confronted by bewildering eyeful of switches piled up everywhere. One bright spot was Negen’s inexpensive, PBX-like “gateway” box currently aimed at small business market. Box, size of laptop, is designed to handle up to 8 operations over 2 phone lines simultaneously, can be configured to handle voice, voice mail, data, video, whether connected to copper or fiber wire. Box is under $1,000, currently in development with beta competitive local exchange carriers -- www.negen.com