The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials supports allowing larger than 25 kHz bandwidth operations in the enhanced specialized mobile radio (ESMR) portion of the 800 MHz band, provided “all 800 MHz public safety licensees in the region have completed band reconfiguration,” the group said in comments filed at the FCC. The FCC sought comment last month on a Sprint Nextel petition, which raised the issue. “APCO previously expressed concern that the 800 MHz reconfiguration process (a.k.a. ‘rebanding) is still underway and that public safety systems continue to operate in the ‘old NPSPAC’ portion of the band, at 821-824/866-869 MHz,” APCO said (http://xrl.us/bm3oqk).
The FCC “could not have been more clear” that its USF/intercarrier compensation order did not intend to reduce originating intrastate access charges for rural rate-of-return ILECs, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association told an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday (http://xrl.us/bm3opq). Applying originating intrastate access rates for calls placed to VoIP customers within the same state would cause revenue shortfalls that would need to be addressed through Connect America Fund intercarrier compensation support, NTCA said. NTCA also expressed concern over various financial reporting requirements.
The Philadelphia City Council will vote on a resolution to review how Verizon deploys its FiOS in the city April 19, at the request of City Councilman Jim Kenney. “We've had information coming from inside the company that says they may not be following what they committed to do when we granted the franchise,” Kenney said. The city signed a cable franchise agreement in February 2009 requiring Verizon to deploy its fiber network to all households in the city in seven years. Verizon is deploying its network throughout the city, regardless of income, a company spokesman said. The carrier has met or exceeded the benchmarks outlined in the franchise agreement, with FiOS currently available to more than 30 percent of households in the city, he said. Once the final resolution is passed, Verizon will have a better idea of what the city council is looking for, he said. Verizon will provide the city council any information needed regarding the FiOS deployment, he said.
Sales at Shaw Communications during the three months ended Feb. 29 gained 2.9 percent from a year earlier to $1.23 billion. Its net income gained 3.5 percent to $178.4 million. “Our technology initiatives, including our Wi-Fi build and Digital Network upgrade progressed as planned during the quarter,” CEO Brad Shaw said. He said those projects will help increase the value of Shaw’s existing service. The company lowered its guidance on its free cash flow expectations due to a soft ad market and ongoing economic concerns, the company said. Its shares fell more than 5.6 percent Friday, closing down $1.18 at $19.71.
LegacyTV said its “family and faith programming” will be one of 14 channels used in a Mobile DTV demonstration at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week.
The FCC could opt for a rehearing after the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals struck down its ban on noncommercial stations running political ads, some broadcast attorneys said. The court’s 2-1 decision called into question the implications for the mission of noncommercial broadcasting (CD April 13 p2). The point on which all the judges agreed was that intermediate scrutiny, not strict scrutiny, “should be applied, even though the law imposed a content-based restriction on political speech,” said David Oxenford, a Davis Wright attorney. Judge Carlos Bea applied what he described as a robust form of intermediate scrutiny calling for judicial wariness within the standard described “because the restrictions prohibited core political speech,” Oxenford said in a blog post. Because he found no evidence to support the restrictions on issue and political advertising, Bea concluded that the government cannot simply assert its way out of the “substantial evidence” requirement of the First Amendment. The FCC may seek rehearing by the panel or en banc, “which is likely given the significance of the decision and the divided panel opinion,” Oxenford said (http://xrl.us/bm3our). If the 9th Circuit denies rehearing, the commission would be expected to seek a review by the Supreme Court “since the panel decision invalidated sections of a federal statute,” Oxenford wrote. Clifford Harrington, a Pillsbury lawyer, said the decision leaves open many important questions on how to implement it. It doesn’t consider whether federal candidates “will be entitled to ‘reasonable access’ rights on noncommercial stations,” permitting them to buy advertising on noncommercial stations that don’t want to accept political advertising, he said on the law firm’s blog (http://xrl.us/bm3ouv). Many commercial stations won’t be happy if they find that their political ad revenue is being diverted to noncommercial stations, he said: If upheld, “the implications of this decision for both noncommercial and commercial stations will be far reaching.” Free Press criticized the ruling as going against the character of noncommercial broadcasting. Polluting public broadcasting “with misleading and negative political ads is not in keeping with the original vision of noncommercial broadcasting,” CEO Craig Aaron said. It’s “certainly not the solution to funding public media.” Viewers don’t want to see Sesame Street “being brought to them by shadowy Super PACs (political actions committee),” he said. The Department of Justice is reviewing the court’s decision, a DOJ spokesman said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a BelWave Communications requested waiver of late filing sanctions assessed by the Universal Service Administrative Company due to late-filing of Form 499-A from 2008-11 (http://xrl.us/bm3ojx). Comments are due May 14 in docket 06-122, replies May 29.
Annual U.S. wireless data traffic grew 123 percent from 2010 to 2011, shooting up from 388 billion to 866.7 billion megabytes, CTIA said Friday, releasing results from its semi-annual survey. CTIA also reported a 43 percent increase in the number of active smartphones and wireless-enabled PDAs in 2011 to 111.5 million. Carriers reported $25.3 billion in capital expenditures last year, up 2 percent from 2010, CTIA said. The year 2011 saw the largest annual increase in operational cell sites, climbing to 283,385 at year-end, or 30,299 more than in 2010, the group said. The average monthly wireless bill in the U.S. was down 21 cents in a year, at $47 at year-end.
Buyer Verizon Wireless and the cable companies selling their frequencies said, by law, the FCC cannot consider arguments that AWS licenses SpectrumCo and Cox have proposed to sell Verizon could be better used by another carrier. The comments came in a meeting with Charles Mathias, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Section 310(d) of the Communications Act bars the Commission from considering the arguments of various opponents that they would be better positioned to purchase and use the spectrum or that the public interest would be better served by a transaction between them and the cable companies,” said in an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://xrl.us/bm3oha). The Verizon and cable representatives also argued that if the transactions are approved “Verizon Wireless would hold less than the amount of spectrum set by the spectrum screen in nearly all markets and why the assignments would cause no competitive harm in any market,” the filing said. “They discussed the cable companies’ efforts to investigate the provision of mobile wireless services, their ultimate conclusions that doing so did not make operational or economic sense, and their decisions that the better course was to transfer the spectrum to Verizon Wireless as the best way to put the spectrum to use for the benefit of consumers.” Verizon agreed in December to pay $3.6 billion for 122 AWS licenses from SpectrumCo, a venture of Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable and to pay another $315 million for another 30 AWS licenses from Cox Communications.
A letter from the city of Philadelphia doesn’t address the “unreasonableness and illegality” of certain parts of its ordinance restricting satellite antenna placement, members of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-1 (http://xrl.us/bm3oi2). Instead, the letter addresses issues outside of antenna placement, SBCA said: Philadelphia’s description of the ordinance “directly contradicts both the ordinance’s text and Philadelphia’s own prior advocacy.” It also is wrong and irrelevant, SBCA said: SBCA’s choice to advise installers to consider certain practices voluntarily “has nothing whatsoever to do with whether a city can require installers to comply with such practices under the penalty of law."