The structure of USF-supported capital and operating expense caps imposed in the FCC USF-intercarrier compensation order “defeats the predictability required of USF support as required by the Communications Act,” NTCA told an adviser to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Monday (http://xrl.us/bmzkvv). Dynamic, year-by-year alteration of the caps presents “substantial challenges” for all rural LECs, and instills a “consistent fear that any given RLEC might be next in line to trigger the caps if that RLEC undertakes further broadband deployment,” NTCA said in an ex parte filing. The dynamic nature of the caps also confuses lenders and investors, NTCA said. “Allowing such uncertainty to perpetuate and to potentially stymie the deployment of broadband would be contrary to the very purpose of the National Broadband Plan, the President’s own stimulus initiatives, and stated objectives of the Commission’s reform.” NTCA also expressed concern on continuing call completion issues, truth in Caller ID issues and access avoidance and phantom traffic problems.
Cox Communications said it’s willing to accept a reduction in originating access rates for calls originating over traditional phone lines and terminating in Internet Protocol. But the company would also support a modification of the FCC rule to permit intrastate rates to be applied to all intrastate calls, regardless of the nature of the technology used by the access provider. Cox met with an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, the cable operator said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmzkuo). What’s critical is maintaining the parity provided in the current FCC rule, Cox said, adding that it would be “inappropriate” to modify the rule to treat carriers that originate traffic in TDM format differently than those that originate traffic in IP format.
Five groups opposed 11 TV captioning waiver requests on the basis that applicants don’t show how captioning poses an undue burden. “The requested exemption would deny equal access” to those who are “are deaf or hard of hearing,” the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, National Association of the Deaf, and Telecom for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing said in separate filings opposing each waiver. “It is essential that the Commission grant petitions for exemptions from captioning rules only in the rare case that a petitioner conclusively demonstrates that captioning its programming would impose a truly untenable economic burden. To make such a demonstration, a petitioner must present detailed, verifiable, and specific evidence that it cannot afford to caption its programming, either with its own revenue or with alternative sources.” Among those making opposed requests are Abundant Life Evangelistic Center (http://xrl.us/bmzkve), Niagara Ministries (http://xrl.us/bmzkvk) and Dawson Memorial Baptist Church (http://xrl.us/bmzkvt). The groups did, however, partly back the request of Main Street Living, which they asked get a waiver of no more than a year as it already provides “sign language interpretation and open captions,” another filing said (http://xrl.us/bmzkwb). The groups have opposed other requests in recent filings also posted to docket 06-181 (CD March 21 p16).
The FCC said it cleared up a paperwork error in program carriage rules approved by commissioners in July. A brief order called those changes “nonsubstantive, editorial revisions” of a section on deadlines for changing a complaint that a cable operator favored its content over an independent network with similar programming. Before getting approval of that rule change from the Office of Management and Budget, the commission’s Office of Managing Director and other offices and bureaus deleted Section 1.229(b)(2) of the agency’s rules and redesignated Section 1.229(b)(3) as Section 1.229(b)(2). The OMB later approved the changes, which took effect Feb. 8. Tuesday’s order (http://xrl.us/bmzkti) from FCC Managing Director David Robbins and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake made the “minor editorial changes that are necessary to harmonize our rules."
The FCC fined Mercius Dorvilus $10,000 for running an unlicensed radio transmitter on 92.7 MHz in Pompano Beach, Fla., an Enforcement Bureau forfeiture order released Tuesday said (http://xrl.us/bmzksf).
Independent rural health clinics lack access to broadband and that limits their ability to engage in continuing education for the medical professionals who work there or to provide online education for patients, the National Association of Rural Health Clinics told FCC Wireline Bureau officials. Telemedicine services remain impossible without broadband, the group said in an ex parte letter posted Monday to docket 06-20 (http://xrl.us/bmzkpr).
The FCC’s Public Safety Bureau created a docket, 12-74, for filing comments to the new Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability. The board was created in response to recently-enacted spectrum legislation. “By creating this docket, we provide a vehicle for outside parties to contribute to the Board’s deliberations in an open and transparent manner,” said a public notice (http://xrl.us/bmzkm6). “This docket is not intended, however, to serve as the exclusive mechanism by which members of the Interoperability Board will receive information from outside sources to inform their deliberations.” The board chose Charles Robinson, an official with Charlotte, N.C., and Kenneth Budka of Alcatel-Lucent, as chairman and vice chairman. The bureau said James Kohler of Alaska won’t be able to serve as one of the state representatives on the board. He was replaced by Bill Price of Florida.
Verizon submitted confidential documents to the FCC Friday detailing its percentage of VoIP usage factors that would apply under the new rules for VoIP intercarrier compensation (http://xrl.us/bmzibh). The filing contained state-specific data applicable to Verizon Business and Verizon ILECs. Verizon submitted the data as a result of ongoing meetings to discuss the petition for reconsideration filed by Windstream and Frontier on the proper originating access rate for certain calls terminating in VoIP.
The FCC should “repurpose itself institutionally in order to more effectively accomplish repurposing of spectrum,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May said in a Monday blog post. “What would this repurposing of the FCC entail? In the main, simply this: The Commission should substantially reduce the resources it has been devoting for the past several years to considering the competitiveness of the wireless market, and redirect those resources to implementing actions that will increase the amount of spectrum available for use by wireless operators,” May wrote (http://xrl.us/bmziav). “I want to make it clear I am not suggesting the competitiveness of the wireless marketplace is not a legitimate government concern, even if I and many other observers assert the market is presently competitive. I am suggesting, however, that any such competitive concerns ought to be left primarily in the hands of the antitrust authorities for resolution under antitrust jurisprudential principles rather than under the FCC’s indeterminate public interest standard."
Michigan Bell, an ILEC owned by AT&T, must lease its existing entrance facilities for interconnection at cost-based rates, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday (http://xrl.us/bmziap). The two-paragraph opinion, written by Judge Alice Batchelder, notes simply that on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, “the Court reversed our prior holding.” The 6th Circuit reversed and remanded the case to the district court, instructing it to enter an order consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion. The Supreme Court held unanimously in June that AT&T must lease its existing entrance facilities to CLECs at rates reflecting actual costs (CD June 10 p7).