Comcast Defends Use of Verizon Subscriber Data in New Jersey Effective Competition Proceeding
The FCC should reject an argument by New Jersey’s Division of Rate Counsel that Comcast is barred by the terms of federal approval of the sale of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo to Verizon Wireless from using confidential Verizon subscriber data to make a showing that it is subject to effective competition in certain local franchise areas, the cable operator said (http://bit.ly/157OHHC). Cable operators are exempt from local rate regulation on their basic service tier after the FCC finds them subject to effective competition in a franchise area. Comcast said in its annual report that about 80 percent of customers are not subject to such local rate regulation.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The consent decree Comcast reached with the Department of Justice “clearly defines the categories of ‘competitively sensitive’ Verizon information that are subject to its prohibitions,” and raw subscriber numbers for FiOS TV service are not included in that definition, Comcast said. Furthermore, disclosure of such information is limited to Comcast’s outside counsel, “thereby ensuring that this information could not have any effect on Comcast’s conduct in the marketplace,” it said.
The Verizon data was disclosed pursuant to FCC requirements and for use exclusively in the New Jersey effective competition proceeding, Comcast said. “No business people with responsibility for competitive decision making have received or will receive this information,” it said. Moreover, the consent decree in question was entered into more than a month after Comcast petitioned the FCC to be let out of local rate regulation and more than six months after Verizon provided the subscriber data to Comcast, it said.
The cable operator also urged the FCC to reject claims that the subscriber information Comcast provided was skewed by the effects of Superstorm Sandy. The state’s motion to dismiss Comcast’s effective competition petition (CD Feb 11 p5) “references Hurricane Sandy’s devastation, but fails to provide any explanation (let alone franchise-specific details) as to why the storm’s impact compels the Commission” to dismiss the petition, Comcast said. The state’s motion contains “no evidence whatsoever as to how competitor penetration figures were impacted by Hurricane Sandy,” Comcast said. “If Rate Counsel has specific evidence demonstrating the data Comcast submitted is no longer reliable ... it should submit that evidence in a timely opposition,” Comcast said.