Media advocacy groups chided PBS for its decision to resume online ads, with some calling for congressional intervention to stop the network from proceeding. PBS said it will start accepting ads in Oct. on PBS.org and its children’s site PBSkids.org and PBSkids Go! (CD Aug 24 p5). Instead of looking for commercial opportunities online, PBS should be raising money from viewers and foundations by pioneering new forms of noncommercial content, said Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.

ASPEN, Colo. -- Verizon won’t seek a federal franchise bill next Congress if the telecom bill (HR-5252) fails to pass this year, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke said Tues. at the annual Progress & Freedom Foundation conference here: “We aren’t going to be starting out from the same place -- the appeal of video is going to be less.” Verizon’s state-level success with franchise laws significantly weakens demand for federal reform, Tauke said.

ASPEN, Colo.-- The net neutrality debate, which threatens to hang up the telecom bill, isn’t new, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke said Tues. at the Progress & Freedom Foundation’s annual conference here: “It’s a debate many of us have participated in at least twice before; it’s kind of ‘Groundhog Day’ for broadband.”

The Ida. PUC ruled there’s no need to increase state universal service fund surcharges in the coming fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. It ordered that they remain at current levels of 12 a residential line and 20 a business line. The PUC, in its annual review of fund solvency, said the surcharge will have generated $2.083 million by the end of Sept., ending with a cash balance of $194,000. The PUC said it foresees no sharp increase in fund draws from the 8 qualifying local exchange carriers subsidized by the fund.

“The need for the $7 billion Universal Service Fund (USF) is less now than it was in 1998 when it was $3 billion,” said Thomas Hazlett Fri. The former FCC chief economist, a professor at George Mason U., answered questions about his views on the telecom industry on a call-in interview on C-SPAN. Hazlett echoed many of the conclusions in his study (CD July 20 p7) ‘Universal Service Telephone Subsidies: What does $7 billion buy?’ Telephone users are paying taxes to fund subsidies that go to inefficient rural telcos, Hazlett said. “These small rural companies,” who are given billions in USF subsidies, “are charging their customers the same rates, and occasionally more for their subsidized services,” said Hazlett. As a result many rural consumers are ditching land-lines for less expensive wireless services, he said.

EMI said it signed a deal with Microsoft to supply music videos for Microsoft’s Zune digital entertainment devices. Details were sketchy Fri. Neither the deal terms nor when videos will become available was announced.

The W.Va. PSC’s Consumer Advocate Div. (CAD) took issue with compliance filings by 17 telecom carriers that receive universal service subsidies. The CAD said the substantial amounts of data they redacted as proprietary makes it very difficult to evaluate their use of universal service funds. The CAD also cited confusion among carriers in how they make their rural-urban rate comparability determinations. The CAD said any protected treatment afforded to data from eligible telecom carriers (ETC) in universal service compliance reports should be restricted only to information that clearly compromises trade secrets. It said the carriers have taken an overly broad interpretation of what data needs to be protected, which “frustrates” public efforts to evaluate compliance with universal service program requirements. The CAD in Case 06-0953-T-GI also said carriers haven’t made up their minds about whether rate comparability should be based on all available calling plans or only on selected popular plans. It urged the PSC to lay out clear standards regarding what needs to be included in rate comparability submissions. It also said the PSC should make clear that ETCs don’t have a free pass to raise rates up to the affordability benchmarks. The PSC staff is to file its comments on the reports Sept. 8, with replies from all parties due Sept. 18.

Deregulating the Bells’ broadband transmission services would hurt rural telephone companies that rely on them for Internet backbone service, the National Telecom Co-op Assn. told the FCC in comments filed Thurs. The Bells are the only Internet backbone providers available to rural telephone companies in many areas, NTCA said: “NTCA is concerned for its members who will rely on BellSouth and Qwest for access to the IP backbone.”

The Big 4 incumbent telcos in Cal. generally supported a PUC proposal for a new regulatory framework that would deregulate rates for most of their retail services. But competitors and consumer groups commenting on the PUC proposal objected to the plan and cited a host of shortcomings. PUC Comr. Rachelle Chong last month proposed a system for AT&T, Verizon, Frontier and SureWest that would deregulate retail rates for basic, optional and discretionary services; any service provided as part of a bundle, promotions; anything introduced after the plan’s effective date; and any residential or business service provided under a customer-specific service contract. Rates for Lifeline and other services subsidized by universal service funds would be frozen, regardless of whether they are included in bundles. The big incumbents covered by Case R-05-04-005 applauded most of the plan, but AT&T and Verizon objected to the rate freeze on subsidized services. They said this provision conflicts with the overall deregulatory policy, will have unintended adverse consequences for Lifeline customers and are unjustified by the facts of competition. Competitors and consumer groups said the proposal deregulates too much, too soon. They said competition isn’t evenly distributed across the service territories of the 4 big incumbents, and they still enjoy a de facto monopoly in many suburbs, small towns and rural areas. Some opponents called for an administrative law judge to review where the big companies retain landline market power, and also to assess their market power in wireless services since the Chong proposal relies in part on the competitive threat to incumbents posed by wireless carriers. Other opponents cited provisions in the proposal they said would put competitive carriers under more burdensome regulatory administration requirements than the incumbents, defeating the whole idea of a uniform framework for all carriers.

Deregulating the Bells broadband transmission services would hurt rural telephone companies that rely on them for Internet backbone service, the National Telecom Co-op Assn., told the FCC in comments filed Thurs. The Bells are the only Internet backbone providers available to rural telephone companies in many areas, NTCA said: “NTCA is concerned for its members who will rely on BellSouth and Qwest for access to the IP backbone.”