The digital transition prompted many TV stations to jump ship from the formerly desirable VHF channels, and that reordering should affect the regulatory fee structure, commenters told the FCC. The commission agreed the changes will affect how much stations must pay and adjusted its assessment method, though not in the wholesale fashion some commenters wanted. The change is one of the issues noted in the commission’s report on assessment and collection of regulatory fees for 2010, released Friday. The commission said it must collect $335,794,000 in regulatory fees for 2010, down from $341,875,000 in 2009. The fees are meant to cover the cost of the commission’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information and international activities. The commission said it used the same assessment methodology it used last year.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate within the next few weeks a long-awaited order on location accuracy rules for wireless, based on proposals by AT&T and Verizon Wireless and incorporating changes sought in by T-Mobile, industry and FCC officials said. Last week, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) filed a letter at the commission endorsing the tweaks sought in a June 16 letter by T-Mobile to AT&T’s proposal for GSM-based carriers. The Public Safety Bureau has started to brief eighth-floor officials on the order.
An impasse over FCC treatment of two types of FM stations whose representatives have been at odds was resolved late Thursday by the groups most active at the commission on the issue. That may resolve a standoff between owners of the two kinds of stations, because others are expected to support the agreement between the Educational Media Foundation, with hundreds of FM translators, and the Prometheus Radio Project, a low-power FM (LPFM) group, communications lawyers said. It may also get the commission to act on whether to cap at 10 the translator applications it will process from any filer in a 2003 window for which several thousands of requests remain pending, they said.
Carriers face “economic” regulation if not “price” regulation under the broadband classification scheme proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as the “third way” alternative, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. McDowell told a Phoenix Center conference on the broadband gap that uncertainty in the markets increased right after Genachowski’s speech in September when he announced the commission would move forward on net neutrality rules.
The FCC should expand its media ownership studies to include research on several types of agreements between TV stations within a market to share news, personnel and equipment, all the comments on the coming work said. The American Cable Association (ACA), Free Press and nine nonprofits critical of media consolidation pointed to sharing agreements in filings posted Wednesday and Thursday to docket 09-182. Shared-services agreements, local marketing agreements and local news services were mentioned. TV executives have predicted additional deals of this kind and said they let stations air more news than they could on their own (CD Oct 28 p4).
A Colorado mountain town asked the state utility commission to force Qwest to bring it the same fiber service the company delivers to the state’s other 63 county seats. Acting in concert with San Juan County, Silverton petitioned the commission for an order requiring Qwest, under threat of financial penalty, to complete a fiber line that now stops 16 miles short of that town, the county seat. The petitioners sent a letter to NTIA and members of Congress impugning Qwest’s candidacy to participate in the broadband stimulus program because the telco hasn’t done what it said it would do in Colorado.
House Commerce Committee Republicans criticized the high cost of subsidies under the Universal Service Fund, saying the FCC needs to forget about net neutrality and concentrate on fixing “antiquated voice service subsidies.” That came after the release of information provided to the committee by the commission in response to a June 15 request from Chairman Henry Waxman of California, Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher of Virginia and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns of Florida.
Comcast made new diversity commitments relating to the NBC Universal deal, including a promise to put $20 million into a venture capital fund. In a letter to Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and statements Thursday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing in Chicago, Comcast executives emphasized increasing the presence of blacks and other minorities in employment and programs. The concessions came after criticisms by Rush and other members of Congress, as well as civil rights groups, of a lack of diversity at the two companies. Meanwhile, a new coalition, mostly of long-time foes of the deal, has formed.
GENEVA -- European countries floated common proposals on satellite registration, allocation of IPv6 resources and environmental metrics for possible changes to ITU policies at a quadrennial conference in October. About 30 of the 48 countries in the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations agreed to each of the proposals.
The U.S. Air Force said it postponed Thursday’s scheduled launch of a space-based surveillance satellite because a software problem was found in a similar Minotaur IV rocket. A spokesman said the Air Force doesn’t know when the satellite, which will monitor space debris among other things, will be ready but is preparing to set a new launch date this month. The launch will be from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.