The one-per-household limit, commissioning biennial audits and verifying the residency of customers at temporary addresses were some of the new rules criticized in the eight petitions for reconsideration of the Lifeline order received by the FCC. Oppositions to the petitions are due May 7 in docket 11-42, replies May 15, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm4kwc).
Coming FCC approval of a draft order implementing an electronic public file system for broadcasters, by giving the public access to the amounts broadcasters are paid to run political ads, would be a significant step toward fixing the public interest-based regime, backers of the rule said at a Friday event at the New America Foundation. The order will direct broadcasters to allow access to their public files through the Internet and was recommended in the commission’s report on the information needs of communities (http://xrl.us/bkq83f). The draft order is set for a vote April 27 at the FCC meeting. (See separate report in this issue.)
House GOP leaders plan to consider four cybersecurity bills during their much-anticipated “cyberweek,” they said Friday. The four bills are: the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (HR-3523), the Federal Information Security Amendments Act (HR-4257), the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (HR-2096), and the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Act (HR-3834).
The Senate Agriculture Committee unveiled a fresh Farm Bill Friday, including $50 million per year for the Rural Broadband Loan Program operated by the Rural Utilities Service. Congress must pass a Farm Bill every five years -- the current law expires at the end of 2012. Also last week, Agriculture Committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Connecting Rural America Act, which would reauthorize the program but provide only $20 million annually. Rural telecom companies hailed the Brown bill, aimed at further expanding broadband access to small, remote, and high poverty communities.
BRUSSELS -- The importance of private sector leadership, privatization, liberalization, competition, regulatory transparency and independence could be discussed in talks to revise the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) later this year, speakers said Thursday at a workshop (CD April 20 p7). Economic issues drew the strongest concerns from participants at the event hosted by the ITU and the European Telecommunications’ Network Operators Association (ETNO). An ITU Council working group meets on conference preparations the week of April 23.
Some at the FCC are giving consideration to scaling back a draft order so TV stations can keep information on paper about how much political ads cost. Under some broadcaster proposals getting attention on the agency’s eighth floor, that data would exempt from public-file documents that must go online reporting of lowest unit charges for political spots, agency and industry officials said. They said Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn haven’t made any final decisions about whether to seek changes to a Media Bureau order tentatively scheduled for a vote at next Friday’s public meeting. But they said the potential for changes appears higher now than it did earlier last week, when Genachowski seemed set against any modifications (CD April 18 p7). Some still doubt the order will change.
Comcast and Time Warner Cable expect to upgrade a substantial number of broadband customers from the current IPv4 protocol to the newer IPv6 this year, although neither company is offering many specific details just yet. Those plans put the top two U.S. cable operators at the forefront of announced IPv6 deployments by major U.S. ISPs.
T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham questioned the timing of the announcements that Verizon Wireless was buying AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, during a panel discussion on the deals Thursday hosted by the FCBA. Ham squared off against Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, who questioned how the FCC could turn down the deals, based on the strictures of the Communications Act. The transactions are before the agency and the Department of Justice.
A draft FCC rulemaking that will soon be approved by commissioners will look at whether noncommercial broadcasters should be allowed to devote some on-air time to raise funds for other non-profit organizations, agency officials said. But industry executives said it’s unclear how willing stations are to interrupt programming for third-party organizations. The proposal was suggested by the National Religious Broadcasters and was included in the commission’s report this summer on the information needs of communities (http://xrl.us/bkq83f). The commission is tentatively scheduled to vote on the notice of proposed rulemaking (CD April 9 p5) at next Friday’s meeting.
The FCC rescinded a ban on text-to-speech emergency alert system warnings four days before new EAS rules take effect (CD March 23 p4). A new format of emergency alert system messages that all pay-TV providers and broadcasters must implement by June 30 couldn’t have included text-to-speech warnings, under a January order on equipment certification for the Common Alerting Protocol format. An order approved by commissioners Thursday -- nine days after circulating for a vote (http://xrl.us/bmxdnu) -- reversed that ban and left consideration of part of the issue for another day.