The Fla. PSC voted 2-1 to overrule a staff recommendation and let Sprint recover $30 million in extraordinary costs from 2004 hurricanes, granting all funds Sprint sought to recover from customers under a stipulated settlement with the Office of Public Counsel. The PSC authorized Sprint to levy an 85 monthly surcharge per line for 12 months. Staff had urged allowing recovery of $9 million, arguing a 2005 law expressed legislators’ intent to limit utility storm damage recovery from ratepayers, which should guide decisions on storm losses incurred before the law was passed. Sprint successfully argued that its losses and its application for recovery both preceded the 2005 law, which was not retroactive, so there’s no legal way to apply it to this situation.

The Pa. PUC voted 4-1 to free telecom carriers from filing mandatory reports on slamming, and to seek comment on also eliminating 3 other reports -- major outages, accidents and Lifeline compliance. Comments are due Sept. 28. The PUC acted under a 2004 state law limiting the number of mandatory telecom service reports to 9; the reports up for deletion aren’t listed. The PUC went against the recommendation of its staff, which favored keeping the reports under a legal clause that let the PUC add reports to the law’s mandatory list of 9. The staff said the reports, particularly outage reports, are essential for the PUC mandate of ensuring safe, reliable and affordable phone service. Comr. Bill Shane, who cast the lone vote to keep the 4 reports, said he was “disappointed” by the industry’s drive to eliminate the reports: “I am not willing to compromise on safety and reliability, and neither should any utility.”

Regulators are reviewing satellites’ relation to the Emergency Alert System and E-911 requirements. At the FCC, the International Bureau Satellite Division and the Enforcement Bureau Office of Homeland Security recently met with DBS and satellite radio firms to discuss the feasibility of satellite participating in the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Separately, the Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) is reviewing long term issues for E-911 services, including whether E-911 requirements can be extended to satellite telephony. Both reviews are addressing satellite system design’s uniqueness relative to the terrestrial infrastructure, and difficulties involved in extending emergency requirements to the skies.

A nomination council screening Fla. PSC candidates for the commission’s 3 vacancies forwarded 18 names, chosen from a pool of 131 applicants, to the newly formed Joint Legislative PSC Oversight Committee. The seats of Comr. Rudy Bradley and Chmn. Braulio Baez will become vacant at year’s end, when their terms expire. The 3rd vacant seat belonged to Comr. Charles Davidson, who resigned last month. These are the first PSC vacancies to be filled under rules adopted this year. The oversight panel will winnow the 18 semi-finalists to 9 by Sept. 15, with 3 finalists for each vacant seat, from whom Gov. Jeb Bush (R) must pick nominees for the vacancies. The 18 semi-finalists include Comr. Bradley, who sought a 2nd term despite 2002 ethics complaints about him. Still pending, those complained allege Bradley violated state rules by representing a Verizon position regarding a rate change as his own opinion, and by attending a Miami utility regulators’ meeting largely underwritten by regulated companies. Bradley told the nominating council he did nothing improper and they voted 7-1 to put his name on the list of 18 semi-finalists.

The VC-1 video encoding standard has met all requirements for Final Committee Draft Status, said the standards-setting body, the Society of Motion Picture & TV Engineers. VC-1, based on Windows Media Video 9, would be an alternative way to code and compress digital video. Among other uses, it’s expected to be employed to distribute video via the Internet, satellite and cable. It’s already the mandatory codec for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Supporters said the standard is progressing through the approval processes of other standards organizations, including ATSC and DVB, which set the competing DTV standards.

GENEVA -- Public safety answering points (PSAP) are struggling with 9-1-1 emergency wireless calls that are difficult to locate, officials said here Thurs. Officials added that if VoIP hits the mainstream and the mass market abandons landlines, the 9-1-1 system could be in real trouble,

Cal. PUC Comr. Susan Kennedy -- a national leader among deregulatory policy makers -- is pushing for the states to assert themselves on communications policy, even in gray jurisdictional areas, based on an “Internet freedom” principle to ensure access to VoIP. She’s also proposing her commission undertake a sweeping, possibly fast-tracked remake of the basic state regulatory structure. Kennedy is emboldened by the emergence of IP-based and other competitive services; growing receptivity among fellow state regulators to market-based premises; and what she sees as an FCC “void” creating an opening for state activism, she indicated in a speech this week.

The Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) sent President Bush a letter expressing concern about the rapid deployment of VoIP. The letter said the public isn’t always aware of the difference between VoIP and traditional telephony and noted the recent case of a Houston woman who wasn’t able to dial 911 from her VoIP phone. “The public has an expectation that telephone services will provide 9-1-1 and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) capability, regardless of whether the telephone operates on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless networks, or the Internet,” APCO International Pres. Greg Ballentine said in the letter. “Yet, at present, there is a very real likelihood that a 9-1-1 call from a VoIP telephone will be lost, delayed or misrouted.”

Proposed UNE rules slated for action at the FCC’s agenda meeting Wed. (CD Dec 9 p1) may undergo changes to lengthen UNE-P transition and revise rules for CLEC access to high-capacity loops and transport, sources said Mon. However, insiders remained optimistic that the order would stay on the agenda. The negotiations appeared to be between Republicans and Democrats on the Commission -- with the Democrats, especially Comr. Copps, pushing for changes to benefit competitive carriers and, in one case, Chmn. Powell responding by strengthening the Bells’ hand.

PVR ownership will grow nearly tenfold, reaching 58 million U.S. homes for 49.5% penetration by the end of the decade, Smith Barney said in a new report that examines the technology’s impact on the media industry. The PVR boom will outpace that of cellphones and DBS, but not DVD, and network TV advertising faces the biggest risk, the report said.