Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy told FCC in letter last week that Nov. order on Enhanced 911 didn’t comply with Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) because it didn’t adequately address impact on small business. It said conclusions weren’t based on issues raised in initial regulatory flexibility analysis (IRFA) and didn’t give small businesses chance to comment on new IRFA, SBA said. SBA told FCC Chmn. Powell that his agency should draft supplemental document to seek comment on impact on small businesses of decision to remove cost-recovery mechanism. Order itself was response to petitions for reconsideration of decision to remove precondition of cost recovery from states to accelerate introduction of E911 services. Originally, carriers were allowed to defer providing 911 operators with ability to automatically locate position of wireless callers. Before cost recovery had been removed as precondition, deferral was predicated on timing of state mechanism to reimburse carriers for costs. Order under scrutiny by SBA upheld FCC decision to require carriers to install automatic locator systems regardless of whether they were reimbursed by state govts. SBA told Powell that because small businesses didn’t have chance to comment on decision to do away with cost-recovery requirement, “the Commission’s rulemaking is grievously in violation of the RFA.” Technical regulatory concerns raised by SBA center on fact that FCC relied on regulatory analysis drafted in earlier order rather than creating separate one for comment on cost-recovery requirement change. Updated analysis should be disseminated “immediately to cure this deficiency,” SBA wrote.

LAS VEGAS -- NAB Pres. Edward Fritts addressed split between Big 4 TV networks and their affiliates head-on here Mon. at opening session of Assn.’s convention, expressing confidence that it would come out as strong as ever with its “umbrella approach” to broadcast issues in Washington. Because of that split, 3 TV networks have withdrawn from NAB but umbrella approach is “our strength, a strength that has given us many victories over the years,” he said. NAB, he said, now faces “added challenge of division within our own ranks. Rather than focusing 100% on meeting challenges from without, all of a sudden we are challenging ourselves from within.” In losing NBC, Fox and CBS TV networks and their owned stations, “we are neither diminished nor demoralized,” he said.

Major League Baseball joined growing debate over interactive TV (ITV) policy at FCC, urging Commission to steer clear of adopting regulations that would diminish intellectual property rights of content owners. In recent ex parte filing in FCC’s ITV inquiry, baseball commissioner’s office said it “firmly believes that market solutions are favorable to government regulations, especially in a market as nascent as that for ITV services.” Agreeing with earlier comments submitted by NFL, baseball commissioner’s office said FCC “should recognize that content owners such as baseball have statutorily created intellectual property rights that protect the content owners from unauthorized uses of their content.” It said proposed ITV nondiscrimination rules might interfere with those rights by allowing others to use baseball’s exclusive content without permission. It also argued that content owners should be free to make their content available in market without regulatory restraints. “Put simply, governmental regulation is no match for the free market in providing content owners fair compensation and providing consumers with greater access to the content they desire,” it said.

Black Entertainment & Telecom Assn. (BETA) urged Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) and House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) to tell FCC Chmn. Powell to “uphold conditions of last year’s merger of CBS and Viacom, specifically Viacom’s obligation to divest itself of the UPN television network,” despite Commission’s easing of broadcast dual-network ownership rule last week (CD April 20 p3). In separate but similar letters to McCain and Tauzin, BETA argued that dual- network limits should remain in place until Congress holds hearing on “how the FCC’s planned action would fuel the already rapid consolidation of the U.S. media, particularly as it relates to [the] dwindling number of black media companies.” BETA also called for passage of McCain’s Telecom Ownership Diversification Act of 2000, co-sponsored by Sen. Burns (R-Mont.), but suggested lawmakers add advertising tax deferral or credit to it. “Given the importance of advertising to the survival of black and other media outlets,” BETA said, “such a tax incentive is truly needed to have a viable, diversified telecom industry.”

LAS VEGAS Role of govt. in broadcast content regulation remained divisive among FCC officials at NAB convention here Mon. FCC Comr. Ness said content regulation generally shouldn’t be govt. responsibility, but broadcasters “have a responsibility” to “draw a distinction between what sells well and what serves the public well.” However, Jay Friedman, aide to FCC Comr. Tristani, said idea that First Amendment foreclosed regulation of TV violence was wrong.

LAS VEGAS -- Deadline next year for commercial stations to begin DTV broadcasting is “a daunting reality” for many station owners, NAB Senior Vp Lynn Claudy said at NAB convention here Sun.: “It’s scary.” At least one FCC official predicted stations would petition Commission by fall for extension of May 1, 2002, deadline, although consultant Joseph Kraemer said bid for extension could “reinforce the perception” on Capitol Hill that broadcasters were “reneging on their commitment” to quick DTV transition in order to return analog spectrum for other uses. CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro said broadcasters’ bid to extend deadline would be “political dynamite” because there was “a sense that broadcasters are not providing enough HDTV programming.”

Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions (ATIS) holds 2nd in series of Web conferences at 2 p.m. April 26, this one on “Next Generation Disability Accessibility,” featuring talk by Elizabeth Lyle, vp, Wallman Strategic Consulting, and ex-FCC Wireless Bureau. ATIS Info-Sync conference is $135, $100 for ATIS member companies -- Megan Hayes, 202-662-8653.

RadioShack and Circuit City Stores urged FCC to take several steps to “level the playing field” for competitive digital cable set-top boxes and speed nation’s DTV transition. In letter last week to FCC Chmn. Powell, revealed Fri. in ex parte filing, RadioShack and Circuit City called on Commission to move up deadline for cable operators to stop leasing and selling proprietary cable set-tops with integrated conditional access and other functions to Jan. 1, 2002, from current Jan. 1, 2005. Companies also proposed that agency make MSOs abide by same OpenCable technical specifications for digital cable boxes that competitors would use. Finally, 2 CE retailers suggested that FCC force MSOs to “extend the same level of subsidy, from pooling with analog converter costs,” to consumers getting competitive cable boxes. Consumer electronics executives charge that cable operators unfairly subsidize their own digital customers, keeping digital box prices low by raising prices on analog converters. “Each of these revisions would avoid intrusive, over-the-shoulder regulation by the Commission,” RadioShack and Circuit City argued. “By putting competitive consumers on equal footing with others, these provisions would do no more than was done in the deregulation of telephone CPE [customer-premises equipment]. These revisions would, finally, give a fair shake to consumers who want to own their own equipment rather than lease cable set-top boxes.”

FCC should quickly review remaining broadcast ownership rules, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) told Commission Chmn. Powell in letter last week. They said agency could do so through either new rulemaking or as part of biennial review. If Powell doesn’t plan separate ownership rulemaking, lawmakers said, he should “accelerate the timetable” for biennial review.

FCC Enforcement Bureau fined Advanced Telecom Network $46,700 for failure to make required contributions to universal service support programs. Commission said company was chronically tardy in submitting contributions and owed more than $266,000. It filed Notice of Apparent Liability March 2 and hadn’t received response or payment from Advanced, leading to forfeiture order (EB 00-1H- 0241).