The Consumer Advisory Committee urged the FCC to support continued federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Federal funding would enable CPB “to continue its support for public broadcast stations, including those providing service to rural, tribal, native and disability communities,” CAC said. A loss or significant reduction in funds would impact “all currently funded stations, causing reductions in programming and services to local communities.” Committee members representing the Consumer Electronics Association, CTIA and NAB abstained from the recommendation. Time Warner, T-Mobile and Verizon also abstained.
Clarification: According to a cost estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011 (CD Nov 3 p7) would impose no cost to state, local or tribal governments, CTIA said.
Cablevision and GCI lobbied the FCC on the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation the day before and just as an order overhauling both was adopted (CD Oct 28 p1), filings posted Friday to docket 10-90 show. Those cable operators were permitted to do such lobbying, under exemptions from sunshine rules. A lawyer for GCI reported speaking with a Wireline Bureau official, at his request, at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, around the time the order was approved. “GCI’s proposed mechanism for setting and disbursing CETC support in rural Alaska under a statewide cap should take into account the fact that some carriers did not elect tribal status,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bmhg3u). The day before, a lawyer for Cablevision spoke with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, at the adviser’s request, a filing said (http://xrl.us/bmhg4e). It said there’s evidence in the proceeding’s record showing that ILECs persistently refuse to provide Internet Protocol-to-IP interconnections. The filing noted it was made a day late but that topics covered during the conversation had already been raised in Cablevision filings: “The opportunity to respond to a Sunshine Period ex parte presentation contemplated by same day filing requirement was made moot by the fact that the Commission acted on the day immediately following the presentation."
The telecom world largely responded cautiously as the FCC on Thursday adopted its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime changes. But telecom officials and observers predicted lawsuits would begin pouring in after the 400-plus page order is published and digested. Meanwhile, the order itself hadn’t been finished, an FCC official told us. Staff were continuing to incorporate edits agreed upon by the commissioners late in the process but before the vote, and the order won’t be ready for release until at least the end of next week, the official said. Less-substantive changes are also still being made.
Lawmakers will continue to consider Internet gambling legalization despite significant concerns voiced at a hearing Tuesday held by the House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee. A collection of professors, researchers and Native American gaming groups objected to the idea of legalizing Internet poker without implementing safeguards to address what they saw as myriad problems legalization would create. After the hearing a subcommittee spokesman said there is a “good possibility the subcommittee will likely have another hearing” to consider Internet gambling legislation.
Representatives of the state of Hawaii urged the FCC to adopt a definition of tribal lands for purposes of its Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation proceeding that includes the Hawaiian Home Lands (HHL), they said in an ex parte filing. The FCC has previously included the HHLs in its tribal land definitions for purposes of USF, but the agency, without explanation, omitted the HHLs from its definition of tribal lands in its National Broadband Plan, the filing said. Meanwhile, many elements of the draft USF/ICC plan don’t address the challenges in highly remote and insular areas like Hawaii, it said. The representatives also urged the FCC to explore those challenges in a further rulemaking.
The FCC’s Universal Service Fund reform plan, of which many still await details, could hurt rural and tribal operators and investment in rural broadband, speakers said at a Broadband Breakfast Club panel Tuesday. Meanwhile, many broadband projects funded by the Rural Utilities Service are on track, said Undersecretary of Rural Development Dallas Tonsager.
There’s the equivalent of a mini-DTV transition occurring through Nov. 9 by radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors seeking to get the word out about a first-of-its-kind emergency message test set for 2 p.m. Eastern that day. Some executives, who along with the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency are ramping up public outreach (CD Oct 14 p15) about the nationwide emergency alert system test, compared those EAS efforts to what occurred before the 2009 DTV transition. The extent of work among the FCC, FEMA, other government agencies and broadcasters and MVPDs resembles other cooperative efforts before the full-power analog broadcast cutoff, executives and government officials told us.
During the introductory remarks at the October 4, 2011 COAC meeting, a statement from a DHS official was read which addressed the status of DHS’ final Global Supply Chain Security Strategy1. According to DHS, the plan is expected to be issued in November 2011; it is currently undergoing review by the Administration and that input from the private sector on its implementation will be solicited after the strategy is sent to the President.
To make networks safer from botnets and other malware, public-private partnerships and a minimal role for government are the best approaches, said officials from the FCC, Commerce Department and other agencies. Any framework for protecting and notifying end-users of an attack should be voluntary and comprised of input from multiple stakeholders, they said Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.