LAS VEGAS -- CBS TV affiliates meeting here under aegis of network weren’t exactly all smiles Thurs. morning, but executives of major station groups also affiliated with other networks we talked with agreed CBS was only network that still cared about its station partners. “You only have to look at the fact that this is the only gathering of affiliates still in existence,” broadcaster told us. Affiliates Chmn. Ray Deaver of Gray Communications said “these meetings are really important,” criticizing ABC, NBC and Fox for not holding affiliate conferences for 2nd year.
PanAmSat doesn’t object to Intelsat request to modify Intelsat 709 to relocate it to 55.35 degrees W, but said approval should be subject to terms of coordination agreements with PanAmSat at 55.5 degrees W. Meanwhile, FCC granted PanAmSat authority to launch and operate Galaxy 3-C satellite at 95 degrees in fixed satellite service (FSS) in C- and Ku-bands. Commission also gave PanAmSat authority to employ circular polarization on some of Ku-band transponders and to operate without all assigned frequencies being reused in beams serving widely separate areas.
NextWave urged FCC in filing Thurs. to reject petition by N Y Telecom that contended NextWave had missed its PCS construction deadlines. N Y Telecom also sought public comment on petition for relief that NextWave filed in April at FCC. NextWave asked that Commission confirm it already had met broadband PCS construction requirements on licenses for which it had filed build-out demonstrations. It also described extent to which certain build-out deadlines were extended in settlement agreement reached last fall by NextWave re-auction winners, NextWave and U.S. One thrust of filing on some construction deadlines was that carrier couldn’t have built out licenses during period when Commission had cancelled them and re-auctioned them to other carriers (CD May 28 p6). NextWave said Thurs. that settlement agreement, which expired when Congress failed to pass implementing legislation by Dec. 31, 2001, still modified certain construction deadlines under provisions structured to remain intact even if settlement agreement itself was terminated. N Y Telecom petition is “meritless” and “seems designed for little more than harassment,” NextWave said: “Failure to abide by these written commitments now would violate due process and fundamental norms of administrative law, would be arbitrary and capricious, and would call into question the Commission’s institutional integrity.” NextWave also told FCC that seeking public comment on issues raised by N Y Telecom would “produce nothing other than needless delay and wasteful expenditures of time and money.” NextWave asked FCC to reject N Y Telecom petition and “immediately” approve construction compliance demonstrations filed by bankrupt carrier. It said that “sister company” of N Y Telecom, Eldorado Communications, had filed petition last Nov. that raised concerns about closed-door negotiations on settlement agreement. NextWave said FCC still moved ahead to approve pact. In Jan., NextWave said Eldorado filed petition challenging Commission decision to refund part of deposits to NextWave re-auction winners. Commission rejected Eldorado petition as lacking standing. “Now petitioner has filed again, raising the same frivolous claims presented in its initial petition and demonstrating no greater connection to the requested action than it did in its second petition,” NextWave said. It said it had made filings under existing construction deadlines that showed it had complied with build-out rules for all its C-, D- and E-block markets. Company said it planned to file compliance demonstrations for its F-block markets in coming months on timely basis.
At suggestion of FCC, wireless communications service (WCS) licensees and satellite digital audio radio service (DARS) operators have been talking to each other about possible solutions to difficult terrestrial repeater issue, officials said. Several important issues remain unresolved, although sources said fact that both sides had been talking frequently in recent weeks represented movement. Talks reportedly have only dealt with technical issues, not broadcasters’ concerns about local origination of programming, we're told.
FCC Comr. Abernathy said at Thurs. press breakfast that she expected Commission to act before one-year anniversary of Verizon Wireless petition for forbearance on wireless local number portability (LNP) requirements. Verizon last July asked forbearance on requirement that carriers began providing wireless LNP capabilities by Nov. 24 of this year. If FCC doesn’t act on such forbearance petitions within one year of original filing, they're automatically granted unless agency grants temporary extension. Abernathy told reporters that range of dates under discussion to give wireless carriers more time appeared to be between 6 months advocated by public safety groups in recent filings and year or more, which she advocated. Asked whether last week’s U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that vacated certain line-sharing and unbundled network element (UNE) requirements would make it harder to impose Internet access requirements on MSOs or other service providers, she said: “I don’t think it has done that… We are trying to figure out exactly what the standard is that the court articulated in that decision.” D.C. Circuit had remanded FCC orders on line-sharing requirements and UNEs, handing ILECs victories in both cases (CD May 28 p1). Commission still is examining what “reasonable” interpretation of that decision would be. “We are still working through that, it’s very complex,” Abernathy said. In some regards, FCC is “fortunate” because notice of proposed rulemaking already is examining issues that court had highlighted as needing more justification by Commission. Example, she said, is that FCC is seeking comment on issues such as national list of UNEs. “We have already asked if additional granularity is required in this area,” she said. “It certainly gives us some more information about the court’s thinking when it comes to under what circumstances do you force line-sharing, under what circumstances do you impose unbundling requirements,” Abernathy said. Asked whether Commission still had maneuvering room to require cable operators to carry unaffiliated ISPs, she said, “I think that’s still an option.” She said she hadn’t spoken directly to Gen. Counsel’s office on issue, but it still appeared to be option, although Commission would need to justify such step. “You can’t just do it because you think it’s nice.” Asked about recent series of cases in which Supreme Court has gone different way than circuit courts on issues such as TELRIC and pole attachments, Abernathy acknowledged, “it is frustrating.” But she said Commission was obligated to abide by Circuit Court rulings in such cases unless Supreme Court held otherwise. On recent legal challenge to FCC’s classification of cable modem service as information, Abernathy said agency’s order was “very well written. I feel very strongly that we should be able to win that.” Local govt. groups recently announced they were asking U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to review that decision.
“Practical ability” to get international satellite access independent of Intelsat “has been painfully limited” since direct access was allowed 2-1/2 years ago, Worldcom and Sprint said in petition to FCC to condition Comsat’s authority to assign satellite licenses to Intelsat (IB 02- 87). Despite direct access, they said, “Comsat has been able to use its control over Intelsat capacity… to maintain large and unjustifiable markups on wholesale Intelsat services without losing significant market share,” they said. Companies said FCC should require nondiscriminatory pricing and keep Intelsat subject to incentive-based regulation. AT&T, in separate petition to deny, said FCC should allow license transfers only on condition that Intelsat capacity be available to U.S. users at same rates, terms and conditions as former Comsat World Systems (CWS). It also said former CWS should operate separately from Intelsat entity providing space segment capacity, and that Intelsat entity should provide service on common carrier basis. Litigation Recovery Trust (LRT), meanwhile, said joint petition of Lockheed, Comsat and Intelsat should be withdrawn as defective because it “misrepresents the current status of the Lockheed/Comsat licenses, and further fails to disclose information critical to assessing the qualifications of Lockheed and Comsat to continue as Commission licensees.” LRT represents entities involved in long-running business dispute with Comsat. Group’s basic argument is that “Lockheed does not possess a final grant of authority to the Comsat licenses, which it is seeking to assign to Intelsat.” LRT also said “fraud, misrepresentations, failure to disclose and violation of public interest standards” raised qualification issues.
FCC Wireline Competition Bureau extended reply comment deadline for wireline broadband and triennial review proceedings in light of Fri.’s U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling (CD May 28 p1). D.C. Circuit remanded FCC orders on line-sharing requirements and unbundled network elements (UNEs). In case of UNE order, ruling said FCC’s so-called UNE remand order appeared not to consider advantage CLECs have in not having to provide “underpriced service” to rural areas. Line-sharing case centered on requirements that ILECs unbundle portion of copper loops so they can offer competitive DSL Internet access to CLECs. Revised reply comment date for wireline broadband proceeding is now July 1 and reply deadline for Triennial Review of national UNE requirements is July 17. Bureau said it extended dates “in order to provide sufficient time to all interested parties to incorporate their review and analysis of the opinion.” AT&T this week had asked bureau to extend comment dates, saying issues connected to D.C. Circuit ruling are “intimately related to those currently before the Commission in its Triennial Review.” AT&T’s letter to Bureau Chief Dorothy Attwood said company “believes that the Court of Appeals’ concerns regarding the UNE remand order are largely being addressed in the Triennial Review, but additional time is needed to provide a complete response and rebuttal.” AT&T said if FCC issued notice of proposed rulemaking summarizing court decision and seeking comments, it should incorporate Triennial Review into new NPRM and seek feedback. If FCC incorporated remand into Triennial Review, AT&T asked that comment reply date be suspended for 60 days with rebuttal comments due 30 days after that. Separate letter supporting AT&T’s request was signed by CompTel Pres. Russell Frisby, ALTS Pres. John Windhausen, Covad Vp-Regulatory & Public Affairs Jason Oxman and others.
Qualcomm, Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless stressed to FCC Office of Engineering & Technology last week need for collaborative testing as part of FCC’s planned review of ultra-wideband (UWB) rules it adopted earlier this year. Commission plans to conduct testing in next 6-12 months to assess limits it placed in Part 15 rules on UWB devices and ascertain whether any changes need to be made to requirements. Wireless companies said in May 24 ex parte filing they believe “that such testing is necessary to determine the extent of harmful interference from UWB devices to wireless phone service.” Wireless companies during UWB proceeding raised concerns about potential interference from UWB devices to Enhanced 911 service that use Assisted GPS technology. Companies told OET that “protecting the GPS band is insufficient to ensure that E911 service is not degraded as a result of UWB emissions, but rather that E911 service also needs a reliable communications link to operate successfully.” Filing said FCC officials indicated concerns in meeting about “the availability of equipment for testing of the interference from UWB devices to E911 service.” Wireless firms said they would make any needed equipment available to agency for testing. Filing also said Commission officials said they had no current plans to undertake testing of harmful interference from UWB devices to wireless phones. “They said that they were not aware of any evidence that the impact of UWB emissions on wireless service was any different than the impact of Part 15 devices,” filing said. FCC also said it was interested in testing to ascertain ambient noise levels inside buildings.
Qwest said it received final report on independent test of its systems and performance that it said would let it begin filing Sec. 271 long distance applications at FCC under previously announced time frame of mid-June. Qwest has said it intended to file long distance applications with FCC for 5 states by 2nd week of June. It said report showed its track record in providing wholesale services. Bell company said it expected to receive approval of its Sec. 271 applications within 90 days of filings with FCC. “This report shows that our markets are open to competitors and our wholesale service quality is unsurpassed in the industry,” said Steve Davis, Qwest senior vp-policy & law. Test encompassed 13 of 14 states in company’s local service territory and was undertaken by regulators in those states. Last month, independent test administrator issued draft final report that indicated company had passed more than 530 “applicable test points” and recommended “limited retesting of one minor test segment,” Qwest said. “Today’s final report details results of the entire test, including the successful completion of the retest.” Qwest said it was first Bell company to test service quality and system performance across multiple states at same time.
NAB faulted FCC for crafting its newest set of proposed EEO rules without pointing “to any evidence, statistical or otherwise, sufficient to demonstrate the existence of any such discrimination or homogeneity.” In reply comments on Commission’s proposal, NAB also faulted parties that came out in favor of rules, saying their evidence “consists largely of dated, isolated anecdotes, irrelevant data concerning a supposed lack of programming content diversity, and pure speculation on broadcasters’ attitudes to hiring minorities and women.” Reply comments to FCC were due Wed. NAB said agency’s authority to re-regulate in that area was far from certain and Commission should be cautious in crafting new rules in order to avoid another rejection by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. NAB again offered its own plan, which is based on broad, general outreach rather than job-specific recruitment, as best solution: “NAB thus believes that its plan is far superior to the Commission’s EEO proposal, and would be far more likely to withstand court scrutiny.” FCC’s proposal would require broadcast licensees to widely disseminate information about job openings to various segments of community and ask cable entities to conform to same principle as much as possible. Proposed rules would require, among other things, selecting from menu of general outreach activities, including job fairs and internship programs. National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority Foundation and others said in their reply comments that broad outreach still was essential because of continuing underrepresentation of women and minorities in upper levels of management. Groups said NAB idea of relying on Internet wouldn’t achieve broad outreach and frequent public reporting requirements were necessary to ensure recruitment efforts.