BOSTON -- Intent of Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) to find govt. solution to copy protection online is “mind-boggling,” Intel executive said here Thurs., and “what has consumed my time the last few months has been that bill.” Addressing Connectivity 2002 conference, Intel Vp-Legal Affairs & Public Policy Donald Whiteside said he wanted content providers to thrive and have their intellectual property protected. Technology could aid that, he said, but fair use rights also had to be protected and federal govt. wasn’t suited to make technology decisions. Hollings’ bill (S-2048), which would have FCC mandate digital rights management (DRM) technology if industries couldn’t agree, “would say to Intel, ‘You are no longer able to decide what the best technology is to put in your chips.'” Meanwhile, 2 attorneys from Harvard said copyright and trademark holders were targeting online content aggressively, often sending cease-and-desist letters when there wasn’t clear case of copyright violation in hope of intimidating an individual lacking in legal resources.
N.C. Utilities Commission (NCUC) gave unanimous endorsement to BellSouth’s Sec. 271 interLATA long distance entry. Action was one day after Ala. PSC voted to support BS long distance entry. NCUC concluded BS met its Telecom Act obligations to open its local network to competition and should be allowed into long distance market. Carrier praised NCUC for recognizing inroads made by CLECs, saying their share had doubled in last 2 years to 15.5% (400,000 lines). BS also has received endorsements from state commissions of S.C., Miss., Ky. Last week it won FCC approval for long distance in Ga. and La. BellSouth said it planned to file at FCC by end of June for 5 states that had voted to support its entry. Long distance approvals still are pending in Fla. and Tenn.
FCC report said 94.9% of households in U.S. had phones in Nov. 2001, up 0.8% from previous Nov. Telephone Subscribership Report also found: (1) Subscribership rate was 79.1% for households with annual income below $5,000, compared with 98.9% for those with income above $75,000. (2) State with lowest rate was Ark. with 90.9%; highest was N.H. with 98.8%. (3) More than 1% of households reported they had only wireless phone.
BOSTON -- FCC notion of limits to spectrum capacity are outdated, network pioneer told telephony conference here Tues., arguing that in wireless network with smart end devices and multiple repeaters, spectrum capacity actually increased as more users were added. David Reed is creator of Reed’s Law, scaling law for group-forming network architectures, and used to work for Interval Research on consumer media technology. He admitted his argument was “counterintuitive,” but laid out for attendees at Connectivity 2002 by pulver.com that FCC was “wrong” in limiting spectrum allocations rather than encouraging spectrum users to coordinate their services to maximize spectrum use and minimize interference. He said Commission already was running into difficulties with its existing spectrum model in such challenging areas as spread spectrum, software-defined radio, ultra-wideband.
AT&T asked regulators in 11 Qwest states to reopen records in their Sec. 271 interLATA long distance entry reviews for new testimony by CLECs that AT&T alleged were muzzled by Qwest. AT&T has claimed Qwest made secret deals with selected CLECs, offering them preferential unfiled rates and terms in return for their keeping silent during Qwest’s Sec. 271 market entry reviews. AT&T made request of regulators in Colo., Ida., Ia., Mont., Neb., N.D., N.M., Ore., S.D., Utah, Wyo. AT&T said some “bought off” CLECs now were willing to come forward and testify about problems they had encountered with Qwest and said states should reopen 271 cases to get facts. Qwest said AT&T’s requests were another attempt to delay day when Qwest could offer long distance and showed depth of AT&T’s desperation. Several Qwest states are at various stages of investigations into charges of discriminatory secret Qwest deal-making leveled by AT&T and other parties. Qwest said those probes shouldn’t have effect on its long distance entry case and said it had asked FCC for ruling on what types of agreements with CLECs must be publicly filed with state commissions.
XM Satellite Radio unveiled $2 million Performance Studio at Washington hq in effort to bring back live performances to radio. Performance by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis highlighted event. “We want to be considered the HBO of radio” CEO Hugh Panero said. XM spokesman repeated pledge that XM wouldn’t use terrestrial repeaters for local programming: “XM is totally committed to following the 1997 rules established by the FCC governing the broadcast of local content on satellite radio.”
U.S. has whittled down list of names under consideration to head delegation to World Radio Conference (WRC) starting June 3, 2003, in Caracas, Venezuela, position that typically carries title of ambassador. Source familiar with list of names under discussion said they included former Defense Secy. James Schlesinger, who also is former Energy Secy. and now chmn. of Mitre, trustee of Center for Strategic & International Studies, DoD consultant. He had been tapped early in Bush Administration to head DoD spectrum assessment. Also said to be on list are: (1) Former NTIA Dir. Janice Obuchowski, now pres. of Freedom Technologies after having been exec. vp at NextWave. (2) Brian Fontes, Cingular Wireless vp-federal relations and chmn., WRC Advisory Committee. Fontes, former FCC legal adviser and senior vp at CTIA, headed U.S. WRC delegation in 1995. (3) NTIA Deputy Dir. Michael Gallagher. (4) Richard Beaird, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at State Dept. Head of U.S. delegation to WRC was discussed at meeting last week of FCC Chmn. Powell, NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory and David Gross, U.S. deputy asst. secy. of state for international communications.
U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., vacated part of FCC order and remanded another part in decision issued Tues. in case brought against Commission by ACS of Anchorage. At issue was dispute over tariffs filed by ACS, which is rate-of-return ILEC. In 2-year tariff filed in June 1998, ACS choose to allocate costs associated with ISP calls to its interstate services category, rather than to intrastate side as it had done in past. Classifying those costs as interstate kept ACS within maximum rate of return of 11.65%. Had company filed them as intrastate costs it would have been over maximum. FCC let tariff go into effect but when customer General Communications Inc. (GCI) complained, Commission ordered ACS to pay $2.7 million in damages to GCI plus interest. ACS challenged 3 parts of FCC decision and won on 2: (1) Court denied ACS complaint that agency erroneously required it to allocate ISP costs to its intrastate services category, saying FCC deserved deference on that issue. “We cannot find the Commission’s interim intrastate classification of ISP- related costs to be arbitrary or capricious,” court said. (2) Court vacated and remanded part of FCC order involving damages, accepting ACS argument that its filing of tariffs under streamlined option barred any damages for calendar year 1998. (3) It granted ACS challenge to rate FCC chose for calculating interest for other years and remanded it to Commission. Court asked agency to show why it picked one calculation method over another that would have resulted in lower interest payment. Suit was heard by Judges Harry Edwards, Raymond Randolph and Stephen Williams, who wrote opinion.
N. American Numbering Council (NANC) got good and bad news from numbering administrators at its meeting Tues. at FCC hq. Serious problem of depletion of telephone numbers has eased somewhat, but only because of economic situation that has driven many CLECs out of business -- and freed up their phone numbers, John Manning, product manager for N. American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) told NANC members. CLEC demise has resulted in another new problem, Manning told NANC members. Many defunct CLECs used blocks of numbers that served customers with ported phone numbers. Unless new carrier is willing to take over entire block on numbers, individual customers can’t be ported any more, meaning they would lose their current phone numbers. Manning said it was working with carrier groups on interim approach to improve process of returning number blocks, known as codes. It’s “refreshing” to be talking about how to absorb additional numbers into pool instead of usual concerns about when supply will exhaust, CTIA Gen. Counsel Michael Altshul said. Manning said NANPA also was having trouble with routine task of making number exhaustion projections because of unusual industry situation. He said usual procedure is to compare current year over last one, but recent years have been aberrations. Demand was higher than ever before in 1999 but in 2001 numbers were being returned in far greater quantities, he said. Neustar acts as NANPA under contract with FCC and its costs are borne by telecom industry. NANC is advisory group composed of carriers, state regulators, others.
Intelsat added terrestrial component to broadband offerings with new GlobalConnex Solutions program that combined terrestrial and satellite network, company said Tues. GlobalConnex is portfolio of bundled services that combines satellite links with terrestrial capabilities, including teleport services, fiber and points of presence (POPs) at strategic exchange points. GlobalConnex will deliver voice, data, Internet, video. “Intelsat can now offer customers a one-stop shopping experience,” Global Sales & Mktg. Pres. John Stanton said.