FCC Chmn. Powell expressed strong optimism for future of broadband and his agency’s role in its deployment. Speaking at Precursor Group conference Wed., Powell said Commission was moving forward expeditiously with proceedings defining broadband regulatory rules. “I personally believe a year from now, if things go well, we will have made a dramatic contribution to clarifying the understanding of the regulatory environment surrounding broadband,” he told audience of 250. He said it was a given that broadband would be deployed universally and only question was when. Powell also said Commission needed to overhaul policy on spectrum, saying there were “severe cracks in the existing regulatory structure because it just doesn’t move fast enough and doesn’t move in some cases fair enough to make sure spectrum moves to its highest and most efficient uses.” Powell said agency had different powers to protect consumer interests in case of bankruptcy, depending on which platform Internet was delivered on. He cited example of Excite@Home in which he wrote letter to judge requesting that consideration be given to consumers who were losing their service. In case of DSL- provided Internet service, company must seek permission from FCC to shut down. Powell reiterated his belief in “facilities-based” competition, saying no company should have to or would “enjoy building their own gallows” by opening their facilities to others.
Commerce Secy. Donald Evans said NTIA planned spectrum summit April 4-5 to address spectrum allocation and efficiency, spectrum requirements of new technologies, regulatory processes. FCC Chmn. Powell is to take part in meeting along with Deputy Asst. Secy. of State David Gross. First day of summit will focus on industry and govt. spectrum users, economists, analysts, technologists. Second day will include working sessions on commercial, international and federal govt. perspectives. “We must continue to create the right environment for growth in private-sector technologies that use spectrum, while balancing delicate national security and public safety needs,” Evans said: “This summit is a major step forward in our far-reaching effort to deal with the complex issues inherent in spectrum management policy. We owe it to the American people to get the most out of this national resource.” NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory said forum would look for ideas on spectrum policy involving auction process, how to expand secondary markets for spectrum, how to encourage innovation in new wireless technology, how to define spectrum rights without limiting technology use.
FCC should proceed cautiously on Northpoint issue, Satellite Bcstg. & Communications Assn. (SBCA) said in Jan. 31 ex parte filing. Citing barrage of filings and communications on issue, SBCA said interference limits weren’t sufficient to protect DBS. It said subscribers would be more likely to blame DBS companies when outages occurred because they wouldn’t know where to assess blame. Secondary licensees should be required to post bonds, and mitigation actions must be transparent to DBS customers and an adequate mitigation compensation mechanism must be developed, assn. said. Commission also should mandate auction, SBCA said. Northpoint said it shouldn’t be subject to auction since DBS operators received 79,000 MHz of free spectrum. “The sale of DirecTV for $25 billion is a pretty good return for their portion of the alleged $7 billion investment,” Northpoint Vp Toni Bush said.
Federal and state regulatory policies are impeding consolidation of rural telephone lines, growing movement led by mid-sized companies such as CenturyTel and Citizens Communications, panelists said at Legg Mason investment conference in N.Y. on rural telephony Thurs. From regulators to rural operators, speakers said consolidation is latest trend in rural phone business, stoked by divestiture of lines by Bells such as Verizon and Qwest. Verizon has divested hundreds of thousands of former GTE lines throughout country, many of them acquired by consolidators, while others such as Qwest continue long-time trend to eliminate unprofitable exchanges. In addition, consolidators buy up small telcos run by families that no longer want to be in business. Consolidators generally can make more money from rural lines than Bells can because they have more access to universal service funding and their smaller size enables them to act more flexibly, panelists said.
Cal. PUC objected to CTIA’s characterization of its position on wireless number pooling requirements. CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler wrote to NARUC Chmn. William Nugent last month trying to find common ground on number pooling issue, asking whether requiring wireless number pooling and local number portability (LNP) on same day wasn’t “a bridge too far” (CD Feb 1 p5). Large wireless carriers have asked Commission to forbear on wireless LNP deadline of Nov. 24, saying Telecom Act doesn’t require mobile carriers to implement portability capabilities and resources associated with requirement could be spent elsewhere. Wheeler cited Cal. PUC filing at FCC in Nov. warning aggressive schedule for wireless number pooling could create problems with service quality or call completion. He said both CTIA and NARUC shared concerns about number pooling going smoothly. But Cal. PUC Deputy Gen. Counsel Helen Mickiewicz told Wheeler in Feb. 5 letter that he unfairly had connected concerns she raised about pooling schedule to wireless LNP. She said CTIA letter contended PUC had warned that aggressive schedule for wireless number pooling could affect service quality or call completion. “I can only conclude from your misuse of the quote that you have not read the pleading,” Mickiewicz wrote. “The alternative is that you have intentionally misrepresented the CPUC’s statements to infer erroneously that California supports FCC forbearance from the mandate that the wireless industry deploy local number portability technology by Nov. 24, 2002.” She said CPUC filing referred only to number of area codes that FCC Common Carrier Bureau included in first quarter proposed schedule for rollout of national number pooling. PUC said need to place more than one area code per month into pooling could pose burden for carriers. As result, CPUC said it wasn’t opposed to revising first quarter schedule to reduce to 3 the number of area codes that would be included. By time of wireless LNP’s scheduled Nov. start, national pooling deployment will be in its 3rd quarter, she told Wheeler. “Even if our comments are construed to address the pooling rollout beyond the first quarter, we can identify no connection between the number of area codes pooled per quarter and the beginning of wireless pooling.” NARUC’s Nugent also responded to CTIA letter Jan. 31. “Once consumers pay for the network infrastructure for pooling, NARUC believes the incremental cost of the additional back office systems needed to offer portability to subscribers is more than offset by the competitive benefits,” he said. In latest back-and-forth between state PUCs and wireless industry, Wheeler sent NARUC’s Nugent follow-up letter Feb. 7 saying recent exchange of letters pointed to “strong agreement” between CTIA and NARUC on importance of implementing number pooling. “Unfortunately, your letter also confirms our divergent views on the appropriateness of number porting in the competitive wireless market,” Wheeler said. He said wireless LNP offered “terrible trio” of consumer options, including higher phone bills, less investment in continued network improvements or both of those factors. Impact of extending LNP to wireless carriers could open industry and regulators to “backlash” from consumers, media and govt., Wheeler said.
In latest bout over terrestrial repeaters used by satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, Wireless Communications Service (WCS) licensees argued that XM Satellite Radio already was using repeaters at lower power levels. In Feb. 4 filing at FCC, WCS licensees cited XM data recently released on repeaters operating below power levels of 2 kw. In at least one market, WCS said, XM had network that used only repeaters operating below 2 kw. WCS licensees have argued that SDARS licensees should be required to operate terrestrial repeater networks at power levels no greater than 2 kw. However, SDARS licensees said repeater network design relied on repeaters operating at up to 40 kw to provide proper synchronization. In filing, WCS licensees told FCC that “more than one out of every 4 markets in which XM has deployed repeaters” had no repeater operating above 5 kw EIRP. Filing was signed by AT&T Wireless, BeamReach Networks, BellSouth, Verizon Wireless, Wireless Communications Assn., WorldCom. WCS said: “Clearly there is no technical reason why all SDARS terrestrial repeaters could not serve their intended purpose while operating at much lower power levels than the SDARS licensees would lead the Commission to believe.” It said SDARS licensees had told FCC that single frequency network architecture of their systems required use of “much higher power repeaters to synchronize other repeaters in a market.” Referring to data available from Greenville, S.C., XM market, WCS licensees said that without power cap, XM was using network of repeaters that operated at less than 2 kw. Meanwhile, in Feb. 5 ex parte meeting that NAB said involved all 4 FCC commissioners and FCC staff, group outlined its concerns with SDARS proposal on power limits, including: (1) That it would allow local origination or insertion of locally targeted programming. “On its face, their current proposal appears to echo the SDARS licensees’ pledge not to transmit locally originated programming, but upon closer examination of their broad language, the SDARS proposed language does not preclude locally originated material.” It said that meant proposal ran counter to tentative FCC conclusion to bar use of terrestrial repeaters to transmit locally originated programming. (2) That it didn’t protect all incumbent services from blanketing interference. Broadcasters said they were especially concerned about potential interference to broadcast auxiliary service facilities operating in 2 GHz bands adjacent to SDARS repeaters. Filing said all terrestrial repeater specifications should be available to public on Internet. (3) That “the recent introduction of satellite radio underscores the urgency of terrestrial broadcasters’ digital conversion.” In-band, on-channel (IBOC) radio can deliver “high quality digital service,” so FCC was urged to expedite IBOC proceeding.
Broadband is being deployed “in a reasonable and timely manner,” FCC said in its 3rd annual report to Congress on availability of advanced telecom services. Report, which was issued Thurs. and includes data through June 30, 2001, said market for advanced services continued to grow, with both availability and subscribership increasing significantly. Report said number of subscribers had increased to almost 10 million, despite widespread economic downturn. Chmn. Powell said Commission wouldn’t flag in its efforts to promote broadband, despite positive steps cited in report. “It is one of our highest priorities and is never far from our thoughts as we decide communications policy,” Powell said.
House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft separately are pressing FCC to act swiftly but cautiously in adopting rules for federal inmate payphone services. Sec. 276 of Telecom Act includes “mandatory, not discretionary” provision directing Commission to ensure adequate supply of payphones and competition in payphone services in correctional institutions, Tauzin wrote FCC Chmn. Powell Feb. 4. Congress also had directed FCC to establish “per-call compensation plan” within 9 months of Act’s enactment to provide fair compensation to carriers for all calls from such settings, he said: “However, it is now 6 years since the enactment of Section 276, and the Commission has yet to fully implement” its requirements. Tauzin emphasized that before FCC adopted rules in that area, it “must do whatever is necessary to maintain and improve, not degrade, the mechanisms currently in place to monitor and control inmate calling and to detect and weed out illicit activity.” Ashcroft told Powell in letter Feb. 1 that Dept. of Justice “strongly opposes any initiative that would allow an inmate or an inmate’s called party to select their own” carrier. He said “if inmate telephone service is opened up to virtually all telecommunications providers,” ability of law enforcement to prevent inmates from harassing victims and witnesses of crime and to “monitor and trace calls for criminal activity” would be hampered: “Federal correctional facilities must maintain their current ability to control the telephone carriers who route inmate calls.”
FCC decision on EchoStar takeover of DirecTV should hinge on definition of multichannel video market and on public interest benefits of spectrum efficiency, increased carriage of local TV signals and increased number of DTV channels, various entities said in comments on deal (CD Feb 5 p5). Several commenters said FCC should approve license transfers only needed to complete deal if it imposed conditions on such things as DBS pricing and carriage.
Now that wireless is becoming alternative communications technology, rather than accessory, policymakers and industry must grapple with issues such as service quality and regulatory parity, panelists said at Precursor Group conference in Washington Wed. Brian Fontes, vp-federal regulations for Cingular Wireless, said one emerging theme at FCC was emphasis on flexibility, which historically had served wireless industry well. “The concept of flexibility is increasingly useful and important,” he said: “The problem is how do you define flexibility.” Several panelists described industry as being at crossroads between regulations designed for less competitive wireline environment and industry that has grown so big that regulatory oversight still is needed. “We have to be mindful to not over- regulate,” NTIA Deputy Asst. Secy. Michael Gallagher said. “There is a tendency when an appliance has reached that level of importance in society to then say well, there needs to be a firmer hand.”