Patricia Russo, ex-Kodak, named Lucent pres.-CEO, succeeding Henry Schacht, who becomes chmn… Appointed to FCC Local & State Govt. Advisory Committee: Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey, Plano, Tex., City Councilman Steve Stovall, Portland, Ore., City Attorney Pamela Beery… Timothy O'Rourke, ex-Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, named assoc. gen. counsel-litigation, Cox Enterprises… Griffith Foxley promoted to senior vp-corp. legal affairs, ABC… Changes at Sirius Satellite Radio, all from Thomson: Guy Johnson becomes exec. vp-sales & mktg., Stanley Kozlowski vp-retail mktg., Jeffrey Peace vp-western sales, Russ Fyke vp-midwest retail sales… Rick Jenkinson, vp-communications and public affairs at AT&T Broadband, named acting senior vp-PR… Ted Carrier, ex-Willtech, appointed CFO, Mericom… Hideo Takahashi, ex-Sumitomo, named pres., Centillium Japan… Roberto Padovani named exec. vp-chief technology officer, Qualcomm… Stephen Oksala, vp-standards, SCTE, elected vice chmn., American National Standards Institute (ANSI)… David Huffman, ex-Intel, joins SONICblue has vp-audio product mktg.
Concerned about ruling that they lack standing to challenge proposed wireless towers, environmental groups plan to ask FCC to reconsider dismissal Fri. of 29 petitions to deny applications for antenna sites, said John Talberth, dir.-conservation for Forest Conservation Council. Order issued by deputy chief of FCC’s Commercial Wireless Div. dismissed petitions filed by Friends of the Earth and Forest Conservation Council, saying groups lacked standing. “This is an absurd cop-out to try to dodge a serious discussion of the merits of the issue,” Talberth told us Mon.: “Apparently nobody has standing to challenge cell towers unless a cell tower is being built on top of one’s house.” Order said groups failed to show direct link between alleged harm and proposed wireless antenna structures and lacked information such as letters from nearby residents who would be directly affected. On weekly basis between Feb. 23 and April 6, 2001, groups had filed petitions on 40 applications to register antenna structures, urging FCC to conduct more detailed environmental review of impact of wireless towers.
House Western Caucus took opposition to proposed EchoStar acquisition of DirecTV to FCC Chmn. Powell and Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft, citing concerns that merged entity’s planned national pricing plan wouldn’t protect consumers. Caucus, led by Chmn. Pombo (R-Cal.) and Vice Chmn. Cannon (R-Utah), said in Dec. 19 letter released Mon. that “from the standpoint of rural and Western consumers, we don’t believe this a viable solution. National pricing wouldn’t protect rural consumers from a situation where the merged company might choose to maximize revenues from captive customers in rural areas, with the resulting windfall profits more than compensating for lost market share in urban areas.” Deal supporters have told Congress that national pricing would ensure that rural customers benefited from sale by putting them on par with urban consumers. Several House members from rural areas agreed (CD Dec 5 p3) with EchoStar and DirecTV executives that deal was in best interests of people in underserved areas and provided viable alternative to cable.
Recent FCC filing by NAB concedes EchoStar has met must- carry obligation, company said Mon. Fact that NAB filed petition for modification or clarification (CD Jan 7 p4) instead of complaint for failure concedes compliance, EchoStar said. However, it said NAB was wrong to ask FCC to modify rules to impose additional obligations on EchoStar. It said NAB’s continuing aggressive actions showed it cared more about scoring political points than serving members or consumers. “If the FCC were to accede to the NAB’s latest tactics to modify existing rules, limited bandwidth would force EchoStar to entirely terminate local channels in a number of markets it currently serves,” filing said. EchoStar CEO Charles Ergen said company compliance program should “please the NAB and its members.” Ergen said if EchoStar’s pending takeover of Hughes Electronics were approved, it would be able to provide service to 100 markets, but said NAB was “absurdly” against deal.
At least 8 groups, all representing small telcos, have petitioned FCC for reconsideration of its Nov. 8 MAG order reforming access charges for smaller, rate-of-return telephone companies. Along with already reported National Telephone Co-op Assn. (CD Jan 3 p5), petitions were filed by Alliance of Independent Rural Telephone Companies (AIRTC), CenturyTel, Competitive Universal Service Coalition, Plains Rural Independent Companies (PRIC), S.D. Telecom Assn. (SDTA), Western Alliance and 4 trade associations filing jointly -- NECA, National Rural Telecom Assn., OPASTCO and USTA. Most told FCC that changes ordered in MAG plan could hurt small telcos unless adjustments were made. SDTA asked for reconsideration of decision to eliminate carrier common line charge and replace it with new universal service support mechanism. PRIC, coalition of 21 rural ILECs in Neb. and Ia., said reconsideration “is required to properly align traffic-sensitive transport cost recovery with traffic- sensitive rate elements and charges.” In addition, change should be made “to avoid improperly recovering traffic- sensitive transport costs through the unrelated common line element,” PRIC said. AIRTC wanted FCC to rescind 3 modifications to access charge regime: (1) Recovering non- traffic-sensitive carrier common line costs from end-user charges or new form of universal service support. (2) Increasing caps for subscriber line charge to levels set for larger price-cap carriers. (3) Requiring rural rate-of- return LECs to recover universal service contributions only through end-user charges. If those changes aren’t made, “the MAG order will modify the Commission’s rules in a manner that departs from established law, public policy and Commission practice,” AIRTC said. AIRTC is ad hoc coalition of more than 200 rural ILECs.
Companies that won NextWave’s licenses in re-auction year ago asked FCC Fri. to refund $3.1 billion in down payments that agency has been holding without interest since Feb. Re-auction winners said that with proposed settlement falling through and new solution not immediately apparent, “the time has come” for Commission to return money. They said they were losing at least $430,000 a day in interest, assuming “conservative” rate of 5%, and urged agency to act on their petition by Jan. 18.
Dept. of Justice recommended Fri. that FCC approve Verizon’s Sec. 271 application for R.I., although it suggested Commission “carefully review Verizon’s pricing of unbundled network elements [UNEs].” In one of its more positive evaluations of Sec. 271 petitions, DoJ concluded that “Verizon has generally succeeded in opening its local markets in Rhode Island to competition” and, subject to FCC’s “satisfying itself” on pricing issues, recommended approval. Telecom Act calls for DoJ to make recommendation -- or “evaluation” -- to FCC although Commission doesn’t have to follow that report.
FCC still doesn’t have target date to make Northpoint- DBS spectrum decision, spokesman said. Northpoint wants right to share DBS spectrum for terrestrial fixed wireless service, potentially providing multichannel video or other services. Chmn. Powell had promised ruling by end of 2001, but final outcome probably won’t be announced until “early in the year,” spokesman said: “We didn’t get it done, but we hope to have an answer as soon as possible.” Holdup was blamed on Commission backlog and complexity of issues involved. Industry source close to FCC told us decision is “probably weeks away.”
NAB boards begin 4 days of meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., next Sun. with no new or divisive issues up for consideration and few formal votes expected to be required. Much discussion and debate will be devoted to such well-defined issues as EEO, DTV, DBS and new competitor for radio -- satellite digital audio systems with terrestrial repeaters. Also very much on broadcasters’ minds will be aftermath of terrorist attacks. “We're going to learn and talk about how Washington works following September 11 and what impact that has on broadcast issues,” said NAB Joint Board Chmn. David Kennedy of Susquehanna Radio.
Broadcasters filed “emergency” petition Fri. asking FCC to clarify its satellite rules to prevent what they charged would be “rank discrimination” by EchoStar. That would be result of EchoStar’s announced plan (CD Jan 2 p2) to require 2nd home dish for subscribers to receive “disfavored” local TV stations, NAB and ALTV said. In Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA), Congress included specific language “barring discriminatory treatment” in satellite delivery of any local station, associations said, but language of FCC rule isn’t clear and it should be “immediately clarified.”