Senate should make commitment to tougher FCC indecency enforcement a litmus test for confirmation of next FCC commissioner nominee, according to report by Culture & Family Institute, which is affiliated with Concerned Women for America. Report charged that broadcast indecency was spiraling out of control because FCC was imposing minimal or no fines on broadcasters under Chmn. Powell. “It’s time for the strong values of the Bush Administration to be reflected in the FCC,” said Sandy Rios, pres. of Concerned Women.
Ariz. Corporation Commission (ACC) plans Sec 271 workshop sessions week of Jan. 21 so all parties can comment on preliminary Qwest operation support system (OSS) test results. Test administrator CapGemini Ernst & Young in Dec. 21 report concluded Qwest was providing CLECs with nondiscriminatory wholesale OSS access that was “substantially” at parity with Qwest’s retail access, as required by Telecom Act. CapGemini report included 16 recommendations, mainly aimed at ensuring Qwest in future continued to provide CLECs with adequate OSS access. Recommendations included call for periodic audits of all measures to guarantee continued accuracy of Qwest’s performance reporting and continuing monitoring of its redesign of its change management processes to ensure new process worked as promised. At conclusion of commission’s workshop, CapGemini will incorporate comments into its final OSS testing report to be filed with ACC around end of Jan. ACC staff will make its recommendations on Qwest’s Sec. 271 petition by end of Feb., with commission to issue final ruling possibly in March. Agency has regular meetings scheduled for Feb. 26 and March 19, but ACC spokesman said agency could choose to schedule special meeting at another time specifically for 271 ruling. He said ACC not only would consider OSS test results but also must rule on adequacy of Qwest’s proposed performance assurance plan, rule on compliance with 4 OSS-related points of Telecom Act’s 14- point checklist and determine whether carrier’s long distance entry would be in public interest. Qwest said it anticipated being able to file its 271 application with FCC in March.
National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) asked FCC to revise its access charge reform order for rural telcos (CC Doc. 00- 256) in 3 ways: (1) Add stricter eligibility requirements before competitive LECs could receive universal service support. “The Commission has no means of determining how unregulated [competitive carriers] are using their support and whether the support distributed to them complies with sufficiency requirements in Sec. 254 [of Telecom Act],” NTCA said in Dec. 31 petition for reconsideration of MAG order. (2) Phase in subscriber line charge (SLC) for multiline business customers over 3-year period. (3) Allow carriers to forgo SLC increases on Centrex lines used by public service institutions providing education, health and public safety services.
As it warned in ex parte filing Dec. 13, AT&T raised monthly universal service line-item fee for residential customers to 11.5% starting first of year, from 9.9%. AT&T had asked Commission for permission to change formula used to determine contributions to Universal Service Fund (USF) because falling revenue had skewed it. It said problem was that FCC determined how much a company should contribute to USF using revenue from 6 months ago. When company’s revenue is falling, as AT&T’s is, using that contribution factor on lower current revenue results in larger per-customer fee, company said. It had asked for permission to base its contribution factor on projected revenue rather than 6-month- old revenue and had offered to true up contributions if there were shortfall once actual revenue total was available.
Qwest announced completion of its Ariz. 3rd party operation support system (OSS) test and said performance results showed its critical systems “excel” at providing competitors access they need to Qwest’s local network. Testing project began at end of 1999 with selection of CapGemini Ernst & Young to conduct program. Ariz. project is separate from regionwide OSS testing nearing completion in Qwest’s 13 other in-region states. In 700-page report to Ariz. Corporation Commission, Cap Gemini concluded Qwest provided nondiscriminatory OSS access to CLECs that was “substantially the same” as access Qwest gave to its own retail services. Qwest said successful result of OSS test gave Ariz. Corporation Commission final piece of evidence to prove carrier complied fully with Telecom Act’s open local market requirements for interLATA long distance entry. Qwest said it anticipated quick Sec. 271 endorsement by Ariz. regulators and hoped to file its interLATA application for Ariz. with FCC in March. Regionwide OSS testing project is scheduled for completion in Feb. Qwest said Colo., Idaho, Iowa, Neb. and Wyo. had cleared it on all 14 points of 271 checklist, subject to confirmation from regionwide OSS test. Qwest said remaining 7 states had cleared it on certain checklist point and expected them to rule on rest by completion of regional OSS testing.
Only question cable experts had when asked for their predictions for 2002 was which companies would merge next. In wake of proposed Comcast acquisition of AT&T Broadband, observers said other companies -- specifically Adelphia, Cablevision and Cox -- could be next takeover targets. Among possible buyers mentioned most often was AOL-Time Warner, which lost in bidding war for AT&T Broadband. Microsoft also may look to form one or more alliances with cable company this year, experts said, to fend off competition from arch- rival AOL-TW. Only analyst who contradicted prediction of more mergers was Thomas Eagan of UBS Warburg, who said he saw more system swapping rather than merging for sake of getting bigger. Experts on consumer end of business uniformly predicted higher prices for service. And all said federal govt. probably wouldn’t cry foul on cable mergers or price increases.
American Cable Assn. (ACA) is supporting NCTA and National Assn. for Deaf in their bid to ease financial burden on small cable operators by federal govt.’s requirements for emergency alert systems. However, in letter to FCC, ACA said any changes shouldn’t eliminate ability of small systems to seek EAS waivers from Commission on case-by-case basis. Like NCTA and NAD, ACA wants FCC to allow systems with fewer than 5,000 customers to install EAS decoder only to comply with EAS rules that take effect for small systems in Oct. ACA said current cost for EAS equipment and installation for smaller headends was $7,500-$10,000 and decoder-only option could decrease that cost 15%-20%. “For operators of hundreds and hundreds of very small headends, even these compliance costs will impose an impossible financial burden in 2002,” ACA Pres. Matthew Polka said.
It may be necessary to change eligibility criteria for Lifeline and Link-Up programs so participation can be tied directly to income, BellSouth said in comments submitted Mon. to FCC. Eligibility for programs now is tied to participation in welfare programs. However, as state and federal govts. work to reduce participation in welfare programs, number of subscribers eligible for Lifeline and Link-Up also would decrease unless criterion was changed, BellSouth said. Verifying income-based eligibility is complex and should be done by govt. rather than industry, BellSouth said. On other hand, govt. and industry alike should work on outreach programs to make sure consumers know these programs are available, carrier said. Comments were in response to FCC’s review of Lifeline-Link-Up programs (CC 96-45).
FCC released first quarter schedule for national 1,000s- block number pooling rollout, including modifications sought by states: (1) In response to requests by Mich., Minn., Mo., Ohio and Tex. regulatory commissions, area codes 440, 734, 573, 214/469/972 and 507 were moved up to first quarter. (2) Code 760 in Cal. was deleted from first quarter schedule. (3) 901 was moved into first quarter schedule at request of Tenn. Regulatory Authority. FCC said in “near future” it would address other issues involving rollout schedule in general as well as requests for changes in remaining quarters.
White House review of federal agency actions with potential impact on national defense, possibly including spectrum issues, could be established under Dept. of Defense (DoD) authorization bill (S-1438) signed late last week by President Bush. New law addresses request by Defense Secy. for Executive Branch “defense impact review process” and directs DoD head to submit formal recommendation to President and Congress for consideration. Although law doesn’t identify specific agency proposals or proceedings, creation of executive review process implicitly provides DoD and White House with additional opportunities to weigh in on future actions by FCC and NTIA, such as reallocation of military spectrum for commercial 3G wireless deployment.