FCC said it would investigate tariffs filed in mid-Dec. by 54 rural telcos complying with agency’s new MAG access charge reform process. Tariffs went into effect Jan. 1 after one-day suspension, but at same time investigation was instituted. In order issued Mon., FCC Common Carrier Bureau said investigation was warranted “because of the complex nature of the tariff filings, the interrelationship between certain individual carrier tariffs and the NECA tariffs and the issues raised by GCI and AT&T.” AT&T presented compelling arguments about 15 of those tariffs, bureau said, including whether: (1) Some LECs failed to correctly allocate line port costs from local switching category to common line category. (2) Some misallocated TIC (transport interconnection charge) costs. (3) Tariff filed by ACS of Anchorage was unlawful. (4) Several carriers failed to submit sufficient cost support information. FCC said it also found that GCI raised “substantial questions of lawfulness warranting investigation of ACS’ tariff.” Bureau said that in addition to concerns raised by those carriers, it had additional questions about tariffs filed by all 54 LECs. For example, “in some cases, it appears that the cost reallocations were not applied to the proper baseline revenue requirement amount,” agency said. In general, it said errors could affect development of common line revenue requirement “and thus the appropriate levels for charges recovering the common line revenue requirements.”
Granting CTIA’s petition for clarification, FCC explained that June 30 deadline for digital wireless providers to transmit 911 calls using TTY devices didn’t mean they had to support proprietary enhanced TTY protocols by that deadline. Thus, said FCC in order issued Dec. 28: “CTIA’s assertion that the Commission improperly imposed an obligation upon digital wireless carriers to incorporate support for proprietary enhanced protocols into their digital-TTY solutions by June 30, 2002 is incorrect.” CTIA had expressed concern because wireless industry was concentrating on 911 solutions for standard 45.45 Baudot protocol because there was embedded base of users there and TTY manufacturers were hesitant to share data on proprietary enhanced protocols, FCC said. However, Commission said, “cooperative broad-based industry coordination” had solved some of problem. “TTY manufacturers have now decided to modify their products so that they will default to Baudot when connected to digital wireless devices,” FCC said. “Accordingly, the implementation of digital wireless TTY solutions based on Baudot signaling will not preclude users of TTY’s with enhanced protocol features from placing 911 calls on digital wireless phones.”
President Bush said he isn’t ready to act on recommendation by Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) to nominate his legislative asst. Jonathan Adelstein to vacant FCC commissioner seat. When asked by reporters Dec. 28 whether he intended to make recess appointments, Bush said he was focused on military operations in Afghanistan and giving tours of his Texas ranch: “I'm disappointed that a lot of my appointments were stalled in the United States Senate… But I'll take a good hard look at all the options available to me.”
FCC late Fri. reallocated for “new flexible services” 27 MHz of spectrum transferred from federal govt. Spectrum included several small blocks transferred under Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Spectrum is in 216-220, 1390-1395, 1427-1429, 1429- 1432, 1432-1435, 1670-1675 and 2385-2390 MHz bands transferred to nongovt. uses. Agency said new allocations would permit “new and innovative wireless technologies” while at same time preserving primary status of Wireless Medical Telemetry Services and elevating to primary status Low Power Radio Services in 216-217 MHz band, which include auditory assistance and law enforcement applications. Agency said notice of proposed rulemaking would be released soon that would propose service rules for reallocated frequency bands, some of which must be licensed through auction by Sept. 2002.
Mich. PSC advised Ameritech that if it were to rule now on telco’s Sec 271 compliance, it would have to conclude Ameritech had flunked 4 of 14 points on Telecom Act’s local competition checklist. PSC said it issued preliminary report to “forewarn” Ameritech that it must “redirect” its efforts if it wanted agency to endorse interLATA long distance bid to FCC. PSC said Ameritech (Case U-12320) fell short of meeting Point 2 (access to network elements) because of serious inadequacies in handling unbundled network element (UNE) transfers when customer switched service from one CLEC to another. Those inadequacies could have “grave potential effect” on development of local competition, PSC said, and directed that Ameritech file by Jan. 9 its plan for addressing that “most serious” 271 compliance problem. PSC said Ameritech failed to meet Point 4 (local loop transport) for its handling of line splitting. It said Ameritech must allow separate migrations of voice and data portions of split line and must streamline ordering and provisioning processes for UNE platforms where line splitting is involved. Agency said Ameritech would flunk on Point 7 (access to 911 and directory assistance databases) because its DA listing charges weren’t cost based and Point 10 (access to signaling and network databases) because it wasn’t offering access to calling name database as separate UNE.
U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., on Fri. dismissed WorldCom complaint about how FCC enforced pricing conditions in 1997 Bell Atlantic-Nynex merger (CD Nov 2 p7). WorldCom had accused FCC of arbitrarily dismissing WorldCom’s complaint against Bell Atlantic for violating requirement to offer forward-looking prices to competitors. Court Fri. agreed with FCC that what WorldCom sought also was available through Sec. 252 of Telecom Act. “Because the FCC did not act unreasonably in declining to enforce the merger requirement in what amounts to a parallel and duplicative proceeding… we deny the petition for review,” wrote Judge David Sentelle. Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg and Judge Raymond Randolph also sat on panel.
Times have changed dramatically in TV syndication world and as result NATPE admits it’s in the process of “reinventing itself” to become more relevant to needs of both its TV station and syndication members as Jan. 21-24 convention approaches in Las Vegas. Assn. next month is placing heavier emphasis on advertisers and their agencies with back-to-back sessions. There also will be greater emphasis than in past on sports programming and regulatory issues -- with all 4 FCC commissioners participating, along with 14 members of Congress (CD Dec 20 p5).
Verizon told FCC it shouldn’t require that telecom equipment and facilities be protected against extremely high levels of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by terrorist attack. Comments filed by carrier were in response to petition for notice of proposed rulemaking dated Sept. 25 by Donald Schellhardt and Nickolaus Legett. Petitioners asked Commission to adopt standards to require carriers to install shielding to protect networks against extremely high levels of EMP that could be experienced in terrorist attack. They said such shielding would require that every electronic device in network be completely encased in copper or other material that wouldn’t conduct EMP energy. They proposed that all new equipment installed on or after July 2004 meet standard and all existing equipment be retrofitted by Jan. 2008. Petitioners provided no estimate of cost of providing that level of protection nor how it would be financed. FCC rejected similar request 15 years ago, Verizon wrote, and industry since has addressed problem by adopting standards to deal with reasonably anticipated EMP levels. “In contrast, the vastly higher EMP levels posed by petitioners are more that can be reasonably expected,” Verizon said: “Adding to the level of shielding, as they request, would require a virtual rebuild of the entire telecommunications network, with costs running into the trillions of dollars nationwide, an unrealistic and unnecessary measure.” Existing electronic equipment can’t readily be encased in copper or other material to prevent penetration by EMP at levels petitioners requested, it said. “Instead, each item would need to be redesigned and replaced to prevent EMP from penetrating and damaging it.” Verizon cited measures by Department of Defense, which had considered EMP effects of wide area thermonuclear exchange with former Soviet Union but had concluded extensive EMP shielding was necessary only in its most critical installations. Many electrical protection measures currently used by telecom industry designed to protect against lightning strikes provide adequate protection against reasonably anticipated EMP levels, said Percy Pool, Verizon lead engineer, network engineering, in separate statement. Standards for such protection were issued by T1 committee of Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), he said. EMP fields can affect exposed electronics equipment by: (1) Direct illumination of electronics in line of sight of generation point. (2) Induction of voltages onto cables for power, cable TV, antenna, telecommunications that enter buildings or enclosures that house electronics. Copper shielding proposed by petition wouldn’t effectively protect equipment from latter inducted EMP because “energy is likely to be introduced into the device through cabling and wiring,” Pool said: “Consistent with these published industry standards, which are designed to protect against ‘baseline’ (i.e., reasonably anticipated) EMP levels, Verizon has implemented grounding, bonding and electrical protection measures… both in the central office and in outside plant. These measures will generally mitigate the EMP and direct it away from sensitive equipment so it cannot cause harm, just as it mitigates harm from lightning strikes.” In case of particularly sensitive facilities, such as those serving govt. installations, carriers where requested have installed at customer expense higher level of shielding based on ATIS- developed industry standards to prevent damage from more localized high-power EMP attack. Energy released by EMP device detonated at high altitude -- most likely scenario -- would be dispersed over broad area and energy reaching any office would be attenuated, Pool said: “To the extent that any outage occurs, it will be of short duration, similar to that that may occur during periods of high sunspot activity, and the affected equipment generally will not suffer permanent harm.”
U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. remanded portion of FCC’s decision permitting SBC to offer long distance service in Kan. and Okla but emphasized that it wasn’t vacating Commission’s decision. SBC said court’s action wouldn’t affect “in any way” SBC’s services in those 2 states where it has been offering long distance since early 2001. “We're confident that when the FCC reconsiders this one narrow public interest analysis issue, the Commission will reach the same conclusion with additional documentation,” SBC said in statement.
FCC policy goals in its 18 GHz spectrum relocation decision were “reasonable” and didn’t give incumbent fixed service (FS) operators windfall, U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., said in decision Fri. in Teledesic appeal. Teledesic said FCC should require satellite operators to reimburse FS operators only for depreciated value of their equipment when FS is forced to relocate to new spectrum, instead of full cost of new facilities. Satellite company also said Commission decision was strictly economic and therefore not entitled to same deference as agency’s technical decisions. However, court said dispute was “fundamental disagreement over the policy goals” and FCC decision on how to balance benefit of making spectrum available to satellites with impact on FS was “entitled to the deference traditionally accorded decisions regarding spectrum management.” Court said, for example, that reimbursing FS operators only for depreciated value of equipment could mean some that couldn’t afford replacement equipment might be forced out of business when displaced.