NARUC urged FCC to deny Verizon Wireless petition for permanent forbearance from porting telephone numbers. In Nov. 29 ex parte letter, NARUC said delay or forbearance of wireless number portability (WNP) would have negative effect on number conservation efforts. Letter, signed by NARUC Gen. Counsel Bradford Ramsay, said Verizon petition didn’t provide any factual basis justifying forbearance. “Indeed, the only limited empirical evidence available suggests strongly that WNP would significantly enhance, at a minimum, wireless-to- wireless competition,” letter said. Press reports frequently note hesitancy of wireless customers to change carriers because they don’t want to change telephone numbers, even when they are unhappy about service, NARUC said. “Since the Commission first adopted its wireless number portability requirement in 1996, the wireless industry has asked for and received repeated extensions” of Nov. 24, 2002, deadline, letter said. “It is no surprise that they have again sought another extension, albeit on the basis of only ‘recently discovered’ back-office implementation problems and speculative cost estimates.” If FCC decides to approve Verizon petition, it should at least maintain related requirement that wireless number pooling begin as scheduled, letter urged. Pooling is set for same Nov. 24, 2002, deadline. FCC also should “at a minimum,” require wireless carriers “to provide the estimated additional costs that they would experience from porting,” NARUC said. It urged agency to “solicit data on the value wireless customers place on their telephone numbers.” Letter was stimulated by resolution passed at NARUC’s recent convention in Philadelphia that opposed Verizon petition, Ramsay said in letter.
FCC should end industrial policy that favors satellites and begin to regulate all similar services seeking to use same spectrum from same rulebook, Northpoint CEO Sophia Collier wrote in Wed. letter to Chmn. Powell. Collier said single rulebook system would simplify proceedings: “It would allow the Commission to stop being in the business of picking a winner and start to license companies in a technology- neutral manner.” She said ending that regulatory disparity was particularly important given reduced competitive environment that would result if EchoStar-DirecTV merger were approved. In DBS-Northpoint debate, she said, “preference given to the satellite industry has resulted in extraordinary market distortion.” Northpoint said it applied for license on same day as 8 satellite companies that sought 25,400 MHz of spectrum and would receive licenses without auction. Collier said FCC granted 10,259 wireless licenses in 2001 for mobile and fixed microwave services without auction. Process of spectrum allocation seems arbitrary and discriminates against small companies and new technologies, Collier said: “It cannot be considered desirable for the government to allow one company free use of a federal resource and then expect a new entrant and future competitor to pay to use the same resources.”
Legislation implementing NextWave settlement agreement has 100% chance of passing Congress by year-end, Verizon Senior Vp-Deputy Gen. Counsel John Thorne told American Enterprise Institute (AEI)-Brookings Joint Center panel Fri. In occasionally heated discussion about what went wrong with FCC’s PCS policies and policy implications of NextWave accord, Thorne defended decision by govt. agencies and carriers to settle rather than continue to litigate. “We looked at alternatives to settlement,” he said. “I actually think we might have won in the Supreme Court,” he said, referring to petition for certiorari filed by FCC seeking review of U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., decision this summer that overturned Commission’s decision to cancel NextWave’s PCS licenses for nonpayment. Even if high court ultimately sided with FCC, lower court hadn’t addressed all outstanding NextWave issues and legal proceedings to wrap those up could take 2 or 3 years until licenses were free, he said.
House Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Conyers (D- Mich.) and committee member Cannon (R-Utah) asked GAO Nov. 30 to provide report on FCC fines of Bell companies. They want to know: (1) How many times Bells have been fined for failing to comply with 1996 Telecom Act. (2) Amount of fines, and aggregate total for each company. (3) Whether any fines were for making false statements. (4) Whether there was evidence “in FCC filings or complaints” that fines were for impeding ability of CLECs “to roll out new telephone and broadband services.”
Bush Administration is working closely with FCC and NTIA to ease regulatory burdens to broadband deployment and free up spectrum, senior official said Fri. However, Administration contends there’s little need for broadband policy, Commerce Dept. Asst. Secy. for Technology Policy Bruce Mehlman told ALTS conference: “Rather than policy fixes, it’s going to be technology developments that get broadband to all Americans.” He dismissed idea that Administration would weigh in on either side of debate on Bell-friendly bill promoted by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.).
ANAHEIM -- If, in future, TV viewers get everything they want, whenever they want it, as some predict, cable’s rights and responsibilities may become much more complicated, panelists said at Western Show here last week. Comcast Senior Dir.-New Business Development Steve Heeb predicted there would be combination of network and home-based personal video recorders (PVRs), but warned cable companies would have to adhere to copyrights no matter which technology they adopted. He said he could see situation where he would “have to be the nasty MSO” and, through his network, have to remove movie from home PVR: “You don’t want to tick off customers but at the same time, we have to live in a world where we absolutely will honor the rights management of studios when we get content or else we'll never get content again.” He said encryption was one possible solution.
FCC is expected to take up at least 3 telephony issues at agenda meeting Dec. 12, according to sources: (1) Triennial review of unbundled network elements (UNEs), looking at whether to alter current UNE list and other possible changes. Common Carrier Bureau Chief Dorothy Attwood said at recent ALTS conference (CD Nov 30 p2) that review would begin in mid-Dec. (2) Dominant-nondominant issue sparked by SBC petition seeking nondominant status for advanced services. Such action would eliminate tariffing requirements, among other things. (3) Notice of proposed rulemaking promised last year on additional ways to make number usage more efficient, such as modifying ban on technology-specific overlays (CD Dec 8 2000 p3).
FCC turned down request by Orbital Communications seeking review of orders licensing Final Analysis and Leo One USA in 2nd processing round for nonvoice, nongeostationary mobile satellite systems. Commission upheld finding that Orbcomm’s Little Leo system, which was authorized in first Little LEO processing round and modified in 2nd processing round, wasn’t entitled to interference protection.
FCC plans in mid-Dec. to kick off its triennial review of unbundled network element (UNE) regime, FCC Common Carrier Bureau Chief Dorothy Attwood said Thurs. at ALTS conference in Crystal City, Va. Shed said agency would begin “comprehensive” proceeding that would look beyond basic issue of which UNEs should be on list. For example, she said, notice would ask whether distinctions could be made by geographic areas or type of service when FCC determined what UNEs had to be made available. She encouraged parties to give more constructive input, saying they could best benefit FCC by offering data on where UNEs now were deployed and how they were used. Attwood said agency already was well versed in standard industry debate and would rather hear “lessons learned.” Michelle Carey, chief of Common Carrier Bureau’s Policy & Program Planning Div., said agency “has seen a lot of rhetoric, a lot of ‘he said, she said'” and now would like “hard data.”
AOL Time Warner bid for FCC ruling on electronic program guides (EPGs) is “backdoor tactic” designed to “bias” agency’s expected decision on DTV must-carry, Gemstar Chmn. Henry Yuen said in ex parte letter to FCC Chmn. Powell. Yuen said Commission decision allowing TW to strip EPG information from broadcast signals it carried would “bring significant harm” to more than 5 million consumers who bought analog TVs and VCRs that contain EPG capability and would seriously harm competition because manufacturers and retailers no longer would be able to build and sell such sets. Despite its request for declaratory ruling on EPG, TW has “expressed little or no interest” in actually stripping out EPG information, Yuen said, and in fact is contractually prohibited from doing so: “Its aggressive push for a declaratory ruling is obviously not motivated by any real need for resolving any analog carriage dispute… [Its] true intent is clearly about establishing a precedent that will influence future decisions on digital carriage issues.” He said granting TW request now “would be extremely adverse to public policy and prejudice the important issues at stake in the digital must-carry proceeding.”