Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions (ATIS) holds 2nd in series of Web conferences at 2 p.m. April 26, this one on “Next Generation Disability Accessibility,” featuring talk by Elizabeth Lyle, vp, Wallman Strategic Consulting, and ex-FCC Wireless Bureau. ATIS Info-Sync conference is $135, $100 for ATIS member companies -- Megan Hayes, 202-662-8653.
RadioShack and Circuit City Stores urged FCC to take several steps to “level the playing field” for competitive digital cable set-top boxes and speed nation’s DTV transition. In letter last week to FCC Chmn. Powell, revealed Fri. in ex parte filing, RadioShack and Circuit City called on Commission to move up deadline for cable operators to stop leasing and selling proprietary cable set-tops with integrated conditional access and other functions to Jan. 1, 2002, from current Jan. 1, 2005. Companies also proposed that agency make MSOs abide by same OpenCable technical specifications for digital cable boxes that competitors would use. Finally, 2 CE retailers suggested that FCC force MSOs to “extend the same level of subsidy, from pooling with analog converter costs,” to consumers getting competitive cable boxes. Consumer electronics executives charge that cable operators unfairly subsidize their own digital customers, keeping digital box prices low by raising prices on analog converters. “Each of these revisions would avoid intrusive, over-the-shoulder regulation by the Commission,” RadioShack and Circuit City argued. “By putting competitive consumers on equal footing with others, these provisions would do no more than was done in the deregulation of telephone CPE [customer-premises equipment]. These revisions would, finally, give a fair shake to consumers who want to own their own equipment rather than lease cable set-top boxes.”
FCC should quickly review remaining broadcast ownership rules, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) told Commission Chmn. Powell in letter last week. They said agency could do so through either new rulemaking or as part of biennial review. If Powell doesn’t plan separate ownership rulemaking, lawmakers said, he should “accelerate the timetable” for biennial review.
FCC Enforcement Bureau fined Advanced Telecom Network $46,700 for failure to make required contributions to universal service support programs. Commission said company was chronically tardy in submitting contributions and owed more than $266,000. It filed Notice of Apparent Liability March 2 and hadn’t received response or payment from Advanced, leading to forfeiture order (EB 00-1H- 0241).
FCC’s order subjecting noncommercial educational (NCE) and public broadcast stations to competitive bidding for licenses in nonreserved spectrum was effort to interpret “difficult” language of statute and not to expand its auction authority, agency told U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. Court was hearing oral argument on petition by NPR and others seeking review of Commission’s order. NPR said one part of Sec. 309 of Communications Act stated that FCC’s authority to award licenses through competitive bidding didn’t apply to NCE and public broadcasting applicants. Grey Pash, counsel for FCC, said statute provided several directives and it wasn’t clear that Congress understood problems it could create. Saying it wasn’t easy issue to resolve for agency, he said meaning of statute’s language depended on context. Among statute’s goals was expanding FCC’s auction authority, reducing comparative standards process and recovering for public portion of value of public spectrum, he said. Under NPR’s interpretation, there would be fewer auctions and more comparative proceedings, he said. In support of public broadcasters, he pointed out FCC had made provision for reallocating channels from nonreserved to reserved if need arose. FCC’s determination that exemption didn’t apply to NCE and public broadcasters violated plain language of statute, said Patrick Philbin, lawyer for NPR. Most of questioning from 3-judge panel focused on language of statute, with judges seeming to concur that language wasn’t specific. Judge Raymond Randolph said statute wasn’t talking about applications, but licenses already issued. FCC can exempt applicants only after entire licensing process is over and agency’s problem is what process to use to determine who gets license. “I think Section 2 is a muddle,” he said. Judge David Tatel questioned NPR lawyer on how FCC’s provision for reallocating channels could be in conflict with statute. When Pash sought to present agency’s difficulty in making sense of some provisions of statute, Judge Douglas Ginsburg remarked: “It’s a kind of think-o, not a typo by Congress?” Ginsburg also explored with Pash possibility of using “hybrid” system for selecting mutually exclusive applicants for reserved spectrum suggested by Philbin. FCC says statute provides conflicting directions, he said, but there’s nothing in language that limits exemption for NCE and public broadcasters to reserved spectrum.
Focal Communications signed interconnection agreements with Verizon that called for reciprocal compensation levels similar to what FCC required in latest order (CD April 20 p1) -- 0.15 cents per min. for traffic below 10-1 ratio of originating to terminating traffic, 0.12 cents per min. for traffic that exceeds ratio. Agreements, announced by Focal Wed., cover states where 7 Focal markets are located -- Baltimore, Boston, N.J., N.Y., northern Va., Philadelphia, Washington.
FCC dismissed complaint filed Jan. 24 by Excel Communications and affiliated companies against Qwest alleging carrier had backbilled Excel for primary interexchange carrier charges in violation of Communications Act. Parties said issues raised in complaint had been resolved. (EB 01-MD-03)
In somewhat complex case, U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. remanded FCC decision requiring ILECs to share their DSL facilities with competitors. Qwest and WorldCom, for different reasons, had appealed FCC’s decision that ILECs’ DSL services qualified for competitive access under Sec. 251 of Telecom Act. Act requires ILECs to make their facilities available through unbundling and resale. After sorting out several other legal issues, court ruled that FCC couldn’t base its DSL decision on standard that since had been vacated in different court suit.
FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue outlined several prospects for potentially freeing additional private wireless spectrum Fri., including possibility of user fees, audit of spectrum uses, current secondary spectrum proceeding. Point of user fees for private land mobile radio licenses, idea that has been floated in past and would require change by Congress, wouldn’t be to generate revenue but to increase efficiency of spectrum use, Sugrue said in lunch speech to Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) annual meeting in Washington. “The theory is unless there’s a cost placed on bandwidth and coverage, licensees wouldn’t improve their efficiency of both,” he said, noting that FCC couldn’t make change on its own.
VoiceStream, in ex parte filing at FCC in pending proceeding on Deutsche Telekom merger, said VoiceStream CEO John Stanton raised possible impact that delay in Commission’s decision could have on timing of review by Committee on Foreign Investment in U.S. (CFIUS). Filing said Stanton had separate phone conversations April 19 with Comr. Ness and Chmn. Powell on license transfers that were part of DT deal. “In both conversations, Mr. Stanton urged the Commission to give expeditious consideration to the pending applications,” filing said. FCC missed self-imposed deadline of completing 180-day review by April 8 and is expected to announce decision this week.