President Bush’s intended nominees to 3 FCC Commissioner posts (CD April 9 p1) won’t face opposition from Sen. Burns (R- Mon.) in upcoming confirmation hearings, Burns staffer said. Kevin Martin, Kathleen Abernathy and Mike Copps, whom Bush will nominate once paperwork and security clearances are completed, in Burns’ opinion are “good candidates,” staffer said.
Low-power TV (LPTV) stations that qualify as Class A stations protected from interference don’t have same must-carry status as full-power broadcasters, FCC said in order on reconsideration of Class A rules adopted year ago. Commission rejected claims that congressional Class A legislation intended to give Class A stations must-carry, saying Congress was silent on issue. It said, however, that Class A stations would continue to have same carriage rights as LPTV stations.
BellSouth urged FCC to reject CompTel’s request for reconsideration of agency’s line-splitting order, saying none of factors BellSouth wanted reviewed was “appropriate for reconsideration.” For example, BellSouth said, CompTel asked FCC to clarify that low-frequency portion of local loop was subloop unbundled network element that competitors could purchase to provide voice services. However, BS said, “the Commission has never addressed the issue of whether the low-frequency portion of the loop is a network element that must be unbundled.” If agency were to consider that issue, carrier said, “any analysis would clearly fail the necessary and impairment standard” that’s used to weigh whether ILEC element should be unbundled and sold. Assn. of Communications Enterprises (ASCENT) supported CompTel’s request for clarification that low-frequency portion of loop was subloop UNE. Issuance of FCC statement to that effect “would eliminate a potential vehicle by which incumbent… LECs could seek to undermine the Commission’s policy goals,” ASCENT said.
FCC would implement embedded cost method of determining universal service support by July 1 if Sens. Dorgan (D-N.D.), Daschle (D-S.D.), Burns (R-Mon.) and 19 other lawmakers get their way. In letter April 13 to FCC Chmn. Powell, they said that despite Rural Task Force recommendation that Commission adopt embedded cost method, which they said was critical to rural high- cost reform, “Commission has relegated rural needs to the back burner.” Method would “allow carriers to recover their actual costs and thereby more accurately assess their individual need level for support,” they told Powell. Senators also urged FCC to lift caps on how much high-cost support govt. could provide to individual carriers. Burns is sponsor of bill that would remove such caps and related limitations and Rep. Deal (R-Ga.) has introduced companion legislation in House (CD March 26 p3).
Second largest ultra-wideband (UWB) technology developer Fantasma Networks closed its doors Fri. after unnamed investor backed out of 2nd round of financing at last min. “The capital markets are extremely difficult right now,” company spokesman said. “That’s the issue, it was not a technology issue.” First round investors in Fantasma had included Paul Allen-backed Vulcan Ventures and Intel and company itself was spun off from Allen’s former technology incubator Interval Research last year. Former FCC Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield joined company in Jan. as technical adviser. Shuttering of Mountain View, Cal., company leaves smaller pool of UWB developers to make case at FCC about pending regulations that would allow devices to operate in Part 15 limits, move that has stirred wireless carriers and GPS industry concerns.
House Commerce Committee telecom staff “is very busy” during recess “doing the legwork on a number of important issues,” spokesman Ken Johnson told us. Among areas of activity, he said: (1) “Team of people” is reviewing Bush Administration’s budget. (2) “We have people meeting with broadcasters on the problems being experienced in the migration to digital.” (3) “We have people reviewing the Senate campaign finance bill, with a special emphasis on provisions which would mandate lowest unit rates for politicians.” (4) “We have some folks that are examining the whole range of 3G [third-generation wireless] issues.” (5) “We're also continuing to work on our recommendations for FCC reform.”
Result of final independent tests conducted by Mitre Corp. of Bedford, Mass. to determine whether Northpoint-Broadwave technology would interfere with DBS systems is due “early next week and as early as Tues.”, industry source said. Once results are made public, issue will be put out for public comment. Source said FCC could make final ruling “any day” and didn’t have to wait for all of comments to come in. DBS industry has objected to tests’ being conducted by Mitre, which they call “unqualified” to fully evaluate Northpoint system (CD April 9 p6).
Regulatory authority over unwanted e-mails on wireless devices appears to be murky, with industry groups and consumer advocates questioning whether FTC or FCC potentially have mandate in that area and agencies themselves saying they don’t. Lack of clarity on regulatory purview is expected to drive at least some attention in Congress this year on wireless spam. While spamming incident involving short message service (SMS) on as many as 170,000 mobile phones in Phoenix has drawn widespread attention in recent weeks, analysts and industry representatives said problem still was rare in industry searching for broader consumer use of wireless Internet applications.
FCC granted Boeing authority Fri. to operate up to 800 receive-only mobile earth stations aboard aircraft in 11.7-12.2 GHz band. As part of order, Boeing must not cause harmful interference to domestic or foreign station operators, Commission said. Company must stop mobile operations if they receive notice of interference from operations, FCC said, and company must accept any interference from any authorized user.
Time Warner Cable urged FCC to issue actual ruling on last- min. bid by Gemstar-TV Guide International to withdraw its petition for special relief in bitter cable must-carry battle. Gemstar filed its intent Wed. to withdraw petition immediately, after conceding that Commission was poised to rule against it in struggle over cable carriage of its electronic program guide (CD April 12 p3). Gemstar also sought to have petition dismissed “without prejudice as a matter of right,” permitting it to file new petition later if it wanted. But Time Warner Cable, now unit of AOL Time Warner, argued that FCC had discretion to dismiss or not dismiss as it chose. NCTA, which had filed comments in support of MSO’s stance, said Gemstar “apparently concluded that it has overreached in its request for government intervention.” Arguing that cable operators “are not required to subsidize the launch of new businesses by broadcasters nor third-party vendors,” NCTA said “marketplace negotiations, rather than the threat of government regulation, already provide a mechanism for companies such as Gemstar to work with cable operators.”