Major broadcast networks that used electronic newsroom captioning to satisfy closed-captioning requirements in 1997 may continue to use technique, FCC said in clarification letter to CBS. Instead of live captioning, technique essentially uses scripts of newscasts as closed captions. Commission said technique meets its “no-backsliding” requirement.
U.S. Copyright Office (CO) expects to open inquiry into copyright compulsory licensing for streaming media within next week, said CO attorney Bill Roberts. Inquiry is first step in potentially setting rules that will “determine a lot of how music is delivered in the future over the Internet,” Roberts told Precursor Group conference in Washington Fri. CO expects to allow about 45 days for comments, 30 days for replies, then decide whether to proceed to rulemaking or issue final rule, he said.
FCC’s EEO rules shouldn’t have been overturned entirely just because U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., objected to one portion of them (CD Jan 17 p1), Commission said in petition for rehearing or en banc hearing. Petition, filed Fri., said federal agency was entitled to have provisions treated as severable “when it clearly states its intent and when such intent is rational.” Minority Media & Telecom Council and civil rights groups also were expected to file notices of appeal after our deadline Fri. FCC said it could institute proceeding to set EEO rules without “offending provision,” but that would waste agency’s resources and could lead to additional litigation. Commission said so-called “Option B” rejected by court wasn’t essential to its EEO rules, but was “adopted at the request of broadcasters to provide them with additional flexibility.” FCC Comr. Tristani supported petition, but said she was “disappointed” that agency declined to seek review of entire Appeals Court decision, rather than just bid to retain Option A.
FCC determined that Time Warner (TW) was subject to effective competition in Waco, Tex., and revoked city’s certification to regulate basic cable service. Granting TW petition, Commission said company had demonstrated that Clearsource, franchised cable operator that also provides LEC service in Waco, provided comparable programming as required by LEC effective competition test. TW also provided evidence that there were no regulatory, technical or other impediments to Clearsource’s provision of cable service in Waco and that it was able to provide cable that overlapped TW’s service, agency said. TW’s petition was unopposed.
In long-form applications for C-block licenses made public last week, financial details emerged on relationships of designated entities with noncontrolling, larger carriers. Black Crow Wireless, designated entity with backing from U.S. Cellular Corp. (USCC), told FCC that Black Crow has right to require USCC to buy its interest. “Significantly, there is no corresponding ‘call’ right on the general partner’s [Black Crow’s] interest,” filing said. Petitions to deny long-form applications are due Fri. for auction of 422 licenses that closed in Jan. and raised $17 billion (CD March 1 p3). Dobson Communications said it reached PCS transfer rights agreement with AT&T Wireless. Dobson subsidiary DCC PCS won 14 licenses at auction for $546 million. Agreement with AT&T Wireless provides that if Dobson wants to sell or transfer its interest in any PCS license it won at auction it will first offer spectrum to AT&T Wireless. If AT&T Wireless declines to buy licenses, Dobson said it could sell them to any other party. Application also describes Dobson-AT&T Wireless joint venture that depends on outcome of auction. Each agreed to contribute at least one 10 MHz license in agreed-upon markets. Dobson would then retain control of venture, which would use AT&T brand. Designated entity Cook Inlet/VS GSM (CIVS), in which VoiceStream has noncontrolling interest, said VoiceStream had “neither de jure nor de facto control.” Cook Inlet won 22 licenses for $506.38 million and VoiceStream PCS was high bidder for 19 licenses for $482.65 million. Cook Inlet Wireless, subsidiary of Alaska Native Regional Corp. Cook Inlet Region, controls CIVS. Filing said VoiceStream will have contributed $149.4 million in venture and Cook Inlet 50.1% ($150 million) pending approval of license applications. If CIVS converts existing $207 million note held by VoiceStream, latter would hold 70% of equity in designated entity. CIVS also can call on VoiceStream for additional cash commitments, bringing its equity interest up to 85% but leaving CIVS in control of management authority, filing said.
Minn. Gov. Jesse Ventura (Ind.) picked 3 finalists from 38 applicants to succeed Minn. PUC Comr. Joel Jacobs, whose term expired in Jan. but who has stayed on until successor is picked. Finalists are: Gibbon, Minn., attorney Paul Glaeser, with background in economic development; Eric Malinen, ex-FCC senior legal adviser with background in wireless services and telecom- based business development, and Colin Wightman, engineering dept. chmn. and prof. at Minn. State U., Mankato, with background in energy systems engineering.
Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) inducted former FCC Chmn. William Kennard, ex-Comr. Benjamin Hooks and broadcasting pioneer John Oxendine into MMTC Hall of Fame Thurs. in reception at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand law firm in D.C.
Two weeks past mandatory deadline set by Congress (CD Feb. 20 p3) to conduct tests and compile results, as of Fri. Northpoint was only terrestrial company that had submitted technology for testing by Mitre, officials said. Mitre had been hired by FCC to conduct testing of satellite and terrestrial equipment owned by DBS and terrestrial companies involved in dispute at Commission. DBS providers EchoStar and DirecTV also submitted equipment, but kept pressure on to have Mitre removed as testing company while challenging way tests were being conducted. Mitre is conducting tests at hq in Bedford, Mass. Congress had ordered FCC to complete tests by Feb. 19, but parameters for procedures weren’t finished in time to meet deadline. Northpoint CEO Sophia Collier told us she expected Mitre to release results of tests “on or around” April 9.
Timing of CTIA court challenge over scope of Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s (ACHP) authority to promulgate rules that bind FCC (CD Feb 26 p7) is unfortunate, said PCIA Senior Vp- Govt. Relations Robert Hoggarth last week. “We have worked very hard for the last 8 months” on draft agreement on streamlining wireless antenna collocation review procedures, Hoggarth said. Nationwide program agreement was drafted by staffs of FCC, ACHP, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) and tribal representatives to try to streamline reviews on whether facilities such as towers may affect historic properties. FCC recently extended comment period for draft to provide tribal representatives additional time to submit comments and final action on draft is weeks away. “We have been working very hard with the ACHP, NCSHPO and the tribes to blunt the impact of the lawsuit,” Hoggarth said. Filing lawsuit over rules that implement Sec. 106 of National Historic Preservation Act so close to final action on draft agreement “poisons water” concerning ability of parties to bridge any remaining differences, Hoggarth said. CTIA lawsuit itself didn’t concern draft agreement on collocation but targeted broader ACHP regulations on siting and environmental impact designed to ensure that facilities such as towers have no adverse environmental impact on wireless properties. CTIA wants court to review final rule issued by ACHP in Dec. Assn. is arguing regulation goes beyond scope of ACHP’s rulemaking authority under NHPA, which defines council’s role as advisory and not regulatory.
Ensuring viability of open, interoperable Internet doesn’t constitute “regulation” in traditional sense, FCC Comr. Tristani said in separate statement on Commission’s approval of AOL acquisition of Time Warner (CD Jan 16 p1) released Thurs. Far from regulating Internet, ensuring interoperability actually “blocks de facto regulation of the Internet by a private corporation through a combination of cable bottleneck, proprietary code, network effects and the high consumer cost of switching to a competing service,” she said in statement setting forth her reasons for voting to approve deal. Referring to condition barring new AOL-TW from offering new service using AOL instant messaging service’s Names and Presence Database (NPD) and TW’s cable assets until it has achieved interoperability with at least 3 competitors, Tristani said best public interest outcome -- maintaining openness that has characterized Internet since its inception -- wasn’t guaranteed. Outcome most threatening to free flow of information and consumer choice, “where the tipped market in the text-based instant messaging world migrates to the broadband world of high-speed services, would appear to be mitigated, not avoided,” she said. Rather than ensuring best outcome, condition sought instead to avoid worst, Tristani said in explaining how her approach differed from that of her colleagues: (1) New company, under “bar-the-worst-approach,” may decline to offer new service that triggers interoperability condition. “Under this scenario there is no interoperability and little, if any, public interest benefit arising from the condition.” (2) Merged company, if it chooses to offer new service, may do so by entering into contracts with no fewer than 3 competitors that offer NPD-based services. That would result in contractual interoperability rather than code-based interoperability because if competitors agreed to use new company’s proprietary code, they actually would expand market domination of that code rather than interoperate with it. “This is not interoperability like that which makes e-mail work today.” Merged company may offer new, high-speed service using its combined assets if it achieves server-to-server interoperability using public, published protocol that has approval of international standard setting bodies, Tristani said, and that’s outcome that best serves public interest. She said she supported overall scheme in Commission’s order in part because it set forth several policy features applicable to future mergers: (1) Commission rejected private corporate control of Internet protocol pathway. (2) It rejected “the facile assumption that business practices based on a proprietary code that create informational bottlenecks on the Internet somehow serve the public interest.” (3) Merged company must achieve interoperability at time it seeks to utilize combined assets, not before. (4) New entity would be relieved from ban on new service offering if it showed clear and convincing evidence that condition no longer served public interest, which Tristani said would be “a fair outcome for consumers and the parties.”