Newly elected to NAB boards: Radio -- JoAnn Fisher, WKIT/WZON, Bangor, Me.; Jerry Lee, WBEB, Philadelphia; Gunther Meisse WVNO/WRGM, Mansfield, O.; George DeVault, Holston Valley Bcstg., Kingsport, Tenn. TV -- Madalyn Bonnot, Emmis Communications; Alan Frank, Post-Newsweek Stations… Alicin Reidy named vp-public responsibility, MTV Networks… Robert Chrostowski, Iwatsu America, named to FCC Consumer/Disability Telecom Advisory Committee… James Gallagher, ex-KYW-TV, Philadelphia, named vp-gen. mgr., Comcast MarketLink Philadelphia… John Theodorakis, ex-Avaya, named vp-gen. counsel, HearMe… William Bolster promoted to chmn.-CEO, CNBC; Pamela Thomas-Graham, CNBC.com, moves to pres.-COO… Elected to Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions-sponsored Network & Services Integration Forum: Kenneth Stephens, BellSouth, re-elected as chmn. and team member for industry relations; Ronald Roman, Telcordia, reelected vice chmn. and team member for bandwidth. Team members elected: Connie Hunt, SBC, security, and Andrew Walsh, Telcordia, protection/architecture.
Debating success or failure of Telecom Act (see separate story, this issue) is no academic matter in Congress, where several proposals would make significant changes. Most prominent include 2 heavily pushed by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.): Loosening restrictions on Bell companies’ offering data services across long distance LATA lines and adding restrictions on FCC’s handling of merger reviews. While both have received great deal of support in theory, we're told both still face considerable difficulty winning passage this year.
If communications lobbyists could go back in time and rewrite Telecom Act, Bell companies would be first to grab their pens, with broadcasters close behind, according to interviews by staff of Communications Daily. We asked industry representatives, Capitol Hill officials and others what they would change if they could rewrite Act with benefit of 5 years’ hindsight. Cable representatives appeared least likely to want change, having won deregulation, capital and entry into telecom business through Act. Views of CLEC interests ranged from structural separation for Bell companies to stricter enforcement.
New FCC Chmn. Powell pressed competition rather than regulation on TV and radio issues in his first news conference since taking over 2 weeks ago (see separate story, this issue). Signaling clear break with Democratic-run Commission of last 8 years, he seemed to favor scrapping FCC’s broadcast ownership cap, which prohibits broadcasters from owning TV stations reaching more than 35% of U.S. households. He came out firmly against re- regulation of cable and expressed philosophical concerns about agency’s setting restrictions on indecent TV programming or imposing political free air time rules on broadcasters. But he also avoided taking strong stands on other key TV and radio issues, such as low-power FM (LPFM), DTV transition, cable open access mandates.
While ceding some of his agenda to traditional telecom topics, new House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) continues to seek focus on “using technology to better the lives of all Americans,” spokesman told us Tues. He said Upton wanted to pursue “initiatives in education, health, telecommuting and Internet pharmacies.” On telecom, Upton plans to examine FCC reform, broadband deployment issues, DTV transition and copyright protection on new technologies. He also wants to look at violence in media and telemarketing fraud, spokesman said. Chmn. hasn’t formulated specific positions on topics, he said.
High-power repeaters for satellite digital audio radio service (DARS) won’t interfere significantly with wireless communications service (WCS), Sirius Satellite Radio said in FCC filing responding to WCS entities (CD Feb 1 p9). Sirius submitted theoretical coverage plots for high-power transmitters that it said showed signal strengths well below interference threshold. Sirius, responding to claims that DARS might be allowed more than 1,000 high-power repeaters, said that was “irrelevant” because “1,000 times nothing [no interference] is still nothing.”
U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., panel unanimously upheld FCC’s decision to dismiss pending mutually exclusive applications to pave way for competitive bidding system for 39 GHz licenses. “The Commission balanced the need to implement the new regulatory regime against the effect of upsetting the expectations of appellants and others,” Judge Raymond Randolph wrote for court, including Chief Judge Harry Edwards and Judge David Sentelle. Bachow Communications and others challenged FCC decision to dismiss pending applications as part of transition to competitive bidding system. Commission dismissed without prejudice applications filed at least 30 days before freeze Nov. 13, 1995. It also dismissed applications filed 30 days after freeze date if they met certain mutual exclusivity factors. Court sided with FCC, finding that agency’s decision wasn’t arbitrary and capricious. “The Commission reasonably feared that processing mutually exclusive applications under an antiquated and burdensome comparative application system would diminish the efficiency gains expected from competitive bidding,” court concluded.
New FCC Chmn. Powell laid out broad agenda Tues., stressing need for competition, deregulation and regulatory restraint. Agency should take “judicious” rather than “quasi-legislative” role, he said in his first news conference, citing examples in which FCC’s job primarily was to implement policy. While declining to discuss specifics of priorities such as streamlining FCC procedures, he repeatedly sounded theme of allowing competitive forces in market to take hold. “I do not believe that deregulation is like the dessert that you serve after people have fed on their vegetables as a reward for the creation of competition,” he said. Deregulation is critical to facilitate competition, “not something to be handed out after there’s a substantial number of players in the market,” he said.
Reciprocal compensation payments by Bell companies are growing despite lower rates in some areas, creating “distortions” that will continue until FCC reforms system, BellSouth Vp Robert Blau said in Feb. 1 ex parte letter to Commission. Writing on behalf of BellSouth, Qwest, SBC and Verizon, Blau told Commission that declining rates had been offset by “continuing rapid growth of dial-up Internet minutes.” At same time, cost of network facilities used by CLECs to route Internet calls to ISP modem banks has declined, creating “ever greater economic inefficiencies and distortions,” he said. Only solution is for FCC to require carriers to recover those costs “from their own customers.” Blau said Bells have had difficulty providing figures to prove CLEC costs are going down, as requested by FCC, because “the costs at issue belong to the CLECs who, of course, have no interest in making these data publicly available.” However, Blau attached report by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analysts that he said “corroborates our view that market forces will not reduce rates fast enough to resolve the reciprocal compensation problem at least in the foreseeable future.” Blau said report also showed CLECs were billing both ISP and ILECs for terminating dial-up traffic at rates well above costs and, therefore, many were reaping extraordinary profits on services rendered to the ISP. Financial information in report also revealed that “reciprocal compensation payments… could be eliminated in their entirety without forcing the CLECs to raise per line charges to their ISP customers.” Blau said Dean Witter analysis supported Bell company view that reciprocal compensation payments “represent a totally unreasonable transfer of revenue from the ILECs to CLECs for reasons that have no basis in economics or the law.”
Broadcasters must file electronically to apply for commercial station construction permits, to assign commercial licenses or permits to others and to transfer control of corporate holdings, FCC Mass Media Bureau said. Mandatory electronic filing begins Feb. 15.