The FCC’s upcoming further notice of proposed rulemaking on USF contribution reform, expected to be voted on at the April 27 commission meeting (CD April 5 p1), will tackle the inconsistency over how different providers define how their contribution base is calculated, agency officials said. Because of outdated rules that haven’t kept up with changes in technology and how services are being sold, some providers can pass a lower USF charge on to customers, and that can lead to unfairness, a commission official said. The further notice will try to “avoid market distortions by closing loopholes and ensuring similar services face similar service obligations,” the official said.
Sprint Nextel won’t introduce any new WiMAX 4G smartphones this year as it shifts focus to LTE, the deployment of which will ramp up quickly after the initial six markets launch mid-year, Development Director Ryan Sullivan told us following a New York news conference for HTC’s new Evo 4G LTE model. Sprint’s Network Vision 4G LTE network, expected to be nationwide with 38,000 cell sites by late 2013, will debut in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Kansas City, Mo. In each of the markets, Sprint will install new multi-mode base stations supplied by Alcatel, Harris and Samsung. Field testing is being conducted in the first six markets consisting of internal Sprint trials and those with third-party companies, Sullivan said. The first multi-mode base station went on line in December.
Google’s YouTube could still find itself guilty of copyright infringement, under a ruling Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sent back to a trial court Viacom’s case against the video-sharing website. The U.S. District Court in New York had absolved YouTube of liability, granting summary judgment under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors (CD June 24/10 p6). The 2nd Circuit found fault with U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton’s requirement that YouTube have “item-specific” knowledge of infringement to be disqualified from the safe harbors, and said a “reasonable jury” could find that YouTube had “actual knowledge or awareness of specific infringement.”
Members of Congress and law enforcement agencies backed Big Bend Telephone Co.’s FCC petition for a waiver of some of the new limits on USF recovery. BBTC says it’s the only voice and broadband provider available in the vast majority of its territory, and all alternative providers in the area rely on the company for backhaul transport services. Both Texas senators, Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, wrote FCC members to describe the “unique circumstances” that make BBTC particularly worthy of a waiver (http://xrl.us/bm2s8s).
TORONTO -- Major cable operators are stepping up efforts to capture sizable chunks of the commercial telecom services market and recruit more large companies as customers. Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers Canadian conference last week, engineering executives from three major U.S. cable companies said they'll keep pouring more resources into business services initiatives in 2012, after strong growth over the past several years. They're investing more heavily in technologies, equipment, products, services and staffing for mid-sized and larger companies, following operators’ initial emphasis on small firms with 20 or fewer employees.
A bipartisan group of 19 senators said the FCC should “immediately act” to remedy the group’s concerns over diminished rural communication network investment in the aftermath of October’s USF/intercarrier compensation (ICC) order, said a letter sent Tuesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Warning of “unintended consequences,” the senators requested a formal FCC clarification that the order “will not be implemented in a manner that perpetuates unintended outcomes."
House Republican leaders plan to bring several cybersecurity bills to the floor on the third week of April, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., confirmed Wednesday. During a so-called “cyberweek,” House lawmakers will look at six or more Republican cybersecurity bills with the goal of sending a comprehensive cybersecurity package to the Senate. But Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) warned that some of the bills could have “significant” implications on civil liberties, during a press briefing Wednesday.
A Maryland communications tax bill (HB-563) that’s expected to be signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley is only the start of an effort. Under the bill, a tax commission would be created to review telecom tax and submit findings and recommendations before June 30, 2013. A telecom tax restructuring bill would then be considered during the 2014 legislative session. While localities urged preserving their tax authorities, telecom companies sought a new tax framework that would lower tax rates and encourage investment in broadband infrastructure, county and company officials said.
The FCC is expected to take on USF contribution reform at its April 27 meeting, launching a notice of proposed rulemaking. Commissioners already approved orders addressing the start of distribution reform last October and the overhaul of the Lifeline program in January. But the contribution side of the USF program, how money is collected, has yet to be addressed by the FCC under Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC is scheduled to release a tentative agenda for the April open meeting on Friday.
The FCC shouldn’t adopt Comcast’s proposal to let some of its in-house attorneys and executives view the distribution agreements between online video distributors and third-party programmers in order to qualify for some of the program-access conditions of the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger approval order, companies and public interest groups said in comments filed at the FCC this week. Dish Network, Public Knowledge and a coalition of TV programmers that includes Disney, CBS, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Time Warner and Viacom each filed separate comments arguing against Comcast’s proposal.