The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission appealed the FCC’s order on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Another appeal from NASUCA is coming, the group’s executive director, Charles Acquard, told us. More appeals might be coming from states, analysts said. The FCC looks forward to “vigorously defending” in court its “unanimous, balanced” USF and ICC reforms, an agency official said.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., will seek middle ground with the House on spectrum legislation, including reducing his proposal for funding a national public safety network, Rockefeller told reporters Tuesday after Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. The House-proposed figure of $6.5 billion comes “close” to what’s needed for the network, but $7 billion or $7.5 billion would be “a whole lot better,” the Senate Commerce Committee chairman said. The extra money could make the difference on whether the network gets built, Rockefeller said.
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau opened investigations into allegations that Lifeline carriers aren’t properly checking whether their customers are eligible to receive the subsidy, the commission said Monday in an enforcement advisory (http://xrl.us/bmkcfs). “We are actively investigating these allegations, and issue this Enforcement Advisory to alert Lifeline service providers that they face stiff penalties, potentially including revocation of their [eligible telecommunications carrier service] status or their section 214 authorization to operate as carriers, if they do not strictly adhere to the Commission’s rules,” the FCC said.
The growth of digital content delivery is opening up huge opportunities for Sony and other companies, but “we have to add value to ownership” of that content for consumers, Robert Wiesenthal, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sony Corporation of America told the UBS investors conference in New York Tuesday. That’s “a challenge,” he said.
The FCC has a chance to clear the way for foreign investment in U.S. satellite and other communications companies by eliminating unnecessary licensing barriers, said satellite interests in filings at the FCC in docket 11-133. The FCC issued a proposed rulemaking in August on potential changes to foreign ownership rules and the licensing requirements of section 310(b)(4) of the Communications Act (CD Aug 10 p11).
CBS’ retransmission revenue will hit $250 million by late 2012 and increase “every year in the future” as the network cashes in on its top-rated programming, CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday at the UBS conference in New York.
The draft of a new House cybersecurity bill seeks to blend elements of the White House cybersecurity proposal with some recommendations from the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, in an effort to pass bipartisan cybersecurity legislation this session. The proposal, which will be formally introduced next week, would establish DHS as the lead agency to coordinate the response to national cyberthreats, create a new non-governmental organization to increase information sharing between the public and private sectors and emphasize voluntary incentives for private companies to secure U.S. networks.
Senators showed support for televising the U.S. Supreme Court, but at a hearing Tuesday some voiced reservations that it may be unconstitutional for Congress to make rules for an equal branch of government. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts debated S-410, a bill requiring cameras in the courtrooms. There’s “nothing I would love more than to watch Supreme Court arguments on television,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said at the hearing. “At the same time, as a coordinate branch of government, the Supreme Court is entitled … to determine how it operates."
The FCC created new spectrum screen standards in its review of the AT&T/Qualcomm deal and then applied those standards to its review of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, records show and an FCC official confirmed Monday. In its staff report on the T-Mobile acquisition (CD Nov 30 p1), the FCC mentions as part of its spectrum analysis that the “Commission has routinely updated its calculus for the second part of its test -- the spectrum screen -- when ‘new’ spectrum has been made available for mobile wireless services.
Lightsquared is “very pleased” with the results of a new round of testing into whether its proposed LTE broadband wireless network interferes with GPS-equipped devices, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said Monday at the UBS conference in New York.