Colorado Republicans Sen. Mark Scheffel and Rep. Carole Murray proposed a measure to remove state regulators’ control over certain rates and eliminate the state high-cost fund by 2031. While companies like AT&T claim the bill is good for innovation and job creation, consumer advocates cautioned of rate increases and a weaker consumer protection mechanism.
The FCC understands that interoperability across the lower 700 MHz band is a critical issue, but there may not be any easy answers, Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman said Tuesday. Milkman kicked off two panels and nearly three hours of discussion at the FCC, much of it highly technical.
The FCC should allow for flexibility in meeting the requirements of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), companies and trade associations told the commission in comments filed this week. But advocates for the deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind said the rules must not be so flexible that “accessibility is never achieved,” said joint comments filed by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc., the National Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of America, Association of Late-Deaf Adults, American Association for the Deaf-Blind and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network. “The Commission must also avoid the situation where accessibility is achieved only in a minority of instances,” they said. “It is the clear intent of Congress … that it should be the rule that accessibility is to be achieved in most cases, and only in exceptional instances in which providers can show that accessibility is not achievable can this requirement be foregone,” they said.
Broadcasters jousted with wireless carriers and the CEA as the FCC took in a last round of comments on its proposal to “repurpose” parts of the TV band. NAB filed a report, written by former FCC official Uzoma Onyeije, questioning whether there really is a spectrum “crisis.” CTIA and CEA fired back, arguing that all the evidence shows a growing need for more spectrum for wireless broadband. Five nonprofit groups said the commission needs to collect data on whether TV stations fully use their spectrum, with commenters “deeply divided on this question."
Pay-TV distributors still like the statutory licenses that let cable systems carry broadcast TV programming without licensing the rights for that programming from every content owner carried on a broadcast, and copyright holders still want to do away with the rules, comments to the Copyright Office Monday indicate. The office sought industry input for a report to Congress required by last year’s satellite reauthorization act on possible alternatives to the statutory license system. Commenters largely ignored questions the office asked about online video. Broadcasters suggested keeping the statutory license for local carriage of TV stations, but eliminating it for the importation of distant signals. Pay-TV distributors argued against eliminating the licenses without altering retransmission-consent and must-carry rules.
BERKELEY, Calif. -- The U.S. State Department and the U.N. are ready to launch efforts to harness advanced digital communications for human-rights work, participants said at the Advancing the New Machine conference at the University of California. A U.N. program is opening at the end of the summer in Kampala, Uganda, the first of a series of Pulse Labs planned around the world to bring together researchers and activists from government, academia and nonprofits to use information about changes in the use of communication services for early-warning systems about crises hitting vulnerable populations, said Robert Kirkpatrick, director of the U.N. Global Pulse program.
Many Tennis Channel advertisers also buy spots on Comcast’s sports networks, the administrative law judge overseeing the network’s case against the cable operator was told Tuesday. There’s a large overlap between top advertisers on the channel and those who also buy ads on Comcast’s Golf Channel and Versus, Tennis Channel Senior Vice President Gary Herman testified. He said the independent channel’s growth in ad dollars and subscribers has been curtailed by Comcast’s refusal to move it to a more widely purchased tier of cable service (CD April 26 p6). A lawyer for Comcast asked Herman about a dozen questions on other channels not owned by the cable operator that have even more advertiser overlap.
The 1755-1780 MHz band is ideal for wireless broadband, and should be reallocated as quickly as possible, CTIA, 4G Americas and the carriers filing comments told the FCC. The band has been identified by NTIA as its top priority for evaluation. Carriers have long sought to have the band paired with the AWS-3 spectrum for eventual auction. The FCC’s Spectrum Task Force had sought comment on various bands identified by NTIA as potentially suitable for wireless broadband. Comments were due Friday.
The Senate Commerce Committee hopes next month to mark up a spectrum bill by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., multiple Senate aides said. Democratic and Republican staffs are trying to merge the Rockefeller bill with the draft Wireless Innovation and Spectrum Enhancement (WISE) Act by Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, they said. The combined bill could later meet a roadblock if more conservative senators balk on the government paying broadcasters for spectrum the broadcasters never paid for, said one Senate aide.
Wisconsin Republicans Rep. Mark Honadel and Sen. Rich Zipperer circulated a draft bill that would update the state telecom law. The bill is expected to be introduced soon after the Tuesday deadline for co-sponsorship. Two coalitions fought over the proposed mandate on payment of intrastate access charges on VoIP.