What’s covered by CALEA and what’s not emerged as a subject to heated debates during a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee panel discussion in Washington Thurs. Extending CALEA to VoIP would require Congressional action, said Jim Dempsey of the Center for Democracy & Technology. He said when drafting CALEA, Congress made a distinction between telecom common carriers and the Internet. “Congress at the time was aware the Internet was out there, but it recognized it was different,” he said: “If Congress takes up the issue, it can consider problems that have plagued CALEA implementation to date.”
Notable CROSS rulings
Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) is “dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s” on a bill designed to spur deployment of low-power FM, his counsel said Mon. Lee Carosi told the Future of Music Coalition summit that the bill “will allow LPFM to go ahead full force,” and should be introduced in the next few weeks. “Localism is not being embraced by broadcasters,” she said. Broadcasters aren’t keen on the expansion, Carosi said, noting she was booed off the stage at the NAB convention recently. Rep. Cooper (D- Tenn.) predicted a tough fight on the Hill: “Broadcasters are among the most powerful politically.” Cooper said broadcasters believe they have squatter’s rights from having occupied spectrum for so many decades, but they need to be prodded to surrender analog spectrum at the end of 2006. Public Knowledge Pres. Gigi Sohn was optimistic they would move, because the spectrum can be used for wireless broadband, and the rural and high-tech interests would pressure Congress to force the broadcasters to move. But Consumers Union Telecom Counsel Chris Murray was more pessimistic, suggesting broadcasters would occupy analog spectrum years after the deadline. Carosi was equally skeptical, noting that FCC Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree said broadcasters would rather “eat their young” than return spectrum. Carosi also said that broadcasters have an opportunity to improve localism through DTV multicasting, and said some broadcasters have vowed to offer local news programming and other local services. Media Access Project Deputy Dir. Cheryl Leanza predicted that the media ownership rules approved by the FCC last year would be remanded back to the Commission, and that Congress would step in to prevent the next rulemaking from being as encompassing: “I think we're going to stop the FCC.” Murray and Carosi said that and other issues could be part of the debate over amending the Telecom Act, expected to begin next year. Murray expressed dismay that McCain wouldn’t be chairing the Commerce Committee then -- he’s term-limited -- but McCain will still be on the committee, possibly as Communications Subcommittee chairman, and Carosi said he'll “definitely be active” in the debate.
The FCC set a comment cycle for the proposed license transfers in the $41 billion merger of AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless. Petitions to deny are due May 3, oppositions May 13 and replies May 20. In part, Cingular is requesting a waiver of the cellular cross-interest rule, which limits the ability of a licensee, or an entity with a controlling interest in the cellular licensee, to hold one channel block in an overlapping part of the same rural service area (RSA). Under the proposed merger, Cingular would acquire an interest in the cellular A Block licensees from AT&T Wireless in 11 RSAs where Cingular now holds an attributable interest in the cellular B Block licensee.
The Kan. Corporation Commission (KCC) ruled that special promotions by incumbent telcos to win back customers who have gone to CLECs -- or persuade wavering customers to keep the incumbent’s service -- aren’t inherently anticompetitive and can be in the public interest. But the agency said it would monitor carriers’ win-back/retention programs to ensure they didn’t cross the line into unfair competition. The ruling concludes a docket (02-GIMT-678-GIT) launched in May 2002 after CLECs complained that incumbents’ win-back efforts were unfair. The KCC said the intent of the legislature in state telecom acts was to ensure consumers realize the price and service benefits of competition, not to protect competitors from each other. The KCC said the record was clear that carriers’ win, win-back and retention efforts benefit consumers and therefore advance the public interest. But the KCC said incumbents didn’t have carte blanche approval to make such offerings; they must meet “appropriate statutory limitations.” The KCC said all win-back and retention promotions must be filed with the KCC for review. Win-back discounts are limited to 90 days’ duration. Longer periods are allowed, but then the promotional services must be offered to competitors at wholesale rates. The KCC also adopted a 30-day waiting period before an incumbent can make a win-back offer to a former customer. The KCC set a one- year limit on special retention offers made to keep a customer from leaving for a competitor. The need for the duration restrictions will be reviewed in June 2005. The KCC said that in evaluating win-back and retention offers, it won’t be concerned with protecting competitors but rather “ensuring customers the continued availability of competitive choices.” It said it would use unbundled network element rates and resale discount factor as the basis for evaluating the fairness of incumbents’ price offers.
National broadcasters are more effective in communicating a national emergency to the disabled than the FCC-administered emergency alert system (EAS), said Susan Fox, Disney vp-govt. affairs. “EAS -- the sense that I got from the folks in my own company -- is not the answer,” Fox said during a panel here on defining emergency at FCC’s Emergency Communications and Homeland Security: Working With the Disability Community Summit. “I think what we do, the information that we provide, is greater and broader than EAS,” she said.
Wash. regulators ruled Comcast Phone isn’t exempt from service quality reporting requirements simply because it’s a competitive carrier, but said Comcast could propose an alternative to the service quality reports required of incumbent telcos. The Wash. Utilities & Transportation Commission gave Comcast until April 15 to file its proposal (Case 03-1626). Comcast last year sought exemption from service quality reporting on grounds it’s a competitive carrier and only incumbent telcos fall into the “Class A” provider category for which service reports are required. The WUTC ruled the definition of a Class A carrier is any carrier -- incumbent or competitor -- with more than 2% of the state’s access lines, and Comcast crossed the threshold.
European govt. ministers are expected to adopt tough new antiterrorism measures, including pan-European rules for communications data retention, when they meet later this week. Outrage over the March 11 bombings in Madrid is behind the move. At an emergency meeting Mon., Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council members agreed on a draft declaration on combating terrorism floated by the Irish Presidency and the European Commission (EC). Among other things, they focused on quick development of rules for retention of communications traffic data by service providers, the Presidency said. Not surprisingly, the prospect of more data retention rules prompted criticism from civil liberties advocates.
Promoting the public interest in an age of media consolidation will be a priority for former FCC Comr. Gloria Tristani as managing dir. of the Office of Communication (OC) of the United Church of Christ, officials there said. Tristani, 50, will provide the organization’s first day-to- day presence in Washington in nearly a decade, said OC Exec. Dir. Rev. Robert Chase.
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel Fri. sided with the U.S., ruling that Mexico’s rules for international telecommunications violate its WTO obligations. The case marks the first time a complaint on the implementation of the 1997 WTO basic telecom agreement has made its way through the entire dispute process at the WTO. U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick hailed the decision, saying: “Mexico has provided a single, dominant company with a government mandate to set excessive rates for international calls to Mexico.”
European Internal Market Comr. Frits Bolkestein today (Thurs.) will urge the Competitiveness Council of Ministers to back a draft regulation aimed at cutting red tape that hampers businesses from offering cross-border services, including telecom and Internet. The Directive on Services in the Internal Market, unveiled in Jan., encompasses all services corresponding to an economic activity as defined in European Court of Justice case law, the European Commission (EC) said. That includes telecom services -- but only insofar as they're not covered by specific European Union law -- and services provided at a distance from the service provider via Internet, phone or direct marketing, the EC said. The directive: (1) Involves only targeted harmonization of rules in European Union member states. (2) Is tailored to each field of activity within a general legal framework. (3) Applies the “country of origin” principle, under which a service provider will be subject only to the law of the country in which it’s established, with case-by- case exceptions. (4) Establishes obligations of mutual assistance between national authorities. (5) Allows alternative methods of regulation. If it’s adopted, member states must simplify administrative procedures to which service providers are subject; cut out laws that hinder access to the exercise of service activities; and guarantee free movement of services from other member states, the EC said. The Commission wants a phased approach to adoption, leading to “a genuine internal market for services by 2010.” Bolkestein will press ministers to “grab the opportunity” to show they can meet the challenge of ending protectionism, the EC said. The American Chamber of Commerce (ACC) to the EU Wed. welcomed the proposal, saying it’s a strong supporter of EC plans to make Europe the world’s most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010. Liberalization of the services market will attract more foreign direct investment in Europe, the group said. “This is significant, as American direct investment in the EU already exceeds 540 billion euros and directly supports over 4 million jobs,” ACC EU said. Also on today’s Council’s agenda is a discussion of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive approved by the European Parliament March 9 (WID March 10 p2). Ministers are expected to give final approval to the directive in coming weeks without further discussion, the EC said.