ALTS Pres. John Windhausen wouldn’t comment Mon. on a rumor he was thinking of stepping down from his post. The rumor surfaced a week after a private ALTS document outlining lobbying strategy landed by mistake on the FCC’s website (CD Oct 4 p3).
A private ALTS document prepared for a meeting of the association’s board mistakenly landed on the FCC’s website as an ex parte filing Sept. 27, making public ALTS’ assessment of FCC commissioners’ attitudes toward CLECs, the association’s revenue and dues structure and its lobbying strategy. The document was taken off the website a day later -- but not before a number of corporate attorneys throughout the Washington communications community had seen it. A Bell official said the item “circulated relatively widely” because most corporate regulatory attorneys “do a sweep” of the ex parte filings every day. The mistake happened because a Swidler Berlin Shereff & Friedman lawyer, working for small CLEC Alpheus, filed the ALTS document instead of an Alpheus ex parte in the FCC’s TRO proceeding. An Alpheus official was among those invited to ALTS’ Sept. 28-29 board meeting in Washington. “It’s a warning for all attorneys in town,” said the Bell official. The profiles of FCC commissioners appeared to be the most talked about feature. Among assessments: (1) Comr. Martin “now that he lost the fight on UNE-P, appears to be fighting less hard for CLECs.” (2) Comr. Copps’ “unwillingness to compromise could be problematic,” although he’s a “strong CLEC advocate.” (3) Comr. Adelstein “generally follows Copps’ lead.” (4) Chmn. Powell is likely to support President Bush’s broadband agenda “before the election.” (5) Comr. Abernathy “will follow the lead of the chairman.” Asked about the assessments, an aide to one commissioner said: “No comment. They made a mistake. We're not commenting.” In addition, members of Congress were listed as “positive” or “negative” on CLEC issues. For example, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) was listed as negative, Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) as positive. Reflecting the technology bust that started several years ago, the document shows ALTS membership is down to about 1/4 of 1998 levels, and revenue is just slightly above $1 million, compared with about $2.5 million in 2000. Among strategies contemplated by the document, written by ALTS Pres. John Windhausen: (1) Developing an alliance with ISPs by endorsing VoIP deregulation in return for intercarrier compensation support. (2) Seeking an alliance with equipment manufacturers by offering CLEC build-out guarantees in return for support for a stronger UNE policy. (3) “If the debate turns against us” ALTS might consider taking a stronger step by suggesting “an end to UNEs at a specific date in return for strengthening UNE provisioning today.” (4) Another step to consider if ALTS begins losing the debate is opposition to “allowing wireless companies to become ETCs,” a move that might “strengthen an alliance with the rural ILECs in return for their opposition to RBOC legislation.” The paper says that last strategy might “split USTA.” A USTA spokeswoman said this “divide and conquer” strategy is “nothing more than wishful thinking.” USTA’s members are “extremely unified and are focused on working together to help stabilize the Universal Service Fund and bring market- based competition to the telecom industry.” Windhausen said the document was a discussion draft designed to “tee up issues for discussion,” not something approved or reviewed by members. He said he had apologized to officials mentioned in the draft. He said he regretted the “overly simplistic” characterization of officials. “It’s sort of unfair to pigeonhole them,” even in a discussion draft, he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a press release announcing the implementation of emergency interim measures at certain U.S. land border ports in response to the detection and confirmation of the adult Mediterranean Fruit Fly (ceratitis capiata, Medfly) in the municipality of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
Several parties joined the United Telecom Council in protesting a freeze on applications in the 896-901 MHz/935-940 MHz private land mobile (PLMR) frequency band after Nextel affiliate ACI began buying up spectrum in the band. Small Business in Telecom said: “The effect of the freeze does nothing to ameliorate the agency’s concerns and, instead, works as a prejudice against all other legitimate applicants and existing users.”
American President Lines, Ltd. and APL Co. Pte. Ltd., have petitioned the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), pursuant to Section 16 of the 1984 Shipping Act, for a full exemption from the first sentence of Section 9(c) of the 1984 Act to permit them to reduce their tariff rates, charges, classifications, rules, or regulations, effective upon publication. The FMC notes that while petitioners, at the time they filed this petition, did not meet the statutory definition of a controlled carrier, they have advised the FMC that they anticipate meeting this definition in the very near future. (Notice of Filing of Petition No. P5-04, FR Pub 09/28/04, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/06jun20041800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-21743.pdf.)
Monster Cable put its name on the San Francisco Giants’ home. The Brisbane, Cal.-based AV cable supplier is said to have paid at least $6 million for the naming rights to the 44-year-old stadium, beating out Oracle, Organic Inc., Macromedia, Virgin USA and Wells Fargo. Monster signed a naming rights contract Mon. and many of the signs around the newly named Monster Park will be updated for Sun. night’s San Francisco 49ers-St. Louis Rams football game, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The 49ers’ team officials told the newspaper the name was a good match for a professional sports stadium, noting the Chicago Bears’ legendary “Monsters of the Midway” defense and Fenway Park’s fabled left field wall, “The Green Monster.” The team and city will split the sale proceeds evenly, each getting at least $3 million. Monster and 49ers officials wouldn’t release the exact amount of the winning bid. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in July to authorize the sale of the stadium name. The city-owned stadium opened April 12, 1960, as the Giants’ home. The 49ers played their first game there in 1971. It originally was named Candlestick Park after the point of land it sits on and 1996-2001 was called 3Com Park. It reverted to “Candlestick” after the 3Com deal expired. The Giants left when Pacific Bell Park (now SBC Park) opened in 2000. A few board members, who objected to selling the naming rights, have placed a local measure on the Nov. ballot that would retain the name Candlestick.
The Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) signed off on a proposal to permit VHF public coast (VPC) and automated maritime telecommunications system (AMTS) licensees to provide private mobile radio service to units on land -- provided marine communications retain priority. The RTCM filing is the first in 2 months in the docket, which seeks comments on a proposal by MariTel and Mobex seeking additional flexibility for public coast station licensees. “By improving the business opportunities for spectrum licensees, the proposal could potentially improve services available to maritime users,” RTCM said. The group added that licensees must adopt “operational or technical measures which ensure that priority is always given to maritime communications” and should be required to explain how this will be accomplished: “The market will dictate whether such interconnection is required.” “My reading is that the Commission is willing to go forward with it as proposed, barring significant opposition,” said a maritime industry source. “Opposition is most likely to come from the maritime community, and we generally have no objection to it, as long as maritime uses of the frequencies are protected.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a press release detailing the emergency interim measures being implemented at all land border ports in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and in El Paso, TX as a result of the detection and confirmation of adult Mediterranean Fruit Fly (ceratitis capiata, Medfly) in the municipality of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
The United Telecom Council (UTC) asked the FCC to revisit its decision to freeze applications in the 896-901 MHz/935-940 MHz private land mobile (PLMR) frequency band. “The application freeze, if continued for any significant length of time, poses hardships for critical infrastructure licensees, many of which rely on this frequency band for private, internal mission-critical communications,” UTC said. It said the freeze “halts long-planned and much-needed expansions of existing communications systems into new areas, such as adding new sites to provide communications coverage where electrical and gas infrastructure has been extended to provide basic services to consumers and businesses in growth areas.” UTC also said it was concerned about the rationale for the freeze. The group said the FCC announced the freeze to protect Nextel’s ability “to obtain the necessary ‘green space’ to house some of its systems while the 800 MHz band is reconfigured” without mentioning that Nextel subsidiary ACI 900 has been the entity buying up all the 900 MHz frequencies. “It seems odd, at best, that an important private wireless frequency band should be frozen to protect an entity that is the only cause for the concern expressed,” UTC said.
Promoting widespread use of the term “transmitters disabled” and corresponding screen icons is at the heart of a CEA draft of a standardized “recommended practice” that is circulating for comment and ultimately could ease restrictions on use of wireless personal electronic devices (PEDs) aboard commercial aircraft (CED Sept 22 p7). CEA has set a Sept. 27 deadline for comments on the draft, with the aim of releasing it as a final voluntary standard Oct. 18, opening day of the CEA Industry Forum in San Francisco (CED Sept 3 p5).