The Senate decided Fri. to postpone a vote on legislation to make permanent the moratorium on discriminatory Internet taxes and access taxes as it became increasingly clear that support for the bill’s language as written was eroding rapidly. Just off the Senate floor, key players in the Internet tax debate negotiated furiously in an attempt to reach an agreement on new language -- at one point in midday Sen. Wyden (D-Ore.) took to the floor with a prediction that a conclusion might be reached that hour -- but in the end the gulf was too broad to cross, and senators and staff vowed to work over the weekend in hopes of a vote today (Mon.) or tomorrow, Veterans Day.
Taiwan’s Delta Electronics is said to have landed orders from Gateway for a 56W DLP-based rear-projection TV ($3,799). Delta is expected to ship several thousand DLP rear projection TVs this year. Targeting the U.S. market, Delta produces the 3- chip DLP optical engine in China and ships it for final assembly in rear-projection TVs at a plant in Tijuana, Mexico. A Gateway spokeswoman declined comment.
FCC Comr. Copps said the Commission should seize on allegations of “pay-for-play” involving TV and radio stations and shouldn’t leave it to the Enforcement Bureau alone, but should confront the issue themselves. Although an aide to Chmn. Powell said the issue should be dealt with in the context of the Commission’s current examination of localism, Copps said “pay-for-play” shouldn’t be part of “some never- ending process that’s going to go months and months forward. I think we ought to deal with this now.” His comments came in a media briefing Thurs. one day after Comr. Adelstein called on his colleagues to open a formal inquiry into “pay- for-play.”
The FCC denied Verizon’s petition for forbearance from applying the operating, installation and maintenance (OI&M) sharing prohibition to Verizon’s OI&M services. Verizon has asked that the Commission forbear from applying Secs. 53.203(a)(2)-(3) of its rules, which prohibit a Bell company’s Sec. 272 affiliate from sharing OI&M functions with the Bell or another Bell affiliate. However, the FCC said Sec. 10(d) of the Act prohibited it from granting the Verizon petition because “the relevant parts of section 272 are incorporated by reference into section 271, and are, therefore, included within the section 10(d) limitation on forbearance from section 271 until it is ‘fully implemented.'” The FCC also said Sec. 272 was “fully implemented” on a state-by-state basis 3 years after the grant of Sec. 271 authority in a state. In a companion order, the FCC also asked for comment on whether it should modify the rules adopted to implement Sec. 272(b)(1)’s “operate independently” requirement. Specifically, the Commission said it sought comment on: (1) Whether the OI&M sharing prohibition was an overbroad means of preventing cost misallocation or discrimination by Bell companies against unaffiliated rivals. (2) Whether the prohibition against joint ownership by Bells and their Sec. 272 affiliates of switching and transmission facilities, or the land and buildings on which such facilities were located, should be modified or eliminated. Comments are due 15 days and replies 25 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register. Commenting on the Verizon decision, FCC Chmn. Powell concurred in part and dissented in part saying he was “troubled” by the Commission’s unwillingness to consider Verizon’s request for forbearance from the ban on sharing OI&M functions. He said despite Congress having granted the Commission “powerful and sweeping forbearance authority to address situations such as this” in Sec. 10 of the Act, “my colleagues prefer addressing the continued viability of our OI&M rules in the context of a notice and comment rulemaking. I hope to conclude that rulemaking expeditiously.” In a separate statement, Comr. Abernathy dissented, saying the Commission could forbear from the OI&M rule without implicating Sec. 10(d) of the Act and without deciding whether Sec. 271 was “fully implemented” because the OI&M restriction wasn’t a requirement of the statute: “The Commission adopted this prophylactic ban notwithstanding that more limited degrees of separation could have faithfully implemented the statutory requirement that the Bell company and its long distance affiliate ‘operate independently.'” Abernathy said she disagreed with the Commission’s conclusion that Sec. 271(d)(3) hadn’t been fully implemented “even after the grant of section 271 authorization throughout Verizon’s service territory. Had the Commission reached the merits of the forbearance analysis under section 10(a), I would have been inclined to conclude that the prohibition on sharing OI&M functions is not necessary to ensure just and reasonable rates or practices, to protect consumers or to promote the public interest.” Both Abernathy and Comr. Martin said they were “pleased” the Commission was reviewing its requirements regarding OI&M rules. Said Martin: “Although I had reservations about the statutory authority to allow the Commission to forbear from the statute, I support the notice asking whether these rules are required.” However, he said he concurred in the notice, because he was “disappointed” by the FCC’s failure to support a tentative conclusion to eliminate those rules: “In my view, sufficient evidence exists to tentatively conclude that the [OI&M] sharing prohibition is an overbroad means of preventing improper cost allocation or discrimination as required by the statute.” Martin also said he was “confused” why some commissioners advocated complete elimination of any OI&M requirement as in the public interest in one item, but didn’t support the same “tentative conclusion” in the other one: “If they were willing to decide the issue finally today, why are they unwilling to make the same conclusion tentatively?” -- (96- 149)
President Bush said he would nominate Francis Harvey, ex-Duratek and Westinghouse, as asst. secy. of defense- networks & information integration… New at ICG Communications: Carolyn Crawford, ex-NTT/Verio, as vp-corp. development & sales operations; Peter Marsh, ex-MediaMap, vp-Eastern sales; Thomas Muller, ex-Qwest, vp-sales engineering & technical training; Scott Walker, ex-Lucent, vp-Pacific Region sales… New board members at International Intellectual Property Institute: Marshall Phelps, Microsoft; Kevin Rivette, Boston Consulting Group; Jack Granowitz, Columbia U… TV Land promoted Michael Gaylord to vp- online… David Solomon, ex-Comcast, named dir.-business development, Viamedia.
Industry Canada (IC) weighed in at the FCC on an 800 MHz reconfiguration plan backed by Nextel and others, saying it didn’t address how to realign that band effectively along the U.S.-Canada border. IC said some proposed U.S. spectrum relocations under the “consensus plan” submitted to the FCC would “potentially create new reports of harmful interference to our Canadian licensees.” IC cited mutual aid channels shared along the border for public safety, which the plan recognized would need changes. “This will create major disruptions in the operation of systems along the border,” IC said.
Ruinous interference with shortwave reception and other communications in the 2-to-80 MHz radio band would result from the transmission of broadband Internet signals over electrical powerlines -- the so-called broadband-over-powerline (BPL) initiative under study by the FCC -- its detractors charge. As such, BPL emissions radiating over-the-air would imperil the large installed base of consumer shortwave radios and continued growing sales estimated at 2 million receivers yearly, CE executives said. Potential BPL interference also would affect aviation, maritime, land mobile and radioastronomy frequencies, thereby raising homeland security issues, the NAB and other broadcast associations said. There’s acute awareness of the issue in Europe as well, with the U.K.’s BBC in the forefront of research on BPL-related interference.
The FCC granted a petition by the Nassau County, N.Y., Police Dept. to exclude Wireless Assist Video Devices (WAVDs) from the 500-506 MHz band (UHF TV Ch. 19) in the N.Y./Northeast N.J. area to protect incumbent public safety and land mobile operations in that area. The FCC also moved to exclude, to a lesser extent, WAVD operation on adjacent bands 494-500 MHz (UHF TV Ch. 18) and 506-512 MHz (UHF TV Ch. 20) in that area. The FCC also denied a petition by the Society of Bcst. Engineers to treat composite dual-carrier analog/digital TV Broadcast Auxiliary Service emissions within a single channel as separate emissions.
New Video and Computer Games: GarageGames said the futuristic racing game GravRally from 21-6 Productions won awards at Indie Games Con (IGC) ‘03 Players Choice Awards for Best Overall game and Best in Category for Multiplayer. GarageGames also said Dark Horizons: Lore from Max Gaming Technologies came in 2nd place overall and tied for Best Game Art, Bit Shifter from Plastic Games won Best in Category for Single Player and was 3rd overall, Fuzzee Teevee by Gastronaut Studios won Best in Category for Game Art and was 4th overall… German game maker CDV Software Entertainment said the PC game No Man’s Land started shipping in N. America at $39.99.
Cal. Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed a bill that allows state land to be leased to wireless carriers for communications tower sites. The new law (AB-855) directs the Cal. Departments. of Transportation and General Services to develop an inventory of state property that could be leased for wireless towers. The law provides that 15% of such lease revenue goes into a new Digital Divide Fund that will be administered by the Cal. PUC and used to award grants to community organizations for technology training programs that benefit low-income urban and rural areas.