FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is teeing up an order that takes on a number of lingering public safety communications issues possibly for the Jan. 25 meeting, industry officials said Wednesday. The meeting will be the first since last week’s meeting, in which the FCC approved controversial net neutrality rules. Orders are expected to circulate among the other commissioner offices Tuesday, three weeks before the meeting date.
The FCC should force Time Warner Cable to drop some Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting TV signals in markets where Smith Media owns or manages the local station, Nexstar and Mission said in an emergency petition filed with the agency this week. The petition came after Smith and TWC reached an impasse in retransmission consent negotiations covering three northeastern TV stations Dec. 15, and TWC began importing Nexstar and Mission signals to replace them. TWC didn’t properly notify Nexstar, Mission, local subscribers or franchise authorities before adding the out-of-market stations, Nexstar and Mission said in the petitions. They also asked the FCC to immediately give Smith its network non-duplication rights and waive a standard 60-day notice requirement.
Deregulation advocates in Wisconsin are pushing to update state telecom laws even before the new state legislature and governor take office in January. Groups like Wisconsin Technology Council and Wired Wisconsin cited recently updated telecom laws in other Midwestern states, saying modernizing the law would create or retain 50,000 jobs, in addition to having a $2.6 billion economic impact.
An NTIA report on contraband cellphones in prisons said cell signal jamming, which is strongly opposed by wireless carriers, presents many problems and, in the case of state or local prison officials, would be a violation of the Communications Act. The report said managed access technologies “hold promise as a solution.” Cellphone detection also may offer a solution, the report said. NTIA took comments, conducted tests at its lab in Boulder, Colo., and participated in a field test at a prison in Cumberland, Md., in preparing the study.
Verizon Wireless used Alltel’s license to obtain high-cost Universal Service Fund support without getting permission from state regulators, U.S. Cellular, Allied Wireless, Commnet Wireless, and Viaero Wireless said in an ex parte filing published Tuesday. The wireless companies said “the core issue is whether Verizon Wireless was ever properly designated by state authorities” and that using Alltel’s high-cost support caused “ongoing harm … by driving up statewide support levels, causing steep reductions under the cap.” The high-cost issue involves tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, in USF support, one industry official said.
A group of small wireless carriers asked the FCC to reject a TracFone petition seeking new rules for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) under the Link-Up program. The Competitive ETC coalition accused TracFone of seeking a competitive advantage. TracFone, which provides pre-paid wireless service, asked the FCC for a ruling that ETCs may not receive support for providing Link-Up benefits unless they routinely charge customers for commencing service, and may not expand services they offer under the program to wireless service without obtaining approval from the proper authority.
The amount of regulatory activity at the FCC and the convergence of telecom and energy could mean a busier 2011 than 2010 in telecom for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, said Tony Clark, the group’s recently elected president, in an interview. He forecast progress in revamping the Universal Service Fund and the Intercarrier Compensation regime. Meanwhile, smart grid will be a significant issue for state commissioners next year, said the North Dakota Public Service Commissioner.
As cable operators look to expand their business services efforts by pursuing larger commercial customers with up to 250 employees, they need to prepare themselves for a market vastly different than the one most of them have been used to, according to industry experts. Operators have had considerable success in reaching smaller businesses (CD Dec 28 p3).
The FCC’s new net neutrality rules are largely a non-issue for many satellite companies, said industry executives. Although some of the same issues affect satellite networks as impact terrestrial services, including limited spectrum and network management, most satellite companies don’t expect to discriminate among content based on its source, they said. While satellite broadband companies had some initial concerns over universal service fund implications of a Title II net neutrality push, which never came, they're largely unaffected as well (CD Dec 17 p5).
Negotiations among commissioner offices on the Comcast-NBC Universal order are unlikely to get started in earnest until next week, FCC sources said Monday. Advisers to the commissioners, many of whom are taking this week off, will likely use the next few days to start to delve into the main details of the order, which was circulated Thursday, but which runs several hundred pages, officials said.