The record shows a growing threat to the Internet if the FCC failed to impose net neutrality rules, according to the text of the order, which the commission released late last week. The FCC approved the order Dec. 21, over the strong dissents of Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker (CD Dec 22 p1), who questioned whether the Internet is at risk. In a series of footnotes, the order rebuts arguments made by the two Republicans in their dissents.
Thanks to impressive gains by the nation’s leading MSOs, the U.S. cable industry stands poised to produce at least $5 billion in commercial services revenue in 2010, up about 25 percent from approximately $4 billion in 2009.
The benefit of consideration of a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the FCC’s net neutrality order may be to rally opposition and send a broader signal to the commission, said a former congressional committee counsel. Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said last week they may attempt to rebuke the FCC by introducing resolutions of disapproval under the Act (CD Dec 22 p5). The procedure has advantages over other lines of attack, but the likelihood of a presidential veto makes it a difficult road, current and former Hill aides said in interviews.
A draft FCC order says Comcast-NBC Universal meets the commission’s public interest standards and applies some conditions, as had been expected (CD Dec 23 p3), senior agency officials said Thursday. That sets up the process for other commissioners to review the framework proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski. After the difficult work on the net neutrality order approved at Tuesday’s meeting, and with holidays and the CES show forthcoming, it may be two weeks before eighth-floor officials have the time to dive into the details of the order, agency, industry and public interest officials said.
GENEVA -- The ITU Radio Regulations Board backed satellite frequency assignment and network cancellations and delays for certain networks administered by France, Russia, Tonga, Cyprus and India, earlier this month, according to the board’s report we obtained. The board told the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) to keep an Iranian network on the books. Italy and Slovenia are moving toward partial resolution of interference troubles, the report said, and Cuba continued to report U.S. transmissions as harmful interference. Questions about possible discrepancies between reality and information in the master register persist concerning more than three dozen satellite networks, according to a separate report by the Radiocommunication Bureau director to the meeting.
GENEVA -- The Radio Regulations Board is putting the finishing touches on recommendations to the WRC-12 aimed at tightening the use of “reliable information” to improve maintenance of the ITU master register and world plans, according to a copy of a draft report by the board that we obtained. Radiocommunication Bureau consultations with administrations have resulted in a number of cancellations, suspensions and suppressed satellite frequency assignments, it said. The board reviewed some of the bureau’s actions under a routine procedure. Recommendations in the report may be revised next year. Satellite executives have said networks’ squatting on underused resources works against developing countries, established operators and direct-to-home services. Proposed stricter measures are aimed at aligning the master register more closely with reality.
Legal challenges of FCC net neutrality rules appear all but certain, but where they will come from remains unclear. Verizon is the leading candidate, industry and FCC officials said. Other industry players, including mid-sized wireline-only carriers, also could challenge. Public interest groups who lost their fight to get the commission to reclassify broadband transmission under Title II of the Communications Act also appear to be considering an appeal.
A coming FCC rulemaking notice on retransmission consent deals may take a broad look at the contracts between subscription-video providers and TV stations, said agency and industry officials watching development of the draft. The notice may not propose many specific remedies to reduce the number of carriage disputes that lead to TV station blackouts on cable, DBS or telco-TV systems, they said. Although styled as a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), the draft may read more like a notice of inquiry (NOI), in that it may ask many questions and not propose many specific rules, said agency and industry officials not involved in writing the item.
An FCC order on Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal may circulate yet before Friday’s federal holiday, industry and commission officials said. If the order didn’t circulate late Wednesday, and it wasn’t as of 5 p.m., it may go to the eighth floor Thursday, they said. Approval by commissioners is unlikely this year, agency and industry officials have said (CD Dec 21 p5). Comcast said Wednesday the deal won’t be completed by Dec. 31.
Key telecom priorities of Hungary, which assumes the EU presidency Jan. 1, are “strategy, security and spectrum policy,” Information and Communications Minister Zsolt Nyitrai said. The byword for the term will be “continuity” of ongoing work on the Europe 2020 strategy, the country’s foreign minister said at a Tuesday news briefing. That work includes several communications items agreed upon in November 2009 by the then-upcoming Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian presidencies. Industry groups, meanwhile, urged the presidency to focus on fiber deployment and investment in new networks. ISPs said their priorities for coming months include EU-level talks on traffic data retention and ISP liability.