The FCC, and the federal government in general, have made “very little progress” dealing with the lack of broadband penetration among minority households and other issues critical to the Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC), President David Honig said at the group’s broadband conference. “The digital divide remains as deep as ever,” he said. “Minority employment in media and high-tech companies is in a tailspin, yet FCC … enforcement has collapsed to virtually none.” The commission is moving on diversity, Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned the level of real industry support for the net neutrality rules that the commission approved 3-2 last month over strong dissent by the Republican commissioners, him and Commissioner Meredith Baker. McDowell also said at a TechFreedom symposium late Wednesday that he hopes the order will be stayed.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Online programmers and distributors have an opportunity to increase their share of total video ad revenue, but the Internet video industry may not be ready to handle the scale of ads and money that conventional TV handles, industry executives said late Wednesday. “Most of us are probably not as big as a single episode of American Idol,” CEO Erick Hachenburg of Metacafe said at an Online Media, Marketing and Advertising conference panel. One reason ad money hasn’t found its way to online video and keeps going to TV is that it’s easy to spend there, he said. Advertisers still can’t spend that kind of money on online video, Hachenburg said. No one can collect an audience the size of traditional TV online yet, and Web video companies need to “scale the business quickly enough to be able to be effective,” he said.
T-Mobile USA is expected to make a turnaround this year, parent company Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann said Thursday on the company’s investor day. The company’s 54 MHz of spectrum in core markets is enough for now, but more spectrum will be needed for growth, he said.
ILECs and VoIP providers urged the FCC to steer clear of further e-911 location accuracy requirements. Emergency responders’ groups and locator companies said the commission should go even further in its rules. The comments in docket 07-114 came in a commission rulemaking to require nomadic VoIP providers to automatically send out addresses in connection with emergency calls.
Ohio’s new telecom rules kicked in Jan. 20, replacing rules on the books since 1989. While proponents believe the new rules reflect changes in the industry and establish a level playing field, consumer advocates warned of potential rate hikes and less consumer protection, both sides said in interviews. The legislature passed the Ohio Telecom Modernization Act earlier last year.
The Rural Telecommunications Group and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association will ask the FCC to change its E-911 location accuracy rules so they're less demanding for some small carriers. The groups plan to file a petition for rulemaking Thursday, RTG Counsel Carri Bennett told us.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is taking an aerial view of revamping universal service and intercarrier compensation in a new rulemaking notice. It takes up in general the necessity of subsidizing and deploying high-speed broadband but leaves contentious questions like the contribution factor for another day, commission and industry officials said. As expected, the FCC circulated a rulemaking notice late Tuesday for the commission meeting Feb. 8. The commission wants to use “market-driven, incentive based policies and increased accountability” to shift universal service money to “near term support for broadband deployment in unserved areas,” the agency said in a news release. It seeks to adopt measures to address intercarrier compensation (ICC) “arbitrage, as well as a long-term transition from current high-cost support and ICC mechanism to a single, fiscally responsible Connect America Fund,” the FCC said.
There won’t be much effect on the cybersecurity bill from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., deciding not to seek re-election in 2012, despite his lame-duck status, industry officials said. Some said it could even boost the bill’s chances, and he could also boost cybersecurity if he moves to head the Defense Department. Friend Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested Wednesday that the Connecticut senator would make a good replacement for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who plans to step down this year. If he left immediately, Lieberman’s departure might actually boost the chances for getting a cybersecurity bill through Congress, TechAmerica Vice President Kevin Richards said.
Any efforts to fight the U.S. government’s conditional approval of Comcast’s acquisition of control of NBC Universal would face hurdles, and challenges seem unlikely at first glance to be made, those who had sought more conditions agreed with one who opposed them. A hurdle is that the Justice Department and FCC imposed similar Internet conditions (CD Jan 19 p1) , and DOJ’s probably would stand even in the unlikely event that a lawsuit against the commission succeeded, said several lawyers who had sought more deal curbs. Judges who review consent decrees, such as the one that Comcast agreed to with DOJ, usually approve them, even if parties seek changes through written comments that they can submit to the court under the Tunney Act, the nonprofit group lawyers said.