LAS VEGAS -- The net neutrality rules adopted by the FCC last month read like something out of George Orwell’s 1984, full of “doublethink and newspeak,” said Neil Fried, chief counsel to the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. On a panel late Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show about the order, he cast FCC in the position of the novel’s Ministry of Truth, tasked with determining what actions of network operators will be deemed reasonable. “We don’t want to anyone to decide who has permission to innovate, so instead we're going to have to go to the government for permission,” he said. “It’s very troubling."
Among the many conditions that an FCC draft order seeks to impose on Comcast’s planned purchase of control in NBC Universal are several that deal with Internet content and broadband, agency and industry officials said this week. Some of the proposed conditions would require what the companies have recently proposed to the commission, and others appear to go beyond the offers. Included in the draft are requirements that Comcast not treat Web content affiliated with the combined company differently from unaffiliated content, agency officials said. Broadband deployment and selling what’s sometimes called naked, or unbundled, service are dealt with, too.
Key parts of the National Broadband Plan still require action by Congress. A potential roadblock for the commission as it implements the plan remains that the commission cannot control if or how quickly Capitol Hill moves forward on its parts.
LAS VEGAS -- Rather than killing TV, new technology is creating its second “golden age,” Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said at a CES keynote also featuring Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg. Partly because of new ways of watching TV, he said, viewing, subscriptions, advertising and programming budgets are up, Bewkes said. “This is a very healthy business. … Its role in our lives has never been bigger."
Republicans introduced legislation to strike down FCC net neutrality rules Wednesday, the first day of the new Congress. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, introduced the Internet Freedom Act providing that only Congress can make rules for the Internet. Meanwhile, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said his top priority is reversing the commission’s rules, under the Congressional Review Act.
Revisions to a draft Comcast-NBC Universal FCC order await the return of commissioners from CES in Las Vegas, agency officials said. They said edits to the draft, which circulated Dec. 23, still will probably be made next week (CD Dec 28 p2). Commissioners and their aides have been reading the draft and starting to think about changes, but they haven’t formally proposed any yet, agency officials said. The draft would require the combined company to carry out public-interest proposals that the companies offered when the multibillion agreement for Comcast to buy control of NBC Universal was announced in December 2009 and since, commission and industry officials said. The proposed order would impose additional requirements on the companies, with many lasting seven years, they said.
Content protection firm Nagra-Kudelski will provide conditional access technology to the Mobile Content Venture, a joint venture of Fox, NBC Universal, Ion and nine top TV station groups, the MCV said Wednesday. MobiTV will manage the operational aspects of the service for MCV and build a single client that blends broadcast and unicast content, MobiTV said. The planned service includes both live and VOD content, delivered over different paths to mobile devices Salil Dalvi, senior vice president of NBC Universal and co-general manager of MCV, said in an interview. The inclusion of conditional access means the service won’t be viewable on devices that aren’t updated with Nagra’s software.
TORONTO -- With four new providers starting service in the past year and two more to come in early 2011, pricing and marketing wars have broken out in the Canadian wireless market as the three major incumbents try to protect their $13 billion turf. Slightly more than a year after Orascom Telecom’s Wind Mobile unit, Canada’s first new national wireless provider in more than a decade, started service in this market and Calgary, three other new mobile entrants -- Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Videotron -- have introduced service in several major cities. All four offer discount pricing and simpler, unlimited service plans designed to lure consumers from the incumbent providers and widen the wireless market. Many Canadian consumers can now choose among four, five, six or even more wireless providers for the first time.
The FCC should require a merged CenturyLink-Qwest to preserve and extend previously signed special access and Internet peering agreements, TW Telecom said in an ex parte notice filed with the commission Wednesday. The operator asked the commission to extend special access promises that CenturyLink and Integra made in a settlement with Integra (CD Nov 9 p12). They should be “at least equal” to “comparable commitments applicable to unbundled network elements, require detailed special access performance reports for at least 36 months after the acquisition is complete and extend current special access agreements for at least 36 months after the acquisition, the filing said.
Chipmaker Qualcomm agreed to buy Wi-Fi chip manufacturer Atheros for $3.1 billion to accelerate expansion to businesses beyond cellular, the companies’ executives said in a conference call Wednesday. The deal, expected to close in the first half, would create a communications platform that spans wireless, home, smart grid and sensor networks, analysts said.