The National Broadband Plan’s suggestions for transforming funding support for voice and broadband generated a sharp divide between small, rural carriers and larger carriers that serve both urban and rural districts. The FCC received nearly 100 comments Monday, the deadline for responding to a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed rulemaking on changing legacy support systems, bringing broadband to unserved areas before the Connect America Fund (CAF) is created and using an economic model to target support. The wireless industry also weighed in, with carriers making the case that reforms have to be competitively neutral, not giving wireline any advantages.
Data roaming is critical to competition in a wireless market increasingly dominated by a few large carriers, Free Press said in reply comments at the FCC. Small carriers also urged the FCC to move forward quickly to mandate data roaming as recommended by the National Broadband Plan. Small and mid-sized carriers presented a united front last month in arguing that the FCC should use its authority under Title III of the Communications Act to impose a data roaming obligation on carriers similar to the one approved for voice in 2007 (CD June 16 p2). AT&T and Verizon Wireless countered that the commission cannot mandate data roaming as wireless is currently regulated.
Loosening rules barring common ownership of a radio or TV broadcaster and a daily newspaper in any city outside the top 20, easing limits on owning two TV stations in a market and lifting caps on radio station ownership in a community were sought at the FCC by 29 companies. In comments on the 2010 review of media ownership rules posted Tuesday in FCC docket 09-182, the main lobbyists for the broadcasting and newspaper industries also sought to get some restrictions lifted. Opponents of consolidation again said the commission should study how the sharing of services between TV stations within a market circumvents current limits (CD July 9 p6). So did cable operators including Time Warner Cable and the American Cable Association seeking changes in the way the FCC handles carriage disputes.
FCC indecency rules that led to censures for broadcasters that aired unscripted expletives are unconstitutionally vague, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York said in a decision released Tuesday. “If the FCC cannot anticipate what will be considered indecent under its policy, then it can hardly expect broadcasters to do so,” Chief Judge Rosemary Pooler wrote in the decision in Fox v. FCC on behalf of herself and Judges Peter Hall and Pierre Leval. The loss for the commission was expected, based on oral argument in January (CD Jan 14 p4).
Despite the European Commission’s insistence that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement won’t harm Internet users or ISPs, European lawmakers remain skeptical, some said Tuesday. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht updated the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee on the latest round of ACTA talks, held June 28-July 1 in Lucerne, Switzerland. The negotiations produced another draft document, which De Gucht said will be given to the Parliament on the condition that it not be leaked.
So-called “traffic pumping” costs U.S. wireless carriers $190 million annually, consulting firm Connectiv Solutions said in a report to be released Tuesday. Carriers pay in other ways as well, the report noted, saying increased traffic as a result of traffic pumping also means more network congestion and a decline in network quality. The president of a leading conferencing company disputed the findings.
Google is looking at enterprise opportunities in its voice and other unified communications services, Rajen Sheth, group product manager for Google Apps, a service offering Web-based productivity tools, said in an interview. Communications service will play a bigger role in the company’s overall strategy in the next few years, he said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- By 2014, about 90 percent of consumer mobile IP traffic will be video, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donavan told the MobileBeat 2010 conference here. He was citing a recent Cisco forecast but said it wasn’t “very far off” of AT&T’s internal projections. A variety of video applications will drive that growth, from video telepresence to streaming video, he said. By 2014 it will be a “point-to-point video world,” he said. “Video calling, video streaming, video links -- it’s going to become part of every process and enterprise use, and part basic communication that’s person to person,” he said.
FairPoint Communications’ proposed Chapter 11 reorganization and a regulatory settlement with the state of New Hampshire got approval last week from New Hampshire’s Public Utilities Commission. The approval, while good news for FairPoint, couldn’t prevent postponement of a bankruptcy court hearing which the company hoped would result in the setting of a date for it to emerge from Chapter 11, a company spokesman said. For that to occur, all three of the affected New England states must approve the company’s reorganization plan and regulatory settlements tailored to each. Maine had previously accepted the company’s proposal. Last month the Vermont Public Service Board rejected FairPoint’s proposed settlement (CD June 30 p5).
The digital transition prompted many TV stations to jump ship from the formerly desirable VHF channels, and that reordering should affect the regulatory fee structure, commenters told the FCC. The commission agreed the changes will affect how much stations must pay and adjusted its assessment method, though not in the wholesale fashion some commenters wanted. The change is one of the issues noted in the commission’s report on assessment and collection of regulatory fees for 2010, released Friday. The commission said it must collect $335,794,000 in regulatory fees for 2010, down from $341,875,000 in 2009. The fees are meant to cover the cost of the commission’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information and international activities. The commission said it used the same assessment methodology it used last year.