States want the FCC to declare that its rules don’t bar or limit states’ collection of data from broadband service or infrastructure providers. “States need this data. There is no question that Congress wants States to have this data,” the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) said in a petition. But USTelecom said states’ broadband data collection ambitions shouldn’t surpass instructions by NTIA.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a draft reconsideration order related to a traffic pumping dispute between Qwest and Farmers and Merchants Mutual Telephone Company. The revision would be the commission’s second since 2007, when it partly granted a Qwest complaint alleging that Farmers levied excessive access charges (CD Feb 1 p13, Jan 31/08 p15). Farmers was one of the eight companies ordered last month by the Iowa Utilities Board to refund unauthorized intrastate switched access charges billed to Qwest, AT&T and Sprint (CD Sept 28 p11).
Unless the FCC sharpens its outreach, thousands of people who are deaf may be left without functionally equivalent phone service, said consumer advocates and telecom relay service providers during a workshop Friday at the FCC. Video and IP-based relay users must register 10-digit numbers or they won’t be able to make non-emergency calls after Nov. 12 (CD Aug 12 p1). The deadline has already been extended over concerns about consumer confusion, lack of public education, and technical issues. But education problems remain, workshop attendees said.
A new coalition of nearly 100 broadband providers, content providers and others aims to act as an educational resource for lawmakers involved with broadband efforts, said a spokesman for the group, Broadband for America. The group, announced Thursday, hopes to highlight barriers to deployment and adoption, and provide technical information about running broadband networks, the spokesman said. Members include CTIA, USTelecom, NCTA, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the largest telephone and cable companies, among others. Members are contributing to the group in different ways, some financially and others with their time, said spokesman Phil Singer. He declined to specify which groups were funding the effort. Elaine Karmarck, a Harvard University lecturer advising the group on policy, said her focus will be showing how broadband connects to major policy areas including education, healthcare and poverty. In an interview, she said she expects the group’s lobbying to be limited, particularly because many of its members already have “full-fledged” lobbying shops.
The broadband-over-power-line industry in comments Wednesday said keeping the FCC’s existing BPL rules would advance broadband stimulus efforts. However, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) said changes are needed to prevent interference to amateur radio. The rulemaking proposal follows a 2008 remand of the FCC’s BPL rules by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court faulted the FCC on procedure, saying the agency gave no “reasoned explanation” for an extrapolation factor used to measure BPL emissions (CD May 9/08 p6). The court also compelled the agency to publicly release unredacted copies of studies it conducted for formulating its rules.
Incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers wrangled over the right competition standard for forbearance petitions seeking unbundling relief going-forward. They commented Monday on two court-remanded decisions denying Qwest relief in Phoenix and three other markets, and Verizon forbearance in six markets (CD Sept 22 p10). CLECs also urged rejection of a March petition by Qwest seeking unbundling relief in only the Phoenix market. But some urged the FCC to hold off consideration until it answers the court remands.
A federal appeals court said the FCC misread the Freedom of Information Act when it disclosed confidential AT&T information to CompTel. In a decision Tuesday written by Judge Michael Chagares, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia kicked back to the FCC an order denying an AT&T petition to review. The court said corporations like AT&T have personal privacy rights and in some cases are protected from mandatory disclosure under FOIA.
Verizon and Frontier wholesale customers strongly resisted Frontier’s proposed acquisition of Verizon wireline operations in 14 states (CD Sept 22 p10). In comments this week at the FCC, they said Frontier may be unfit to manage the new assets, like FairPoint before it. Others said the deal would work only with conditions.
The FCC will start a rulemaking abou tadding two net neutrality principles to the original four, Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a speech Monday at the Brookings Institution. The announcement sent ripples through Washington, drawing skepticism from broadband providers and Republicans and enthusiasm from longtime advocates of neutrality rules. The FCC’s two Republican members raised strong concerns about the proposal, in their biggest break yet with the chairman.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski plans a rulemaking notice about adding a fifth principle, this one on nondiscrimination, to the commission’s Internet policy statement, officials said. The details are sketchy, and Genachowski’s office declined to comment. At least two other eighth-floor offices hadn’t been notified before the news leaked. Genachowski plans to make the announcement at a Brookings Institution conference on Monday, the day that Commissioner Meredith Baker is running a broadband-plan field hearing in Austin.