Brad Weinert resigned as president of Novatel Wireless… NBCU Media Distribution Services promotes Matthew Braatz to senior vice president, broadcast operations… Former FCC Commissioner Tyrone Brown returns to Wiley Rein… Jay Bilden, ex-Qwest, becomes ERF Wireless senior vice president, engineering and network operations… New ATIS officers: Chairman John Donovan, AT&T; First Vice Chairman Nick Adamo, Cisco; Second Vice Chairman Mark Wegleitner, Verizon; Secretary Matt Bross, BT; Treasurer Harold Braun, Harris Stratex Networks… SureWest promotes Matt Zuschlag to executive director, enterprise initiatives… New Fiber-to- the-Home Council board members: Leonard Ray, Cisco; Patrick Sims, ADC Telecommunications; David Russell, Calix.
Belo executives asked three FCC members to hold off on some localism rules, said a Thursday ex parte filing on meetings with Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps and Robert McDowell. The commission should “avoid unnecessary regulation in this area,” the company said. Participants also discussed the adoption of a so-called quiet period in which broadcasters wouldn’t pull their signals from pay-TV companies around the time of the digital transition. Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley and Belo CEO Dunia Shive attended.
As the new administration jells, changes are said to be occurring to the roster of those advising President-elect Barack Obama (CD Nov 12 p1) on who to pick for key agency posts. Among recent changes is said to be the apparent departure of broadcast lawyer Henry Rivera, a former FCC member, from a lead role in commission transition planning efforts, according to about a dozen media and telecom lawyers observing the transition. Transition team members themselves are forbidden to discuss any personnel moves.
With President-elect Barack Obama set to lead in 2009, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein hopes broadband deployment and other “long-neglected” issues “finally get the attention they deserve,” he said Thursday in a keynote at a University of Nebraska College of Law conference. Afterward, a panel of telecom officials said the FCC and Congress should focus on broadband deployment next year.
Federal net neutrality legislation appears likely, but only if the courts overrule the FCC’s August Comcast- BitTorrent decision and say the commission does not have the legal authority to enforce its broadband principles, speakers said Thursday at the University of Nebraska’s space and telecommunications law and policy conference. They disagreed on whether Congress should approve legislation regardless of whether the Comcast case passes legal scrutiny.
The FCC should have given notice of a rare closed-door meeting of commissioners, even if not required to do so, said administrative law professors and media activists. The Oct. 10 meeting on digital TV outreach (CD Oct 15 p1) seems to have obeyed the Sunshine Act, said those people, as did former commissioners and former aides in the agency general counsel’s office. Members discussed no pending regulatory items, so as far as the law is concerned the event wasn’t an open meeting, all agreed. Views differ on whether the FCC should have given public notice of the meeting.
David Krone resigns from Comcast as senior vice president of corporate affairs without announced plans… Kerry Knott, leaving Comcast as head of Washington, D.C., office (CD Oct 30 p15), to be outside consultant to NCTA… FCC appointees as co-chairs of 2011 World Radio Conference (WRC-11) Advisory Committee: Thomas Navin of Wiley Rein and Paul Margie of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis; Alex Roytblat, FCC International Bureau, will direct FCC preparatory activities … Discovery promotes Ian Parmiter to senior vice president, integrated advertising sales marketing… Greater Media CEO Peter Smyth adds title of chairman… New telecom and broadband analysts at Ovum research firm: Mark Little, ex-Entertainment UK, Jonathan Doran, ex-Yankee Group, Emeka Obiodu, ex-Global Insight, ex-consultant Mike Sapien, William Lee, ex-LG Electronics, Charlie Davies, ex-Cancer Research UK… New Gannett board members: Howard Elias, EMC Global Services, and Scott McCune, Coca-Cola Co… New at SCTE Foundation: Marv Nelson adds title of vice president; Jim Hughes, CommScope, chairman of fundraising committee.
Communications will get more attention from Congress and the new administration, starting with the analog TV cutoff, industry and Hill officials told us. One bill must pass, Hill aides said: Reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Act, a possible vehicle for controversial broadcast industry provisions on carriage and indecency rules. Legislation to promote broadband access has wide bipartisan support but may be harder to pass, given the economic slump and disagreement over government’s proper role.
The International Telecommunication Union plans to increase developing countries’ participation in creating standards, said Chairman Richard Wiley of the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. David Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, said telecom industries worldwide feel “lots of ripples” from the financial crises but not major ones. They spoke during a meeting of advisory group Thursday.
Only Congress can fix the universally acknowledged shortcomings in the Copyright Act’s section 115 compulsory license for musical works, industry groups told the Copyright Office in comments. CTIA, the NAB and Google’s YouTube said in separate filings that the office would exceed its statutory authority were it to proceed in the rulemaking. They join the majority of commenters who have urged the office to put the brakes on the rulemaking or otherwise leave alone “ancillary issues” such as the status of buffer and server copies (CD Sept 2 p3). Performing rights organizations said they were concerned the office was straying beyond section 115’s core focus of mechanical licensing royalties.