SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The struggles of a planned commercial broadband service for low-end customers, and the prospect that most of T-Mobile’s network will be dismantled, raised the concern of the head of a California Public Utilities Commission’s inquiry into the proposed purchase of the carrier by AT&T. At a workshop in Silicon Valley, the two commissioners present expressed interest in the efforts and market challenges of start-up Box Top to get broadband into low-income homes including those of old people and minorities by using TV sets, cellphones and merchant subsidies. “You're going after the digital divide,” said Commissioner Timothy Simon. And Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, leading the inquiry, pressed an AT&T executive Friday into acknowledging that about two-thirds of T-Mobile’s network facilities would be “decommissioned” because the combined company would have little use for them.
Promised FCC deadlines for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regime reform have been pushed back and Commissioner Robert McDowell said he’s worried that reforms may “slip away.” In an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, he said “I get concerned when I see dates continue to slip away.” And “I've seen this movie before,” he said in the videotaped interview.
Spectrum is figuring in debt reconciliation talks, as was expected, but with a twist -- an unexpected tie-in to health care spending, industry sources closely tracking budget negotiations said last week. Republicans hope that under an eventual deal with President Barack Obama they will divvy up major budget cuts that have to be made to the chairmen of the various congressional committees, officials said.
Division over the 700 MHz D-block is the main barrier to bipartisan spectrum legislation in the House, lawmakers said at a Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday. The Commerce Committee’s top Democrats and top Republicans have signed onto separate draft bills. The Democrats want to reallocate the D-block to public safety and the Republicans seek to auction it to commercial providers. While both sides voiced optimism about reaching consensus, debt limit negotiations threaten to suck up a key component of the legislation: Voluntary incentive auctions. (See separate report in this issue.)
The FCC should expand its oversight and enforcement of some children’s TV rules to cover multichannel video programming distributors, the GAO recommended in a report on the agency’s implementation of the Children’s TV Act. Broadcasters self-report compliance with the rules, mainly by disclosing how many and what sort of ads run during kids’ programming. Cable and DBS operators aren’t required to self-report in the same way, resulting in far more fines against broadcasters than MVPDs “even though they televise much more children’s programming than broadcasters,” last week’s report said.
Work by career FCC staffers on proposed media ownership rules is progressing, after an appeals court remand of previous regulations, industry and agency officials said. They said the last batch of studies the agency paid outsiders to do is heading toward completion, and a rulemaking notice will be issued later. The commission contracted to pay $725,000 for eight studies, according to contracting documents Warren Communications News, publisher of Communications Daily, got from the agency by a Freedom of Information Act request. The research is on local online content, “civic knowledge” and “engagement,” TV viewing, ownership and other areas. The FCC has released five studies dealing with the Web, TV and radio (CD June 16 p9).
An FCC panel is working on three reports on the accessibility of video to those with problems seeing or hearing, after finishing a 35-page set of recommendations Monday on captioning programming that goes online, committee members said in interviews. They said Thursday that the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) next is working on a report recommending how the agency implements part of legislation passed last year on emergency access for the disabled to video programming. The report posted to the committee’s wiki this week (CD July 14 p17) but not yet formally released asks the commission to implement various other deadlines under the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The VPAAC’s work includes consumer electronics, Internet and other communications issues.
Congress shouldn’t take on spectrum issues with a sense of crisis, as it tackles legislation in the Senate and House, NAB Associate General Counsel Scott Goodwin told the Congressional High Tech Caucus late Thursday. Cisco and Microsoft executives raised red flags about provisions reportedly in the Republican draft that could force auctions for all spectrum, including unlicensed spectrum.
Congress will finish off Universal Service Fund reform, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said at a press conference Thursday kicking off rural telecom associations’ marketing push on rural broadband. Terry said he’s “extremely optimistic” there will be a deal by the end of August that’s supported by industry, the FCC and the House Commerce Committee. Also at the event, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, predicted that the Senate will get “very aggressive” on the issue.
Children’s online privacy rights will drive legislative efforts this session despite the lack of adequate protections for all Americans, said lawmakers at a joint hearing held Thursday by the House Communications and Manufacturing subcommittees. Among the slew of privacy queries directed to top officials from the FTC, FCC and NTIA, subcommittee members questioned whether there should be a revision of the 11-year-old Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Agency officials agreed children’s privacy protections should take priority but disputed which agency can dictate privacy rules to telecommunication carriers.