The FCC Thursday unanimously approved three items aimed at improving communications and radio service on tribal lands. Commissioners also heard testimony from tribal leaders about the state of communications in Indian country. The meeting came as the White House held a follow up meeting on last year’s Tribal Nations Summit.
Tribes without ancestral lands will now receive the FCC’s assistance in getting AM and FM stations, under an order approved 5-0 at Thursday’s meeting (CD March 3 p9). Also under the order, radio move-ins from rural to urban areas will become harder, as had been expected (CD Feb 22 p6). New procedures will apply to the pending applications to amend the FM allotments, AM allotments and non-final FM allotment orders, a commission official said. The upshot of the order is that many of the 96 pending applications for radio stations to move from rural to more urban areas may not be approved, industry and agency officials said.
Meredith Baker may get another term as FCC commissioner. Her name apparently was sent to the White House for renomination for a full term by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republican industry lobbyists watching the process. Baker, a Republican, joined the commission in 2009, filling the unexpired term of Kevin Martin. He resigned just before President Barack Obama was inaugurated. Baker’s current term ends June 30. She had the backing of Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, also a Texas Republican.
A divided Congress can help broadcasters avoid harmful legislation or regulation by slowing down consideration of issues detrimental to the industry, NAB President Gordon Smith said Thursday. “When it comes to broadcast issues, it is helpful to us, to have an extra check and balance between the chambers” so issues are “fully considered,” he said. That’s because decisions can have “lasting and damaging consequences,” Smith said in response to our question on C-SPAN.
The Department of Homeland Security is fully committed to allocating the 700 MHz D-block to public safety and will work with Congress to make that happen, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee Thursday. Napolitano also reiterated DHS’s commitment on cybersecurity.
House Republican leaders held a closed-door meeting with industry lobbyists Wednesday to press them to get involved in helping the GOP repeal net neutrality rules, House aides and lobbyists said. The meeting was held after an effort by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to repeal the rules collapsed Wednesday morning.
Tribes without ancestral lands would receive an assist from the FCC in getting AM and FM stations, under a draft order set for a vote at Thursday’s meeting, agency officials said. A landless tribe could get a waiver of commission rules by showing that it should receive a priority now reserved for tribes with lands, FCC officials said. That part of the radio order is not controversial inside the commission or out, agency and industry officials said.
AT&T has 10 million subscribers on tiered data plans, wireless chief Ralph de la Vega said Wednesday at a Morgan Stanley conference. The loss of iPhone exclusivity to Verizon has produced no surprises, he said.
The FCC in recent days approved four items on circulation that will be publicly released soon, including a report to Congress about minorities and women whose delay had prompted criticism by many groups, commission officials said Wednesday. They said the commissioners have approved the report about how the FCC is reducing barriers that minorities and women face entering the media and telecom industries. It had been due at the end of 2009.
FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker called for an overhaul of FCC merger policy, including sharp limits on the agency’s ability to stop the 180-day “shot clock” for merger review. Baker warned Wednesday that uncertainty baked into the process could be discouraging some deals that otherwise would be proposed by industry.