AT&T should be fined for ignoring three orders by the Connecticut utility regulator since June to explain why it has failed since 2001 to meet state phone repair requirements and submit a compliance plan, said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Consumer Counsel Mary Healey. Communications Workers of America Local 1298 agreed. But AT&T stands by its performance, a company spokesman told us.
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
DirecTV will take a three-pronged approach when it launches its 3D channels in June, company executives said in recent conference calls and investor conferences, apparently with little fanfare. The satellite operator will dedicate one 3D channel to documentaries, movies and concerts, and a second to live sports and concerts, the executives said. A third channel will be devoted to video-on-demand, they said. A highlight will be DirecTV’s live 3D airing of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in July, CEO Michael White said on an earnings call.
The keys to running a successful state universal service fund are clarity of purpose and clarity of process, said panelists at the winter meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. In a Tuesday session, consultants Peter Bluhm of Rolka, Loube, Salzer Associates and Eric Seguin, vice president corporate development with contract fund administrator Solix, joined Elizabeth Barnes, a lawyer with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, in parsing the best methods for managing a fund.
A dispute in Maine illustrates a wider conflict over Section 271 of the 1996 Communications Act, officials said. The Maine case pits FairPoint Communications against competitive local exchange carrier Great Works Internet in a fight over interconnection rates for dark fiber loops. Filings by the companies to the Maine Public Utilities Commission prompted the commission to ask the FCC for a declaratory ruling on carriers’ Section 271 duties. The FCC seeks comments by March 1, replies by March 15.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he sees evidence of “growing common ground” on net neutrality, as marked in particular by a joint filing by Verizon and Google (CD Jan 19 p1). He also stressed the importance of making transparency the sixth Internet principle. Genachowski opened a staff workshop on net neutrality Tuesday at the FCC as the commission continued its examination of what’s expected to be a key agency action after release of the National Broadband Plan.
Cricket Communications asked the FCC to grant its petition for designation as an Eligible Telecom Carrier (ETC) in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia to offer Lifeline and Link-up services for low-income customers. The prepaid carrier said it meets the legal tests for the status and the offerings are supported by the Federal Low-income Universal Service Program. Cricket said it will advertise the availability of offerings that qualify for universal service and the charges for them. The carrier said it will provide service on reasonable request, keep service working in an emergency, meet consumer protection and service quality standards and fulfill duties regarding equal access, Lifeline certification and verification, regulatory fees and a local usage plan.
A California Public Utilities Commission resolution chastising AT&T for “egregious” unauthorized rate increases should have been accompanied by a show-cause order hearing on whether to hold the company accountable, said the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, an independent unit of the commission. The resolution Thursday “falls short of holding AT&T accountable,” the division said. “The CPUC’s refusal to order an OSC hearing concerning AT&T’s improper actions sends a clear and counterproductive message to the company and other CPUC-regulated companies that flouting CPUC regulations and misleading CPUC staff may be tolerated by regulators without consequence.” In April 2008, AT&T asked the commission for authority to increase its basic residential measured rates. CPUC staff rejected the request. But the company charged the unauthorized higher rates until that August, collecting $6.5 million from 450,000 customers. The telco charged some customers 578 percent rate increases, the division said. And AT&T has taken 14 months to issue credits or refunds, it said. “California law provides the CPUC with authority to assess fines against public utilities for failing to comply with CPUC staff precisely because utility cooperation is essential to the proper discharge of the CPUC’s duty to California,” division director Dana Appling said. “Fines provide appropriate financial incentive for utilities under the CPUC’s oversight to abide by applicable law.”
The FCC may soon take a renewed look at the legality of traffic stimulation that rural local exchange carriers are accused of carrying out through arrangements with free- conferencing providers, industry officials said in interviews. They said two recent events have raised the profile at the FCC of what big carriers call traffic pumping: An Iowa Utilities Board decision last month requiring eight rural LECs to refund unauthorized intrastate switched access charges billed to Qwest, AT&T and Sprint, and an AT&T letter saying Google Voice is flouting an FCC ban on traditional telco “self-help” by blocking calls to numbers with high access charges (CD Oct 2 p13).
STANFORD, Calif. -- There’s a downside to the Obama administration’s approach to the Internet, said Alan Davidson, Google’s policy and government affairs director: “They will not be timid about regulating the Internet.” This reflects that the administration is “much more comfortable with regulation that its predecessors,” as a general matter, by ideology and because of the economy, he said Friday at a seminar on Legal Affairs in Digital Media. It was organized by Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society, the Media Law Resource Center and Stanford Publishing Courses.
U.K. law on interception of communications jeopardizes user privacy, the European Commission said Tuesday. Citing numerous complaints by Internet users -- and “extensive” discussion with U.K. authorities -- over online behavioral advertising technology “Phorm,” the EC launched the first stage of proceedings aimed at forcing Britain to align its law with EU e-privacy and data protection legislation. Meanwhile, Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding warned the EC will act whenever countries fail to ensure that new technologies such as behavioral advertising and radio frequency identification (RFID) don’t respect privacy rights.