The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ruled Verizon did nothing improper or unreasonable last November when it suspended a weekend Brooksville repair job for the night, waiting until the next day to fix an outage affecting around 100 customers. Two Verizon customers in Brooksville said the carrier left customers without phone service overnight to avoid paying repair crew overtime (Case 2007- 142). A Consumer Assistance Division examiner concluded Verizon failed in its duty to provide adequate service. Verizon appealed to the PUC, which exonerated the company. Verizon said decisions on whether to work all night on an emergency repair involve many factors, including outage extent, time of day, weather, the next day’s maintenance schedule and rules limiting crews to 15 consecutive hours on the job. Verizon said dispatchers did weigh all these factors in deciding to wait until the next morning to finish the Brooksville cable splicing. Overtime costs were not a factor, it said. The PUC said there was no evidence that overtime figured in the decision to suspend repairs overnight but said it would be unreasonable to wave off a crew for that.
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.
A bill aimed at criminalizing caller ID spoofing and authorizing the FCC to curb the practice has his support, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Thursday. The ranking Senate Commerce Committee member conditioned his backing on revisions to address direct marketers’ concerns. At a spoofing hearing, Stevens predicted the committee will mark up the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007 (S-704) next week and send it to the Senate floor. Sponsor Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urged fast action against what he termed a growing problem.
A Colorado state appeals court ruled that Qwest, Yellow Book USA and Verizon Directories weren’t negligent when they published a Boulder domestic violence shelter’s street address in phone books. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s rejection of a suit by Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN) seeking $3 million compensation from the defendants for having to move the shelter. The appeals court (Case 06CA0083) said SPAN’s claims were barred by the filed tariff doctrine because Qwest had fulfilled its duties under tariff with respect to the address. The court said Qwest’s tariffs are clear that each phone subscriber’s number and address will be published in directories and included in listings sold to other directory publishers unless a subscriber specifically requests that its listing be omitted. The court said SPAN didn’t dispute defendants’ testimony that it never requested omission. The court said the tariffs clearly put the burden on customers to state their desire not to be published. The court also ruled federal law is clear in allowing Qwest to sell its published listings to Yellow Book, Verizon and other phone book publishers.
The European Parliament’s (EP’s) overwhelmingly support for a cap on international mobile roaming rates was as much about its own power and legitimacy in European consumers’ eyes as its desire to cut calling rates, lawmakers said Wed. The first-reading plenary vote -- which came after months of intense negotiations among the EP, the European Council of Ministers and the EC -- showed EU institutions can get things done, said Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding.
FARMINGTON, Pa. -- Don’t view the end of proceedings on interference temperature and receiver performance regulation as a sign that the FCC won’t keep pursuing innovative ways to use spectrum, Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Julius Knapp said at the annual FCBA seminar here. As expected -- and despite reluctance expressed by Comrs. Adelstein and Copps -- the FCC formally ended both proceedings(CD May 4 p2), which were follow-ups to the Spectrum Policy Task Force.
Consumer and anti-poverty advocates in R.I. demanded that Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) fill 2 long-standing vacancies on the PUC, claiming the 3 current members are anti-consumer and “too friendly” with the utilities the PUC regulates. The petitioners cited changes to the PUC’s winter electric cutoff moratorium policy they said demonstrated the current members’ lack of concern for utility customers. A Carcieri spokesman said the PUC hasn’t shown improper bias and that adding 2 more members wouldn’t make any significant change to how the PUC operates. With 2 seats unfilled, the legislature in the current fiscal year budgeted only for 3 PUC members, he said, adding Carcieri hadn’t requested funding for 2 more PUC members. He said the legislature could choose to fund those positions on its own and direct Carcieri to fill them. But absent action by the legislature, nothing compels Carcieri to keep the PUC at 5 members so long as the 3-member body is fulfilling its legal duties, he said. Legislative aides noted many vacant positions in state agencies are going unfilled to help balance the state budget.
Stifel Nicolaus sees “a good chance” of a court challenge to an FCC decision requiring carriers to get customer consent before sharing customer proprietary network information (CPNI) data with joint venture partners or independent contractors for marketing (CD April 4 p1), it said. Legislation has been introduced to deal with carrier concerns, the firm said. “Some industry parties have objected to the rules as too sweeping, and we believe carriers do face new marketing hurdles, to varying degrees,” Stifel Nicolaus said: “We do not believe the opt-in duty will extend to independent contractors performing strictly non-marketing functions (e.g., billing), though we acknowledge some uncertainty.”
AT&T’s petition for forbearance from accounting rules (CD Feb 13 p6) is premature because it conflicts with work pending before the Federal-State Joint Board on Separations, said 4 state regulators on the board. “The Joint Board should be allowed to continue its current efforts and not be effectively preempted by piecemeal forbearance decisions that would overthrow existing separations procedures,” the 4 said in comments filed Mon. The board is drafting a recommendation for reforming the separations process, so “even if the current petition is denied, AT&T would not be without relief for long,” the regulators said. They said AT&T wants to eliminate reports that state regulators use, including “cost allocation data” -- and though the need for some such reports has eased, “wholesale abandonment of the existing rules through the forbearance power is not justified.” Some reports “still determine outcomes for customers and for other carriers,” the filing said. The comments were filed by Ida. PUC Pres. Paul Kjellander, Vt. Public Service Board Member John Burke, Regulatory Commission of Alaska Comr. Mark Johnson and Ia. Utilities Board Comr. Curt Stamp. The Wis. PSC in a separate filing said the FCC should refer the petition to the Separations Joint Board, which could give it “a more thorough (and necessary) examination of how the AT&T proposal could affect state accounting and other regulatory requirements.” The PSC said it’s “not appropriate for the Commission alone to address these matters until the impacts on state jurisdiction accounting are examined thoroughly.” AT&T asked the FCC to forbear from data collection duties the company calls outdated and an obstacle to speeding new products to market (WC Doc. 07-21).
The DTV transition should occur as scheduled despite Congressional suggestions that delay may be necessary -- but much work is needed to school viewers on the Feb. 17, 2009, analog cutoff, aides to FCC Comrs. Adelstein and McDowell told a cable conference. Cable operators should help with the educational effort, said Adelstein media advisor Rudy Brioche and Cristina Pauze, of McDowell’s office. Outreach is needed especially to alert “insular communities” to $890 million in NTIA coupons (CD March 13 p1) available to all to cut the cost of DTV converter boxes for analog TVs, Brioche said.
FCC bureau chiefs at NARUC outlined their key telecom issues for 2007. Don Stockdale, FCC Wireline Bureau deputy chief, said his bureau will focus on 5 major issues for 2007 -- protecting customer proprietary network information (CPNI), reform of universal service fund distribution through reverse auctions or other means, reform of universal service fund contributions through number-based formulas or other means, VoIP number portability and intercarrier compensation reform. Wireless Bureau Chief Fred Campbell said his big issues for 2007 include an upcoming spectrum auction of 60 MHz in the 700 MHz band, addressing concerns of rural consumers and alarm companies in the transition from analog to digital cellular and determining whether to deem early termination fees rates, rendering them exempt from state regulation, or part of the “other terms and conditions” states can regulate. Catherine Seidel, chief of the Consumer & Intergovernmental Affairs Bureau, said her bureau’s top 2007 priorities are reform of relay service compensation to accommodate video, IP relay and other new technologies, ensuring E-911 access for IP and video relay, promoting Lifeline, addressing local consumer protection regulations over wireless services and managing consumer issues arising from the transition from analog TV to digital TV by Feb. 2009. In fiscal 2005, 40 million numbers were added to the national no-call telemarketing registry, which now includes 138 million phone numbers, she said. Kris Monteith, Enforcement Bureau chief, said a priority this year is stamping out “pretexting” and other frauds data brokers use to obtain customer call records, and ensuring telecom carriers adequately protect subscriber confidentiality. She said the FCC has subpoenaed online data brokers that fraudulently got phone records, and penalized brokers ignoring subpoenas. She said the FCC has asked a number of carriers how they live up to their duty to protect sensitive customer data. Ken Moran, acting chief of the Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, said a major issue this year will be improving emergency communications between responders and with the public. He noted progress in the 800 MHz rebanding proceeding but noted that satisfying carrier and public safety agency requests to alter the reconfiguration process for the channels earmarked for the National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee will extend the transition process past the original June 2008 target date. Other important issues for 2007, he said, will be developing a public emergency warning system for cellphones, working with states on keeping E-911 operational during disasters and becoming a central clearinghouse for communications information relevant to first responders, 911 centers and hospitals.