Making good on a pledge to vigorously defend wireless local number portability (LNP) in court, the FCC urged the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to deny a USTA request to stay wireline-to-wireless LNP rules. The Commission told the court Wed. that although USTA argued it unlawfully had altered a rule without public notice, the agency “simply clarified a longstanding rule” in line with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Calling LECs “virtual monopolists,” the FCC rejected USTA arguments that the rules would subject LECs to unfair competition: “The rule at issue simply reflects technological and marketplace realities.”
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.
State regulators are seeing the first filings from incumbent telcos identifying the markets where they believe network unbundling isn’t required for effective local competition, as they continue to address unbundling issues from the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO). Meanwhile, more Qwest states said they would participate in a regional TRO- related forum proposed by Qwest to develop a uniform process for handing batch hot cuts in all its states.
Among the issues with which federal spectrum users are grappling as part of an interagency task force is whether there should be some form of Executive Branch oversight when differences arise on thorny policy issues, acting NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher said Wed. President Bush in June created a task force to recommend how to stimulate more efficient spectrum use by federal customers. The next step the Bush directive set, which involves private sector input, will begin shortly and use the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force report as a starting point, Gallagher told us.
State regulators are awaiting information from incumbent telcos and CLECs on which market areas they want the state agencies to review under the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO) presumptions on the competitive need for UNEs.
GENEVA -- In the wake of the recent collapse of World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, top telecom regulators at the ITU Telecom World 2003 show here Tues. stressed the need to continue to seek market-opening commitments through the 1997 agreement on trade in basic telecom services. Several telecom trade experts cited the work left undone at Cancun, including exploring the possibility of updating the classification of services and the need to continue a moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.
Attorneys for Verizon and a N.Y.C. law firm underwent almost continuous questioning by the U. S. Supreme Court Tues. as justices tackled the complex legal question of whether the Telecom Act’s network-sharing requirements could be enforced through antitrust law. It was hard to determine from the questioning where the justices stood but many of the questions focused on 2 issues: (1) Whether the Law Offices of Curtis Trinko had standing to sue Verizon in the first place. (2) Whether it was appropriate for “judges and juries” to settle Telecom Act disputes instead of the regulators designated by the Telecom Act’s interconnection regime.
The full FCC will rule soon on wireless local number portability (LNP) implementation issues, including Wireless Bureau guidance on which 5 carriers have sought Commission review, Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta told reporters Tues. He stressed that the FCC was holding to a Nov. 24 LNP deadline, noting that Verizon and Verizon Wireless reached an LNP pact this week. “If there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said. “So that’s going to be the motto for LNP because carriers that are interested in doing it find ways of being able to do it.”
Some mobile operators warned the FCC to take caution when considering additional spectrum for unlicensed technology as an underlay to licensed services. In comments on an FCC staff working paper on unlicensed spectrum, Cingular Wireless said the report and related proceedings “demonstrate a continuing focus on unlicensed devices, despite questionable authority to condone unlicensed operations and the significant risk of harm such devices pose as an underlay to licensed services.”
Wireless carriers, privacy advocates and public safety groups differed over details of when federal law requires a mobile operator to divulge caller location information sent to a 911 center receiving an emergency call. The FCC sought feedback on a public safety petition on how provisions on customer privacy in the Communications Act intersected with newer language in the Patriot Act and other laws. One issue raised was the privacy protections when a 911 caller was dialing on behalf of someone else.
The FCC’s annual report to Congress on cable prices found U.S. consumers experienced an 8.2% increase in their monthly bills on average over the year ended July 2002. That amounted to a jump from $37.06 to $40.11 for programming and equipment, the report said. In the same period, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.5%. The agency said that on a per- channel basis, the increase was 1.2% on average, to 66.4 cents from 65.6 cents.