Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Telecom carriers generally supported a Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) request that the FCC not make service outage reports public because the information could help terrorists and other bad actors. DHS on June 2 told the FCC it “strongly believed” the existing practice of sharing outage information publicly should be changed: “Whatever merit this approach may have had when the outage reporting rules were first adopted, the threat environment following Sept. 11, 2001, dictates that appropriate steps be taken, consistent with law, to safeguard sensitive information like that included in the outage reports, which could jeopardize our security efforts if disclosed to inappropriate recipients.”

Judges of the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, Thurs. remanded FCC’s major rules for cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations and the concentration of broadcast ownership in local markets. The court said the FCC should fix flaws in its diversity index, which it used to determine the new local cross-ownership rules.

House Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.) urged the FCC to reject “immediately” an AT&T petition asking that its enhanced prepaid calling card services be classified as interstate information services. In a letter to FCC Chmn. Powell last week, he expressed concern that “until the Commission acts, AT&T will continue its apparent practice of improperly withholding payments it should be paying into the Universal Service Fund (USF), as well as withholding appropriate payments of intrastate access charges.” In a petition filed more than a year ago, AT&T asked the Commission to rule that its “enhanced” prepaid calling card services were “interstate communications subject to interstate, rather than intrastate, access charges.” It also argued that services were information, rather than telecom services, because calling card users heard recorded ads when placing calls. Dingell called the claims absurd and said he was “troubled by the implications of the relief AT&T seeks.” He said ruling in AT&T’s favor would “upset the present balance which permits lower consumer phone rates,” because the company sought to “avoid its obligation to pay lawful intrastate access charges… on calls in which the calling and called parties are located within the same state.” He also urged the Commission to reject AT&T’s claims that its prepaid calling card services were information services, saying that granting such claims would “only free AT&T of any obligation to contribute to the USF in connection with these services” and create an “enormous loophole for other carriers to avoid supporting universal service.” Consumer Federation of America (CFA) Research Dir. Mark Cooper said in an interview CFA was “concerned” about AT&T trying to avoid paying access charges and USF contributions. “The FCC should make sure that everybody who benefits from the public switched network should make fair contributions to recover costs” of maintaining it, he said.

The RIAA unveiled its plan to seek content protections at the FCC to thwart widespread piracy of music transmitted over the emerging in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio (DAB) services, in FCC comments.

Low demand for broadband services has emerged as one of the “major challenges” for U.S. policy, FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey told a panel sponsored by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Thurs. in Washington. She said while 80% of the U.S. population had access to broadband, only 20% of households subscribed: “A key question for the U.S. policy is why so many people that have access to broadband in the United States have chosen not yet to subscribe.” The panel focused on policy and regulatory developments in Japan and the U.S. as they affect broadband deployment

Reaction was generally positive to the FCC’s adoption Thurs. of new band plans for the wireless, educational and satellite industries. “The hard work by the Commission and relevant stakeholders will lead to huge benefits for the public in receiving advanced wireless services under flexible use conditions, whether the user seeks mobile, portable or fixed services as optimal,” said Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) Pres. Andrew Kreig.

The U.S. Solicitor Gen. (SG) announced Wed. he won’t appeal the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling that vacated a significant part of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO) -- raising questions about whether the high court will take the case and what will happen to the telecom market. The appeals court decision, effective June 15, would nullify key FCC UNE rules, including those that permit competitors to gain UNE-P access to Bell facilities at TELRIC-based prices.

Several companies and associations used a call by the FCC for comments on broadband wireless issues to plead for more spectrum for emerging technologies. Most commenters also stressed that the FCC must give companies flexibility in using spectrum while providing more certain rules of the road.

The FCC is strongly considering delaying an order on ITFS spectrum rules due at the Commission next week, according to officials at the Wireless Communications Assn. conference in Washington Wed. The FCC has faced a firestorm of protests the past week, since word broke an order was steaming forward that would take 18 MHz of spectrum away from ITFS as part of a rule on the MMDS/ITFS spectrum allocation. The Commission must decide today (Thurs.) whether the order will be on the sunshine agenda for the June 10 Commission meeting.

The FCC’s IP rulemaking is so vague that it’s impossible to provide a regulatory analysis of its impact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The Dept. of Homeland Security, meanwhile, said the FCC may need to become even more active in regulating IP-enabled services, in comments on the FCC rulemaking (CD June 1 p1). Other commenters questioned the FCC’s authority to regulate IP services at all.