Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Cable operators generally were pleased with the conditions the FCC placed on News Corp.’s acquisition of Hughes Electronics and DirecTV, having feared the newly combined company would use its leverage to shut cable operators out of some programming. In a joint statement, Advance/Newhouse, Cable One, Cox and Insight said the arbitration mechanisms imposed by the FCC had “greatly reduced the danger that the transaction itself will do harm to consumer prices.” The 4 companies had joined forces in filing comments on the deal, and together they still worried that News Corp. would remain a “formidable presence.” EchoStar congratulated News Corp. on its purchase but said consumers can “count on” its own Dish Network to offer an alternative to “goliaths such as Time Warner, Comcast, and now News Corp.”

Touting benefits for homeland security, the FCC adopted rules Wed. for systems that provide a short-range, wireless link for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The service and licensing rules cover Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) at 5.9 GHz, including collision avoidance at intersections and electronic toll collection. The Transportation Dept. said the move would let research started in the mid-1990s continue, in part by freeing dedicated spectrum. Meanwhile, the FCC deferred a decision on a coordination issue involving the fixed satellite service until negotiations between govt. and industry conclude.

A group of academics urged the FCC Tues. to produce a clear national regulatory structure soon to ensure voice- over-Internet protocol (VoIP) growth. Speaking via teleconference, authors of a report by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC) called for the Commission to: (1) Subject VoIP applications that functioned like telephone services to certain telephony rules. (2) Regulate all VoIP service providers equally. (3) Ensure that statutory social responsibilities were met. All 6 authors said they hadn’t been compensated by any involved parties for submitting their papers to the NMRC.

NARUC announced a 6-member task force to explore the potential for broadband over power lines (BPL) and the role of state regulators in advancing that technology. The work of the task force would complement the BPL investigations of the FCC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NARUC Pres. Stan Wise said. Mich. PSC Comr. Laura Chappelle, who will head the task force, told us the commissioners would be looking at a broad range of issues that would help regulators understand “what role, if any, legislators should play in the emergent technology.” To begin with, regulators wanted a better understanding of the current status of the technology, its potential uses, potential timetable for its rollout and how widespread it would be, she said. Only then would the task force get into the policy considerations such as the potential for improper cross-subsidization, universal service, the role of regulators when utilities use their physical assets and BPL’s real advantages to the underserved communities. Chappelle said that although several companies had begun pilot BPL programs, they weren’t widespread and results weren’t “apparent.” That probably was because companies were keeping quiet for competitive reasons, she said, or it was just that the technology was only now emerging: “I think they are at the real infancy stage.” Unlike voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), which was “booming a lot faster,” things with electricity move a little slowly, she said. And unlike BPL, there weren’t any known security concerns with VoIP, she said, although there were a lot of policy concerns. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had expressed concerns about interference to govt. communications from unlicensed BPL systems, she said, but it was just a concern: “I think it’s just ensuring that the high-frequency radio, especially in the context that FEMA uses, would be protected.” That’s something that state regulators would want to ensure and in order to do that “we would have to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of research to find out if there is a potential for interference and, if so, what does that involve and is there something that can be readily fixed through industry’s putting protective measures in place.” Although the task force wasn’t operating under a time frame, Chappelle said it would give NARUC some initial feedback so as to involve more regulators and govt. agencies in the deliberations.

With scientific data inadequate to support federal Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) voluntary guidelines on communications tower siting, PCIA said, some states already were using them “as a precedent.” A PCIA spokesman said that while the guidelines were “not official… some states have taken them as being a gospel, and we don’t like that.”

The FCC’s Network Reliability & Interoperability Council (NRIC) voted Fri. to adopt more than 300 best practices aimed at enhancing reliability and security of the U.S. telecom networks in times of emergency. Although the vote marked the last meeting of a 2-year initiative, members have until Dec. 12 to submit their written comments. “The set of homeland security best practices adopted by the Council will guide the industry in fulfilling its commitments with its customers and with one another -- to engineer and operate the most reliable, robust communications service network in the world,” FCC Chmn. Powell said.

Under new broadcast license renewal procedures, licensees must certify that they have complied with federal requirements, such as children’s programming mandates or maintaining public files. NAB Thurs. urged broadcasters that thought they might have broken a rule to resist any temptation to lie, and confess the violation.

FCC Chmn. Powell gave early indications of his thinking about a regulatory regime for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) Mon., saying he saw consensus that the service might be deemed “interstate” in nature and that concerns about VoIP were focused on 4 or 5 discrete issues. His comments to reporters came after an FCC forum on VoIP that featured industry leaders, state public utility commissioners and others.

The current World Radiocommunication Conference preparation and interagency process “needs only a ’tune-up,’ not a major overhaul,” N.Y. Satellite Industries (NYSI) and Final Analysis Communications Services (FACS) told the NTIA. The agency had asked for comments on the process and agency coordination (CD Oct 24 p6). NYSI and FACS said much of the criticism of NTIA and FCC implementation of WRC items was outdated. They said coordination on their issue, the operation of Little LEO systems and incumbent federal users of the 1.4 GHz band, and others was an example of the “positive and instructive” preparation process the agencies had implemented recently, resulting in WRC-03 adoption of Little LEO feeders links in the 1390-1392 MHz and 1430-1432 MHz bands. If anything, they said, “a more streamlined process” for implementing WRC decisions, “where appropriate, would better serve the public interest. Once an international allocation is added, applicants should be free to seek an assignment of the allocated frequencies. This will allow the Commission to review individual applications to ensure that the public interest is served by the licensee’s use of the spectrum as allocated.”

FCC sources said the Media Bureau late Tues. sent a version of the decision on the proposed News Corp. acquisition of Hughes Electronics and DirecTV up to the commissioners for their consideration over the holiday weekend. A decision is expected via circulation. They said the bureau also sent up the annual video competition report, which typically is released to the public in Dec. Meanwhile, 4 federal agencies told the FCC in a letter that they wouldn’t object if the Commission granted News Corp. and GM the ability to complete their proposed deal under certain conditions. The Dept. of Defense (DoD), the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dept. of Justice and the FBI asked Hughes Electronics to amend the section of its bylaws on its audit committee to clarify that all members were U.S. citizens. The agencies asked that the committee have authority over certain actions, including: (1) Requests from a foreign govt. or other foreign entity to conduct electronic surveillance on a domestic communications network. (2) Requests from foreign entities on operations of domestic communications networks. (3) Corporate decisions on document preservation requests from any U.S. govt. agencies involving a domestic communications network. (4) Requests from foreign entities to preserve, store or destroy documents related to domestic communications requests. (5) Attempts by foreign entities to coerce employees to break U.S. laws. (6) Corporate decisions relating to compliance with “lawful U.S. process.” The agencies also asked the News Corp. board to adopt proposed resolutions acknowledging changes in the Hughes bylaws. In a filing with the FCC, the agencies said the proposed commitments “are adequate to ensure that the executive agencies and other entities with responsibility for enforcing the law, protecting the national security and preserving public safety can proceed in a legal, secure and confidential manner to satisfy these responsibilities.” Jeffrey Chester, exec. dir. of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), said the letter was an indication of how the agencies would judge the antitrust issues of the merger. He said that regardless of whether the audit committee was composed of U.S. citizens, it would “simply do his [Rupert Murdoch’s] bidding.”