The DTV provisions in the Budget Deficit Act are considered final, but some contentious sections of the bill could be amended, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The House is expected to take up the budget bill when it reconvenes Jan. 31. Most Hill telecom staffers and lobbyists are confident the bill will pass without a hitch. But if budget reconciliation fails, new legislation could be introduced on spectrum release dates, auctions and plans to assist the transition to DTV covered in the conference report, the CRS report said. “From the perspective of public safety, the worse case scenario is that the legislative initiative to release spectrum fails, either because it’s stalled in debates over budget reconciliation or because new legislation cannot be agreed on,” the report said. Such legislation could be more expansive, since it wouldn’t be confined by restrictions in budget rules, and it would probably cover whether cable and satellite are subject to multicast must-carry rules and so are obliged to transmit all of a broadcaster’s over-the-air programming, the report said. Under the conference report adopted by the Senate and awaits approval by the House, the spectrum auctions would turn over $7.36 billion to the federal govt. for the budget deficit, which is why DTV provisions ended up in a budget bill. The 700 MHz spectrum that broadcasters would return has produced a wide range of valuations, the CRS report said. The Congressional Budget Office offered the most conservative at $12.5 billion, and private studies have gone as high as $28 billion. For investors, a crucial consideration is that the spectrum be unencumbered -- that broadcast stations have vacated. “In the case of spectrum at 700 MHz, the general opinion is that there is significant risk that the spectrum will remain encumbered, despite hard dates, thereby tying up resources indefinitely and hampering investment in new communications technologies and services,” the report said. “As presently configured, 874 licenses in 60 MHz would be available for auction. Of these, 280 licenses are considered encumbered by TV broadcast stations,” it said. The budget bill also would spend $1.5 billion on a DTV converter box subsidy program; $1 billion for public safety agencies for interoperability; up to $30 million for temporary digital equipment for N.Y. area broadcasters; up to $65 million for low-power TV stations in rural areas to upgrade from analog to digital technology; up to $106 million building a unified national alert system and $50 million for a tsunami warning and coastal vulnerability program; $43.5 million for a national 911 improvement system under the Enhance 911 Act of 2004; and up to $30 million to support the Essential Air Service Program.
Former FCC Comr. Rachelle Chong was nominated Thurs. to be the newest commissioner on the Cal. PUC. Chong would fill the vacancy left by the departure of former Comr. Susan Kennedy. Chong, a Republican, was on the FCC 1994-97 when the FCC was implementing the 1996 Telecom Act, setting up the first PCS wireless spectrum auctions, finalizing DTV rules and coping with new wireless and satellite services. Most recently, Chong was in private telecom practice as an attorney, mediator, arbitrator and expert witness. The appointment of a former federal telecom regulator to the state commission overseeing the nation’s largest telecom marketplace follows on the heels of a Tenn. state regulator, Deborah Tate, being appointed to fill an FCC vacancy. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said Chong’s telecom background and “exceptional understanding of the regulatory environment” will be major assets to the PUC. Kennedy left the PUC to become Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff. Chong’s appointment must be confirmed by the Cal. Senate.
To extend broadband, Va. may reach out to untested technologies whose creators see the sense in sharing the risk of rollouts, the state’s new technology secretary said. When private providers aren’t delivering, the state should consider “advanced technologies that might be less mature” but whose owners may “take chances in the marketplace to show their capability” to close gaps between high-speed Internet haves and have-nots, said Aneesh Chopra. Now Advisory Board Co. (ABC) managing dir., Chopra, 33, will join the cabinet of Gov.-elect Tim Kaine (D), who takes office tomorrow (Sat.).
The House voted 212-206 early Mon. to pass a conference report on the budget reconciliation bill setting Feb. 17, 2009, as the cutoff for analog broadcasts and creating a $1.5 billion DTV converter box subsidy program. The report also contains $1 billion for state and local interoperability grants; $75 million for a program to switch low power TV stations and TV translators to digital; and $30 million to a group of N.Y.C. broadcast stations for gear to provide an adequate digital signal from the Empire State Building until the Freedom Tower is completed to replace their former site atop the World Trade Center.
A co-author of a landmark corporate reform law that set detailed message retention rules won’t seek reelection in 2006. Rep. Oxley (R-O.) said Tues. he'll retire from Congress after 25 years. He and Sen. Sarbanes (D-Md.) fast-tracked 2002’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act after major accounting scandals. Among other provisions, the law requires firms to log and archive e-mail and instant messaging (IM), for some a daunting task. “What the law really does is enshrine the principles of honesty and accountability that I learned growing up in Ohio,” Oxley said: “You never get in trouble by doing the right thing.” Oxley’s House Financial Services Committee also passed identity theft protections in the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act. The committee was responsible for the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, made law in Oct. 2003. That measure aids consumers by improving electronic payment systems. Oxley also was at the forefront of the telecom revolution. He sponsored laws creating the spectrum auctions that led to the growth of cell phones and other telecom services and earned $14.5 billion the U.S. Treasury used to cut the deficit, officials said. Key parts of 1996’s Telecom Act bear his stamp, his office said. “It was almost unthinkable when I introduced a bill that would allow cable and telephone companies to compete with each other, and that was barely 10 years ago,” Oxley said. A spokesman told us Oxley had not made plans post-retirement.
Senate Commerce Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) is fighting for agreement by committee members to back off DTV bill amendments that would violate Senate “Byrd rules” prohibiting nonfunding provisions. If passed out of committee, the DTV bill, headed for committee markup today (Thurs.), would be sent to the Senate Budget Committee, expected to mark up budget reconciliation legislation Oct. 26. When it hits the Senate floor, Stevens said Wed., he may support amendments that would violate Byrd rule on provisions such as multicasting and downconversion of analog signals to digital for cable operators. Such amendments are subject to challenge and require 60 votes to pass.
The FCC is likely to set performance rules for broadband radio service (BRS) and educational broadband service (EBS) licensees in the 2.5 GHz band at its Oct. 12 meeting, several sources said. It’s also expected to act on 20 petitions to reconsider a June 2004 ruling revising rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band. The items could still fall off the agenda, given the FCC’s recent hurricane-related focus, some speculated. The FCC also is circulating a rulemaking on BRS relocation for channels 1 and 2. The latter is expected to be addressed in circulation.
ASPEN, Colo. -- Spectrum reform is discussed the wrong way -- it’s not that property rights and a commons concept are polar opposites, but “we have this figment of our imagination that there’s this thing called spectrum.” said U. Pa. business professor Kevin Werbach at the Progress & Freedom Foundation seminar here. Spectrum doesn’t really exist, he said, but devices that transmit and receive data by untangling messages from one another do: “What we're allocating is set of property rights around devices, and a commons position is a more market oriented position.”
The auction process is a “speedy, efficient mechanism for deploying spectrum” that has brought the govt. $26.8 billion while promoting the broadest possible participation, according to a letter the FCC wrote in July to House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) and provided to us. The FCC was responding to 20 questions on spectrum auctions submitted by Rep. Rush (D-Ill.) arising from a May 26 hearing on the draft House DTV bill (CD May 27 p1). Rush wanted in-depth information on FCC management of the auction process to determine how quickly the govt. can log revenue and see if changes were needed to widen participation by minorities and small businesses in the bidding process.
The Senate Commerce Committee is expected to mark up its DTV bill in Sept., Senate sources say. It’s likely the bill will be part of a budget reconciliation package to be sent to the Senate Budget Committee. The DTV bill would enable Commerce to meet its $4.8 billion net revenue goal under through revenue from spectrum auctions. Committee sources wouldn’t comment on the timing or content of the bill except to say the drafting process is under way. Lobbyists familiar with the negotiations said some type of analog TV conversion subsidy provision is likely to be included in the legislation. Meanwhile, Telemundo sent a letter to Sen. Hutchinson (R-Tex.) urging the inclusion of a multicast provision in the legislation.