The House DTV bill would spend $990 million on a program designed to give each household two $40 coupons to buy converter boxes to enable analog TVs work after the digital transition, according to a copy of the bill we obtained. The bill, said by sources to be likely to get enough votes to pass out of committee, doesn’t address first responder needs. It differs from a DTV bill the Senate Commerce Committee reported out Thurs (CD Oct 21 p1) that includes a $3 billion DTV converter box subsidy and $1.2 billion for emergency communications. The House bill is set tentatively for Wed. markup, House sources said.
The FCC should amend its pole attachment rules to prevent harm to service providers and customers and prevent market distortions, USTelecom said Tues. in a petition for rulemaking. Many firms are “exploiting the FCC’s inconsistent rules and demanding that ILECs pay rate increases up to 500%,” said USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick. The group said an FCC formula stipulates default pole attachment rates for CLECs and cable providers and a process for handling rate disputes, but the FCC hasn’t applied the same principles to ILECs.
Rural telecom firms face a significant choice as a result of FCC deregulation of wireline Internet access (CD Aug 8 p1), panelists said on a USTelecom Webinar conference Tues. The order lets rural telecoms decide if their DSL service is to be treated as a regulated common carrier service or as a generally unregulated private carriage offering -- and that’s a major decision that can’t be made “off the top of the head,” said Carol Mattey, formerly at the FCC Wireline Bureau and now a Deloitte & Touche dir.
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.
An FCC SHVERA-mandated order implementing satellite TV carriage rules for Alaska and Hawaii marks a multicast carriage ruling that some industry officials said they hope will remain geographically limited. The Tues. move (CD Aug 24 p12), aimed at keeping the noncontiguous states on par with the lower 48 as required by Congress, was the Commission’s first multicast mandate and Martin’s first multicast-related call as FCC chairman. With Comr. Abernathy concurring in part and dissenting in part, the order deflected DirecTV and EchoStar’s technical and First Amendment protests, requiring they carry local broadcasters’ multicast and HD signals in the noncontiguous states.
Don’t cap ownership of cable systems in small markets, the American Cable Assn. told the FCC in a filing on the Commission’s latest rulemaking on vertical and horizontal limits. Retransmission consent coupled with lack of excess system capacity and tough DBS competition is harming small operators, the ACA said. While cable caps may suit larger markets, they won’t necessarily facilitate competition in rural areas, the group said. The NCTA doesn’t favor any caps (CD Aug 10 p7).
DirecTV, which wants FCC conditions on the sale of Adelphia, isn’t seeking cable ownership limits in the latest FCC rulemaking on horizontal and vertical caps. Other cable rivals, including Qwest, also said they don’t favor caps. Instead, they said they want a level playing field, as some Bells seek to compete head-to-head with cable in selling video services. Comcast, in comments similar to NCTA’s filing (CD Aug 10 p7), told the FCC limits aren’t needed to ensure competition. Yet if some media activists have their way, limits will be set.
The FCC hopes to act this fall on 20 petitions to reconsider a June 2004 order revising rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band, sources said. The new rules aim to promote wireless broadband in the band and optimize spectrum traditionally used to provide video services for data use. The FCC also is expected to launch a rulemaking on EBS/BRS relocation rules.
Concerns over competition are unfounded at any ownership level, said the NCTA, responding to an FCC inquiry on cable caps. In a filing commenting on the latest rulemaking on horizontal and vertical cable ownership limits, the Assn. said “changes in the marketplace” have “eroded” concerns on limiting programming offered to consumers.
Does the FCC’s order reclassifying wireline Internet access service as an “information service” apply to broadband over power lines? Many in the BPL industry believe it does but are unsure because the order doesn’t directly address BPL. “The jury is still out,” said Brett Kilbourne, regulatory dir. of the United Power Line Council (UPLC): “On the surface, it looks like all wireline broadband Internet access platforms are deregulated as information services, including BPL.”