Several amendments were tacked onto the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-1264) that the Senate Commerce Committee passed Thurs., but it wasn’t the telecom “war” some lobbyists saw as possible earlier this week. Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) didn’t put forward an amendment to delay the wireless industry’s local number portability deadline, nor were TELRIC pricing or broadband UNE requirements mentioned. “Judging by the amendments filed, the truce in the battle of telecom titans is holding,” Senate Commerce Committee McCain said.
Senate Commerce Committee members will have an opportunity to vote on the 35% broadcast ownership cap, despite the fact that Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) is likely to vote against it, he promised at a committee hearing Wed. that examined the FCC’s media ownership proceeding. McCain said he would let the committee consider a bill that would codify a 35% ownership cap, but he didn’t support the proposal. The bill (S-1046), by Senate Appropriations Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) with considerable Republican support, will be on the agenda of the June 19 committee executive session. While McCain said he wouldn’t vote for a 35% cap, he said there should be some form of cap, but the difficulty was finding the right balance: “I am not sure that even an expert agency can predict with precision where the lines should be drawn.”
The potential loss of current analog translators coupled with the lack of any digital services in the future would affect not only viewers dependent on over-the-air signals but also many subscribers to rural cable systems nationwide, the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS) and PBS said in an FCC filing. PTV stations, which operate 700 translators, can use their fully converted digital system to provide “powerful, cost-effective and nearly universal last mile” services, they said in comments on a National Translator Assn. petition for a rulemaking to establish a rural translator service. However, translators are threatened because they currently are considered a secondary device and because the Commission hasn’t yet set rules that would allow licensees to operate digital translators on their present analog allotments. The authorization of new translators (analog or digital) also is made more difficult by administrative processes that “unnecessarily” aggregate “traditional translators” with LPTV facilities for application processing, they said. It’s undisputed that small cable systems in rural areas rely on TV translator signals at their headends to provide service, the public broadcasters said, and, if translators are shut down, “not only will rural Americans who rely on over-the-air reception be denied service, but a significant number of rural cable subscribers would also lose service.”
The FCC should clarify its proposed rulemaking on cable modem service so local municipalities could continue to receive franchise fees from cable service, Sen. Landrieu (D- La.) told Commission Chmn. Powell in an early May letter. Landrieu said that as part of the proposed rule that would classify cable modems as an information service, the FCC had determined that revenue from cable modems shouldn’t be included in the franchise fees. However, he said some cable companies had told La. parishes that they no longer would pay franchise fees on revenue earned from cable modems. “I urge the FCC to further clarify that its decision is prospective and affects only contracts signed after the issuance of its ruling. Otherwise, local governments will be exposed to future claims and significant risk,” Landrieu said. The letter is similar to one sent by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) in March (CD March 13 p11)
Panelists at a round table on unlicensed spectrum Tues. differed on the potential of such spectrum to displace both landline broadband and voice offerings, with one panelist foreseeing an erosion in the ILECs’ voice market. Sponsored by NTIA, the FCC and the State Dept., the all-day round table featured numerous policymakers, but they were in moderator roles and said the event was designed to elicit industry input. Interestingly, when one panel was asked by NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory to offer advice to the policymakers in the room, only one of 8 panelists called for more unlicensed spectrum.
The delivery of local content was a central theme in the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on media ownership Tues., with some panelists and senators questioning how the FCC’s proposed rule changes June 2 could affect the nation’s democracy. While the effects of media consolidation on local content were debated, it appeared clear that a majority of committee members, including several Republicans, had at least some reservations about the FCC’s direction.
HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- Unmet demand in digital broadband -- for buildout to homes, for killer apps, for legislative action and for regulatory clarity -- was a theme common to several of the presentations at FCBA’s annual seminar here May 2-4. Lawmakers, FCC commissioners and industry veterans all predicted that digital services to the home would fuel the communication industry’s emergence from its current economic misery.
The Network Affiliated Stations Alliance (NASA) has challenged FCC Chmn. Powell over his published statements on the 35% TV station ownership cap. At issue is Powell’s briefing of reporters last Thurs. in which he said the cap in some cases harmed the public interest and there was evidence network-owned stations produced more news and won more awards than independently owned affiliates (CD May 2 p2). In a letter to the chairman Mon., NASA said the evidence of record showed independently owned affiliates outperformed network- owned stations when figures were adjusted for market size -- a position with which “the networks’ economists agreed.”
A coalition of business customers and competitive suppliers urged the FCC Thurs. to crack down on Bell company charges for special access services. The Special Access Reform Coalition (SPARC) asked the agency to act on pending requests to initiate a rulemaking to reform its special access policies and in the meantime to take 2 interim steps: (1) Impose a moratorium on approving new Bell pricing flexibility petitions. (2) Order a return to price cap regulation for special access services. SPARC told the FCC in a letter that Bell companies had promised they would lower special access rates if they were relieved of price cap limits but instead had “used pricing flexibility to fill their own coffers at the expense of competition and customers.” The FCC expected facilities-based competition to force those prices down, but such competition didn’t materialize and instead of dropping, special access prices have increased, SPARC said: “Four years later, it is painfully clear the Commission’s decision to allow rate deregulation to precede actual price-constraining competition has been a failure of astounding proportions that the Commission must immediately remedy.” Members of the coalition include the American Petroleum Institute, AT&T, AT&T Wireless, Cable & Wireless, CompTel, the E-Commerce & Telecommunications Users Group, MCI, Nextel.
The FCC should move quickly to adopt the industry agreement on cable compatibility, the NCTA said in the latest round of comments to the Commission, and objections by the MPAA and others should be dismissed because the proposed rules were modeled on those already developed for secure digital connectors and agreed to by MPAA studios and others. The CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition agreed, but MPAA and others said hasty Commission action would be harmful and unnecessary.