An FCC notice proposing to establish undersea cable reporting duties was published in the Federal Register, triggering deadlines for comments of Dec. 3 and replies Dec. 18. The FCC voted 5-0 Sept. 17 to adopt the NPRM to open the rulemaking aimed at collecting timely and systematic information on outages disrupting any of the roughly 60 undersea cables that connect the U.S. to the world (see 1509170047). The agency specifically proposed "to require submarine cable licensees, as a condition of their license, to report on outages involving either lost connectivity or degradation of 50 percent or more of a submarine cable's capacity for periods of at least 30 minutes, regardless of whether the cable's traffic is re-routed," Tuesday's notice said.
Several broadcast, cable and media companies are opposing new FCC rules on the handling of confidential information and subsequent American Cable Association (ACA), Dish Network and Incompas opposition (see 1510260030) to a petition for reconsideration of those rules. That opposition ignores many of the arguments justifying reconsideration and often just parrots the reasoning in the order itself, said CBS, Disney, MPAA, Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox, Univision Communications, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Viacom in a filing in docket 15-149 posted Monday. The FCC's September order "suffers from significant substantive and procedural errors," and opposition to reconsideration -- like the order itself -- is mistaken when it thinks the Communications Act and Trade Secrets Act allows the agency to make confidential business information broadly available either under a protective order or through the Freedom of Information Act, said Comcast and NBCUniversal in a separate filing posted Monday. The FCC didn't comment.
Incumbent telcos opposed the FCC's tech transition proposals for assessing the adequacy of IP-based services intended to replace legacy copper-based phone services being discontinued. They said the commission’s proposed standards could slow the IP transition and broadband deployment, with AT&T suggesting it would be unlawful. Rural carriers asked the agency to clarify that they were covered by a rural exemption. But competitors, consumer groups, public safety groups, state regulators, electric power groups and others voiced varying degrees of support for proposed criteria, and some suggested additional criteria, including on affordability.
SAN FRANCISCO – The FCC has “a lot more competition policy to go” and needs the support of Incompas and its members, as well as their customers' stories, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to Chairman Tom Wheeler at the Comptel Plus meeting Tuesday. “We're going to rely on you,” Sohn said, providing an overview of the Wheeler agenda on the incentive auction, special access, IP technology transition, broadband deployment, Lifeline, USF and video reform. “Keep telling those stories and we'll get more and more people on the side of competition and bigger, faster broadband,” she said.
The FCC’s quadrennial review of its ownership rules is seen as being on the back burner and not likely to be a focus for the current FCC, numerous communications attorneys told us in interviews. That’s despite an NAB petition (see 1510130061) to hold the Charter/ Time Warner Cable/ Bright House deal in abeyance filed Sunday asking the FCC to take up the matter. Though Chairman Tom Wheeler has said the commission will address the 2014 ownership review in time for the June statutory deadline, the FCC is known for not completing ownership rule reviews on time. The politically charged atmosphere around the ownership rules, the upcoming TV incentive auction, and the ongoing litigation with NAB and Prometheus Radio Project over the 2010 quadrennial review are all reasons the FCC is unlikely to tackle a review of media ownership anytime soon, attorneys told us.
MVPDs clashed with TiVo, Public Knowledge and Google in comments filed in FCC docket 15-64 this week on the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee's final report. The latter entities and other members of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition (CVCC) said Congress meant for the FCC to take action when it mandated the formation of the DSTAC in the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Reauthorization Act. Meanwhile, Comcast, NCTA, AT&T and others said there's no indication in the DSTAC report that the FCC should take action. A “fair reading of the report” suggests that dictating downloadable security or set-top box policy to multichannel video programming distributors “would overtax the agency’s administrative capabilities and cause harm to the development of technologies and business models,” the Free State Foundation (FSF) said in its comments. By emphasizing a competitive set-top box (STB) market the FCC “can foster the competition and consumer benefits seen in other, vibrantly competitive consumer electronics markets,” the CVCC said.
The video market remains divided on whether it's suffering from a lack of real, effective competition or whether it's replete with competitors. "Choice and competition are now the hallmarks of the market for the delivery of video programming," NCTA said in replies in docket 15-158 as the FCC prepares its 17th video competition report. Pointing to such sentiments, NAB said it "wonders if these commenters are observing the same marketplace as everyone else." In initial comments last month, the FCC received a variety of suggestions for improving the video market (see 1508210033). The deadline for replies was Monday.
Advocates of special access regulation praised FCC plans to release industry data and commission a study of the business market for telecom services, the competitiveness of which is highly disputed. Some suggested the data analysis would support their calls for regulators to constrain the rates and practices of Bell/ILEC special access offerings to wholesale and retail business customers over dedicated circuits. Sprint said it was encouraged the FCC is moving forward with its “long-awaited, data-driven analysis” of the business market. “We are confident the data will incent the Commission to update 1990’s policies, which have undercut competition, innovation and productivity,” said a spokesman in an emailed statement.
The FCC proposed outage reporting rules for operators of undersea cables that connect the U.S. to the rest of the world and carry huge amounts of traffic. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a notice, launching a rulemaking aimed at collecting timely and systematic information on outages disrupting any of the roughly 60 undersea cables, which they said channel trillions of dollars of economic activity and carry sensitive U.S. government and military communications. “Our responsibility starts with being informed,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at Thursday’s meeting. "Today’s NPRM proposes that we require submarine cable licensees to report significant outages in appropriate detail through NORS [the Network Outage Reporting System]," he said in a written statement.
Whether many communities seek carriage of different broadcast signals under new satellite market modification rules the FCC adopted earlier this month remains to be seen, experts told us. The new rules "certainly give [broadcasters] more options and more ways to reach consumers," said Steve Ennin, president of communications analytics firm Centris Marketing Science. But Frank Jazzo of Fletcher Heald, who has represented a number of satellite and broadcast clients, said, "I wasn't aware of a lot of demand [for satellite market modifications]. I'm not sure how many changes we are going to see."