Fate of data deregulation bill is in hands of House Rules Committee, which now must make pivotal decision on which version of HR-1542 will go to House floor for vote. Supporters and opponents each claimed victory Wed. following House Judiciary Committee’s markup of amended bill and rejection of competing bills. Although panel by voice vote approved “unfavorable” referral of bill out of committee, it passed by voice vote amendment by Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that would expand authority of Dept. of Justice in reviewing applications for Sec. 271 relief.
New FCC Comr. Michael Copps brings to agency strong interest in international trade issues, fascination with challenges raised by changing technology and belief that one shouldn’t join FCC “with a controlling ideology.” In interview Wed. with Communications Daily, Copps appeared to walk line between market- oriented approach to many business issues and govt. activism on others such as mergers and broadcast content issues. He also revealed apparent fondness for phrasemaking. “Here I am at the FCC, the Future of the Country Commission,” he said at start of interview. Asked at end to categorize his special bent at agency, Copps, former history professor, said he thought there was room for lawyers, engineers and perhaps “a wayfaring historian” like himself.
CHICAGO -- Despite nation’s economic slowdown and depressed media ad spending, cable operators painted bright picture of industry’s future Mon., boasting about success of their digital video and high-speed data services. Speaking at opening session of NCTA’s annual convention here, heads of 3 of 4 biggest MSOs said they would continue to roll out digital, data and even newer services such as video-on-demand (VoD) and home networking briskly over next couple of years because of unquenched consumer demand. They also said slowing economy had had little impact on their core video products so far. “It [the economy] really hasn’t held us back,” Charter Communications Pres. Jerry Kent said.
Newly renamed and re-established House Aerospace Caucus may boost chances for Berman-Rohrabacher bill (HR-1707), which would return satellite export controls to Commerce Dept. from State Dept., said Bruce Mahome, Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA) Space Policy Dir. Rep. Weldon (R-Fla.) and Rep. Kucinich (D-O.) are chmn. of new caucus, which met Wed. to address concerns of U.S. aerospace market, including satellite industry. “Party affiliation doesn’t really matter” in forming caucus, Weldon spokesman said, because it includes “people hard to the left and people who are hard to the right who feel the same way about a given issue.” HR-1707 has picked up 14 co-sponsors and will be high on caucus’s agenda, Mahome said. “We will be working very seriously with the caucus on the Berman-Rohrabacher bill.” Support from caucus “possibly” would help bill’s chances of passing house, spokesman for Weldon said. “I know that’s a bill of extreme importance to the industry and it’s going to be given its proper review and we'll see what happens,” he told us.
Walter McCormick, slated to become pres. of USTA July 1, envisions group as “forum” where disparate carriers -- ILECs, CLECs, long distance companies, wireless providers and others -- discuss issues and come to agreements that can be presented to FCC and Congress. In interview with Communications Daily, McCormick, now pres. of American Trucking Assns. (ATA), said he knew it would be challenging to bring industry segments together that way. Telecom industry is going through what trucking did several years ago, he said. In both cases, regulation created divided industries and, as regulation eased, challenge was to bring those carriers together where they had common goals, McCormick said. ATA successfully accomplished that goal and he said he thought USTA could too.
Changes in legislation by Rep. Cannon (R-Utah) and House Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Conyers (Mich.) are being considered, including adjustment in how bill (HR-1698) would set standard of proof in telecom antitrust cases, Cannon said Thurs. One change under consideration is lowering bill’s proposed standard for courts reviewing FCC or state PUC findings of Telecom Act violations, he said in Capitol panel discussion sponsored by Advisory Committee to Congressional Internet Caucus.
Bush White House in recent months has focused on how to curb cybersecurity threats, issue that also had high priority in Clinton Administration but that has been shaped by keen interest of this White House in national security issues, sources said. Concerns are expected to be part of what is addressed this week in meeting of National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), which includes CEOs of 30 telecom, network service provider companies and other high-tech companies. Closed -door NSTAC meeting that started Tues. night marks first time group, which meets about every 9 months, has convened under Bush Administration. National Communications System (NCS) has seen that agency’s mission “is growing,” with much of change centering on underlying communications backbones, said Brent Greene, NCS deputy dir., at TechNet 2001 International show this week. “We do a lot of information sharing,” he said. “We are beginning to accelerate how much information we're putting out into the private sector, to help them be aware of cyber challenges that we see that could potentially impact the telecommunications backbone or that could potentially impact financial processes within the vendor and finance community.”
Telecom industry sees merit in Commerce Dept. plan to appoint commercial and environmental stakeholders to Marine Protected Area Advisory Committee, measure that could balance nation’s conservation needs with deployment of submarine fiber systems, industry source said. Commerce Secy. Donald Evans said Mon. that White House had decided to retain Exec. Order 13,158, issued last year by Clinton Administration to coordinate nationwide marine sanctuary initiatives. Commerce in Jan. nominated 26 members representing federal, state and local resource management, science, policy and commercial interests. Nominees will serve on board pending security clearances and final review by Commerce Secy. “Conservation can be balanced with commercial and recreational activity,” Evans said. Panel, which will provide advice to Executive Branch without setting policy, could start useful dialog among stakeholders, industry source said. However, industry will monitor committee’s activities closely to ascertain whether it reaches “wrong” conclusions that might have negative impact on submarine fiber deployment, he said. Network operators had opportunity to apply for representation on panel, but didn’t see it as germane to telecom policy, source said. Govt.’s request last Aug. for nominations preceded related marine sanctuary policy developments that since have caught attention of industry, notably NOAA’s proposal (CD May 2 p4) to sell 25-year cable permits in protected areas for upfront $120,000 per mile of right-of-way fee, he said.
President Bush will send 2 more nominations to Senate for Commerce Dept., both with previous Commerce experience: (1) Linda Conlin, consultant with N.J.-based Conlin Group, to be asst. secy. of Commerce for trade and development. She was exec. dir. of N.J. Commerce and Economic Growth Commission 1994-1999, and served in administration of Bush’s father as asst. secy. of Commerce for marketing. (2) House Administration Committee staffer Otto Wolff to be asst. secy. of Commerce for administration as well as agency’s chief financial officer. He was deputy asst. secy. of Commerce for administration 1981-1993.
Regulators have “some culpability,” but overreaching by high- yield capital markets and companies themselves is more to blame for financial difficulties facing CLEC industry, FCC Chmn. Powell said in 2nd installment of Communications Daily interview. First part ran Tues (CD May 22 p2). “I think high-yield money went chasing unsound business fundamentals,” he said. Some companies were “short-term from the beginning… designed to get bought” or to take advantage of reciprocal compensation, Powell said.