FCC Common Carrier Bureau granted petitions by Cox and AT&T and preempted Va. State Corp. Commission’s (VSCC) authority to arbitrate interconnection disputes companies are having with Verizon. VSCC has refused to arbitrate interconnection disputes because of uncertainty about state immunity under U.S. Constitution’s 11th Amendment. Under Telecom Act, companies first go to states for arbitration of disputes and if they disagree with decision they can challenge state-arbitrated interconnection agreements in federal court. States say that process places them in awkward position because 11th Amendment gives states immunity from being sued in federal court. Issue is topic of challenges in several U.S. Appeals Courts, and U.S. Supreme Court recently chose not to hear it. FCC stepped in under its authority to preempt states that don’t act. FCC said Cox and AT&T now could formally petition FCC for arbitration and Common Carrier Bureau will issue comment schedules. Agency said it would decide later whether to combine AT&T and Cox cases with pending WorldCom arbitration proceeding, as requested by AT&T.
European Commission (EC) urged State Dept. Fri. to be mindful of U.S. obligations under General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) when reviewing proposed merger transactions of Deutsche Telekom (DT), VoiceStream and Powertel. EC stipulated its concerns in communique to State Dept. Citing U.S. commitments under World Trade Organization (WTO) basic telecom agreement, communique said EC had “serious concerns” on some comments received by FCC concerning companies’ license transfer applications of companies. In particular, EC referred to concerns raised by Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.). It urged FCC not to heed requests that it should consider German govt.’s ownership in DT or DT’s market-opening activities in Germany. “The European Union reserves its right to take any appropriate course of action should the FCC adopt such requests, and would oppose any action that would undermine the U.S. WTO commitments,” EC warned State Dept. It said market access “cannot be conditioned on the level of commitments in the originating country of the supplier or on the way these commitments are implemented.”
Ability of DirecTV receivers for DTV to downgrade HDTV signal to 480i at request of content owners fearful of unauthorized copying is potentially embarrassing for CEA, which is battling cable industry over copy protection demands for HDTV, officials said. Copy Generation Management System (CGMS) covers all brands selling DTV-enabled DirecTV satellite receivers. Hollywood content owners fear that consumers will use high-quality analog component video (Y-Pb-Pr or RGB) outputs on receivers to make copies on digital recorders. DirecTV wouldn’t comment.
FCC “strongly admonished” Disney and its outside law firm, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, for breaching confidentiality of documents associated with AOL-Time Warner deal but declined to impose any sanctions. In 8-page order adopted Fri., Commission’s Cable Bureau concluded that “principals of Verner Liipfert and Disney were not sufficiently diligent in complying with the protective order” issued by agency on merger documents. Calling breach “significant violation” of its protective order, Commission said actions of Disney and its law firm “have not reflected the standard of conduct the Commission expects of parties in our proceedings.” But, finding “no evidence that the violation was intentional or that it reflects a pattern of noncompliance,” agency said no further action was needed. It said parties already had suffered “substantial penalty” when they were barred from inspecting confidential documents during critical phase of Commission’s merger review in fall. In future, FCC said it would consider banning parties and their counsel from access to confidential documents beginning from time it discovers their violation of protective order until one or 2 business days after they have notified agency and submitting party of violation.
FCC’s closely watched C- and F-block auction closed Fri., raising $16.9 billion, of which more than half will be paid by Verizon Wireless. Verizon and designated entities that have ties to Cingular and AT&T Wireless accounted for 83% of net revenue in auction of 422 licenses that started Dec. 12. Verizon filled in spectrum gaps in critical N.Y.C. market. It bid $8.78 billion for 113 licenses, nearly $4.1 billion of that for two 10 MHz licenses in N.Y. Revenue from auction surpassed lower end analyst expectations of $11 billion and surpassed record of $9.6 billion raised in 1996 C-block auction. Industry observers said Fri. they expected some large carriers’ financial arrangements with designated entities would draw challenges after bidders filed more detailed information with FCC on ownership structures. More broadly, several sources said they expected close of auction to refocus attention on wireless spectrum cap.
Charter’s monthly service fee for its “whole house” inside wire maintenance plan covering all communications lines, including satellite, telephone and cable in customer’s residence, isn’t subject to cable rate regulation, FCC said. Responding to clarification sought by Charter, Cable Bureau said company’s plan would be in direct competition with monthly maintenance plans offered by LECs. Saying Charter would continue to offer consumers who didn’t opt for whole house plan regulated hourly service charge, bureau said it found that whole house plan was comparable with LEC-offered telephone maintenance plans and LEC’s plan would exert competitive market pressure on cable plan.
In comments filed with FCC, CTIA called draft agreement on streamlining wireless antenna colocation review procedures “a step in the wrong direction.” Nationwide program agreement (NPA) was drafted by staffs of FCC, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. Point is to try to streamline reviews involving whether proposed transmission facility may affect historic properties. CTIA pointed out that if licensee determines after review that proposed facility doesn’t affect historic property, FCC isn’t required to conduct further processing. But under draft, “any person, whether qualified or not, at any time can allege at the FCC that the proposed colocation has an adverse effect on historic properties,” CTIA said. As result, Sec. 106 process under National Historic Preservation Act could be invoked to delay proposed antenna siting “based on nothing more than a mere allegation of an adverse effect,” CTIA argued. Draft proposal would allow colocations on wireless towers constructed on or before Dec. 31, 2000, without further review unless certain exceptions apply. Draft stipulates that attaching antenna can’t result in major increase in tower size. CTIA is calling on NPA to recognize that “colocations are generally in the public interest and are categorically unlikely” to adversely affect historic properties. Group said that would limit cases subject to review to scenarios where facility increases substantially in size, prior finding of unmitigated impact on historic properties or pending environmental review. Otherwise, CTIA said burden should be on ACHP and state or tribal historic preservation officers to provide evidence of impact on historic property. Late last year, issue of how to craft interim proposal for colocation generated disagreement among some state historic preservation officers, who have been addressing increased loads of applications for proposed colocations. MG
Fueled by postings on the Slashdot Web site, 67 opponents of Internet filtering had filed mostly one-page comments on FCC’s proposed implementation of Child Internet Protection (CHIP) Act by end of last week. Comment deadline isn’t until 15 days after proposal’s publication in the Federal Register. Virtually all of comments opposed mandatory filtering, but offered few counterproposals for how FCC should implement law. Several said Commission had authority to delay implementation in light of expected constitutional challenges. “I had no idea there would be that much interest,” said Liza Kessler of Leslie Harris & Assoc., who started ball rolling with Slashdot posting (which, she hastened to add, was “solely in my personal interest” and not on behalf of firm). “I don’t know of any other grass-roots efforts,” she said. Kessler said idea that FCC could forestall implementation is “interesting argument” but she wasn’t sure whether it held legal water. She will be filing on behalf of educational groups, and she said she expected most heated questions to revolve around whether any existing software met CHIP’s standards.
Changes at CTIA: Bruce Cox, ex-AT&T vp-congressional & regulatory affairs, joins as vp-regulatory policy and law; Robert Roche promoted to vp-policy & research… Howard Levitas joins Industrial Telecommunications Assn. as chief information officer of management information systems… Neil Hoffman, ex-WGN Cable, becomes senior vp-planning, scheduling & acquisitions, Lifetime Entertainment… Mark Taylor, ex-WWAV Rapp Collins Media, named vp, dir. of sales-Europe, Hallmark Entertainment Networks… John Nelson, ex-Apple Computer, appointed vp-human resources, EMMIS Communications… Stephanie Brownlee, ex-United Video, becomes vp- interactive TV sales, SeaChange International…Eric Brewer, co- founder and chief scientist of Inktomi Corp., joins Asta Networks board… Larry Watkins, ex-LCC, appointed CTO, SPEEDCOM… Darius Withers, ex-FCC, named associate, Kelley, Drye & Warren.
Ruling in cable’s favor on DTV must-carry again, FCC rejected effort by Paxson Communications to obtain mandatory cable carriage of its 6 digital multiplexed programming streams in Chicago area. In little-noticed 5-page ruling late Tues., Cable Bureau denied Paxson’s petition to force AT&T Broadband, Charter, Mediacom and 9 other cable operators and overbuilders to carry broadcaster’s 6 channels on its digital signal (Ch. 46) instead of its WCPX (Ch. 38) analog station. Paxson argued that its 6 digital channels were entitled to must-carry because company was seeking to replace its analog signal with its digital signal, not gain dual cable carriage of its analog and digital signals. Paxson also contended that 1992 Cable Act required cable carriage of all TV signals, including digital. Its plan called for cable operators to replace WCPX analog signal with downconverted analog version of WCPX-DT primary digital signal and put 5 other digital channels on their digital programming tiers. But cable operators and overbuilders said FCC hadn’t issued DTV must-carry rules, and carriage of Paxson’s digital signal was unnecessary because they already were carrying its analog signal. Cable interests also asserted that there was no statutory right for mandatory carriage of digital signal downconverted to analog and Cable Act required systems to carry only single video service. FCC Cable Bureau, noting Commission’s earlier order tentatively concluding that broadcasters weren’t entitled to dual carriage of their analog and digital signals (CD Jan 24 p3), said it found Paxson’s requests to be “inconsistent” with that order. While DTV-only stations “may immediately assert their digital cable carriage rights,” agency said, TV stations broadcasting in both analog and digital modes can’t assert such rights until broader DTV must-carry issue is resolved. “In this instance, although Paxson has requested its digital signal to be substituted for its analog signal, it still holds 12 MHz of spectrum and has given no indication that it intends to return its analog spectrum,” Commission said.