The Commerce Dept. is coordinating a communications infrastructure project at Italy’s Aviano Air Base to address anticipated growth in NATO telecom and data-transfer needs in Europe. The NATO-funded project involves construction of a communications network and installation of an underground duct system for NATO’s Integrated Communications Complex at the military base, the International Trade Administration said -- 202-482-1512.
NEW ORLEANS -- House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R- La.), taking fresh shots at the FCC’s Triennial UNE Review decision at the CTIA Wireless 2003 show HERE Mon., said his concerns about broader state regulatory authority over telecom extended to wireless. He cited efforts by some PUCs to step up regulation of wireless service quality, particularly in Cal., where the PUC is proposing several measures, including requiring carriers to seek permission before implementing new services.
FCC Chmn. Powell detailed in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) the efforts the agency was making to implement E911. The FCC’s E911 Coordination Initiative will have its first meeting April 29, Powell said, which will focus on the Hatfield Report analyzing E911 implementation, including public safety answering points (PSAP) funding and issues associated with LEC and wireless carriers’ deployment efforts. The FCC has contacted every state governor asking that an E911 contact person be identified in every state. The Commission also has met with the 911 boards of many states, Powell said. The FCC is coordinating with the Dept. of Transportation’s Wireless E911 Steering Council. The letter is a reply to Hollings’ Feb. 27 letter inquiring about FCC efforts on E911.
“Pot of gold” enticing states to tax sales by remote e- merchants doesn’t exist, Direct Mktg. Assn. (DMA) CEO Robert Wientzen said Thurs. Lost 2001 e-commerce sales tax revenue was about $2 billion annually, not $13 billion projected from seminal U. of Tenn. study, DMA economist Peter Johnson said in critique.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved on voice vote the nomination of Charles McQueary to be Undersecy. for Science and Technology in the Dept. of Homeland Security. The nomination now goes to the full Senate.
As Commerce Dept. (DoC) officials hit Capitol Hill this week to promote consolidation of their proposed merger of technology and telecom agencies, a House Commerce Committee source told us there was “not a lot of enthusiasm” for the proposal. The Dept. has proposed merging the NTIA into its Technology Administration (TA) (CD Feb 14 p1). However, the Committee source said members had 2 central concerns with the proposal.
The Minn. PUC isn’t planning to vote on endorsement of Qwest’s Sec. 271 interLATA long distance application until it knows whether the company will challenge the agency’s Feb. 28 order setting the penalties for Qwest’s secret interconnection deals with selected competitors. Comrs. Phyllis Reha and Gregory Scott said Qwest long distance entry wouldn’t be in the public interest until the carrier owned up to its anticompetitive behavior and accepted its punishment. The PUC last week concluded 2 days of hearings on the Qwest 271 application during which the company picked up unexpected support from the Minn. Dept. of Commerce, the agency that filed the initial secret-deal complaint. Qwest has until March 20 to seek reconsideration of the PUC’s order that it either pay a $26 million fine or refund to CLECs 10% of the last 2 years’ wholesale service billings and give a 10% wholesale service discount for the next 2 years. If Qwest sought a rehearing, the PUC 271 vote probably would be delayed until the reconsideration plea was decided. That’s if Qwest doesn’t file at the FCC before the PUC makes its decision, in which case the PUC would have to decide within 20 days. In last week’s hearings, the Minn. Commerce Dept. told the PUC it couldn’t fight the “mist of inevitability blowing from the FCC” on long distance approvals. The agency’s deputy administrator, Edward Garvey, urged the PUC to support the Qwest petition but also open a separate proceeding to address any local market problems that still faced the state’s CLECs. He acknowledged his support represented a complete reversal of direction for the agency but said the previous Commerce administration under former Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) had called things as it saw them, but that now it was his job to “call it like I see it.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would introduce spectrum reallocation trust fund legislation “in the near future.” He made the announcement during a hearing Thurs. on the future of spectrum policy. His proposal will be designed to pay relocation costs of federal spectrum users that are forced to move to different spectrum.
The FCC proposed fining T-Mobile USA $1.25 million Wed. for what the agency said were violations of its Enhanced 911 Phase 1 rules. An FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation found that in more than 450 cases, T-Mobile hadn’t furnished E911 Phase 1 service within 6 months of a request from a public safety answering point (PSAP). While the FCC had granted a waiver to T-Mobile for its Phase 2 rules, it said the carrier never “even requested a waiver or other relief from the Phase 1 rules.” Also for the first time the FCC outlined plans for an E911 Coordination Initiative, designed to devise strategies for expediting E911 rollout.
Verizon is more comfortable about investing in broadband facilities based on “clarification” made by FCC commissioners at congressional hearing Wed., Verizon Senior Vp Thomas Tauke said at annual Quello Symposium Thurs. at Willard Hotel.