ATLANTA -- The National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) adopted 4 telecom policy resolutions at its annual meeting here, addressing Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service, regulation of cable modems, market exit by carriers and customer privacy protection. And speakers at the NASUCA conference addressed implications of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order for consumers and carriers. The NASUCA meeting was held in conjunction with the NARUC annual meeting.
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The European Parliament (EP) approved a series of compromise amendments aimed at speeding the creation of a European Network & Information Security Agency (ENISA). The amendments, agreed to Wed. by the EP, the European Commission (EC) and the European Council, focus on the agency’s tasks, its operational structure, the initial evaluation of its work and where its hq will be, the EP said. The adoption of the amendments will allow the regulation to be adopted at first reading. The amendments provide that: (1) ENISA have a management board composed of one representative from each member state, as opposed to the EC’s original plan to have 6 representatives appointed by the Council, 3 named by the EC and 3 proposed by the EC and appointed by the Council, with no voting rights. (2) The executive director’s term run 5 years, rather than the 2 years proposed by the EC. (3) ENISA have a Permanent Stakeholders Group, instead of the advisory board called for by the EC. The group should consist of experts from relevant stakeholders such as the information & communications technology industry, academic experts in network and information security, and consumer groups. Procedures governing the number, composition and appointment of members by the exec. dir., as well as operation of the group, should be set out in the agency’s internal rules or operation and should be made public. (4) ENISA be headquartered in Brussels. (5) The agency’s objectives and tasks not prejudice member states’ actions such as network and information security, public security, defense, state security and criminal law. (6) ENISA be evaluated to determine whether its work should continue beyond 2008. The new agency is on the agenda for the Telecom Council meeting in Brussels today (Nov. 20). The council is expected to reach political agreement on the compromise and issue a declaration stating that ENISA should be sited in Brussels until its permanent hq has been decided by heads of states, the EC said.
Low-power FM (LPFM) stations and the Amherst Alliance asked the FCC late last week to freeze licenses for new satellite-fed radio translator stations and other long distance translators, which they said might interfere with LPFM signals. They also asked the FCC to grant LPFM stations “primary service status” and to establish a new tertiary status for satellite-fed and other long-distance translators. The stations and Amherst also said in-band, on-channel (IBOC) digital radio stations threatened to interfere with LPFM signals and asked the FCC to establish “emergency relief procedures” as part of its reconsideration of rules for IBOC stations. If an IBOC digital station interferes with an LPFM signal, the stations and Amherst want the right to petition the FCC for wattage or tower height increases or both. The LPFM stations and Amherst originally had asked the FCC’s Localism Task Force to address their concerns, but now are asking for immediate consideration by the full Commission.
The Internet tax moratorium bill isn’t dead for this session but its best hope in the Senate this year could be as part of an omnibus appropriations bill, which would require a negotiated agreement. However, a key supporter of the bill wants an up-or-down floor vote, and a unanimous consent (UC) vote on the floor also could be possible if a deal were struck. The moratorium on discriminatory Internet taxes and access taxes expired Nov. 1, but talks have continued on how to resolve state and local regulators’ concerns with S-150 by Sen. Allen (R-Va.). A source close to the talks told us at our deadline Tues. that while things were still in flux, significant progress was possible, possibly before today (Wed.).
BellSouth (BS) asked the FCC to allow ILECs to recover the costs to implement wireless local number portability (LNP) through a federal charge on end users. Besides seeking a declaratory ruling, the company in an FCC filing late Fri. asked for a waiver of the recovery limits for end-user LNP charges, which have been in effect for wireline LNP since 1999. With the Nov. 24 deadline for wireless LNP in the top 100 markets a week away, BS estimated it had spent $38 million to enable wireless porting.
Showtime said it would present the The Reagans at 8 p.m., Nov. 30. The program originally was to have aired on CBS, but the broadcast network handed over the rights to Showtime, another Viacom-owned subsidiary, after strong Republican objections. CBS said at the time that its executives didn’t believe the final product was balanced. Some observers said they thought CBS’s decision might have been made to placate Republican lawmakers who could vote to roll back the FCC’s national broadcast ownership cap to 35%. “We have the utmost respect for the filmmakers of The Reagans and are pleased to be carrying the movie the way they envisioned it,” said Robert Greenblatt, Showtime pres.- entertainment: “They've worked diligently to craft the movie as honestly and balanced as possible.” Exec. producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and dir. and co-exec. producer Robert Ackerman issued a statement saying: “We are proud to live in a country where everyone, including artists and writers, has the right of free speech.”
Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) members are expected to vote this spring on adopting a new enhanced VSB extension (E-VSB), said a Zenith spokesman, whose company developed the original 8-VSB technology. The ATSC’s 178 members originally had been expected to vote via paper ballot this year, but the process was delayed to study how E-VSB would work with MPEG-4 video compression. E-VSB was designed to be more robust than the original 8-VSB, boosting signal strength so it was received more easily by indoor antennas. The ATSC had been expected to set an E-VSB standard in spring 2002, but the process slowed as Zenith and NxtWave Communications moved to combine competing VSB technologies. If ATSC membership votes to adopt E-VSB in the spring, the first products containing it aren’t likely to hit the market until 2006, the Zenith spokesman said. E-VSB alters, but doesn’t replace, VSB by slowing the data rate to 14-15 Mbps so the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) decreases to the 9.5-11 dB range from 15 dB.
American Movie Classics (AMC) filed a $250 million lawsuit against Time Warner Entertainment after the latter gave notice that it no longer would carry AMC on Time Warner Cable systems. Their contract ran through 2008. In the suit filed in the N.Y. state Supreme Court, AMC said Time Warner was trying to “breach” the contract because AMC had started carrying more modern movies. AMC contends that doing so changes nothing about their original agreement.
ATLANTA -- NARUC’s Telecom Committee adopted policy resolutions addressing the cost basis for UNEs, convergence of information services and telecom, and use of the 811 dialing code as the national number for underground facility locator services. But another resolution at the NARUC annual meeting here Mon. on directory assistance competition failed to pass.
Acting in a convoluted case that reached back to the late 1980s, the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. dismissed for lack of standing a challenge by Ranger Cellular and Miller Communications to an FCC decision awarding 4 rural cellular licenses in 2000 and 2001. The case stemmed from lotteries for 8 rural cellular licenses held in 1988 and 1989. Ranger and Miller had lost each of the lotteries they entered but, by the mid-1990s, the initial lottery winners had been disqualified and the FCC planned to hold re-lotteries. Ranger and Miller filed applications, but before the lottery occurred Congress passed a law requiring the FCC to grant cellular licenses through competitive bidding. Four of the original licenses were granted through an auction that ended in 2002, but Ranger/Miller didn’t participate and challenged it because it wasn’t limited to the original pool of applicants. The D.C. Circuit rejected those arguments earlier this year (CD July 3 p9). The court’s latest decision related to Ranger/Miller’s challenge to the remaining 4 licenses -- 3 of them disqualified in 1992 for having too much foreign ownership but reinstated in 2001 at the demand of Congress. The 4th license had gone to Zephyr Tele-Link in 1992 through a lottery, dismissed in 1999 because Congress stopped the lottery process before Zephyr’s license was processed and then reinstated in 2000. The court said Fri. that Ranger-Miller lacked standing because it wasn’t likely to gain redress through the suit. The companies argued they could get redress through a closed auction limited to bidders from the original pool, the court said: “The flaw in this argument is that the consequence of a Ranger/Miller victory on this appeal would not be an action limited to the original applicants but rather an open auction in which virtually any interested company would be permitted to compete.” Acting on another part of the companies’ appeal, the court upheld the FCC’s decision to deny Ranger/Miller a refund of filing fees. The case was decided by Judges Harry Edwards, Merrick Garland and Raymond Randolph.