The FCC rescheduled the Rural Wireless ISP Showcase to 9:30 a.m. Nov. 4 at Commission hq. The event, originally set for Sept. 18, was postponed because of Hurricane Isabel -- www.fcc.gov/osp/rural-wisp.html.
Country of origin cases
Sirius and Pana-Pacific developed a Sirius system for commercial truck drivers, available in Oct., Sirius said. The device is available through original equipment manufacturer truck dealers and truck stops for $109, it said.
The FCC extended the deadline for filing comments on its “pick-and-choose” rules until Oct. 16, with replies due Nov. 10. The original dates were Oct. 2 and Nov. 3. The comments are part of a proposed rulemaking that was teed up as part of the Triennial Review Order. The FCC had asked whether it should change the rules, which allow competitive carriers to opt into individual parts of interconnection agreements between ILECs and other competitors. At issue is the fact that the rules allow new carriers to opt into the agreements without accepting all the terms and conditions of such agreements. CompTel had asked for the time extension because the proceeding requires a detailed analysis of carriers’ experiences under the rules.
Determined to ensure the timely start of the FTC’s Do- Not-Call (DNC) registry, Congress quickly responded to the courts Thurs. and sent legislation to President Bush that would give the FTC authority to establish the list. Thurs. morning, the House introduced and quickly passed a bill that would give the FTC authority to establish the list. That bill was passed by the Senate in late afternoon by a vote of 95-0. It explicitly would give the FTC the authority that the U.S. Dist. Court, Oklahoma City, had ruled Wed. it lacked (CD Sept 25 p2). Indications from the White House suggest Bush will sign the bill.
A proposed broadcast flag “scheme” won’t “significantly protect” against unauthorized redistribution of DTV content, but would “suppress innovation, create massive enforcement problems” and stifle the DTV transition, consumer and public interest groups told the FCC. Consumers Union and Public Knowledge in a joint ex parte filing this week at the FCC -- submitted, they said, at the request of the Commission staff -- which sought the groups’ “critique” of MPAA-proposed broadcast flag rules in the wake of the agency’s recent adoption of a plug-&-play agreement on cable-DTV interoperability.
As Verizon Senior Vp Thomas Tauke made another pitch Wed. for changes in the FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO), industry sources reported rumors that the agency was considering making some of those changes through a “sua sponte” reconsideration order, meaning one that the agency originated on its own. An FCC spokesman wouldn’t comment on the issue other than to say if such action were contemplated it would have to be done by Oct. 2 under the TRO’s deadlines.
The FCC accepted for filing Wed. 2 amendments to applications filed by Pegasus this month. One application, originally filed by WSNet in Jan. 2002, proposes operation of a DBS service via 1 million receive-only earth stations served by Telesat’s Nimiq 1 and 2. The 2nd application, also from WSNet, asks to operate a transmit/receive earth station at Cohoes, N.Y., also served by Nimiq 1 and 2. In its requests for amendments, Pegasus said it now controlled the 2 pending applications because it had acquired WSNet assets, including the applications, in a bankruptcy proceeding. Pegasus said the agreement had been executed Aug. 5 and approved by the court Aug. 11. A Pegasus subsidiary, Satellite Access Corp., recently filed an application to operate 1 million VSATs that also would access the Nimiq satellites (CD Aug 20 p2).
The FCC’s Triennial Review Order (TRO) failed all but one of the “deregulatory scorecard” benchmarks cited Tues. in a paper by Progress & Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow Randolph May. The agency in 5 of 6 categories chose “static regulated competition” over “dynamic regulation,” May said in the paper -- “The Triennial Review Scorecard: A Disappointing Grade.” May originally issued the benchmarks in Jan. to evaluate whether the FCC’s actions in the TRO and 2 outstanding broadband proceedings could be considered “procompetitive, pro-economic growth and deregulatory in line with today’s technologically dynamic telecommunications marketplace.” The benchmarks were: (1) Unbundling and sharing shouldn’t be required for newly installed fiber or other non-copper facilities. (2) Local switching should be removed from the unbundling regime. (3) Interoffice transport and high capacity loops should be removed from unbundling requirements and special access shouldn’t be “re- regulated.” (4) “A presumptive sunset regime with competitive triggers should be established for the removal of copper local loops from the unbundling and sharing requirements.” (5) The FCC should preempt the states from mandating unbundling and sharing requirements that exceeded federal requirements. (6) UNES that had been removed from the unbundling regime shouldn’t remain on the Sec. 271 competitive checklist. May said the FCC took deregulatory action only in the first benchmark by ruling that the incumbents weren’t required to unbundle and share newly deployed fiber loops and packet-switching equipment. However, even there “the FCC was less clear than it should have been,” he said. For example, he said, despite a recently released “Errata” clarifying some of the language, the order still leaves unclear “whether loops serving apartment buildings and other multitenant dwelling units are exempt from unbundling.” A 7th benchmark listed in Jan. -- advocating a uniform regime by not subjecting either cable or wireline broadband services to unbundling and sharing requirements or computer 2-type separation -- wasn’t applied to the TRO because it was related primarily to pending broadband proceedings, May said. In fact, he said, those broadband proceedings could give the FCC an opportunity to offset what it did in the TRO.
State commissions around the country are setting up their proceedings for addressing the unbundling issues handed to the states by the FCC in its Triennial Review Order (TRO). Several states have invited CLECs to file if they want the state to challenge the FCC’s national presumption that unbundled switching isn’t needed for local competition in the large-business market segment. The TRO takes effect Oct. 2 and states must decide the large-business question by year’s end.
As Hurricane Isabel bore down on the East Coast, telecom carriers said they were prepared for the worst. BellSouth and Verizon officials said their technicians were checking backup power systems so they could continue providing phone service if commercial power was lost and making sure their fuel tanks were full.