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.
Country of origin cases
With the decision by the 3rd Appeals Court, Philadelphia, to keep the media ownership case rather than transfer it to the D.C. Circuit (CD Sept 16 p8), parties are questioning the ideological leanings of Pa. panel. Media Access Project (MAP), representing petitioners Prometheus Radio Project, Media Alliance and the National Council of Churches, wanted the case out of the D.C. Circuit, which has ruled against them repeatedly in the past.
The 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, was assigned Tues. by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to hear appeals of the FCC’s Triennial UNE Review Order. This is the same appeals court that heard the first major Telecom Act challenge involving interconnection requirements.
The 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, will retain jurisdiction over legal challenges to the FCC’s media ownership decision, it decided in a 2-1 vote late Mon. Industry officials said an appeal of that decision was technically possible but unlikely to be successful. TV networks and the FCC had asked to move the case to D.C., but the Media Access Project, which filed the original appeal, opposed such a move (CD Sept 10 p10).
The telecom industry was disappointed at the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancun that ended Sun., as “no progress” was made on the services side, including telecom, industry officials said. However, Patricia Paoletta, attorney at Wiley, Rein & Fielding, said the results weren’t surprising as “nobody expected any breakthrough” on the telecom side, with progress on agriculture issues being a “precondition for telecom services [issues] to move” forward.
In a joint filing Fri., USTA and the 4 Bell companies -- BellSouth, Qwest, SBC and Verizon -- asked the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to stay the narrowband portion of the FCC’s Triennial UNE Review Order. The sections of the order targeted by the stay request included: (1) Switching/UNE-P provisions. (2) Competitive access to high-capacity loops and dedicated transport. (3) New rules for access to enhanced extended links (EELs), a loop-transport UNE combination. (4) Permission for wireless providers to gain access to UNEs, in particular the high-capacity transport element.
AT&T urged the FCC to enforce its international settlements benchmark rates order against fraudulent audiotext practices in other countries. It said many foreign carriers had failed to reduce their settlement rates to the levels set by the benchmark order, using “above-benchmark settlement payments, in part, to compensate unscrupulous audiotext providers for the increased call volume they generate… It is apparent that the volume of audiotext traffic to a given country drops precipitously once settlement rates between that country and the U.S. are brought into line with benchmark levels.” AT&T urged the Commission to adopt a policy requiring enforcement of the benchmark order for all foreign carriers that demanded settlement rates “substantially in excess” of benchmark levels “where it finds credible evidence that those settlement rates are used to subsidize fraudulent audiotext practices.” AT&T said by enforcing the order the FCC could “deal a serious blow to those providers that prey upon United States consumers by using unscrupulous means to generate audiotext calls and revenue.” It said as foreign carriers lowered their settlement rates for U.S.-originated traffic, the economic viability of profit-sharing arrangements between foreign carriers and audiotext providers engaged in unscrupulous practices, such as “modem hijacking,” would be “compromised, and such providers [would] no longer be able to operate by deceiving individuals into paying excessive, above-benchmark rates that are ultimately shared with the audiotext providers.” AT&T also said enforcement of the benchmark order wouldn’t preclude legitimate audiotext businesses from providing and billing for their services: “Audiotext providers will remain able to bill for their services by multiple methods, such as by credit card or through common carriers in accordance with FCC regulations specifically intended to govern billing for pay-per-call entertainment and information services.”
Sprint promoted Len Lauer to pres.-COO; he will continue to head Sprint PCS… Peter Daniel, ex-NATO joins Bell Canada as exec. vp-communications… Robert Barocci, ex- Leo Burnett, named pres.-CEO, Advertising Research Foundation… Promotions at Shaw Communications: Mike Abram to pres.-Star Choice Communications; Brad Shaw to senior vp- operations, Shaw Cablesystems, replacing Bill MacDonald, retiring… Promotions at ESPN: Chris LaPlaca to senior vp- consumer communications; Mike Soltys to vp-domestic network communications; Katina Arnold to dir.-affiliate & new technologies communications; Josh Krulewitz to dir.-owned events & college public relations; Diane Lamb to dir.-corp. communications; Rob Tobias to dir.-NFL, NBA and original entertainment PR.
The FCC voted unanimously Wed. to adopt rules governing one-way digital, cable-ready TV sets, pushing the digital TV transition one step further. The order largely accepts the technical, labeling and encoding rules in an agreement reached by the cable and consumer electronics (CE) in Dec. However, the FCC made some changes, one of which was to order that the sets include over-the-air digital tuners -- something broadcasters wanted. The order also would allow computer manufacturers and others to hook their wares up to cable systems if the devices complied with the same content protections prescribed by the FCC. FCC Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree said that was “not just a rubber stamp” of the industries’ original agreement.
With an eye on speeding the rollout of wireless services in rural areas, the FCC unanimously adopted a proposed rulemaking Wed. with a wide range of possible changes, asking how to make unused spectrum available to new users and provide access to capital and equipment. The proposal also raised the possibility of allowing wireless operations with higher power levels to enter less densely populated rural areas. It tentatively concluded the cellular cross-interest rule should remain in rural service areas (RSAs) with 3 or fewer competitors, but would remove the limit in other RSAs.