Rather than substantively discuss the still-unreleased UNE order or media consolidation, FCC Chmn. Powell played the part of a stand-up comedian at a luncheon of the Federal Communications Bar Assn. (FCBA) Wed., giving the packed room a big lead-up to the announcement of his long-rumored resignation, only to tell them he would institute the agency’s casual summer dress policy on July 7. He quipped that the biennial review of media ownership rules was more hotly debated than the Iraq war and that the 2 actually had merged, with advocacy groups becoming convinced that President Bush wanted to rid the world of “weapons of media deregulation.” One joke that drew moans involved the repeated cliche of a canary in a coal mine. Powell said the FCC had developed a device to detect escaping gases and that NAB wanted one to detect “escaping members,” referring to the recent defection of Disney/ABC. Powell said the media ownership debate drew opposition via snail mail, e-mail, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, cable, radio and broadcast TV to “get out their message that media consolidation doesn’t allow them to get out their message. Maybe it’s me. I don’t see it.” He said his favorite group was Code Pink, a group of women who handed him a pink slip -- literally a piece of lingerie. He said he asked them why they felt compelled to show up at the FCC’s May and June meetings. “They said it was important to show both the spring and the summer lines,” he said. The Triennial Review, he said, originally was named as such to mark the 3rd anniversary of the competition rules. “I didn’t realize it really meant how long it would take to release the order,” he said with a smile. He noted that former Vp Al Gore was thinking of starting a cable channel and said that the first program would be a road show featuring Comrs. Copps and Adelstein. Playing off the Verizon commercials featuring a man walking around with a cellphone, saying, “Can you hear me now?” Powell said he didn’t understand why it took so long for the wireless industry to embrace E911. “They couldn’t somehow see at first why a guy, limping around, bruised and bloodied from a car wreck, asking the emergency dispatcher, ‘Can you find me now?’, was not the best image for them.” At the end of the routine, Powell may have infringed on a David Letterman copyright when he gave the Top 10 Reasons he loved being FCC chairman: (10) You can wreck the economy AND democracy all without being elected. (9) Industry trade shows provide an opportunity to show off gymnastics skills. (8) It’s the only job in Washington “my dad thinks is harder than his.” (7) The annual chairman’s FCBA dinner was a great opportunity to get even with critics. (6) It’s easy to be funny, compared with former FCC Chmn. Al Sikes. (5) The opportunity to review indecency complaints “has its rewards.” (4) The convenient FCC location provides “ample opportunity for fine dining.” (3) Childhood fascination with acronyms pays off. (2) One can “feel the love” working with people such as Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.). (1) “Where else can you do stand-up comedy and the audience can bill the clients to laugh.” In answer to questions by reporters after the speech, Powell said the Triennial UNE Review order might be released early next week. He said it was “unlikely” it would released as soon as today [Thurs.], “it’s much more likely Monday.” Powell said commissioners still were reviewing each others’ statements, an activity that is considered one of the last steps before an order is issued.
Country of origin cases
Telecom bills were signed in Tex, and Me. Tex. Gov. Rick Perry (R) signed HB-1282 that bans transmission of unsolicited advertising e-mails with false or deceptive subject lines or false information about the source or path of the message. Spam e-mails must have ADV: or ADV:ADLT in their subject lines. Spam also must contain a return address for recipients to request deletion from the senders’ lists. The new law sets a penalty of $10 per offending message or $25,000 per day. Spammers can be sued by ISPs, recipients or state and local prosecutors. ISPs have the unilateral right to block any spam sent in violation of this law. Perry also used his budgetary line item veto power to eliminate a $2 million appropriation that would have supported the Telecom Infrastructure Fund board of directors. The veto effectively abolished the board. The fund originally was created to award grants to schools, libraries and health clinics for telecom access projects with the board determining awards. Under a law signed in early June, the fund was repurposed. It now will be used to support a per capita grant of $30 per student to schools for technology expenditures. That program formerly was supported from general tax revenue. Me. Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed HB-1088 that gives the Me. PUC more power to punish rule breakers. The new law allows the agency to impose fines of $25,000 per day or up to $500,000 total for violations of PUC rules, regulations or orders.
The Mont. PSC plans a July 10 workshop session on rules for implementing a 2003 law (HB-641) on telecom traffic reporting and nondiscriminatory intercarrier billing. The law requires all carriers that originate traffic or handle transiting traffic to supply terminating carriers with all the information the terminating carrier needs to accurately classify, measure and bill for the traffic. The law mandates that the PUC adopt rules on record-keeping, determining compliance costs and how those costs are apportioned. The PSC also is required to establish expedited dispute resolution processes for intercarrier disputes arising from the law. The PSC asked carriers to submit proposed rules by July 2.
In what the U.S. hailed as a “breakthrough,” a committee on allocation decisions at the World Radio Conference (WRC) in Geneva reached agreement Tues. on how to reduce the size of fixed satellite service antennas at 13.75-14 GHz while still protecting military radars. The agreement still awaits approval at a WRC plenary session. The U.S. delegation said the agreement would allow earth station antennas for geostationary FSS systems to have a minimum diameter of 1.2 m, down from the existing limit of 4.5 m. To protect military radars, the systems would have to abide by power limits set at -115 dB with certain time restraints. The U.S. has considered this agenda item one of the most important at the WRC, which ends July 4. The agreement strikes a delicate balance between administrations such as the U.S., Canada and others, which had entered the conference with a position of “no change” in that band (CD June 24 p5). European administrations had supported a way for dish size to shrink to as low as 1.2 m with power limits of -113 dB. New Zealand’s Alan Jamieson, chmn. of the allocation committee, called the item one of the “major issues” for the conference, calling the agreement “a significant milestone” in a Tues. meeting of his committee. “A delicate and subtle balance between FSS and radiolocation systems apparently just got found,” French delegate Jean Chartier said. Earlier this week, administrations seeking no change and those advocating proposals for introducing VSATs in this spectrum with protective limits differed sharply. The progress came in an ad hoc group following a Mon. meeting of a working group in which the gridlock still existed. The U.S. remained adamant that a reduction in power limits below -115.5 would represent an unacceptable risk to radar degradation. Companies such as PanAmSat and SES Americom have been particularly interested in the outcome of that item to pave the way for broader deployment of broadband applications in that spectrum. As recently as Mon., the U.S. and Canada still insisted they hadn’t backed off from their original positions of “no change.” The U.S. delegation said a WRC plenary session is expected to consider the item later this week or early next week.
Yet again, CCMI has delayed an audio conference aimed at explaining the significance of the FCC’s UNE order, this time to July 15 from June 25. The conference originally was scheduled for May 7, then June 11, then June 25. The numerous delays resulted from the fact that the order, which the Commission approved Feb. 20, hadn’t yet been released. The details remain the same, with the conference beginning at 2 p.m. and speakers including representatives of ALTS, ASCENT and CompTel -- www.ccmi.com/conferences/A245. The FCC reportedly is close to releasing the order. FCC Chmn. Powell has completed his dissent and given it to other commissioners for reviewing, which means the order may be released this week or early next.
With several amendments potentially queued for the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-1264), the Senate Commerce Committee meeting Thurs. has the possibility to be a “war,” an industry lobbyist said. But it’s more likely that members will try to keep the bill as clean as possible, several industry sources told us. Not until Wed. evening, when amendments begin to trickle into the committee, will it be known whether there will be a battle of amendments, lobbyists told us.
Fri. was the 4-month anniversary of the FCC’s vote on the Triennial UNE Review and an order still hasn’t been released, although it reportedly has been written for nearly a month and is awaiting the submission of dissenting statements, including Chmn. Powell’s. The industry is eagerly awaiting the order because it’s expected to add more details to what had been a sketchy outline when approved at the Feb. 20 meeting. Although the agency has been mum about the reason for the delay, industry sources said FCC Comr. Martin confirmed in a recent speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Council that the order was written and awaiting the statements. Dissents often take time to write because they focus on areas of legal disagreement that could influence court challenges. Powell reportedly received the draft order only 2 weeks ago and his office is expected to complete work on his dissent early this week. By custom, dissenting statements are circulated to other commissioners who then may tweak the original order to fix any unintentional problems raised, a process that could take another few days. Some say there’s a chance the order could be released this week, but next week may be more feasible. Since the 4th of July falls at the end of next week, one lawyer quipped that parties ought to file a joint petition asking the agency not to release the order until after the holiday. Some industry parties fear the order will surface July 3, requiring them to spend the holiday reading it and planning action. The order would be effective 30 days after it’s released, meaning the release might coincide with NARUC’s July 27-30 Summer Committee Meetings in Denver, where state regulators hope to work on a process for handling their new UNE responsibilities under the order.
FCC Chmn. Powell said Fri. that while the Commission had seen an improvement in the role that LECs played in Enhanced 911 implementation, “I wouldn’t represent it as enough. I think we have to continue to remain vigilant to make sure that every link in the chain is tight enough so that it remains effective.” He spoke to reporters following live demonstrations by AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and Nextel of E911 Phase 2 technology at the Alexandria, Va., 911 Communication Center. A report completed within the last year by Dale Hatfield, former chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology, had cited issues involving LEC implementation as holding up the timing of the rollouts of some Phase 2 systems. Some public safety groups have called LEC implementation “the missing link” in E911 deployment. “As we work through the process, we come to realize the significance of a part that might not have been originally envisioned,” Powell said: “I think we've really begun to understand the significance of the local phone companies’ participation.” The Commission recently began a stronger “supervisory role” in surveying LECs to understand what their capabilities were and what facilities they had deployed, he said: “We have seen improvement but we have a lot more to go and we are going to continue to work on that.” At the demonstration, dispatchers were fielding live emergency calls while Emergency Communications Technician Supervisor Marietta Robinson vetted test calls from carriers. She used a mouse to zero in on incoming latitude and longitude coordinates for the test calls, providing details down to each building on a nearby city block. “There are 3 things that make this difficult -- its complexity, coordination and bucks,” Powell told reporters in a Q&A Fri. following the demonstration. He cited the usefulness of legislation such as that sponsored by Senate Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) and Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) that would provide matching grant money for localities for E911 implementation and would require that state funds collected for 911 not be used elsewhere. A demonstration E911 Phase 2 call from the AT&T Wireless network hit a glitch when routing software from a 3rd-party vendor inadvertently routed the call to a neighboring Arlington County, Va., public safety answering point (PSAP). Such calls, when misdirected through such routing software, automatically and instantly are routed to the correct PSAP for emergency response, officials said. Curt Andrich, a senior consultant with Kimmel & Assoc., which has advised PSAPs in Va. on E911 implementation, said the hiccup that had mis-routed the call was the doing of a 3rd-party vendor, not AT&T Wireless. When a wireless call comes into a tower, “the database software is remote and is queried electronically,” he said.
The FCC denied Sirius’ petition requesting a waiver of the application fee it paid for the modification of its space station license, saying its arguments “do not justify a fee waiver.” The Commission said Sirius asked to modify its 2- satellite geostationary (GSO) system to a 3-satellite non-GSO (NGSO) system. The request was granted in March 2001 but the fee submitted by Sirius, $22,010, was insufficient, the Commission said. The Office of Managing Director (OMD) billed Sirius $286,095 which Sirius paid under protest, filing a petition for waiver or reconsideration of the fee. Sirius argued that it shouldn’t pay an initial launch and operation fee because it was only asking to modify a license, the Commission said. When the OMD denied the request, Sirius filed an application for review. The Commission said the application was correctly denied by the OMD and that it had concluded correctly that Sirius was arguing issues that were previously resolved. Additionally, the request for modification was the first mention of an NGSO system, so calling it a modification was incorrect, the Commission said: “In this case, Sirius could have avoided the additional fees associated with NGSO systems by continuing to pursue its originally proposed GSO system configuration… Absent such treatment, licensees would have every incentive to apply for the system with the smallest fees and then ‘modify’ for another small fee in order to avoid the expense of applying for the more expensive system in the first instance.”
An administrative law judge ruled that Peninsula Communications (PCI) of Alaska should have its licenses for 2 full-power FM stations and a network of translators revoked for flouting FCC orders to cease operation. However, Judge Richard Sippel, in his initial decision, said the company should be allowed to hold licenses for 2 other stations it owned, as well as 4 translators. The company originally had waivers to use the translators to provide radio service to “white areas” (underserved areas) of Alaska, and later, when service arrived in those areas, the company received FCC waivers. However, in the following years the Commission tightened its rules so low-cost, low-power translators couldn’t compete with full-power stations that established new service. The judge said PCI’s translators had siphoned ad revenue from full-power stations. Although the FCC ordered them off the air, the company continued to transmit, saying the case was under appeal and it should be allowed to continue operation until a final order. But Sippel said that since the FCC had sought an injunction and the state attorney gen. had become involved, the company should have been well aware it had to cease transmitting. The FCC proposed a $140,000 fine, which PCI is appealing. “PCI’s conduct was seriously misguided, bordered on contemptuous, and was deserving of those sanctions,” Sippel held. Although he deemed PCI’s decision to violate the FCC’s termination order “foolhardy,” he said the company used legal means in an attempt to forestall the inevitable and therefore wasn’t likely to run afoul of Commission orders in the future with its other stations and translators. The licenses were revoked for KWVV-FM Homer and KPEN-FM Soldotna. PCI was allowed to keep licenses for KGTL-AM Homer and KXBA-FM Nikiski, as well as 4 translators.