NextWave urged the FCC to turn down an application for review filed by N.Y. Telecom over a recent Wireless Bureau decision on certain construction build-out deadlines for NextWave. The Bureau last month upheld NextWave’s interpretation of the build-out deadlines for its PCS licenses, dismissing an earlier N.Y. Telecom challenge. The Bureau: (1) Extended NextWave’s original construction deadlines by 597 days, in line with the date when the licenses were cancelled Jan. 12, 2000, for nonpayment (a decision later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court) through the day when the licenses were reinstated -- Aug. 31, 2001. (2) Extended the original deadlines another 106 days in line with a “tolling” period under a settlement agreement signed by the FCC, NextWave and other carriers that Congress ultimately failed to approve and that expired Dec. 31, 2001, as a result. “N.Y. Telecom does not challenge the sufficiency of NextWave’s construction demonstrations (which were more than a year ago), nor does it even contest that circumstances here call for the construction deadline to be extended,” NextWave told the FCC in a filing last week. “Instead, N.Y. Telecom makes the unfounded assertion that the extensions are not permitted under the Commission’s rules because those rules do not explicitly provide for tolling.” The tolling period in the settlement agreement, during which the clock essentially stopped on NextWave’s construction obligations while the pact was pending, is an “equitable doctrine that acts by operation of law to foreclose the operation of certain time constraints,” NextWave said. It also disagreed with a N.Y. Telecom argument that there was a legal requirement that agency rules contain tolling provisions in order for such requirements to be extended under such provisions. “Courts routinely toll limitation provisions of congressional statutes and agency regulations that lack express tolling provisions where, as here, due process and equitable considerations require,” NextWave said.
Country of origin cases
Verizon Wireless urged the FCC this week to “remove substantial uncertainty” on intercarrier compensation between mobile operators and LECs by ruling on pending proposals. The company asked the Commission to grant a petition by 3 carriers seeking a declaratory ruling that “wireless termination tariffs” violate FCC rules. Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Western Wireless had asked the agency to “reaffirm” that wireless termination tariffs weren’t the proper tool for crafting reciprocal compensation arrangements for the transport and termination of traffic. Wireless providers typically interconnect indirectly with a rural ILEC by exchanging traffic via an intermediate carrier. Companies that handle such indirect interconnections often hand off traffic under bill & keep arrangements, not interconnection pacts, for wireless-to-landline traffic. The issue received attention last year when some rural LECs filed state tariffs to collect reciprocal compensation for certain wireless traffic. Verizon Wireless said Secs. 252 and 332 of the Communications Act required LEC-Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) interconnection to be covered by negotiated or arbitrated interconnection agreements, not “unilateral rates.” FCC rules stipulate that in cases where there’s no interconnection agreement, LECs and CMRS operators must compensate each other at “reasonable” rates. “Because of widespread confusion in the marketplace, it may be necessary for the Commission to establish the range of ‘reasonable rates’ through proxy rates, much as it originally did in the first local competition order, until a more permanent solution can be reached in this docket,” Verizon Wireless said. It urged the Commission to clarify a previous decision that traffic to or from LECs and CMRS carriers that originated and terminated in the same major trading area was local and subject to reciprocal compensation rules unless it was carried by an IXC, in which case it would be subject to interstate and intrastate access charges. In related areas, Verizon Wireless said an FCC ruling on a US LEC petition had “ironically made it more difficult for CMRS carriers to negotiate access charge agreements with IXCs, despite the decision’s holding that CMRS carriers may assess terminating access charges pursuant to such agreements.” US LEC had sought a ruling that LECs were entitled to recover access charges from IXCs for providing access service on interexchange calls originating from or terminating on wireless networks.
The Idaho PUC ordered Qwest to cease charging other carriers for SS-7 signaling services on local exchange and extended area service (EAS) traffic. Qwest also must cease SS-7 signaling charges on joint access traffic that’s under meet-point billing, and on intraLATA toll traffic originated by Qwest customers. The ruling (Case QWE-T-02-11) let stand the signaling charges Qwest imposed for toll traffic originating elsewhere that terminated with a Qwest customer. The PUC was ruling on a complaint filed by the Idaho Telephone Assn. and 5 smaller incumbent telcos. They complained that the SS-7 charges were instituted without any notice or opportunity to comment and conflicted with past PUC policies. Qwest said it made the changes to coordinate SS-7 charges in its interstate and intrastate tariffs. The PUC said Qwest had failed to take into account that it already was being compensated for its intrastate SS-7 costs from other intrastate rates so the new tariff represented an improper double recovery at the expense of other carriers. There won’t be any refunds, however, because other carriers either didn’t pay the disputed charges or Qwest held off on billing them until the dispute was resolved. The PUC ordered Qwest to withdraw its tariff change and refile it with the improper charges removed.
The FTC said “Operation Protection Deception” defendants would have to pay more than $131,000 for alleged violations of the FTC Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). It said the defendants who, acting through telemarketers, allegedly either tricked consumers into buying worthless credit card protection or debt-consolidation services or charged them without their authorization, would be subject to strict injunctive provisions in the future, including the requirement that they post a $50,000 performance bond before engaging in any telemarketing activities. The Commission said the complaint leading to the order originally had been announced as part of its “Operation Protection Deception” law enforcement sweep last year. It said the stipulated final order settled all Commission claims against Forum Marketing Services, QualyCon of New York and the Forum defendants Edward and William Velasquez.
BT didn’t violate competition principles in its broadband marketing activities, the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal said Wed., supporting an earlier decision by the U.K. Office of Telecom (Oftel). The decision followed a complaint filed by Freeserve last spring alleging that BT was involved in cross-marketing, advance notification, use of the telephone census and predatory pricing. Oftel said the tribunal had supported its decision totally in 3 of the 4 areas under debate. In the 4th area of predatory pricing, Oftel said the tribunal hadn’t commented “on whether the reasoning in the original decision was correct,” and Oftel would re-examine that aspect of Freeserve’s complaint.
The FCC is seeking comment on whether it should speed up build-out requirements for multichannel video distribution & data services (MVDDS). The agency said it saw such a requirement as a way of expediting deployment of advanced wireless services, such as data and data broadband. The rulemaking involves terrestrial microwave competitors to satellite and cable, such as Northpoint and MDS America. In its 2nd Report and Order, the Commission had said it would apply a 10-year build-out requirement with a demonstration of “substantial service” as the basis for license renewal expectancy. But MDS America has said 10 years is too long and holds the prospect of “anticompetitive warehousing” of the MVDDS spectrum by some companies. MDS America suggested a 5-year build-out period. The rulemaking also asks whether the use of Designated Market Areas (DMAs) would it easier to deliver wireless services to a wide range of populations, including rural areas. The FCC originally had suggested using Component Economic Areas for licenses but said it had reached an agreement with Nielsen Media Research that might make it easier to use DMAs. Comments are due 7 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, replies 7 days after that.
Some 2 million messages have been sent to U.S. forces in the Middle East and around the world through the Dept. of Defense (DoD) program OperationDearAbby.net, Universal Press Syndicate (UPS) said. The original mail campaign was created in 1967, and its Internet version was begun in Dec. 2001, after anthrax attacks made it impossible for letters to be mailed to generically addressed military units or no-named addresses. UPS said OperationDearAbby.net, which served all branches of the military, was “the White House’s and Pentagon’s preferred method” for the public to send electronic messages to U.S. troops. It said messages were delivered electronically to any service member’s computer, and for those without a computer, the military printed out and delivered messages at mail calls or posted them to bulletin boards. Meanwhile, Z-Tel said it had started a free public service “Operation Connect” to provide military families with unlimited access to its free voice e-mail service.
Mont. Gov. Judy Martz (R) signed a bill extending the PSC’s jurisdiction over cramming to include billing agents and aggregators. Under the new law (HB-479) the PSC can order a billing agent to cease billing for an entity that engages in cramming. The PSC also has the authority to bar a billing agent from billing any customers in the state if it didn’t act expeditiously to terminate its contract with an offending service provider. The agency also can fine billing agents up to $1,000 per cramming offense. The legislature also passed and sent Martz a bill (HB-641) that would require all originating telecom carriers to provide terminating carriers with traffic information necessary for billing terminating charges. The bill also would require originating carriers to negotiate intercarrier compensation arrangements with terminating carriers if the terminating party wanted a negotiated agreement. Another bill headed to Martz’s desk (HB-266) would eliminate the participation fee assessed on families with incomes 250%-400% of the federal poverty line who wanted to participate in the state’s adaptive telecom equipment program for the disabled.
In the next 2 months, the FCC will move ahead with a long-awaited rule and further notice designed to facilitate secondary markets for spectrum, Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta told reporters Mon. The Commission proposed rules in 2000 that focused on an array of wireless services, but didn’t include broadcasting and public safety, Deputy Chief Peter Tenhula said at a bureau news briefing. Those other areas, including regulatory relief for transactions involving broadcast and public safety spectrum, have been examined since then by the Commission’s Spectrum Policy Task Force. Commercial wireless issues considered long ripe for review will be part of the order, while new areas will be part of a further notice, officials said.
The U.K. Office of Telecom (Oftel) proposed lifting all remaining wholesale regulation from the mobile business related to access and outgoing calls because of the increasing level of competition in the market. However, it said it would keep most regulations on leased lines to support competition, especially the requirement that BT provide partial private circuits to other operators for leased line services.