Executives of various industries trying to come up with technical solution to copy protection for digital broadcast content said Tues. that their report would be delayed at least 2 weeks. Groups, which include CEA, 5C and MPAA, had released interim report last month. They told House Telecom Subcommittee that they already had reached agreement and that their final report to Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG) and subsequently to Congress was likely to be ready May 17 (CD April 26 p2). However, representatives of parties involved said report would be ready May 31 at earliest, citing difficulty of bringing together diverse interests of more than 100 companies, industry groups and others. One source said original date cited had been “overly ambitious,” but 2-week delay in context of digital transition that probably would take years wasn’t major setback.
Country of origin cases
Competitive telecom companies, joined by some consumer advocates and regulators, predicted dire results if FCC modifies or eliminates equal access and nondiscrimination requirements written at AT&T divestiture 20 years ago and continued in Telecom Act’s Sec. 251(g). Telecom Act specified continuation of rules unless supplanted by other regulatory action. FCC asked for comment on whether there should be revision now that there was more competition. Equal access requirements approved by U.S. Dist. Court, D.C., which oversaw divestiture, instituted process of presubscription, still used today, in which customers’ home and business phones automatically connect to long distance companies of their choice. Equal access also assured dialing parity, directory services, network control signaling billing information and other access needs of long distance and information companies. In comments filed late Fri., Bell companies said those requirements, aimed at making sure they didn’t discriminate in favor of former parent AT&T, were outdated. However, long distance companies and CLECs warned that Bells still had monopoly and reason for putting rules in place remained -- companies providing long distance and information services were dependent on Bells for access to customers.
President Bush signed farm bill Mon. that provides for fiscal years 2002 to 2007: (1) $360 million to “expand and enhance” e-commerce by rural small businesses. (2) $180 million for rural telework initiatives. (3) $100 million in rural broadband loans and loan guarantees. (4) $80 million in rural local TV broadcast signal loans. House and Senate recently passed conference report after months of negotiations, whittling down original $600 million broadband program (CD May 10 p3). Voices for Choices Co-Chmn. Steve Richetti praised lawmakers for “staying away from any sort of industrial policy or attempt to pick specific broadband winners… They have established incentives for the private sector to address a legitimate need -- namely, bringing high- speed Internet to rural Americans.” Bush at signing ceremony in Washington didn’t mention telecom provisions of law, instead focused on agriculture-specific issues. However, he urged Congress to support permanent repeal of estate tax, a measure that wasn’t in farm bill but was top priority for groups such as Organization for Promotion & Advancement of Small Telephone Companies and National Telecom Co-op Assn. Bush said: “The repeal of the death tax needs to be made permanent. That happened in the House. I hope it happens in the Senate soon.”
Fate of Alaska Regulatory Commission (ARC) is on line in final hours of state’s 2002 legislative session, which is to end at midnight May 14. Alaska House, seeking to get around Senate committee roadblock to bill reauthorizing ARC for another 3 years, passed and sent to Senate compromise legislation May 12 that would conditionally renew agency for one year. At our deadline, Senate was waiting to receive official notice of House vote before scheduling its action, but circumstances of House passage will require supermajority (two-thirds) approval by Senate.
Primary House committee on intellectual property is likely this year to introduce bill addressing digital copyright issues and content protection, House Internet Caucus Chmn. Boucher (D-Va.) said Fri. He told reporters after speech at intellectual property conference that he had met Thurs. with House Judiciary Committee leaders, who had been poring over 140 public comments submitted recently on copyright and content protection with digital works. Boucher said no decision was made at meeting as to specific approach to issue, but there “was a consensus that a bill should be introduced this Congress.”
Senate 64-35 approved farm bill conference report that would provide $100 million in rural broadband loans and loan guarantees from 2002 to 2007. Bill had moved slowly in 107th Congress due to controversy over several agriculture and nonfarm subsidy provisions. Although $100 million total for broadband infrastructure deployment initially had been proposed for distribution each year, conference compromise would allot: (1) $20 million for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2005. (2) $10 million for each of FY 2006 and FY 2007. Despite reduced total for Rural Utilities Service (RUS)-administered program, several senators said funds would benefit underserved rural areas. Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said Wed. on Senate floor that in light of unparalleled success of past RUS telecom loan programs, combined with Treasury rate of interest, $20 million annual authorization could be leveraged into “broadband loan program of at least $750 million a year.”
NEW ORLEANS -- Beltway perceptions of new media technologies may be out of step with cable industry reality, Robert Pepper, chief of FCC Office of Plans & Policy, said on NCTA convention bureau chiefs panel. Pepper said walking convention floor offered new perspectives: “In D.C., there’s a lot of hand wringing about broadband. But when you talk to suppliers and others in the industry, they are thrilled. Broadband seems to be being adopted more rapidly than expected.”
Cal. PUC Pres. Loretta Lynch proposed alternative to recent recommendation by administrative law judge for interim reductions in SBC/Pacific Bell unbundled network element (UNE) rates. Lynch’s proposal calls for smaller reduction in unbundled loop rate but much larger cuts in unbundled end- office and tandem switching rates. PUC opened current examination of Pac Bell’s UNE rates and costs at request of CLECs AT&T and WorldCom. ALJ had recommended cutting UNE loop rate 26%, to $8.56, with 23.5% for unbundled end-office switching and 13.8% in tandem rate. Instead, Lynch proposed 15.1% UNE loop reduction, to $9.93, but called for reducing local end-office switching 69% and tandem switching 79%. She agreed with ALJ that interim reductions were needed because CLECs’ evidence supported reasonable presumption that UNE costs had declined since rates originally were set and because of delays caused by expansion of case’s scope plus procedural problems. But she said her proposed interim reductions more accurately reflected cost benefits Pac Bell derived from SBC’s systemwide switch purchasing power and conformed to evidence that SBC in other states with similar network architecture had switching rates significantly lower than those that would result in Cal. from ALJ’s proposal. PUC will take comments on Lynch’s proposal May 9 and replies May 14. Matter (Cases 01-02-024, 034 and 035) is on agenda for PUC’s May 16 meeting. Interim rates would remain in place until PUC adopted new permanent cost-based UNE rates.
Congress has to “rescue [spectrum] from those who would cage it in,” ArrayComm founder Marty Cooper told Congressional Internet Caucus lunch Tues. Telling audience of Hill staffers that he was speaking not as corporate pitchman but as long-time veteran of wireless industry (he invented original cellphone), Cooper disputed notion that there was not enough spectrum to handle existing services as well as 3G wireless broadband applications. “I don’t believe that,” he said: “I think there’s plenty of spectrum. That’s where Congress comes in.” Cooper said wireless industry had doubled its efficiency every 30 months since first wireless services debuted and would continue to do so, but “Congress has to create the right environment” for companies to innovate. If Congress is restrictive of spectrum use, he said, companies won’t have incentive to innovate: “Then I guess we will run out of spectrum.” He also said Congress needs to encourage and support FCC in adopting forward- looking spectrum policies, rather than reacting to new services by looking for new spectrum carve-outs. ArrayComm uses different approach for broadband delivery than traditional cellular technology, and Cooper has long lobbied for flexible spectrum policies for emerging technologies.
NEW ORLEANS -- Some of nation’s top programmers said Tues. they believed their business would shift dramatically in coming years toward video-on-demand (VoD) and subscription VoD models, but said they believed there still was room for advertising-based business. Speaking at NCTA convention here, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin said his company was seeing lot of benefit in running its show 24 across Fox and FX networks because doing so was giving new viewers another chance to see programming they had missed earlier and gave advertisers 2nd opportunity. In fact, he announced that News Corp. and Cablevision have reached deal to offer both 24 and The Shield to Cablevision viewers on VoD basis. Chernin said company wanted to try different experiments to see what worked. News Corp. isn’t charging Cablevision to aggregate its content for its VoD offerings, Chernin said, nor is it paying Cablevision for offering shows.