AT&T and Pac-West Telecom withdrew cross-complaints at the California Public Utilities Commission over intercarrier compensation on VoIP traffic. The complaints, consolidated by the PUC into a single docket (Case 08-07-020), hinged on whether compensation on VoIP traffic should come under the same rules applied to circuit-switched traffic or a separate formula developed for a now-expired interconnection agreement. The companies said they had agreed on mutually- acceptable terms for resolving the dispute but didn’t disclose details.
Notable CROSS rulings
Communications will get more attention from Congress and the new administration, starting with the analog TV cutoff, industry and Hill officials told us. One bill must pass, Hill aides said: Reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Act, a possible vehicle for controversial broadcast industry provisions on carriage and indecency rules. Legislation to promote broadband access has wide bipartisan support but may be harder to pass, given the economic slump and disagreement over government’s proper role.
The presidential candidates differ on media consolidation and net neutrality policy, but share vague, similar views on copyright and intellectual property, the Annenberg School said Wednesday. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., favors “prescriptive regulation” to encourage diversity in media ownership, the study said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., thinks Internet, cable and satellite outlets can counterbalance traditional media, lessening the need for regulation. The report criticized McCain for failing to address the “overlapping and entangled interests among these sectors,” saying “Internet-only sources hardly can be considered to handily compete with traditional media organs.” By contrast, the study noted that Obama wrote last October to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seeking postponement of newspaper- broadcast cross ownership rules pending further study. On net neutrality, Obama supports rules declaring the right for users to connect with Web sites of their choice, while McCain thinks an “open marketplace is the best deterrent against unfair practices,” said the study, quoting McCain’s platform. The candidates’ views on copyright and patent regulation are similar and lacking in detail, Annenberg said. Both think heightened copyright protection is critical to international business and necessary to combat piracy. But neither has outlined specific policies updating copyright policy and applying “fair use” doctrine in the digital domain, it said.
The FCC will consider a request by a handful of media companies to wait 90 days after a final court decision is reached regarding the commission’s media ownership rule changes before filing updates to their requests for waivers from the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross ownership. Cox, Calvary, Bonneville, Scranton Times and Morris Communications were granted a 30-day reprieve from Tuesday’s deadline while the commission looks into its larger request, a Media Bureau order said.
A group of media companies with newspaper and broadcast holdings asked the FCC for more time to work out how the commission’s new newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules will affect pending waiver requests. Cox, Calvary, Bonneville, the Scranton Times, and Morris Communications would have to address by Tuesday the effect that the recent changes would have on their pending waiver requests. But with the rule being litigated, and with so much uncertainty surrounding that litigation, the companies can’t accurately craft their filings, they said. “The pending litigation … has called into serious question, among other things, precisely what criteria the Commission ultimately will use to conduct its waiver analyses and whether it will be able to apply those factors with reasonable certainty.” They should have 90 days after a final court order in the case to prepare filings, they said. Meanwhile, the commission should extend by 30 days the Oct. 7 deadline so it can have time to act on the companies’ request, they said. Let that deadline stand and “FCC administrative resources are likely to be wasted and the … [companies] are likely to expend resources preparing submissions that would later be rendered outdated, at a minimum, or completely obsolete,” they said.
MetroPCS and Leap Wireless signed a roaming agreement and a spectrum-exchange deal Monday. They reached a cross- licensing agreement for intellectual property in a settlement stipulating that each agrees to dismiss all suits against the other. Analysts said the deal has long-term benefits for the companies.
Global Crossing supported Verizon’s proposal to revamp intercarrier compensation and the Universal Service Fund (CD Sept 15 p2). In a meeting last week with the Wireline Bureau, the Internet backbone provider said the FCC should move to a $0.0007 terminating rate over three years and adopt a numbers-based system for USF contribution, according to an ex parte filing. But Global Crossing urged the FCC to include transport and “proceed quickly” with revamping originating access. “Even if the Commission creates lower and more uniform termination rates, access customers will see only limited benefits of those reforms if the Commission retains the existing outdated and artificial classifications of originating traffic,” it said. To avoid massive reconfiguration costs after the FCC imposes the overhaul, the agency should give carriers an 18-month window to make changes without incurring fees, Global Crossing said. “Reconfiguration of just one circuit can cost up to $20,000 or more, plus any early termination penalties that may apply for the remaining term of the underlying contract,” it said. The FCC should reject Verizon’s proposal to allow its affiliated CMRS provider to start imposing termination charges on interconnection partners, the company said. It believes the FCC should eventually set “default interconnection and intercarrier compensation rules based on bill and keep principles,” and “CMRS providers today are closer to such an ideal than any other segment” of the industry, it said. And Global Crossing urged the FCC to “narrowly tailor” any access recovery mechanism it sets up, to avoid delaying investment in IP technology.
The FCC seems to be setting up intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund overhaul proposals for its Nov. 4 meeting. Whether Chairman Kevin Martin will propose a complete overhaul there was still fluid, sources said. A court order gave the commission until Nov. 5 to explain the statutory basis for its ISP-bound traffic compensation regime. Industry officials said the Wireline Bureau is soliciting comments on several comprehensive proposals.
Part of AT&T’s proposed compliance plan related to cost- assignment relief is “prima facie inaccurate,” said the AdHoc Telecommunications Users Committee. In an ex parte letter to Wireline Bureau Chief Dana Shaffer, AdHoc urged the FCC to reject AT&T’s plan, which shows how the carrier will maintain usable accounting data once an order granting the Bell forbearance on cost-assignment rules takes effect. AT&T’s section 254(k) certification is inconsistent with its intercarrier compensation overhaul proposal that would set terminating access rates to $0.0007, AdHoc said. Section 254(k) prohibits carriers from using noncompetitive services to cross-subsidize competitive services. The $0.0007 rate doesn’t appear to be cost-based, AdHoc said. If it’s less than AT&T’s cost for providing terminating access service, “AT&T will use non-competitive originating access, Subscriber Line service, and special access service … to cross- subsidize its competitive offerings,” it said. AT&T didn’t comment by our deadline.
Four companies and groups appealed the FCC’s Aug. 1 decision that Comcast crossed the line beyond reasonable network management in its handling of peer-to-peer file transfers. The actions set up a lottery on which federal appeals court will decide the case. Comcast challenged the order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday. The company appealed to “protect our legal rights and to challenge the basis on which the Commission found that Comcast violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable standards or rules,” said David Cohen, an executive vice president. Meanwhile, the Media Access Project petitioned the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Court on behalf of Consumers Union, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for PennPIRG and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Vuze, seeking an immediate injunction against Comcast’s network management practices.