Martin Still Pushing USF Reform This Year

Among items on which Martin seeks a vote at the March 19 meeting is an order to bar all telecom providers from signing exclusive contracts to sell services to apartment buildings, and items dealing with broadband deployment and with spectrum used by educational institutions. He reprised remarks at the press conference next to his office that XM will have a tough time persuading the commission to approve its proposed takeover of Sirius.

“Several of the commissioners have said they think it’s a good year to try to move forward [on USF] and I tell them, ‘I agree, so what do you want to do?'” Martin said. “They say, ‘I don’t know, let me think about it.’ Absolutely, I'm anxious to end up moving forward… I've been very clear on what I think the answers are and how we should move forward.”

Martin noted that a cap is already before commissioners. “I've been trying to get the commissioners to agree on a cap right now,” Martin said. “I also support moving forward with requiring all carriers to file their own costs so that everyone moves to get of the identical support rule and ultimately I think that the best method would be a reverse auction.”

Martin is not offering predictions on how the FCC will handle a reauction of the 700 MHz D-block spectrum, after the auction ends. The block drew only a single bid, and that was well below the reserve. “The commission’s auction is obviously winding down,” Martin said. “We've increased the number of rounds, increased the requirements you'd have to be actively participating.” Once the auction concludes, and if there is no successful bidder for D, the FCC must “immediately reevaluate” how to put in place a national broadband public safety network, Martin said. Public safety’s needs remain “urgent,” he said.

Martin flagged for possible votes at the March meeting two wireless items now circulating. One is for an auction of educational broadcast service and broadband radio service licenses in FCC hands for various reasons after auctions. The second would streamline and harmonize radiated power rules for the advanced wireless services and PCS bands. “It makes the lower 700 MHz spectrum something that would be more viable for broadband services,” Martin said.

The apartment video item dovetails with a 2007 order barring cable operators from exclusive contracts for apartment buildings, Martin said. “This would make clear that any telecommunications carrier, including CLECs who don’t have the same unbundling obligations as incumbent carriers do, are also prohibited from having an exclusive arrangement for apartment buildings,” he said. “This would put all of our rules on a level playing field between the cable operators and the telecom operators prohibiting them from having exclusive arrangements with apartment buildings.” Martin circulated the competitive networks item from the Wireline Bureau Dec. 21.

Commissioners can vote on any items before the meeting, Martin said. He'll put unvoted-on items on the agenda. The chairman said he decided against having a vote on any of the items he circulated for action at last month’s meeting because he held it Feb. 25, a day earlier than scheduled, to coincide with a broadband network management hearing in Cambridge, Mass. The change meant commissioners wouldn’t get the usual three weeks’ notice of items, said Martin.

Commissioners were asked to vote this month on an order requiring DirecTV and EchoStar to distribute all high- definition signals of broadcasters starting Feb. 18, 2009, in markets where they carry TV signals by satellite, Martin said. He confirmed that commissioners are considering the companies’ request to have until Feb. 18, 2013, to meet the carry one-carry all HD requirement in all cities, due to capacity concerns (CD Feb 28 p2). DirecTV and EchoStar want to phase in compliance by market, but public broadcasters told the FCC that plan worries them, said Martin. (See separate report in this issue). Commercial broadcasters haven’t weighed in, he added. Some other commissioners are waiting to hear from the commercial sector before proposing changes to Martin’s DBS order, an FCC official said.

Absent from the March 19 meeting agenda is a notice that proposes to require low-power TV stations to switch to digital by 2012 and to give Class A stations the ability to get full-power licenses, Martin said. The other commissioners have told the chairman they won’t vote for his draft of the order because they fear that Class A stations could demand cable carriage once they get full-power status (CD Feb 27 p4). “Several of the commissioners have raised questions about the item,” Martin said. “We'll give that one a little bit more time to get the commissioners to figure out where they are.” But he added: “If it’s not anything we're able to work out on circulation, I'll put it back on the agenda” for an upcoming monthly meeting.

Martin again emphasized that XM’s purchase of Sirius “has a high hurdle” to clear to get FCC approval. Martin isn’t revising his previous forecast of a commissioner vote on the deal by this quarter’s end, he said. He wouldn’t say whether the commission or the Justice Department, also examining the deal, will finish its review first. “We'll continue to coordinate with them,” said Martin. “Ninety-nine out of 100 times, DoJ goes first.”

Martin said he'll circulate a draft order specifying how the FCC will make public all items he white-copies for votes three weeks ahead of meetings. The order will list procedures for releasing information on when commissioners vote on items, he said. “I've asked the staff to draft up an item responding to everyone’s willingness to do both those things and when they do I'll circulate it around for a vote,” he said, citing comments from the other commissioners at a 2007 hearing on Capitol Hill.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said Monday that Martin gave him no information on the plan for disclosing meeting votes, which he learned of from the media. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he hadn’t heard details, either. “I think they were concerned that I was announcing the plan to you all at the same time I was announcing the plan to them, and that’s ironic because I think that’s the point of the item that we ended up doing,” Martin said. Nor have the other Republican commissioners heard details of the plan, FCC officials said. “This is the first I've heard anything about a written order,” Commissioner Robert McDowell said. “I will be sure to review it as soon as my office receives it.” The other commissioners didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined to comment. -- Howard Buskirk, Jonathan Make

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Martin confirmed that his Washington, D.C., house is for sale but said he doesn’t plan to leave the area. The house, in the Georgetown neighborhood, has been on the market since August. “We have two kids and it’s a two-bedroom house,” he said. “I don’t have any plans to move back to North Carolina.” ----

Martin hasn’t sought an FCC investigation of so-called seat-warming by Comcast at the Cambridge meeting, he said. Comcast has said it hired people to stake out spots early for employees to attend the hearing. Free Press and other groups have said the seats weren’t occupied by the cable company’s workers. “We always should try to end up letting the public come in” at such hearings, Martin said.

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Martin said he asked FCC staffers to draft a letter of inquiry to WHNT-TV Huntsville, Ala., over a blackout of the station’s signal during a Feb. 24 60 Minutes segment on allegations of political misconduct in the state. The FCC got about 20 letters of complaint, leading Martin to seek the inquiry. The station will get copies of complaints with the FCC letter and a chance to respond, Martin said. Copps said he had asked Martin to investigate (CD March 4 p2).

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Martin delayed a vote on a rulemaking notice on disclosing product placements to give commissioners time to find a compromise on whether to issue that document or a notice of inquiry, he said. Some commissioners want a notice of inquiry, not the rulemaking notice that Martin circulated months ago, the chairman said. Commissioners are trying to work out a “compromise,” which Martin said he’s “still hopeful” can be reached.