Verizon Wireless is moving quickly to upgrade customers to LTE and working with rural carriers to bring wireless to areas it doesn’t serve, Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone said Wednesday in a State of the Net keynote. Verizon expects to upgrade all its 2G and 3G wireless to LTE by 2013, he said. It plans this year to add 140 markets and in 18 months to cover half the U.S. population. In the past six months, the company has signed agreements with at least five rural carriers to build 4G networks using Verizon’s 700 MHz spectrum, Melone said. Verizon has “spent some time” with Chairman Jay Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce Committee and has plans to build out the Democrat’s home state of West Virginia, Melone said. The carrier has committed to spread its network to 10 cities in the state, including Charleston by April, he said. Internet Caucus Chairman Jerry Berman replied, “Charleston’s not rural America.” Also in the keynote, Melone applauded openness and collaboration, saying the days of closed wireless networks are over. “Times have changed. … In a 4G world, that guarded model needs to be turned inside out.”
Nullification of FCC net neutrality rules through the Congressional Review Act topped a list of communications and technology priorities for Republicans on the House Commerce Committee. Also listed in a staff memo Tuesday as “key issues” this year: Spectrum auction legislation, revamping the commission’s processes, broadband stimulus oversight and a Universal Service Fund overhaul. Colin Crowell, former aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said on a panel Wednesday at the State of the Net Conference he doubts that the GOP’s planned resolution of disapproval concerning net neutrality will succeed.
Congress is unlikely to take up a total rewrite of the Telecom Act until late this session at the earliest, telecom trade group executives said Tuesday on a Broadband Breakfast panel. USTelecom, CompTel and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association will be busy early this year lobbying members on broadband issues, they said. But “the next two years are going to go by pretty fast,” and “there just won’t be enough time to address all the issues that we'd like to see addressed,” said Qwest spokesman Tom McMahon.
The House Republican who last year threatened the FCC with defunding if the agency tried to regulate the Internet said Friday he “strongly” opposes Chairman Julius Genachowski’s net neutrality order. House Appropriations Committee member John Culberson, R-Texas, said in an e-mail he opposes “the FCC using our tax dollars for this legal misadventure.” The FCC action “will create regulatory uncertainty, deter investment, stifle innovation, and kill jobs,” Culberson said. “I believe Investment analysts have said the move would put a damper on the economy, and there is no guarantee the FCC won’t impose more burdensome requirements in the future.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans to reintroduce his public safety bill during the Senate’s first week back starting Jan. 24, a Democratic Senate aide said. A hearing date isn’t set, but it probably won’t be that week, the aide said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Rockefeller’s bill would reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety and fund the network using proceeds from voluntary incentive auctions.
Broadcasters condemned a bill that would require free airtime for political advertising. HR-137, introduced last week by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, requires radio and TV broadcasting licensees to allot “an equal amount, but not less than 2 hours, of free broadcast time each even-numbered year to each qualified political candidate in a statewide or national election.” The bill also directs the FCC to make similar rules for cable operators. “NAB will strongly oppose efforts to impose government-mandated free airtime for politicians,” said an NAB spokesman. “We take seriously our role in covering elections. The unfortunate reality is that high-priced political consultants often advise political candidates to reject voluntary free airtime offers from broadcasters for debates and town hall forums.” All viable candidates should have reasonable access to the airwaves, said Meredith McGehee, policy director for Campaign Legal Center. Providing equal airtime to candidates serves the public interest and therefore should be part of broadcasters’ obligations, she said. The bill is especially important in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing corporate funding of political broadcasts, she said. Public Citizen supports the bill as a “good beginning for discussion” to lower campaign costs and improve political candidates’ access to the airwaves, said the group’s government affairs lobbyist Craig Holman. But it will be an “uphill battle” given the influence broadcasters hold over Congress, he said. NCTA didn’t comment.
Two House Republicans think that two bills to scale back FCC authority over the Internet are better than one. Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., each introduced a bill last week opposing the FCC’s recent net neutrality order. A Blackburn spokesman said Wednesday that multiple bills may be necessary to get their point across to the FCC. Meanwhile, former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he doesn’t believe the GOP’s related Congressional Review Act effort is likely to succeed.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he hopes to strike a balance between defending against cyberattacks and protecting privacy online. Speaking Tuesday at the Newseum, Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy said he will direct his committee to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). He said he also wants to take up intellectual property theft and finish cybersecurity legislation.
House Democrats may decide Jan. 19 who will be ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee, said a House Democratic staffer and a telecom industry lobbyist. But a spokeswoman for the Commerce Committee minority said the committee hasn’t set the timing for announcing subcommittee assignments. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., wants to be the ranking member and has seniority. But Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is also believed to be making a bid.
The split Congress could agree on spectrum and privacy matters, former Hill aides said Saturday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. But it’s likely Senate Democrats and House Republicans will continue to butt heads on net neutrality, and it will take time to get new members comfortable with communications issues before Congress can move forward on a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act, they said.