Wireless carriers, cable companies, satellite operators and rural local exchange carriers asked the FCC not to impose Automated Reporting Management Information System reporting requirements on them, as part of an FCC push to gather more data on broadband deployment. But some state commissions and public interest group Free Press said the ARMIS requirements provide useful data and should be expanded to all companies that offer broadband service.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wrote late last week to various stakeholders inviting their “insights and ideas” on national wireless consumer protection standards that it plans to ask Congress to approve when they are finished. The letter included an online survey to be answered after interested groups consulted with their members. In July, NARUC approved a resolution asking Congress to create a state- federal task force on national consumer protection standards. NARUC decided the task force should include five state regulators, three members of the FCC, a representative of the State Attorneys General, a consumer advocate and an industry official. Vermont Commissioner John Burke, chairman of the NARUC ad hoc committee developing the standards, told us Friday the group will propose a “fairly high-level set of standards” once it confers with stakeholders. NARUC hopes to address industry concerns about a “patchwork” of state regulations on wireless standards, Burke said. But he’s not sure the extent to which wireless carriers will back NARUC’s efforts. One question, Burke said, is carriers’ comfort with NARUC’s decision that each state must choose how to enforce the standards, rather than putting state attorneys general in charge in each case. “I don’t know whether they're happy or not,” he said. “I haven’t gotten any pushback and there’s a direct outreach to them.” State commissioners will take their finished proposal to Congress, Burke said. “Congress has to look at this and decide it wants to implement such a plan.”
The FCC issued an order clearing purchases by Verizon Wireless and Union Telephone of C-block licenses in this year’s 700 MHz auction. The order said the commission will do a market-by-market competitive analysis of spectrum bought by carriers in future auctions. The studies will resemble those done after spectrum licensees are taken over by other companies. The commission rejected a request by Google for further clarification of the open-access rules for the C- block licenses.
CTIA dropped a legal challenge in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to the open access requirements for the 700 MHz C-block that the FCC approved prior to the auction, which got underway in January. In the same court, Council Tree continued its case, which had been combined with the one brought by the CTIA, against the 700 MHz rules. The CTIA asked Friday to be dismissed from the case. The group said it contacted Council Tree, the FCC and intervenors in the case, including Google, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, MetroPCS, Skype and the now defunct Frontline Wireless. None of the parties objected, it said.
A proposal by the New York Police Department that the FCC give local agencies and governments direct access to 700 MHz D-block spectrum rather than auctioning it for a public- private partnership has little support among other local governments, recent filings at the FCC indicated. But replies were due Wednesday, and that round could bring the New York proposal more support. Meanwhile, we've learned that Jon Peha, the FCC’s new chief technologist, is playing a key role in Chairman Kevin Martin’s efforts to develop rules for a new D-block auction. Those rules are expected to be set up for a vote at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems to be setting up a vote at the Dec. 18 commission meeting on authorizing use of AWS-3 spectrum to offer a free, national broadband service. Democrat Barack Obama’s election virtually sealed the deal for M2Z and other advocates of using the spectrum for free broadband, commission and industry officials said. If Republican John McCain hade won the presidential election, the proposal’s future would have been murkier, they said.
The FCC acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in allowing an improperly filed American Public Communications Council complaint against NetworkIP to proceed, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said. The decision’s overall effect is that NetworkIP no longer must pay a significant part of a sum the FCC said it owes three payphone providers for calls made using NetworkIP calling cards, said an official familiar with the case.
Four members of the FCC pledged to work together on broad intercarrier compensation and Universal Service Fund reform, for a vote at the Dec. 18 FCC meeting. The four cited growing consensus on several issues teed up for decision, in a statement they all signed. But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin questioned whether his colleagues will really be ready to reach a decision in December. The letter was released just before midnight Wednesday, as the FCC responded to a writ of mandamus by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit addressing the so-called ISP remand (CD Nov 6 p1).
The FCC, in an order that was to be released late Wednesday, addresses the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s ISP remand by providing additional justification for the original 2001 ISP-bound traffic rule, without changing compensation rules overall, we were told. The decision is a loss for Core Communications, which challenged the FCC rules in federal court and has asked that its rates be increased to state reciprocal compensation rates, two to three times higher than the $.0007 rate. It’s considered a positive development for incumbent local exchange carriers who opted into the $.0007 payment rule and wireless carriers who have entered into contracts to terminate traffic at that rate under the mirroring rule.
The FCC likely will have busy months ahead, even with pending changes at the agency with the likely departure of Chairman Kevin Martin as early as January. Unless Martin stays on, the FCC will be left with only three commissioners at the end of January -- Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and Republican Robert McDowell. Martin likely has only one more regular meeting over which to preside, scheduled for Dec. 18.