Monty Tayloe

The FCC’s new accessibility rules for user interfaces, program guides and other functions are “probably the most difficult statutory provisions” Commissioner Ajit Pai has encountered during his tenure with the commission, he said in a statement released with the order implementing sections 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which was adopted Tuesday. The order classifies all navigation devices that use CableCARDs -- such as cable set-top boxes or TiVo boxes -- under the more narrow requirements of Section 205, which requires accessible program guides. All other digital apparatus, such as non-CableCARD TVs and some mobile devices, fall under Section 204, and will be required to have certain “essential” functions that are accessible.

Accessibility rules for user interfaces and program guides were adopted Tuesday so the FCC could come as close as possible to the missed Oct. 8 deadline to finish implementing the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), an agency official told us. The deadline occurred during the partial federal government shutdown. Though the rules were adopted Tuesday, commissioners are still working on statements to be released along with the rules, an FCC official told us the next day. Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel voted to approve the rules implementing sections 204 and 205 of CVAA while Commissioner Ajit Pai approved in part and concurred in part, said an FCC release Tuesday. All three commissioners are issuing written statements, the release said. The new rules will require devices to make “essential functions” accessible and classify devices that have conditional access to content as navigation devices, an FCC official had said (CD Oct 30 p15). The item includes a three-year implementation deadline, but cable operators with fewer than 400,000 subscribers will be granted an additional two years to subscribe, the official said. Other details about the rules, and what might be contained in a further notice of proposed rulemaking mentioned in the release, remain unclear. American Foundation for the Blind Senior Policy Director Mark Richert said he’s particularly concerned about proposed rules on how those in need of accessible equipment will be able to request it from providers. He said the details of what equipment operators can provide to meet accessibility requirements are important. “How broad is that? What kind of alternatives are they allowed to provide?” asked Richert. Although few details were contained in the commission’s release, Richert said he’s optimistic that the rules will be a positive change. “Once these rules take effect, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to quickly find a news channel during an emergency or tune in to their favorite show as readily as sighted people,” said Clyburn.

The FCC adopted new accessibility rules for user interfaces, program guides and other functions on set-top boxes and devices that receive or play back digital video, such as TVs, tablets and smartphones, the commission said in a news release Tuesday. The rules implement sections 204 and 205 of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, the commission said. Although the specific text of the order hasn’t been released, an FCC official said Section 205, which requires on-screen text menus and guides that are audibly accessible, will apply to all navigation devices, not just ones issued by multichannel video program distributors. Section 204 will apply to all other digital apparatus, the official said. NCTA, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind and CEA had reached a consensus that Section 205 should only apply to MVPD provided equipment. The dividing line for what is covered under each section is determined by whether a device has “conditional access” to content, the FCC official said. Devices with CableCARDs -- such as TiVo boxes -- or that require a cable or DBS connection to show content are navigation devices; a DVD player or a TV without a CableCARD will fall under Section 204, the official said. Devices under 204 that include any of the 11 “essential functions” -- from a list created by the FCC Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee -- will have to make those they include accessible, the FCC official said. The list included on/off, volume control and similar basic functions. The order will also require all devices to have “a mechanism that is comparable to a button, key or icon for activating certain accessibility features, such as closed captioning” the release said. The FCC official said the rule will have an implementation deadline of three years, as requested by CEA, with a five-year extended deadline for small cable operators as requested by the American Cable Association. “This action represents the final major step in the FCC’s implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA), enacted in 2010 to bring people with disabilities access to the modern and innovative communications technologies of the twenty-first century,” said the release.

The FCC will do a study of how Hispanic TV station ownership relates to Hispanic programming and viewing habits, and begin field testing its study of critical information needs (CIN), the commission said in a news release Thursday. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and several industry observers said the study and the CIN test represent important steps toward more diversity in broadcasting and better serving the growing Hispanic population. “Latino ownership diversity has been an ongoing challenge for broadcast -- good, integrated data should direct the FCC’s future efforts to engender both ownership opportunities AND more robust Latino-serving content in English and Spanish, across platforms,” said Jason Llorenz, director-innovation policy for Latino Information Network.

Increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi use is “a major policy objective” for Comcast, said Executive Director-Regulatory and Public Affairs David Don at the Institute for Policy Innovation’s Communications Policy Summit Tuesday. Calling Wi-Fi “the last bottleneck,” Don said Comcast is investing millions of dollars in wireless connectivity. A 200,000-hotspot network built by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision and Cox Communications could soon be at 500,000 or even over a million hotspots, he said. Don said moving the country to a next generation Wi-Fi standard that will allow gigabit speeds “needs to be a focus” for the communications industry. Though Don acknowledged there are no applications that would make full use of those high speeds, he said as more devices in homes make use of Wi-Fi connectivity, the higher speeds will be needed to accommodate the increased traffic. Regulators and others are becoming open to the necessity of freeing up unlicensed spectrum, Don said. “Folks are starting to come around in this town to the idea that we need a balanced spectrum policy.”

A moratorium on taxation of Internet access should become permanent, said CTIA and the Internet Tax Freedom Act Coalition that includes NCTA, NTCA, T-Mobile, Amazon and many other companies. The current moratorium, extended three times since 1998, is to expire Nov. 1, 2014, unless proposed legislation to make it permanent is passed. The state taxes that would take effect if the moratorium expired would mean higher prices for Internet access, which would hurt the growth of the wireless industry and price out lower-income customers, said CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter at an Institute for Policy Innovation event Tuesday.

The FCC missed during the government shutdown a legislative deadline to approve accessibility rules for user interfaces and program guides (CD Oct 15 p1). That won’t necessarily mean negative consequences for consumers or the industry, said the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), CEA and communications attorneys in interviews. The proposed user interface and program guide rules are mandated by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). The FCC was required to implement them by Oct. 8, and companies were to be in compliance that same date with several previously approved CVAA rules.

With the FCC about to transition to a new chairman and all proceedings on hold for the government shutdown, it’s hard to know if cable industry efforts to free up unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi will be successful, said several communications attorneys and industry observers in interviews. Cable needs unlicensed spectrum to bridge the gap between consumer demand for mobile broadband and the available wireless spectrum, said New America Foundation Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese in a report sponsored by Time Warner Cable released last week (CD Oct 10 p14). “There’s no possible way the industry can meet consumer demand for movable data at affordable prices using only licensed spectrum,” he told us. “We need to have a second path.”

The FCC under Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler should make it a point soon after Wheeler and Michael O'Rielly are sworn in to lay out its view of how competition should be regulated, said ex-Chairman Reed Hundt during a Technology Policy Institute panel Tuesday. “Adopting a fundamental competition policy is one of the first orders of business for the new commission.” In a paper (http://stanford.io/16KZBGr) referenced repeatedly at the event, he said the FCC should let the market work, but be ready to step in with regulation to address bottlenecks and protect competition as needed (CD Sept 30 p11). AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said the commission should focus instead on large communications policy projects like the IP transition and the incentive auction. “Where I get nervous is when the FCC tries to operate like a mini antitrust agency,” said Cicconi. “They're not the expert agency when it comes to antitrust and competition."

The FCC should hold an open forum with broadcasters to discuss whether they should voluntarily stop using the name “Redskins” for Washington’s NFL team, said a group of former Democratic FCC officials and communications attorneys, academics and activists in a letter sent to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday. Former FCC Chairman Reid Hundt -- one of the letter’s co-signers -- said it had its genesis in a discussion he had with Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President David Honig, who also signed the letter. “We decided a disparagement of one minority group is a disparagement of all minority groups,” said Hundt in an interview. An FCC forum on the Redskins name “need not answer any questions of legality nor necessarily lead to regulatory intervention,” said the letter. Instead, the forum would focus on “self-regulation” by broadcasters and its application to the Redskins’ name. “The FCC has unquestioned authority to convene an open forum with broadcasters to discuss whether they should voluntarily stop using the name,” said the letter, citing several media personalities who have said they will no longer use the word “Redskins.” Those who signed the letter “hope that an open forum hosted by the FCC will encourage broadcasters to follow suit,” said a news release issued by Hundt. By using its authority to convene the forum, the FCC “has the opportunity to act as a principled and transparent leader during a time of distressing difficulty in the nation’s capital,” said the letter. The letter was signed by former FCC commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Nicholas Johnson and Tyrone Brown, Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, former FCC Chief of Staff Blair Levin, former FCC General Counsel Christopher Wright now of Wiltshire Grannis, public-interest attorney Andrew Schwartzman, who consults for Free Press, Charles Firestone of the Aspen Institute, former NTIA administrators Henry Geller and Larry Irving, Communications Workers of America Telecommunications Policy Director Debbie Goldman, Wiltshire Grannis telecom lawyer John Nakahata, Best Best municipal lawyer Nicholas Miller, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development and others.