Carriers face “economic” regulation if not “price” regulation under the broadband classification scheme proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as the “third way” alternative, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. McDowell told a Phoenix Center conference on the broadband gap that uncertainty in the markets increased right after Genachowski’s speech in September when he announced the commission would move forward on net neutrality rules.
The FCC should expand its media ownership studies to include research on several types of agreements between TV stations within a market to share news, personnel and equipment, all the comments on the coming work said. The American Cable Association (ACA), Free Press and nine nonprofits critical of media consolidation pointed to sharing agreements in filings posted Wednesday and Thursday to docket 09-182. Shared-services agreements, local marketing agreements and local news services were mentioned. TV executives have predicted additional deals of this kind and said they let stations air more news than they could on their own (CD Oct 28 p4).
Comcast made new diversity commitments relating to the NBC Universal deal, including a promise to put $20 million into a venture capital fund. In a letter to Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and statements Thursday at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing in Chicago, Comcast executives emphasized increasing the presence of blacks and other minorities in employment and programs. The concessions came after criticisms by Rush and other members of Congress, as well as civil rights groups, of a lack of diversity at the two companies. Meanwhile, a new coalition, mostly of long-time foes of the deal, has formed.
GENEVA -- European countries floated common proposals on satellite registration, allocation of IPv6 resources and environmental metrics for possible changes to ITU policies at a quadrennial conference in October. About 30 of the 48 countries in the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations agreed to each of the proposals.
A Colorado mountain town asked the state utility commission to force Qwest to bring it the same fiber service the company delivers to the state’s other 63 county seats. Acting in concert with San Juan County, Silverton petitioned the commission for an order requiring Qwest, under threat of financial penalty, to complete a fiber line that now stops 16 miles short of that town, the county seat. The petitioners sent a letter to NTIA and members of Congress impugning Qwest’s candidacy to participate in the broadband stimulus program because the telco hasn’t done what it said it would do in Colorado.
Public interest groups led by the New America Foundation said the FCC should impose full disclosure requirements on wireless carriers in the commission’s “bill shock” inquiry. The wireless market is competitive and no new regulations are required, CTIA and carriers said. Consumer & Government Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin said in May that the results of an FCC survey found bill shock a major concern for wireless subscribers (CD May 27 p1).
Telcos and cable companies would pay the same rates as each other for attaching to utility companies’ poles under proposed FCC rules, but whether other aspects of the rules for attachments represent a change or a codification of current practice is unclear, lawyers said in a Law Seminars International briefing Wednesday. The order and further rulemaking follows through on chapter six of the National Broadband Plan, they said.
The U.S. Air Force said it postponed Thursday’s scheduled launch of a space-based surveillance satellite because a software problem was found in a similar Minotaur IV rocket. A spokesman said the Air Force doesn’t know when the satellite, which will monitor space debris among other things, will be ready but is preparing to set a new launch date this month. The launch will be from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The FCC is not listening to public safety officials as it pushes forward on a plan to auction the 700 MHz D-block for commercial use while giving public safety agencies priority access to other spectrum in that band, said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. He spoke Tuesday during a debate with FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett on a National Public Radio program in Washington. Barnett disagreed sharply. The argument presages the reaction commission officials could face next month at APCO’s annual meeting in Houston.
Inflight broadband service provider Aircell will be “well beyond the tipping point” for inflight Internet across the domestic U.S. airline fleet by the end of 2011, said CEO Michael Small in an e-mail interview. The company is following the FCC’s broadband reclassification proceeding and is confident that “the unique nature of our service will be taken into consideration” when the FCC adopts final rules, he said.