A Thursday rally by CWA members at FCC headquarters in Washington protesting Frontier’s proposed acquisition of landlines from Verizon drew sharp words from a Frontier spokesman. The CWA said about 200 members, accompanied by supporters affiliated with the IBEW and the AFL-CIO, demonstrated. “This deal will pad the pockets of Wall Street executives while only deepening the digital divide,” CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins told rally participants. Afterwards, the union said, CWA President Larry Cohen, Collins and others met with Commissioner Michael Copps, FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus and other agency officials. Responding to the event, a Frontier spokesman evoked Ronald Reagan’s retort to Jimmy Carter during a 1980 presidential campaign debate.
Free conference call companies are rallying customers to urge lawmakers and the FCC to not stifle their ability to continue using free conference call services. “We let people know to contact their representatives in Congress that they use the service and don’t want it to go away,” FreeConference.com Chief Financial Officer Mike Placido said in an interview. The commission continues to get comments on a 2007 rulemaking notice concerning just and reasonable rates for terminating access charges by competitive local exchange carriers mainly located in rural areas. Bells have accused rural LECs of “traffic pumping,” and urged lawmakers and the FCC to look into ending the practice. The House Commerce Committee has collected information from CLECS and interexchange carriers to begin its inquiry (CD Feb 18 p 1).
The goal the FCC set to wrap up its media-ownership review this year will be tough to meet, said commission, industry and public-interest figures we surveyed. The FCC hasn’t issued notices of inquiry or rulemaking and must deal with a legal challenge to the previous review. Issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) soon with proposed rules, rather than starting with a notice of inquiry (NOI), would speed up the work, the officials agreed. They said time is tight for the commission to wrap it up this year, a goal apparently shared by Chairman Julius Genachowski, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and others. Congress mandated the reviews every four years, including 2010.
Motorola, Qualcomm and AT&T separately asked the FCC to reject the 700 MHz Block a Good Faith Purchaser Alliance’s calls for a notice of proposed rulemaking requiring all 700 MHz capable devices to operate on every paired 700 MHz band. The alliance also sought an immediate freeze on FCC authorization of mobile equipment that cannot operate on every band. U.S. Cellular and small carriers groups weighed in in support of the alliance.
The FCC should be careful as it takes up the Broadband Task Force’s recommendation that TV providers include a broadband gateway device to not ignore some of the unique features of direct broadcast satellite service providers’ technology, said DBS companies. The commission will begin to take up the issue April 21 (CD March 31 p10).
The FCC will vote at the April 21 meeting on an order that would pull back the in-market roaming exclusion, approved in 2007 as part of the commission’s automatic roaming rules. The same item calls for the FCC to put out a further rulemaking notice seeking additional comment on data roaming. The actions have been expected since December (CD Dec 9 p1).
FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker said she remains open-minded about net neutrality, but she questioned whether a compromise can be made to gain her support by removing the application of rules to wireless. Baker, who joined the commission in July, told us she’s pleased with the approach of the National Broadband Plan toward spectrum. Baker also called for a quick review of all deals before the FCC, including Comcast-NBC Universal, limiting conditions to those directly involved, and helping broadcasters in small- and mid-sized markets in the media ownership review.
The weak economy and a recent surge in prepaid wireless plans indicate that the trend toward them will continue throughout the year, said speakers on a New Millennium Research Council teleconference Wednesday.
Municipal broadband, stimulus funding and Google’s fiber projects are among alternatives some cities are looking at as Verizon backs away from further FiOS expansion and concentrates on completing current commitments, experts told us. Cities probably won’t make quick decisions to pursue their own fiber buildouts, but Verizon’s pause in seeking new franchises will prompt them to raise the possibility again, said lawyers who represent cities in these matters. Baltimore and Boston are among the major cities likely to consider the idea, they said.
The Rural Utilities Service announced its final Broadband Initiatives Program award Tuesday for the first funding round, the day after second round applications were due. NTIA has yet to finish making first round grant announcements, though the final deadline for second round Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program applications was Friday.