The FCC will temporarily waive its Form 740 certification requirements for RF devices imported after Customs and Border Protection's automated commercial environment (ACE) filing system becomes mandatory for FCC-regulated products July 1, the full commission said in a Monday order. The waiver, which will remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2016, allows time for the FCC to consider its proposal to eliminate importer declaration requirements entirely (see 1507210072), without imposing “significant burdens” on importers that would otherwise be forced to file on paper once ACE is required, the FCC said. Given the complexity of the FCC rulemaking, it’s possible the commission will be “unable to reach and publish a final determination” by July 1, when CBP will no longer accept electronic filing of FCC Form 740 via its legacy Automated Commercial System, it said.
LSSi Data ended its legal fight against Comcast Phone over access to customer data. The two filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Atlanta last week asking for dismissal of the case, and the FCC Enforcement Bureau in a filing posted Monday in docket 14-211 said that in light of that agreement, it was terminating the proceeding. Comcast Phone had provided access to its directory assistance listing data to LSSi in exchange for help processing and distributing that data, but Comcast Phone ended its contract with LSSi in 2011 and entered a similar relationship instead with an LSSi competitor, Targus Info. LSSi sued Comcast Phone in 2011, arguing that the Communications Act requires it to have access to the data on a non-discriminatory basis. Comcast Phone argued the case should be referred to the FCC, and U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell of Atlanta agreed in 2013, citing its "novel regulatory questions that are within the FCC’s specialized area of expertise." Neither the court paperwork nor the bureau filing gave any details on the out-of-court settlement terms.
Net neutrality has been key to Internet and telecom startups, said EarthLink CEO Joe Eazor and AngelList Chief Operating Officer Kevin Laws at the Sunday opening session of ComptelPlus in San Francisco. “It's hard to overstate the importance,” Eazor said, responding to a question about net neutrality and “interconnection at the edge” from moderator Chip Pickering, Comptel president (the group changed its name to Incompas Monday). Laws said net neutrality has been critical for most of the startups on AngelList, which helps new companies obtain seed money from “angel investors.” Laws said one of his startups is constantly opening new stores, all of which need Internet connections: “The open Internet is essential for our customers to serve their customers better.” Pickering lauded the FCC net neutrality and IP/tech transition orders, which he said were part of a competition agenda that Comptel wants to sustain and strengthen. He welcomed agency efforts to address concerns about Bell rates and practices in special-access business services, including the investigation the Wireline Bureau announced Friday into terms and conditions that rivals say “lock up” competition (see 1510160060). Pickering said he's hopeful the commission will act on special access within six to 12 months. Eazor said EarthLink is riding a new wave of Internet growth that he said tripled IP traffic over the past four years and is expected to triple it again during the next three years. EarthLink is in various lines of business, but its core is managing “network services,” often in the cloud, including to retailers with diffuse locations, he said. Laws said AngelList already has helped various startups, including Pinterest and Uber, gain access to more than $200 million in initial funding.
The FCC is getting a new open Internet ombudsperson. Michael Janson of the Wireless Bureau is replacing Parul Desai, who was named to the new post four months ago (see 1506150057). The ombudsperson serves as the public’s “primary point of contact within the agency for formal and informal questions and complaint,” the FCC said in a Friday news release. Desai, formerly of Consumers Union, will stay at the FCC as an attorney adviser in the Media Bureau Audio Division. She was an assistant chief in the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau before taking the net neutrality job. Janson has “a demonstrated expertise in Open Internet policy in helping lead the bureau’s work related to the Open Internet Order,” the news release said. He will work under CGB Chief Alison Kutler.
Petitions for reconsideration of the FCC incentive auction procedures public notice are due Nov. 13, the Wireless Bureau said in a public notice in docket 15-146 posted online Wednesday and included in Thursday's Daily Digest.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said consumers and providers are embracing the IP transition and it's time for the commission to get with the program. Pai said Thursday he had just visited communities where advanced communications were being deployed, including Carbon Hill, Alabama, where AT&T is conducting an IP transition trial. "I saw firsthand the age of the brittle copper wires and the vast distances those thin wires needed to travel to connect everyone in the community," he said in a statement. "I saw the central office building where an enormous switch still stands to power the old copper network, even as most Americans carry more computing power around with them in their pocket. And I saw firsthand the improved reliability and quality of service that new technologies offer." He said community leaders were excited about the IP services but also noted the need for digital outreach and education. Pai said he also visited communities in Mississippi served by MaxxSouth Broadband: Carthage, where fiber-to-the-home service was deployed, and college-town Starkville, where gigabit speed service is being offered. He said he is also visiting Cox Communications in Atlanta and hoped to hear about its planned national gigabit rollout. "The one refrain I have repeatedly heard from these operators is the need for regulatory certainty if they are going to continue investing in their networks," Pai said. "It’s no secret that the broadband providers substantially reduced their capital expenditures once it was clear that broadband would be subject to 20th-century utility regulation. And I saw on this trip even more evidence of how old rules are deterring new investments, and how regulatory uncertainty is deterring private enterprise from taking on new risks. I hope the FCC will soon learn what the American people already know: That innovation is not a threat, but an opportunity for a better tomorrow." FCC Democrats have said the February net neutrality and broadband reclassification order and August IP transition order will facilitate innovation and investment while protecting an open Internet, consumers and competition.
The FCC is now slated to take up an order on interservice interference and an order on "when operations commence" following the TV incentive auction, according to the sunshine notice for the Oct. 22 meeting, released Thursday. The FCC also will take up an order relaxing channel-sharing rules for broadcasters participating in the incentive auction and giving them more time to “transition to shared facilities” after the auction. The items are some of the few remaining ones still to be addressed by the FCC as the agency moves toward the incentive auction, slated to start March 29.
The incentive auction procedures public notice was published in the Federal Register Wednesday (see 1508110071).
Clarification: The petition from NAB on Charter Communications' planned buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable was for the FCC to hold in abeyance review of the deals (see 1510130061).
The FCC should adopt the proposed rule changes in its NPRM on designating some online video services as multichannel video programming distributors, said FilmOn X CEO Alki David in meetings last week with Commissioner Ajit Pai, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler, aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, and staff from the bureau and Office of General Counsel. That is according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. Adopting the rulemaking, and employing a “light regulatory touch” could combine with recent court rulings favorable to online video services receiving compulsory copyright licenses to “remove barriers to entry” for online video distributors, FilmOn said. Designating OVDs as MVPDs would “spur investment and innovation,” FilmOn said.