Engineering report doesn’t demonstrate “destructive pattern of interference” between DTV signals of WHRO-DT Norfolk, Va., and WBOC-TV Salisbury, Md., former said in FCC filing. Md. station had charged that, because of unexpected propagation of DTV signal, unacceptable number of its viewers were affected by new interference (CD Aug 20 p9). WHRO-DT said tests showed that same number of viewers had unacceptable interference before DTV broadcasts were begun as after. It said that “regretfully” stations hadn’t been able to reach agreement on dispute, despite engineering study. Report by Wallace & Assoc. said there appeared to be some anomalous propagation effects, such as seasonal ducting, but other factors such as misoriented TV antennas caused most of problems and requiring WHRO-DT to change channels or reduce power wouldn’t help.
Group of radar detector manufacturers plan to focus on compliance with timeline laid out in FCC order that required those devices to meet Part 15 limits on emissions in 11.7- 12.2 GHz band to prevent VSAT interference. Industry coalition Radar Assn. Defending Airwave Rights (RADAR) had withdrawn July 26 petition for partial reconsideration and FCC Office of Engineering & Technology dismissed it without comment this week (CD Sept 17 p5). “We still think that the FCC’s schedule is unnecessary, unworkable and unprecedented, but on the principle that life is short, we will drop our opposition to the schedule and devote our efforts to attempts to comply,” RADAR attorney Mitchell Lazarus said. Group of 6 radar detector manufacturers hadn’t challenged technical rules but did so on compliance timeline. FCC recently provided 30 additional days for retail compliance until Oct. 27.
AT&T and Comcast announced Tues. that key deadline had passed on their proposed cable merger without action by Justice Dept., indicating deal had won Justice approval by default, but DoJ officials said companies should hold off on celebrating. Agency still could step in at any time until investigation was officially completed, they said. They said they hoped that would be soon, but until then, and until FCC approved merger, transaction couldn’t go forward.
CLEC interests urged Ohio PUC to reject SBC/Ameritech’s recent request to roughly double its unbundled network element (UNE) rates. Coalition for Customer Choice, group allied with CLECs, said FCC data showed Ameritech’s Ohio profits grew 35% from 1997 through 2001 and were about $66 per Ohio line in 2001 compared to $50.38 average for rest of Ameritech states. CLEC group said Ameritech’s current claims of financial distress conflicted with documented profit history and claims to financial analysts in spring that it was posting gross profit of 42% on Ohio operations. CLECs said proposed increase in UNE rates was attempt by Ameritech to use regulatory process to stall competition.
Qwest Chmn. Richard Notebaert said company would form new long distance subsidiary to satisfy FCC concerns that led to carrier pulling back both of its pending Sec. 271 applications Sept. 10. Commission had been concerned whether current subsidiary was compliant with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) because it was same one from which Qwest made indefeasible rights of use (IRU) sales. Those IRU sales are subject of govt. accounting investigations.
Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) confirmed that several senators had placed holds on FCC nominee Jonathan Adelstein and said he was “very concerned” about development. Daschle didn’t say who placed holds, but Senate Minority Leader Lott (R-Miss.) expressed outrage at Senate Judiciary Committee’s rejection of Tex. Judge Priscilla Owen for federal appeals court. Lott’s anger over rejection earlier this year of Thomas Pickering, personal friend, led to hold on Adelstein, which appeared to be resolved through negotiations. Daschle said negotiations would continue on Adelstein, 7-year telecom staffer for Daschle who already has been confirmed by Senate Commerce Committee. “At some point we're going to move a cloture vote on the nomination, but we're not there yet and I'm hopeful that we can work the holds off,” Daschle said. Adelstein would take open Democratic seat vacated by Gloria Tristani for term that expires June 30, 2003.
Capacity constraints are hurting plans for Rainbow 1 DBS satellite, Cablevision and Rainbow told FCC in Sept. 12 ex parte filing. Companies asked that as proposed condition of EchoStar acquisition of DirecTV, companies divest 17 DBS channels at 61.5 degrees W.
New TIA report suggested “fiber glut” might end soon, at least on Tier II-III and metro/local routes. In Optical Network Capacity and Utilization White Paper, released Tues. at National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference, TIA concluded that data-driven demand, particularly from enterprise networks, continued to increase use of long-haul and metro- area networks at pace that soon would require addition of new bandwidth capacity through new equipment or fiber deployment. “Since the vast majority of new fiber and channel slots were deployed over the same Tier I routes, those long-haul routes have sufficient installed capacity to meet demand for the next 1 to 2 years or more,” report said: “However, given the steady growth in traffic demand, there is a need for new capacity in certain Tier II and Tier III market long-haul routes, as well as in many metro and access networks.” TIA said consumer demand continued to grow, putting pressure on metro carriers, but FCC needed to change regulations affecting local access market to spur fiber deployment and allow those networks to meet new demand. When local access markets become more attractive economically for fiber transport, report predicted greater traffic volume and “tremendous new need for network capacity deployments.” Other findings: (1) Traffic across U.S. networks continues to increase at levels consistent with historical trends. U.S. long distance traffic is growing 7-8% per year, U.S. local voice traffic 5-12%, U.S. Internet traffic 100%. (2) There is cyclical relationship involving end-user access speed, type of online application used and amount of traffic generated by end-user: “The larger the ‘pipe’ at the level of the local access network, the greater the amount of traffic volume can be expected and passed to the long-haul network.” (3) Network capacity needed for different types of networks varied dramatically based on peak-to-average ratios (ranging from 3 to 1 for circuit switched voice traffic to 15 to 1 for private line traffic) and on network overhead such as protection/restoration and protocols (32-50 times average demand). (4) Historically, 50% long-haul and 33% metro/local fiber was lit. In contrast, by 2001, 25% of long haul and 45-75% metro fiber was lit -- www.tiaonline.org/marketdev/whitepapers.
Several ISP executives and WorldCom Internet Senior Vp Vint Cerf will meet with FCC officials today (Tues.) to express their concerns with agency’s proposed broadband rulemakings. Meeting will include representatives of FCC Wireline Competition Bureau, 8th floor advisers and Office of Plans & Policy, BroadNet Coalition Exec. Dir. Maura Colleton told us. BroadNet, funded by Earthlink and WorldCom and including dozens of small ISPs as members, is concerned that FCC will make it all but impossible for ISPs to interconnect with Bells to provide DSL service. Joining Cerf and Colleton at meeting will be Toad.net CEO David Troy, Contact Communications and Wyoming.com Vp Rich Hardt, Berkshire.net Pres. Mike Batherick and Speakeasy Vp-Gen. Counsel Brian Nelson. This is 2nd such fly-in of ISP executives BroadNet has held this year. After FCC meeting, Colleton said, ISP executives plan to visit offices of their congressional representatives.
FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on petitions for reconsideration filed by Alltel, American Cellular and Dobson Cellular Systems on order setting Enhanced 911 deployment deadlines for medium-sized (Tier 2) and smallest (Tier 3) wireless carriers. Comments are due Oct. 16, replies Oct. 30. In their petitions, carriers had raised concerns that if revised deployment schedules for E911 Phase 2 rollouts weren’t met, they would be deemed noncompliant and face automatic enforcement action. Petitions contended that FCC improperly decided that it would take enforcement action on any potential Phase 2 waiver request without carrier’s having chance to challenge decision. Carriers said Commission shouldn’t hold them to strict liability standard for Phase 2 deadlines that depended, at least in part, on factors out of their control, such as when equipment vendors couldn’t supply compliant products. FCC has delayed E911 Phase 2 interim handset and network upgrade deadlines for small and medium- sized carriers such as Alltel and Leap Wireless (CD July 29 p4).