Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

FCC Chmn. Powell gave early indications of his thinking about a regulatory regime for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) Mon., saying he saw consensus that the service might be deemed “interstate” in nature and that concerns about VoIP were focused on 4 or 5 discrete issues. His comments to reporters came after an FCC forum on VoIP that featured industry leaders, state public utility commissioners and others.

FCC sources said the Media Bureau late Tues. sent a version of the decision on the proposed News Corp. acquisition of Hughes Electronics and DirecTV up to the commissioners for their consideration over the holiday weekend. A decision is expected via circulation. They said the bureau also sent up the annual video competition report, which typically is released to the public in Dec. Meanwhile, 4 federal agencies told the FCC in a letter that they wouldn’t object if the Commission granted News Corp. and GM the ability to complete their proposed deal under certain conditions. The Dept. of Defense (DoD), the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dept. of Justice and the FBI asked Hughes Electronics to amend the section of its bylaws on its audit committee to clarify that all members were U.S. citizens. The agencies asked that the committee have authority over certain actions, including: (1) Requests from a foreign govt. or other foreign entity to conduct electronic surveillance on a domestic communications network. (2) Requests from foreign entities on operations of domestic communications networks. (3) Corporate decisions on document preservation requests from any U.S. govt. agencies involving a domestic communications network. (4) Requests from foreign entities to preserve, store or destroy documents related to domestic communications requests. (5) Attempts by foreign entities to coerce employees to break U.S. laws. (6) Corporate decisions relating to compliance with “lawful U.S. process.” The agencies also asked the News Corp. board to adopt proposed resolutions acknowledging changes in the Hughes bylaws. In a filing with the FCC, the agencies said the proposed commitments “are adequate to ensure that the executive agencies and other entities with responsibility for enforcing the law, protecting the national security and preserving public safety can proceed in a legal, secure and confidential manner to satisfy these responsibilities.” Jeffrey Chester, exec. dir. of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), said the letter was an indication of how the agencies would judge the antitrust issues of the merger. He said that regardless of whether the audit committee was composed of U.S. citizens, it would “simply do his [Rupert Murdoch’s] bidding.”

The current World Radiocommunication Conference preparation and interagency process “needs only a ’tune-up,’ not a major overhaul,” N.Y. Satellite Industries (NYSI) and Final Analysis Communications Services (FACS) told the NTIA. The agency had asked for comments on the process and agency coordination (CD Oct 24 p6). NYSI and FACS said much of the criticism of NTIA and FCC implementation of WRC items was outdated. They said coordination on their issue, the operation of Little LEO systems and incumbent federal users of the 1.4 GHz band, and others was an example of the “positive and instructive” preparation process the agencies had implemented recently, resulting in WRC-03 adoption of Little LEO feeders links in the 1390-1392 MHz and 1430-1432 MHz bands. If anything, they said, “a more streamlined process” for implementing WRC decisions, “where appropriate, would better serve the public interest. Once an international allocation is added, applicants should be free to seek an assignment of the allocated frequencies. This will allow the Commission to review individual applications to ensure that the public interest is served by the licensee’s use of the spectrum as allocated.”

Several weeks after CTIA announced its wireless industry voluntary consumer code program and the seal of wireless quality (CD Sept 10 p2), there has been “tremendous” progress in wireless carriers’ seeking to use the seal, CTIA Asst. Gen. Counsel Andrea Williams said Thurs. Addressing the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee, she said the seal had become “a competitive issue for [carriers]. So, having the impact that we hoped it would, this is going to be an area where [members] are going to be competing for consumers.”

The FCC Thurs. expanded the scope of some Enhanced 911 requirements, including a mandate that certain mobile satellite service (MSS) providers create call centers for routing emergency calls. In an order and further notice adopted unanimously at its agenda meeting, the Commission also concluded that, for now, state and local govts. were better positioned to set rules for E911 deployment by multiline telephone systems (MLTS). It expanded E911 mandates to certain telematics services and resellers of mobile wireless services, including prepaid calling cards.

With an economy increasingly dependent on the Internet, state and federal regulators must act carefully when setting new telecom policy, despite a virtual statutory vacuum, FCC Chmn. Powell said in a speech to the Federalist Society Thurs. He said the digital revolution and resulting media convergence “throws a monkey wrench into the workings” of the 1996 Telecom Act, which he said “preserves a Balkanized legal regime built for an analog age marked by rigid specifications” based on old technology. “The rise of the Internet will severely challenge federalism as it has been applied under the Telecommunications Act,” he said.

The FCC shouldn’t take further regulatory actions to address migratory bird deaths at communications towers until additional scientific research is conducted, many industry representatives said in comments filed with the Commission. However, environmental groups said the FCC already had received extensive information on that subject but had continued to violate federal environmental laws for years under its current system of authorizing, licensing, approving and registering communications towers. The comments were filed in response to the Notice of Inquiry (NOI) the Commission issued earlier this year (CD Aug 21 p5), after FCC Chmn. Powell in May outlined an agency effort for a more “pro-active approach” to environmental and historic preservation issues on tower siting.

A Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)- led task force called for sweeping changes Wed. in U.S. spectrum management, including a recommendation for joint govt. and private sector-funded research. “This is in some ways the most radical of the recommendations,” the report said of the joint research proposal, which raised concerns about declining U.S. efforts in spectrum technology research as overseas R&D was increasing. The report, drafted by a commission led by former Defense Secy. James Schlesinger, called for direct White House oversight of spectrum management.

Citing interference concerns, broadcasters told the FCC last week that a plan for relocating certain Defense Dept. systems to make way for advanced wireless services such as 3G “seriously underestimates” the impact on the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS). NAB and the Assn. for Maximum Service TV (MSTV) commissioned studies to evaluate the proposed relocation of 11 DoD sites for co-equal, primary use of the 2025-2110 MHz band with the BAS. They said one study showed BAS stations would experience harmful interference from the DoD sites, which in some cases would totally overload them.

FCC Comr. Adelstein on Wed. said he was in talks with his fellow commissioners about launching a broad inquiry into alleged “payola” practices at TV and radio stations around the country. In a speech to the Federal Communications Bar Assn. (FCBA), Adelstein said the Commission needs to “get to the bottom” of allegations that some TV stations have done interviews during news programs with subjects who have been asked to pay a fee. Such shows would appear to the average person to be legitimate news programs, he said, and viewers might be unaware that money is changing hands.