Members of Congress and law enforcement agencies backed Big Bend Telephone Co.’s FCC petition for a waiver of some of the new limits on USF recovery. BBTC says it’s the only voice and broadband provider available in the vast majority of its territory, and all alternative providers in the area rely on the company for backhaul transport services. Both Texas senators, Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, wrote FCC members to describe the “unique circumstances” that make BBTC particularly worthy of a waiver (http://xrl.us/bm2s8s).
TORONTO -- Major cable operators are stepping up efforts to capture sizable chunks of the commercial telecom services market and recruit more large companies as customers. Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers Canadian conference last week, engineering executives from three major U.S. cable companies said they'll keep pouring more resources into business services initiatives in 2012, after strong growth over the past several years. They're investing more heavily in technologies, equipment, products, services and staffing for mid-sized and larger companies, following operators’ initial emphasis on small firms with 20 or fewer employees.
A bipartisan group of 19 senators said the FCC should “immediately act” to remedy the group’s concerns over diminished rural communication network investment in the aftermath of October’s USF/intercarrier compensation (ICC) order, said a letter sent Tuesday to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Warning of “unintended consequences,” the senators requested a formal FCC clarification that the order “will not be implemented in a manner that perpetuates unintended outcomes."
House Republican leaders plan to bring several cybersecurity bills to the floor on the third week of April, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., confirmed Wednesday. During a so-called “cyberweek,” House lawmakers will look at six or more Republican cybersecurity bills with the goal of sending a comprehensive cybersecurity package to the Senate. But Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) warned that some of the bills could have “significant” implications on civil liberties, during a press briefing Wednesday.
A Maryland communications tax bill (HB-563) that’s expected to be signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley is only the start of an effort. Under the bill, a tax commission would be created to review telecom tax and submit findings and recommendations before June 30, 2013. A telecom tax restructuring bill would then be considered during the 2014 legislative session. While localities urged preserving their tax authorities, telecom companies sought a new tax framework that would lower tax rates and encourage investment in broadband infrastructure, county and company officials said.
The FCC is expected to take on USF contribution reform at its April 27 meeting, launching a notice of proposed rulemaking. Commissioners already approved orders addressing the start of distribution reform last October and the overhaul of the Lifeline program in January. But the contribution side of the USF program, how money is collected, has yet to be addressed by the FCC under Chairman Julius Genachowski. The FCC is scheduled to release a tentative agenda for the April open meeting on Friday.
The FCC shouldn’t adopt Comcast’s proposal to let some of its in-house attorneys and executives view the distribution agreements between online video distributors and third-party programmers in order to qualify for some of the program-access conditions of the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger approval order, companies and public interest groups said in comments filed at the FCC this week. Dish Network, Public Knowledge and a coalition of TV programmers that includes Disney, CBS, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Time Warner and Viacom each filed separate comments arguing against Comcast’s proposal.
The overall cost of putting in place a national network for public safety, as required by recently enacted spectrum legislation, remains to be seen, speakers said Wednesday during a special presentation on Broadband US TV. Many questions remain, more than a month after President Barack Obama signed the payroll tax extension, which includes the spectrum legislation and establishment of the FirstNet for public safety.
Malicious attacks on data systems can’t be prevented but can be contained once they're detected, security experts told the FOSE conference Thursday. Moving to a cloud environment won’t simplify cybersecurity, but make it messier, and that creates more chance for attacks, said Amit Yoran, general manager of RSA’s security and compliance business and former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division.
Industry and FCC officials said they're watching two FCC dockets to see what parties may reveal their policy positions and potential business plans related to the distribution of video over the Internet. Comments on a proposal by Comcast to clarify how it can access information submitted by online video distributors (OVDs) to prove they can avail themselves of the certain Comcast-NBCU approval conditions were due after our deadline Tuesday. And the Media Bureau issued a Public Notice Friday about the definition of the term “multichannel video programming distributor,” for which comments are due at the end of the month.