The FCC has not only “failed to pursue meaningful solutions” to making sure broadband is being deployed in a timely and reasonable fashion, but exacerbated the problem by “arbitrarily raising” the broadband benchmark speed and imposing Communications Act Title II regulation on broadband in the net neutrality order, NCTA said in comments filed Friday. Responded to the agency’s January notice of inquiry (see 1501290043) on improving broadband deployment, the comments hadn't been posted in docket 14-126. USTelecom also filed comments on the NOI Friday, which, according to its blog, focused on removing “outdated legacy regulations” and “restrictive local rules and regulations.” The commission failed to “effectively implement many of its own prior recommendations,” including adding broadband to Lifeline and implementing the Remote Areas Fund (RAF) to deploy broadband to unserved areas, NCTA said. The commission should immediately revoke offers to ILECs for high-cost USF support that don't meet the new 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload standard, it said. The funding should be offered on a competitively neutral basis to any qualified broadband provider willing to provide the new speed, NCTA said. The agency should also implement the RAF and issue an NPRM to create a broadband Lifeline program, the filing said. An independent third party should also examine why there hasn’t been more progress extending broadband deployment to unserved areas, even though more than $28 billion in federal funding has been spent on the goal since 2010, the filing said. USTelecom urged the agency to grant its October 2014 forbearance petition (see 1410070050), reforming state and local regulations “that impede a provider’s ability to roll out broadband services,” and ensure that broadband providers can deploy fiber in multi-dwelling units. The FCC should “promote efficient and carefully targeted broadband deployment in rural areas” through the Connect America Fund and develop “’sooner rather than later’ a long-term universal service solution for rate-of-return carriers,” USTelecom said.
Because the FCC was closed Thursday due to snow, all filings do that date were due Friday instead, the FCC said Friday in a public notice. It said Thursday “does not count in computing filing periods of fewer than seven days because it was a Commission holiday under rule 1.4(g).”
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory objected to iRobot’s pursuit of a waiver of FCC rules to allow outdoor use of robotic lawn mowers (RLMs) and their control beacons in the 6240-6740 MHz band. The observatory said 5925–6700 MHz is generally protected and iRobot’s commitment to label its RLMs as for “Consumer use only; use must be limited to residential areas,” won't offer adequate protection. The band is protected to allow “interference-free observation of the 6.66852 GHz spectral line of methanol (CH3OH) that is abundant in star-forming regions and serves as a galactic beacon of star-forming activity owing to its maser-like qualities,” the observatory said. This lets astronomers “do a kind of celestial cartography that measures distances to star-forming regions with high precision, charting the course of galactic evolution,” it said. The filing was posted Friday in docket 15-30.
Rules proposed by CTIA for the 3.5 GHz band, which the FCC is considering as a band to test spectrum sharing, could undermine the usefulness of the band, Google said in a filing last week in docket 12-354. The FCC is moving toward final rules for spectrum sharing in the 3.5 GHz band and tweaking its rules after several rounds of comment (see 1502050049). “CTIA appears to be suggesting that (1) devices may rely on spectrum sensing alone, rather than [spectrum access system] management, and (2) service providers should not be required to exchange information about the usage of Citizens Band Radio Service devices on their networks,” Google said. “Accepting either of these premises would greatly compromise utilization” of the band, Google said. Assigning static frequencies for priority access licenses in the 3.5 GHz band, or permitting spectrum access systems to reside within a carrier’s network without protective conditions or restrictions are among the kinds of protections sought by CTIA that could undermine shared use of the band, said Federated Wireless, commenting in the docket. Interoperability is critical for the band and the FCC should make it a requirement, the company said.
The FCC should use extreme caution and tailor its rules narrowly for multichannel video programming distributors, said media organizations and content distributors in comments posted Wednesday in docket 14-261. The commission should “be slow to interfere” with the evolving concept of TV, said the Digital Media Association (DiMA) comment. The commission should be cautious about changing the definition of MVPDs, especially when the over-the-top (OTT) market is “vibrant and growing,” it said. Changes to the definition of MVPD should be “narrowly tailored to a well-defined class of online video programming distributors,” DiMA said. It approved that the rulemaking rejected a “one size fits all” approach and drew distinctions between Internet-based MVPDs and Internet-based providers of video content, it said. OTT providers should be unaffected regarding program access and carriage rules, it said. Producing and distributing video content is “already fraught with significant risk in this competitive environment,” said MPAA's comment. Changing the current content market could hinder investment and experimentation, it said. Consumer demand, not the government, should determine content and linear and other online distribution methods, MPAA said. The rules proposed in the NPRM raise issues under the First Amendment and copyright law, and also threaten the diversity of programming and licensing relationships among content creators, distributors and programmers, MPAA said. The commission should qualify Sky Angel as an MVPD (see 1503050058), Sky Angel said in its comment. Its program access complaint against Discovery has been stagnant for 27 months, while the commission imposes a five-month standard to resolve these complaints, Sky Angel said. Sky Angel wants the pro-consumer, pro-competition protections from program access rules and asked the commission to grant its renewed petition for temporary standstill, it said.
The FCC likely will classify linear over-the-top distributors as multichannel video programming distributors, but that won’t increase OTT competition (see 1503060046), said Guggenheim Securities analyst Paul Gallant in an emailed note Friday. It would offer OTTs access to vertically integrated programming and require local TV stations to “negotiate in good faith” for signal carriage by OTTs and MVPDs, he said, but that wouldn’t give OTTs more access to marquee content and the Copyright Office would have to say that OTTs qualify for compulsory copyright licenses. Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable is focused on its effect on online video competition, Gallant said. Mediacom’s requested FCC inquiry into programmer leverage over OTTs and other pay-TV distributors could affect OTT entry, he said. There's a small chance the commission could ask about programmer bundling and volume discounts and start such an inquiry, he said. A programmer inquiry could improve OTTs’ access to programming more than OTT-as-MVPD would, he said.
The FCC Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) plans its second meeting March 24, the FCC said in Thursday's Federal Register. At the meeting, two working groups studying the currently available forms of downloadable security and the requirements of the companies that would use the solution developed by the DTSAC will present their findings, it said. The meeting will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. DSTAC first met in February (see 1502230067).
The FCC asked the three largest U.S. telcos for updated information about their interconnection deals linking systems, networks and equipment, in letters from Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake dated Tuesday and released Wednesday in docket 14-57. He asked AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon (see here, here and here) to provide copies of all deals between them and other companies about on-net-only interconnection service from Jan. 1, 2012, through Tuesday. Lake also sought copies of CenturyLink's and Verizon's paid peering deals. From them, he sought updated data through Dec. 31, 2014, on interconnection after data was submitted in response to a previous request to the telcos. Last week, Lake asked programmers including CBS, Discovery Communications, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and Univision about their dealings with online video distributors (OVD), as part of the Comcast/TWC review (see 1502260022). Those letters suggest "FCC staff does not believe it has finished the fact-gathering phase," wrote New Street Research analysts including Jonathan Chaplin to investors Wednesday. "The primary focus of the government" appears to be on "the potential harm the transaction could cause the OVD market," they said. In Tuesday's inquiries, AT&T also was asked to report information on all national and regional sports channels the telco-TV provider distributes. Lake sought details including the number of AT&T subscribers to those networks and the per-subscriber fee the company pays, plus what it pays in retransmission consent fees to TV stations. AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon were asked to respond by March 20. “The FCC is taking this merger very seriously," emailed a spokeswoman for CenturyLink, which has "serious concerns" with how the deal may affect video competition. "It’s not unusual for the commission to ask for more information when they’re considering a merger of this significance. This is second data request we’ve received from FCC." The other two telcos and Comcast had no comment.
Comcast’s fourth annual report on its implementation of the conditions on its buy of control in NBCUniversal shows a “proud” track record, Executive Vice President David Cohen said in a blog post Tuesday. “Not a single multichannel video programming distributor or programmer has requested arbitration or filed a program carriage complaint" in the four years since the FCC approved the deal, Cohen said. Comcast reached content license agreements with Amazon, Crackle, Hulu and Netflix, he noted. Comcast “continued our fair dealings with online video distributors,” Cohen said. Comcast also has added more than 20 independent networks and “expanded the quality and quantity of diverse programming” on its on-demand and online offerings to more than 5,800 combined hours in 2014, Cohen said. That’s an increase of 94 percent over 2013, he said.
TV manufacturers intend to make caption display settings accessible “through several methods including a button on the remote or access through the first level of a menu,” CEA said in an ex parte letter in docket 12-108 reporting the results of an informal poll it did of TV manufacturers on the interface used for accessibility features such as closed captions. No TV manufacturers that responded plan to provide access to closed captions and video description via only voice or gesture control, CEA said. Manufacturers are instead using buttons and icons to provide access to those features, and some are incorporating voice or gesture commands as “additional access mechanisms,” CEA said.