LECs that partner with over-the-top VoIP providers shouldn't be allowed to collect local end-office switched access charges, Verizon Assistant General Counsel-Federal and State Legal Affairs Curtis Groves and Executive Director-Federal Regulatory Affairs Alan Buzacott told aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai Oct. 30, said an ex parte filing in FCC docket 10-90. An order being circulated at the FCC would say LECs and VoIP providers are entitled to the access charges (see 1410280032), but Verizon argued neither LECs nor VoIP providers perform "the necessary switching, or controls the switching decisions, that route a VoIP call to (or from) the VoIP customer over the broadband line that connects to the end user’s premises.” Companies that provide “over-the-top VoIP services -- e.g., Skype and Vonage -- have not invested in facilities to serve the end user customers who initiate and receive voice calls. Neither have their LEC partners,” Verizon said. ISPs, not the LECs or VoIP providers, “own, control, or maintain the physical routers, lines, and other equipment that performs analogous switching functions,” Verizon said. Also representing Verizon was Kellogg Huber’s Scott Angstreich, said the filing. Level 3 “uses the exact same facilities to provide local switching for calls terminated to TDM loops, over cable VoIP facilities and over-the-top,” Harris Wiltshire’s John Nakahata, representing Level 3, wrote in a letter to the agency sent and posted on Monday. To allow the access charges terminated to TDM and cable VoIP facilities, but not over-the-top VoIP, “moves in exactly the wrong direction” from the agency’s USF overhaul order, he said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Tuesday on a request by Breitling USA for a waiver of commission rules for its dual band emergency Watch called Emergency2. The device, intended for use on land, can be used to transmit a distress signal on 406.0-406.1 MHz for communication with the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system and a lower-powered homing signal on frequency 121.5 MHz, the bureau said. Absent a waiver, the device could not be certified under Part 95 of FCC rules, the bureau said. Breitling requests waiver of manual control, battery and labeling requirements in the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM) standard for such personal locator beacon (PLB) devices. “Breitling states that incorporation of a PLB into a wristwatch casing as opposed to a conventional hand-held device renders certain requirements in the RTCM standard irrelevant or infeasible, but argues that the Emergency2 provides the offsetting advantage that it is always immediately at hand and ready to operate, with no added risk of harmful interference to others,” the bureau said. Comments are due Dec. 4, replies Dec. 19.
Engineers for the Integrity of Broadcast Auxiliary Services Spectrum said the FCC should give no credence to Globalstar’s filing in response to Kerrisdale Capital. The filing doesn’t mention co-channel TV broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) stations concerning Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS), EIBASS said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-213. The Globalstar filing said TLPS would be compatible with existing 2.4 GHz S-band Wi-Fi operations, “while ignoring how newcomer co-channel AWS-5 operations would avoid interference to grandfathered A10 TV pickup stations in many of the major metros,” it said, referring to metropolitan areas. The AWS-5 portion of TLPS shouldn’t be allowed inside the operational areas of record of any grandfathered TV BAS channel A10 TV pickup station, it said.
Paid prioritization might not always slow non-prioritized traffic, and the FCC could run computer simulations to “determine to a high degree of accuracy the actual effects of prioritization on wide classes of traffic,” University of Nebraska assistant law professor Justin Hurwitz told FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan Friday, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-28. “There are many reasons that prioritization is not 'zero sum' -- indeed, there are circumstances under which prioritization of some traffic may improve the performance of all other traffic.”
Rigid net neutrality rules could hamper the launch of innovative new services, like a Sprint plan that lets subscribers only connect to Facebook or another social media site, or a T-Mobile decision to waive data charges when subscribers use music services like Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May in a Monday blog post. “I have not heard of any meaningful consumer discontent with the plans,” May wrote. “To the contrary, I surmise that consumers welcome the additional options, especially low-income or budget-conscious consumers who either are unable or unwilling to pay for wireless plans that are not limited in some fashion.” But some net neutrality advocates want to limit access to these plans on the ground that they discriminate by picking edge providers "to favor, say Facebook over the ‘next-Facebook,’ or certain music sites over others, or music sites over poetry sites,” May wrote. May said he fears a “pronounced proclivity” among FCC Democrats to “elevate supposed potential harms to edge providers (especially non-existent ones, such as the ‘next Google or next [fill in the blank’]) above real-world consumer welfare benefits.”
The speed at which the FCC seems to be acting is most surprising, but radio companies likely won't be looking at implementing online political file obligations until late next year, a broadcast attorney said, referring to a draft NPRM that extends TV station online public file obligations to pay-TV companies and radio stations (see 1410300052). After the FCC receives comments and makes a decision, "there will presumably be a phased in application of the rules," Wilkinson Barker attorney David Oxenford said Sunday in a blog post. The commission will need some time to prepare its own computer systems "to hold the files of the radio stations, cable systems and satellite TV companies which will also be covered by this proposal," he said. The FCC also appears ready to make a change to its contest rules, he said. The commission plans to consider an NPRM giving broadcasters more flexibility in disclosing contest terms at its Nov. 21 meeting, Oxenford said. "We would hope that the FCC moves as quickly on this proposal as they appear to be doing on the online public file revisions."
Ninety percent of consumers surveyed believe today’s level of wireless industry regulation, or less, will help spur innovation, said a Mobile Future poll released Monday. As the FCC contemplates new net neutrality rules, the survey shows consumers are “deeply skeptical of an expanding regulatory role for government in the wireless sector,” Mobile Future said. The poll found that 88 percent believe the government shouldn’t block or otherwise be involved in approving wireless business models, and 10 percent said their wireline and wireless uses are similar, Mobile Future said. Researchers polled 865 U.S. mobile consumers over the weekend of Oct. 17.
The FCC should refrain from tweaking data roaming rules that are working well as-is, AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh told Brendan Carr, aide to Commissioner Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 05-265. In a May petition, T-Mobile asked the FCC for a declaratory ruling with guidance and “predictable” enforcement criteria for determining whether the terms of data roaming agreements meet the “commercially reasonable” standard adopted by the commission in 2011 (see 1408220076). “The current roaming rules, established in the 2011 Data Roaming Order, struck the proper balance between ensuring that availability of data services and maintaining the proper incentives for carriers to build-out,” said AT&T. “Any carrier who believes it cannot secure commercial reasonable data roaming arrangements can file a complaint with the FCC.”
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on a petition from TracFone, asking the agency to allow the sending and receiving of text to meet the federal Lifeline program’s usage requirements. TracFone also sought an interim waiver, which would allow customers to demonstrate their intent to use their Lifeline service via text messaging pending adoption of a rule change. Comments are due Dec. 1, replies Dec. 16, said a Monday public notice from the bureau. TracFone is a leading provider of low-cost, prepaid wireless service.
FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly offered more evidence of the problem of pocket dialing 911 from cellphones. O’Rielly said in a blog post that he recently received a letter from Kelly Dutra, director of the Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency in Beaverton, Oregon. Dutra related that in the county, “butt-dialed” calls make up 30 percent of wireless 911 calls. Since 2005, that county had in place call taker systems that require emergency callers to speak or at least press a key, Dutra told O'Rielly. Even with the device, “15-20 percent of the calls that make it through the system are still butt dials with enough noise in the background for the system to treat it as an active call,” Dutra said.