FCC changed comment period on NPRM for cable horizontal and vertical ownership rules. Recognizing possible holiday conflicts, Commission is extending time for filing comments to Jan. 4, 2002, and replies on or before Feb. 4. Original date for comments was Dec. 26, and replies were due Jan. 25.
Country of origin cases
Striking Minn. state employees began returning to work Mon. following tentative settlement to end 2-week walkout that curtailed operations of Minn. PUC and other state agencies. About 23,000 employees struck Oct. 1 in dispute over pay and health benefits. Workers won bigger pay raises and smaller potential health plan co-payments than state had offered before walkout. Pacts with state’s 2 largest public employee unions will add about $6 million to $163 million state previously offered. Members of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Minn. Assn. of Professional Employees won 3.5% raises over 2 years, up from 3% offered, and 50% reduction in original co-payments for family health coverage and no co-payment for employee coverage. Union memberships are to vote within 4 weeks on ratification.
JumpTV’s decision to drop its bid for copyright clearance to retransmit TV stations over Internet isn’t result of either govt. process or opposition of broadcasters, CEO Farrel Miller told us. JumpTV.com pulled its application to be heard in Dec. 4 hearings on its right to pay tariff, similar to cable, satellite or wireless firms, to stream Canadian and U.S. TV signals over Internet (CD Oct 11 p6). JumpTV said it was “currently reviewing its business model,” including possibly switching to subscription model, but “details of any new model are unclear at this point.”
FCC adopted new access charge regime for rural telephony Thurs. that departed from proposal offered by coalition of associations representing rural telcos. For one thing, new access rate system is mandatory while Multi-Assn. Group (MAG) had proposed making it optional for some carriers. Order adopted at agency’s agenda meeting also postponed action on incentive plan to encourage rural carriers to move from rate- of-return to price cap regulation. That component, also proposed by MAG, will be subject of further notice of proposed rulemaking, also adopted Thurs. Rural reform plan is attempt to convert implicit universal service subsidies, buried within access charges, to explicit funding, as required by Telecom Act. FCC said in news release it also sought to meet another goal in order: Aligning access rate structure more closely with how costs are incurred by “driving per-minute access charges toward lower, more cost- based levels.”
W.Va. Consumer Protection Div. of state attorney gen. office completed its 7th “reverse boiler room” operation, contacting thousands of senior citizens and others in Logan area who are considered at risk of being prime targets for unscrupulous telemarketers to warn them about companies that are out to fleece them. Campaigns began last year after state consumer officials obtained “sucker lists” from unlawful telemarketers state put out of business, and have been conducted in Charleston, Huntington, Beckley, Bluefield, Martinsburg, Wheeling. Consumer protection officials estimated they had talked with some 55,000 people around state. Original sucker lists of lonely, isolated, naive and gullible persons have been supplemented with names complied by state officials and consumer organizations. AG and law enforcement volunteers set up phone banks similar to telemarketing boiler rooms for mass calling and follow script that warns people about telemarketing scams. Phones and lines were donated by Verizon and Citizens Telecom. AG’s office says at least 2 more campaigns are planned for early next year.
House Telecom Subcommittee hearing on transition to DTV, originally scheduled Sept. 12 but postponed because of terrorist attacks Sept. 11, has been rescheduled for Oct. 17 -- time, place and witnesses to be announced.
SCOTTSDALE -- Mood was somber as USTA kicked off its annual convention here Sun., shortly before U.S. began air attacks in Afghanistan. Attendees huddled around TV sets in hallways during breaks to keep up with news as speakers extolled telecom industry efforts to maintain infrastructure in face of terrorism threats. “We're focused on security,” new USTA Pres. Walter McCormick said at meeting with news media Mon. “There is a lot of talk about that among members here.” Other common topic of conversation was difficulty in traveling caused by heightened security at airports as well as cancelled and delayed flights. Several speakers and panelists had to cancel, and many attendees arrived later than planned. When several FCC staffers had to bow out late last week from their “Regulatory Sunday” appearances, USTA pressed into service FCC Comr. Abernathy’s common carrier adviser Matthew Brill. Originally coming to convention only to accompany Abernathy, who was lunch speaker Sun., Brill was asked to make hour-long presentation later that day in which he gave talk and answered questions. Surprisingly, convention attendance wasn’t affected too badly by security problems. USTA had expected 1,000 attendees and about 900 showed up, still more than last year.
FCC authorized U.S. earth stations Tues. to use Inmarsat to offer mobile satellite service provided former intergovernmental satellite organization completed IPO. Commission said Inmarsat had met all requirements of Open- Market Reorganization for Betterment of Technology (ORBIT) Act. Authorizations will allow U.S. companies to use Inmarsat system for aeronautical, maritime and land mobile communications, including voice, data, facsimile, high-speed Internet. New services should increase competition, FCC said. Comr. Abernathy called decision “significant step” in International Bureau’s “effort to reduce backlog.”
Texas.Net attorneys said they would ask that their case against AOL Time Warner (AOL-TW) be heard by full FCC. “I don’t usually throw things when I get a decision, but I did in this case,” Texas.Net attorney Scott McCollough said after learning that FCC Cable Bureau had rejected Texas.Net’s complaint, which alleged that AOL-TW had breached FTC consent decree allowing AOL and TW to merge. Texas.Net, largest Tex. independent ISP, said AOL-TW failed to negotiate with it in good faith and was discriminating against local and regional ISPs. But bureau said Commission never imposed such condition on merger and FTC -- not FCC -- must enforce agreement. “We find that Texas.Net has not alleged facts that, if proven, would constitute a violation,” the FCC order said. McCollough suggested FCC was disingenuous in its news conference and fact sheets stating original conditions on merger, calling bureau’s order “revisionist history.” FTC order said AOL-TW must open its cable lines to at least 3 competing ISPs in areas where its own AOL or Road Runner service was offered. “I guess they didn’t mean what they said,” McCollough said of FCC. “I'm sorry, but they just can’t be talking about the same order that we are.” AOL-TW has pointed to several deals it has made with local and regional ISPs in other areas, including New York Connect.Net in N.Y.C., Internet Junction in Tampa and S. Tex. Internet Connections, which operates in Austin, Houston and San Antonio. McCollough suggested that AOL-TW was choosing ISPs that couldn’t offer “real competition” to its own Internet services. He declined to say how many subscribers Texas.Net had, but said it was in multiple tens of thousands, with customers in every major Tex. city. “We've completed 3 small ISP deals just in the last month and we look forward to doing many more,” AOL spokeswoman said in response. “We were very pleased with the decision.” Separately, AOL-TW declined to comment on speculation on Wall St. that Ted Turner wouldn’t renew his employment contract with AOL-TW when it expires at end of year.
FCC -- with warnings and caveats -- unveiled long-awaited conditional approvals of Enhanced 911 waiver requests for 5 national wireless carriers while initiating limited enforcement investigations against Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless. Commission approved, with certain changes, E911 Phase 2 compliance plans of Nextel, Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and GSM network portions of AT&T and Cingular plans. With nearly 70 waiver requests piled up in advance of Oct. 1 implementation deadline, Commission acted only on requests for relief from 5 national providers, giving small and medium-sized firms until Nov. 30 to file petitions if they hadn’t done so already. As for AT&T and Cingular, FCC said they submitted compliance plans for existing TDMA portions of their networks too late for agency to act. “Discussions have been initiated between these carriers and FCC Enforcement Bureau staff concerning possible consent decrees with the Commission to resolve this compliance issue,” Commission said. FCC said it was conducting inquiry into E911 technical issues and was creating quarterly reporting requirements. In signal of intense scrutiny that waiver requests have received, including from public safety community, each commissioner issued separate statement expressing disappointment at slow pace that E911 deployment in general has taken. FCC actions were unanimous, except for partial dissent by Comr. Copps on handset timelines imposed on Verizon and Nextel.