In light of sweeping 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, ruling that municipalities had “very limited and proscribed” role in regulating telecom services (CD May 1 p7), Portland, Ore., is abandoning efforts to address issue of imposing franchise fees for cable modem services, city official said. Court had invalidated telecom ordinances of Auburn and more than dozen other Wash. cities on ground that federal law allowed “control over rights-of- way itself, not control over companies with facilities on rights- of-way.” City in Feb. had released draft telecom ordinance (CD Feb 7 p7) designed in part to stem loss of potential revenue from cable modem franchise fee following earlier 9th Circuit decision classifying cable-delivered Internet as telecom service. That was in response to incumbent cable provider AT&T’s insistence that it didn’t require telecom franchise for its high-speed Internet service in view of court ruling. Official said court in latest decision had held that federal law preempted requirements for fees unrelated to local cost of managing public rights-of-way, although city’s franchise process managed other aspects of how companies used rights-of-way. Cities are left in new world of telecom convergence without much guidance from federal law, he said, and although Portland “strongly disagreed” with court’s interpretation of federal law it didn’t want to get into costly litigation. “I imagine that cities in the 9th Circuit jurisdiction will give pause to proposals for new telecom regulations or laws,” official said.
ReplayTV signed long-term licensing agreement with Motorola to integrate former’s personal video recording (PVR) technology into Motorola’s digital cable set-top boxes, starting in fall. Under agreement, companies said, ReplayTV will be “a primary provider of core PVR software” for Motorola’s new advanced digital boxes, permitting cable subscribers to pause, rewind, fast-forward and record even live TV shows on their set-tops. Terms weren’t announced.
White House announced Fri. it intended to nominate 3 Washington insiders as FCC Commissioners: (1) Kevin Martin, FCC transition leader for President Bush and former aide to FCC Comr. Furchtgott-Roth. (2) Kathleen Abernathy, vp of startup network provider Broadband Office Communications, who is former U S West regulatory vp and one-time adviser to ex-FCC Comr. James Quello. (3) Mike Copps, who worked for Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.) for 15 years before leaving Hill in 1980s to work in private industry and finally Commerce Dept. in international trade area. Formal nomination won’t happen for several weeks while paperwork is prepared and security clearances completed. After that comes Senate confirmation process.
WideOpenWest signed deal with DemandVideo to offer latter’s video-on-demand (VoD) service in markets where it’s building competitive cable systems. Using DemandVideo’s VoD technology and service, WideOpenWest said it would offer subscribers choice of recent Hollywood movies, classic films, children’s and family programming and instructional shows. Customers will have 24 hours of unlimited viewing of any title they select and will be able to pause, play, rewind, fast-forward or restart titles. Cable overbuilder announced deal Wed., day after concluding 3-year pact with Source Media to use latter’s interactive program guide and local programming service. WideOpenWest said it planned to start offering 2 services first in Denver area in March.