The U.S. solicitor general supported a strict standard for deciding whether a telecom company’s entry into a market has been blocked by local or state laws. Filing an amicus brief Thursday at the Supreme Court, the solicitor general’s office asked the high court not to review two appeals court decisions that rejected a vaguer standard, under which telecom companies could get relief from local laws by showing they “may” prevent a company from providing service.
The FCC may substantially reform the forbearance process as soon as this summer, said agency and industry officials. An order, rather than a further notice of proposed rulemaking, seems likely, they said. It appears all three commissioners are on board to do reform, and they have support from House Democrats, industry sources said.
An FCC report on rural broadband prescribes government intervention to spur availability and demand. The report, released publicly on Wednesday, was required by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill and did not require sign off by all commissioners. Instead, writing in the first-person, acting Chairman Michael Copps highlighted common problems affecting rural broadband, including technological challenges, lack of data and high network costs. Copps also urged a revamp of the Universal Service Fund, new rules on network openness and an audit of all spectrum that the FCC has licensed, with an eye on where it is being used effectively or could see more use on a secondary basis.
The FCC sent its rural broadband report to Congress Friday and will make it public Wednesday, an FCC spokesman said. Congress required the commission to do the report in the 2008 Farm Bill. The NTIA and the RUS are expected to give weight to the FCC’s recommendations as they develop their broadband-stimulus programs (CD March 27 p1).
Public safety network interoperability is “an issue that we just have to solve, and we have to solve it quickly,” said Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano. She spoke Thursday at the 2009 meeting of the president’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Meanwhile, NSTAC approved reports on cybersecurity and identity management, and received an update on an upcoming report on satellites.
Relay provider Purple Communications may be violating the FCC’s interoperability mandates and national Do-Not-Call rules, said Sorenson Communications. In a letter to the FCC Disability Rights Office, Sorenson urged the commission to force Purple to explain. If Purple can’t show it’s complying with the rules, “the FCC should take appropriate action,” Sorenson said. Calls to Sorenson over Purple mobile-video- phone equipment are frequently dropped, the company said. Sorenson said it notified Purple about the problem April 8, but has received no response, even after two follow-up e- mails. Purple also has failed to answer Sorenson concerns about the lawfulness of a Purple offer to register and remove users’ phone numbers from the Do-Not-Call list, it said. “Sorenson allegations on interoperability are unsubstantiated,” replied Kelby Brick, regulatory vice president for Purple. “I and others in the company have personally tested the MVP interoperability with Sorenson’s services and have not experienced any connection problems.” The equipment has “gone through intensive interoperability testing,” including by Sorenson engineers, he said. “The letter seems to be an attempt … to distract the commission from well-documented complaints against Sorenson and their monopolistic and illegal practices,” he said. “It is ironic to see Sorenson claim the ethical high ground when they have refused the commission’s attempts to audit them.”
The FCC will soon tackle an overhaul of the forbearance process, acting Chairman Michael Copps told reporters at its meeting Wednesday. “I hope to be circulating something to my colleagues very soon to make this a better process than it currently is.” Verizon Tuesday withdrew forbearance petitions seeking unbundling relief in the Rhode Island and Virginia Beach, Va., markets (CD May 13 p6). Meanwhile, competitive local exchange carriers are asking the FCC to ignore Verizon’s request to withdraw.
The FCC Wednesday adopted 3-0 an order shortening to one business day the interval for simple wireline and intermodal number ports. But the change won’t take place immediately.
An FCC rule requiring equipment portability among video relay service providers “only creates unnecessary costs to providers,” said the National Association of the Deaf and six other consumer groups. In comments Monday, they endorsed a petition by Sprint Nextel, CSDVRS, Viable and Snap Telecom to kill the porting requirement. It was in the FCC’s June order on adopting 10-digit phone numbers for Internet-based telecom relay service. Relay provider American Network disagreed, saying the market will eventually work out the porting requirement’s kinks.
An FCC notice of inquiry about universal service high- cost support for non-rural carriers spurred old arguments for a USF overhaul, in comments at the commission last week. But the notice, which asks how the FCC should respond to a 2005 remand by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD April 9 p4), may address too narrow an issue to result in comprehensive reform, industry officials said. In 2005, the court called unlawful the FCC’s current non-rural rules, which address carriers like Qwest that serve high-cost areas with too many lines to be considered “rural” by the statutory definition.