Adam Bender

Reform is needed of a $3.3 billion federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program, witnesses told a Thursday House Science Committee hearing. Witnesses endorsed August 2007 recommendations by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. “Networking and information technology is an essential component of U.S. scientific, industrial, and military competitiveness,” said Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn. NITRD has been “largely a success,” but the PCAST analysis must “be seriously considered and then addressed, as appropriate, through legislative adjustments to the NITRD authorizing statute.” Thursday’s hearing was a “first step” in a longer process the committee plans to conclude next year, he said.

Regulators should “repivot” discussion on broadband availability to adoption from access, said Alec Ross, executive vice president for external affairs of One Economy, speaking at an Alliance for Public Technology event in the Capitol. One Economy is a nonprofit supported by technology companies, public advocacy groups and political leaders. The U.S. has done a “good job” connecting homes with broadband but has work to do getting people to buy it, Ross said. Last year was an “incredibly bad year” for adoption in households with incomes under $25,000, he said, citing Pew Research data showing low-income homes with broadband down to 25 percent from 28. That’s the first time the figure has declined, he said. About 40 percent of people who don’t get broadband say they're “not interested” or “think it’s a waste of time,” he said. Culture and comfort level are the big reasons people stay away, he said. For example, some don’t want broadband for fear of identity theft and desire for privacy, he said. The U.S. risks becoming a country of broadband haves and have-nots, agreed Alliance President Kenneth Peres. It needs a national broadband policy to expand availability, he said. Rep. Eldophus Towns, D-N.Y., was to speak but didn’t. Towns believes broadband is “essential,” and supports government incentives for investment in high-speed networks, said Julie Rones, his deputy chief of staff.

Companies and agencies should tighten security policies related to telecommuting, the Center for Democracy & Technology said Tuesday. Ernst & Young co-authored the report, which lists best practices for securing data when working from home. Telecommuting puts sensitive corporate data at risk, the center said. By 2012, more than 46 million people around the world will work from home at least one day a week, it said. “In a lot of cases those risks can be addressed if companies would simply put more emphasis on the procedures and policies they already have in place,” said Ari Schwartz, the center’s vice president.

Qwest may refile for forbearance in Phoenix, industry and analyst sources said. On Friday, the FCC denied Qwest’s petition for unbundling rules relief in the Phoenix, Denver, Seattle and Minneapolis metropolitan statistical areas (CD Special Bulletin July 26). “I wouldn’t be surprised if Qwest refiles for large chunks of Phoenix where the competitive case is the strongest,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Kaut. Qwest faces competition from Cox there. Integra Telecom, a competitive local exchange carrier that opposed Qwest forbearance, is “steel[ing]” itself for a sequel in Phoenix, Russ Merberth, Integra assistant general counsel, said in an interview. Courts and the FCC don’t discourage “slicing and dicing” a petition to refile it for a smaller area, he said. CLECs praised the order, but it creates troubling precedents regarding the FCC’s approach to forbearance cases, Merberth said. The FCC discounted cut- the-cord wireless competition but left the door open to considering it in future cases, he said. The commission rejected wireless substitution only because the record was short on evidence, he said. Integra and other CLECs are pushing the FCC and Congress to change forbearance practices. Qwest is studying the order and weighing options, said a spokesman.

AT&T will give the FCC usable accounting data at the agency’s request once an order granting the Bell forbearance on cost-assignment rules takes effect, it said. A compliance plan AT&T filed Thursday specifies what it will do. In April, the FCC conditioned forbearance on Wireline Bureau approval of the plan (CD April 28 p5). AT&T will maintain Uniform System of Accounts books “for all of its regulated operating telephone companies,” including “account-specific investment, expense and revenue data,” the carrier said. AT&T will maintain the most recent calendar year’s Cost Allocation Manual audit-based cost allocation ratios, it said. “These allocation ratios, determined from studies and other processes … would be immediately available in the event the [FCC] were in the future to request accounting cost data allocated by those ratios,” it said. But if the agency asks for them, “AT&T reserves the right to update the ratios to take into account changes that have taken place” since the plan’s filing that “have rendered the ratios significantly less reliable,” it said. If the FCC needs data based on factors other than allocation ratios, “AT&T can perform special cost studies to determine those factors,” it said. AT&T will keep documentation of existing methods and procedures for cost allocation, and backup media copies of electronic systems, spreadsheets and other software used for cost assignment, it said. The carrier will keep documentation on how to record affiliate transactions. AT&T doesn’t expect a long transition for the changes, it said. “A significant portion … will take place immediately, though some impacts and processes may take somewhat longer to implement fully,” it said. “The procedures that AT&T proposes to ensure continued compliance with Section 272(e)(3), the Section 272 Sunset Order, and Section 254(k) are already in place,” while providing phone exchange service and access to AT&T ILECs and affiliates “have not historically relied upon allocated accounting cost data,” it said. CompTel, which opposed forbearance, is reviewing the filing, a spokeswoman said. The competitive carriers group hopes “that the [FCC] seeks comments on the plan prior to taking action on it.” A Sprint Nextel spokesman agreed. “Given the importance and unprecedented nature of an FCC bureau approving a new regulatory structure for a dominant carrier, we believe that the FCC should seek and consider input on the plan from AT&T’s competitors, its customers and the general public.”

A revised WCS Coalition proposal would allow wireless and satellite services to coexist in the 2.3 GHz spectrum band, the group said. In a Tuesday letter to the FCC, the coalition said it wants to ensure “viable” operation of wireless mobile broadband, so no action in the XM-Sirius merger or related enforcement proceeding “inadvertently permits the operation of terrestrial [satellite digital audio radio service] repeaters in a manner that causes undue interference to” wireless. The WCS Coalition has spent more than a decade fighting XM and Sirius over interference-protection rules (CD May 28 p12). WCS wants the maximum power level at which terrestrial SDARS repeaters can operate cut to that for wireless base stations. But the body is open to a “compromise” letting XM and Sirius run existing terrestrial repeaters if they remain “subject to the current absolute obligation to cure interference that might occur in the future to WCS operations,” it said. New and modified repeaters would have to obey WCS base station power limits, it said. The revisions would cut from 2 watts to 250 milliwatts the maximum permissible power level for battery- operated devices “taking advantage of the less restrictive” out-of-band emission limits, the coalition said. Devices would need transmit power control mechanisms that “generally reduce” power levels below 250 milliwatts, it said. “The net result is to provide even greater assurance that WCS mobile devices will operate at power levels that do not pose a threat of substantial interference to SDARS receivers,” it said.

Industry and think tank officials argued about U.S. broadband rankings at a Monday FCC en banc hearing in Pittsburgh. Debating how bad off the U.S. is shows “how behind we are,” said Commissioner Michael Copps. Meanwhile, AT&T and other panelists endorsed FCC action against network neutrality violators.

Many Phoenix households cut the cord and now use wireless phone service only, Qwest said. In an ex parte late Monday, Qwest filed a confidential Nielsen Mobile study that the Bell said showed high cut-the-cord levels as of March 31. Qwest seeks relief from loop and transport unbundling rules in Phoenix, Denver, Seattle and Minneapolis. The FCC didn’t count cut-the-cord wireless subscribers in a circulating draft order that would reject forbearance (CD July 17 p1). Commissioners must vote by Saturday under a statutory deadline, or the petition is deemed granted. Phoenix is seen as the most contested area in the forbearance request. The Nielsen study is flawed, and Qwest filed a report from the same author 15 months ago, said a spokesman for XO Communications. Telephia wrote the original study, but Nielsen bought the firm last year, he said. “Telephia’s 2-page study was unreliable -- lacking data on a meaningful methodology or any means to conduct an analysis of Telephia’s findings,” he said. “The same shortcomings apply to the new information.” XO also condemned the lateness of Qwest’s filing. “Qwest’s 11th-hour ex parte underscores the flaws in a forbearance process that permits petitioners to make late filings that prevent due process by opponents,” the spokesman said. The new study is different than the Telephia report, Steve Davis, Qwest public policy senior vice president, said in an interview. The filing marks the first time Qwest has obtained and filed with the FCC market-specific data on cut- the-cord subscribers, Davis said. Qwest previously only filed national data, because that’s all the FCC wanted in previous forbearance cases, he said. Qwest filed the study so late in the game because it was unaware the FCC wanted market-specific data until recently, he said. Qwest obtained and filed the study as “promptly as [it] could,” said Davis.

Broadband providers sounded alarms over an FCC proposal to create a national broadband mapping program. In comments last week, phone carriers and cable operators expressed concerns about costs and confidentiality. Wireless and satellite providers argued that they should escape any data filing requirements. But the FCC proposals -- made last month in a further notice attached to an order on broadband data collection - received strong support from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers & Advisors and the American Library Association.

A federal appeals court won’t stay an FCC order blocking Verizon from marketing to departing customers. Ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit said only that Verizon didn’t satisfy “the stringent standards required for a stay pending court review.” But the court denied an FCC motion to strike the case, granting Verizon expedited consideration of its petition for review. Judges Judith Rogers and Merrick Garland supported denying the stay, with Judge Douglas Ginsburg dissenting.