Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Tues. vacated much of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order, including the FCC’s decision to delegate UNE review decisions to state commissions. The court cut a broad swath through the portion of the FCC’s order dealing with the elements that make up the UNE platform, and left the other half, the broadband deregulation portion, unscathed. Shortly after release of the court decision, the FCC said it planned to seek a stay of the court’s order and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The announcement came from Comrs. Copps, Martin and Adelstein, who made up the majority in the split decision last year. NARUC said it “expects to seek review” as well.

Comcast finds itself in the unusual position of fighting for the little guy on phone issues. Comcast Phone, a division of cable giant Comcast that provides traditional circuit-switched telephony, complained about some ILEC practices in a recent FCC filing. The letter was filed in response to BellSouth’s request for a declaratory ruling that state commissions not be allowed to require BellSouth to provide wholesale or retail broadband services to consumers who get voice services from CLECs when those accounts use unbundled network elements (UNEs).

FCC Chmn. Powell expressed optimism Mon. technology could address the challenges of providing Enhanced 911 services on broadband networks offering VoIP applications. “We do have that rare opportunity to join hands and develop the solutions early, before our citizens and our consumers are using these services in overwhelming numbers,” he told a National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) forum in Washington.

Giving VoIP a “new voice in Washington and in states,” several VoIP providers led by the VON Coalition officially announced a group to encourage a public policy that refrains from applying traditional telecom regulation to Internet voice communications. The group, called The Voice Over Internet Coalition, includes AT&T, Callipso, Convedia, iBasis, Intel, Intrado, ITXC, MCI, PointOne and Texas Instruments. The group, which has unofficially operated a few weeks (CD Dec 10 p4), announced new members and expanded principles Mon.

A panel of federal judges indicated annoyance with both sides of a payphone regulation dispute Fri., leading attorneys in the audience to speculate the court would uphold the FCC on the disputed rules. “I expect the court to say a pox on both your houses,” said lawyer after the 90 min. oral argument before the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. Although the case -- Communications Vending Corp. v. FCC -- challenged the FCC’s Nov. 2002 payphone rules, the real dispute was between LECs and independent payphone providers (IPPs). It centered on a long-standing debate over whether LECs can impose access charges on independent payphone providers (IPPs).

Wireless firms and historic preservation officials failed to reach a compromise by an FCC target date on outstanding issues connected to a tower siting pact, according to a filing Thurs. at the agency. The Commission planned to have the national program agreement (NPA) ready for its Feb. agenda meeting, but last month gave participants until Feb. 19 to work out issues in time for the March meeting. “It appears in some important ways ground has been lost since then,” said the filing by the wireless coalition.

Sen. Lugar (R-Ind.) wrote FCC Chmn. Powell to urge the FCC to more quickly develop broadband policy that will encourage investment. Lugar said Ind. telecom companies were ready to deploy new technology but hesitant because of a uncertainty about federal regulations. Lugar said universal deployment of broadband in Ind. would raise the state’s gross economic product by 8%. “I am concerned that the Federal Communications Commission may not be moving quickly enough in issuing workable rules for telephone companies to provide broadband services,” Lugar wrote. In the Feb. 13 letter, Lugar cited the positions of both the National Assn. of Mfrs. and the High Tech Broadband Coalition, which both support “minimal regulations” on broadband services, which Lugar said are already “highly competitive.”

FCC opted to retain existing emission limits as it proposed changes Thurs. in its Part 15 rules to foster broadband over power line (BPL) deployment. The nascent BPL industry welcomed the Commission’s proposals as a step toward lending regulatory certainty for investment and rapid deployment. While Chmn. Powell and 3 other commissioners expressed hope the proposed changes would balance the benefits of broadband deployment with the need to protect against harmful interference, Comr. Copps dissented in part for its failure to deal with policy issues.

Taking its first step into the murky issue of how to treat IP services for regulatory purposes, the FCC ruled Thurs. that an IP-based service offered by Pulver.com was a generally unregulated information service subject to federal jurisdiction. FCC commissioners and staff said the Pulver decision was a start in providing regulatory clarity for IP- based services.

In its triennial report to Congress on entry barriers for entrepreneurs and small businesses, the FCC outlined 5 legislative proposals: (1) Create a new tax incentive program benefiting small businesses. (2) Establish a spectrum relocation fund for federal incumbents. (3) Clarify the FCC’s authority to conduct innovative spectrum auction designs and to ease the relocation of incumbent licensees. (4) Expand Commission authority to authorize operation of radio stations without individual station licenses. (5) Amend the Telecom Act to address potentially anticompetitive pricing practices used by incumbent cable operators that might impede market entry by competitors. The report also outlined each bureau’s work toward the goal of easing barriers. For example, the Media Bureau has developed procedures to allow small businesses to acquire existing radio and TV stations from other combinations that exceeded the new media ownership limits. The bureau also relaxed initial DTV build-out requirements for smaller-market broadcasters in view of financial concerns, the report said. The Wireless Bureau adopted rules to implement a framework for the development of secondary markets in spectrum usage rights. Comr. Copps dissented from the Commission’s 2003 Small Business Report, calling it a “slapdash catalog of miscellaneous Commission actions” rather than a serious effort to improve the communications climate for small business. He also said the Commission failed to address the challenges faced by small businesses as telecom consumers.” Comr. Martin, who approved in part and concurred in part, said that although the legislative proposals might have merit, he reserved judgment on them because the commissioners “were provided with only limited time to consider” them. Comr. Adelstein, who approved in part and dissented in part, said he supported most of the report but disagreed with suggestions that the Commission’s new broadcast ownership rules would promote diversity of media voices or eliminate entry barriers for newcomers. “Entrepreneurs and small businesses, as well as the general public, are in no way better served by slashing media ownership protections,” he said.