Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

FCC Chmn. Powell emphasized to members of Congress Tues. that he didn’t plan to delay the June 2 completion of the FCC’s media ownership review. He used a 3-page letter to reply to nearly a month’s worth of letters from Capitol Hill -- some of which asked Powell to expedite the proceedings while others sought a delay.

The Parents TV Council (PTC) is urging parents to sign a complaint it’s sending to the FCC, saying its $27,500 fine against Infinity Bcstg. for an indecent broadcast on WKRK(FM) Detroit was nothing more than a slap on the wrist. “Broadcasters keep putting totally disgusting obscenity on the airwaves and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does nothing!” PTC said in an alert sent to its members. The group is demanding tougher enforcement. PTC said the fine was “pocket change to Infinity, which has coughed up over $1.5 million in previous indecency fines -- not surprising, since Infinity is the radio home of the vile Howard Stern program.” A lawyer for Infinity said the company would have a response in a few weeks.

The American Cable Assn. (ACA) is afraid the merger between News Corp. and DirecTV will give the new company too much power over small cable operators that compete with satellite. ACA Pres. Matthew Polka asked for strict federal oversight of the deal. “Given the enormous vertical integration of Fox/News Corp. and DirecTV, the Federal Communications Commission, Congress and the Department of Justice must be actively involved to ensure that this vertical integration is not abused in any way,” he said. The ACA said federal agencies should focus on retransmission consent practices, consumer information about programming costs and possibilities of tiering and a la carte pricing, tying and bundling practices, ensuring regulatory parity between cable and satellite and extending program access laws and regulations to prevent self-dealing. Polka said News Corp. in the past had used tying and bundling of its services and had raised its rates in excess of inflation. The ACA asked the FCC to investigate the company’s retransmission consent practices, report them to Congress and provide protection through access regulations, retransmission consent regulations and other means.

The FCC’s handling of the recent UNE decision may require Congress to step in and force the agency to follow more standardized operational procedures, Rep. Bachus (R- Ala.) said in a floor statement. The Commission causes “needless regulatory uncertainty” by issuing orders that go back and forth to the courts, he said. The agency was close to meeting the U.S. Appeals Court’s remand on UNEs when 3 commissioners “at the last minute decided to break away,” adding to that problem, Bachus said. Saying that the new plan would spread decisionmaking to regulators in every state, Bachus said “the only winners of this particular approach are likely to be the members of the Federal Communications Bar Assn.” He suggested that Congress might have to address this problem “in connection with proposals to reform the overall FCC process and to require the agency to follow standard quasi-judicial rules and procedures -- not individual Commissioners’ latest whimsy or caprice.”

State legislatures this year have taken up many bills that will affect state commission operations, administration and jurisdiction, ranging from agency restructuring and public campaign financing to universal service and consumer advocacy, including proposals to turn the Cal. PUC and Utah PSC from appointed to elected bodies, restructure the Ark. PSC and reform the commissioner selection process in S.C.

The FCC plans to begin “systematically” evaluating scientific findings on the impact of communications towers on migratory birds, but that doesn’t necessarily mean rule changes are on the way, said Bryan Tramont, senior legal adviser to FCC Chmn. Powell. Speaking at a Wed. PCIA seminar, he said the Commission “in the near future” would seek input on scientific evidence, but: “We believe it would be premature to jump into something at the moment that would drastically change the regime because we just don’t think there’s enough information out there.” In related areas, Tramont said the FCC was nearing release for public comment of a nationwide agreement on streamlining tower siting decisions, and might hire a staff biologist to examine communications issues.

Many state public utility commissions (PUCs) have been reluctant to support the United Church of Christ (UCC) in its effort “to ensure corporate character among telecom companies who have licenses to operate on behalf of the public interest,” Rev. Robert Chase, dir. of the UCC Office of Communication, said in an interview: “We have one legislator so far who has written a letter in support of this effort -- Congressman [Richard] Burr (Rep.-N.C.),” who also is a vice chmn. of the House Commerce Committee. “We are looking for Sen. [Joseph] Lieberman [D-Conn.] and Congressman Dennis Kucinich [D-Ohio] to do likewise,” Chase said. He visited Washington Tues. and Wed. to meet with lawmakers and others to encourage them to join the UCC and pressure the FCC to conduct an industrywide investigation and, based on its results, open a rulemaking to prevent financial fraud. Chase expressed concerns about “egregious” behavior by WorldCom and others in the telecom industry: “Our effort is to get the FCC to take action on behalf of the public, which is now being faced with $11 billion in fraudulent misstatements. How many more billions do we need to go before the regulatory bodies are going to step up and say ‘enough'? It’s time that we put policies in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” He said groups such as Urban Link, Rainbow Push, the National Council of Churches, the Communications Workers of America and others had filed letters with the FCC supporting the effort: “We are looking to extend that group of supporters.” Chase said the UCC was planning to act on both the federal and the state level (CD March 13 p10). He said he had received responses from a dozen state PUCs, including Fla., N.J., Pa. and S.C. “In many cases their initial response is to say that this lies outside our purview,” he said. However, he said D.C. PUC Comr. Anthony Rachal was “more than supportive to the point that he initiated our meeting.”

Expressing frustration at the FCC’s pace of developing solutions to problems facing the universal service program, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R- Mont.) said he would like to see a summit involving members of Congress, the FCC and the Federal-State Board on Universal Service. “This horse [the FCC] isn’t going to run any faster unless we put the spurs on,” Burns told reporters after a hearing Wed. on universal service. He said such a summit would help members determine whether legislation was needed in any areas and, if so, whether Congress could begin work on a bill this year.

FCC legal advisers said Wed. they were aware of concerns by rural ILECs that universal service money was shrinking while requests for it were growing with the arrival of competitive carriers in rural areas. But they also told members of the National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) that those were very difficult problems to solve because the Telecom Act encouraged competition as well as universal service. The advisers told NTCA that numerous universal service issues were teed up at the Commission, including what services should be funded and how the support money should be raised, and they wouldn’t be easy to solve. NTCA members were in town for their annual Legislative & Policy Conference.

The FCC is set to open a broad inquiry at today’s (Thurs.’s) agenda meeting on receiver performance requirements, ranging from TV receivers to more traditional wireless handsets. Among the key questions expected is the Commission’s statutory authority in that area and incentive- based ways to make such specifications work, a source said. The agency’s Spectrum Policy Task Force included in its wide range of policy recommendations last fall minimum receiver performance requirements. Today’s agenda item has drawn particular attention because it specifically cites DTV receivers as part of a broader inquiry.