FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski urged staff to collaborate and not be afraid to make mistakes as they get to work on the national broadband plan. He held an all-hands meeting Wednesday to introduce new staffers on the broadband team (CD Aug 5 p12) and kick off broadband workshops starting Thursday. “From this point forward, there really is no letting up,” he said.
Midsized and competitive wireline companies, in comments filed Monday, resisted broadening the number ports covered by a time limit of one business day. Big voice providers asked the FCC to apply the newly shortened deadline in additional situations. And MetroPCS called a day too long. In May, the FCC shortened to one business day the interval for “simple” wireline and intermodal number ports (CD May 15 p4). The commission also opened a rulemaking asking about ways to improve the requirement, including whether it should apply to more than simple ports.
Broadband providers played tug-of-war with states and public interest groups in comments last week on how the FCC should release combined broadband data based on Form 477 submissions while maintaining confidentiality. Companies asked the commission to protect their deployment and speed information strongly. But others asked the FCC to share as much information as possible with the state bodies and others involved in broadband mapping eligible to see it. The Broadband Data Improvement Act requires the commission to provide aggregated data by census tract.
A proposed government initiative to widely deploy HD voice technology would be a boon to device manufacturers, said analysts and industry executives in interviews. But while Web-based VoIP providers and big network operators are eying HD voice, some smaller service providers doubt the unproven technology is worth the effort. And Washington may have other priorities.
The FCC plans to name Sharon Gillett chief of the Wireline Bureau, a commission official told us Thursday. She couldn’t be reached, because she had a personal emergency. Gillett has been coordinating Massachusetts broadband stimulus efforts as the executive director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. She used to run the state’s Department of Telecom & Cable. Gillett has supported detailed broadband mapping, as well as tweaking the way the FCC deals with forbearance petitions. At the CompTel show, Gillett said it would be “fantastic” if the FCC involved states earlier in forbearance proceedings (CD March 5 p3)
Fighting over whether there’s a need for new FCC broadband regulation raged on in reply comments this week on the commission’s development of a national broadband plan. The argument pits big broadband providers and conservative think tanks against Internet companies and public interest groups, and it highlights continuing tension over proposed net neutrality regulation. It’s unclear whether the full commission or just the chairman’s office will write the final report, FCC officials said Wednesday.
Chairman Julius Genachowski invited a few outside organizations to the FCC for what he called a “meet and greet” this week. The first meeting, held Monday, involved consumer groups and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, NTCA Communications Director Wendy Mann said Tuesday. Genachowski called the session the first of several meetings planned to seek groups’ ideas for the new commission, she said. Genachowski and eight of his aides took part in the invitation-only meeting, she said. The chairman emphasized his desire to make a difference in the lives of “ordinary Americans” and hold more-open discussion with organizations, Mann said. NTCA Industry Affairs Director Scott Reiter asked Genachowski to keep rural consumers’ needs in mind, she said. The association probably will discuss more-specific telecom issues when it meets on its own with Genachowski and his staff, she said. The chairman isn’t expected to hold many get-acquainted visits with industry for several weeks, especially since he’s still putting together leadership teams throughout the agency, commission officials said Tuesday.
The compensation rate for video relay service would be $5.03 a minute on average if the FCC decides to refigure the charges for the interstate telecom relay service fund’s 2009- 2010 year, the National Exchange Carrier said. The projection is based on cost information from VRS providers, it said. Excluding the VRS provider’s data, the average rate would be $5.59. The figures are “substantially less” than current VRS reimbursement rates, lawyer David O'Connor said. The current rate has three tiers. Companies get about $6.74 for the first 50,000 minutes, $6.47 for minutes 50,001 to 500,000, and $6.27 for minutes beyond that. Sorenson, the biggest U.S. VRS provider, has threatened legal action if the FCC changes the rate (CD July 13 p5). The commission now is using a three-year interim rate plan set by the National Exchange Carrier Association in 2007.
People sending ideas to the FCC on its national broadband plan must do better to submit realistic and workable suggestions, Blair Levin, coordinator of the commission’s plan, said Monday at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference. The FCC has limited time and a limited budget, so it needs people’s “best ideas” quickly and clearly, he said. But many commenters don’t seem to recognize there are limits and that the plan must include tradeoffs, he said.
An appeals court upheld two FCC orders granting incumbent phone companies forbearance from dominant-carrier requirements applying to the special-access market. In an order Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an effort by competitive carriers and business users of special-access services to throw out 2007 FCC decisions that partly deregulated AT&T, Embarq and Frontier. But the court left the door open for future price regulation, saying the commission has the power to tweak its rules in its special-access rulemaking