The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $20,000 fine for the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission for violations of the commission’s equal employment opportunity rules at six public television stations in the state, said a notice of apparent liability issued Thursday. The stations -- WMPB(TV) Baltimore, WCPB(TV) Salisbury, WFPT(TV) Frederick, WGPT(TV) Oakland, WWPB Hagerstown and WMPT Annapolis -- failed to notify job referral sources about vacancies, to assess their own EEO performance, and provided “incorrect factual information of a material nature to the Commission without a reasonable basis for believing that the information was correct and accurate,” said the NAL. Between June 2008 and May 2010, the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission filled 11 vacancies at stations, without notifying a broadcasting school that had requested notice of vacancies about the job openings, the NAL said. The commission requires licensees to provide information about vacancies to organizations that request them, said the NAL. MPBC told the FCC it hadn’t received any such requests, but in its public file listed CSB Broadcasting School as having requested that information. MPBC said the contact information for CSB had been misplaced during an employee change, said the NAL. A $20,000 NAL for EEO violations was also issued against AMFM Broadcasting Licenses, licensee of Illinois stations WNUA(FM) Chicago, WGCI Chicago, WKSC-FM Chicago, WGRB(AM) Chicago, WLIT-FM Chicago, and WVAZ(FM) Oak Park, said an NAL. Between August 2009 and July 2011, AMFM filled 36 vacancies without notifying several organizations that had requested the information.

Martha Wright and other supporters of inmate calling service changes oppose a CenturyLink request to stay the FCC’s prison phone order, they said in a filing Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1biRktT). CenturyLink asked for a stay pending judicial review, but the ICS provider is unlikely to be successful in court, said the filing, made by the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, the Policy Initiative, and the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice. “CenturyLink is simply wrong in concluding that third parties will not be harmed by the grant of the Petition,” the filing said. “The record in this proceeding overwhelmingly demonstrates significant and adverse effects are caused the unjust, unreasonable and unfair rates and fees charged by the ICS providers on a daily basis."

The FCC is “in the process of seeking PRA approval” for its special access data request, Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach told the Practising Law Institute telecom seminar Thursday, referring to the Paperwork Reduction Act review performed by the Office of Management and Budget. The bureau is also building the information technology necessary to manage the data collection, from an internal logistical perspective, she said: “How do we house all this stuff in an extremely secure environment” that still allows the FCC to analyze it, while also providing a “portal, or a clean room” for parties in the proceeding to participate “in a meaningful way"? The bureau is “looking at it both from an IT perspective and a policy perspective and a legal perspective” to ensure everything is done with “utmost care” and in a way to “ensure our APA values,” she said, referring to the Administrative Procedure Act. The bureau is also “working to develop an order for the commission’s consideration at the January meeting that will address the next steps for the commission as we move forward with tech transitions.” The bureau plans to submit a report by the end of January about the ongoing trial on direct access to numbers by VoIP providers. The bureau hopes to ensure that “numbers are administered as the finite resource that they are” while still looking toward a future where numbers aren’t necessarily linked to geographic areas, Veach said. The commission is also very concerned about rural call completion problems, she said. The bureau hopes that its recent orders, including banning fake ringing tones, will give the commission “a much better handle at what’s going on,” and enable it to take more targeted enforcement actions, she said.

NTIA is trying to “get to the bottom of what do people want, versus what they actually need,” on spectrum allocation, said Chief of Staff Angela Simpson at a Practising Law Institute telecom seminar Thursday. “It’s very difficult differentiating,” she said, especially when counsel is “sometimes advocating wants as needs.” NTIA is looking into what constitutes “effective” use of spectrum, said Simpson. The agency will meet with the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee next week to take the lessons CSMAC has learned on spectrum management and “turn them into a game plan,” she said. It’s “imperative that the government agencies and private sector continue to find innovative ways” to solve complex spectrum access issues, she said. Spectrum sharing needs to be a key tool, she said. As time goes by and more spectrum gets allocated, relocating spectrum users becomes more complicated, she said. Spectrum sharing is “not a pie in the sky proposition,” but is really possible now, said Simpson. NTIA is staying active in President Barack Obama’s ConnectED initiative, she said. The agency plans to work closely with the FCC, Department of Education and all other stakeholders to achieve Obama’s goal of connecting K-12 to high-speed circuits within the next 5 years, said Simpson. NTIA expects the lessons it learned from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program to play a role in this discussion, she said. BTOP projects connected 10 percent of U.S. schools to broadband, in a way that saved “significant amounts of money,” said Simpson. She said she hopes the FCC can use those lessons as it looks into E-rate overhauls. The multistakeholder process works, as can codes of conduct. NTIA plans to use such a process in consumer privacy issues, and NTIA will take the lessons it learned from 2013 and expand it to 2014, said Simpson. Facial recognition technology has the potential to significantly improve many services, but brings with it potential privacy concerns, she said. NTIA plans to explore the issue and see what progress it can make on those issues, she said. The agency plans multistakeholder discussions on facial recognition technologies, it said earlier this week (CD Dec 5 p11).

Huawei joined the HomeGrid Forum as a contributing member. The company will participate in working groups to define the future of the technology and to promote G.hn (Gigabit Home Networking) plastic optical fiber home networking technology through standards and interoperability and compliance work along with marketing and events, it said. It’s joining due to “the maturity of G.hn and growing demand for the home networking technology worldwide,” said Matthew Leung, head of Huawei’s home network key-tech research and development group. Huawei is focused on future business needs from the cloud to the terminal, with home network connectivity a main area of growth, he said. The China-based telecom gear maker won’t completely exit the U.S. market, it said earlier this week after media reports to the contrary (CD Dec 4 p15).

EAGLE-Net representatives are scheduled to appear before the Colorado Legislative Audit Committee Monday to provide an update on its “new joint venture,” a committee spokeswoman told us (http://bit.ly/18bOCs0). EAGLE-Net appeared before the committee in September to give an update on the network’s next steps following its audit (CD Sept 26 p16). At the September committee hearing, EAGLE-Net CEO Mike Ryan said EAGLE-Net was in negotiations to find a network operator. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., questioned EAGLE-Net’s choice of Affiniti as its operator in a letter to NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling (CD Nov 1 p8). Gardner asked NTIA to look at how Affiniti was formed as a merger between Trillion Partners and Sting Communications, how it plans to work with providers that have been overbuilt by fiber, Affiniti’s fiscal sustainability, and to provide detailed plans of where Affiniti plans to build to unserved and underserved areas in Colorado. EAGLE-Net released an RFP Wednesday seeking price quotes to build a 27.6 route-mile fiber network from Durango to Cascade Village (http://bit.ly/18FXdDK). Proposals are due to EAGLE-Net Dec. 23.

The FCC’s Connect America Fund has authorized more than $255 million in funding for broadband access to nearly 400,000 homes and businesses in rural areas of 41 states, said an FCC news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1kg3yp0). This brings the total authorized from the first phase of CAF to nearly $403 million, said the FCC. AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications and Windstream will use the funds in rural portions of their service areas, where broadband expansion was unlikely “absent support from the Connect America Fund,” it said. In August, the five carriers identified 563,767 locations where they wanted to use the funds to reach customers unserved by broadband, but the eligibility of some of those locations was challenged, said the FCC. “Access to modern broadband networks is essential in the information age,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Yet 15 million Americans live in areas where they can’t get wireline broadband no matter how much they want it. These funds will jump-start broadband access in areas that would otherwise be bypassed by the digital economy.” CenturyLink is receiving almost $40 million of the $54 million that the company announced that it would accept from CAF phase I, round 2 money earlier this year, said Steve Davis, the company’s executive vice president-public policy and government relations, in a statement. Frontier will receive approximately $58 million in funds for broadband expansion to 95,000 locations in 23 states over the next three years from Phase 1 support, said Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter in a statement: “We welcome the partnership with Chairman Wheeler and the FCC to carry out our shared goal of broadband expansion in rural America. The CAF funding allows Frontier to accelerate our already robust broadband build-out and network upgrade program. Today’s announcement allows us to continue to invest aggressively in 2014 in rural America."

Harris CapRock won a 10-year contract worth $46 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to continue supporting the Alaskan Satellite Telecommunications Infrastructure (ASTI). Harris CapRock will provide “a fully redundant satellite solution utilizing a two-satellite system to ensure dependable connectivity for voice and data,” Harris said in a press release (http://bit.ly/19jDF2q). The two-satellite system “achieves exceptionally high availability and reliability,” it said. The ASTI program supports the FAA’s air traffic control mission “between remote and hub facilities in Alaska and other remote locations,” Harris said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is drafting legislation to fight fraudulent robocalls, she said in a press release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/19hFsVY). “While some legitimate questions still exist around the technologies that would help prevent these scams, it’s clear that the industry does not intend to pursue such technologies or other solutions to quickly address the issue of fraudulent robocalls -- a problem that has plagued consumers for years,” she said in a statement. McCaskill has questioned USTelecom and CTIA on technologies that would help solve the problem but expressed disappointment at their responses. She discussed the concerns at a hearing on the issue earlier this year: “In the face of their inadequate approach, I will start drafting legislation to provide regulators with a robust set of tools to fight these fraudsters and start gaining back ground for American consumers against robocallers.” CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter shot back in a statement. “We understand Senator McCaskill’s desire to crack down on robocallers, but the assertion that the wireless industry isn’t doing enough to help is simply wrong,” Carpenter said. “The wireless industry has a long history of working with the FCC and FTC to investigate and stop fraudulent robocalls and we stand by our record in this area. As we pointed out both in testimony and our follow-up correspondence, wireless companies and other common carriers are prevented by law from picking and choosing which calls to deliver.” USTelecom is “disappointed” McCaskill has “chosen to ignore the in-depth analysis USTelecom provided her,” Senior Executive Vice President Alan Roth said. “We thoroughly analyzed the issues surrounding proposed technological solutions to the problem of identifying and mitigating illegal robocalls. Our response clearly demonstrated that the services marketed thus far pose various technical, legal, and public policy problems.” Industry is working to solve the problem in various ways, he said.

The FCC’s pending media ownership proceedings don’t prevent it from intervening in Sinclair’s proposed buy of New Age Media’s TV stations, said the American Cable Association in comments filed Wednesday (bit.ly/1cbE2gy). Sinclair and other companies have argued that ACA and public interest objections to mergers raise issues that should be hashed out in larger rulemakings rather than in individual transactions (CD Oct 28 p15), but ACA said that’s not the case. “It is well established that the Commission may choose to proceed either by adjudication or rulemaking and need not tackle all instances of a problem associated with particular behavior at one time, but may choose to proceed in a deliberative fashion,” said ACA. Sinclair’s proposed deal, which includes sharing agreements with Cunningham Broadcasting in two Florida markets where Sinclair already owns stations, should be considered by the full commission because it raises “novel” issues, ACA said. The lack of “specific findings” allowing contracts that let stations coordinate retransmission consent negotiation “precisely speaks to the novelty of the issue in this transaction,” said ACA. However, ACA said it doesn’t object to sharing arrangements in general. ACA is challenging only portions of the sharing agreements that show “the contemplated posttransaction behavior of the Applicants in colluding in the sale of their retransmission consent,” said ACA. “The Applicants designed the transaction to attempt to cynically observe the letter of the Commission’s rule,” ACA said.