House Telecom Subcommittee Democrats still were sorting out changes in their jurisdiction with Republicans’ decision to split consumer protection and telecom (CD Jan 12 p1), but they seemed not displeased when contacted Fri. “It’s a major change,” Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) told us of GOP’s action. “We've always had consumer protection within the Telecom Subcommittee.” He wouldn’t discuss which subcommittee he would gravitate toward, but conceded that he would be watching moves of Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.) carefully. Markey’s staff didn’t return calls by our deadline. If he leaves Telecom Subcommittee to be ranking Democrat on full Resources Committee, or if he chooses Consumer Protection panel, Boucher would be next in line for Telecom. If Markey stays, Boucher could be candidate to take ranking slot on Consumer Protection. “Markey’s always been interested in consumer protection issues,” one lobbyist said, and heads Congressional Privacy Caucus. Boucher said that even if he and other leaders on privacy chose Telecom panel, they would remain interested in privacy and still could be driving forces on privacy legislation. Democrats probably won’t organize their membership until later this month, perhaps as late as week of Jan. 30, Boucher said.

FCC Chmn. Kennard made it official Fri.: He’s leaving Commission Jan. 19 “with great pride in the accomplishments of the Commission” and “deep gratitude” for opportunity to serve, he said in resignation letter sent to President Clinton Fri. Kennard said that for “next few months” he will be senior fellow of Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program in Washington. He also will be first chairman of program’s new advisory board. However, his immediate plans are to “get some rest and spend some time with my 10-month-old,” he told reporters after news conference on AOL-Time Warner vote. He said he hadn’t decided what he would do after Aspen Institute. Asked if he wanted to stay in telecom policy, he responded: “Sure, I love it.” Asked to name his top 3 accomplishments, he listed (1) implementation of Telecom Act, (2) e-rate, (3) expanding telecom service to disabled community, native Americans, small and minority businesses. Ex- FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt said Kennard “has done more to include minorities and disadvantaged groups in the communications revolution than all previous FCC chairs combined.” NARUC Gen. Counsel Brad Ramsay said he “will hate to see him go” because Kennard made effort to include state regulators in development of issues. “He always made time to come to NARUC and discuss things one-on-one,” he said. Announcement of new chairman isn’t expected until after President-elect George Bush is sworn in Jan. 20.

“Avoiding a Pearl Harbor in space” and deterring adversaries were among priorities Space Commission identified in report it released Jan. 11 in Washington. “The number of pagers and cellphones in this room speak to the importance” of protecting satellites, Adm. David Jeremiah (USN-Ret.) said at hearing. Gen. Ronald Fogelman (USAF-Ret.), who is commission member, said report outlining vulnerabilities of satellites including communications satellites was “nothing new.” William Graham, chmn. of National Security Research, said “any deliberate attack could produce similar or worse results” than near-total loss of communications for hours or days, as has happened in accidental failures. Robert Davis, pres. of R.V. Davis & Assoc., said commercial use of global positioning system (GPS) highlighted need to solve structural problems with Defense Dept. Among recommendations, commission members cited establishing Space Corps or new branch of military devoted to space. Gen. Howell Estes (USAF-Ret.) said if critical satellite had stopped transmitting when he led space command, “I wouldn’t have had a clue” what was wrong.

Citing weakness in fixed wireless industry, equipment manufacturers Adaptive Broadband and Western Multiplex called off planned merger Thurs. “From a stock market point of view, fixed wireless specifically and telecommunications stocks in general, have really taken a beating, making it very difficult to put a monetary valuation on this transaction at this time,” said Adaptive Broadband Pres. Daniel Scharre. Adaptive recently lowered revenue forecast for quarter ended Dec. 31 to $8 million from $31 million. Company said it was “evaluating its financial model” for fiscal 2001, “especially the potential impact of customer issues” involving CLECs, which are its main U.S. market.

Seven states have requested more delegated authority from FCC to allow them to implement number conservation measures. FCC is seeking comments on requests of Ind., Minn., Mo., Okla., Tenn., Vt., W.Va. Comments are due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 28 (CC 96-98, 99-200).

U.S. Copyright Office started 6-month negotiation period for adjustment of royalty rates and terms for performance of copyrighted sound recordings by preexisting subscription services and satellite digital audio services. Negotiation period began Jan. 9 and those who want to participate must notify Copyright Office by Jan. 31.

House Telecom Subcommittee will be headed by Rep. Upton (R- Mich.), but Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) carved out Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee for Rep. Stearns (R- Fla.). Trade Subcommittee will have jurisdiction over privacy, trade and other commercial practices within purview of FTC, while Telecom panel will keep all telecom and other media issues. Rep. Greenwood (R-Pa.) will head Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee. “There’s still some grey area that has be resolved” in terms of jurisdiction, said Committee spokesman Ken Johnson, but now “we have a road map we can follow.”

ALTS submitted proposal to FCC to curb high CLEC access charges without more drastic measure of mandatory detariffing. ALTS plan proposed Thurs. would: (1) Set ceiling of 2.5 cents per min. for CLECs serving large markets. Different formula would be used for rural CLECs. (2) Make CLECs subject to mandatory detariffing if they exceeded ceiling. (3) Protect CLECs from “harassing” tactics by large interexchange carriers (IXCs). For example, FCC would “affirm” that IXCs couldn’t refuse to pay filed tariff rates. Agency also would define terms under which IXCs could refuse to terminate service to end users served by CLECs that charged higher-than-permissible access rates. Proposal, called Guaranteed Reduced Exchange Access Tariffs (GREAT), was presented in comments to FCC on whether mandatory detariffing should be used to discourage excessive rates (CC Doc. 97-146). Agency had expressed concern that under “filed rate doctrine” of tariff law, CLECs could set unreasonably high rates and enforce payment through federal tariffs. ALTS said plan would “ensure reasonable CLEC access charge levels while at the same time promoting regulatory certainty.”

NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft will begin low-altitude passes over 433 Eros asteroid Jan. 24, getting as close as one to 2 miles Jan. 28 before Feb. 12 crash landing on asteroid’s surface. Spacecraft’s descent will allow its digital camera to take close-ups of asteroid’s landscape until it reaches 1,650 ft. above surface. NEAR Shoemaker isn’t expected to survive maneuver since it wasn’t designed to land.

FCC denied Small Business in Telecom (SBT) petitions to deny applications of Radiofone Nationwide and Harbor Wireless, winners of 700 MHz guard band auctions. Action Thurs. also held that SBT had no standing as petitioner and that petitions, which asserted that applicants should have disclosed personal income of controlling interest holders for purposes of determining qualification for bidding credit as very small business, lacked merit.