Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

As House and Senate staff closed offices for Thanksgiving, the prospects of several telecom bills seemed extremely bleak due to struggles over Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain’s (R-Ariz.) boxing bill. House, Senate and industry sources indicate there don’t appear to be negotiations on the issue. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) objects to moving the boxing legislation, and sources said McCain will let nothing else pass unless the boxing bill is passed.

The prospects for FCC Comr. Adelstein to be renominated to the Commission appeared bright Thurs. after his hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. Senators from both parties praised his attention to rural issues and Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters afterwards that he expected Adelstein’s nomination to pass.

Federal regulators told the NARUC convention in Nashville Wed. jurisdiction changes arising from new technology and service concepts in telecom and energy will make it more important than ever for the federal and state govts. to cooperate. FCC Comr. Abernathy said new technologies like VoIP make adherence to old federal-state jurisdiction lines infeasible, but the states will still have a role. She said the FCC and the states “still should work in collaboration on sound public policy. The FCC can’t handle matters like [VoIP] E-911 without the cooperation of state regulators.” She said some new technologies and service concepts require a single national policy, but “details of implementation should still be worked out with the states.” She said the core question is: “What type of regulatory regime best serves to deliver value to consumers?” She said that with VoIP, federal preemption was necessary because IP-enabled packet-switched technologies don’t recognize boundaries: “IP-enabled services only superficially resemble circuit- switched voice,” she said. “But in the IP world, the old end-to-end jurisdictional analysis simply didn’t work” because IP users could call anyone from anywhere and all calls looked the same. She said the Vonage VoIP preemption order didn’t deny the states a supporting role. She said it gave state attorneys general responsibility for addressing broad matters of VoIP consumer protection. She said the FCC had to settle VoIP jurisdiction before taking up other VoIP issues. Patrick Wood, chmn. of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and a former Tex. regulator, said federal-state cooperation will be crucial in development of policy for broadband over power lines (BPL), which will put the FERC, FCC and state commissions in a regulatory triangle. He said all parties involved must maintain flexible and not lose sight of the fact that they all exist to protect consumers. Hilda Legg, dir. of the Rural Utilities Service, said the states and federal agencies “have to work together and communicate. We need to be willing to listen to each other because we have a common purpose.” She said the telecom and energy infrastructures will remain the foundation of national economic growth despite all the industry changes. She said BPL may present unique circumstances for RUS as a lender. She said RUS could end up lending money to an electric utility that seeks to offer BPL in competition with a phone company that also is an RUS borrower. She said: “It is in the national interest to keep rural America connected. The whole nation benefits from a strong rural economy.” Iowa Comr. Dianne Muns, new NARUC first vp, said no one level of govt. can do all things anymore. “Our discussions need to be about who should be doing what.” She said states have been very effective at resolving wholesale contract disputes and retail consumer complaints and doing public education and information gathering, and they should retain their authority in these areas: “We need to respect each other’s strengths and try to reach agreement on what each should be doing. Both levels are important and have jobs to do.” -- HK

NASHVILLE -- Telecom makes investors nervous because it has regulatory and technological uncertainties that don’t exist in other industries competing for capital, said NARUC panelists at the group’s annual meeting here Mon. The advent of paradigm-breaking new technologies like VoIP and the prospect of a major rewrite of the federal Telecom Act next Congress have led many telecom investors to move to the sidelines and wait out the stormy times, panelists said.

Several important communications-related items could pass Congress this week as it returns for a brief lame- duck session, industry and congressional sources said. The loudest buzz is on the universal service fund (USF) and the controversy over the FCC’s change in accounting mechanisms that could slow some E-rate payments and possibly lead to a rise in contributions, and several sources expected some efforts to push a legislative solution.

More indications emerged Wed. that FCC Comr. Adelstein could be part of a lame-duck session effort to move a slate of pending nominations in the Senate (CD Nov 10 p4). Judicial nominations are at the center of the effort, sources have said, and the Senate Judiciary Committee announced there would be a hearing Nov. 16 on judicial nominees (at 9:30 a.m. in Rm. 226 Dirksen Bldg.). Also, a Senate Commerce Committee spokesman said the committee planned to hold a hearing on nominations on Thurs., Nov. 18. The spokesman couldn’t confirm any of the hearing witnesses, but Communications Daily obtained a list of potential witnesses that included Adelstein. Other witnesses included Claudia Puig, Gay Gaines and Ernest Wilson of the Corp. for Public Broadcasting (all 3 received recess appointments). The list also included candidates for other commissions, including the Federal Maritime Commission.

Carriers remain split on a proposed FCC rule to apply federal wiretap requirements to VoIP and broadband service. In comments on the Commission’s CALEA proceeding, a broad array of lobbying groups drew lines in the sand on the role of CALEA on a new generation of IP- based communications products.

Vonage’s DigitalVoice VoIP service is interstate so it can’t be regulated by state PUCs, the FCC ruled Tues. The ruling, which asserts federal jurisdiction over Vonage-like services, came in response to a preemption petition filed last year by Vonage. Although referring to Vonage service, the decision applies to other types of IP- enabled services, the Commission said.

Nearly 5 months after it was adopted, the FCC is about to publish in the Federal Register its long-awaited order promoting provision of wireless broadband on spectrum previously set aside for educational channels. The FCC approved the ITFS-MDS rebanding order June 10 amid much fanfare. The Commission last week approved an erratum sought by the Wireless Communications Assn. making clarifications and launching the rebanding process.

NAB renewed its push at the FCC to craft emergency alert system (EAS) regulation that would make cable operators better protect local broadcasters’ emergency signals. In comments filed with the FCC on EAS, NAB proposed a selective override in which the FCC mandates that cable operators use a filter system enabling a cable operator to replace certain channels selectively during an EAS interruption.