Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Wireless carriers urged the FCC to exempt them from the requirement to seek express prior authorization before sending mobile service commercial messages (MSCMs) to their customers, as long as customers weren’t charged for them. “A requirement to seek such ‘opt-in’ consent would raise a serious constitutional issue as to whether such a requirement would be an unlawful restriction on commercial speech,” Verizon Wireless said in comments: “There is no reason to reach that issue because an exemption for wireless carriers to communicate with their own customers is warranted.” Cingular Wireless said the wireless data industry was “in its infancy,” and the Commission should be “especially careful to adopt no rules that would interfere with the relationship between wireless service providers and their customers.” Nextel agreed, but said the FCC shouldn’t exempt small businesses from the prior-express-authorization requirements.

The FCC hired a biological consulting firm to review studies on the impact that communications towers may have on migratory birds. The studies were cited in comments the FCC received in response to a notice of inquiry released in Aug. FCC Chmn. Powell said the agency retained Avatar Environmental Services to help the FCC meet its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal environmental laws. Powell last year had pledged a more active approach to environmental and historic preservation issues related to tower siting, including stepped-up enforcement and the inquiry on the impact of towers on migratory birds. At the time, Powell said the agency was considering hiring a staff biologist to work on bird issues. Avatar will “give the Commission access to the services of experts with training and experience in evaluating the impact of construction projects on animal and plant species, and who have performed similar services for other agencies.” The FCC said Avatar’s expertise will allow the agency to better “assess the impact of communications towers on migratory birds and more efficiently… process applications that implicate biological issues.” In comments last year on the notice of inquiry, many industry representatives urged the FCC not to take further regulatory steps to address migratory bird deaths at towers until additional scientific research is conducted. Environmental groups, however, said the FCC has already received extensive information on the subject but continued to violate environmental laws in its tower licensing program.

Public safety and business telecom users expressed cautious optimism Wed. that negotiations could be restarted on E911 deployment requirements for multiline telephone systems (MLTS). In a further notice last fall, the FCC had concluded that state and local govts. for now were best positioned to set E911 deployment rules for MLTS, though the Commission said it would monitor their progress. Participants in an FCC E911 Coordination Initiative Wed. agreed the issue of how to locate emergency callers using private branch exchanges (PBXs) is ripe for renewed talks.

NTIA proposed 41 frequencies in the 1.7-80 MHz range for special protection from unintentional radiation from broadband over power line (BPL) systems because of the critical or sensitive functions they support. In a report to the FCC released late Tues., the NTIA pointed out Commission rules and regulations, including Part 15, provide specific lists of protected frequencies in this range. They impose limitations on licensed services and unlicensed intentional radiation, the NTIA said, and the concept could be relevant for unintentional radiation by BPL systems as well because of interference risks. The report is titled Potential Interference from Broadband over Power Line (BPL) Systems to Federal Government Radio Communications at 1.7-80 MHz -- Phase I Study.

Public safety and other officials told the FCC they need better data on Enhanced 911 implementation, including the accuracy of emergency caller location information in individual markets. The National Governors Assn. (NGA) released a report at the FCC’s E911 Coordination Initiative Wed. that indicated there’s no agreed-upon method for tracking E911 progress.

Consumers Union (CU) and Consumer Federation of America (CFA) urged the FCC Thurs. to view with skepticism a pledge that Verizon Wireless made last week to bid $5 billion if the Commission were to auction PCS spectrum at 1.9 GHz (CD April 9 p1). Verizon Wireless and other wireless carriers have been calling on the FCC to hold an auction for the 10 MHz at 1.9 GHz if it’s part of an 800 MHz rebanding plan. The FCC has been considering a proposal for mitigating public safety interference at 800 MHz. An original staff proposal sent to the 8th floor would reband 800 MHz and give 1.9 GHz to Nextel for a price. Under that original staff proposal, Nextel would have to pay the cost of rebanding incumbents at 800 MHz and then the difference between that and the value assigned to the 1.9 GHz spectrum. “This so-called bid does nothing to advance the cause of eliminating public safety radio interference, and appears to be yet another anti-competitive tactic aimed at delaying a vote on this urgent matter,” CU and CFA said. “Regardless of motive, the Verizon ‘bid’ should be considered non-qualifying because it would unduly concentrate the wireless market horizontally and would represent a significantly increased threat to consumers’ hopes that wireless competes against landline telephone monopolies.” The groups argued that the opening bid promised by Verizon Wireless would lead to “less aggressive” competition between wireless and wireline companies and would be inconsistent with the Communications Act. “Any dominant wireless company’s bid for spectrum should be subjected to the same scrutiny that would be applied for a review of a merger in the wireless market,” CU and CFA said in a letter to Powell. The groups said that because Verizon Wireless has a national market share of nearly 25%, virtually any merger between it and another provider would violate merger guidelines. “Unfortunately, this letter seems to be filed in a proceeding taking place on another planet,” a Verizon Wireless spokesman said: “To paraphrase my mother, if you can’t say something relevant, don’t say anything at all. This is a laundry list of opinions that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, which is to legally and quickly provide public safety with the tools that they need.”

There’s stark disagreement on whether the FCC should extend CALEA requirements to VoIP services, comments filed with the FCC Mon. showed. While acknowledging the importance of ensuring that law enforcement is able to prevent crime using electronic surveillance, ISPs opposed the petition filed by the Dept. of Justice (DoJ), the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with the FCC. They said the proposal had no legal basis, and the CALEA rules would cripple the Internet. Bells generally shared the concerns of the law enforcement but said some modifications are needed. Law enforcement agencies strongly supported the petition, urging the Commission to adopt it expeditiously.

Citing an alleged “public service deficiency” in broadcasters’ coverage of political candidates, ex-FCC Chmn. Newton Minow and former NTIA Dir. Henry Geller Wed. asked the FCC to launch an “expedited” rulemaking to require free time this fall for candidates in campaigns for local and regional offices. Their proposal would require TV and radio stations to provide 20 min. per day free to candidates, in 5 min. segments, starting 30 days before general elections.

Telecom networks that allow operation of U.S. critical infrastructure are more vulnerable than ever, witnesses told a House panel Tues. One witness blamed that vulnerability in part on FCC rules. Industrial control systems have increasingly been linked to less secure networks that are vulnerable to cyberattack, the House Govt. Reform Technology Subcommittee was told. These systems include an array of public-switched networks, private microwave and fiber networks, wireless radio and cellular networks to oversee electrical grids, dams and so forth. “When I first began to learn about this topic, I must say that I did not grasp the scope of the challenge,” Chmn. Putnam (R-Fla.) said. But now he believes “the nation’s health, wealth and security rely on these systems,” which are “vulnerable to cyber attack or terrorism.”

National broadcasters are more effective in communicating a national emergency to the disabled than the FCC-administered emergency alert system (EAS), said Susan Fox, Disney vp-govt. affairs. “EAS -- the sense that I got from the folks in my own company -- is not the answer,” Fox said during a panel here on defining emergency at FCC’s Emergency Communications and Homeland Security: Working With the Disability Community Summit. “I think what we do, the information that we provide, is greater and broader than EAS,” she said.