Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn won’t stand in the way of FCC rules on net neutrality proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski, the two Democratic commissioners said Monday. Copps said he'll concur with the order at Tuesday’s commission meeting. Clyburn said she'll vote to approve the rules in part and concur in part. The full order won’t be published for several days, but the commission will release excerpts along with the text of the rules, a senior FCC official said Monday.
Senate passage of the House version of the Local Community Radio Act Saturday puts implementation in the hands of the FCC, said agency officials and advocates for full-power stations and the low-power ones targeted by the legislation. The bill means the commission must develop a sensible structure to strike a balance between protecting full-power FM stations from interference and creating opportunities for LPFM stations, low- and full-power station advocates said.
AT&T agreed to buy lower 700 MHz D and E block spectrum from Qualcomm for $1.93 billion, $0.87 per MHz/pop. Small carriers were quick to criticize the deal. Qualcomm said that with the sale, it will shutter its FLO TV service in March. The company had been considering selling the mobile DTV service (CD July 23 p15) .
The Mexican government will pay Boeing $1.31 billion to deliver an “end-to-end satellite communications system,” the company said Monday. The delivery consists of three satellites: One fixed satellite services satellite and two mobile satellite services satellite. Boeing said it will contract out construction of the FSS satellite to Orbital Sciences. The system will also include two ground sites, associated network operations systems and user terminals, said Boeing. The contract is Boeing’s second $1 billion, three-satellite contract within five months, after a major deal with Inmarsat (CD Aug 9 p9).
The Universal Service Administrative Co. overestimated “improper” payments for high-cost universal service by almost 700 percent, it acknowledged in a follow-up audit. A November 2008 report by the FCC’s inspector general found about $472 million in improper payments. The actual amount was $54.5 million, USAC said.
Career FCC staff review of Comcast’s plan to buy control of NBC Universal appears to be moving closer to an end (CD Dec 14 p3), so that an initial draft order on the multibillion dollar deal can circulate, said commission and industry officials. The order hadn’t circulated as of midday Monday, agency said. The order may circulate soon, perhaps this week, though timing isn’t certain, commission and industry officials said. A spokeswoman for the Media Bureau, whose staff is reviewing the deal, declined to comment.
Verizon Wireless’s LTE network has been performing as expected since it launched Dec. 5, Nicola Palmer, vice president of network, said in an interview. The carrier is working with vendor LG on a handoff delay that may affect some customers roaming from 3G to 4G, she said.
The FCC’s proposed mobility fund is too small to help build out 3G broadband for the nation’s under-served areas, T-Mobile, the Rural Telecommunications Group and South Dakota-based Flow Mobile said in comments filed in docket 10-208 and released Friday. Verizon and Windstream disagreed, saying the fund was appropriate. Verizon, in fact, went further and said that not only is the $100-$300 million proposed mobility fund adequate, but the FCC should phase out other support for competitive eligible telecommunications providers.
The House passed new legislation that would expand the number of low power FM (LPFM) stations in larger markets while protecting full-power stations from interference. HR-6533 was passed after lawmakers addressed concerns of the NAB, which some LPFM supporters said held up the original bill in the Senate. The bill was introduced by Reps. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., and sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and John McCain, R-Ariz. “This bill will allow churches, schools, neighborhood groups and others to put community-oriented programming on the air” and help first responders provide those communities with critical emergency information, Doyle said in a press release.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said Friday he had not decided how he will vote on proposed net neutrality rules at Tuesday’s commission meeting. The comments came in response to a letter sent Thursday by House Commerce Committee member Mike Rogers, R-Mich., asking commissioners to cancel the vote and for responses by noon Friday on how they planned to vote (CD Dec 17 p1).