Lauren Frayer

The FCC Enforcement Bureau “will not pursue enforcement actions” against interconnected VoIP service providers that obtained affirmative acknowledgments about 911 service limitations from at least 90% of their subscribers, it said. But the Bureau said it expects those providers would continue seeking the remaining acknowledgments and would notify the FCC once they've reached 100% compliance. At least 21 providers got acknowledgments from 100% of their subscribers and at least 32 others from 90% or more, the FCC said.

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a -- no irony lost here -- phone survey say they still receive telemarketing calls they believe should have been blocked when they signed up for the national Do-Not-Call list. The Federal Trade Commission official in charge of the registry says the agency receives a "steady flow" of between 1,000 and 2,000 complaints about telemarketers every day. Yet to date, there have been remarkably few fines issued by federal regulators. Despite one million reports of violations, the FTC has filed only 14 lawsuits and levied only four fines.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted Monday to elect Cheryl Halpern to succeed Ken Tomlinson as chairman of the board and Gay Hart Gaines as vice chair replacing Democrat Frank Cruz. Both Halpern and Gaines are veteran Republican party activists and fundraisers. The vote Monday came at a public meeting that also hosted critics of Tomlinson's effort, for which he does not apologize, to add conservative programming to balance what he sees as noncom broadcasting's leftward tilt. A number of speakers at the meeting called for more accountability and transparency in board decisions.

For over 40 years, Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) has played a major role in the development of public broadcasting throughout the United States. With the programs assistance, a public television signal now reaches about 95% of our nation's population and public radio reaches approximately 90% of the population. The program has also funded radio reading services and descriptive video services for the disabled and numerous distance learning facilities that provide instructional programming for students and professionals.

Public-access television, whose future may hinge on a bill before Congress, is TV's public square -- a community outlet for the civic minded, musicians, and even bonsai lovers. For many viewers, local-access channels are mere speed bumps on the dial between ABC and HBO. But for the people running these channels around the country these outlets, available to all for a nominal fee, have become what Anthony Riddle, executive director of the Alliance for Community Media in Washington, calls "the public square in the electronic age."

The nation's broadcasters have issued a blunt message: Tough new requirements to air children's programming might mean sports fans won't get to watch some college football games on free TV. The broadcasters are fighting new FCC rules that will take effect Jan. 1, saying the rules would stifle the development of new channels and hobble existing ones. They say they'd have to either move Saturday morning kids' shows to another time or shift that day's college football lineup to cable TV.

Trade associations representing movie and recording industries are trying to persuade Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to give the FCC the authority to mandate copy-protection technology for movies and music. RIAA and other artist and music groups are worried that consumers will be able to use software to record and create libraries of high-quality music via digital radio. Some artists worry the practice could undermine revenue they could earn through digital downloads. Movie studios, meanwhile, want the FCC to have regulatory authority over television equipment in order to prevent the mass, online redistribution of high-definition entertainment.

National Guard spokesman Maj. Ed Bush believes that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center.

Apparently, Hurricane Rita has done a lot less damage than Katrina, but, all the same, on Saturday the FCC cleared away some regulations to help telephone companies, broadcast stations and cable systems affected by the storm, much as it did in the wake of Katrina. The FCC has been working weekends since Katrina to help coordinate communications recovery efforts, for which it has been getting high marks from Congress and the industry. See links to FCC releases below.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

Speaking at the conference of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors last week, former FCC Chief of Staff Blair Levin said the future of high-speed Internet is so unclear that Congress should not foreclose the possibility of Bell telecommunications firms, cable companies or municipal governments becoming full providers. Levin said the core dispute between telecom and cable companies is how to get universal broadband.