October 11, 2007

Acting on six Petitions for Reconsideration, the FCC has issued a
decision in its Hurricane Katrina Panel docket confirming the
requirement that wireless and wireline carriers deploy backup power to
their facilities, but providing a few exemptions (Order on Reconsideration,
FCC 07-177, EB Docket No. 06-119). The requirement came out of the
FCC's Katrina Panel review of communications failures following the
2005 storms. The panel’s report specifically noted the robustness of
utility internal communications networks due to generators and other
backup power capacity; meanwhile, lack of utility-derived power was
noted as one of the major reasons for commercial communications
failures. While several carriers had argued that the emergency power
requirement be rescinded or substantially reduced, Friday's decision
only exempts facilities under certain narrow conditions. All facilities
normally powered by utility AC power and "necessary to the provision of
communications services," including central offices, cellsites, remote
switches and digital loop carrier system remote terminals, will be
required to have either 24-hour or 8-hour (cellsites) backup power
unless they can show that compliance is prohibited by federal, state,
local or tribal law, would create a risk to safety of life and health,
or is precluded by a private legal obligation or agreement. However,
the Commission urged carriers to change such agreements and warned them
not to circumvent the rule in that manner. Also exempted are telecom
carriers meeting a Class B definition and wireless carriers with
500,000 subscribers or fewer. Local exchange carriers and commercial
wireless providers will be subject to reporting and compliance
deadlines.

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) representative told an industry
audience late last week that the agency will conduct studies of
synchronized lighting schemes for towers, according to trade press
reports. Synchronized blinking lights are believed to be more effective
at reducing bird deaths due to collisions with towers; however, new
lighting schemes also may be more effective in making pilots aware of
towers. The FAA noted concerns about the age of its lighting standards,
based on studies conducted decades ago, as well as the need to reduce
costs and light pollution. Of interest to UTC members owning towers,
the FAA reportedly is nearing action in its rulemaking concerning
wireless towers in aviation airspace, although the substance of the
action is not known.

VoIP
services providers still are experiencing significant problems with
audio delay in their calls, according to a study by Keynote Systems.
And while the call quality of VoIP and PacketCable (IP telephony over
cable) has continued to improve, both services still lag behind the
public switched telephone network (PSTN). While both PSTN and
PacketCable measured a mean average audio delay of below 150
milliseconds (ms), VoIP providers measure a one-way audio delay of
between 150 to 250 ms.

The study used indicators such as service availability, call
completion percentage and audio delay to test 12 different VoIP and
PacketCable services for their reliability, responsiveness and clarity.
The study then compared the VoIP and PacketCable indicators with those
of PSTN services from AT&T and Verizon. The best mean audio delay
for a VoIP provider came in at 149 ms, while the worst came in at 279
ms. VoIP's call completion percentage also was found lagging behind
PSTN, as only two VoIP providers studied had call completion
percentages over 99.5 percent.

The City of Clarksdale, MS won its case against BellSouth - a federal
district court upheld the city's termination of BellSouth's 1954 pole
attachment agreement (Case 2:04-CV-41-PB). BellSouth had claimed that
the agreement gave it a perpetual right to attach its facilities to the
city’s poles under existing terms. The court found that the city was
within its rights to terminate the agreement, and that there is nothing
in federal or state law to prevent it from doing so. The dispute arose
in 2003, when the city notified BellSouth that it was going to take
down its attachments unless BellSouth entered into a new agreement,
based upon a new ordinance setting the rates for pole attachments. The
case turned on the validity of a perpetuity clause in the 1954
agreement; the court decided it was not enforceable because to do so
would conflict with municipal authority. The court also found that the
city’s action was a "fair and reasonable" use of the city's authority
to regulate pole attachments.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
announced this week that it awarded $968,385,000 in grant funding
through the Public Safety Interoperable Communications program, as
required by a September 30 deadline. The grants will fund interoperable
public safety communications projects in the 56 states and territories.
States and territories were required to apply for grants in August;
NTIA shortly will be reviewing their potential telecom interoperability
projects, which must be submitted by December 3, along with their
Investment Justifications and Statewide Communications Interoperability
Plans. Non-governmental owned utilities are not directly eligible for
grants; however, several states are including utilities in their
emergency communications planning. Check out the following NTIA link
for more detailed information regarding grant allocations to the states
and territories within your service areas: www.ntia.doc.gov/psic/awards.html.

Late last week, NTIA released its Broadband over Power Line Phase II
report, which generally confirms that the FCC technical rules for BPL
do protect federal government operations from harmful interference.
NTIA used NEC modeling to predict the RF emissions from BPL systems,
and concluded that "the peak field strength seen in close proximity to
a BPL-energized overhead power line will occur at various heights, and
often near the height of the power line." Furthermore, NTIA concluded
that measurements of the 80th percentile of emissions from BPL systems
effectively estimate their true interference potential, thereby
eliminating localized peaks that are "unlikely to be encountered by a
radio receiver randomly located in close proximity to an Access BPL
power line." Finally, the NTIA report affirmed the accuracy of using a
5 dB correction factor to measure BPL emissions above 30 MHz when
measuring at a height of 1 meter above ground, and generally affirmed
the accuracy of the FCC's extrapolation factor for measuring emissions
at distances different from those prescribed by the emission limits.
While it did find that the FCC extrapolation factor may underestimate
emissions below 6 MHz, the extrapolation factor "show[ed] good
agreement" with the rate that NTIA estimated that field strength
actually decays generally below 30 MHz.

The FCC already has sent a copy of the NTIA Phase II report to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which will hear oral
arguments this month in the ARRL's appeal of the FCC's BPL technical
rules. The FCC told the court that the NTIA report supports the FCC’s
findings in its Report and Order
that the interference potential from BPL is low, and noted the findings
about the extrapolation factor, which the ARRL is challenging on
appeal. The NTIA Phase II report also helps to rebut a recent report by
NATO, which expressed concerns about BPL interference to military
operations. For more information, contact the UTC Legal/Regulatory Department.

With a November 1, 2007 deadline looming, the House and Senate are
pushing legislation that would extend the current moratorium on
Internet access taxes levied by state and local authorities. In the
House, the Judiciary Committee Wednesday unanimously passed HR-3678,
which will extend the moratorium for another four years. Republicans
had sought a permanent moratorium. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans
reintroduced their “Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007” (S
2128). The bill could be called up for immediate consideration.
Communications industry advocates claim that if the tax moratorium is
not extended, states and localities will take more than $35 billion per
year out of the economy. UTC supports the extension of the Internet tax
moratorium.

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