Category: FCC

FCC Field Enforcement: Fourth Amendment Still Rules, Apparently

Last year, in response to coverage that the FCC felt it had the authority to conduct warrantless searches of private property in its objective to clear the airwaves of unauthorized activity, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the agency. It asked the FCC to somehow rectify the quandary between its self-stated authority and the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects the public from “unreasonable” (i.e., unwarranted) searches and seizures.
Last month, the FCC responded to the EFF’s FOIA request, releasing a small cache of well-redacted documents related to the agency’s field investigation techniques. In a document entitled “Basic Investigation Techniques – On-Scene Overview,” the Commission seems to make its position clear: “Agents should never trespass on private property. You do have legal authority to inspect any radio station (broadcast, land mobile, amateur, etc.) at any time; however, you should contact the property owner to gain access.” In a later chapter, properly entitled “Limits of Authority,” the prohibition against trespassing is further articulated and specifies that FCC field agents may be held criminally liable if break this law. Continue reading “FCC Field Enforcement: Fourth Amendment Still Rules, Apparently”

Enforcement Action Update: East Coast Booming

The Enforcement Action Database is up-to-date again; so far for the year the FCC is running at blatant record pace with regard to enforcement actions – 235 as of mid-May, while 2009 saw a cumulative enforcement action total of 445. If this pace continues, 2010 may be the first year in which the FCC cracks 500 enforcement actions.
Taking a closer look at the data, the methodology of field enforcement remains the same – lots and lots of station-visits and threatening letters, but nothing in the way of raids and seizures, and very little in the way of monetary penalties. The practice of stats-enforcement is also still in full effect; for example, a whopping four warning letters were sent to different individuals in two states for the same unlicensed FM station in Brockton, Massachusetts. Continue reading “Enforcement Action Update: East Coast Booming”

Net Neutrality: Thanks For The Memories?

The heads of policy peeps just about exploded last month after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC’s authority to stop internet service providers from conducting data discrimination (violating the informal principle popularly known as “network neutrality“). A couple of weeks of hand-wringing later, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski releases a statement outlining his plans to re-empower the agency to regulate the way by which ISPs manage their network traffic.
It’s a somewhat arcane policy principle, but in plain English it breaks down like this: the FCC classifies network service providers in one of two ways – telecommunications providers and information service providers. Telecommunications providers (like old-skool telephony) are subject to “common carriage” rules – this means the networks must not refuse interconnection, cannot discriminate against other carriers and customers, and cannot refuse the use of non-destructive applications on their networks. Information service providers, on the other hand, do not fall under the common carriage paradigm. Continue reading “Net Neutrality: Thanks For The Memories?”

Behind The Hoopla of The National Broadband Plan

The promulgation of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan caused near-orgasmic pleasure among policy wonks in D.C. and elsewhere – if only for the reason that it showed that the FCC appears to care about bringing our country’s true communicative potential into the 21st century.
But now that everybody’s had a chance to look under the hood, so to speak, of the 376-page proposal, and I got to sniff the air in D.C. myself, it’s clear that the honeymoon – if there really was one – is over. Continue reading “Behind The Hoopla of The National Broadband Plan”

FCC's Broadband Plan: Show Me Action, Not Words

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited National Broadband Plan, which has become shorthand for a comprehensive set of new policies the agency plans to promote. The plan encompasses everything from digitizing medical records to telework, distance education, a nationwide emergency-responders communications network and, perhaps most importantly, a drive to spur competition in the broadband ISP sector, increase access and median data-transfer speeds nationwide, and lower prices in the process (making us, one day, perhaps on par with more advanced European and Asian countries). For a very superficial overview of the plan’s high points, check here.
The telecom pundits are all a-twitter about this plan, and its relative wonderfulness. But it behooves breaking down some of the basics: Continue reading “FCC's Broadband Plan: Show Me Action, Not Words”

Bring The Noise Redux: FCC Okays FM-HD Power Increase

With little fanfare on Friday, the FCC approved a blanket four-fold increase in the power of FM-HD digital sidebands, and also established procedures for stations to apply for a power-hike of up to 10x.
This outcome was no surprise. For the last two years the proprietors of HD Radio, iBiquity Digital Corporation, and National Public Radio have been wrangling over just how much of a digital FM power boost is needed to replicate existing FM stations’ analog coverage. Continue reading “Bring The Noise Redux: FCC Okays FM-HD Power Increase”

War on Pirates in 2009: (Paper) Fur Flies Furiously

For the ninth year in a row, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has broken its record for the number of enforcement actions taken against unlicensed broadcasters in any given calendar year. 429 enforcement actions spanning 22 states have been catalogued; there are likely to be some stragglers into the database but 2009 goes into the books as the year of the one-armed paper-hanger.
ead09statesThe numbers themselves are relatively unsurprising. Enforcement actions in 2009 were more geographically-concentrated (Florida, New York and New Jersey accounted for nearly 63% of all enforcement actions), but unlicensed broadcast activity was reported coast-to-coast. Continue reading “War on Pirates in 2009: (Paper) Fur Flies Furiously”

LPFM's Elephant In the Room

I was heartened to see that the requisite committees of the House of Representatives and Senate have both endorsed complementary bills that would expand the FCC’s low-power FM (LPFM) service toward votes on the floors of the respective chambers. Those working the issue in D.C. are very optimistic that Congress will pass both versions of the Local Community Radio Act, harmonize them, and send a version to President Obama by the end of this Congressional session.
But it’s not yet time to break out the champagne just yet. There are three reasons for this: Continue reading “LPFM's Elephant In the Room”

iBiquity/NPR HD Power Hike In Play

As predicted, the two major players in the HD Radio space – iBiquity, the proprietor of the technology, and NPR, its primary broadcast innovator – have jointly petitioned the FCC to increase the power level of HD Radio sidebands. They’re asking for a blanket 4x increase to the power of digital sidebands for both AM and FM stations, and includes proposed methodology for allowing selected stations to increase their digital power levels by 10x. The joint filing even includes helpful language the FCC is encouraged to adopt in full as as regulation. The National Association of Broadcasters was not far behind in lauding the deal.
Given that this will obviously involve a modification of the “spectral mask” under which a stations’ power must exceed, this request skewers once and for all the notion that HD radio “does not use new spectrum.” Continue reading “iBiquity/NPR HD Power Hike In Play”