February 2012

The Federal Communications Commission adopted an order granting a request for waiver filed by the e-Bookroom Initiative (“e-BI”) concerning the Learning On-The-Go (also known as the E-rate Deployed Ubiquitously (EDU) 2011) Pilot Program.

The FCC grants e-BI’s request to provide an extension of the time for pilot participants to meet certain E-rate procedural deadlines to facilitate the ongoing administration and utilization of the funds committed to the pilot participants for funding year 2011. The FCC waives its rules and directs the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to extend any of its relevant procedural deadlines for those pilot participants that had not begun their pilot projects before October 1, 2011. But the FCC denies e-BI’s request to provide additional support to the pilot participants beyond the funds that have already been committed to each of the pilot projects.

To further protect consumers from unwanted autodialed or prerecorded calls, often referred to as “robocalls,” the Federal Communications Commission approved changes to its telemarketing rules.

Unwanted telemarketing calls and texts were consistently in the top three consumer complaint categories at the FCC in 2011. Robocalls invade consumers’ privacy, and can, in the case of calls to wireless numbers, use up their minutes. The order helps put an end to these intrusions by empowering consumers with increased rights under the FCC’s telemarketing rules. The new rules reduce regulatory uncertainty with minimal burden on industry and maximize consistency with those of the Federal Trade Commission.

Specifically, the rules protect consumers by:

• Requiring telemarketers to obtain prior express written consent from them, including by electronic means such as a website form, before placing a robocall to a consumer;
• Eliminating the “established business relationship” exemption to the requirement that telemarketing robocalls to residential wireline phones occur only with prior express consent from the consumer;
• Requiring telemarketers to provide an automated, interactive “opt-out” mechanism during each robocall so that consumers can immediately tell the telemarketer to stop calling; and,
• Strictly limiting the number of abandoned or “dead air” calls that telemarketers can make within each calling campaign.

"While I'm disappointed that the interference testing has shown LightSquared will not be able to move forward, we still have to continue to look for new and creative ways to drive competition and expand wireless broadband deployment across the country," said Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

"Our position has always been that LightSquared’s plans should not be approved unless tests proved no interference for GPS devices," said House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO). "I hope that technology continues to be developed in a way that addresses the GPS interference concern on behalf of the many small businesses that rely on them, and that we can find a way to have a win-win on this issue."

“It is very unfortunate that the engineering studies did not find a clear way forward to bring much needed spectrum to the public on a wholesale basis," said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge. "While it is possible that a way forward may emerge from the comments in response to the FCC's public notice, it would appear that LightSquared will not fill this need for wholesale access any time soon."

The ad for Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the most remarkable and striking pieces of work to have graced our screens in a long time. If you haven’t seen the ad yet, I highly recommend you take the time to do so. It excels on a number of levels.

• The Creative -- from the haunting rendition of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” to the character and quality of the animation, it is the kind of work that takes endless ingenuity and real craft to pull off. And that’s after you’ve got the thing that all good ads need: a great idea.
• Media Placement -- with a soundtrack like that where else would you want to debut the ad? Plus, the younger-skewing audience may be more likely to respond to the message.
• The Message -- Chipotle has long since positioned itself as the fast-food place with a difference. None of the conventional aspects of the fast-food experience seen as negatives in many people’s eyes are here. The company sources its beef from cattle that have never been treated with antibiotics or hormones. The cattle providing the milk (and cheese) for the chain have only eaten food devoid of animal matter. It supports a number of sustainable agriculture initiatives and recently sponsored TEDx Manhattan -- Changing The Way We Eat conference. Bottom line is that Chipotle walks the talk we heard in the ad.
• Social Media Integration --Frankly David Berkowitz is among those better positioned to comment on this than I, but the fact I discovered the ad in my Facebook news feed and then linked through to the full video on the Chipotle web site says something. I’ve subsequently watched the fascinating “making of” video. All in all, out of pure interest driven by the creative and the message I spent about 20 minutes or so interacting with content core to the brands values that night.