Top content industry executives told libertarians they were eager to offer olive branch on copy-control enforcement, but approach was rebuffed at Cato Institute debate last week in Palo Alto with accusations that content owners’ actual intention was to continue waging war on consumers.

United Telecom Council (UTC) voiced concern about FCC report released last week on critical infrastructure spectrum, saying it didn’t recognize extent to which industries such as energy and power didn’t have dedicated spectrum. FCC staff report was congressionally mandated companion to NTIA study released earlier this year that outlined need for more spectrum for critical infrastructure providers in energy, water and railroad sectors, pointing out that urgency of those needs might have changed after Sept. 11. Reports to Congress were required by fiscal 2001 appropriations act that covered Commerce Dept. NTIA report described congestion in many bands that critical infrastructure providers faced and urged FCC to revisit those “critical” spectrum issues. Commission said most comments received on NTIA report said spectrum allocations were needed beyond current ones to meet needs of utilities and other infrastructure providers. “However, only a few commenters specifically quantified their needs,” FCC said. Only few proposed areas where available spectrum could be found. “In fulfilling the statutory obligation to ‘address any needs identified’ by the NTIA report, a difficulty arises for the Commission in that the NTIA report does not independently validate or investigate any specific needs or requirements of the designated industries,” FCC said. Instead, it said, report used information provided by industry commenters as basis for review. FCC cited current spectrum proceedings that it said should have positive impact on spectrum needs of energy, water and railroad industries. Commission cited examples such as 27 MHz reallocated from govt. to nongovt. users, including 216-220 MHz and 1427-1432 MHz. FCC concluded that although NTIA report didn’t validate “specific spectrum requirements” for energy, railroad and water sectors, “the Commission is always sensitive to the communications needs of these and other industries.” Of concerns raised by those sectors on access to spectrum due to congestion and interference, report said: “The designated industries are encouraged to continue to migrate to more efficient technologies and to make use of available commercial spectrum services when practicable, including terrestrial wireless and satellite services, as well as civil satellite services.” It encouraged water, industry and railroad industries to use new ways of sharing and licensing to meet their needs to ensure that efficient use of spectrum was met. “The Commission must satisfy the spectrum needs of many users, and it is especially sensitive to needs involving domestic security concerns,” report said. UTC said Fri. it was concerned FCC didn’t cite “concrete plans” to meet emergency response requirements or help protect energy, water or transportation structure. NTIA study included estimates by critical infrastructure providers that they would need 6- 10 MHz of dedicated spectrum in next few years. “The Commission’s response to Congress mentions the importance of critical infrastructure and public safety’s spectrum requirements since Sept. 11,” UTC Pres. William Moroney said. “However, in spite of a very small spectrum request, the FCC report concludes that the agency ‘must satisfy the spectrum needs of many users.'” Moroney asked: “How can yet another commercial wireless service, even if one could operate in such a small piece of spectrum, be more important than a single allocation to help protect the nation’s critical infrastructure?”

PORTLAND, Ore. -- NARUC’s Telecom and Consumer Affairs committees adopted 8 telecom-related policy resolutions at group’s summer meeting here, addressing rights-of-way, number portability, universal service, wireless service and consumer rights. All must be ratified by NARUC’s board of directors before they become official policy. Board convened after our deadline, but committees’ leaders were expecting approval.

With only 2 digital carriage pacts to show for 3 years of negotiations with cable operators, public broadcasters are throwing their weight behind proposed legislation by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) that would resolve issues involving transition to digital. APTS Pres. John Lawson told us: “APTS will back the legislation. We hope to work with committee staff over the August recess to secure inclusion of some of our agenda items in that draft bill.” Tauzin has said he planned to introduce bipartisan, omnibus DTV bill in Sept. Besides federal funding, PTV issues include cable carriage, assuring DTV tuners are built into TV sets and ensuring that definition of “primary video” under Cable Act is interpreted to include all of PTV’s digital programming streams and not merely one, he said. Lawson ducked question on dual analog/digital carriage during transition, saying public broadcasters were giving “primary emphasis” now to primary video. APTS/PBS cable negotiating team is in earnest discussions now with 2 MSOs, including Cox, Lawson said, but no carriage deal is imminent. In recent testimony to Congress, Lawson said that despite PBS and APTS board members’ in “hundreds of hours” seeking cable carriage agreements, PTV stations had been able to clinch deals only with Time Warner and Insight Communications. Two MSOs together reach only 21% of U.S. cable households, he told members of House Telecom Subcommittee: “This slow progress in reaching cable carriage agreements means that we all still are a long way from achieving the goals for DTV receiver penetration established by Congress.” Asked what was holding up agreements with MSOs, Lawson told us there were several outstanding issues, but sticking points typically were carriage of all DTV signals of PTV stations and carriage of unduplicated signals of multiple PTV stations in market. He said pubic broadcasters’ inability to reach more carriage agreements was causing stations to question whether “pursuing voluntary, negotiated carriage is a fruitful investment of their scare resources; whether at some point, we must redirect our efforts toward securing carriage through government intervention.” Lawson said his expectation of reaching carriage deals with other MSOs by year-end were “pretty restrained at this point.” If Congress failed to step up funding for PTV’s digital conversion, as many as 1/3 of 356 PTV stations wouldn’t make May 2003 deadline, Lawson said, and many stations that made deadline wouldn’t be equipped for local origination of programming and services: “So our system has many unfulfilled needs and we really need the federal government to step up support.” Stations had raised $771 million from state and private sources, and with only $258 million so far from federal govt., “we are unfortunately very short” of estimated total conversion cost of $1.7 billion, he said. PTV got late start in terms of persuading Congress to fund its digital transition, Lawson said, and now “we are also in a very difficult fiscal environment.” He said Senate Appropriations Committee had approved $50 million for FY 2003 for PTV’s DTV through CPB, 100% increase over previous year and $51.8 million for Public Telecom Facilities Program (PTFP) for digital conversion. Lawson said public broadcasters were working with many sources for funding not only for conversion but also for digital content. Senate appropriations bill would increase PTV’s education funding and ATPS has been able to get language in farm bill that would open up existing grants program for PTV stations, he said. Lawson defended PBS decision to relax underwriting guidelines, step that has led critics to charge system with permitting “creeping commercialism.” “To me the key is that we are not interrupting programs,” he said. At June 23 board meeting, PBS board decided to allow corporate underwriting spots to depict multiple products, corporate spokespersons’ voicing support for public broadcasting, toll-free numbers, Web addresses. Stations’ viewer surveys have shown that program interruption is “key differentiator” in terms of station underwriting, Lawson said: “Viewers aren’t particularly concerned about the length of the message or the message but really about whether or not the program is interrupted.” PTV has had its critics from day one, he said: “Some think we are too commercial. Some think we are not entrepreneurial enough. The bottom line is that stations have to maintain a trust relationship with their communities.” Membership is largest source of funding for PTV, Lawson said, and he trusted local stations to “find the right balance between raising funds and remaining noncommercial.” APTS board was considering revision in voluntary guidelines for stations’ use of their proposed digital ancillary and supplementary guidelines, he said. Revised guidelines may be announced in late fall after they're “fully vetted” within system, he said. Voluntary guidelines were adopted in wake of FCC decision to permit PTV stations to solicit ads on their nonbroadcast digital ancillary and supplementary services. That decision has come under attack especially from Republican members of Congress. At recent hearing, House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) said although FCC believed its decision would enhance PTV’s fund-raising potential, several committee members “have expressed concerns that the FCC’s decision will increase commercialization of public broadcasting to the detriment of its principal mission.”

FCC Chmn. Powell told Senate Commerce Committee that it needed to expand scope of Sec. 214 of Communications Act for Commission to ensure continuity of variety of telecom services. Powell made comments in committee hearing Tues. on financial turmoil in telecom industry that also featured high-level officers of Global Crossing, Qwest and WorldCom. Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) agreed Congress should broaden scope of Act’s section that gave FCC power to prevent communications networks from cutting service as result of bankruptcy and said he would try to make legislative changes before Congress’s adjournment scheduled for first week of Oct. Hollings asked Powell to send recommendations to Committee. Powell wouldn’t elaborate on how broad Sec. 214 scope should be, although he did mention cable companies and Internet service providers. He said there often was conflict between bankruptcy law and Commission’s powers under Sec. 214. Although he said he could envision scenario where scope of Sec. 214 could hamper FCC efforts to prevent loss of service, there were no current bankruptcies where agency didn’t have power to act.

Based on security concerns involving new network-based communications, Pentagon is poised to introduce policy that would restrict how personnel use wireless devices including BlackBerry handhelds, pagers and cellphones, Defense Dept. Chief Information Officer John Stenbit said Tues. “It’s about to come out,” he told reporters after wireless security conference held by Center for Strategic & International Studies and ITAA: “We are going to put some constraints on what types of devices could be used, where they could be used. We have to try to balance the desire of the employees for the freedom to choose whatever they want to do with the security considerations that we perceive.” He said policy would be released “soon,” most likely in matter of weeks or months. He placed new restrictions in context of DoD security issues as military systems moved from closed, end- to-end broadcast communications to more network-based operations. In network environments, weakest link can become vulnerability of entire network, he said. Also at conference, Richard Clarke, special adviser to President Bush for cyberspace, expressed concern about security of wireless LANs, saying industry itself was partly to blame for not doing more to bolster public awareness about potential loopholes. “Today there are widespread, insecure usages,” he said: “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Three FCC commissioners at NARUC panel on competitive policy issues here said federal-state cooperation would be important element in development of sound and effective regulatory approaches to telecom competition. NARUC Telecom Committee devoted entire afternoon session Mon. to panel.

In case it says raises novel questions of constitutional significance, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked Mass. federal court July 25 either to rule that computer researcher could legally access lists of Web sites blocked by filtering program or to declare parts of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) unconstitutional.

NASA told FCC it was critical to U.S. credibility in ITU negotiations that Commission “recognize applicable international regulations in all allocation and assignment policy decisions.” In reply comments to questions raised by FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force, NASA urged Commission to consider international spectrum usage when making U.S. allocations and assignments, particularly those that affected operators in Canada and Mexico or were global in nature. “The problems encountered with the allocation of bands to the mobile satellite service in bands designated for worldwide IMT-2000 usage could be averted in future spectrum policy decisions if more attention is paid to the longer term desirability of adopting international harmonization of spectrum usage,” NASA said. Agency said many ITU regulations involving spectrum used by satellite services were developed with U.S. delegation acting as lead advocate. That means agreements within ITU framework should be incorporated into U.S. policy, NASA said. “Many of the changes to the international table of frequency allocations have, as yet, not been implemented within the U.S. table,” NASA said. “In fact, to NASA’s knowledge, some of these omissions go back as far as the final acts of WRC-92.” Agency acknowledged FCC was updating U.S. allocation table based on ITU changes but stressed it was important “to make every effort to reflect the results of World Radio Conferences in a timelier manner.” In other areas, NASA expressed concern about issuance of “blanket waivers to unlicensed technologies, which have yet to demonstrate that frequency sharing with other radio services is feasible.” Such waivers should be considered in broader context of potential interference to existing services such as safety-of-life operations, NASA said. Traditionally, new services have faced burden of demonstrating compatibility with existing operations in particular band, although FCC didn’t always follow that course, filing said. “NASA encourages the Commission to place the ‘burden of proof’ clearly in the hands of the proponents of new technology rather than on the incumbent radio services,” it said.

FCC turned down CTIA request to adopt wireless location information privacy rules that would cover notice, consent, security and integrity of consumer data, provoking dissent from Comr. Copps. So-called 911 Act passed by Congress in 1999 imposed clear legal obligations and protections for consumers, said order, adopted July 8 and released Wed. Agency said law was adequate and additional rules weren’t needed for now. “Because we do not wish to artificially constrain the still-developing market for location-based services, we determine that the better course is to vigorously enforce the law as written, without further clarification of the statutory provisions by rule,” order said. Commission said it would monitor those “important issues” and would launch rulemaking “only when the need to do so has been clearly demonstrated.” While Copps said he agreed with majority that legislation clearly outlined “opt- in” requirement to protect consumers, he said he disagreed that “this clarity of purpose renders Commission rules unnecessary.”