A draft Senate DTV bill would set April 7, 2009, as the hard transition date for requiring broadcasters to return analog spectrum to the govt., according to a copy of the bill circulated Fri. on Capitol Hill.
Bloggers that “act more like businesses” or media entities will have “some sort of coverage” under Sen. Lugar’s (R-Ind.) media shield bill, a Lugar spokeswoman told us Wed. Lugar told the Inter American Press Assn. this week his Free Flow of Information Act (S-1419) would “probably not” apply to bloggers, Editor & Publisher reported.
Acting on reconsideration, the FCC amended and clarified parts of its 800 MHz rebanding rules. The Commission restated its challenged authority to grant Nextel spectrum rights to 10 MHz in the 1.9 GHz band as part of reconfiguring the band. It declined to change its valuation of spectrum rights in the 1.9 GHz and 800 MHz bands, especially in light of Nextel’s recent merger with Sprint.
Four rural telecom bodies have allied to strengthen their lobbying power as Congress eyes policy changes on issues such as universal service. At a news conference Thurs., members of the Coalition to Keep America Connected said the impending Telecom Act revision spurred creation of the group, made up of the Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance.
Offering a “data-centric” counter to the polarized debate on municipal broadband, telecom consultants Michael Balhoff and Robert Rowe released a lengthy report on municipal broadband’s history, economics and policy issues. Govts. can do a “whole variety of things short of building their own networks” to improve broadband deployment, adoption and value, without breaking the taxpayer bank, Balhoff, formerly Legg Mason telecom chief, said in a conference call Wed. Govt. “should look to models that are likely to balance social, policy and financial goals in any given marketplace,” said Rowe, former Mont. PSC chmn.
Offering a “data-centric” counter to the polarized debate on municipal broadband, telecom consultants Michael Balhoff and Robert Rowe released a lengthy report on municipal broadband’s history, economics and policy issues. Govts. can do a “whole variety of things short of building their own networks” to improve broadband deployment, adoption and value, without breaking the taxpayer bank, Balhoff, formerly Legg Mason telecom chief, said in a conference call Wed. Govt. “should look to models that are likely to balance social, policy and financial goals in any given marketplace,” said Rowe, former Mont. PSC chmn.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued a notice announcing an extension of the comment deadline for a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) concerning possible changes to its tariff publication exemption provided to non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) in NVOCC Service Arrangements (NSAs). The changes at issue in this NOI would allow NSAs to be jointly offered by unaffiliated NVOCCs.
The 4 proposals to modify the rules governing high- cost universal service support by the FCC’s Joint Board on Universal Service didn’t received much support in comments filed with the FCC Fri.
The FCC may fight the Vt. Public Service Board’s standing in a truth-in-billing (TIB) case in the U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, sources said. The FCC would claim Vt. can’t contest the FCC TIB order since it didn’t participate in the underlying TIB proceeding, sources said. The FCC declined to comment.
Largely ignoring copyright infringement, BitTorrent (BT) creator Bram Cohen told ISPs how to manage heavy file-swapping traffic and said his P2P application can help push on-demand downloads over live streaming. Cohen, whose creation is said to facilitate at least 35% of Internet traffic, also addressed content industries’ plight at the Next Generation Networks (NGN) conference Tues.