The role managed services already play on broadband networks has gotten muddled in the net neutrality debate, panelists said Friday at a discussion hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Forum. Speakers said competition is thriving but quality of service (QoS) issues will continue to get significant attention as the net neutrality debate continues in Congress and at the FCC.
Dish Network subscribers lost access to a variety of regional sports networks (RSN) last week as the direct broadcast satellite operator failed to sign new contracts with Fox Sports and Madison Square Garden networks. It asked the FCC to step into the latter dispute and preserve its carriage of MSG’s networks while the agency considers its program access complaint. The programmers, meanwhile, are urging subscribers to switch providers. Dish’s contract to carry 19 Fox Sports RSNs, FX and the National Geographic Channel expired Sept. 30, and it’s advertising online and in print to call viewers to action. Fox is telling Dish subscribers they may also lose access to Fox-owned Fox and MyNetworkTV stations Nov. 1 if a new deal isn’t reached. Dish continues to negotiate with both Fox and MSG, a spokeswoman said.
Standards bodies like 3GPP and carriers may have different interpretations of 4G, but they all consider things like spectrum efficiency and latency to be critical elements of the technology, experts said in interviews. Meanwhile, public safety has its own approach on 4G, public safety experts told us.
Streaming radio stations’ music to Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, cellphones using Google’s Android operating system and other smartphones and wireless devices is a start for broadcasters to enter the mobile sector, executives said. To make money there and keep terrestrial listeners when they're not at a traditional receiver, the industry must also develop applications, radio executives from Canada, the U.K. and U.S. said Thursday. Some of the panelists at the NAB radio show in Washington said offering paid apps is an area that may bear fruit -- both financially and in keeping the attention of some of the most fervent listeners.
In what the European Commission called a “first step” toward a unified defense against cybercrime, it proposed tougher laws against attacks on information systems and a more visible role for Europe’s network security agency. Cybercriminality isn’t just a game for young hackers anymore but an activity increasingly activity under the sway of organized crime, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. Protecting critical infrastructure such as electricity grids is the long-term goal, but that won’t happen unless current legal loopholes are plugged, she said at a news briefing. Both proposals must be approved by the EU Council and Parliament.
The threat from use of contraband cellphones in prisons is “deadly serious,” and finding a technical solution is a top FCC priority, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett said Thursday at a commission workshop on the topic. Wireless carriers, led by CTIA, used the forum to make the case that cellphone jamming is not the answer. But mostly those who testified described a problem that could elude easy solution.
The FCC’s “shot clock” proceeding “has been a dismal failure,” telco lawyer Jonathan Kramer told the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors conference in Washington Thursday. The so-called “shot clock” limited the time communities could spend reviewing mobile tower applications. “It just has not, in my opinion, served the public or the carriers,” he said. Kramer was responding to angry questions from NATOA attendees who wanted to know why, if communities had allegedly been stalling on mobile companies’ applications, there had been no further litigation since the shot clock idea was approved last year.
There’s a window for broadcasters to come up with their own guidelines on indecency standards amid regulatory and judicial uncertainty over FCC enforcement of the current rules for radio and TV, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. Before the courts sort out the commission’s authority, “this is an opportunity for the broadcasters to step into the breach,” he told industry executives and lawyers at the NAB radio show. “So I would call upon you to do that."
The NTIA may be willing to help its state and local grant recipients lobby the FCC on critical matters such as pole attachments, NTIA Chief of Staff Tom Power said Thursday at the NATOA conference in Washington. The NTIA’s statutory charter gives it the right to help formulate White House telecom policy and the agency might be “willing to follow up on our grantees’ interests,” he said.
The FCC unanimously approved a declaratory ruling and a report and order that clarify rules on broadcast auxiliary spectrum (BAS) relocation expenses incurred by Sprint Nextel. The ruling probably will help Sprint go ahead with a lawsuit against MSS licensees in the 2 GHz band, where the carrier cleared the spectrum. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who partially concurred, said she wishes the order had gone further in deciding liability. “The Commission has a strong institutional interest in ensuring that its relocation and cost reimbursement policies are correctly applied to the specific factual issues in this case,” she said. “I believe that the public interest would have been better advanced by having the Commission decide the particular issue of whether ICO Global is liable to Sprint Nextel."