The FCC imposed new wireless location accuracy mandates on carriers Thursday, adopting a compromise that had been worked out between major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association. The commission also approved a notice of inquiry examining changes to 911 for VoIP and a notice of proposed rulemaking on future changes for wireless. None of the documents had been released at our deadline.
Pay-TV providers should seek alternative ways to make money as consumer video watching habits shift towards online viewing, analysts told a USTelecom conference on broadband. This may require cable and satellite companies to increase their own VoD offerings and partner with content providers and even health care professionals in order to grow, analysts said.
"Black holes” in knowledge are slowing take-up of satellite technology in developing and developed countries, officials from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization said in interviews. Governments and regulators in CTO countries lack information on the relative costs and advantages of satellite communications and, in regions such as Africa, often face environmental, affordability and other challenges, said CTO CEO Ekwow Spio-Garbrah. Many officials have yet to see that satellite is a necessary part of the overall telecom picture, said ITSO Director General Jose Toscano.
Members of the newly reconstituted Wireless Innovation Alliance said in a call with reporters Wednesday the FCC shouldn’t weaken its white spaces rules through changes sought by broadcasters and others. Representatives of Public Knowledge, Google and Dell spoke on the call. A vote on the white spaces order is scheduled for Thursday, though aspects of it were still being worked out at our deadline, agency officials said. The FCC released its sunshine notice last Thursday, cutting off lobbying, though industry officials can still answer questions sent their way by the FCC.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and Motorola, long the top provider of public safety radios, disagreed on the state of industry competition, in filings on an Aug. 19 FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice. Motorola also took issue with the notice’s characterization of the market as one where “first responders rely on communications systems supplied by a small number of equipment providers to support mission-critical communications.” Questions about competition in the public safety equipment market were raised by leaders of the House Commerce Committee in a June 30 letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.
JetBlue Airways plans to offer in-flight broadband connectivity using ViaSat satellites and equipment, starting in 2012, the companies said. Many details are still being worked out, but ViaSat’s role marks a new stage for the company, which concentrated on the satellite equipment business before buying WildBlue last year. WildBlue will be the network operator of the service, an industry executive said.
Two FCC actions concerning children’s media drew praise from kids advocates for giving parents more information about rules by starting a website and showing programmers it takes quick action on what are alleged to be Children’s TV Act violations. The site, www.fcc.gov/parents, has been about a year in the making and its creation was one of Julius Genachowski’s stated first priorities when he became the FCC chairman in June 2009 (CD Aug 21/09 p1). The Media Bureau sought comment Wednesday on a complaint filed last week that a show coming to Viacom’s Nicktoons violates the Act. That’s an unusually quick turnaround. But children’s advocates said the commission could do more to help parents navigate online and older media.
The number of people who watch broadcast TV programming on the Internet has doubled in the last year, said a recent survey conducted by Altman Vilandrie & Co. “More people are cutting the cord than ever,” said Jonathan Hurd, the firm’s research director and one of several analysts speaking at USTelecom’s Broadband Research Summit.
Some states are looking to consolidate their emergency dispatch centers for cost savings as they migrate to the next generation 911 systems. But some local officials urged states to back off the plan. Concerns regarding additional cost, longer response time and quality of service were cited at a Maine Public Utility Commission hearing Wednesday. The state PUC proposed to reduce the current 26 public safety answering points to 15-17.
Deals between pay-TV distributors and programmers are becoming increasingly complicated as content owners seek higher prices and distributors try to win broader sets of rights, executives told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York this week. Sometimes TV programmers don’t always have all the rights the pay-TV operators want to license, said CEO Glenn Britt of Time Warner Cable. “The world tends to focus on the money part of these deals, but the reality is the negotiations have gotten very complicated and it’s because we want to move toward the ‘four anys'” of letting viewers watch programming on their device of choice at their place and time of choice, he said.