Electric utilities and telecom carriers clashed over whether utilities can rely on commercial networks to meet most of their communications needs during a disaster. More than a dozen parties filed reply comments on a Public Safety Bureau inquiry notice from April about the survivability of broadband networks. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) said utilities need their own secure networks and dedicated spectrum.
India is asking all companies that offer encrypted communications to install servers in the country so the government will have access to user data. India’s Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said notices were being dispatched to companies like Google and Skype, numerous Indian news reports said. While the U.S. State Department has been in touch with its foreign partners, it’s a matter for RIM and to work out directly with Indian officials, the agency said in an e-mailed statement.
Competitive eligible telecommunications carriers won’t be able to help themselves to money left over from the surrender of Verizon Wireless’s and Sprint Nextel’s high-cost universal service funds, the FCC said. In an order and rulemaking notice released late Friday, the commission said the money should be kept “as a potential down payment on proposed broadband universal service reforms … including to index the E-rate funding cap to inflation.” The commission sought comment on whether it should amend its rules permanently “to facilitate efficient use of reclaimed excess high-cost support” and on a proposed rule change that would “reclaim legacy support surrendered by a competitive ETC when it relinquishes ETC status in a particular state."
September is expected to be busy for public safety issues in Washington, but time and funding concerns are working against passing any legislation this year, said public safety and telecom industry officials. Legislation to set up a $70 million NTIA grant competition for public safety communications devices (CD July 30 p5) may have a better shot than bills involving the D-block, they said. The House and Senate have introduced nearly identical bills, HR-5907 and S-3731, sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and neither has generated opposition.
The FCC would expand the types of providers getting guaranteed space on Sirius XM as full-time channels to be set aside for such use were expanded beyond those owned by minorities, in an order that circulated last week, agency officials said. The draft written by career agency staffers makes good on the 2008 commission order conditionally approving Sirius’s purchase of XM in a several-billion-dollar deal by dictating terms of channel set-asides. Instead of using minority-owned companies to fill 4 percent of the company’s channels, the draft would let Sirius XM pick as qualified entities any firm that doesn’t already have a programming relationship with the company, commission officials said. The channel set-aside was part of FCC approval of the 2008 deal that created the company.
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission seeks comment on an update of a “concept paper” proposing how the state should restructure its universal service fund, the commission said Thursday. The extensive document, submitted Wednesday by the Washington Independent Telecommunications Association, reflects revisions to a July proposal and goes into significant detail in recommendations. The commission tentatively set Oct. 4 for a third workshop on the document and related matters. Comments are due Sept. 17.
The FCC acted in “injudicious haste” in adopting new Wireless Communications Service rules “without an adequate record to support its performance requirements,” AT&T said in a petition at the FCC, seeking partial reconsideration of a May 20 order. The WCS Coalition filed in support of the carrier. The FCC approved the order as the first step toward the National Broadband Plan’s goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband(CD May 21 p5).
Largely dismissing an April plea from the U.S. Copyright Office to cast the Performance Rights Act (HR-848) in a more favorable light, GAO maintained that the bill would raise costs for broadcasters and boost revenue for the recording industry. A GAO report dated August 2010 and released Friday reached the same conclusion as a February preliminary report made public in June. That earlier version had prompted an April rebuke from the Copyright Office (CD June 8 p11).
Increased interest on retransmission consent among legislators of both parties and from many parts of the U.S. is demonstrated in a spate of recent letter-writing by members of Congress on the subject to the FCC, some broadcast and cable executives agreed. At least 49 members of Congress have written the FCC, some multiple times, on the subject of contracts between TV stations and subscription-video providers, often cable operators, our research found. The 33 Democrats and 16 Republicans represent 19 states. Two letter writers each sit on the Senate and House Commerce committees.
The repositioning of Mobile Marketing Association disclosed Thursday is to create more commercial opportunities; better educate brands, agencies and consumers; offer better guidelines, standards and measurement; and better represent the industry before regulators and legislators, said Chief Marketing Officer Paul Berney. The group doesn’t have a position on net neutrality, but supports network openness, he said in an interview.