Industry was cool to FCC proposals to include performance metrics for its expanded network outage reporting requirements. Speaking on a pair of panels at the commission Thursday, executives from CenturyLink, Vonage, Cox and the Telecommunications Industry Association raised concerns that the proposals might unfairly burden companies without adding any clarity to communications network failures.
TiVo got an FCC waiver to sell all-digital DVR devices that can’t get analog cable channels or analog broadcasts. The conditional waiver was issued by the Media Bureau Wednesday afternoon, citing cost reduction and power consumption as benefits. The company was required to include post-sale materials on some of the new products’ limitations, including that traditional set-tops still may be needed to get all the pay-TV companies’ services. TiVo had sought speedy approval of the waiver, which it got, to begin selling the device in time for the holiday shopping season for consumer electronics (CD June 9 p12).
The FCC has one more rulemaking to issue on putting into place new low-power FM rules from legislation last year that paved the way for the licensing of many more LPFMs, agency and industry officials said. They said the Media Bureau will circulate for a vote a rulemaking notice to implement the rest of the Local Community Radio Act. The forthcoming notice, which may not be finished yet and ready to circulate, is expected to deal with the technical details of licensing new LPFM stations that are closer to frequencies used by existing full-power FM broadcasters than the commission had permitted. Comments, meanwhile, came in to dockets 99-25 and 07-712 on another rulemaking implementing other parts of the act, including from members of the House and Senate who are proponents of LPFM.
Wireless carriers other than AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which signed the ABC Plan for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation reform, hope to win concessions as proposed changes to the program move forward at the FCC. With the wireless industry presenting a divided front, it’s unclear how much leverage smaller wireless carriers will have and what changes they will be able to push through at the commission.
Several governmental agencies will voice strong reservations over LightSquared’s revised plans for beginning wireless service in the lower part of its L-band spectrum in a Thursday Congressional hearing, according to copies of written testimony obtained by Communications Daily. The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing on the impact of LightSquared on federal science activities is scheduled for 2 p.m. in room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
State regulators took aim at the industry-endorsed proposals for universal service and intercarrier compensation regime reforms, in reply comments on docket 10-90. Drawing the heaviest fire was the incumbent-backed America’s Broadband Connectivity plan. Regulators from Maine to Alaska blasted the proposals. State regulators have formed themselves into a task force hoping to convince the FCC that it’s too early to create uniform compensation rates (CD Sept 2 p7).
As Congress returns to tackling technology-related legislation, some bills could get some movement, said Internet policy experts for the Center for Democracy & Technology. Bills concerning location privacy from Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and HR-1981, a data retention bill from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, could move through the process this Congress, they said.
"The status quo in cybersecurity is not acceptable,” a senior Homeland Security Department official said at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., agreed cybersecurity is an urgent national defense issue. Meanwhile, committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, pushed for modernization of the country’s emergency alert system.
The Internet Protocol version 6 Forum began a worldwide testbed for IPv6 products. “Boundv6” was named for the late Jim Bound, developer of Moonv6, a global, permanently deployed, multi-vendor IPv6 network led by the North American IPv6 Task Force and the University of New Hampshire-InterOperability Lab, the forum said Wednesday. Where Moonv6 was about vendor interoperability, the new program aims to create a permanent network initially connecting IPv6-ready, logo- and U.S. government-approved labs where IPv6 users can trial applications and devices “in meaningful test scenarios,” it said.
Sprint Nextel Tuesday joined the Department of Justice in suing to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. Sprint sought injunctive relief against AT&T, T-Mobile and parent Deutsche Telekom, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit alleges that the proposed deal would violate Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act. Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., a member of the Judiciary Committee, urged an objective court review of DOJ’s lawsuit against the deal.