The NG-911 Institute has “made a real difference as a clearinghouse,” FCC Public Safety Chief David Turetsky said Sunday at an institute reception in Anaheim during a meeting of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. The institute is a nonprofit that supports the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus. Turetsky said, “911 has to be modernized.” APCO President Terry Hall described “the hard road ahead of us” in that transition, talking about the difficulty in bringing stakeholders together and in negotiating with Congress.

The FCC Media Bureau should “quadruple” the number of set-top boxes Adams Cable Equipment is allowed to refurbish and sell under the CableCARD waiver the bureau granted the company in July (CD July 30 p11), ACE said in a petition filed Friday (http://bit.ly/1dmXhHB). The current waiver allows ACE to offer its existing inventory of 50,000 set-top boxes directly to subscribers, but the company wants to buy and refurbish older boxes “stranded” in the inventories of large cable operators that have moved on to newer models. “Millions of integrated set-top boxes that could continue to have a useful life are being disposed of for scrap metal when they could readily be refurbished and sold to consumers,” said the petition. The Media Bureau limited ACE to 50,000 boxes to ensure that the company’s operation wouldn’t threaten the “common reliance” on CableCARDs required by the integration ban, but ACE said increasing the limit wouldn’t put “the slightest dent” in the use of CableCARDs. “Cable operators have deployed more than 40 million set-top boxes that commonly rely on CableCARDs,” said ACE. Expanding the waiver would allow ACE to lower the price of its set-top boxes and DVRs and help the environment, the company said. ACE also asked the commission to exempt set-top boxes sold at retail to consumers from the limit imposed by the waiver, since retail sales “have no effect” on whether cable operators are primarily relying on CableCARDs, ACE said.

The cost of acquiring and delivering the necessary Internet bandwidth to support library services equitably is the “single greatest financial challenge with respect to library technology,” the Louisville Free Public Library told the FCC in comments Aug. 16.(http://bit.ly/14WpN1X). It argued that all the costs necessary for delivery of Internet access to public library branches should be Priority One eligible services under the E-rate program, and all other costs should be Priority Two services.

Uncertainty over which types of managed wireless access service are eligible for Priority One E-rate funding has been a hardship for Ohio school districts that need wireless access in the classroom at an affordable price, the Ohio E-Rate Consortium (OERC) told FCC officials Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1d0v6zv). Mobile hotspot service has been designated a Priority One service, and it bears substantial technical similarities with the OERC wireless access service, the consortium said. OERC’s managed wireless access service is far more cost-effective, and should qualify for Priority One funding, the consortium said.

Congress should enact baseline privacy legislation in line with the FTC’s privacy principles of “privacy-by-design, simplified choice and greater transparency,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in remarks prepared for her address at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum Monday (http://1.usa.gov/12jy6RC). “The FTC’s privacy agenda aims to persuade companies to minimize risks in ways that encourage, not undercut, their ability to reap the rewards” of big data and a data-driven economy by following those principles, she said. “The FTC recognizes that the effective use of big data has the potential to unleash a new wave of productivity and growth,” and the agency, “will remain vigilant to ensure that while innovation pushes forward, consumer privacy is not engulfed by that wave."

A fiber equipment provider appealed a decision by the Universal Service Administrative Co. denying funding to a school for “ineligible redundant Bogen Quantum Multicom equipment.” In its letter to the FCC last week, Patchcom LLC challenged the decision, arguing the equipment would bolster the primary PBX system already in place (http://bit.ly/1dmULBf).

Hawaiian Telcom accepted the full amount of its eligible funding for round two of Connect America Fund Phase I, it said in a letter to the FCC (http://bit.ly/16XkLyi). HT accepted $402,171 and pledged to deploy broadband to about 519 locations, with an average of $775 support per location. HT also proposed to receive an additional $618,450 in funding to deploy broadband to 798 more locations. Companies can accept their funding awards through Aug. 20, an FCC spokesman said.

Dish Network is “dead serious” about entering the wireless market, said Executive Vice President Stanton Dodge at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum Sunday. “We acquired a bunch of S-band spectrum several years ago, successfully worked with the FCC to grant us terrestrial rights to that, and we're currently out there trying to find more spectrum,” he said. The wireless market “should not belong to the incumbents of today,” and “policymakers should ensure that new entrants to the wireless broadband market have a chance to acquire new licensing and roll out new services,” Dodge said. Dish had been planning to enter the market by 2015, “but given where we find ourselves today, I think that’s a bit optimistic,” he said. Dodge also spoke disparagingly about retransmission consent, which he called “a system that should be destroyed now.” Dish wants “a fair deal” when negotiating with broadcasters, “and we want consumers out of the cross hairs,” he said. Dish’s attempt at compromise is a distant network signal system, which is “not a perfect solution” for operators because they would “still have incentives to continue to negotiate,” he said. “But at least, during those periods, consumers will be able to get their must-have programming."

The thirteen largest multichannel video programming distributors lost 345,000 subscribers in Q2 2013, a number similar to the second quarter losses of 325,000 subscribers reported in 2012 and 2011, said Leichtman Research Group (LRG) in a release Monday (http://bit.ly/1dmQyNN). The second quarter is “traditionally weak” but 2013’s losses are on par with the same period in previous years, said LRG CEO Bruce Leichtman in the release. DBS providers lost 162,000 subscribers in Q2 2013, compared to 62,000 over the same period last year. “Total DBS net losses in 2Q 2013 were the highest in any quarter since LRG began tracking the industry over a decade ago,” said the release. The nine largest cable providers lost close to 555,000 video subscribers in Q2, compared to around 540,000 subscribers lost during the same period last year, LRG said. The biggest telephone providers added 373,000 video subscribers in Q2, up from 275,000 net additions during the same period in 2012. The largest MVPDs have nearly 94.6 million subscribers, LRG said. The top nine cable companies have close to 50.5 million video subscribers, DBS providers have more than 34 million subscribers, and telephone companies have more than 10 million video subscribers, said the release. “The multi-channel video industry has leveled-off, with major providers losing about 0.1% of all subscribers over the past year,” said Leichtman.

Missaukee County, Mich., announced its Technology Action Plan to set county-wide broadband connectivity goals to support “economic development and residential quality of life,” said Connect Michigan in a press release Friday (http://bit.ly/14v1B0y). The plan uses the Community Technology Scorecard to determine if the county meets the FCC’s National Broadband Plan (http://bit.ly/13zXm96). The community scored 19 out of 40 points in broadband access, 30 in broadband adoption, and 37 in broadband use, the report said. Missaukee County scored 86 out of 120 points for overall broadband technology readiness, which indicates “the community is exhibiting high success in technology adoption and use,” the report said. The plan proposes the county apply for U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to build broadband in the community and to identify, map and validate broadband demand. Public-private partnerships were proposed in the plan to deploy broadband service for middle-mile access. Digital literacy initiative proposals include broadband training for small and medium businesses, new technology initiatives in schools and promoting telemedicine in rural areas. “Fostering broadband adoption, education and access is critical to addressing the challenges of bringing Internet services into a rural community like Missaukee County,” said Linda Hartshorne-Shafer, the county’s emergency management and planning director. “Better broadband use and understanding are vital to so many facets of the broadband issue in Missaukee County and Northern Michigan, whether it’s from a residential or economic development standpoint."