Sony launched the voice-powered NSZ-GS8 Internet Player with Google TV that allows users to search live TV, the Internet and apps over Wi-Fi. The $199 Google TV player, due in stores in July, includes a set-top that connects to the TV and a handheld controller with remote functions on one side and a keyboard on the other. The next-gen Google TV box replaces the NSZ-GS7 and adds voice control and software enhancements, said Sony spokesman Ray Hartjen. The box connects to a TV via HDMI and the controller communicates with the box via Bluetooth, he said. Search capability is powered by Google Chrome, and users can find topics by search words or phrases using Google voice recognition technology, he said.

TiVo continued to urge the FCC Media Bureau to reconsider the relief granted to Charter on CableCARD rules. TiVo’s petition for reconsideration of that relief is pending (CD May 22 p20). While the EchoStar decision this year effectively vacated portions of the CableCARD rules, “it did not simply eliminate cable operators’ CableCARD obligations altogether, including the obligation to supply CableCARDs to consumers who utilize competitive devices,” TiVo said in response to Charter’s opposition to TiVo’s petition (http://bit.ly/12DMCX8). The EchoStar decision has created some confusion by finding the encoding rules to be non-severable from the rest of the second report and order and vacating it in its entirety, TiVo said. To address this confusion, the commission should consider a proceeding “to remove such uncertainty and reinstate the rules that the commission clearly has the authority to enact,” it said. TiVo also said it urged the bureau to disclaim any statements beyond the scope of Charter’s waiver “regarding the acceptability of specific security solutions without more detailed guidance from the full commission following public notice and comment.” An attorney for Charter said previously that vacating its waiver order would weaken CableCARD support requirements (CD June 6 p3).

California VoIP company certification issues should receive a properly noticed generic rulemaking, the California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CALTEL) told advisers to members of the California Public Utilities Commission (http://bit.ly/14v4Ho3). CALTEL filed an ex parte document posted Monday and first filed May 10 at the CPUC detailing the meeting as well as its concerns. Currently the CPUC is engaged in “piecemeal consideration of issues that implicate the common carrier and certification status of certificated VoIP carriers in a number of application proceedings,” which is “improper, inefficient, constitutes a violation of CALTEL’s members’ due process rights, and has the potential to be harmful to competition and contrary to the public interest,” CALTEL said. The association points out that the CPUC is looking at these issues in four proceedings devoted each to a single company. California’s law barring state VoIP regulation, SB-1161, shouldn’t affect any of the CPUC’s rules and processes for certificates of public convenience and necessity (CPCNs), but that needs to be spelled out, the association said. CALTEL proposes the CPUC modify the language in one ongoing proceeding to include explicit language for addressing these concerns in a second phase. A proposed decision should include the following text, CALTEL recommended: “The Commission shall hold a workshop to examine the Commission’s regulatory obligations and duties with respect to certificated and uncertificated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) carriers in light of the recent adoption of Senate Bill 1161. ... The assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) will schedule a workshop within 90-days to consider 1) whether a registration process, in whole or in part, should be extended to uncertificated VoIP carriers in light of current market status, consumer issues and current regulatory status and 2) whether any changes should be made to the Commission’s rules and processes pertaining to issuing and maintaining CPCNs for entities that utilize VoIP or IP-enabled technologies to provide services.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended the comment deadline on a paper by the commission’s Technological Advisory Council on recommendations for improving receiver standards. The white paper, “Interference Limits Policy,” is available on the FCC’s website (http://bit.ly/13y4M6O). Receiver standards are widely viewed as one of the thorniest wireless issues facing the FCC. TAC is chaired by Tom Wheeler, nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next chairman of the FCC. NAB, CEA and the GPS Innovation Alliance had asked the FCC to extend the comment and reply deadlines by 30 days. OET agreed. Comments are now due July 22, replies Aug. 7. “We find that extending the comment and reply comment periods for remarks on the TAC White Paper, its recommendations, and questions posed in the Public Notice more broadly on receiver performance, will serve the public interest by allowing commenters additional time to review the technical contents and unique policy proposals outlined in the White Paper,” OET said (http://bit.ly/11dGqif).

Engineering and preparations are complete for the river crossings to bring a greenfield fiber network across the Hudson and Passaic rivers in northern New Jersey, said United Fiber & Data Tuesday (http://yhoo.it/14TKGEh). “The crossings connect 165 Halsey [the location of a data center] in Newark, New Jersey, to Manhattan and other high-profile trading and financial exchange locations in the New York and New Jersey metro area,” the company said. “The completion of the river crossings finalizes a segment of the UFD network that connects Manhattan southward to Linden, New Jersey.” These crossings will go toward a larger planned network of more than 375 miles.

State strategies toward information technology challenges differ based on specific needs, said a joint survey and report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (http://bit.ly/11U8DcA). The survey included results from 26 states and territories and focused on healthcare and information technology. CIOs are taking a “global or enterprise view” of these challenges and looking toward consolidation and optimization, the report said. “The overarching goal is to link existing silos, and to implement a unified framework across state agencies, departments and projects whenever possible.” These CIOs are important collaborators in the state and in state-to-state efforts, with 72 percent of survey respondents citing “a significant role” in the State Level Health Information Exchange. “Data governance is the least mature capability across states,” the report said. It added that “80 percent of surveyed State CIOs reported no data governance structure in place.” Shared services, however, were far more popular, with only 4 percent of respondents saying they weren’t using shared services. “These findings should be a call to action for states and State CIOs in navigating their future successfully,” it said.

Orange Romania launched what it called a high-quality satellite direct-to-home TV package via the SES Astra satellite. The package will be distributed on GlobeCast, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1bsIPKl). The package will use transponders on Astra’s 31.5 degrees east orbital position and will be broadcast in the DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 technical standards, it said. Orange Romania booked the service through GlobeCast, which is providing a complete solution “to bring Orange Romania’s channels to the point of uplink and prepare them for broadcast on capacity that GlobeCast has leased from SES,” SES said.

JetBlue more than doubled an existing contract to $20 million with ViaSat for an in-flight broadband service. The service, Fly-Fi, will use ViaSat’s Exede Internet service, ViaSat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/11wKauT). ViaSat “will bill for bandwidth charges based on the service take rate for each flight,” it said. Exede is available through the Ka-band satellite ViaSat-1, it said: The ViaSat system allows airlines to specify a high-speed service level to each passenger, “rather than simply an aggregate amount of bandwidth to the plane that leaves passengers competing for limited resources."

Gigabit Squared is partnering with Zayo Group to help lay fiber and set up a wireless network in the Mid-South Side of Chicago, Zayo said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/11EQF28). Gigabit Squared has been in the midst of creating a Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program and received $2 million in grant money from Illinois to work in Chicago. As part of the partnership, Zayo will give Gigabit Squared dark fiber, collocation, IP Transit, wavelength and other services related to the infrastructure.

Limiting Verizon Wireless and AT&T participation in the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum will inevitably mean lower revenue from the auction, said Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford in a paper released by the group Tuesday. “At this stage of the industry’s evolution, costly interventions to serve bureaucratic preferences for unsustainable market structures are difficult to justify,” Ford wrote. “The upcoming voluntary incentive auction for broadcast spectrum will be the most complicated ever implemented for spectrum allocation,” the paper concludes (http://bit.ly/13UrZ4B). “Establishing rules that exclude or limit the participation of the two largest mobile wireless carriers will only add to the complexity, and ... the bidder restrictions are near certain to lower auction revenues."