Technology experts expressed doubts Fri. about broadband over power lines (BPL) ever reaching large-scale deployment. Niche applications may be possible, but “if the question is whether it will be competitive with DSL and cable, I doubt it,” Dale Hatfield, dir. of the U. of Colo.’s Interdisciplinary Telecom Program, said at the FCBA-Practising Law Institute conference. “I look at the capability [of BPL], at the condition of the power lines and I think it’s unlikely to deliver what cable or fiber is capable of delivering,” said Verizon Wireless Exec. Vp Richard Lynch.
The draft TRO remand order circulating among commissioners doesn’t cover a wide area of issues, but rather is limited to concerns raised earlier this year by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Jeffrey Carlisle said Thurs. at an FCBA-Practising Law Institute conference. Carlisle told the group that the court basically upheld the impairment standard set in the earlier TRO order “so we're using the upheld standard to review 3 elements” questioned by the court -- local switching, high-capacity loops and transport. “We're not starting from zero and building up an unbundling policy,” he said.
STANFORD, Cal. -- Regulatory pressures are converging with business and technology imperatives on regimenting communications and information technology, said Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Zittrain told a forum here late Mon. of the Stanford Center for Internet & Society that the same openness and wide availability that make the Internet a cornucopia of creativity and innovation also open it to hacker attacks, the free distribution of digital products and services and other crises that prompt restrictive reactions from powerful business and political forces.
Public TV stations are mostly ambivalent about PBS’s decision to lend its name to a commercial children’s channel being launched in partnership with Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop. Comcast and HIT would invest $75 million in the channel, set for launch in fall 2005. PBS and Sesame Workshop will put up no cash but will get 15% equity each for the PBS brand, broadcast cross-promotion and goodwill.
On November 19, 2004, the Senate passed the conference version of H.R. 1047, the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004. The House passed the conference version of H.R. 1047 on October 8, 2004. The conference version of H.R. 1047 has now been cleared for the White House.
As House and Senate staff closed offices for Thanksgiving, the prospects of several telecom bills seemed extremely bleak due to struggles over Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain’s (R-Ariz.) boxing bill. House, Senate and industry sources indicate there don’t appear to be negotiations on the issue. House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) objects to moving the boxing legislation, and sources said McCain will let nothing else pass unless the boxing bill is passed.
FCC Chmn. Powell is expected to start circulating draft UNE rules among commissioners today (Wed.) so they can have input on the item before the rules are placed on the agency’s Dec. 15 agenda meeting. Lobbying has stepped up as various industry segments attempt to push their views in the much-contested proceeding. One 8th floor aide reported having 9 meetings with industry lobbyists Tues. “It’s already starting and the schedule looks pretty solid” the next week or 2, he said.
Members of Congress were still trying to push forward several telecom measures on Thurs. as Congress prepares to wrap up a “lame-duck” session. Senate sources said the Senate was likely to move at least 3 telecom bills in a legislative package that would also include Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain’s (R-Ariz.) bill to establish a national boxing commission. The package would include the spectrum relocation trust fund, E-911 legislation and a bill that would temporarily exempt the universal service fund and E-rate from Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) accounting requirements, which have raised fears that millions in E-rate funds couldn’t be delivered. Sen. Snowe (R-Me.) introduced a bill Wed. (S-2994) that would create the temporary exemption. But Senate sources told us the package could unravel. McCain was adamant that the boxing provision remain in, but Senate staffers indicated there could be objections to the measure in the House. One source said there were worries that House leadership could block the package to retaliate against McCain for voting against energy legislation supported by House leadership. And Senate source said the House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) could try to add spyware legislation to the package.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release announcing that on November 17, 2004, the U.S. and Australia exchanged diplomatic notes certifying that each country has completed its internal requirements to allow the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to enter into force on January 1, 2005.
A federal appeals court struggled Thurs. to decide if an FCC number portability ruling last year should be stayed since the agency may not have met procedural requirements. At issue was an FCC order in Nov. 2003 in response to a CTIA petition for clarification of existing rules involving the scope of “intermodal” local number portability -- wireline telephone company requirements to port numbers to competing wireless companies.