Members of House Telecom Subcommittee voiced concern Thurs. that wireless carriers and 911 call centers wouldn’t meet Oct. 1 deadline for deploying Phase 2 of Enhanced 911 location capabilities. Ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.) warned “industry should not seek -- nor should the Commission grant -- waivers to rules merely for business convenience.” He cited what he called “manana” syndrome among carriers on implementing E911. “But when it comes to 3G, they want spectrum today. They stipulate that it’s a national priority.” Markey said he backed industry’s quest for more 3G spectrum, but said he would “like to see the same alacrity and aggressiveness” on public safety offerings linked to E911. Hearing focused on thorny implementation issues that face wireless industry less than 4 months before Phase 2 deadline, including equipment availability and readiness of public safety answering points.
AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin lambasted federal govt. for taking one year and one day to approve AOL’s purchase of Time Warner in Jan., calling it “outrageous” that FTC and FCC took so long and scrutinized merger way they did. In wide-ranging stage interview with CNN’s Larry King at NCTA convention in Chicago Wed., Levin took federal agencies to task for “trying to apply 19th century concepts to 21st century reality” in merger review. “So many of these rules were put in place at a time to take care of a situation that doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. Without naming them directly, he criticized such rival media powerhouses as Disney and Viacom for lobbying for strict merger conditions while pursuing regulatory relief for themselves, calling it not “good form.”
Fate of data deregulation bill is in hands of House Rules Committee, which now must make pivotal decision on which version of HR-1542 will go to House floor for vote. Supporters and opponents each claimed victory Wed. following House Judiciary Committee’s markup of amended bill and rejection of competing bills. Although panel by voice vote approved “unfavorable” referral of bill out of committee, it passed by voice vote amendment by Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that would expand authority of Dept. of Justice in reviewing applications for Sec. 271 relief.
FCC placed 2 annual reports on agenda for its June 20 open meeting, which will be first attended by new Comrs. Abernathy and Copps. On agenda is notice of inquiry on annual assessment of state of market for delivery of video programming. Commission also will consider report on status of competition in commercial mobile wireless industry.
New FCC Comr. Michael Copps brings to agency strong interest in international trade issues, fascination with challenges raised by changing technology and belief that one shouldn’t join FCC “with a controlling ideology.” In interview Wed. with Communications Daily, Copps appeared to walk line between market- oriented approach to many business issues and govt. activism on others such as mergers and broadcast content issues. He also revealed apparent fondness for phrasemaking. “Here I am at the FCC, the Future of the Country Commission,” he said at start of interview. Asked at end to categorize his special bent at agency, Copps, former history professor, said he thought there was room for lawyers, engineers and perhaps “a wayfaring historian” like himself.
FCC Technology Advisory Council (TAC) will focus on wireless issues, especially spectrum management, under new 2-year charter. Formed by Office of Engineering & Technology (OET) under Federal Advisory Committee Act, TAC brought together diverse group of academicians, scientists and chief technology officers (CTOs) of technology companies representing telecom, data networking, software, consumer electronics and amateur radio interests. Role of TAC is to advise Commission on technical issues, OET Deputy Chief Julius Knapp said at meeting Wed. “The FCC couldn’t always anticipate technology, but we found people in the industry often could.” Mission of TAC is to help FCC anticipate how technology “might affect policy issues in the future,” he said. In 2nd 2- year charter, TAC will continue work of first council emphasizing software-defined radio and improved spectral management and continued noise floor study, he said. New areas of study requested by FCC include: (1) Better understanding of advances in optical technology, capacity of optical networks, availability of broadband services, interconnection of networks. (2) Network security and technology to ensure network integrity and “robustness.” (3) Plethora of consumer wireless devices and how pieces fit together. “The challenge of these consumer devices are all the different ‘languages’ spoken by different devices -- much of it on unlicensed spectrum,” Knapp said. In discussion, TAC raised concept of wireless “bill of rights” begun in first council. “Regulation has been much like the 10 Commandments -- there are too many ’thou shall nots’,” TAC Chmn. Robert Lucky said. Instead TAC began to think of wireless regulation in terms of rules of what wireless devices should be able to do, he said. In proposed bill of rights, first fundamental right of all wireless devices is “to transmit at any frequency at any power as long as it doesn’t interfere with any other wireless device.” The rest of admittedly unfinished bill of rights “deals with ‘how do you know you're not interfering?'” Lucky joked. Bill of rights concept could move licensing away from “ability to exclude others” to set of protocols to allow innovation by manufacturers within certain parameters, Motorola CTO Dennis Roberson. On goal of efficient spectrum sharing and management, industry must create “self-aware” devices that are aware of other wireless devices, he said. Several members warned FCC against too-rapid regulation of unlicensed spectrum used by wireless LANs and other devices. “These unlicensed radios, mostly low cost and short range, have a potential to become a pervasive part of communications… and will melt down because there isn’t enough spectrum,” Lucky said. Proxim CTO Kevin Negus said problems “aren’t fatal and new wireless products will thrive in the market based on their ability to work in crowded spectrum.”
House Telecom Subcommittee announced following witnesses for hearing Thurs. (June 14) on progress of E911 implementation: Michael Amarosa, vp-pub. affairs, True Position; Steve Clark, vp- network operations, U.S. Cellular; James Nixon, senior mgr.- regulatory affairs, VoiceStream Wireless; Andrew Rimkus, vp, Airbiquity; Steve Souder, administrator, Arlington (Va.) 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center; Thomas Sugrue, FCC Wireless Bureau Chief. Hearing will be in Rayburn Rm. 2322 at 10:00 a.m.)
Pacific Bell advised Cal. PUC to expect filing very soon, possibly this week, of revised Sec. 271 interLATA long distance entry petition that will be virtually identical to one it plans to submit to FCC later this year. Carrier’s estimated 2,500-page application, plus exhibits, will describe how it meets Telecom Act’s open market and public interest tests for entry into $12 billion Cal. long distance market. Pac Bell said that was major step on path to 271 ruling and expressed hope that PUC might be able to make decision by mid-Aug. But competitor and consumer interests said they didn’t expect PUC ruling before late Sept., at earliest, due to expected opponents’ claims that Pac Bell wasn’t meeting its obligations to competitors and shouldn’t be allowed into long distance. Observers noted one wild card that could delay decision was if state’s simmering energy crisis were to boil out of control again and force PUC to put everything else on back burner in order to keep its lights on.
General Services Administration (GSA), under scrutiny on Capitol Hill for delays in Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) contracts and high overhead rates, repeatedly pointed Wed. to lagging competition in local telecom market as one factor. House Govt. Affairs Subcommittee questioned why GSA was charging management fees of up to 85% in some cases. Technology & Procurement Policy Subcommittee quizzed GSA, General Accounting Office (GAO) and telecom carriers on why implementation in $4 billion MAA program still was only 11% complete in N.Y.C., with other cities also not yet shifted to local services contract for federal agencies. Building access barriers were cited as slowing progress of MAA contractors. “It is taking longer than expected to achieve the benefits of local competition,” said Sandra Bates, GSA comr., Federal Technology Service. Panel members and GAO, which is still working on MAA program report, didn’t lay blame for problems squarely on shoulders of GSA, but some fingerpointing did surface as AT&T and Bell companies criticized high level of overhead rates, with some saying GSA needlessly was inserting itself between govt. agency contractors and customers.
American, Delta and United airlines will join Boeing to provide airline passengers and operators worldwide with 2-way broadband connectivity to Internet, corporate intranets, e-mail, live TV and entertainment and other services while in flight, said Scott Carson, pres. of Connexion by Boeing, at joint news conference Wed. Under agreement, venture will be owned jointly by Boeing and the 3 airlines, with Boeing as major shareholder with overall management responsibility and airlines participating equally. Overall value of project and participants’ shares weren’t disclosed.