Lawmakers said online privacy legislation is needed to support the voluntary consumer privacy proposal touted by the Obama administration Thursday. Their comments came shortly after the White House unveiled its proposal for baseline consumer privacy protections online. The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is a voluntary code of conduct that aims to protect privacy rights of online consumers while giving them more control over how their information is handled, the White House said.
Dish Network’s wireless aspirations are contingent on a quick FCC approval of the company’s S-band applications, said Dish Chairman Charles Ergen during the company’s Q4 earnings call Thursday. A rejection or delay in approving Dish’s applications to use mobile satellite spectrum terrestrially would force the company to revisit its interest in joining the wireless business, he said. Ergen spoke at length about the FCC and its consideration of Dish’s purchase of TerreStar and DBSD and associated waivers of MSS rules.
U.S. Internet players will abide by the spirit of net neutrality for the foreseeable future, regardless of the outcome of appeals against the FCC’s 2010 rules, the agency’s recently departed chief of staff predicted. Net neutrality has become the “norm” in the U.S., Eddie Lazarus told an Information Technology & Innovation Foundation event Thursday. The type of heated rhetoric that occurred over net neutrality and this year over legislation that’s now being debated on intellectual property rights could be the harbinger of future debates, Lazarus said. He voiced hope there will be more wireless competitors, and that LightSquared’s spectrum will eventually be put to more use, and has no regrets about how the commission handled the company’s waiver.
Canoe Ventures will focus on developing VOD and TV Everywhere ad technology, dropping its interactive TV goals, the company said. As a result, Canoe will reduce its staff from about 150 to 30 employees, close its New York City offices, and consolidate its engineering-focused operations at its Denver facilities. There, Canoe CEO Joel Hassell, former chief technology officer, will run operations, a spokeswoman said.
The FCC shouldn’t impose rules that would limit the participation of the largest carriers in future spectrum auctions, former FCC Chief Economist Tom Hazlett said Wednesday during a presentation sponsored by the Hudson Institute. Legislation approved by Congress last week opens the door to such rules, but only through a separate public rulemaking with general industry applicability (CD Feb 17 p1). Hazlett is a professor at the George Mason University Law School.
A Michigan bill would make it easier for providers to install telecom facilities on state-owned lands now being used for rail trails. The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Tom Casperson and recently passed in the Senate, is expected to gain House support, industry officials said. The bill is significant for broadband expansion in the state because Michigan has more than 2,000 miles of rail trails, they said. However, opponents feared the bill might hurt funding for trail maintenance and development.
Verizon’s plan to buy AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, and marketing agreements tied to the deal, are running into opposition similar to opposition that aimed at AT&T’s failed bid to buy T-Mobile. But this time around T-Mobile is leading the charge, with Sprint Nextel also emerging once again as a prominent opponent. Public interest groups and other competitors also filed petitions to deny.
Democrats and the telecom industry are pushing for “dig once” language to be added to the surface transportation legislation due for votes after Congress returns next week from recess. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has an amendment that would require states to evaluate including broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have a Senate amendment requiring states to include the conduit. CTIA, USTelecom and the Telecom Industry Association support the broadband conduit proposals, their officials said.
Calling cyberattacks a “critical threat to our economic future and national security,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked Internet stakeholders Wednesday to address three significant cyberthreats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking. Specifically, Genachowski called on ISPs to develop and adopt an industry-wide code of conduct to combat botnets; develop secure routing standards to eliminate maliciously misrouted traffic; and adopt a series of DNS security extensions, called DNSSEC, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Genachowski said the vulnerabilities were identified after he tasked the FCC’s Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) with making recommendations in March 2011.
Tower operator SBA Communications will acquire 2,300 tower sites in the U.S. and Central America and some distributed antenna systems from Mobilitie for $1 billion, the companies said. Rivals American Tower and Crown Castle recently snapped up tower sites and small antenna assets. More tower deals, especially carrier deals and small antenna system transactions, are expected, analysts said.