LAS VEGAS -- AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said he hopes FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s remarks on spectrum legislation aren’t a sign the agency would oppose bills that limit the commission’s ability to place conditions on spectrum licenses sold during a voluntary incentive auction of TV spectrum (CD Jan 13 p1). House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., also raised concerns about Genachowski’s statements made in a CES keynote speech on Wednesday. Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan defended Genachowski, and T-Mobile backed the chairman, too.
LAS VEGAS -- Attendance at CES has become an annual ritual for most FCC commissioners, who fly in to spend hours walking the ever-massive show floor and to hold sometimes back-to-back meetings with other attendees. The commission even had a small booth on the CES floor, where staff gave away FCC Frisbees and plastic Slinkys, along with handouts with basic information about the agency. Most of Chairman Julius Genachowski’s aides made the trip, as did other top officials from the Wireless and Consumer and Government Affairs bureaus and the Office of Engineering and Technology.
Rural telcos have asked the White House to help save them from newly passed Universal Service Fund reforms. NARUC, meanwhile, decided to join the court challenge against October’s FCC USF reforms (CD Oct 28 p1), a state official told us.
Network operators such as cable companies and wireless carriers are increasingly focusing their capital spending on their broadband services, a fact that could bode well for network equipment company Sandvine in 2012, CEO Dave Caputo told investors Thursday during an earnings call. Capital outlays from the major operators have been concentrated “around the delivery of the consumer data experience,” he said. “If you look at cable, that’s becoming the key pillar. If you look at mobile, mobile data is becoming the key pillar of their offerings,” he said.
First Amendment aspects of extending program carriage regulations to more types of multichannel video programming distributors, and online video distributors’ (OVD) access to cable content, were debated by MVPDs and their allies opposing changes and rule-change backers. The FCC has proposed to extend program carriage rules to more types of MVPDs, so pay-TV companies can be found to have discriminated in favor of content affiliated with other subscription-video providers over independent networks. Nonprofits cited the entry of OVDs into the market as reason to extend the rules. Comcast and its main association said competition is plentiful.
LAS VEGAS -- Investment in infrastructure is critical to turning around a slumping U.S. economy, Rebecca Blank, acting deputy Commerce Secretary, told CES Thursday. Blank spoke during a discussion on how innovation can save the U.S., that took a sometimes pessimistic turn as panelists asked whether the nation is off its game. Panelists asked whether Angry Birds, a cellphone game which has gone viral, is now what passes for innovation in the U.S.
The U.S. is well prepared and positioned for the World Radiocommunications Conference 2012, U.S. Ambassador Decker Anstrom said in a telephone conference call Thursday. Anstrom predicted “strong regional support for the U.S. positions on a number of agenda items” planned for the WRC, which takes place in Geneva Jan. 23 to Feb. 17.
GENEVA -- Momentum is building in ITU-R for further studies on ways to spur roll-out and use of cognitive radio systems in the various radiocommunication services, according to submissions to the Jan. 16 to 20 Radiocommunication Assembly. A proposal from some countries in the Americas does not preclude work on possible regulatory measures. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region will pursue their objectives at the World Radiocommunication Conference later this month if the assembly can’t agree on a way forward.
SILICON VALLEY -- The FTC’s eagerly anticipated privacy report probably will be out before April, Commissioner Julie Brill told us Thursday. “You will see themes that you saw before in the draft report carried forward, but there will be other things” in the report, too, she said at a Hogan Lovells event. The contents are still being discussed at the commission, Brill said. She told us later that there are no highly contentious points, but neither is there complete agreement in principle. “It’s a work in progress,” she said.
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in remarks Wednesday at CES it’s unclear whether Congress will approve incentive auction legislation. All three FCC commissioners spoke at the conference, including a keynote address by Chairman Julius Genachowski, prior to a panel featuring McDowell and Mignon Clyburn. A key topic was a proposed incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, possible only if Congress gives the agency authority.