The draft of a new House cybersecurity bill seeks to blend elements of the White House cybersecurity proposal with some recommendations from the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, in an effort to pass bipartisan cybersecurity legislation this session. The proposal, which will be formally introduced next week, would establish DHS as the lead agency to coordinate the response to national cyberthreats, create a new non-governmental organization to increase information sharing between the public and private sectors and emphasize voluntary incentives for private companies to secure U.S. networks.
Senators showed support for televising the U.S. Supreme Court, but at a hearing Tuesday some voiced reservations that it may be unconstitutional for Congress to make rules for an equal branch of government. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts debated S-410, a bill requiring cameras in the courtrooms. There’s “nothing I would love more than to watch Supreme Court arguments on television,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said at the hearing. “At the same time, as a coordinate branch of government, the Supreme Court is entitled … to determine how it operates."
The FCC created new spectrum screen standards in its review of the AT&T/Qualcomm deal and then applied those standards to its review of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, records show and an FCC official confirmed Monday. In its staff report on the T-Mobile acquisition (CD Nov 30 p1), the FCC mentions as part of its spectrum analysis that the “Commission has routinely updated its calculus for the second part of its test -- the spectrum screen -- when ‘new’ spectrum has been made available for mobile wireless services.
Lightsquared is “very pleased” with the results of a new round of testing into whether its proposed LTE broadband wireless network interferes with GPS-equipped devices, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said Monday at the UBS conference in New York.
The technology joint venture, marketing and strategic partnerships between Verizon Wireless and the SpectrumCo members will proceed immediately, while the companies pursue regulatory approval of their proposed $3.6 billion spectrum deal (CD Dec 5 p5), cable executives said Monday at a UBS conference in New York. “The commercial agreements … are very separate from the spectrum sale,” said Comcast Vice Chairman Michael Angelakis. “Those agreements are in place and the teams are meeting,” he said.
The Washington Independent Telecommunications Association, which represents small telcos in the state, alleged that competitive local exchange carrier PAETEC has been avoiding access charges. The group asked the state commission to stop PAETEC from its activities and revoke its authority to operate in the state. It’s uncertain what the FCC’s order on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation would do to state access charge disputes, said the group and PAETEC.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Sen. Al Franken D-Minn., and Consumer Watchdog are asking federal regulators to investigate whether mobile software firm Carrier IQ’s practices violate consumer privacy rights. And groups like the Center for Digital Democracy are calling for federal privacy legislation. The company came under fire after reports that its software, installed on many major carriers’ smartphones, collects and transmits potentially sensitive data about device users. Carriers using Carrier IQ claimed they solely use the service to improve and maintain network performance.
Core Communications appealed the FCC’s Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation order Friday. The USF/ICC appeal is apparently the first legal challenge to the commission’s USF overhaul (CD Oct 28 p1). But it will not be the last, telecom experts have predicted. It was filed in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. It’s a mere two pages.
A spectrum venture of three cable companies agreed to sell 122 AWS licenses to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion, the companies said Friday. SpectrumCo is a joint venture of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, and the licenses cover 259 million POPs. The consortium was the third-highest bidder in the AWS-1 auction, which ended in September 2006, behind only T-Mobile and Verizon. The deal likely faces pushback similar to that aimed at AT&T for its proposed buy of 700 MHz spectrum from Qualcomm, a smaller deal now stalled at the commission. (See story in this issue.)
Smaller TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors get a break from having to test the noise levels of ads that others insert into shows they carry. MVPDs with fewer than 400,000 subscribers and TV stations with annual sales below $14 million won’t need to regularly test the volume levels of all ads, and only monitor those they insert into programming. Bigger stations and systems would need to do testing to ensure programming from national cable channels or broadcast networks meets the Advanced TV Systems Committee’s A/85 recommended practice for keeping ads not much louder than the regular programming they appear within.