Lawmakers are planning to introduce an unspecified number of new cybersecurity bills “in the next couple of days,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, at a cybersecurity panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies Tuesday. These bills will build upon the recent recommendations by the House Republican cybersecurity task force, which is led by Thornberry and overseen by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio (CD Oct 6 p13). Thornberry said the focus on U.S. cybersecurity is “directly related” to job creation and preservation “because everyday somebody reaches into some business’ computer and sucks out intellectual property, they are sucking out jobs from the U.S. economy.”
TV sets and video game consoles that allow their users to make phone calls, video calls and send text messages aren’t yet categorically exempt from new federal accessibility rules, but their manufacturers can seek waivers from those rules on a case-by-case basis, said an FCC order implementing parts of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) released late Friday. CEA and the Entertainment Software Association had sought broader class-waivers from the accessibility rules (CD July 21 p11). They aren’t in the order released Friday, but the commission said it will consider waivers for classes of devices as they come in.
Arris agreed to buy BigBand Networks for about $53 million, after factoring out the cash BigBand has on its balance sheet, the companies said Tuesday. The inventor and leading vendor of the cable industry’s switched digital video technology, BigBand has Verizon and AT&T as large customers, executives of the combining companies said on a conference call with analysts. They said that broader customer base was part of what enticed Arris into the transaction. More than 30 percent of BigBand’s sales come from phone companies, while broadband equipment vendor Arris sells almost entirely to the cable industry, the companies said.
The FCC should focus on “covert consolidation” in its ongoing quadrennial review of media ownership rules, several nonprofit panelists said Tuesday. They called deals where two or more TV stations in a market join forces, without combining all assets as in a typical merger or acquisition, a critical issue for industry M&A foes. Municipal and public, educational and governmental channel officials also spoke at the Alliance for Community Media event on how PEG channels can educate members of Congress on many telecom issues.
Four members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Friday asked President Barack Obama to instruct the Office of Management and Budget to identify more federal spectrum below 3 GHz that could be reallocated for wireless broadband. Special attention should be given to identifying “paired, internationally-harmonized spectrum ... in sufficient block sizes to support mobile broadband services within the next 10 years,” the letter said. The four ask Obama to respond by Oct. 14.
Sprint will begin a rapid national rollout of LTE on its 1900 MHz spectrum and launch its LTE markets by mid-2012, executives said during an investor briefing Friday. The company expects to complete its Network Vision, the carrier’s plan to consolidate multiple networks into one, by the end of 2013, two years sooner than originally scheduled, they said.
Sprint Nextel and C Spire asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to deny an AT&T motion to exclude them from the lawsuit the government filed against the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Each previously filed an antitrust complaint against the merger. Judge Ellen Huvelle has indicated she will rule promptly on whether she will allow the two competitors to join the Department of Justice’s case following oral arguments later this month.
NCTA CEO Michael Powell sees signs from Universal Service Fund stakeholders that USF and intercarrier compensation can be reformed, as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seeks (CD Oct 7 p1). Industries with different proposals to use some of the USF to pay for broadband and to make changes to ICC generally understand they won’t get everything they want, he said in his first news conference. Powell said Capitol Hill is giving the commission room to work on the order that Genachowski wants voted on at the Oct. 27 meeting, and FCC members seem inclined to engage.
Some public broadcasting professionals are gauging whether federal funding for public broadcasting will be considered among budget cuts, with the creation of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. While the so-called super committee makes plans to eliminate $1.5 trillion of the nation’s deficit, some public broadcasters said the industry’s $440 million annual appropriation is likely too small to be considered. However, funding is still targeted, they said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski offered reassurance Thursday, in a speech at FCC headquarters as he prepared to circulate the FCC’s version of Universal Service Fund and intercarrier comp overhaul, most likely late Thursday evening. Genachowski’s speech was short on details on how his proposal differs from plans already before the commission, particularly the ABC plan. Instead, he reassured consumers they have nothing to fear and that the proposed reforms will, in the long run, drive down the size of their monthly phone bills.