There must be a spectrum revamp “somewhere along the line” to free up more frequencies for carriers that are capable of acquiring and deploying them, said Verizon Communications Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo during a Bank of America conference Wednesday. Meanwhile, it will cost up to $250 million for repairs to Verizon’s wireline operations damaged by recent storms, he said.
GENEVA -- The first U.S. group proposals to the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) are the first to address the agenda for the 2015 conference. They include items on wireless avionics intra-communications, a review of the use of the band 5091-5150 MHz by the fixed satellite service (FSS), continued studies to allow uninterrupted future operation of mobile satellite service (MSS) systems, wireless broadband services, modernization of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System and a review of the Radio Regulations for e-navigation. The U.S. proposal on wireless broadband services hasn’t appeared on the ITU website, a source said. It was described in July by U.S. officials (CD July 29 p9). The 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference will recommend to the ITU Council agenda items for WRC-15.
The American Jobs Act’s inclusion of spectrum won praise from senators seeking to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety. The Act’s public safety section hews closely to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Spectrum Act, S-911 (CD Sept 13 p1). But House Commerce Committee Republicans who have favored a commercial D-block auction are continuing on their own path to spectrum legislation, a committee spokesman said Tuesday.
The new eligibility criteria to the Rural Utility Service telecom infrastructure loan program for public safety expand the eligible purposes for loans for the deployment of 911 access and integrated interoperable emergency communications systems, Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo said Tuesday. Systems include multiuse networks, homeland security communications, transportation safety communications and E-911 location technologies used outside urban areas, she said at an Internet Innovation Alliance event. The agency recently published the eligibility requirements for public safety in rural areas.
FBI Director Robert Mueller asked for legislation to speed government requests for access to user communications on Google, Facebook and other websites. Tuesday at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing about the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Mueller said the FBI wants to ensure that social media websites “have the capability to respond to court orders” seeking communications of users. The FBI had raised the issue at a February hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, but hadn’t called for legislation.
Rick Kaplan, chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau, said that as it moves on spectrum legislation, Congress should give the FCC maximum flexibility to act. The remarks came during a panel Tuesday sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Speakers disagreed sharply about whether Congress is playing a helpful role as it considers legislation giving the FCC authority to hold voluntary incentive auctions for broadcast and other spectrum, as proposed last year in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. This week, the administration proposed incentive auctions as part of the spectrum provisions in its Jobs Bill (CD Sept 13 p1).
Democrats and Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Rural Development pressed Agriculture Department officials to publish a study on how they're defining “rural” for the purposes of their grants and loans programs, including the broadband loan program. “This report was due two years after enactment of the Farm Bill, yet we still have not received the report,” subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, R-Ill., said at a hearing Tuesday. The bill was enacted May 22, 2008. “I hope that USDA can provide an explanation this morning for why this report is still not finished and how long it is expected to be delayed,” Johnson said.
The no. 2 U.S. radio broadcaster is starting to test an FM transmission technology that backers say may improve reception for analog listeners in areas with hills, mountains, skyscrapers and other obstructing terrain. The supporters and an executive who’s sitting out the test said the single sideband (SSB) suppressed carrier technology may eventually help reception of digital radio. There’s skepticism among some executives that the type of modulation will help get HD Radio chips in more consumer electronics.
GENEVA -- Difficult sharing studies have prompted several administrations to oppose some or all of the proposed bands under a WRC-12 agenda item on possible new mobile satellite service (MSS) allocations to spur advanced wireless communications, according to early proposals. Some regional groups, notably the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, and certain administrations are expected to introduce proposals that may contain support.
Public safety would get the 700 MHz D-block, under the proposed American Jobs Act released late Monday by President Barack Obama. The legislation also authorizes several spectrum auctions to fund the network. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., praised the bill for including proposals similar to his proposed Spectrum Act (S-911).