Due to compliance issues, federal regulators told officials at the Virgin Island Next Generation Network, a broadband initiative funded by NTIA’s BTOP program, to stop all project work and submit an action plan before Oct. 3. Unless the compliance requirements are met, the funding will be suspended Oct. 14. The action plan will be submitted before the end of the week, said project CEO Julito Francis.
Time Warner Cable avoided a program access complaint by Hawaii’s largest telco (CD Aug 11 p6), because the two sides agreed to a distribution deal. The cable operator let Hawaiian Telcom distribute a regional sports network, a spokesman for the telco told us. Other multichannel video providers meanwhile asked the FCC to continue or at least look to continue RSN conditions expiring next year. The agency placed the curbs on Time Warner Cable and Comcast in 2006 as part of letting them buy Adelphia Communications.
The incumbent-backed America’s Broadband Connectivity plan is flawed because it retains the rate-of-return system, gives incumbents the right of first refusal for universal service funds, and doesn’t address the nation’s broadband adoption gap, Blair Levin of the Aspen Institute said Monday. Speaking at a roundtable sponsored by the Minority Media and Telecom Council, Levin criticized the $300 million set-aside for wireless carriers, which he called “the wireless dividend,” and blasted the Department of Agriculture for asking the FCC to guarantee Rural Utilities Service loans, which he said creates “horrible false incentives.”
The FCC likely will soon approve a $2.4 billion radio deal to form a larger No. 2 company in the industry. The Media Bureau is expected by agency and commission officials to be nearly ready to issue, as soon as this week, an order letting Cumulus Media buy Citadel Broadcasting.
GENEVA -- Governments in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) want spectrum for unmanned aerial systems, more involvement in the coordination of certain satellite networks, and other measures to spur aeronautical systems, said the U.N. agency’s report on positions submitted to the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference. The intergovernmental organization also called for protection of spectrum resources and for international measures restricting cognitive and software-defined radios. ICAO supports WRC-15 consideration of rules to spur onboard wireless communications for aircraft operation aimed at reducing costs and carbon output while maintaining required levels of safety and reliability.
The NTIA asked that the Defense Department and Transportation Department work together to develop a joint testing plan on LightSquared’s latest proposals aimed at mitigating interference with GPS signals (CD Sept 12 p5). NTIA’s Friday request focuses on information from cellular and personal/general navigation GPS receivers under LightSquared’s modified proposal. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling sent the request in a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn and Deputy DOT Secretary John Porcari. The request also said further high-precision GPS receiver testing isn’t necessary until a specific solution is presented. Observers said that mean possible further delay to the company’s rollout.
Consumer advocates have yet to coalesce around an universal service reform plan (CD Sept 8 p4). The issue is so “complex” compared to matters like net neutrality and AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile that nonprofits have divvied it up, Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said. “The real problem here for a lot of us is that this is a huge complex area, the resources to play in a significant way on the telco side requires economic expertise that’s not always in-house."
The Rural Utilities Service will fund public safety programs through its Telecommunications Loan Program, the agency said Friday. The Agriculture Department published interim eligibility requirements for the construction of “interoperable, integrated public safety communications networks in rural areas” in the Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bmcxgi). RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein told us the money will be made available for a variety of projects, including build out of local networks in the 700 MHz band and next-generation 911 upgrades to emergency call centers.
The 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was expected to pass Sunday without congressional action on a public safety broadband network, despite the best efforts of first responders nationwide. The good news for public safety is that the administration took another shot at pushing the network, along with incentive auctions, in its $447 billion jobs plan, unveiled by President Barack Obama Thursday night during an address to Congress. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a member of Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, said Thursday be expects spectrum to be part of the debate as the group starts what is expected to be a long, contentious debate (CD Sept 9 p10).
LightSquared offered to make some operational adjustments to its rollout plans as part of the continued effort to mitigate the disruption of GPS signals. LightSquared filed a technical presentation Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bmcxfm) at the FCC detailing the changes as part of an ex parte filing and provided information on the filing to reporters Friday. GPS interests were still reviewing the proposed changes, but reacted with initial skepticism. A LightSquared executive, who refused to be identified, said the government agencies seem to be in a “decision-making mode,” based on recent interactions.