FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell leaves office expressing some concerns about work left undone, especially on rules for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum and media ownership reform. McDowell, a commissioner since 2006, was a surprise choice when nominated, but was viewed as a top candidate for chairman if Mitt Romney was elected president last year. Like Chairman Julius Genachowski he plans to leave Friday, leaving behind a 2-1 commission. McDowell said Tuesday his first stop will be the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, where he will be a visiting fellow.
The government continues to take steps to enhance partnerships in commercial space launches, said Maj. Justin Sutherland, a chief in the Air Force Space Operations Division. The government is taking the initial steps to implement the provisions on launch and space vehicles in the FY13 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed in January, he said Tuesday at a Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee meeting in Washington.
The FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force released its much anticipated public notice on Internet Protocol transition trials Friday, but stopped short of approving AT&T’s proposal for wire center trials. Instead, if trials as proposed by AT&T come at all, they would only follow completion of a comment cycle set up by the task force Friday. Commissioner Ajit Pai called the notice a “missed opportunity.”
The FCC approved a rulemaking that proposes giving the commercial space industry faster, more assured access to the 420-430 MHz, 2200-2290 MHz and 5650-5925 MHz spectrum bands during space launches. The FCC also proposes various options to improve interference protection for communications between commercial satellites and federal users on the ground. An accompanying NOI examines the space industry’s broader spectrum needs. The NPRM and NOI were approved Thursday by the commission by a 4-0 vote.
Rapid growth in the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturing sector is a threat to U.S. national security because it’s a possible source of cyberattacks on U.S. communications infrastructure, said retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Adams in a report released Wednesday, commissioned by the lobbying and policy group Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). The report said U.S. national security and the nation’s defense-industrial base are threatened by an over-reliance on foreign suppliers for “critical defense materials,” including telecom equipment (http://bit.ly/144fqnC). The AAM report follows the release earlier this week of a Defense Department report to Congress that said at least some cyberattacks on U.S. government and civilian computer networks “appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military.” China is waging these attacks to gather information on U.S. defense, diplomatic and economic interests “that support U.S. national defense programs,” the Defense Department said in its report (http://1.usa.gov/13ecTZb). The Defense Department report makes it “all the more urgent” that the U.S. restore domestic production of telecom equipment and other equipment needed for military use, Adams said at a news conference Wednesday.
The FCC is asking the states to review and update their Emergency Alert System plans to make sure they comply with the agency’s rules, said a public notice from the commission’s Public Safety Bureau Thursday (http://bit.ly/ZYhmhc). The notice to the State Emergency Communication Committees (SECCs) is in response to one of the recommendations that came out of a report on the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s first-ever nationwide EAS test in 2011 (CD April 16 p5). The new notice said all state EAS plans must be up to date, filed with the FCC, and must include a “computer readable” data table showing monitoring assignments and “the specific primary and backup path” for emergency messages, “from the Primary Entry Point (PEP) to each station in the plan.” The agency also requires states that can initiate messages using the Common Alerting Protocol to include monitoring and distribution specifics for those messages in their EAS plans. In a separate order Thursday (http://bit.ly/163m81q), the bureau also allowed 15 stations that had previously filed requests for waivers of the commission’s CAP requirements to withdraw them. “These fifteen petitioners all state that they are now either in compliance with [the CAP requirement] or are no longer in operation,” said the order.
The longtime former president of NCTA and CTIA Tom Wheeler, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next FCC chairman, has a reputation as a tough manager who asks a lot of questions, said industry officials who have worked for him and those who have watched him closely. They said in interviews he will likely have a strong focus on getting things done. Unlike nearly all past chairmen he is not a lawyer, but he comes in with what is probably the most management experience of any FCC chairman ever, industry officials noted. Obama also confirmed (CD May 1 p1) he is designating Mignon Clyburn interim chair, the first woman to lead the FCC.
Several Texas telcos have sought recovery of millions of dollars’ worth of lost federal support money from the state’s USF (CD April 4 p5). “We commend Texas for creating a process to address any unique concerns for carriers in the state of Texas as a result of recent universal service reforms,” the order said. “We consider these efforts to be a positive development for federal-state coordination and partnership, and encourage other states to consider similar approaches as states may be best positioned to address any unique circumstances for carriers in their state."
The FCC required all Web browsers on mobile phones be made accessible for the visually impaired by Oct. 8, said an order Monday on implementing the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. On circulation is an NPRM on implementing CVAA rules on accessibility requirements for video user interfaces and programming guides, said agency and public-interest officials. An order last month implemented CVAA rules on emergency video description (CD April 10 p6). While some groups representing disabled consumers have said they found the orders and the coming NPRM vague, they also praised the FCC for issuing them. “We've been generally very pleased with the FCC’s efforts to complete these rulemakings in a timely fashion,” said American Council for the Blind Governmental Affairs Director Eric Bridges.
Undecided Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas could limit FCC efforts to encourage diversity in broadcasting, said a presentation to the commission’s Diversity Committee Thursday. Akin Gump lawyer Ruthanne Deutsch said she and others who follow the Supreme Court believe the court will hand down a decision striking down the University of Texas program that factors race into admissions, which she said would leave “a very very tiny tiny window” for government programs considering race. Minority Media and Telecommunications Counsel Executive Director David Honig said diversity in media law “flows from” education diversity law, and that such a decision “could affect a great deal” of what the commission might do to encourage diversity in the communications industry.