Google is talking with “a variety of folks” about various options and strategies of using the 700 MHz C-block spectrum including “some who have opposed us vociferously at the FCC,” Richard Whitt, Google Washington telecommunications and media counsel, told a joint luncheon of the Federal Communications Bar Association wireless and cyberspace practice groups. Some of the strategies include “a joint bidding consortia” or forming joint ventures post auction, Whitt said.
Unless the FCC acts by Friday on a July 31 CTIA petition for an administrative stay of requirements that all cell sites install backup power, the CTIA will have to seek “further relief,” it said. That likely would mean going to federal court. The FCC in August extended the deadline for installing backup power until Oct. 9, two weeks away, but granted no stays.
Public safety groups and industry officials said they support an E-911 bill (HR-3403), with the exception of USTelecom, which couldn’t commit to full endorsement of the measure, they told the House Telecom Subcommittee Wednesday. The bipartisan bill, which has been in the works for more than two years, would facilitate deployment of IP-enabled 911 and E-911 services. While there is still squabbling over details, the hearing paved the way for a markup and final passage, lawmakers said.
The FCC should adopt “procedural rules” to improve the way it handles forbearance petitions, five competitive telecommunications companies said in a petition filed Wednesday at the FCC. The forbearance process, mandated by Section 10 of the Telecommunications Act and implemented by the commission, has flaws that can lead to “unreasoned decision-making” and ultimately harm competition, the competitive local exchange companies said in a news briefing.
AT&T warned that the FCC is on perilous legal ground in approving rules for E-911 location measurement before it wrapped up a broader rulemaking. Carriers are widely expected to challenge the Sept. 11 order in federal court (CD Sept 11 Special Bulletin). Carriers were upset last week when the FCC established a five-year deadline, with benchmarks, for measuring success in locating wireless E- 911 callers at the public safety answering point (PSAP) level rather than using statewide averaging. The FCC action was stage one of a two-part E-911 rulemaking, which focused on measurement standards. Reply comments in the next phase, looking at broader E-911 issues, were due this week.
Comments by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on two issues - probable creation of a commission panel on early termination fees and opening the TV white spaces to use by portable devices - have prompted a flurry of activity at the agency. Various players are eager to set up meetings to drive home their well-developed positions. Martin dropped a few hints Tuesday during a brief session with reporters in the commission meeting room.
A precedent-setting court order staying the International Trade Commission Qualcomm chip ban for third parties is “very good news” for T-Mobile but a long term “concern” for the ITC and patent holders, officials told Communications Daily Thursday. Late Wednesday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ordered a partial stay of the ITC limited exclusion order against Qualcomm chips that infringe Broadcom patents. The ruling could be a “harbinger for a favorable final decision” for Qualcomm, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst said.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., criticized the FTC for its no-new-controls-needed stance on net neutrality at a Wednesday reauthorization hearing by the Interstate Commerce Subcommittee. FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras and her agency are handling online traffic discrimination as “a catcher responds to a foul ball,” he said. The FTC has urged lawmakers to “carefully consider” consequences before imposing neutrality rules, citing the law of unintended consequences (CD June 28 p2).
SAN JOSE -- The FTC will take enforcement action against broadband-services marketing that’s false or deceptive, an agency lawyer said at USTelecom’s Executive Business Forum. “You're going to be seeing more from the FTC in this area,” said Janice Charter, an attorney in the agency’s San Francisco regional office.
The EU/U.S. tug-of-war over data protection is hurting transatlantic commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce Germany (AmCham) said. Whether they're active in consumer protection, Internet or electronic commerce, companies all over face variances on protection of personal data, it said. No soon did the U.S. and EU settle a dispute over airline passenger name record data than Germany’s Interior Minister demanded the EU collect what the U.S. does, it said. More enterprises in Europe doing business in the U.S. hang on the horns of the same dilemma; they must transfer a multitude of data to the U.S. whose circulation German or EU rules ban, AmCham said. Germany’s economy needs a reliable framework for transatlantic business that doesn’t hamper Germany’s economic relationship with the U.S., AmCham said. U.S. officials will be asking for more, not less data, predicted German telecommunications lawyer Axel Spies. Germany works closely with the U.S. on all levels to fight terror; if its proposed law on mandatory storage of communications traffic data takes effect, the U.S. will tap into that pool as well, he said. Besides terror-related requests, the U.S. seeks data from Europe in other areas, such as addressed by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Sarbanes-Oxley and by the Federal Trade Commission in antitrust, he said. International litigation is “another field of contention” on which electronic discovery requests from the U.S. may clash with EU data protection law, Spies said.