If its takeover of DOD duties monitoring space traffic and warning of possible satellite collisions is approved by the White House and Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration could have a pilot program or the first steps of such a transition underway in the "next couple years," George Nield, FAA associate administrator-commercial space transportation, said Thursday on a Washington Space Business Roundtable panel.
Complications for an FCC headquarters move are mounting. A lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the owner of its current building, and the General Services Administration ruled that its current location is considered to be on a floodplain. The commission has been seeking extra money from Congress for the move, which in part is needed because agency staff has shrunk (see 1602100058).
The value of cybersecurity training for local public safety agencies may outweigh its cost, Texas fire and police officials said in testifying Thursday at a field hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity at Austin College in Texas. But providing staff with affordable training can be a challenge, they said. Finding skilled staff also is difficult, a state-and-local panel said at a workshop in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (see 1604060047). Separately, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released a states’ guide to cyber disruption response planning.
National Urban League President Marc Morial waded into the debate over the FCC vacant channel proposal, warning that it could be negative for minority-owned TV stations. The fight has pitted public interest groups and Internet companies like Google against broadcasters (see 1603310059). “Minority broadcast ownership remains a vital issue,” Morial said in a letter to the FCC. “The need for diversity in programming and language access, especially in low-income communities, is more critical than ever.” The FCC should not “disregard its longstanding goal of increasing broadcast ownership by minorities and underrepresented groups,” he said. “We urge the FCC to ensure that any actions in addition to the incentive auction will not disenfranchise underserved viewers in low-income households who disproportionally rely on over-the-air programming.” Meanwhile, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, supported the FCC proposal in a meeting with Daudeline Meme, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Leading chipmakers and other tech industry stakeholders have steadfastly maintained that if the post-auction band plan and repacking policies do not ensure at least three channels of 6 megahertz of unlicensed access in every market, especially in the most populated metro markets, the Commission will be killing off many emerging unlicensed use cases and the economic and social benefits that depend on low-band spectrum,” a filing on the meeting said. Both documents were posted in docket 15-146.
National Urban League President Marc Morial waded into the debate over the FCC vacant channel proposal, warning that it could be negative for minority-owned TV stations. The fight has pitted public interest groups and Internet companies like Google against broadcasters (see 1603310059). “Minority broadcast ownership remains a vital issue,” Morial said in a letter to the FCC. “The need for diversity in programming and language access, especially in low-income communities, is more critical than ever.” The FCC should not “disregard its longstanding goal of increasing broadcast ownership by minorities and underrepresented groups,” he said. “We urge the FCC to ensure that any actions in addition to the incentive auction will not disenfranchise underserved viewers in low-income households who disproportionally rely on over-the-air programming.” Meanwhile, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, supported the FCC proposal in a meeting with Daudeline Meme, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Leading chipmakers and other tech industry stakeholders have steadfastly maintained that if the post-auction band plan and repacking policies do not ensure at least three channels of 6 megahertz of unlicensed access in every market, especially in the most populated metro markets, the Commission will be killing off many emerging unlicensed use cases and the economic and social benefits that depend on low-band spectrum,” a filing on the meeting said. Both documents were posted in docket 15-146.
The FCC will require state emergency alert system organizations to document their multilingual EAS offerings, said an order approved Wednesday by a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly dissenting in part. The order is a response to “The Katrina Petition,” a 2005 request for multilingual EAS offerings by the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the United Church of Christ. “We reaffirm our commitment to promoting the delivery of Emergency Alert System (EAS) alerts to as wide an audience as technically feasible, including to those who communicate in a language other than English or may have a limited understanding of the English language,” the order said.
Alternative distribution method and most-favored-nation language in carriage contracts are emerging as a major point of contention in the FCC's notice of inquiry on carriage hurdles faced by independent and diverse programmers (see 1602180044). The deadline for comments in docket 16-41 was Wednesday, with indie programmers and allies raising ADMs and MFNs as problematic, while Comcast and its NBCUniversal defended them.
Comcast urged a federal district court to dismiss a complaint by two Georgia counties on a dispute about collection of 911 charges. The counties of Cobb and Gwinnett filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, alleging Comcast failed to bill, collect, report and remit the appropriate amount of 911 charges from customers. The counties seek to collect the charges from Comcast. But in a motion to dismiss filed Friday, Comcast said it didn't underbill 911 charges -- and in any case, the counties don't have authority to hold telecom providers liable for unpaid 911 changes. The governing law in the state, the 1977 Georgia Emergency Telephone Number 9-1-1 Service Act (911 Act), doesn't authorize the counties to collect 911 charges from telcos, Comcast argued. “The 911 Act does not create a right of action against service suppliers for unpaid 911 charges and most certainly does not enable an action against suppliers to collect from them 911 charges that have not been billed,” it said. “The Counties ask this Court to manufacture from wholecloth [sic] a right of action that does not exist under the 911 Act and a remedy that the 911 Act does not allow. The law is clear that their complaint must be dismissed.” The counties’ 911 complaint is one of a spate of lawsuits lately facing telecom providers, said Comcast. “This lawsuit is one of over a dozen lawsuits filed by Cobb and Gwinnett Counties. It also mirrors more than a dozen other, similar lawsuits filed by or on behalf of local governments across the nation.” Comcast said the source of all the complaints is consulting firm Expert Discovery, which “presents itself as an ‘auditor’ of telephone service providers and works on a contingent fee basis.” Expert Discovery didn’t comment.
Any tech standards that comply with FCC-proposed rules for third-party set-top boxes should “provide for competitive interoperability across all" multichannel video programming distributor systems, said officials from the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Google, Hauppauge, Incompas, Public Knowledge and TiVo, representing the Consumer Video Choice Coalition in a meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau staff and FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-42. The CVCC representatives said device provider certifications are a “feasible” way to “affirm adherence” to rules on privacy, emergency alerting and children's programming. The FCC should act on a pending petition to reinstate encoding rules, the CVCC said. The FCC shouldn't wait for the completion of a diversity study to change the set-top rules, said GFNTV, National Black Programming Consortium, New England Broadband, Townsend Group and iSwop Networks in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday. “Diverse programmers and cable networks have repeatedly made a compelling case that the current system of little to no minority ownership and programming is abhorrent and deserving of a solution such as that proposed in the NPRM,” the letter said.
Any tech standards that comply with FCC-proposed rules for third-party set-top boxes should “provide for competitive interoperability across all" multichannel video programming distributor systems, said officials from the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Google, Hauppauge, Incompas, Public Knowledge and TiVo, representing the Consumer Video Choice Coalition in a meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau staff and FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 16-42. The CVCC representatives said device provider certifications are a “feasible” way to “affirm adherence” to rules on privacy, emergency alerting and children's programming. The FCC should act on a pending petition to reinstate encoding rules, the CVCC said. The FCC shouldn't wait for the completion of a diversity study to change the set-top rules, said GFNTV, National Black Programming Consortium, New England Broadband, Townsend Group and iSwop Networks in a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday. “Diverse programmers and cable networks have repeatedly made a compelling case that the current system of little to no minority ownership and programming is abhorrent and deserving of a solution such as that proposed in the NPRM,” the letter said.