Media consolidation has taken a toll on the quality of journalism, FCC officials and media professionals said. Technological advances have given people better access to information, but much of that information isn’t as in-depth and unique to various communities as it used to be, said FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps and other media professionals Thursday at a forum in Atlanta.
As some broadcasters gear up for a mobile emergency alert system pilot project, they said they expect the EAS project to complement the current system and lead to further use of mobile DTV. With three public TV operations as test markets for the project, it will reassert the role of broadcasters as initial informers during emergencies and disasters, some executives said.
FCC nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel “will swim right on” through the Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday as his committee opened the nominees’ first confirmation hearing. Rosenworcel, who would leave Rockefeller’s staff to join the commission, and Pai, a telecom lawyer at Jenner & Block, made their first public appearance together at the hearing. They were received warmly by the committee’s senators. “I'm very pleased that I can heartily support you both,” Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told them in a packed hearing room. He teased Rosenworcel, whom he said is “very difficult to argue with” and said he was gratified that Pai grew up in Parsons, Kan., which means “there’s an automatic rural prejudice built into your DNA.”
As some broadcasters gear up for a mobile emergency alert system pilot project, they said they expect the EAS project to complement the current system and lead to further use of mobile DTV. With three public TV operations as test markets for the project, it will reassert the role of broadcasters as initial informers during emergencies and disasters, some executives said.
The FCC Wednesday approved a long-awaited order approving a secondary spectrum allocation sought by the Alfred Mann Foundation for wirelessly connecting neuromuscular microstimulators implanted in patients with brain and spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned why it took the FCC five years to act. The FCC approved a notice of inquiry at its July 2006 meeting asking about emerging medical technologies, including those outlined in the Alfred Mann proposal. The order approved Wednesday in a 4-0 vote allocates 24 MHz of 400 MHz band spectrum in four band segments for the MedRadio service on a secondary basis.
There was little agreement on a Federal Emergency Management Agency webcast Tuesday about when the government should next test the national emergency alert system. Several problems with the simulation have been identified since a Nov. 9 EAS test (CD Nov 18 p1), which was the first time the EAS was triggered nationwide. When Manny Centeno, FEMA program manager for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, asked the roundtable participants when the next test should be, dates as early as April 1 and as late as November, were suggested.
The Senate won’t move spectrum legislation this year, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. That development came the same day that House Commerce Republicans reversed position on the 700 MHz D-block, bringing the House and Senate closer to consensus. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who previously supported a commercial auction of the D-block, released a new draft of his spectrum bill that would give public safety the license to the D-block. However, House Commerce Democrats, who still have reservations about unlicensed spectrum and some other issues, released their own rival draft bill. The House Communications Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up spectrum legislation Thursday.
Next Generation 911 will be a priority for the FCC in 2012, said David Furth, deputy chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, during a National Public Safety Telecom Council conference call Monday. The bureau has significantly beefed up expertise in its Emergency Response Interoperability Center, he said. The FCC will also focus on issues like outage reporting requirements, he said. Meanwhile, the FCC seeks more information about regional 700 MHz public safety network buildout, he said. Right now information about local 700 MHz planning and deployment is mostly anecdotal, he said. Though there’s no formal comment process, it would be helpful if NPSTC can provide information about what’s being deployed and what’s in the pipeline, he said. The House and the Senate also have signaled that they hope to push spectrum legislation forward before the end of the year, said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust. The potential approval of spectrum legislation would mean new governance of networks, he said. The PSST wants to assist with the potential transition, he said. For 2012, the NPSTC’s spectrum management committee expects to work on issues including 700 MHz broadband, recommendations on 700 MHz narrowband buildout and rules cleanup, tracking and monitoring of VHF/UHF narrowband waiver requests and FCC responses, protection of existing bands, network security and disaster recovery, said Stu Overby, vice chair of the spectrum management committee. Interoperability problems are surfacing nationwide with new non-standardized digital radio platforms being introduced on Part 90 public safety radio spectrum, said John Powell, chair of NPSTC’s interoperability committee. Day-to-day interoperability on agency channels is being destroyed by incompatible technologies, he said. NPSTC has opposed Terrestrial Trunked Radio on public safety channels and asked the FCC to include that prohibition in its Part 90 rules, he said.
A rule pending before the Office of Government Ethics, to limit government employee attendance at trade shows, could be bad news for associations as well as policymakers, government and industry officials told us. The proposed rule would end the practice of government employees being given free admission to commonly attended events, when the offer comes from groups that employ in-house lobbyists, from CTIA’s annual meeting to the CEA’s International CES.
A rule pending before the Office of Government Ethics, to limit government employee attendance at trade shows, could be bad news for associations as well as policymakers, government and industry officials told us. The proposed rule would end the practice of government employees being given free admission to commonly attended events, when the offer comes from groups that employ in-house lobbyists, from CTIA’s annual meeting to the Consumer Electronics Association’s International CES.