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 major events such as CES when the offer comes from groups that employ in-house lobbyists.
Nov. 28 National Public Safety Telecom Council conference call meeting, 1 p.m. ET -- 855-738-3725
DirecTV will ship a combo satellite receiver/TiVo DVR in select markets in early December, more than two years behind the original target, TiVo officials said in a conference call. The satellite service will expand from select markets to regional distribution on the way to a national launch in early 2012, TiVo CEO Thomas Rogers said. DirecTV has a “substantial obligation” to promote the TiVo service and will absorb the marketing and hardware costs, Rogers said. DirecTV will likely initially focus on marketing the combo device to existing TiVo subscribers and those who have dropped the service. A DirecTV spokesman didn’t comment on product and marketing plans.
Industry groups, including CEA and CTIA, urged the California Energy Commission (CEC) to exempt loosely-coupled wireless charging systems from proposed battery charger regulations so as not to impede research and development and innovation in the nascent technology. Loosely-coupled systems are “under active development and expected to be made available for sale for the first time in 2012,” CTIA said in comments. “The Commission should explicitly exempt this new class of products from proposed regulations to enable continued research and development in this vibrant area and the realization of many public interest benefits."
The FCC has pulled back from putting broadband outage reporting requirements on the Dec. 13 meeting agenda, a telecom official told us and an ex parte notice from AT&T showed. Instead of adopting mandatory outage reporting based on quality-of-service metrics, the commission is now working on “voluntary” reporting requirements in the case of “hard down” broadband outages, telecom officials and AT&T’s notice said. It’s unlikely that any order will be on the January agenda, either, telecom officials told us. FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined comment. AT&T’s ex parte notice recounted a Nov. 17 phone conversation between its assistant vice presidents, Joseph Marx and Jim Bugel, and Jeff Goldthorp, the associate chief of the Public Safety Bureau (http://xrl.us/bmi935). That conversation was an apparent preface to a larger meeting with industry officials on Monday, according to AT&T’s ex parte notice. It said: “AT&T agreed to participate in the meeting scheduled for the 21st of November, per the FCC’s request, to discuss a voluntary outage reporting process for ‘hard down’ broadband and VoIP outages.” AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn, Verizon Executive Director Nneka Ezenwa and CenturyLink Vice President Melissa Newman, among others, met with staff at FCC headquarters Monday to discuss broadband outage, telecom officials said. No ex parte notice had been filed as a result of that meeting. FCC officials have repeatedly expressed anger with industry officials over media leaks regarding the broadband outage proceeding, telecom officials told us. But AT&T’s ex parte is the first public acknowledgement that the FCC is willing to back down from imposing quality-of-service metrics and requiring outage reporting. Telecom officials said Goldthorp, in particular, had been pushing for the quality-of-service requirements. The FCC is still weighing mandatory reporting requirements for interconnected VoIP outages, a telecom official told us Tuesday. The rules would apply to outages of at least 30 minutes on any VoIP network, owned, operated or leased by a provider, that didn’t use a backup system, the official said. “Outage” would be defined in one of two ways. The first definition would apply to any potential disruption to a 911 facility. The second type would involve the “isolation” of sections of a VoIP network encompassing at least 90,000 user minutes, the telecom official said. Under these proposed VoIP rules, providers would have four hours to notify the FCC of a disruption to 911 service, the telecom official said. The official told us they would have up to 24 hours to report “isolation” outages, have to provide a final report within 36 hours of an outage, and have 72 hours to fix either type of outage. The rules are not final, the telecom official added. The FCC has promised to come back to the industry in the near future to discuss further proposals. But the climb-down from the quality-of-service metric represents a victory for industry. The record shows that the usual big telcos have lobbied against the proposed quality-of-service metrics, but other players have joined, including the National Association of Manufacturers. In an open letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the three commissioners, NAM condemned the proposed quality-of-service requirements. “The proposed rules are overly broad and will not achieve the desired goal of identifying when IP networks are unable to deliver emergency traffic,” the letter said (http://xrl.us/bmi955). “This extremely costly new regulatory requirement on our nation’s telecommunications sector would therefore translate directly into higher costs to their customers.”
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski did not schedule a vote on broadband outage reporting requirements for the Dec. 13 meeting agenda, according to an announcement by the FCC late Tuesday. Instead of adopting mandatory outage reporting based on quality-of-service metrics (CD Nov 8 p1), the commission is now working on “voluntary” reporting requirements in the case of “hard down” broadband outages, according to telecom officials and an ex parte filing by AT&T. It’s unlikely that any order will be on the January agenda, either, telecom officials told us. FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined comment.
Nov. 21 FCBA luncheon with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, noon, Renaissance Mayflower Hotel -- www.fcba.org
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., plans to keep tabs on the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency as the agencies investigate glitches during last week’s national test of the Emergency Alert System. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with FEMA and FCC officials Thursday, the House Communications Subcommittee chairman said he’s asked the agencies for more information but doesn’t plan any hearings. The FCC and FEMA gave a “very good and comprehensive report,” Walden said. “I think they're on it, I think they get it, and I think they want to make it work.” A broadcasting executive told us an audio problem caused a cascade-like effect during the test, while a public-access channel executive said those networks didn’t get the message.
Texas Instrument’s DLP chip business has rebounded to “flirt” with $1 billion in annual sales as design wins in front and pico projectors offset the sharp downturn in rear projection TV sales, CEO Richard Templeton told us Thursday at the UBS Global Technology and Services Conference in New York.
Sprint Nextel plans to become the first U.S. carrier to offer emergency alerts on its wireless network, the company announced. The system would allow FEMA to accept and deliver warning messages to wireless networks from the president of the United States, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency operations centers. Sprint plans to hold the first test of its alerting technology in New York City later this year. “Providing immediate, reliable wireless communications before, during and following an emergency situation is trademark of Sprint’s service,” said Steve Elfman, Sprint president-network operations and wholesale.