The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a proposed rule that would implement a control structure under the Export Administration Regulations in order to transfer less significant items that no longer warrant control on the U.S. Munitions List to control under the Commerce Control List.
The National Emergency Number Association supported the AT&T/T-Mobile merger in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bkzstz). “NENA believes this merger will benefit the public safety and emergency response community as well as the public-at-large by speeding the build-out and expanding the foot-print of the combined entity’s advanced LTE network,” NENA said. “While the combined AT&T/T-Mobile network will operate in spectrum distinct from that of public safety services, the proposed merger will nonetheless produce economies of scale and scope in the market for LTE-capable infrastructure and equipment that will reduce the overall cost of providing service to the public safety community."
The Commerce Department has published its spring 2011 semi-annual regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Wireless carriers have plenty of incentives to protect their own networks, without additional government rules, CTIA said in a filing at the commission in docket 11-60 (CD July 11 p7). Industry comments due last week, but posted by the FCC Monday, largely agreed that the FCC need not step in and should not impose overly prescriptive rules for making networks more robust and able to survive disaster.
On July 8, 201, the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the appointment of Michael Molnar as its first-ever Chief Manufacturing Officer. Commerce states that the new position will leverage NIST’s relationships with industry to accelerate innovation to create manufacturing jobs and to enhance U.S. global competitiveness. As Chief Manufacturing Officer, Molnar will be responsible for planning and coordination of NIST's manufacturing research and services programs and will support the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership for emerging technology recently launched by President Obama. Molnar will also serve as the central point of contact with the White House, Commerce, and other agencies on technical and policy issues related to manufacturing.
The FCC should write a fallback plan in case some wireless carriers refuse to support mobile alert technology, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said at a Friday hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Richardson is the subcommittee’s ranking member. But FCC and CTIA witnesses said market forces are pushing carriers to voluntarily support the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The service, designed to send text-message alerts to people in disaster areas, is scheduled to rollout nationwide next April. Legislators also raised concerns about privacy and training issues related to mobile alerts.
The FCC should write a fallback plan in case some wireless carriers refuse to support mobile alert technology, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said at a Friday hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Richardson is the subcommittee’s ranking member. But FCC and CTIA witnesses said market forces are pushing carriers to voluntarily support the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The service, designed to send text-message alerts to people in disaster areas, is scheduled to rollout nationwide next April. Legislators also raised concerns about privacy and training issues related to mobile alerts.
The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress on June 24 - July 7, 2011:
T-Mobile fired back at the National Emergency Number Association in a filing on testing requirements as the commission implements new E911 location accuracy rules. In a filing posted by the FCC Tuesday, NENA accused T-Mobile of advocating weakened rules (http://xrl.us/bkzca8). “As T-Mobile would have it, no network would be subject to a testing requirement unless localized position uncertainties grow beyond some threshold value or confidence metrics decline to unsatisfactory levels,” NENA suggested. “T-Mobile reads the [revised rules] to require testing only as means to remediate degradation of location over time.” Neither statement is true, T-Mobile said (http://xrl.us/bkzcb9) Wednesday. “Under the Second Report and Order, carriers will have to demonstrate compliance in each county for which they claim compliance. That requires empirical testing of county-level accuracy,” T-Mobile contended. The debate regarding periodic maintenance testing is only about what happens after compliance at the county level has already been established empirically, with uncertainty baselines."
The large-scale transition from CCFL backlit TVs to LED backlit TVs and rapid improvements in energy efficiency are expected by a study to “slightly decrease” TV power consumption in the “short term.” That’s despite “the projected increase in the penetration of TVs in households, especially in emerging economies, as well as projected increase in the average screen size of TVs.” The research was done by the International Energy Studies group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to inform the Super Efficient Appliance Deployment initiative. SEAD has instituted an awards program to recognize the most efficient flat-panel TVs in Australia, the EU, India and North America.