The Administration’s FY 2012 budget request for the Commerce Department would provide $8.8 billion in discretionary funds, a $5 billion reduction from the FY 2010 enacted level. However, the request would increase funding for certain activities, such as those associated with the President’s National Export Initiative.
On February 25, 2011, President Obama issued an Executive Order, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, that takes steps with respect to the situation in Libya.
Use of the 4.9 GHz band by public safety has been a failure so far, former FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Ed Thomas said during a commission forum Friday. Thomas proposed that the band be opened up for commercial use, on a secondary basis to public safety.
The U.K. Office of Communications wants feedback on proposed changes to universal service and other regulations required by new EU telecom rules, it said Thursday. EU countries have until May 25 to adopt the revised electronic communications framework into national law, it said. Ofcom’s proposal includes: (1) Requiring mobile operators to offer registered users the ability to text emergency services. (2) Mandating mobile number portability within one working day not only for customers with a single number but for those, including businesses, who want to shift a large number of mobile numbers at one time. Communications providers will also have to ensure that customers aren’t switched to a different operator without their permission and are given reasonable compensation following any porting delay or abuse. (3) Requiring communications providers to ensure that the initial contract a consumer signs, and any new agreement after an upgrade, doesn’t extend past 24 months, and that individual and business customers have the option of signing a 12-month contract. Comments are due April 7 - GCUSC.condoc@ofcom.org.uk.
Migrating to Next Generation 911 requires clarity on jurisdiction, funding and technical standards, speakers said during an FCBA Homeland Security and Emergency Communications Committee meeting Wednesday.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) both issued statements urging the use of sanctions against the Qadhafi regime in Libya in light of the government’s recent use of deadly force against citizen protestors.
Senate Homeland Security Committee leaders presented an updated cybersecurity bill late Thursday that prohibits an Internet shutdown in the U.S. The bill, by Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., contains a provision that explicitly forbids the president or “any other officer or employee of the federal government” from shutting down the Internet. “There is no so-called ‘kill switch’ in our legislation because the very notion is antithetical to our goal of providing precise and targeted authorities to the President,” said Lieberman in a joint press release with Collins. The bill differs from Lieberman’s former cybersecurity bill, S-3480, which did not expressly prohibit an Internet “kill switch” (WID June 25 p3). The bill calls for Congress to set up an Office of Cyberspace Policy, a National Center for Cyberspace and Communications, and a U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team within the center to monitor and analyze the security of the federal information infrastructure. “This legislation strikes that careful balance [of] providing the tools that America needs to better protect cyberspace while additionally protecting our civil liberties,” said Collins.
The VON Coalition disagrees with findings by commissions in Vermont, Wisconsin and Maine that said VoIP services like Comcast’s Digital Voice service are telecom service and subject to state regulation, Glenn Richards, the group’s executive director, said in a NARUC panel late Tuesday. Betty Ann Kane, chair of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, cited a Vermont commission order this week that said state law-based regulation of nomadic VoIP largely has been preempted by federal law but such federal preemption hasn’t attached for state law-based regulation of fixed VoIP. States like Maine, Vermont and Wisconsin have taken the advantage of what they believe is the ambiguity in the 2004 Vonage order on whether it applies to non-nomadic or fixed VoIP services, Richards said. Meanwhile, some popular voice applications today don’t have 911 capabilities, said Brian Fontes, executive director with the National Emergency Numbering Association. Some of these application developers are foreign companies and therefore aren’t subject to U.S. regulations, presenting a challenge to emergency communications, he said. There are some technical and economic challenges ahead but Internet Protocol offers great promise for a more robust 911 network, Richards said.
The VON Coalition disagrees with findings by commissions in Vermont, Wisconsin and Maine that said VoIP services like Comcast’s Digital Voice service are telecom service and subject to state regulation, Glenn Richards, the group’s executive director, said in a NARUC panel late Tuesday. Betty Ann Kane, chair of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, cited a Vermont commission order this week that said state law-based regulation of nomadic VoIP largely has been preempted by federal law but such federal preemption hasn’t attached for state law-based regulation of fixed VoIP. States like Maine, Vermont and Wisconsin have taken the advantage of what they believe is the ambiguity in the 2004 Vonage order on whether it applies to non-nomadic or fixed VoIP services, Richards said. Meanwhile, some popular voice applications today don’t have 911 capabilities, said Brian Fontes, executive director with the National Emergency Numbering Association. Some of these application developers are foreign companies and therefore aren’t subject to U.S. regulations, presenting a challenge to emergency communications, he said. There are some technical and economic challenges ahead but Internet Protocol offers great promise for a more robust 911 network, Richards said.
Allocating the D-block for public safety is Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s “highest legislative priority” and “we will work to get this done before the 10th anniversary” of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the West Virginia Democrat said Wednesday. “We have a total possibility, opportunity right now, to provide our public safety officials with the spectrum they need,” he said in opening remarks at his Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on S-28. “The moment is right, everybody’s here and this has great momentum."