U.S. telecom companies’ internal disaster and emergency response operations, preparedness and timely response are critical in recovery efforts in Haiti, companies said on a roundtable at the Department of State Friday. The Haiti earthquake, a major test for emergency response capabilities, underlined the need for better coordination, they said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate within the next few weeks a long-awaited order on location accuracy rules for wireless, based on proposals by AT&T and Verizon Wireless and incorporating changes sought in by T-Mobile, industry and FCC officials said. Last week, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) filed a letter at the commission endorsing the tweaks sought in a June 16 letter by T-Mobile to AT&T’s proposal for GSM-based carriers. The Public Safety Bureau has started to brief eighth-floor officials on the order.
Public interest groups led by the New America Foundation said the FCC should impose full disclosure requirements on wireless carriers in the commission’s “bill shock” inquiry. The wireless market is competitive and no new regulations are required, CTIA and carriers said. Consumer & Government Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin said in May that the results of an FCC survey found bill shock a major concern for wireless subscribers (CD May 27 p1).
The FCC is not listening to public safety officials as it pushes forward on a plan to auction the 700 MHz D-block for commercial use while giving public safety agencies priority access to other spectrum in that band, said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. He spoke Tuesday during a debate with FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett on a National Public Radio program in Washington. Barnett disagreed sharply. The argument presages the reaction commission officials could face next month at APCO’s annual meeting in Houston.
European privacy chiefs should engage in a wider debate about how to deal with emerging technologies such as face recognition, instead of just complaining about Google Street View, Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer said Monday. Street View has several privacy features, including tools allowing users to remove pictures of their houses, face and license plate blurring and making driving schedules and other information public, he told the Privacy Laws & Business conference in Cambridge, U.K. The search engine retains the raw, unblurred imagery for one year from its publication on Google Maps, he said. Other companies have similar services, but Google is being singled out, he said. When Google prepared to map European countries, it notified all 17 relevant data protection authorities (DPA), he said. Some responded quickly, but in others, the notifications got “stuck in the bureaucracy,” he said. Privacy is dictated by cultural norms, and Google’s methods are controversial in some countries because Street View is local, he said. DPAs in Denmark and the Netherlands readily accepted the service, as did the Swiss authority at first, said Fleischer. Switzerland is now seeking a judicial ruling on Street View’s legality, arguing that if the service isn’t 100 percent accurate, it may be illegal, he said. And the issue has become a “media firestorm” in Germany, he said. “I get the history,” but the privacy issues have been blown out of proportion, he said. Every data protection official sets different conditions, he said. Despite Google’s unique offer of a pre-publication opt-out, which lets people bar publication of their house view in advance, the media debate goes on, he said. The EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, whose members are national DPAs, is legitimately trying to achieve a harmonized view of data protection in Europe, a move that would help global companies such as Google, he said. The group should issue opinions as guidance for industry, he said. Google and others need to know how to handle new technologies such as face recognition, which can’t comply with orthodox EU views of privacy law, Fleischer said.
On June 28, 2010, the House and Senate sent to the President for signature H.R. 2194, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, which will amend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) to expand the sanctions imposed against Iran.
In a June 2010 newsletter, the European Chemicals Agency discusses, among other things, the upcoming REACH1 registration deadline for chemical substances, the related Classification, Labeling, and Packaging (CLP) Regulation deadline for chemical substances, and the signing of Memoranda of Understanding between ECHA and other countries.
The FCC adopted video relay services (VRS) rates that are higher than those proposed by the National Exchange Carrier Association. The rates will be in effect from this July to next June. Providers under Tier 1 will be compensated at about $6.24 per minute, Tier 2 providers at $6.23 and at $5.07 for providers under Tier 3, an FCC order Monday said. The rate was established for an interim period of one year while the FCC seeks comment on a related inquiry, the order said. Industry officials had expressed concern over the rates proposed by NECA, which some had expected the FCC to codify in an order (CD June 10 p7). The commission also issued a notice of inquiry to address issues of fair compensation, VRS user data collection and other factors affecting market structure.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the International Trade Administration (ITA), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will hold a public meeting on July 27, 2010 in Washington, DC to discuss the relationship between cybersecurity in the commercial space and innovation in the Internet economy.
European governments should take a coordinated approach to use of the 800 MHz “digital dividend” band freed by digital switchover for non-broadcasting services, the EU Radio Spectrum Policy Group said in an opinion to the European Commission. The EC is preparing a spectrum policy roadmap for 2010-2015, and the RSPG opinion will feed into the program, which is expected to be published in September. Moreover, the advisory group said, with a view to releasing more “new” spectrum, the EC should consider an analysis of demand and technology trends to identify emerging and potential future spectrum uses and target frequency bands for intelligent sharing. Revised EU telecom rules contain regulatory improvements that remove unnecessary restrictions in spectrum management and allow easier access to spectrum through service and technology neutrality and market mechanisms such as secondary trading, it said. The new rules must be applied to ensure efficient use of spectrum at the European level, it said. Spectrum decisions must avoid harmful interference, it said. The RSPG called for a review of the uses of all military and civilian spectrum, and for more coordination among national authorities, the EC and international standards bodies to open the internal market. Internationally, the EC should speak with a common voice on spectrum issues, it said. The RSPG’s 11 policy recommendations also included: (1) Ensuring availability of enough spectrum to give all Europeans access to ubiquitous high-speed broadband. (2) Making more spectrum available under a collective use model to spur innovative uses. (3) Ensuring EU nations are assisted in negotiations with non-EU countries on frequency coordination issues.