The FCC heard a litany of complaints from advocates for people with disabilities Thursday, on the opening panel of the FCC’s Wireless Technology/Disability Access Workshop. They asked the commission to step in and make cellphones more accessible for their members. Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and Karen Strauss, deputy chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, assured speakers that the FCC takes their concerns seriously.
The FCC approved petitions by 21 cities, counties and states seeking waivers to move forward with statewide and regional interoperable wireless broadband networks using 700 MHz spectrum already assigned to public safety. Chairman Julius Genachowski had sought a quick vote on the order so public safety agencies have a chance for NTIA broadband stimulus grants, sources said. The order is noteworthy marks the first time that the FCC has imposed a technology standard, requiring that the systems use LTE. The order wasn’t a surprise: Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett indicated in February that action on the waivers was coming.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is amending its May 6, 2010 emergency regulations which closed a portion of the Gulf of Mexico exclusive economic zone to all fishing due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. NMFS is extending the closure, now effective May 7-17, 2010, unless conditions allow NMFS to terminate it sooner. Comments may be submitted through May 17, 2010. (NMFS notice, FR Pub 05/12/10, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-11184.pdf)
Governments need to release spectrum, price it fairly and aggregate demand to help industry meet the promise of mobile, said Gabriel Solomon, a senior vice president at GSMA, speaking in a follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society. Universal access to voice and basic data services will be achieved in time to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals in 2015, Solomon said. Universal access for mobile broadband will take another 15-20 years, he said. The real risk comes from national jurisdictions that skew investment incentives, he said, and don’t provide consistency for license holders. Some countries are trying to price spectrum at a premium, which spurs urban rollout to get a return, he said. Backhaul is a “big stumbling block” for broadband in emerging markets, Solomon said. The public and private sectors need to partner to beat the backhaul problem, he said, referring to national governments’ using “demand aggregation” to spur investment. The mobile industry’s pledge to G-20 leaders that it will invest more than $800 billion over the next five years in mobile broadband still stands, Solomon said.
The “final rounds of negotiation” over a cybersecurity bill are taking place between Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, an aide to the committee told lawyers Monday. It would follow the Senate Commerce Committee’s Cybersecurity Act (S-773), which was approved by Commerce in March after industry criticized what was called a kill-switch provision, which was dropped. Aides faced a more docile audience at an American Bar Association discussion in Washington than they had at a federal information security board last month (WID April 12 p3).
The FCC restarted its 180-day clock on review of Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal after the companies on Tuesday submitted economic studies requested by commission staff. In pausing the clock at 29 days elapsed last month (CD April 19 p1), the Media Bureau said it would restart after the studies, on the stated benefits of the deal and its impact on online video competition, were filed. A bureau public notice Wednesday afternoon set new deadlines for opposition to the deal and other comments.
The FCC restarted its 180-day clock on review of Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal after the companies on Tuesday submitted economic studies requested by commission staff. In pausing the clock at 29 days elapsed last month (WID April 19 p4), the Media Bureau said it would restart after the studies, on the stated benefits of the deal and its impact on online video competition, were filed. A bureau public notice Wednesday afternoon set new deadlines for opposition to the deal and other comments.
Verizon Wireless upgraded five local cell sites to EV-DO in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish --where the de facto headquarters for the oil spill cleanup operation is located -- after a day of wireless traffic surging to 170 percent of normal, the carrier said. Wireless traffic has returned to normal, it said. Verizon Wireless’ Houston-Gulf Coast team is working with the Louisiana National Guard to secure a location for Verizon’s Wireless Emergency Communications Center in Venice for on-site oil clean-up support. The center will provide device charging, phones for workers and other needed supplies.
HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- The FCC has a huge agenda from the National Broadband Plan to work through, but the commission has every intention of completing the work assigned, top officials said at the FCBA conference over the weekend.
On April 28, 2010, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano delivered remarks highlighting the Department’s ongoing efforts to bolster aviation security at the National Chamber Foundation’s Annual Aviation Summit—a forum sponsored by the non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in order to foster public debate on emerging critical aviation issues. (News release, dated 04/28/10, available at http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1272490740438.shtm)