The U.S. Mobile Health market would reach $4.6 billion by 2014, but would be fragmented across many solutions and device types, said a report by CSMG, the strategy division of professional service company TMNG Global. If certain broad health care reforms are instituted, like pay-for-performance, adoption could accelerate, it said. Key mHealth technology opportunities include monitoring, personal emergency response services, telemedicine, mobile medical equipment, mobile health information and RFID tracking and health/fitness software. The report cited the National Broadband Plan, which estimates $700 billion in savings over 15-25 years from teleHealth initiatives. Given the complexity of mHealth, growth will require collaboration across telecom and health care-centric players, the report said, saying mobile network operators and device manufacturers must address build/buy/partner implications that vary by potential mHealth solution. MHealth would also need to gain reimbursement from payers as clinical solutions. Additionally, insurance/Medicare-paid mHealth solutions offer tremendous potential revenue, but also pose business model risks if reimbursement rates are cut. New solutions must demonstrate proof of efficacy to win reimbursement codes and to date, results have been mixed, the report said. Key drivers that would affect the pace and direction of mHealth include mobile/connected device technology innovation, broader health care industry reform and health care-specific technology developments like adoption of electronic medical records.
Overall mobile applications downloads are expected to increase from over seven billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion by 2012, said a report commissioned by app developer GetJar. The revenue from mobile apps, which includes both paid downloads and revenue from advertising and virtual goods, is expected to increase from $4.1 billion in 2009 to $17.5 billion by 2012, it said. Though on-deck (operator managed) mobile apps sales exceeded those from off-deck in 2009, by 2012, off-deck is expected to hold the lion’s share of the mobile apps revenue, the report said. The app market is different in emerging nations, where to effectively monetize the business, creative strategies are needed to attract new consumers and different business models would be required to make the regional ecosystems viable, the report said. Overall, by improving discovery, improving user experience, dropping price barriers, and increasing developer revenue share, the apps business can continue to prosper, it said.
The FCC should reclaim TV broadcasters’ spectrum by 2020, Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a note to investors. Meanwhile, the agency should stay out of retransmission consent negotiations between stations and pay-TV distributors and relax ownership rules, he said. For emergencies, battery-operated radios or voice-mail blasts to land-line phones will suffice in a post-TV spectrum world, he said. For now, the government should let the retransmission consent process play out on its own, he said. “If the threat of a local station signal blackout gets cable MSOs to the negotiating table, don’t stand in the way of business negotiations,” he said. “After that, change the station ownership rules to allow a national roll-up of TV stations above the 39 percent cap and allow the cross-ownership of stations and newspapers,” he said. Deregulating ownership limits would prompt a flurry of transactions that “will make the local broadcast industry stronger during this time of change,” he said. It would also give stations more leverage in carriage negotiations with cable operators and the major networks, he said.
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett played defense to skeptical police and fire department officials on the agencies’ recommendations for establishing a nationwide, interoperable public safety network. At a conference Friday of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Barnett urged public safety to back calls in the National Broadband Plan for $12 to $16 billion in additional funding. But officials said they care more about getting spectrum “real estate” than money. Many officials said they were worried they can’t rely on shared commercial networks in emergency situations.
Pioneer will ship its first Blu-ray players by mid-year using decoders it jointly developed with Sharp, including a 3D-ready model, Russ Johnston, vice president of marketing and product planning, told Consumer Electronics Daily.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau introduced a Web page called “Broadband and Public Safety and Homeland Security,” http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/broadband.html, about the commission’s efforts to carry out National Broadband Plan recommendations on behalf of emergency agencies. “The implementation of the plan will include initiatives to bring interoperable communications to America’s first responders through the creation of a nationwide wireless broadband network and new cyber security reporting and monitoring programs; as well as Next Generation 9-1-1 services; emergency alerts and warnings through a variety of outlets (including via television and radio broadcasts (Emergency Alert System), wireless hand-held devices, (such as cell phones and the Internet) and much more,” the bureau said. “The web page includes access to the latest press releases, public notices, field hearings, and presentations.”
The EU and NATO “need their heads knocking together” over their failure to coordinate against cyberattacks, the chairman of a U.K. Lords panel said Thursday. The two bodies “barely speak to each other,” causing too many overlapping efforts, Michael Jopling said. His comments followed the publication, by the EU Subcommittee on Home Affairs, of a report responding to an April 2009 European Commission statement on protecting Europe from large-scale cyberattacks. The panel backed EC calls for more EU coordination of national critical infrastructure protection.
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Snowe released the latest version of the cybersecurity bill Wednesday with several changes. One would create a process where the president and critical infrastructure sectors designate specific systems whose “disruption or incapacitation” would harm national interests. “Key” business owners of critical infrastructure would also be given security clearances to receive classified information on threats. Companies complying with best practices and auditing their performance would receive “public recognition” as an incentive, similar to the Energy Star program. The president and infrastructure owners would “develop and rehearse detailed cybersecurity emergency response and restoration plans” to clarify what each would be doing in an emergency “equivalent to an act of war, a terrorist attack, or a major natural disaster.” Acknowledging the stinging criticisms of earlier drafts of the bill that appeared to give the president cutoff authority over the Internet, a new provision explicitly said nothing authorizes “new or expanded presidential authorities."
Legislation on cybersecurity and technical expertise at the FCC is planned for markup in the Senate Commerce Committee next Wednesday, the committee said Wednesday. The committee plans to vote on the Cybersecurity Act (S-773), which was pushed hard last month by Mike McConnell, the Bush administration’s last Director of National Intelligence (WID Feb 24 p1). The body also plans to weigh a bill (S-2881) by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that would allow each FCC commissioner to hire an additional technical staff member. The meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Snowe released the latest version of the cybersecurity bill Wednesday with several changes. One would create a process where the president and critical infrastructure sectors designate specific systems whose “disruption or incapacitation” would harm national interests. “Key” business owners of critical infrastructure would also be given security clearances to receive classified information on threats. Companies complying with best practices and auditing their performance would receive “public recognition” as an incentive, similar to the Energy Star program. The president and infrastructure owners would “develop and rehearse detailed cybersecurity emergency response and restoration plans” to clarify what each would be doing in an emergency “equivalent to an act of war, a terrorist attack, or a major natural disaster.” Acknowledging the stinging criticisms of earlier drafts of the bill that appeared to give the president cutoff authority over the Internet, a new provision explicitly said nothing authorizes “new or expanded presidential authorities."
The FCC Public Safety Bureau faced tough questions from public safety groups Wednesday on a key element of its proposal for a 700 MHz wireless broadband network serving first responders: How public safety would get “priority access” to public safety networks. FCC officials said Wednesday that research done for the National Broadband Plan found that a fee of less that $1 a month, similar to the E-911 surcharge, if imposed on broadband subscriber bills, would be enough to pay for the operating cost of this public safety network. The agency hosted a technical panel Wednesday on the proposal for a 700 MHz Nationwide Interoperable Public Safety Wireless Broadband Network, a day after the release of the broadband plan (CD March 17 p1).