Netflix is “almost certainly headed” toward offering a digital video streaming tier, but thinks it will be several years before it begins replacing mail-based physical DVD rentals, Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy said Wednesday at the Jefferies Internet and Media conference in New York.
States have lots of questions about how the health IT provisions of the economic stimulus package will work out in the nitty gritty details. The final interpretation could make the difference in whether some projects now under way will be eligible for funding. Members of the National Governors Association’s State Alliance for e-Health, including Govs. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., and Jim Douglas, R- Vt., convened near Capitol Hill Tuesday to discuss health IT.
The FCC should keep an “open mind” on spectrum allocation because the U.S. has parceled out frequencies less efficiently many other countries, said EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen. He said Tuesday he’s “excited” about getting new FCC members because that leads to “new ideas.” Broadcasters may use too much spectrum, he said, and TV stations and cable networks are becoming more readily available a la carte online.
Leading public safety groups joined with the wireless industry in a letter to the FCC Monday asking for prompt action concerning interference that could be caused by wireless microphones still on the 700 MHz band, as public safety and carriers start to make use of the band. The CTIA, APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council signed the letter to acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps.
The FCC should open lines of communication inside and outside the agency, state and former agency officials said on a Wednesday panel at the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners meeting. They urged greater transparency and specific reforms to ex parte and rulemaking processes.
The FCC, states and cellular carriers should come to terms on early termination fees and remove that “distraction” for good, Nebraska Public Utility Commissioner Ann Boyle said on a panel Tuesday at NARUC’s winter meeting in Washington. The group seeks to draft consumer-protection standards for cellphone users.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Few public safety systems are investing in upgrades to their emergency communications systems given the decline in the economy, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials President Chris Fischer said in an interview at the group’s Winter Summit. Fischer said those same economic issues weigh heavily as the FCC contemplates rules for a second auction of the 700 MHz D-block for a national public safety broadband network.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The 800 MHz rebanding, begun with a landmark 2004 FCC order, may take years more, public safety officials said this week at APCO’s Winter Summit. Though a July commission deadline still formally applies except near national borders, many systems won’t finish this year, officials said.
Conferrees reached agreement Wednesday on an estimated $790 billion economic stimulus bill (HR-1) with more than $6 billion in funding for broadband grants. Details on specific provisions were not available at our deadline but the bill was expected to favor language on broadband that the Senate passed. The report is said to include the Senate’s non- discrimination language on network management rather than stricter House language that would have required the FCC and NTIA to come up with a definition of open access 45 days after the bill passed, according to those who saw copies of the report.
Stations in smaller markets are preparing to end analog service Tuesday, FCC data released Tuesday night show. Counterparts in larger markets are generally waiting until June. Broadcasters had until 11:59 p.m. Monday to tell the commission if they planned to go through with the Feb. 17 cutoff. In all, 59 Nielsen-designated marketing areas will lose at least four TV stations’ analog signals by Tuesday. A total of 321 stations in the markets are preparing to sign off. That includes 45 affiliates of ABC, 46 of CBS, 41 of Fox and 45 of NBC, plus 71 PBS stations. Meanwhile, some stations that didn’t seek permission for cutting off analog on the original deadline are trying to coordinate doing that before June 12.