House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) is balking at Senate VoIP E-911 provisions in the port security bill (HR-4954) headed for conference, Hill sources and industry sources said. “Barton’s position is that the House addressed E-911 and addressed it well” in passing the telecom bill (HR-5252) in June, a spokesman for Barton said: “We hope the full Senate takes it up.”
The FCC Tues. opened its Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, with veteran FCC official Ken Moran as acting bureau chief. Ordered in March, the bureau has a staff of 90, most already reassigned from elsewhere at the FCC -- making it the agency’s smallest bureau, comparable in size to the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology.
Lockheed Martin, the Satellite Industry Assn., Hispasat and a slew of federal agencies are urging the FCC to alter its rules on operation of federal earth stations with commercial satellites. The pleas for “parity” in FCC satellite rules back NTIA’s recent call for a rulemaking on the matter. U.S. users including the White House, FEMA, DoD and DoJ said they rely on commercial satellites, but under FCC rules must do so on a secondary, noninterference/nonprotected basis. After a decade-plus of discussions with the Commission, NTIA formally petitioned the FCC for rules changes in Aug. (RM 11341). Supporters commented last week.
“Africa needs you to think differently” by leap-frogging to 3G CDMA mobile technologies, African CDMA Forum chmn. William Hearmon told govts. and regulators at a recent conference in London. CDMA is the best way to bring the power of knowledge to a continent taking to mobile telephony in a big way, he said. The GSM Assn. (GSMA) and analysts disagreed, saying the number of its connections exceeds CDMA’s by so much CDMA can never win the “volume game.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule, effective September 7, 2006, which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) at 15 CFR Parts 740, 743, 772, and 774 to implement changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement's List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies (Wassenaar List), and Statements of Understanding maintained and agreed to by the governments participating in the Wassenaar Arrangement.
NASHVILLE -- The odds are improving that Cyren Call will succeed in setting up and running a national broadband network used by safety officials, industry and safety officials said Tues. at PCIA. Cyren Call, headed by Nextel founder Morgan O'Brien, faces an uphill fight and a tight timeline to get for public safety a chunk of 700 MHz spectrum otherwise to be auctioned after the DTV transition, they said.
Comcast, Charter and Cox are among cable firms showing interest in Powerline MU, Motorola’s in-premises BPL product (CD Sept 13 p13), Motorola officials told us. These cable operators have asked for demonstrations of the product able to provide voice and data services to multi-unit buildings over the electrical lines, said Mktg. Mgr. Mary Ashe. Motorola will compete with Telkonet, which already has deployed in hotels and MDUs.
Rep. Stupak (D-Mich.) blasted House Republicans for “holding up” $3.1 billion in funding for interoperability -- money that was to be included with an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “Our first responders do not need more excuses,” Stupak said: “What they need and this country needs is a new direction for homeland security that will make interoperable communications a national priority.”
Comcast, Charter and Cox are among cable firms showing interest in Powerline MU, Motorola’s in-premises BPL product (WID Sept 13 p13), Motorola officials told us. These cable operators have asked for demonstrations of the product able to provide voice and data services to multi-unit buildings over the electrical lines, said Mktg. Mgr. Mary Ashe. Motorola will compete with Telkonet, which already has deployed in hotels and MDUs.
Comcast, Charter and Cox are among cable firms showing interest in Powerline MU, Motorola’s in-premises BPL product, Motorola officials told us. These cable operators have asked for demonstrations of the product able to provide voice and data services to multi-unit buildings over the electrical lines, said Mktg. Mgr. Mary Ashe. Motorola will compete with Telkonet, which already has deployed in hotels and MDUs.