Speaking at the opening of Globalcomm’s Innovation Summit, Pulver said he plans to create IP Video content -- “for fun” short term, but also perhaps to make money. He sees the video iPod as “the tipping point” for video viewership, and believes the shared national video experience is near its end, he said. Only the 35-40% of content covering elections, live sporting events and disasters or tragedies will stir a collective live viewing experience, he said.
CHICAGO -- Pulver.com CEO Jeff Pulver will not oppose an FCC move to impose universal service charges on VoIP, he said. An order to that effect, circulating on the 8th floor for the June agenda meeting, would require VoIP operators to remit fees on up to 64.9% of customer revenue. In an interview at Globalcomm here, Pulver blamed investment bankers managing the IPO for Vonage’s lackluster Wall Street debut.
More than 75% of U.S. residents have “phase 2” wireless E-911 service, up 8% from Dec., the National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) said Tues. Phase 2 E-911 service sends caller telephone numbers and locations to appropriate Public Safety Answering Points. This is a “certainly welcome,” but many people, mostly in rural areas, still don’t get this critical service, said NENA Pres. David Jones. Funding is the problem, which is why a grant program legislated in the 2004 Enhance 911 Act should be implemented, NENA said.
The Assn. of Public TV Stations -- which recently completed digital emergency alert system (DEAS) trials with the Dept. of Homeland Security -- urged Congress to pass the Warn Act to ensure a “reliable” system that would avoid communications bottlenecks from last year’s natural disasters. The trials demonstrated that public TV stations could act as a wireless network capable of datacasting public alert and warnings, it said. APTS is planning a national rollout of DEAS soon. The Warn Act, which passed the Senate Commerce Committee, helps deal with communications problems exposed during Hurricane Katrina by establishing a national alert system that can provide national, regional or local alerts, APTS said. The measure recognizes public TV’s digital transmitters as the backbone for the reception, relay and retransmission of national alert system messages, said APTS Pres. John Lawson. The APTS-DHS pilots showed that digital broadcasting to media and telecom service providers “improves and enhances” the ability of federal, state and local govts. to provide critical emergency messages, he said.
Reductions and reallocation of Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) grant money have left some urban areas unhappy. But a Dept. official said the amounts make sense -- and won’t be the only consideration in how much is spent on communications upgrades in those cities. Budget cuts and a new methodology produced a shift in grant awards to Chicago, L.A., small cities and rural areas, while N.Y.C., D.C., and several previously well-funded border states had significant reductions from previous years. While public safety groups push for better first-response technology and increased interoperability spending - and congressional consensus is forming around the need for those improvements -- high-risk urban areas will be forced to do more with less this year.
Though last year’s harsh hurricanes sparked a rash of awareness advocacy about Internet scams in 2006, experts are warning that consumers will likely fall prey to the same kind of scams (WID Sept 2 p1) -- and phishers will quickly adapt to changes -- in the hurricane season that officially started Thurs. Bills that target scams exploiting generosity in emergencies and help families track displaced loved ones have also stalled in the Senate with little time left for passage. Companies such as Amazon.com are stepping forward with their own product packages for concerned consumers.
The value of unlicensed spectrum below 2 GHz came into dispute as key players answered an FCC notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on policy for the jam-packed 904-909.75 MHz and 919.75-928 MHz spectrum, known as location & monitoring service (LMS) bands. With licensee Progeny LMS seeking re- examination of the rules, advocates of the status quo claimed the arrangement was defined clearly in the 1999 LMS auction, simply dooming licensed spectrum in those bands.
The Govt. Emergency Telecom Service (GETS) has gained barely more than 100,000 takers since going operational in Sept. 2001, Program Dir. John Graves said. That number isn’t “very much” for a population of 300 million, he said, and for “a population of emergency communities of well over one million it’s not very many either.” The numbers haven’t gone up despite a “great deal of time and money” spent promoting the service to police and fire departments and others involved in critical infrastructure maintenance and protection, Graves told us. GETS and the integrated Wireless Priority Service (WPS) are generally open to federal, state and local govt., but broadcasters and others involved in national security and emergency preparedness are also eligible. PBS and other broadcasters have sought GETS status, according to officials.
GENEVA -- The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will focus on openness, security, diversity and access, officials said after meeting Mon. and Tues. to plan the event. Focus will be on Internet governance as defined by the body’s mandate and its interplay with development, capacity building, freedom of expression, awareness and defining avenues forward, they said. The IGF is set for Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in Athens.
The U.S. privacy and security regime will look far different in a decade, but near term, “the goal is to lose [civil liberties] as slowly as possible,” said security expert Bruce Schneier. His remarks at a Tues. ACLU workshop came as a National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping program and other govt.-backed antiterror and surveillance efforts have unsettled free speech and privacy defenders.