The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a notice requesting comments on the possible development of the U.S. Standards for Grades of Peppers (Other than Sweet Peppers). Comments were due by April 25, 2006. (D/N FV-06-306, FR Pub 02/24/06, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-2652.pdf )
Telecom carriers generally panned a petition by pulver.com and Evslin Consulting asking the FCC to require carriers to set up alternative communications services after natural disasters. The proposal suggested the FCC either activate a voice mail service for each customer or port phone numbers to service providers outside the impacted area or rate center. In April 27 comments to the FCC, Sprint Nextel said granting the petition would impose “costly obligations on carriers” in a move that “appears to be premised on the notion that the Commission is unable to act quickly in a disaster” to help carriers restore communications. FCC action in Katrina’s wake proved it can act quickly to help restore communications, Sprint Nextel said. Verizon said the petition should be rejected because it “would require substantial network and systems upgrades with little or no benefit to customers affected by a disaster.” Verizon said “natural disasters and other crises require relief from regulatory requirements, not the imposition of new ones.” It would be better if the FCC granted petitions filed by Verizon and other carriers for “special temporary authority and related waivers to allow for comprehensive disaster and response planning.” AT&T said it “strongly supports” regulatory steps by the FCC to promote disaster recovery but decried the pulver-Evslin petition as “locking carriers into an emergency response plan that does not take account of the particular facts giving rise to a service outage.” BellSouth said the proposed rules could “undermine the essential ingredient of disaster planning and response -- flexibility.” After a disaster, communications providers “must be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances,” BellSouth said. The National Telecom Co-op Assn. urged the FCC to decline to open a rulemaking on the petition “because the Commission already has enough regulatory authority and has exercised that authority sufficient to address long-term telephone outages.” The VON Coalition, which backs the petition, said the proposals “could provide a technically feasible and reasonable means of ensuring that American citizens remain connected during emergencies.” The coalition said IP technology could be particularly useful in providing solutions advocated by pulver and Evslin.
The federal govt. must take the lead in building a stronger national information assurance policy, a former DHS adviser said Thurs. A 2-tier structure would help the federal govt. establish priorities among escalating cyber security breaches, said Paul Kurtz, exec. dir.-Cyber Security Industry Alliance.
The European Parliament likely will urge govts. and telcos to speed work on a pan-European system intended to deliver emergency services automatic alerts of vehicle accidents. The “eCall” proposal is part of a move by the European Commission to use data and communications tools to boost road safety. After a debate at today’s (Thurs.) plenary session, lawmakers are expected to approve a road map to put the technology in new vehicles beginning in Sept. 2009.
The European Parliament likely will urge govts. and telcos to speed work on a pan-European system intended to deliver emergency services automatic alerts of vehicle accidents. The “eCall” proposal is part of a move by the European Commission to use data and communications tools to boost road safety. After a debate at today’s (Thurs.) plenary session, lawmakers are expected to approve a road map to put the technology in new vehicles beginning in Sept. 2009.
Amazon.com is flexing its muscle with an offer to shoulder risks in the HD content wars -- an offer some studios might find hard to refuse. Amazon has been in the forefront of touting the rival Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, and at CES pledged its CustomFlix Labs subsidiary would assist studios large and small in getting next-gen blue laser titles to Amazon’s customer base. The e-tailer put substance behind the brag Tues., announcing CustomFlix will provide archiving, replication and distribution support to studios wishing to issue content in the Blu-ray, HD DVD and Microsoft’s Windows Media Video High Definition DVD (WMV-HD DVD) formats. Amazon said its CustomFlix Future-Proof Archive service, a proprietary storage and repurposing platform, was designed to allow deployment of digitized files in future formats, thereby giving content providers the flexibility and convenience of distributing content in whatever format Amazon’s customers choose. The up-side for content companies is they needn’t risk investment in replicating, stockpiling and distributing inventory during the hard-to-predict launches among the warring formats. Instead, studios can entrust their HD masters to CustomFlix, which will take consumers’ orders for the content online, and replicate the discs on an as-needed basis and fulfill the orders. “By supporting all of the high definition formats, CustomFlix enables content providers to take a format-neutral position and simply let customers decide which format they prefer,” said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, CustomFlix co-founder and managing dir. “Many content providers are taking a cautious approach to HD due to the high costs of pressing discs in multiple high definition formats, plus they risk inventory obsolescence once a winning format emerges. CustomFlix offers a format-agnostic solution to eliminate that risk and accelerate HD release schedules.” At our deadline, it wasn’t clear what financial arrangements CustomFlix was offering the content owners -- or what arrangements CustomFlix had made for disc-replication in the various formats. In an earlier announcement Tues., Amazon said “For a limited time, CustomFlix will offer digitization and DVD authoring of qualified content with no up-front investment by the content provider. Amazon.com will then make this content available for sale to tens of millions of Amazon customers and CustomFlix will manufacture DVDs on demand as customers place orders.” At our deadline, CustomFlix announced its first customer for the program: entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s HDNet, which has been pumping out independent productions through its network and cinema affiliates. “As the first national television network to broadcast all of our programming in the highest quality format of High Definition TV, HDNet has a deep commitment to helping HD become the new viewing standard both in broadcast and on DVD,” Cuban said Tues. “Unfortunately, the disparate HD formats will make establishing a single standard difficult and result in customer confusion. CustomFlix allows customers interested in HD content to simply choose whatever format they want… [It] was an easy decision for HDNet because discs are produced as customers order, so there won’t be any wasted inventory depending on which format becomes more popular for a specific title.” Amazon said titles handled by CustomFlix would be available for shipment within 24 hours after customers order them, and eligible for Amazon’s “Prime” and free “Super Saver” shipping.
Broadband triple-play offers appear to turn the adage “you get what you pay for” on its head, a co-author of an Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) report said today (Tues.) “Countries such as France and Japan, which have the lowest priced bundles, also offer the fastest speeds, best calling plans and the most included channels,” said economist Taylor Reynolds of the science, technology & industry directorate. But, he and colleague Yoshikazu Okamoto said, multi-play services could raise regulatory issues such as net neutrality and must-carry.
Congress can’t just rely on free market principles in deciding how rural communications should be regulated, said a paper prepared for the Foundation for Rural Service. The U.S. Constitution requires Congress to act in the “general welfare” which “requires Congress to make a value judgment about the impact of its choices on rural communities and rural customers as well as urban areas,” the paper said: “That value judgment is not always consistent with free market theories that elevate competition and economic efficiency above all else… There are important reasons for going beyond the limited economic analysis that free marketers tout… It is in the best interest of the nation to first ask what policies will promote the general welfare before assuming that laissez-faire is the best course of action.” For example, the paper said, “a regulatory regime is essential to the continued functioning of universal service programs.” The paper said universal service should have an overlay of federal law, because without it “contributions from providers would be difficult to achieve and regulators would be free to abandon universal service.” If Congress made universal service “a goal and not a mandate,” state regulators could create “arbitrary” definitions of universal service, supported services, funding methodology and administration,” the paper said. However, there’s room for improvement in federal law, the paper said: “The law needs to specify that emerging service providers that benefit from connection to the network must make equitable contributions to universal service, just like every other provider.” The paper also criticized the FCC for distorting the goals of universal service “by turning support into an incentive for ‘cream skimming’ and artificial competition.”
Despite widespread publicity after last year’s major storms, on the eve of hurricane season the 8 hurricane-zone states “remain dangerously unprepared for another disaster,” the First Response Coalition said in a report. The document sharpens the focus on the individual states, reviewing efforts of each to build interoperable networks. The report comes as the FCC’s Hurricane Katrina Independent Panel also finishes its report.
Broadband triple-play offers appear to turn the adage “you get what you pay for” on its head, a co-author of an Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) report said today (Tues.) “Countries such as France and Japan, which have the lowest priced bundles, also offer the fastest speeds, best calling plans and the most included channels,” said economist Taylor Reynolds of the science, technology & industry directorate. But, he and colleague Yoshikazu Okamoto said, multi-play services could raise regulatory issues such as net neutrality and must-carry.