A Telecom Act rewrite poses the risk of causing more headaches than it cures, TechNet CEO Rick White told a Cato Institute-Economist magazine forum in Palo Alto last week. “That’s been the pattern in the past,” the former Republican congressman from Wash. said in response to a question: “They're just as likely to create [new] problems as solve old ones. On the other hand, we have to give them a chance” because “we've got a big, complicated telecom regulatory scheme that needs to be fixed.” The problems are that telecom is so heavily regulated and the issues are so complex Congress leans heavily on a few experts, so “it’s very hard not to get a distorted bill,” White said: “That’s what we discovered in 1996.” TechNet’s priorities for the 109th Congress involve broad business and economic concerns as opposed to specific tech policy issues. The top ways Congress could help high tech are by bolstering education, fixing the economy and especially improving research funding, White said. The efficacy of govt. research subsidies shows up in everything from the Internet to HDTV, he said, and legal reform is the most important way Washington could remove obstacles to the industry. White said he was optimistic of the “will at the national level” to accomplish this “when the political forces are converging to make it possible,” notably the addition of 5 Republican votes in the Senate. He said the govt. could also help by removing impediments to broadband growth such as taxes and zoning restrictions. Among the few ways govt. can affirmatively aid technology are “keeping the economy on an even keel,” reducing trade barriers overseas, stepping up as a customer for promising technologies and stepping up as a last resort to set needed standards that aren’t emerging privately. But govt. is “not too good at predicting what the technology of the future is going to be,” White said. He cited previous intense concern, ultimately unwarranted, that Japanese supremacy in analog HDTV would mean a major blow to U.S. industry.
Universal service reform is one issue Congress should address when rewriting the Telecom Act next year, a cross- industry panel agreed Thurs. at a forum sponsored by the National Journal. But speakers couldn’t agree on exactly what the reform should be. They also disagreed on which other issues should go to Congress and which ones left to the FCC.
Another obstacle has emerged for the beleaguered spectrum trust fund legislation. Senate and industry sources told us that Senate Appropriations Committee ranking Democrat Byrd (D-W.Va.) has placed a hold on the bill, which has now been paired with E-911 and universal service fund (USF) legislation (HR-5419). Sources said Byrd’s hold is due to the same concerns that appropriators always had over the bill: The usurping of Appropriations Committee jurisdiction. The bill, which seeks to reimburse Defense Dept. and other govt. users for portions of the 3G spectrum they now occupy, would essentially appropriate money from spectrum auctions in advance. House appropriators had similar concerns over HR-1320, the original spectrum trust fund bill, that were eventually resolved before the House passed the bill in 2003. That bill is now part of HR-5419, a catch-all bill passed by the House 2 weeks ago, and includes state funding for E- 911 deployment and an exemption from Anti-Deficiency Act requirements on USF. The Senate Commerce Committee has passed spectrum trust fund legislation, but it never moved to the Senate floor. During deliberations on the bill, Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said he had concerns that the bill would usurp appropriators authority. But sources said Byrd’s hold wasn’t the main obstacle for HR-5419. Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) is also holding up the legislation because House leadership won’t take up his measure to establish a national boxing commission. One industry source said differences with Byrd, which were based on substance, are likely to be easier to resolve than the differences between McCain and House leadership, which sources said appear to be political.
EchoStar said it can’t receive, process and relay emergency alerts to the 550 Emergency Alert System (EAS) local areas. “The difficulties of obtaining this capability are likely insurmountable,” EchoStar said in reply comments on the FCC’s review of EAS. The company wouldn’t specify the costs of such a system, an EchoStar spokesman said, saying only that the expense in terms of resources and bandwidth would be “nearly inestimable.”
EchoStar said it can’t receive, process and relay emergency alerts to the 550 Emergency Alert System (EAS) local areas. “The difficulties of obtaining this capability are likely insurmountable,” EchoStar said in reply comments on the FCC’s review of EAS. The company wouldn’t specify the costs of such a system, an EchoStar spokesman said, saying only that the price in resources and bandwidth would be “nearly inestimable.”
The potential benefits of Wi-Fi and how best to encourage the roll out of the Internet across the world are among the likely hot topics at the ITU’s 2004 Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) next week, which for the first time will be chaired by a U.S. regulator -- FCC Comr. Abernathy. Abernathy told us Mon. she’s approaching the session with an open mind and the U.S. also has much to learn, for example on how other nations are handling universal service.
The State Department has issued a notice, effective November 18, 2004, announcing that the U.S. government has made a determination that the Federal Research and Production Complex Altay (Russia) and its subunits and successors have engaged in missile technology proliferation activities that require the imposition of measures pursuant to Executive Order 12938 of November 14, 1994, as amended by Executive Order 13094 of July 28, 1998.
ShippersNewsWire reports that, among other things, the second draft of revised C-TPAT security standards for importers moves away from characterizing the measures as 'minimum standards' and instead says importers should apply various prescriptions based on an 'assessment of their risk.' The articles adds that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has circulated the draft among customs compliance managers at 16 major corporations, and is asking for comments by December 3, 2004. (ShippersNewsWire@americanshipper.com, dated 11/23/04)
FCC Chmn. Powell is expected to start circulating draft UNE rules among commissioners today (Wed.) so they can have input on the item before the rules are placed on the agency’s Dec. 15 agenda meeting. Lobbying has stepped up as various industry segments attempt to push their views in the much-contested proceeding. One 8th floor aide reported having 9 meetings with industry lobbyists Tues. “It’s already starting and the schedule looks pretty solid” the next week or 2, he said.
The wireless industry isn’t ready to comply with the FCC’s hearing aid compatible (HAC) device requirements just yet, comments filed with the Commission last week revealed. The FCC last year established new rules relating to hearing aid compatibility and wireless phones and adopted the American National Standards Institute C63.19 technical measurement standard for measuring and rating the wireless devices’ compatibility with hearing aids. It required that manufacturers and service providers make available a minimum number of HAC wireless devices and established labeling requirements for compliant devices.