The govt. should be an active participant in the transition to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) from IPv4 some panelists said at an IPv6 public meeting sponsored by NTIA and the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Washington Wed. The transition is expected to have an impact on wireless and VoIP services. While admitting that market forces should be allowed to drive the transition, they said the govt. should: (1) Support R&D by providing funding for interoperability tests and research efforts on security. (2) Become an early adopter of the new technology. (3) Disseminate information through training workshops and meetings.
AT&T Wireless said it signed a contract to provide Wireless Priority Service (WPS) under the National Communications System (NCS). T-Mobile was the original carrier to offer WPS and it was subsequently joined by Cingular and Nextel. WPS is designed to give national security officials and emergency responders access to the wireless network during times of emergency. Callers with special software on the handsets access WPS by dialing 272 before they call. Users pay a one-time WPS activation cost of $10, and $4.50 per month. When WPS is invoked customers are charged 75 cents per minute for the calls. “The Wireless Priority Service is a critical communications resource for national security and emergency preparedness. The addition of AT&T Wireless to the list of WPS carriers is an important expansion of this program and the program office is extremely pleased to enter into this contract,” said John Graves, WPS program dir.
The GPS Industry Council (GIC) asked the FCC not to allow unlicensed use of GPS re-radiation kits proposed by GPS Networking, Inc. (GNI). GNI made the request in May, citing improved availability of the GPS signal indoors (CD May 7 p12). But GIC said the equipment could interfere “intentionally or unintentionally, with signals in the GPS restricted bands, thereby obstructing the vital public safety and national security uses of GPS.” GIC also said “benefits alleged by GNI are either overstated or of limited value.” GNI said E-911 devices would benefit from the kits, but GIC disagreed: Cellular service depending on E-911 functionality could experience “the transmission of erroneous or conflicting position information to emergency responders at times when accurate information is needed most,” GIC said.
D&M Holdings signed a license agreement with iBiquity Digital to use HD Radio in the Denon and Marantz lines of home receivers, it was announced Tues. D&M is the 16th CE company licensed by iBiquity to develop HD Radio products in the U.S., iBiquity said. Meanwhile, the National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC) has told the FCC that iBiquity’s 3rd-generation ("Gen 3") hardware “performs similarly” to previous versions of the system that it evaluated in 2001 and 2002. IBIQUITY’s Gen 3 systems “are functionally equivalent” to earlier versions “in essentially all respects except for the audio codec employed,” the NRSC told the Commission. Gen 1 systems used an MPEG-2-based AAC perceptual audio codec, while Gen 3 hardware uses a proprietary iBiquity codec called HDC and used in all commercial HD Radio equipment, the NRSC said. IBiquity converted to the new codec last summer after audio quality artifacts emerged in the AM band.
MONTEREY, Cal. -- Comrs. Adelstein and Copps used the FCC’s latest broadcast localism hearing as a platform to campaign for stricter media ownership rules. Their strongly sympathetic -- and often boisterous -- audience called for the FCC to bird-dog broadcasters on local coverage, with several spectators raising well received calls for mandatory set-aside of 10% of prime-time for programming from or concerning local communities. Cast as the night’s villains were media conglomerates -- and for most audience members, judging by the jibes and jeers, Clear Channel Communications and the absent Chmn. Powell as well.
The British govt. Thurs. pushed back the switchover from analog to digital TV (DTV) 2 years, saying some public broadcasters wanted the delay. In a written statement to Parliament, Culture Secy. Tessa Jowell said while broadcasters hadn’t agreed on the best timetable, some -- including the BBC -- thought 2012 would be more appropriate than the 2010 deadline originally floated by the govt. But she said rollout would be “subject to agreement on a detailed plan, including resolution of the remaining issues” raised in talks among the govt., public service broadcasters and the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Industry groups welcomed the statement and urged the govt. to set a definite date, while one consumer group worried that consumers might be forced into something they're not ready for.
The British govt. Thurs. pushed back the switchover from analog to DTV 2 years, saying some public broadcasters wanted the delay. In a written statement to Parliament, Culture Secy. Tessa Jowell said while broadcasters hadn’t agreed on the best timetable, some -- including the BBC -- thought 2012 would be more appropriate than the 2010 deadline originally floated by the govt.
The FCC granted Charter a temporary waiver of emergency alert system (EAS) rules for 153 systems in 24 states. Cable systems with fewer than 5,000 subscribers are required by Oct. 1, 2002, to provide national level EAS messages on all programmed channels, or on at least one programmed channel with video interrupts and audio alerts on all other programmed channels. Charter contended that it would cost $6,000-$10,000 to install the equipment for each system, totaling $876,000-$1.46 million. The FCC agreed that would pose a financial hardship and agreed to waivers until Oct. 1, 2005. The systems are in Ala., Cal., Ga., Va., W.Va., Tex., among other states.
On June 15-17, 2004, trade associations from forty-seven countries attended a meeting entitled "Summit on Fair Trade in Textiles and Clothing," which called on individual governments to request an emergency meeting of the WTO in order to identify solutions to the pending expiration of the WTO textile and apparel quota system on January 1, 2005.
Regulatory separation mandates such as the net neutrality proposal are “mistaken,” said Vanderbilt Law School Prof. Christopher Yoo at a Washington conference Fri. sponsored by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. He called on the FCC to resist calls to develop neutrality regulations that would prevent broadband network owners from using their control over the last mile to discriminate against service providers. Releasing his study -- “The Economics of Net Neutrality: Why the Physical Layer Should Not Be Regulated” -- Yoo warned against such intervention, saying it was unnecessary and would have “perverse” effects. He said vertical disintegration will not solve the market concentration problem for end users.