The RIAA Wed. lifted the veil of secrecy on its plan to seek content protections at the FCC to thwart widespread piracy of music transmitted over the emerging in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio (DAB) services.
The RIAA unveiled its plan to seek content protections at the FCC to thwart widespread piracy of music transmitted over the emerging in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio (DAB) services, in FCC comments.
Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wed. he didn’t know if the Senate could complete action this year on Sen. Sununu’s (R-N.H.) VoIP bill, but he hoped at least to mark it up in committee “to give us the opportunity to amend and debate and improve Mr. Sununu’s bill.” Speaking at the committee’s first hearing on the bill, McCain said he’s aware there are “difficult issues” associated with VoIP technology, such as universal service, public safety and CALEA, but Sununu “has introduced a very important, comprehensive piece of legislation.” McCain said he thought VoIP was a “technological breakthrough that will fundamentally change and simplify the ability of Americans to communicate,” but “since it is a breakthrough technology, there’s going to be a lot of china broken.”
In a move reportedly encouraged by the White House, the Bell companies have promised the FCC they will retain current UNE-P wholesale prices for several months. In letters sent to FCC Chmn. Powell, Verizon promised a 5-month period of price stability while the other 3 Bells said they would keep the current prices until the end of the year. Powell released the letters to the news media late Mon., saying the agency’s “top priority is to ensure that consumers don’t experience any disruption in services” as a result of the decision by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to vacate the FCC’s UNE rules. The court’s ruling becomes effective today (Wed.).
The European Commission (EC) Mon. launched a consultation aimed at clarifying how European Union e- communications directives apply to VoIP. If VoIP is used to provide a service to the public (as opposed to use in a private or corporate network), it’s subject to conditions applicable to publicly available electronic communications services, the EC said. Those conditions differ from obligations of Publicly Available Telephone Services (PATS). However, the EC said, some issues linked to the provision of an e-communications service may “have the ‘look and feel'” of a PATS but not offer access to emergency calls. There are 2 broad regulatory approaches to such problems, the paper said: (1) Impose traditional public switched telephone network obligations on all new telephone-like services. (2) Make sure consumers are fully informed and can make their own choices about services, while encouraging suppliers to come up with technical solutions. The EC generally followed the 2nd route, proposing, among other things, that: (1) National regulatory authorities (NRAs) consider providing, on request, a standardized declaration to VoIP suppliers that decide to provide PATS, saying they're subject to the rights and duties required of all PATS providers. The declaration would help VoIP providers enforce rights associated with PATS and negotiate with other players, the EC said. (2) Member states consider recognizing that only those providers that own or control the underlying transport infrastructure are able to ensure PATS availability in cases of force majeure. (3) NRAs could require VoIP providers that include access to the public phone network to inform their customers about the impact of power failure on the service and how it’s different from traditional telephony. (4) NRAs could require VoIP suppliers that include access to the public telephone network to give customers precise information on how the provider deals with access to emergency services and caller location. (5) Market players offering VoIP-based services be encouraged to devise and rapidly implement solutions for handling calls to emergency services, transmitting caller ID and providing location information for emergency calls. The EC also sought feedback on potential interconnection, interoperability and access issues that could hamper VoIP rollout, and on numbering and extraterritorial provider concerns. The document will be reissued after the public comment period as non-binding guidelines, the EC said. Comments are due Aug. 31 -- infso-b1@cec.eu.int.
Low demand for broadband services has emerged as one of the “major challenges” for U.S. policy, FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey told a panel sponsored by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Thurs. in Washington. She said while 80% of the U.S. population had access to broadband, only 20% of households subscribed: “A key question for the U.S. policy is why so many people that have access to broadband in the United States have chosen not yet to subscribe.” The panel focused on policy and regulatory developments in Japan and the U.S. as they affect broadband deployment
With the FCC’s UNE rules set to be vacated June 16 unless there’s action on last-min. stay requests, the FCC plans to start working immediately to draft new rules, FCC Chmn. Powell told reporters after the agency’s meeting Thurs. He told reporters he was “quite optimistic that the project will be completed “expeditiously,” perhaps by year-end. An AT&T spokeswoman said she hoped the FCC and the Administration “are mindful that, under the law, it is their duty to protect the interests of American consumers and businesses, not the interests of entrenched monopolies.”
BOSTON -- FCC Chmn. Powell Wed. opened a major international meeting here on ultra wideband with a plea for the group to move forward with an international agreement. In coming days, ITU’s Task Group 1/8 will try to hammer out a consensus on UWB in a rare meeting outside Geneva. Powell told delegates that while balancing interests presents major “challenges” for regulators “the promise of UWB technology is simply too great to do otherwise.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message (Adm: 04-1427) announcing that the Automated Commercial System (ACS) was to be brought down for approximately three hours, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT, on Tuesday, June 8, 2004 in order to accommodate emergency maintenance.
The Journal of Commerce reports that U.S. delegates to the United Nations (U.N.) Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), as well as the U.S. government, were disappointed with the slow pace of progress at UNCITRAL's May 2004 meeting on the development of a new international convention for ocean cargo liability. According to the article, while the World Shipping Council and the National Industrial Transportation (NIT) League will continue to support the U.N. process, they had expected to have a finished U.N. convention available for ratification by the end of 2004. The article notes that without tangible progress, the private sector may seek alternatives to the U.N. process. (JoC dated 05/31/04-06/06/04, www.joc.com.)