A group of Republican senators will unveil an alternative cybersecurity bill Thursday to compete with the Senate Cybersecurity Act, S-2105. The Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology (SECURE IT) Act is sponsored by Sens. John McCain, Ariz., Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas, Chuck Grassley, Iowa, Saxby Chambliss, Ga., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, and Dan Coats, Ind. The “fundamental difference” between the two bills is that the SECURE IT Act will foster a “cooperative relationship with the entire private sector through information sharing, rather than an adversarial one with prescriptive regulations,” McCain said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last month. Specifically the new bill will improve public/private information sharing; update the criminal code to incorporate cyber crimes; reform the Federal Information Security Management Act; and increase cybersecurity investment, McCain said. The senators plan to unveil the legislation at a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the Senate Radio-Television Gallery in Room S-325 of the Capitol.
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security and FBI asked the FCC to defer action on a streamlined application for transfer of control of Keywest Communications (USA) to Sifa Technology pending their own investigation (http://xrl.us/bmwh2m). “DOJ, DHS and FBI are currently reviewing this matter for any national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues but have not yet completed the effort,” they wrote Wednesday. Kuala Lumpur-based Key West Global Telecom Berhad filed an application to transfer control of KCUSA to Sifa. KCUSA provides interstate and intrastate interexchange telecommunications services; Sifa is a British Virgin Islands corporation wholly-owned by a Canadian citizen named Xiao Ping Yang. An FCC public notice had said Sifa doesn’t currently provide telecom services. U.S. regulators often ask the commission to pause action on deals while the security agencies review them.
The FCC is “considering all aspects of the request for waiver” by Oklahoma so the state can build out an early public safety network in the 700 MHz band, said Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett. Replying Jan. 25 to a letter by all but one member of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, Barnett said he shares the state’s “strong interest in an interoperable public safety broadband network” and appreciates it’s “making this a priority, including allocating funding to this project.” Barnett said in the letter released by the commission on Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmwh6s) that the agency will include the state’s comments in the record. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., recently asked FCC Chairman Genachowski about the delay in approving 700 MHz waiver applications (CD Feb 17 p3).
FCC staff “continually monitored” a retransmission consent blackout on DirecTV of Sunbeam TV stations in the Boston and Miami areas, Chairman Julius Genachowski wrote members of Congress. Staff “reached out to the parties for status updates,” he said of the now-resolved dispute. On retrans generally, “Commission staff is reviewing the record developed in response to the Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to determine if proposed changes to its retransmission consent rules are warranted,” Genachowski wrote. “The Commission also remains available as a resource if Congress chooses to revisit the statutory framework for retransmission consent.” The agency Tuesday in docket 12-2 (http://xrl.us/bmwh4j) released Genachowski’s responses dated Feb. 16 to letters on DirecTV-Sunbeam from legislators including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Reps. Charles Bass, R-N.H., and Massachusetts Democrats including Ed Markey.
Time Warner Cable completed the purchase of Insight Communications, the acquirer said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bmwhys). Time Warner Cable said it added more than 760,000 customers in Evansville, Ind.; Louisville, Covington, Lexington and Bowling Green, Ky; and Columbus, Ohio, with the deal, which got FCC approval recently (CD Feb 2 p13). The price was $3 billion, and the deal will within two years let Time Warner Cable save $100 million in costs annually, analyst Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo wrote investors.
A new broadcast-TV programmer targeting blacks got carriage on Cox Communications in the Washington market, Bounce TV said of its multicast signal that’s seen over-the-air there on Gannett’s WUSA.
The FTC scheduled a workshop for May 30 on whether new guidance is needed on disclosures for online advertisers. Workshop participants will cover revising the Dot Com Disclosures, first published in 2000, “so they illustrate how to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures in the current online and mobile advertising environment,” the agency said. It solicited comments last spring. Topics may include: producing effective disclosures on social media platforms and mobile devices and options available to customers “when using devices that do not allow downloading or printing the terms of agreement.” The commission asked parties (http://xrl.us/bmwh9k) to “submit suggestions for topics of discussion or original research,” in particular “realistic examples and mock-ups that can be used for illustration and discussion” at the workshop. Requests and recommendations should be submitted to dotcomdisclosuresworkshop@ftc.gov.
A report by a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee working group recommends the NTIA collect more data on receivers, including those used for TV and radio, radio astronomy, GPS, remote sensing, satellite receive-only terminals and radiosondes. The report by the Spectrum Management Improvements Working Group (http://xrl.us/bmwhfh) is expected to be discussed at Thursday’s CSMAC meeting. The report recommends the NTIA work with the U.S. Comptroller General on a receiver standards report, required by the recently enacted spectrum legislation. “Accurate spectrum management analyses cannot be properly performed without a complete data set sufficient for spectrum planning,” the report said. “Given that a single specific radio or antenna can be tied to numerous frequency assignment records, if this data are maintained separately from frequency assignment records, NTIA can achieve substantial improvements towards frequency assignment accuracy."
A new broadcast-TV programmer targeting blacks got carriage on Cox Communications in the Washington market, Bounce TV said of its multicast signal that’s seen over-the-air there on Gannett’s WUSA.
Moody’s gave a B1 rating to RCN’s proposed $125 million term loan. The cable operator plans to use the cash to pay a dividend to private-equity owners Abry Partners and Spectrum Equity, Moody’s said: “Despite RCN’s high leverage, the ability to generate positive free cash flow from” its bundle of video, voice and data services “in densely populated markets supports its B1 corporate family rating.”