Google “dominated” negotiations with the European Union over claims that the company engaged in anticompetitive search bias, said Scott Cleland, of Precursor Watch, in an email blast Friday. The EU made 18 concessions to Google, while the company made only four to the EU, Cleland wrote. “Given that most everyone would agree that the sovereign European Union is vastly more powerful than corporate Google, and given that the EU’s competition law and enforcement process is well-known to be very tough, a logical conclusion from the upside-down outcome of these negotiations is that Google successfully bamboozled the EU competition authorities.” Google did not respond to our query.
Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso asked Congress to pick a new FCC chairman who will change retransmission consent rules and fix “the broken video programming marketplace.” His letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member John Thune, R-S.C., was posted online by the FCC Friday (http://bit.ly/17M32fe). Commisso criticized the commission’s “outdated” video rules for driving up the costs of video programming to distributors. “The owners of ‘must-have’ programming are immune from competition while cable, satellite and phone companies vigorously compete with each other,” said Commisso. “This allows programmers to play distributors against each other, driving up programming costs and, ultimately, consumer prices.” Commisso said the FCC had permitted the current retrans rules to continue despite his request that the agency back a price freeze. “The failure of the Commission to act on these matters of importance to consumers is unconscionable,” he said. Commisso urged the senators to appoint a new FCC chairman who will take action against programmers who interrupt service because of disputes with distributors. “The American public needs and deserves a Federal Communications Commission that is dedicated to protecting video service subscribers against the programmers’ anti-consumer practices.” said Commisso.
The House Cybersecurity Subcommittee plans a hearing on cybersecurity legislation at 2 p.m. April 25 in 311 Cannon. The hearing is on “Striking the Right Balance: Protecting Our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure from Cyber Attack and Ensuring Privacy and Civil Liberties.” Witnesses weren’t announced.
Suddenlink, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and the NCTA partnered with the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute’s Alzheimer’s Outreach and Registry Program last week to release the program’s “Connect to Care” notebook, which is provided free to the program’s patients “to help patients, their caregivers, and their health providers keep track of important medical information,” said a release from the organization.
The FCC released more details on a planned May 3 workshop on the 600 MHz band plan tied to the spectrum incentive auction. Originally announced April 4 (CD April 5 p11), Friday’s public notice on the workshop (http://fcc.us/11oRZUl) said it will involve a panel of “FCC experts” who will lead a day-long roundtable discussion on the 600 MHz band plan, alternative proposals, and the “technical tradeoffs” between them. The FCC notice described some features of the band as “novel,” such as auctioning generic blocks instead of specific frequency blocks, blocks designated specifically for uplink and downlink, and guard bands. The FCC said they received “a broad range of commenter views on how and where to configure the uplink and downlink blocks in the band plan.” The release said participants at the workshop will “focus on technical issues involving licensed, flexible use wireless services in the 600 MHz band and interference issues raised by the coexistence of mobile services and television stations in the band.” Other band plan issues “such as the use of guard bands or channel 37 by licensed or unlicensed transmissions” may be covered in a future workshop, said the FCC. The workshop will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 3 in the Commission Meeting Room.
The White House said the amended Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act “does not yet adequately address our fundamental concerns,” despite CISPA passing the House by a 288 to 127 vote Thursday. The statement followed an earlier veto threat issued by the White House advisors who said HR-624 didn’t include “proper” privacy protections, “reinforce” the roles of civilian and intelligence agencies, or include “targeted” liability protections (CD April 17 p3). “We have long said that information sharing improvements are essential to effective legislation, but they must include proper privacy and civil liberties protections, reinforce the appropriate roles of civilian and intelligence agencies, and include targeted liability protections,” a White House spokesman said via email Thursday. The White House commended House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., for their “commitment to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity, and for engaging in a constructive discussion about how to reach a common ground on cybersecurity information sharing. The cosponsors led a collaborative process -- working with leaders of both parties and multiple committees -- that strengthened CISPA in committee and again on the House floor,” the spokesman said. “The administration seeks to build upon the productive dialogue with the House. We are hopeful that continued bipartisan, bicameral collaboration to incorporate our core priorities will produce cybersecurity legislation that addresses these critical issues and that the President can sign into law.”
Six more U.S. representatives and a senator sponsored resolutions that oppose placing a performance fee on terrestrial broadcast radio stations. Currently, 124 House members and 10 senators put their support behind the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 16) and (S. Con. Res. 6), NAB said in a press release. The recent sponsors include Reps. Christopher Gibson, R-N.Y., Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., it said. Both versions of the bill were introduced this year (CD March 6 p1).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said people must get the message that they can’t safely text and drive at the same time. At a distracted-driving event at the FCC Friday, he said, “People who text while driving are 23 times more likely to have an accident than a non-distracted driver.” “And, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,331 people died in distracted driving related accidents in 2011.” Genachowski cited one recent example -- Alex Hait of Boulder, Colo. “Earlier this month, Alex swerved into oncoming traffic after sending a text while driving, and was fatally wounded when his car rolled over,” Genachowski said. “Alex’s parents released a photo of the unsent text on his phone: ‘Sounds good my man. See you soon. I'll tw …’ and then it cut off. These deaths are senseless and they have to stop. If Alex had just waited to send his message, he would still be alive."
The FCC revised its Part 90 rules to allow end-of-train devices (EOT), which transmit brake pipe pressure readings on the rear car to the lead locomotive, to operate with up to eight watts transmitter output power. The FCC made the change acting on a petition from the Association of American Railroads. AAR said the change would improve train safety, providing the engineer with information that could be needed in an emergency. The FCC said it sought comment and no one opposed the change. “As a practical matter, EOT devices must be mounted on the coupling knuckle behind the last car in the train, but the path from the end of the train to the front of the train is always blocked by intervening train cars, and also can be adversely affected by variable terrain factors,” the order said. “AAR, which is the Commission’s certified frequency coordinator, ... argued that the current two-watt power limit offers little margin for degradation of the communications link, especially on longer trains (some of which are 7,000 to 8,000 feet long), and that the proposed increase in power was unlikely to cause interference to railroad operations.” The order also modifies Section 90.187 of the commission’s rules on trunking in the private land mobile radio bands below 800 MHz. A trunked system uses technology that can search two or more available channels and automatically assign a user an open channel. The commission said it sought comment on various amendments “intended to simplify or clarify the trunking rules,” most of which were not controversial. “In particular, we amend Section 90.187 to clarify that it neither requires applicants for decentralized trunked systems to obtain consent from affected licensees nor permits decentralized trunked systems to operate without monitoring,” the agency said. The report and order (http://bit.ly/ZCuTHY), which was adopted by the commission Tuesday and released Thursday, makes a number of other minor tweaks to the Part 90 rules.
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing to examine the FCC’s LifeLine program on April 26, a subcommittee spokesman said Friday. The hearing, entitled “The Lifeline Fund: Money Well Spent?” will be at 10:30 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. No witnesses were announced.