Long-term planning and adoption of commercial practices could improve the Department of Defense satellite control operations, a GAO report said. DOD satellite control networks are fragmented and potentially duplicative, GAO said in a report released Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/13qToyQ). The agency has no long-term plan for such operations, the report said. DOD lacks “reliable data on the costs of its current control networks and is unable to isolate satellite control costs from other expenses,” it said. Though Air Force officials and a decade of government research agree there are opportunities to use commercial practices in Air Force operations, the Air Force “has generally not implemented these practices,” it said. GAO recommended that the DOD do an analysis at the start of a new satellite acquisition to determine a business case to proceed “with either a shared or dedicated satellite control system.” It also suggested developing a long-term plan that identifies ways to “capture or estimate satellite control costs” and authorities to be given to program managers, that will give them flexibility “to ensure ground systems are built to a common network when the business case analysis shows it to be beneficial,” GAO said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed for cloture Thursday on the Marketplace Fairness Act (S-743), as was expected. The legislation by Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., would allow states to collect e-commerce sales taxes on in-state purchases from companies that don’t have a physical presence in those states. Last month, the Senate approved an amendment that added a summary of the bill the to Senate FY 2014 Budget Resolution.
Verizon generally sells and bills local access private lines separately from the long distance portion, it told the FCC Wireline Bureau Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/15pzo00). Verizon was discussing the matter in the context of the special access proceeding seeking data on the special access market, it said.
Three rural associations asked the FCC to reconsider its decision upholding the Wireline Bureau’s quantile regression analysis methodology for limiting high-cost loop support (http://bit.ly/11lX5ki). “Despite some positive revisions in the Sixth Order, the benchmarking approach in its current form continues to make both the rules governing universal service support and support amounts fundamentally unpredictable,” wrote NECA, the Western Telecommunications Alliance and the Eastern Rural Telecom Association in their petition for reconsideration. They also asked the commission to reconsider its conclusion that the bureau was reasonable when it based its benchmarks on the analysis of “similarly situated companies.” The bureau’s approach does not actually apply similar benchmarks to similar companies, the rural groups wrote. “This defect requires reconsideration."
FTC Chairman Edith Ramirez said the online ad industry should develop a Do Not Track mechanism, in an address to industry members, evidence of that fact that “key government officials are renewing the push” for DNT, Guggenheim analyst Paul Gallant wrote Thursday. “Until yesterday, it was not clear whether Chairman Ramirez would continue Leibowitz’s campaign for a DNT mechanism.” Now it’s clear that “DNT will remain a top priority of the FTC,” he continued. After her address, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., scheduled a hearing next week on the topic, and he’s likely to “use the hearing to press the industry to reach agreement on a DNT mechanism,” Gallant wrote investors.
Comments are due May 13, replies May 28, on the FCC’s rural call completion NPRM, said a public notice released Thursday (http://bit.ly/Zv6reM). The NPRM proposed rules that would require an originating long-distance provider submit the monthly “call answer rate” for rural operating carrier numbers (OCNs) with 100 attempts or more, and the nonrural monthly average, once per quarter. The Wireline Bureau seeks comment on the “completeness” of a list of rural OCNs provided by NECA at http://bit.ly/11EPCht.
CTIA should encourage its members to include “enabled radio receivers in mobile devices,” Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., wrote CTIA President Steve Largent (http://bit.ly/13oqZcB). He said last year’s tornadoes in southern Indiana showed that “ready access to emergency alerts and information before, during and after times of crisis,” is critically important. “NAB needs to make up its mind -- is it for government intervention in the marketplace or for a free market?” CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter responded. “If it’s for the former, we have a serious disagreement, since we oppose the idea that government should dictate device design. And if it’s the latter, then why are they continuing to lobby Members of Congress in a very transparent effort to get government to pressure the wireless industry?"
A foreign ownership order adopted by the FCC Thursday streamlined several policies and procedures for reviewing foreign ownership of U.S. companies with common carrier wireless licenses, and some aeronautical radio licenses, under Section 310 of the Communications Act. Officials said the order will “harmonize” international treatment of foreign investments from WTO and non-WTO countries; no longer require petitioning licensees to identify and request foreign approval for each foreign investor; and require approval only where an investor’s interest exceeds 5 percent (10 percent in “certain situations,” a spokesman said). It also will let licensees’ subsidiaries and affiliates rely on the licensee’s foreign ownership ruling rather than having to file a new petition for declaratory ruling. The commission said its reforms could reduce the number of 310(b) annual filings by up to 70 percent. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the order would “unleash more foreign investment, an important source of financing for U.S. telecommunications companies,” and foster “technical innovation, economic growth, and job creation."
Kaazing said it raised $15 million from some of its existing investors plus New Enterprise Associates and Columbus Nova Technology Partners. Kaazing makes a live data delivery platform for mobile and Web-based enterprise communications and is the author of the HTML5 WebSocket standard. “We believe that Kaazing is well positioned to redefine the $12 billion application modernization market as the need for fast, scalable and secure mobile web infrastructure is accelerating rapidly,” said Mohsen Moazami, a general partner at Columbus Nova Technology Partners.