Several major electronics manufacturers agreed to work within a common open software framework to enhance the Internet of Things, said a Tuesday release from the AllSeen Alliance, a new “cross-industry consortium” of manufacturers (http://bit.ly/ICwigb). Board members include Cisco, Haier, LG, Panasonic, Qualcomm and Sharp. According to the release, they and other members “will contribute software and engineering resources as part of their collaboration on an open software framework that enables hardware manufacturers, service providers and software developers to create interoperable devices and services.” The nonprofit Linux Foundation, which advocates for the growth of the open source operating system Linux, issued the release about the new alliance. “Open source software and collaborative development have been proven to accelerate technology innovation in markets where major transformation is underway,” said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. “Nowhere is this more evident today than in the consumer, industrial and embedded industries where connected devices, systems and services are generating a new level of intelligence in the way we and our systems interact.”
The new version of the FCC Process Reform Act is “a bipartisan compromise” but not without its disappointments, said House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., in her opening statement at the bill’s markup late Tuesday afternoon. “While I appreciate the inclusion of the bipartisan/bicameral FCC Collaboration Act of 2013 (HR-539), I'm disappointed that this provision will not take effect immediately upon enactment,” Eshoo said. “For years, current and former FCC Commissioners have called on Congress to pass ’sunshine reform.’ A delay in implementation is the unnecessary delay of a much needed reform.” The bill should be changed in the House or possibly in the Senate, she said. The House Commerce Committee plans to vote on it Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. in 2121 Rayburn. Eshoo praised FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s own process review initiative, started since his confirmation. She backs the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act (HR-3674), introduced Monday, which she co-sponsored. “Passage of this legislation is a win-win for federal agencies, the wireless industry and most importantly for consumers,” she said. In his markup opening statement, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., cited pride in both the process reform and spectrum legislation, backing their passage. The spectrum bill “would incent agencies by offering a percentage of net auction proceeds to agencies willing to do the hard work of making their systems more efficient,” Walden said. He urged his colleagues to back the bill and “work on creative ways to bring additional spectrum.”
The Telecommunications Industry Association said the White House should continue pursuing research and development related to spectrum sharing, and urged Congress to provide “significant additional funding” for that research. Additional funding would result in “transformational advances” in spectrum sharing research, which in turn will have “economic benefits several times over,” TIA said Tuesday in a white paper. “Spectrum sharing technologies hold great promise, but a significant and sustained research and development effort is required to help move many of these technologies into the mainstream. By modernizing the foundations of the research ecosystem and focusing R&D efforts in priority areas, Congress and the Administration can work in partnership with industry to ensure that the future for spectrum remains a bright one.” TIA said more research is needed on several topics: The Authorized Shared Access and Licensed Shared Access unlicensed sharing regimes, the effectiveness of geolocation databases, cognitive radio, intelligent network selection, wideband sensing, distributed sensing, spectrum aggregation, interference mitigation, wireless ad hoc networks, network resiliency and security (http://bit.ly/1cniQEn).
Cloud-based TV service nimbleTV began offering its service in the New York City metropolitan region Tuesday, the company said in a news release. The service allows users with addresses in that area to watch TV on any device with an authenticated cable subscription, the release said. Customers can watch “their favorite local cable programming -- including local news, sports and major networks -- anywhere, anytime and on any device,” it said. The base service, which requires an existing cable subscription, costs $3.99 a month. Users can buy a subscription TV package that will allow them to stream local, cable and premium cable channels starting at $29.98 per month. Both kinds of services include DVR capability. CEO Anand Subramanian said: “Our approach simply improves existing pay TV -- it does not displace it."
The FCC shouldn’t require broadcasters to use real-time closed captions for local news programming, said the NAB in an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kwywtp). “The considerable costs that would be imposed on local news operations to implement real-time captioning would not necessarily be outweighed by any significant benefit to viewers.” Instead, the commission should allow broadcasters to continue to use Electronic Newsroom Technique. Phasing out ENT, which generates captions from a script stored in a station’s computer or from a teleprompter, would impose costs on broadcasters that “would likely result in a loss of competitive local news coverage,” NAB said. Securing real-time captioners costs more in smaller markets, NAB said. The commission should allow broadcasters to keep using ENT and “set a reasonable date” to evaluate the effectiveness of improved ENT systems, NAB said.
A hands-off approach to VoIP regulation would maintain a regulatory environment in North Dakota that encourages broadband investment and delivers VoIP and other communications services that bring “investment and economic growth” to the state, John Stephenson, American Legislative Exchange Council communications and technology task force director, told the North Dakota Information Technology Committee Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/19fsz2b). ALEC adopted a model policy in 2007 (http://bit.ly/18kESMd) that exempts interconnected VoIP service from state utility regulation, while preserving the rights and responsibilities for states and providers and recognizing the FCC’s jurisdiction, said Stephenson. “If each state applied its own utility laws to VoIP, which include requirements such as PUC authority to provide the services, carrier of last resort obligations and tariffs with pre-approval for service changes, the increased costs on providers and ultimately consumers would be substantial.” Twenty-nine states and the FCC have recognized the “continued investment in communications technology and services is at risk” if VoIP faces an “uncertain” regulatory future, said Stephenson. “Legislatures across the country have made clear that they believe the competitive marketplace, not legacy telephone regulations, are capable of ensuring service availability, quality, and reliability for consumers into the future."
Globecast and Measat signed an agreement with France’s Mezzo Live HD to deliver Mezzo programming to the Asia-Pacific region on the Measat-3 satellite. Mezzo Live HD Asia “is a new around-the-clock TV channel for the Asia-Pacific region,” Globecast said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1kwOQtZ). Broadcast in French, the channel will be subtitled in 11 regional languages, it said. Globecast will receive the channel’s signal at its technical operations center in Paris, it said. Then the channel is sent via fiber to a Hong Kong teleport for uplink onto the Measat-3 platform, Globecast said.
Frontier Communications wants Comcast customers to know it has their backs, said the telco in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1dmkqIv). Customers who relied on Comcast’s recently canceled secure backup and sharing services can switch to “Frontier Secure,” which “proactively prevents your life from being ruined by cyber-attacks,” said the telco. The Frontier service offers firewall protection, backup and sharing services and identity protection. “We are winding down the secure backup and share feature, however, we continue to offer all of our Internet customers the most comprehensive security suite, Constant Guard, which includes the top-rated Norton Security Suite for no additional cost,” a Comcast spokesman told us. “With it, our customers can shop safely during the holiday season and protect their computers from malware."
The Utilities Telecom Council asked the FCC to “streamline” the process by which utilities or other critical infrastructure entities can access the Connect America Fund (CAF) as a certified eligible telecom carrier (ETC), and make available funds that go unused by price-cap carriers for serving unserved and underserved areas (http://bit.ly/1dmivDM). “By removing these barriers, the Commission would promote broadband deployment” by electric utilities, said UTC in a Monday letter. “UTC suggests that the Commission permit entities whose applications for ETC designation are still pending (and who are otherwise eligible) to be eligible to obtain access to CAF through its Phase I or Phase II funding mechanisms. That way, an entity that succeeds in applying for CAF to serve a certain unserved study area can become an ETC after it has successfully obtained access to CAF funds.” That would reduce the uncertainty and delay that often discourages utilities from participating in CAF, the group said. “This simple change can release market forces that are unnecessarily restrained under legacy requirements from the Universal Service Fund that have been carried over and made applicable to the CAF."
House Communications Subcommittee Republicans want to bring up five central issues with the five FCC commissioners this week, based on the majority committee staff memo for the hearing: Commercial spectrum auctions, government spectrum, universal service, FCC reform and the IP transition. The panel’s oversight hearing is at 10 a.m. Thursday in 2123 Rayburn. “Several fundamental implementation questions about the broadcast incentive auction remain unanswered, including broadcast station valuation and border coordination,” the memo said (http://1.usa.gov/1hKIydb). “It remains unclear how the FCC intends to craft auction rules that comport with the changes made to the Communications Act by the Spectrum Act.” The memo criticized the FCC quantile regression analysis, “aggravated by the widely-recognized need for comprehensive corrective action and the long delay in Commission action on waivers sought by many of these companies for relief in the interim,” and backed more process updates. The memo mentioned the spectrum and FCC process legislation House Commerce will consider in markup and vote on this week (CD Dec 10 p3).