Sensing technology could help ensure there is no interference to Department of Defense radars if the 3.5 GHz band is reallocated for small cell and other use, Shared Spectrum Co. said in reply comments filed at the FCC responding to a December NPRM. “In short, the proper deployment of state-of-the-art sensing technologies -- particularly in combination with a database -- has essentially universal support,” the company said (http://bit.ly/YaBj0G). “SSC pointed out in its comments that once standards are developed for a sensing-only approach, and the technology is integrated into consumer devices, sensing alone will be the best approach to maximizing use of the spectrum without threatening incumbent users.” Qualcomm said the 3.5 GHz band should be reallocated for licensed operations, supported by authorized shared access. “As the Commission has repeatedly acknowledged, vast amounts of additional mobile broadband spectrum is needed to support the rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband capacity,” Qualcomm said (http://bit.ly/10Qey2t). “First and foremost, the FCC needs to take all steps possible to bring on line, as soon as possible, spectrum that can be completely cleared of incumbents in a reasonable time frame; this includes the 600 MHz band currently occupied by TV broadcasters that is being repurposed via the incentive auction process. Second, it is important that the Commission allocate additional unlicensed spectrum, as the agency proposes in the recently released 5 GHz Band NPRM, that can support offloading from licensed bands in situations where a highly reliable quality of service and full mobility may not be necessary and where there is much wider bandwidth to support higher data rates."
TracFone said its SafeLink Wireless Lifeline offering is making a big difference for many Americans. The comments came in a letter filed at the FCC. “In determining whether and how to respond to critics of wireless Lifeline, including Congressional critics, it is important that the Commission remain focused on how the [program] is achieving its statutory purpose of making available to all Americans, including low-income households, affordable telecommunications service, and doing so in a competitively and technologically neutral manner,” TracFone said (http://bit.ly/10Q9Bcz). TracFone noted that 70 percent of those in the SafeLink program said “having Lifeline-supported wireless service enabled them to pursue employment and remain employed” and 95 percent said it “enabled them to remain in contact with family and friends, as well as employers.” Only 26 percent are employed and 13 percent on a full-time basis, the low-cost provider said. Thirty-three percent have three or more children. “These data are important,” TracFone said. “They demonstrate that many Lifeline customers are unemployed or underemployed, are supporting multiple children,” the carrier said. “The data also show that Lifeline-supported wireless service is invaluable in helping qualified persons seek employment and in staying in contact with family and friends."
CTIA representatives said Section 718 of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) should be implemented in a manner that gives carriers and manufacturers “flexibility in the manner in which they comply with Section 718’s accessibility mandate.” The comments came in a call with Matthew Berry, chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. The section covers Internet browsers built into telephones used with public mobile services. “As CTIA has noted in prior advocacy, Section 2 of the CVAA provides covered entities the certainty that they will not generally be held responsible for third party content, products or services,” the group said (http://bit.ly/16MFgwj). “CTIA suggested that the Commission consider the applicability of Section 2 of the CVAA in any forthcoming action relating to the responsibility of mobile Internet browser manufacturers and providers for Internet content, applications or service in a manner consistent the Commission’s interpretation in this proceeding."
Despite declining sales of videogame consoles, they are the devices being used most often to connect TVs to the Internet, a DisplaySearch study said. Twenty-seven percent of flat-panel TVs are connected to the Internet in U.S., Japan, China, France, Germany, Italy and U.K. households, either directly via smart TVs or through other connected devices, it said. Game consoles were used by 19.3 percent of those households to connect to the Internet, followed by Roku, Apple TV and other media center boxes, at 17.1 percent, said NPD DisplaySearch. Blu-ray and DVD players trailed at 16.3 percent, followed by cable and satellite set-top boxes (10.7 percent), notebook PCs (10.3 percent), smart TVs (10.2 percent), desktop PCs (9 percent), connected TVs (6.3 percent) and other devices (1 percent). But “behavior varies by country,” said the research company. In China, for example, connected flat-panel-TV households most often connect via media center boxes (23 percent), it said. In the U.K., however, the preferred connection is via game consoles, at 20 percent, it said. “Despite an increase in the availability of TVs with internal connectivity options, consumers still primarily access online content using game consoles, media center boxes, and other devices connected to their existing TVs,” said Research Director Riddhi Patel. “As consumers become more comfortable using the connectivity features of smart TVs, and as the navigation and search capabilities on those devices become more intuitive and user friendly, we can expect to see more consumers accessing the Internet directly from smart TVs,” Patel predicted. The data were based on online consumer surveys conducted in each of the seven countries, the research company said. It polled 1,000 respondents in each of the countries in the first week of February.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., may introduce a bill to prevent states from passing laws restricting municipalities’ choices to build their own telecom networks, his office confirmed to us. “Senator Lautenberg has introduced legislation in the past that would protect the ability of cities and towns to provide Internet service to local families and businesses that are underserved,” his spokesman Caley Gray told us by email. “Access to affordable, reliable broadband is critical for economic development, and that is why Senator Lautenberg is considering re-introducing his legislation to prohibit states from interfering with a municipality’s ability to provide this vital service.” Free Press Senior Director-Strategy Tim Karr described ongoing talks with the senator this weekend during the Free Press meeting in Denver. “It may take a federal bill to repeal local legislation,” Karr said during a panel on the American Legislative Exchange Council. He referred to the 19 states that have passed laws restricting municipal broadband, which some have argued hurts the free market. Karr hopes that a federal bill will preempt these state efforts, such as the one in Georgia earlier this year. “We're hoping to have a [Republican] cosponsor on that,” Karr said of the Lautenberg bill. “I would disagree with the senator,” Georgia House Rep. Don Parsons, a Republican who cosponsored such a municipal network-restricting bill in the Georgia Legislature this spring, told us. Georgia House Bill 282 failed in a House floor vote this March (CD March 11 p7). Parsons called the idea of such federal preemption legislation, which would affect business internal to a state’s operations, “just totally wrong.” Parsons supports rural broadband but not at the expense of taxpayers, he said, saying Georgia legislators aren’t likely to drop the issue: “It’s not over at all.”
A federal district judge in Ohio found that Safety Point Productions, Picture Perfect Corp. and Voltage Pictures improperly joined 197 unnamed defendants in a BitTorrent copyright infringement case. The order from Judge James Gwin in Cleveland (http://bit.ly/Y8IZkb) directed the plaintiffs to notify his court which defendants will remain in the suits. “Plaintiffs are directed to refile their claims against the other defendants separately and to pay the appropriate filing fees for each action,” the order said (http://bit.ly/Y8IZkb). Gwin acknowledged that courts have been split on the question of allowing such suits to be joined, known as “swarm joinder.” But he found that “participation in a specific [BitTorrent] swarm is too imprecise a factor absent additional information related to the alleged copyright infringement to support joinder."
The European Broadcasting Union, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the Video Services Forum will cooperate to create a new network infrastructure for professional media, according to an EBU press release Monday. The new Joint Task Force on Networked Media will create an interoperable “packet-based network infrastructure” that can support any format. The task force is the result of a March meeting on packetized networks held at Atlanta’s Turner Broadcasting System among the organizations and the Advanced Media Work Flow Association. According to the EBU release, the task force’s final product will be a network infrastructure for professional media that supports “distributed, automated, professional media (file- and stream-based) workflows for local, regional and global standards-based production, supporting any format, to reduce cost of ownership and content time-to-market.”
Panasonic bought Internet streaming radio company Aupeo, Panasonic said Monday, but didn’t say for how much. Aupeo “will maintain its base in Berlin with their employees,” Panasonic spokesman Jim Reilly told us. Aupeo “has global reach” and the purchase will “further enhance” Panasonic’s offering to automotive customers, said Panasonic. “There is a considerable need for a connected and personalized media content platform that enables consumers to access content on any device while also enabling businesses to have a richer relationship with their customers,” said Tom Gebhardt, president-Panasonic Automotive Systems Co. of America, in a news release. “Conventional consumer-focused music and content services do not address all the needs of car manufacturers,” and Aupeo’s technologies and content delivery platform “provide a solution that is complementary to Panasonic’s automotive, business-to-business and business-to-consumer product lines,” he said. Aupeo was started in Berlin in 2008 by Armin Schmidt, and is licensed to operate streaming services in more than 40 countries, said Panasonic. Aupeo also offers more than 6,000 channels of terrestrial radio, podcast streaming and other services and “will continue to rapidly deploy new products” for the automotive and other industries, said Panasonic.
Congressional lawmakers should conduct greater oversight into the development of the FCC’s cost model for Phase II of the Connect America Fund (CAF), American Cable Association representative Patricia Jo Boyers planned to tell members of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. Boyers, president of Boycom Cablevision, is to testify before the subcommittee at Tuesday’s 10:30 a.m. hearing on rural communications, in room 253 Russell. “It is critical that the FCC gets the model right,” her prepared testimony said. “Otherwise, the American consumer could be paying in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars per year for something but getting nothing in return.” CAF should be distributed efficiently and in areas where providers don’t offer broadband services, she is prepared to say. The government should not “subsidize competitors to build their networks in areas where our companies already provide broadband,” her testimony says. Instead, federal broadband dollars should be distributed “efficiently” and “targeted to only areas that lack an unsubsidized broadband provider.” Boyers planned to urge lawmakers to make it easier for cable operators to participate in the FCC’s planned reverse auctions to provide broadband in certain rural areas. Congress must also seek to address what she said was a lack of middle-mile infrastructure and rising middle-mile costs; outdated pole access attachment regulations and challenges to obtaining public and private rights-of-way for broadband deployment, the testimony says.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell noted the passing of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he met in 2010. Thatcher died at age 87 Monday. “Through her steely resolve, unparalleled intellect and inexhaustible energy, she stared down sexism, skepticism, statism and Communism,” McDowell said in a statement (http://bit.ly/10ALbUB).