Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel aired his concerns during his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the “very dangerous and real threat” of cyberwarfare. Hagel told the panel that if he’s confirmed he will put a “high priority” on the issue of cybersecurity. Computer network vulnerability “represents as big a threat to the security of this country” as “any one specific threat,” he said. “It’s an insidious, quiet kind of a threat that we have never quite seen before. A cyberattack can paralyze a nation in a second. Not just a power grid or a banking system, but it can knock out satellites, it can take down computers on all of our carrier battleships, it can do tremendous damage to our national security apparatus.” Hagel bemoaned the Senate’s inability to advance cybersecurity legislation last session, lamenting the “pretty agonizing three months at the end of 2012” when the upper chamber twice failed to pass the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414). “I believe the Congress will come back at it in this new Congress. I think you must, and you know that,” he said.
The Greenlining Institute, which represents the interests of minorities, raised questions during a series of meetings at the FCC about Deutsche Telekom’s proposal to buy MetroPCS and merge the company with T-Mobile USA. General Counsel Samuel Kang met with commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, according to an ex parte filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bodwmg). Kang discussed: “(1) the potential harms to competition in the market for low-cost wireless services, (2) the new company’s incentives to eliminate the MetroPCS brand, and the resultant harms to low-income communities and communities of color, (3) the new company’s ability to compete against AT&T and Verizon and (4) the potential harms to the deployment of advanced services, diversity of spectrum holdings, and jobs,” the filing said.
Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare and the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council said in a meeting with FCC officials the FCC should provide more clarity on the use of 2360-2390 MHz spectrum reallocated by the commission in May for Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) on a secondary basis. The three organizations at the meeting had negotiated an agreement that led to the May vote by the FCC (CD May 25 p1). The definition of “healthcare facility” should be clarified to include only “a hospital or other establishment that offers beds for use beyond a 24-hour period in rendering medical treatment, including government hospitals such as Veterans Administration hospitals,” said a filing by the three (http://xrl.us/bodwoc). “The parties emphasized that fewer patients need monitoring at smaller clinics and offices used for less critical care, and patients will have full access to MBANs using the upper unrestricted 2390-2400 MHz band due to the smaller size and reduced patient concentration at such facilities,” the filing said. The FCC should also clarify that the definition of “body-worn device” should be clarified “so as to not exclude bedside devices such as IV pumps, bedside monitors, etc. that can and should participate in the patient’s MBAN network,” the filing said. Among other technical changes, the definition of an MBAN should be amended to include “one or more sensors,” the filing said.
NPR cautioned against using data from Form 323-E ownership reports to measure minority and female broadcast ownership. Public radio stations and their commercial counterparts aren’t “owned” in the same way, it said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bodw2v) about a meeting with NPR executives, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and his staff. NPR said it’s concerned about an FCC proposal requiring broadcast licensees to report Social Security numbers of attributable owners on Form 323 (CD Oct 24 p2). Public radio stations are licensed to nonprofit organizations, state and local governments and public and private educational institutions and station board members “who are deemed to have an ‘attributable interest’ in the station[,] are unpaid volunteers and have no equity or other financial interest in the station,” it said in docket 07-294. Stations can’t compel these members to submit such information to the FCC, it said. These volunteers “will simply refuse to serve on public radio governing boards if stations tried,” it said: “Threatening to sanction stations for failing to obtain a volunteer board member’s Social Security Number only makes the matter worse."
The 2013 high-cost loop support caps have affected 60 percent more companies than last year’s caps, NTCA told aides to several FCC commissioners Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bodwyx). The association of rural telcos pushed for “near-term resolution” of the statistical and data-related shortcomings of the USF caps, arguing action is “all the more urgent in the face of significant and troubling shifts in the caps” announced this week (CD Jan 31 p10). The number of capped companies has risen from around 100 to 160 “overnight,” NTCA said. Seventy companies were “swept under” by the 2013 caps after being unaffected in 2012, the association said. NTCA urged the commission to add together the capital and operating expense values for 2013 support calculations, and extend the phase-in of the caps, in order to “mitigate serious harms."
DirecTV enhanced its TV Everywhere service with a digital video ad insertion solution developed with FreeWheel. DirecTV, its programming partners and advertisers “will now be able to reach customers through the big screen and on mobile devices to create a sustainable advertising model on digital platforms” a DirecTV release said (http://xrl.us/bodwvw). FreeWheel will play a key role in the design and implementation of the service, which is scheduled to launch this year, DirecTV said. The DBS company said it also took an equity position in FreeWheel, enabling it to have insight into the product roadmap and industry evolution.
Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (S-31), aimed at indefinitely extending the moratorium on Internet access taxes and multiple and what they call discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The bill would extend the provisions of the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which are scheduled to expire Nov. 1, 2014. “The Internet Tax Freedom Act will ensure a long-standing federal policy that prevents the government from raising taxes, and preserves the Internet as a tool for education and innovation,” said Heller in a news release Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bodwr2). Ayotte said the bill “will provide certainty to the marketplace, helping the Internet continue to be a driving force for jobs and growth.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday named Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to chair the Antitrust Subcommittee. Klobuchar replaces former Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who didn’t run for re-election in 2012. Freshman Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., was named ranking member of the Senate Privacy Subcommittee. He replaces Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who became ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Eutelsat said it introduced satellite broadband Internet packages offering Europe’s fastest satellite broadband speeds, unlimited data download and lower pricing. The new packages ensure that whatever their location, “digitally deprived homes and home-workers in the EU can instantly access the benefits of high speed broadband,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bodwtd). The packages, Tooway S, M, L and XL, will be available beginning this month and will offer download speeds of up to 20 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 6 Mbps, it said.
FCC Media Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff toured Allbritton’s WJLA-TV Washington facilities for “a demonstration of how video captioning is technically accomplished on a real-time basis,” an ex parte notice said (http://xrl.us/bodprk). “Commission representatives observed how program content is received and integrated into the station’s computer services,” and then processed with video captions and sent to the station’s transmitter, the notice said. Station workers fielded questions about how the system works and at WJLA-TV and other stations, the notice said.