Fisher Communications and Hubbard Broadcasting will introduce mobile DTV service in Seattle and Minneapolis under the MyDTV brand, they and the Mobile500 Alliance said. They will distribute 750 mobile receivers that can be used with iOS devices in combination with a free iOS app. The app allows viewers to record live TV and also includes closed captions, a program guide and social media integration, they said. They're also working with Accelerated Media, a digital ad company, on delivering banner ads and ads between channel changes.
The South Dakota Broadband Initiative awarded 26 grants totaling more than $205,000 to community anchor institutions in the state, it said Friday (http://xrl.us/bn9ej8). The funding comes from NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative and will go toward the creation of firewalls, network switches, wireless equipment and new or additional computers, the initiative said. The organization had awarded 15 anchor institutions grants of $112,000 last July.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) said it supports the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) enactment of new regulations that will “significantly lower cable landing station access facilitation charges in India.” TRAI’s new regulations took effect Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bn9ejq). The regulations will reduce costs for broadband access and international long-distance telephony for Indian businesses and consumers, TIA said Friday.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, named Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. The post was formerly held by Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., who lost his reelection bid in November. McCaul named freshman Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., to chair the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., introduced a bill Friday to permit television coverage of all open sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Cameras in the Courtroom Act (HR-96) would allow television coverage of Supreme Court proceedings unless the court decides that doing so would violate the due process rights of any parties before the court.
Arianespace and Astrium signed a contract to launch the VNREDSat-1A earth observation satellite. The satellite will be launched this year by Arianespace’s VERTA 1 launcher in French Guiana, Arianespace said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bn9eer). Astrium will build the satellite and “will supply to Vietnam the complete satellite system and ground receiving facilities,” Arianespace said.
The FCC extended the comment deadline on its review of the wireless hearing aid compatibility rules. “Given the proximity of the comment deadline to the end of the Form 655 filing window, we find that an extension of time for filing comments is warranted,” the Wireless Bureau said in an order Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn9eb2). Comments in WT docket 10-254 will now be due Jan. 22. BloostonLaw had asked for the two-week extension, arguing the deadline was too close to the date to submit annual hearing aid compatibility reports (CD Jan 2 p6).
The FCC should reject arguments by the Communications Workers of America that it should approve Deutsche Telekom’s buy of MetroPCS only on the condition that it doesn’t cost jobs, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May on the group’s blog. “Even granting that the ‘public interest’ standard under which the merger is being considered may be vague, were the Commission to attempt to employ such vagueness as a basis for imposing -- or for seeking to impose on T-Mobile through a wink-and-a-nod ‘voluntary’ extraction -- job protection conditions, the agency will commit an egregious abuse of its regulatory authority,” May contended (http://xrl.us/bn9dt2).
The federal government appears “stuck” in its move to get more federal spectrum in play for wireless broadband, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Thursday in a blog post on the conservative website Redstate.com. “I believe that a substantial amount of spectrum needs to be transferred from the federal government to the private sector,” Pai wrote (http://xrl.us/bn83sp). “The federal government needs to let some spectrum go.” Pai noted that six years ago “federal agencies cleared a big chunk of federal spectrum -- 90 MHz -- for commercial use,” prior to the AWS-1 auction. “There’s no doubt that American consumers are benefitting from this cleared spectrum,” he said. “That 90 MHz today is being used by wireless carriers to provide 4G broadband service across the country. But now we're stuck. In the last four years, the federal government has not relinquished any spectrum for commercial use. Even worse, some in Washington, D.C., have all but given up on putting more federal spectrum in private hands.” Spectrum sharing isn’t a good substitute for spectrum clearing, Pai said. “To illustrate why, think about buying some government land to build a house,” he said. “Under option A, the government gives up property and sells it to you outright. Under option B, the government allows you to share its property and reserves the right to occupy your house whenever it decides it needs to use it. Under which scenario would you be more likely to buy the land, build the house, and use it productively?"
Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico must carry America-CV Station Group’s WJPX San Juan and WIRS Yauco, an order from the FCC Media Bureau released Thursday said (http://xrl.us/bn83ux). The order said the station’s owners properly asserted their must-carry rights. Both stations recently became affiliates of the new Mundo Fox network, the order said.