Voice and video over IP provider Spirit DSP said it received a patent on its IP-MR HD voice codec. The codec, designed for video soft phones and web videoconferencing products, is scalable and error-resilient, Spirit said Wednesday. The IP-MR codec is already being implemented in massively multiplayer online games and IP-telephony and videoconferencing software, the company said. The patent Spirit received is for “multilayer, scalable, packet loss-resilient speech coding technology for IP-networks,” the company said in a news release, though it noted that the codec is patent-free and does not require other companies to pay patent royalties. The patent is the “next step in [IP-MR’s] professional recognition after its payload was adopted in 2011 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF),” Spirit said. The IP-MR codec is able to adapt to changing bandwidth, providing the best possible quality of audio for current network conditions, the company said (http://xrl.us/bn4x9d).
The FCC should set Video Relay Service rates that “approximate those that would be generated through a competitive bid that produced at least two winners,” Sorenson Communications told the Office of Strategic Planning Friday (http://xrl.us/bn4x6a). Such an approach would consider “all costs, not just a subset,” Sorenson said. This is a “much more reasonable path to a functionally-equivalent VRS” than using the proposed rates generated through a rate-of-return methodology, it said.
Other than the Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative, no other Alaska carriers had a “material misstatement of road miles and crossing data,” GVNW Consulting told FCC officials Tuesday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn4x5q). The Wireline Bureau granted ASTAC’s request last week to correct some of the road miles and crossing data used in calculating USF support limits, finding that the data erroneously included caribou migration and tractor trails (CD Nov 29 p12).
U.S. Bank is partnering with mobile imaging software provider Mitek Systems to offer Mitek’s Mobile Photo Bill Pay service to U.S. Bank customers. The bank’s customers will be able to use Mobile Photo Bill Pay to set up bill payments by taking a photo of their paper bill using a smartphone or tablet, the companies said Wednesday. This will speed up the payment process by eliminating time spent manually entering biller and payment information, they said. U.S. Bank said it will begin offering the service in early 2013 (http://xrl.us/bn4x5o).
Officials from nine European online companies are meeting this week with high-level policymakers over concerns about possible changes to EU data protection laws, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe said Wednesday. The Internet media, research and advertising sector is worried that proposed revisions, such as having to get users’ express consent for placing cookies, or banning profiling services, will impose new, wide-ranging burdens on it, it said. Unlike global players, which are strong business-to-consumer platforms, European businesses are mostly business-to-business, it said. They can’t get user consent easily, and will be much more affected than non-European companies by changes to data privacy regulations, it said. Europe’s online B2B sector mostly uses anonymous or pseudonymous consumer data, said IAB Europe Vice President Kimon Zorbas. Online advertisers fully support the need to protect user privacy “but common sense should prevail."
The FCC Wireline Bureau overturned two Universal Service Administrative Co. decisions denying funding to the Posen-Robbins school district in Illinois (http://xrl.us/bn4xzu), and one denying funds to the Fort Worth Independent School District (http://xrl.us/bn4x6c). Net56 had sought review of the Posen-Robbins decisions after USAC denied funding to the district to pay Net56 for Internet access services. USAC had said the district’s contract with Net56 included ineligible products that weren’t cost allocated, and that the district didn’t pay its discounted share for eligible services. The Wireline Bureau reversed, saying USAC had based its decision on the “wrong contract” provided by the district. USAC had also balked at paying Net56’s bill for firewall, email and web hosting services, saying they were more than twice the cost of “a commercially available solution.” The bureau disagreed, saying two to three times market value would indeed be excessive, but USAC erred in finding the services were “not cost effective.” In Fort Worth, USAC had issued funding commitment decision letters committing over $5 million in E-rate support; Fort Worth later invoiced USAC for $3.5 million in products and services, but a USAC audit found Fort Worth had improperly invoiced for ineligible fees and undocumented recurring services. USAC asked for $170,000 back. The bureau said Fort Worth had submitted proper documentation and had acted in accordance with commission rules.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a bill to reauthorize the U.S. SAFE WEB Act for another seven years. The law provides the FTC with legal authority and information sharing tools to combat international Internet scams, spyware and fraud targeted at U.S. citizens.
Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC), which includes every FCC-certified frequency coordinator, asked the commission to get tough on licensees in the 150-470 MHz bands that miss the Jan. 1 deadline to narrowband their systems and don’t get an FCC waiver. A recent public notice from the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus mischaracterized LMCC’s position, the letter said. The bureaus said LMCC’s position is “effective February 1, 2013, frequency coordinators will treat incumbent non-compliant 25 kHz systems as 12.5 kHz systems for purposes of identifying frequency assignments.” LMCC instead asked that starting Feb. 1 noncompliant 25 kHz systems “not be considered by the Industrial/Business and Public Safety frequency advisory committees for purposes of identifying frequency assignments for use with land mobile systems,” the letter said. “The FCC’s reading of the LMCC recommendation provides a substantive, unearned benefit to non-compliant licensees at the expense of those that complied in a timely manner with the FCC’s narrowbanding mandate,” the council said. “Rather than providing the incentive intended by LMCC for licensees to bring non-compliant wideband systems into narrowbanding compliance or risk coordination of an ‘overlay’ exclusive use assignment, licensees of such systems would be treated as though they were compliant already.” Mark Crosby, LMCC secretary, told us LMCC’s proposal would offer a “meaningful way” to get licensees into compliance with the narrowbanding mandate.
Intelsat will move its U.S. headquarters from Washington to Tysons Corner, Va. It will lease space in a 20-story office building to be built by Macerich, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn4t2k). Intelsat said it sought a “modern and collaborative workspace with access to well-educated professionals, a first-class transportation system and compelling amenities.” The building will be next to the forthcoming Tysons Center Metro rail station, FCEDA said. Intelsat will remain in Washington until it relocates in 2014, the company said.
A Microsoft executive and attorney met with FCC officials to discuss the Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), the TV broadcast incentive spectrum auction and the FCC’s role in the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) talks, ex parte notices show (http://xrl.us/bn4tz4). On the CVAA, they discussed challenges in providing 911 service through over-the-top text-to-SMS. On the incentive auction they discussed the “important role of that unlicensed spectrum is playing” in meeting consumers’ wireless needs. And discussing WCIT, they said strong bipartisan leadership from the FCC and others in Washington will be “critically important."