The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Tracking Protection Working Group, the stakeholder group dedicated to finding a Do Not Track solution, announced a change in leadership Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn3w7f). Ohio State University Law Professor Peter Swire was appointed to fill the working group’s co-chair position, which was recently vacated by Stanford Center for Internet and Society fellow Aleecia McDonald, also a Mozilla privacy researcher. During a teleconference, Swire described his academic, technical and policy backgrounds. He detailed his time working on privacy issues in the Clinton and Obama administrations -- experience which he said is “relevant to the tricky policy issues here” -- and his experience in working with stakeholders on privacy issues. Because he had not participated in the discussions before becoming co-chair, Swire said he was “coming fresh to the actual [Do Not Track] discussions” and is optimistic the group will find a solution and build consensus around it, despite pessimism and frustration that some stakeholders have expressed with the process. In statements, members of the working group praised Swire. Jules Polonetsky and Christopher Wolf, co-chairs of the Future of Privacy Forum, said Swire’s “experience and his evenhanded approach to forging privacy solutions makes him uniquely qualified to take on this challenge.” Alex Fowler, global privacy and public policy leader at Mozilla, said he has been impressed over the years by Swire’s “ability to bring stakeholders together, break through political quagmires, and move forward in a balanced manner.” Digital Advertising Alliance Counsel Stu Ingis predicted “the W3C process will focus more specifically on technical standards setting, rather than public policy creation” with Swire as co-chair. During the teleconference Swire and W3C staff member Thomas Roessler declined to comment on specifics of the group’s progress.
Broadcasters are “eager to participate” in field hearings the FCC plans next year on communications resiliency after storms including Sandy (CD Nov 23 p2), NAB CEO Gordon Smith wrote Chairman Julius Genachowski. The association would be “pleased to identify radio and television executives willing to participate,” he said in a Tuesday letter (http://xrl.us/bn3w3h).
The Rural Telecommunications Group formally asked the FCC in comments filed Wednesday in response to the FCC’s September mobile holdings rulemaking notice to reimpose a spectrum cap. RTG called for “bright line spectrum aggregation” limits, including a prohibition on any carrier holding more than 25 percent of “suitable and available” spectrum measured at the county level. “This will ensure that American consumers in all markets benefit from the competitive presence of at least four carriers,” RTG said. “Such a presence should help prevent the competitive harms experienced by American consumers since the FCC’s transition from a spectrum cap to a case-by-case analysis.” The FCC should also limit all carriers to no more than 40 percent of spectrum below 1 GHz in every county, RTG said. In 2008, RTG asked the commission to launch a rulemaking on whether it should reimpose a spectrum cap that was eliminated by the agency in 2003. “The Commission’s reliance on a case-by-case analysis since 2003 has failed to achieve the Commission’s aim of preventing competitive harms,” RTG said. “Other than the egregious case of AT&T’s failed attempt to take over T-Mobile, the Commission has never attempted to block a wireless carrier from acquiring another wireless carrier.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a rehearing of a case in which a panel of judges ruled it unconstitutional to bar public broadcasting stations from airing political ads. This year, 9th Circuit judges decided 2-1 that the ban violates the First Amendment (CD April 13 p2). The three-judge panel opinion “shall not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit,” Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said in an order (http://xrl.us/bn3w38). The decision was made in the Minority Television Project’s (MTP) case against the FCC, which fined MTP $10,000 for running ads on KMTP-TV San Francisco. The rehearing was requested by the Justice Department, which said the panel majority applied erroneous legal standards and misinterpreted the record “to reach a result that threatens the noncommercial, educational character of public broadcasting,” in its rehearing petition (http://xrl.us/bn3w3m).
The FCC Media Bureau granted Saga Quad States’ petition for a waiver of rules precluding cable operators from deleting the duplicate programming of significantly viewed stations. The bureau granted Saga the waiver for its station KOAM-TV (CBS) Pittsburg, Kan., which would allow it to enforce exclusivity rights against TV stations, including KCTV Kansas City, Mo., and KOLR Springfield, Mo., the bureau said in an order (http://xrl.us/bn3wyz). The bureau said KOLR, KCTV and other stations are no longer significantly viewed in certain communities. KOAM’s request for the same waiver for the communities of Fort Scott, Kan., and Commerce, Okla., is denied, the bureau said.
AT&T Wednesday offered the FCC advice as the commission moves forward on a rulemaking on a revised spectrum screen, in a blog post by Federal Regulatory Affairs Vice President Joan Marsh. “First, the Commission should update the screen to include all of the available spectrum that is ’suitable’ for mobile wireless services,” Marsh wrote (http://xrl.us/bn3wy3). “Most prominently, the Commission should correct a current glaring omission by including in the screen the entire 194 MHz of [Broadband Radio Service] and [Educational Broadband Service] spectrum held almost entirely by Sprint/Clearwire, rather than the mere 55.5 MHz the Commission has included to date. That spectrum is in use today and there is no principled basis upon which it can continue to be excluded from the screen.” The FCC should also confirm that the safe harbor offered by the screen “is truly safe -- i.e., that the Commission will not entertain spectrum aggregation-related challenges to any proposed spectrum acquisition that does not exceed the safe harbor level,” Marsh said. “Third, the Commission should make clear that its case-by-case analysis of proposals to exceed the safe harbor level in any local market will remain tightly focused on whether the spectrum available to competitors and potential competitors remains sufficient to enable robust facilities-based competition to continue."
The global information and communications technology (ICT) supply chain’s growing sophistication and size have made federal agencies vulnerable to exploitation, including counterfeiting and malware, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said in the final version of its guide to ICT supply chain risk management practices. Procurement organizations should establish a coordinated team approach to assessing ICT supply chain risk, and then use technical and programmatic mitigation techniques to manage the risk, NIST said in the guide (http://xrl.us/bn3wyg). The guide is based on ICT security practices at NIST, the National Defense University, the National Defense Industrial Association and others, NIST said. An additional publication is being developed based on the results of an Oct. 15-16 ICT supply chain risk management workshop and ongoing discussions with stakeholders, NIST said (http://xrl.us/bn3wyn).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved a request by Boston Scientific for an extended waiver of FCC rules allowing the company to continuing using the 90-110 kHz frequency band for its Cognis cardiac device as it completes a clinical trial. A trial got under way in 2010, but the current waiver was set to expire Nov. 17, said the order, which was handed down last month but posted by OET Wednesday. The order extends the waiver through Dec. 31, 2013. “This further extension is needed due to unanticipated delays enrolling a sufficient number of patients for a valid clinical trial,” the order states (http://xrl.us/bn3wxo). “According to Boston Scientific, [Food and Drug Administration] protocol requires that the Cognis devices be implanted before patients are assessed for and permission is requested for participation in the trial. In light of the health benefits provided by this device and the value of a successfully executed trial in enhancing patient care, and because the risk of harmful interference to other authorized operations in the band is extremely small, we conclude that good cause exists, and the public interest would be served by, extending the existing waiver."
Northwest Broadcasting and Dish Network ended their business relationship this week because they couldn’t reach a retransmission consent agreement, some Northwest Broadcasting stations said on their websites. Four Fox affiliate stations are no longer broadcasting content for Dish customers, the Northwest stations said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bn3wsa). The affected TV stations are KAYU Spokane, Wash.; KCYU Yakima, Wash.; KMVU Medford, Ore.; and WICZ Binghamton, N.Y. The terms requested by Northwest “are almost identical to those agreed to by other providers,” the stations said. In the past 12 months, “our company has successfully completed 13 agreements with other operators,” they said. Northwest said it’s difficult to stand up to a $14 billion company like Dish, “but if we do not, we will not be able to survive in this economic environment.” Northwest rejected Dish’s offer “to pay the same rate as its competitors and, without a signed contract” so “Dish no longer has the legal right to carry those channels,” Dish said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn3wtf). Dish is disappointed that Northwest “has chosen to be so unreasonable in their demands,” and Dish hopes the broadcaster “will begin to negotiate in more realistic terms as soon as possible,” Dish added. Northwest gave consumers “a raw deal when they chose to leverage 20-year-old, out-of-date retransmission consent rules,” American Television Alliance (ATVA) said on its blog (http://xrl.us/bn3wvs). ATVA urged FCC and Congress to revisit TV rules under the 1992 Cable Act: Broadcasters only have to dust off the 1992 Cable Act “and slam it down on the negotiating table to support their demands for more money."
Significant adoption of multiband small cells with embedded Wi-Fi is expected by 2016, Mobile Experts said Wednesday in a market forecast. The early small cell market will use RF backhaul below 6 GHz to address initial market requirements for throughput below 80 Mbps, but by 2016 multiband small cells will have “much higher throughput requirements in the backhaul,” said Mobile Experts principal analyst Jonathan Wells in a news release. “We anticipate an additional market segment where high-throughput millimeter wave backhaul links will be required.” The cost of wireless backhaul will reach the “tipping point” in 2015, at which point small cell deployment will be possible on a large scale, Mobile Experts said (http://xrl.us/bn3wvq).