LightSquared proposed a solution to promote compatibility with GPS receivers while devoting large blocks of additional spectrum for wireless broadband. The wholesale satellite capacity company filed a petition for an FCC rulemaking proceeding to develop operating parameters for terrestrial use of the 1526-1536 MHz portion of the L-band. It also filed a license modification application for the authority to begin deployment of a terrestrial network by proposing to “vacate its terrestrial use of 10 MHz of licensed downlink frequencies close to GPS … and to gain access to just 5 MHz of spectrum farther away,” it said. LightSquared said it submitted the filings to enable deployment of a 4G terrestrial broadband network that was stalled this year when interference issues were raised by the GPS community. The commission has proposed to yank a waiver the company had gotten earlier so it could build out the network for terrestrial and not satellite-only use. The company also said it would employ alternative spectrum comprised of a contiguous 10 MHz band at 1670-1680 MHz, “which would provide the needed coverage for its terrestrial network.” NTIA is aware of LightSquared’s interest in sharing the 1675-1680 MHz band with federal users, an NTIA spokeswoman said. The primary federal agency using this spectrum is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “which operates satellites and radiosondes in this band,” she said. “If requested by the FCC, NTIA will work with NOAA to evaluate LightSquared’s request as it affects federal government spectrum users."
Cable operator executives visited the FCC separately last week to discuss the commissions’ rules affecting the market for pay-TV programming, ex parte notices show. Pat Esser, Cox Communications’ president, met with aides to commissioners and Media Bureau officials to discuss retransmission consent and volume discounting for programming networks, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bnrtjv). Mediacom Chairman Rocco Commisso held separate meetings with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowksi and all four commissioners, according to an ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bnrtj7). Commisso discussed “how consumer are being harmed because of the absence of effective competitive or regulatory constraints on wholesale programming costs,” the notice said.
Correction: John Lawson’s company is Convergence Services (CD Sept 28 p1).
President Barack Obama signed into law S-3625 on Friday, which delays until Dec. 8 any decisions about which executive branch members should be exempted from disclosing their financial forms online. The bill, which was authored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., aims to protect the safety of people such as military generals or diplomats who could be kidnapped for ransom if terrorists saw how much money they had, his spokesman told us.
Internet users who visit itif.org with Do Not Track enabled in their browsers will get a rejection notice from the site, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said Friday. It’s a ploy to focus users’ attention on the importance of targeted ads -- which is enabled by tracking -- to free content and services online, ITIF’s Daniel Castro said in a blog post (http://xrl.us/bnrs9n). “Heavily promoted” by the FTC, White House and others, Do Not Track is not only a “detrimental policy” but “will be a failure in the long-term,” he said. Along with free news, music, email and other services, mobile applications are “increasingly free” because of targeting, which “for the most part ... is done without revealing the identity of users to the advertisers,” he said. Untargeted ads aren’t as lucrative for advertisers and they won’t pay as much for them, so if a Do Not Track standard is created and users opt out of targeting on a “large scale,” either websites decrease their free or low-cost content and services or fill their pages with more ads, Castro said. Because of “fear-mongering” by privacy advocates, “most users” would enable Do Not Track in their browsers if it were the standard, he predicted. Internet Explorer versions 8 and 9 and Firefox support differing implementations of the feature. But there’s nothing stopping website owners from blocking visitors whose browsers disable targeting, he said: Only if Congress passed a law that required websites to allow no-targeting visitors to access their sites would Do Not Track be “viable.” Such a law is “certainly within the realm of possibility” considering the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act has a similar provision for kids under 13, but “I'm still optimistic that such insanity would not prevail,” Castro said. “If websites preemptively block users who enable Do Not Track, we might avoid getting sucked into this black hole."
The Wireless Bureau on Thursday completed its first-ever reverse auction for the new Mobility Fund, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a news conference Friday. The auction has implications for an incentive auction of broadcast spectrum, which includes a reverse auction by broadcasters of their spectrum licenses, he noted. (See related story, this issue.) “While the results are still being validated, we now expect this will be a major success,” Genachowski said. “We will be announcing the final results of the auction in the coming days.”
Major telcos have abandoned many promises to the states made as a condition of deregulation, San Antonio Assistant City Attorney Gabriel Garcia said Friday. With experience in communications and utility cases before courts, the FCC and the Texas Public Utility Commission, he was a panelist at the NATOA meeting in New Orleans. He outlined promises the industry made in the 1990s in exchange for deregulation, and described a failure to deliver. These promises continued to be made in the last decade and also failed to be executed, he said. He compared promises of fiber build-out, of consumer obligations, public benefits, job creation and other benefits that fell short as regulation was eased. AT&T, Verizon and other telcos engaged in “cherry picking” with rolling out advanced services like FiOS and U-verse, he said. Garcia described similar efforts under way now in which telcos remove carrier-of-last-resort obligations and deem wireless and VoIP to be telecom substitutes. The telcos have no real solution for low-income customers and rural areas, he said. “They are acting like rational, profit-making firms.” Garcia noted they're not punished or held accountable by state legislatures. The maxim of Kushnick’s Law is applicable, Garcia said: “A regulated company will always renege on promises to provide public benefits tomorrow in exchange for regulatory and financial benefits today.”
Research in Motion sold 7.4 million BlackBerry phones and 130,000 Playbook tablets during Q2, RIM executives said on a quarterly earnings call Thursday. RIM’s BlackBerry sales beat Wells Fargo’s estimate of 6.7 million, but was still down from the 7.8 million phones sold during Q1. RIM’s Playbook sales figure was below Wells Fargo’s estimate of 200,000 and was down from sales of 260,000 during Q1. The U.S. represented a smaller portion of RIM sales during Q2 -- 22 percent, down from 25 percent during the previous quarter, RIM Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka said during the investor call. RIM had more success abroad, particularly in Canada, the U.K., Indonesia, South Africa and Venezuela, he said. The company has found its free BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) program to be a selling point in developing countries, Heins said. “It’s amazing when you go into those countries and you see how BBM is just kicking it,” he said. “I mean, it’s everywhere.” The company had a Q2 net loss of $235 million, vs. profit of $329 million in the year-ago quarter. RIM’s BlackBerry 10 operating system remains on track to debut in early 2013, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said during the call. Much of the growth in RIM’s subscriber base has developed in “entry-level” markets, where BlackBerry 7-capable devices are the norm, he said. While BlackBerry 10 will not immediately reach those customers after it goes on the market, Heins said BlackBerry 10-capable devices might reach the entry-level markets within the next year. RIM’s results were “better than feared” for the quarter, Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said in a report Friday, but the company still expects a net loss in Q3. “We expect [RIM’s] business to continue to be under pressure during the rest of the year due to competitive launches and [RIM’s] lack of a competitive high-end smartphone,” she said. RIM shares closed 5 percent higher Friday to $7.50.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau has taken action against some companies for operations in the 5600-5650 MHz band that interfered with Terminal Doppler Weather Radars (TDWRs) maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration, the bureau said in a notice. The notice said manufacturers and users of Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices must ensure that they are fully in compliance with FCC rules. The actions followed investigations by the FCC, FAA and NTIA. “The Enforcement Bureau and the FAA continue to investigate additional areas where interference is reported to TDWR systems, and will continue to take appropriate enforcement action as necessary,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnrssw). “Much of the interference stems from wireless devices sharing the same band as TDWR systems and operating outdoors in the vicinity of airports at high elevations that are line-of-sight to the TDWR installations.” Companies that have been cited by the FCC so far are AT&T, VPNet, Argos Net, Insight Consulting Group of Kansas City, Rapidwave, Utah Broadband, Ayustar and Sling Broadband.
Sens. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., created the Unmanned Aerial Systems Caucus, Friday, aimed at educating lawmakers on issues related to the burgeoning unmanned vehicles industry. Inhofe said in a news release federal oversight of unmanned systems is “still in its infancy” and lawmakers can benefit from a greater understanding of how the systems work. The House created its Unmanned Systems Caucus in 2009. It is co-chaired by Reps. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International hailed the new caucus as a means to work with stakeholders on the issues that face the unmanned systems community.