The U.K. needs new broadband targets, broadband research firm Point Topic founder Tim Johnson is scheduled to tell Parliament members Tuesday at a Westminster eForum seminar on “Broadband Britain.” The current goal of having the “best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015” isn’t achievable as stated, and isn’t relevant to the country’s needs, he plans to say. The U.K. needs massive investment to provide homes and businesses with good-quality Internet access and in getting people to use it, rather than “just chasing after speed records,” Johnson plans to say. Instead of trying to be the best in Europe, Britain should judge itself against other major European economies such as France, Germany and Italy, Point Topic said Monday. The country’s broadband infrastructure compares well with the other members of the “Big Four,” but getting ahead of them, especially Germany, by 2015 is a big challenge, the firm said. Government priorities should be to ensure that the over 3 million homes and businesses without broadband of at least 2 Mbps download speed have it, it said. The U.K. should also make sure that broadband services are fit for their purpose and can, for instance, support video streaming or telecommuting properly. The third and biggest gap is social, Point Topic said. More than 7 million homes don’t have fixed-line Internet access, when bringing those families into the Internet community would improve life for them and “spin off a whole range of other economic benefits,” it said.
Telepsychiatry has saved South Carolina $21.7 million, Polycom said Monday. The company has run a two-year-old video consulting program in hospitals throughout the state in conjunction with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH), it said (http://bit.ly/Pba95h). “The program, which originally connected 15 hospitals, has enabled SCDMH psychiatrists to conduct more than 12,100 rapid consultations with patients in hospital emergency departments, reducing the cost per treatment episode by over $1,800,” Polycom said, noting it’s now expanding the program to 21 hospitals total.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on Monday lauded Lifeline Awareness Week initiatives around the country. The fourth annual week of outreach is Sept. 10-16. State commissions in Washington, New York, Kansas, Florida, Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee and Virginia have announced efforts to celebrate it, according to NARUC. “Since the first Lifeline Awareness Week in September 2009, the number of participants has increased, as demonstrated by Universal Service Administrative Company findings,” NARUC said (http://xrl.us/bno652). “For example, 25 States now have participation rates at or just below 50%, whereas in 2008, only 18 States reached those levels. In addition, six States now boast participation rates higher than 50%.” The 2012 Lifeline Awareness Week efforts focus on new federal rules for the program, NARUC noted.
Copyright reform is the right way to support the creative sector in the digital age, European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday at the Lisbon Council Intellectual Property and Innovation Summit in Brussels. But the debate on copyright “often involves extreme positions, rigid views, and emotive arguments,” her written comments said. The issue is complex, so policymakers must be pragmatic, she said. The copyright directive was adopted in 2001, and the European Commission proposals it was based on go back to 1998. In that year, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was 14, YouTube didn’t exist and most people listened to music on the radio, CDs or tape, she said. Since then, huge changes have happened to the content business, research activities and all other sectors, particularly that creation and distribution are in everyone’s hands, she said. Policymakers should help artists live from their art, stimulate creativity and expand consumer choice, Kroes said. Copyright can’t be considered in isolation, but from the standpoint of how it fits into the real world, she said. The current system doesn’t do that, because online licensing restrictions and the problem with orphan works make it impossible to buy music legally, particularly across borders, she said. There are other problems as well, which is why the EU must enact substantive copyright reform, she said. Every day governments fail to respond, “we are missing out,” she said. The consequences are initiatives Europe can’t seize, potentially high-flying ideas that get stuck on the runway, and “the glory and the benefits taken by American companies, not European,” Kroes said. The EC is assessing whether changes are needed to EU laws, and the World Intellectual Property Organization is looking at possible new copyright exceptions and limitations. During the assessment, “we should leave passion aside” and deal with the issues realistically, Kroes said.
NTCA continues to have concerns about the transparency, accuracy and predictability of regression analysis-based caps on USF support, President Shirley Bloomfield told aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnote5). The commission should adopt no further caps without first gathering data and evaluating the effects of reform on consumers and broadband deployment “before deciding upon what next steps, if any, might be necessary,” NTCA said.
AT&T met with FCC Wireline Bureau officials Wednesday to offer suggestions on the commission’s upcoming special access data collection, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnoten). The telco said the agency should gather information from all non-ILECs to identify: (1) locations of existing facilities; (2) locations other than ILEC wire centers where they interconnect; (3) geographic areas that technically can be served with existing non-ILEC facilities; and (4) locations that can be served in the near future based on existing planning. “It is absolutely essential that the Commission collect from all competitive providers, large and small, adequate location data regarding not only their existing building connections (whether wireline or wireless), but also their fiber or other ‘ring’ facilities from within such building connections are established,” AT&T said. It also took issue with the commission’s recent finding that metropolitan statistical area-wide relief is overbroad. That finding “fails properly to account for the fact that in the MSAs where incumbent LECs have qualified for Phase II pricing flexibility for channel terminations using the Commission’s revenue based collocation triggers, almost all of the MSA-wide special access demand has been in the wire centers relied upon to obtain that pricing flexibility,” AT&T said.
Motorola Mobility is showcasing new home technologies at IBC2012 that the company said “will drive the future of TV and the smart, simple connected home.” IBC2012 began Friday and runs through Tuesday in Amsterdam. Motorola Mobility said in a news release Friday it will feature its new Internet Protocol and cable set-top technology that will allow for multi-screen, over-the-top (OTT) and time shift TV while also reducing required energy use and maintenance. The new IPTV set-tops will support IPTV services like HD broadcast, time shift, on-demand, OTT and interactive apps. The Microsoft Mediaroom-supported set-tops will offer energy efficiency with new system on a chip technology, Motorola Mobility said. The company said its other hybrid and HD set-tops will be DVR compatible and will offer lower-priced choices. Motorola Mobility will also demonstrate its High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video compression technology, which the company said will halve the amount of bandwidth required by MPEG4 AVC/H.264 but will have comparable video quality. The technology makes HD video more practical to transfer over Wi-Fi or mobile, and can reduce storage costs for DVRs, the company said. Motorola Mobility first demonstrated HEVC to global service providers in May. The company will also demonstrate its newest Medios Multi-Screen Software Suite programs, such as Medios DreamGallery and Medios Merchandiser (http://xrl.us/bnoteg). Motorola Mobility’s now part of Google, which recently acquired it.
The FCC will consider a notice of proposed rulemaking to update licensing and operating rules for satellite services, during the Sept. 28 monthly commissioner meeting where a broadcast incentive auction NRPM also will be voted on. (See story above.) The satellite NPRM will propose to “update, streamline or eliminate earth and space station licensing requirements, reducing regulatory burdens on licensees and accelerating delivery of new satellite services to consumers,” the commission said in a news release Friday (http://xrl.us/bnotfo). It will consider updating definitions to technical terms and ease administrative burdens for licensees, an FCC official told us. It also addresses reinforcing the emergency reporting contact requirement and aims to provide greater flexibility to earth station applicants, the official said. The NPRM also considers codifying the FCC practice of granting a single earth station authorization to cover multiple antennas located in close proximity, the official said.
Liberty Global said it introduced Horizon TV at its Dutch cable operator UPC Netherlands. The new video platform includes a Samsung-made device that serves as a video, broadband and voice gateway, and a new user interface that integrates content from live TV, on-demand libraries, personal media libraries and some online sources, the company said. It plans to introduce the platform at its Switzerland and German operations within the next 3-6 months, it said. The device includes a Intel Atom CE Media processor, NDS middleware and Nagravision encryption, Liberty Global said.
George Flinn asked the FCC to reconsider an order denying his must-carry complaint involving WFBD-TV Pensacola, Fla., a petition shows (http://xrl.us/bnotb6). The Media Bureau order “affords weight to the fact that WFBD has never been historically carried on Comcast’s cable systems in the Mobile, [Ala.], area, yet glosses over the fact that this is due to Comcast’s historic and steadfast refusal to carry WFBD,” the petition said. “It is bad behavior being rewarded."