The FCC International Bureau accepted an application from DG Consents Sub to add launch and operating authority for a fourth non-geostationary orbit remote-sensing satellite. The proposed satellite, WorldView-3, “would transmit to fixed earth stations in the 8.025-8.400 GHz frequency band and receive command signals in a 1316 kilohertz band on a center frequency of 2085.6875 MHz,” the Satellite Division said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bnm245).
Consumer groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing support a third-party registration system for IP Relay and possibly other forms of Telecommunications Relay Service, they told FCC officials Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnm2tf). While most hard-of-hearing people prefer other forms of TRS, such as Video Relay Service or IP Captioned Telephone Service, a large percentage use IP Relay as backup when their primary form of TRS is unavailable, the National Association of the Deaf said in its ex parte filing describing the meeting. Registration must not be burdensome, and the consumer groups were strongly opposed to requiring users to provide or verify their Social Security numbers to receive TRS, the filing said. They also opposed requiring the submission of documentation or proof that consumers are deaf or hard of hearing, such as an audiogram. “We believe that the best way to determine whether a person is indeed deaf or hard of hearing is through self-identification. This will ensure that all deaf and hard of hearing people are able to benefit from relay services and none will inadvertently be denied necessary telecommunications access,” NAD said.
"Government action is required” for international-roaming prices to continue to drop between New Zealand and Australia, governments from those countries said Thursday following “a joint investigation” into mobile roaming charges. The ITU and others have said the December World Conference on International Telecommunications would likely address pricing for international mobile roaming. Australia, during meetings within the ITU and the World Trade Organization, has favored efforts to boost transparency. The draft report (xrl.us/bnm2kj) outlined seven options for tackling the problem: (1) wait and see; (2) retail unbundling; (3) mobile local-access services; (4) price caps; (5) regulated terms of access, with or without pass-through requirements; (6) pricing transparency; (7) empowering regulators to investigate and to intervene where necessary by choosing from the regulatory measures set out in the previous options calling for action. The report also outlined three additional options on interventions to tackle wholesale issues, and two targeting retail issues. Comments on the draft report are due Sept. 27.
Telecom heavyweights asked California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to sign pending VoIP deregulation legislation. The Legislature approved SB-1161, which would prohibit the California Public Utilities Commission from regulating VoIP through 2020 unless a state statute or federal law allows it. “The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition, which represents the nation’s leading companies developing and delivering Internet communications, writes to express its support for SB 1161, and ask that you sign the bill into law,” Executive Director Glenn Richards wrote in a letter sent to Brown Thursday. VON includes AT&T, Microsoft, Google, Skype, Vonage, Yahoo and several other companies and has advocated for the bill for months despite consumer advocates’ fears (CD June 25 p6). “SB 1161 rightfully leaves to the Legislature the opportunity to revisit the regulation of IP communications at any time, without any impact on existing telephone customers,” Richards said. “The bill is a win-win for businesses and consumers in California."
The Wall Street Journal will offer free Wi-Fi to New Yorkers and San Franciscans throughout September, the newspaper announced Friday (http://xrl.us/bnm2f3). The Internet will be available in 1,300 hotspots and is accessible on mobile devices at “The Wall Street Journal WiFi Network,” it explained. The newspaper’s only requirement is that Wi-Fi users register for its website.
General Communication Inc. executives told the FCC about Alaska’s “unique challenges for telecommunications providers,” said a filing released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnmxhh). The GCI representatives met with Commissioner Ajit Pai, his chief of staff, Matthew Berry, and wireless aide Courtney Reinhard. They talked about “the issues that Universal Service reform proposals could cause for National Broadband goals in Alaska” and reviewed an extensive presentation about Alaska and universal service, the filing said.
Rice University researchers debuted Argos, a multi-antenna technology they claim will help wireless carriers cope with the rising data demands from the users of smartphones and tablets. Researchers presented the Argos prototypes Thursday at the Association for Computing Machinery’s MobiCom 2012 conference in Istanbul. The Argos technology would increase network capacity by allowing cell towers to simultaneously beam signals to more than a dozen customers on the same frequency, Rice said in a news release. “The technical term for this is multi-user beamforming,” Argos project co-leader Lin Zhong said. “The key is to have many antennas, because the more antennas you have, the more users you can serve” (http://xrl.us/bnmxhf).
Daystar Radio sought an FCC waiver because KLLV(AM), Breen, Colo., doesn’t have access to broadband to allow it can get and pass along emergency alert system warnings in common alerting protocol format, the broadcaster said. “The high speed DSL line is still unavailable in our area,” which is rural, the station said in a filing posted Thursday to docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bnmxho). “There is no satellite delivery at the station -- program content is downloaded 20 miles away at our business office and CDs are hand delivered to the station."
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) filed a request to correct clerical errors found in an FCC document on the facilitation of wireless backhaul. “The FWCC had understood the Commission intended to ‘combine adjacent channels in [these bands] to form 60 and 80 megahertz wide channels,'” FWCC Counsel Mitchell Lazarus said Thursday in the request. “The channels specified in the new Section 101.147 entries, however, are not combinations of existing adjacent channels, but rather are offset from existing channels upward by 4.945 MHz in the 6 GHz band, and downward by 10 MHz in the 11 GHz band. These offsets are detrimental to efficient spectrum use. As the rule presently stands, coordinating a single 60 MHz channel will impinge on three 30 MHz channels, rather than two; and similarly, coordinating a single 80 MHz channel will impinge on three 40 MHz channels, rather than two” (http://xrl.us/bnmxgi).
Eighteen people were selected as “Presidential Innovation Fellows” and will spend six months in Washington, D.C., working to find innovative ways to improve federal lawmaking, particularly in Internet-related areas, the White House said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnmxgt). “The Presidential Innovation Fellows program leverages the ingenuity of leading problem solvers from across America together with federal innovators to tackle projects that aim to fuel job creation, save taxpayers money and improve the lives of Americans in tangible ways,” U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park said in a written statement. The fellows will be divided among five projects: Blue Button for America, which will find a way for Americans to access and download their health information online; RFP-EZ, which will attempt to create an online marketplace for the government and small technology companies; MyGov, which will develop a system for Americans to access federal government information and services; the 20% Initiative, which will help find electronic methods to transfer international development assistance payments; and Open Data Initiatives, which will work on making government data available in “computer-readable” formats.