The International Amateur Radio Union supports the European Broadcast Union’s application for the generic top-level domain .radio, said IARU President Timothy Ellam in a letter to ICANN. “The IARU believes that the dot-radio proposal to be submitted by the EBU could provide an unique opportunity to standardize Radio domain names on the Internet,” Ellam wrote (http://bit.ly/QChM4j). “The use of a specific global online name such as dot-radio can help create a unique space worldwide, a place where the global radio community can gather.” In a statement announcing its plan to apply in March (http://xrl.us/bnkt87), EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre said “the EBU wants to ensure that the world’s radio community has fair, reasonable access to a domain name that could bring unique impetus to the entire sector. The EBU would administer the .radio TLD in a neutral, reliable and not-for-profit way; it would be regrettable if it fell into hands that do not represent the entire radio community.” According to ICANN’s application results (http://xrl.us/bnbnyj), three other entities have applied for the .radio domain name. ICANN has extended until Sept. 26 the deadline for public comment on the nearly 2,000 applications for gTLDs it received earlier this year.
The ITU opened its global public consultation website (http://xrl.us/bnkt2z) for the upcoming negotiations on the International Telecommunication Regulations, which regulate cross-border international telephony. Now there are concerns by civil society organizations, parts of the industry and national governments of countries, including the U.S., that regulation might be extended to the Internet. After criticism about preparing the update for the treaty document behind closed doors, the ITU secretariat proposed the global public consultation in addition to potential national procedures. Calls by some ITU member countries, especially Sweden, at the recent ITU Council session to also allow public access to all documents, including national proposals containing some of the more controversial aspects, failed to gain consensus. The main draft ITR document, TD64, was released July 19. Some governments, including the U.S., have started to release their own proposals (CD Aug 6 p2). Statements by users, organizations and companies from all over the world to TD64 can be submitted until Nov. 3.
Liberty Media bought 89.97 million shares of Sirius XM stock, continuing its potential march toward majority ownership, Liberty’s SEC filings show. With the buy, Liberty owns 48 percent of Sirius, after buying stock in three separate buys: 43,000 shares at $2.45 Aug. 10; 15,800 at $2.49 Aug. 13; and 31,170 at $2.51 Aug. 14, the filings show. Liberty also bought 60.35 million shares on the open market in May, and has contracts to buy 41 million shares that can be exercised Oct. 11. Though with that purchase Liberty would still fall short of the 50 percent threshold, it’s a secured transaction that won’t have to clear the open market, analysts said. As it buys additional Sirius XM shares, Liberty awaits the FCC’s decision on a request that it reconsider the International Bureau’s dismissal of an application to gain de facto control of Sirius XM.
T-Mobile’s appeal of a zoning board decision on a cell tower permit in Howard County, Md., raises some important issues for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Free State Foundation Research Fellow Seth Cooper said on the group’s blog. Last year, the Howard County Board of Appeals denied T-Mobile’s application to build a 100-foot concealed monopole on a church property. In March, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland upheld the ruling. “The District Court … upheld the Board’s decision by applying a highly deferential standard of review,” Cooper wrote (http://xrl.us/bnktwt). “Such a highly deferential standard allows local governments to reject wireless facility permit applications for shallow reasons and in the face of facts supporting approval.” The 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., agreed to hear T-Mobile’s appeal. “Appealing this ruling is worthwhile simply on account of the weak factual support for the Board’s position. The 4th Circuit might find that the Board’s rationale is too thin to support its rejection of T-Mobile’s permit application,” Cooper said. “There is also a question as to whether Maryland law requires closer judicial scrutiny of local government rulings such as the one by the Howard County Board. T-Mobile has argued that Maryland case precedents call for an independent judicial review of the record that considers the merits of the permit application itself. The 4th Circuit might clarify whether a less deferential standard is called for in wireless facility siting cases in Maryland than in Virginia."
Comcast’s residential broadband service for the poor has almost 100,000 families with a total of almost 400,000 people subscribing, the cable ISP said Wednesday on the first anniversary of Internet Essentials, costing $9.95 monthly. “As we did last year, we are about to embark on an aggressive, multi-city tour to promote and publicize this program and talk about what we've learned and the enhancements we've made,” Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote on Comcast’s blog (http://xrl.us/bnktwv). “We have a lot more work to do because the fact remains that far too many Americans, many from low-income families, are still not connected to the Internet.” The FCC required the product, proposed by Comcast, in January 2011 as part of approving the cable operator’s purchase of control in NBCUniversal (CD Feb 1 p8).
AT&T is making a major push against texting while driving, asking all drivers to go to the website www.itcanwait.com to take a no-texting-and-driving pledge on Sept. 19 (http://xrl.us/bnkttm). “Our goal is to save lives,” said CEO Randall Stephenson. “I hear from far too many people whose lives have been forever changed by a texting-while-driving accident, and together, we want to spread the word about how deadly a single text can be. Texting and driving should be as unacceptable as drinking and driving.” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and CTIA President Steve Largent praised AT&T for the initiative. “All of us must be part of the solution, recognizing that while mobile technologies offer enormous benefit, they create new challenges we must tackle together,” Genachowski said.
T-Mobile executives pressed for approval of the company’s spectrum swap with Verizon Wireless, in meetings with aides to commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn. “The spectrum T-Mobile seeks to acquire in the T-Mobile Transaction is critical to facilitating its ongoing network modernization project and deployment of Long Term Evolution service,” T-Mobile said (http://xrl.us/bnktr4). “We also briefly explained how this infusion of spectrum will enable T-Mobile to deploy LTE services in a number of markets where such deployment would otherwise have been impossible, and to enhance its LTE service in a number of additional markets where T-Mobile would have otherwise been limited to a 5x5 MHz LTE deployment. We also explained that Verizon’s sale of spectrum to T-Mobile is sufficient to resolve the competitive concerns T-Mobile identified relating to Verizon’s spectrum concentration."
"Customers should not be permitted to operate a consumer signal booster on a licensee’s exclusive spectrum without the licensee’s express consent,” MetroPCS said in a filing at the FCC. MetroPCS noted that a joint proposal on cell boosters by Wilson Electronics, Verizon Wireless, Nextivity, T-Mobile and V-COMM failed to make any recommendations on whether licensee consent is required prior to use of a booster because parties to the agreement were unable to agree on that issue. But in July, Wilson filed an ex parte “which argued that no licensee consent should be required prior to a consumer operating a signal booster on that licensee’s exclusive spectrum,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bnktrj). “One major concern, from MetroPCS’ perspective, is that certain signal boosters are broad spectrum amplifiers that amplify all CMRS signals that are presented, rather than repeating only the signal of a single consumer on a single frequency,” the filing said. “This creates the distinct possibility that a signal booster could generate interference on multiple networks at the same time. MetroPCS has experienced such interference on its networks in the past. It is difficult to isolate and resolve such interference when the licensee is unaware of what signal boosters are in fact in use on its network and who is responsible for their operation. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that some manufacturers -- including Wilson -- offer ‘mobile solutions’ and the portable nature of these mobile signal boosters makes detection difficult."
California’s SB-1160 advanced to enrollment Tuesday and will be sent to the governor’s office for signature. The bill will prohibit any government entity or provider for the government from jamming communications, regardless of technology, as a means of protecting the public without a court order. It received unanimous Assembly approval of 76-0 Aug. 9 and unanimous Senate approval of its amended version Monday.
U.K. consumers received average broadband speeds of 9 Mbps in May, two and a half times faster than the average speeds recorded in November 2008, the Office of Communications said Wednesday. Ofcom’s research into fixed-line broadband speeds included several new “superfast” packages, such as Virgin Media’s “up to” 60 Mbps and BT’s Infinity “up to” 76 Mbps services, it said. The trend of increasing speeds confirms that consumer migration to faster services is gathering momentum, it said. And although some users actively choose superfast packages, many benefit from better speeds resulting from ISP network upgrades, at little or no additional cost to them, it said. In May, 8 percent of residential broadband connections were superfast, compared to 5 percent six months earlier, it said. Cable broadband connections generated the greatest speed increases in the six months before May, up 3.6 Mbps to 17.9 Mbps, it said. During the same period, average speeds over ADSL rose from 5.3 Mbps to 5.9 Mbps, it said. But average actual speeds recorded for fiber-to-the-street cabinet fell 12 percent, it said. Of the 12 U.K. ISP packages covered by the report, Virgin Media’s “up to” 100 Mbps was the fastest, with average speeds of 88.3 Mbps over a 24-hour period, it said. The average download rate on BT’s Infinity “up to” 76 Mbps service was 58.5 Mbps, and on Virgin Media’s “up to” 60 Mbps, 55.9 Mbps, it said. The report surveyed upload speeds as well, finding that BT’s Infinity service delivered the highest, Ofcom said. The regulator also said many ISPs have changed the way they advertise their broadband services since guidance on the use of speed claims came into force in April.