Electric co-ops have stepped up in support of FirstNet, filing comments (http://xrl.us/bndsh7) with NTIA to say they're ready to help coordinate with public safety organizations. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative filed comments jointly on June 15, and NRECA spotlighted its readiness to help in a Tuesday blog post on its website (http://xrl.us/bndshn). “As owners and operators of facilities, networks and infrastructure, we stand ready to assist,” the filing said. “We believe this scope and capability could be very helpful to NTIA and FirstNet in carrying out its mission.” Electric co-ops can play an important role in maintaining the necessary facilities of FirstNet: “As owners and operators of approximately 35,000,000 distribution and transmission poles and facilities, we can also assist in maintenance requirements and schedules for these facilities,” the organizations said. They suggest states look to utilities and electric co-ops as they develop FirstNet and recommend a workshop at which states, telcos and electric co-ops come together to share perspectives, lessons learned and coordinate on strategies. The rural advocates recommended NTIA look to regions’ public safety infrastructure, frequency of natural disasters and existing partnerships when “prioritizing grants to ensure coverage in rural areas."
Opponents of the Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile spectrum transaction asked the FCC and Department of Justice to require future restrictions and regulations, Guggenheim Securities analyst Paul Gallant wrote investors Tuesday. Sprint Nextel, rural telecom groups and consumer advocates suggest conditions that require cable operators provide wireless operators equal access to Wi-Fi networks and cable backhaul, measures that prevent Verizon Wireless from gaining a significant competitive advantage and limitations on the carrier’s future interactions with cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Gallant said. The conditions and restrictions are unlikely to be imposed, though can’t be ruled out as a possibility, he said. Verizon declined to comment.
The FCC’s new quantile regression analysis (QRA) will decrease Wauneta Telephone Co.’s federal USF support by $138,636, the company said in a letter to Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett (http://xrl.us/bndsdi). The support reduction will negatively impact the company’s customers and employees, it said. The company asked the bureau to assist it with evaluating the QRA results and provide information on the company’s study area and calculation methodology. Wauneta is a family-owned local exchange phone service provider with 525 access lines in southwestern Nebraska.
Good Life Broadcasting urged the FCC to permit noncommercial educational stations to raise funds on air for third-party entities. GLB is the licensee of WTGL-TV Orlando, Fla. Allowing NCEs to interrupt regularly scheduled programming to fundraise for third parties “is well within and effectively enhances the public interest,” it said in comments in docket 12-106 (http://xrl.us/bndsed). The agency proposed the change this year to give NCEs more flexibility in serving the communities (CD April 27 p8). Licensees should be permitted to devote up to 10 percent of airtime to such fundraising instead of the proposed 1 percent, GLB said. “Appropriate third party fundraising programming, even that which uses up to 10 percent of airtime, could actually enhance and further bolster WTGL’s and other NCE licensees’ provision of service to their local populations.” The amount of time elected “should be applied individually to each multicast stream of a licensee,” said GLB, which has four programming streams besides the primary one on WTGL. Licensees shouldn’t be required to opt in to participate in third-party fundraising by either filing a letter or notification with the commission, GLB said: It would be redundant “to require parties to file a letter or notification with the commission if they are also required to either report on their activities each year or address their participation in a renewal application."
The global wireless power systems market will grow to $15.1 billion in 2020 from $4.9 billion in 2012, Pike Research said in a report (http://xrl.us/bndsbg). The Asia Pacific region will pass the North American market for wireless power by 2015, reaching $6 billion and 40 percent of the market by 2020, the research firm said (http://xrl.us/bndsb9). Mobile devices will constitute the largest sector, 36 percent of total revenue, of the wireless power market in 2020, it said.
Three National Security Agency whistleblowers offered statements in support of an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lawsuit against warrantless surveillance. In a filing Monday in Jewel v. NSA, the former intelligence analysts said the agency has or is getting the ability “to seize and store most electronic communications passing through its U.S. intercept centers, such as the ’secret room’ at the AT&T facility in San Francisco,” the EFF said. The foundation’s legal director, Cindy Cohn, said: “Government lawyers have been arguing that our case is too secret for the courts to consider, despite the mounting confirmation of widespread mass illegal surveillance of ordinary people. Now we have three former NSA officials confirming the basic facts.” They are William Binney, Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe. Binney and Wiebe were cleared in a federal investigation of leaks to the New York Times about the surveillance, and charges against Drake were dropped, EFF said. Their new statements were made in connection with a motion for partial summary judgment asking a U.S. district judge in San Francisco to reject state-secrets objections by the government and apply the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In-app ads for mobile devices will rise to $7.1 billion in 2015 from $2.4 billion in 2012, Juniper Research said in a report (http://xrl.us/bndr9v). Money spent on mobile ads will triple by 2017 due to growth in app usage and rich media advertising, it said. The more interactive an ad, the more users engage with it, which contributes to increasing rich media ads, it said. The report also said North America and Western Europe will account for 60 percent of the total money spent on ads, and that spending on mobile messaging ads will increase eightfold by 2017.
NTIA said it’s working to ensure that all stakeholders have the ability to “participate meaningfully” in the agency’s July 12 multistakeholder privacy meeting. The comments by email late Monday responded to a letter sent by a dozen consumer groups who bemoaned the agency’s inadequate efforts to provide remote participation tools to stakeholders who are unable to attend the talks in person (CD July 3 p10). “NTIA is committed to providing to remote participants an opportunity to express their views that is comparable to what in-person participants will have,” a spokesman said. “We appreciate the resource constraints that civil society, other stakeholders, and the federal government face. We welcome feedback on the process, and will continue to evaluate how to ensure robust participation by all stakeholders in future meetings.” The agency said at least 350 people plan to participate in the negotiations.
Nexus Communications is the latest carrier to issue a statement of compliance to the Arkansas Public Service Commission with rules for competitive eligible telecom carriers (CETCs), said a Monday PSC filing (http://xrl.us/bndr8m). The company addressed concerns of Arkansas’ CETC order, saying Nexus doesn’t need to provide an improvement plan and progress report because it doesn’t get “high-cost support”; noting the company had “provided evidence of its ability to remain functional in emergency situations”; and in providing information about the wireless and wireline plans it offers as well as outages. The order (http://xrl.us/bndr9n) outlines various reporting requirements for companies wanting to be designated CETCs and reflects FCC ETC requirements. Other companies such as TracFone Wireless and Virgin Mobile have submitted statements of compliance with the order in the last month.
Section 301 of the Communications Act “prevents the Commission from authorizing the use of third-party, consumer signal boosters on CMRS carriers’ exclusive-use spectrum without a license or licensee consent,” AT&T officials said in a meeting with FCC staff. The company officials took issue with part of a proposal for cell booster rules by Verizon Wireless and Wilson Electronics, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bndr5p). “AT&T said signal boosters are not eligible for ‘blanket licensing’ under § 1.903(c) of the rules unless a licensee consents to use of a signal booster on its network. AT&T noted that the Verizon Wireless/Wilson proposal to presume licensee consent upon satisfaction of certain technical standards directly conflicts with Section 301.” But the AT&T filing said FCC staffers responded that the commission is considering a “a signal booster licensing regime akin to blanket licensing for mobile handsets, in which licensee consent is required before a signal booster may be operated on a licensee’s network.” AT&T “expressed support for an explicit carrier consent requirement,” the filing said.