Two religious groups shouldn’t get the TV captioning waivers they seek, five groups representing those with hearing problems said in FCC filings. They said Crosswalk Chapel and Cedar Street Baptist Church of God don’t provide enough information about how they can’t afford captioning and/or give cost forecasts that may not be accurate. The Association of Late-Deafened Adults, Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, National Association of the Deaf and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing have opposed other waivers (CD April 23 p13). “A petition must provide both verification that the petitioner has diligently sought out and received accurate, reasonable information regarding the costs of captioning its programming, such as competitive rate quotes from established providers, and detailed information regarding the petitioner’s financial status,” the groups said of Crosswalk (http://xrl.us/bm75vz). That and the Cedar Street filing (http://xrl.us/bm75v3) were posted Monday in docket 06-181.
Leap Wireless seeks to refarm its spectrum currently used for CDMA services for LTE services, as more customers migrate to LTE, CEO Doug Hutcheson said during a J.P. Morgan investor conference Tuesday. He emphasized the need for data roaming agreements for LTE services. The carrier is on track with its LTE expansion, and expects to cover 20 million-25 million POPs by the end of the year and 60 million-65 million POPs by early 2014, he said. Meanwhile, prices for LTE smartphone could come down later this year, Hutcheson said. Leap plans to release two LTE devices in Q4, he noted.
The West Virginia Auditor’s Office rejected a $62,542 bill from consulting firm ICF, which was hired by the state’s Commerce Department to review the state’s use of $126 million in NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grants, the office said. The office said it found that the hourly rate stated in ICF’s contract is about $148 an hour, while the company billed the state at rates up to $255 an hour. The state’s Commerce Department was concerned that some high-powered Internet routers designed to serve large corporations, universities and medical centers were installed in small libraries, elementary schools and health clinics instead (CD May 10 p11). ICF and the Commerce Department couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
The satellite manufacturing and launch markets will face both softening demand and increasing competition until 2016, a Northern Sky Research report said. It said the manufacturing market will be back on an upward track in the second half of the next decade, “while the launch services market will see more years of stagnant growth.” NSR forecast that more than 950 satellites will be ordered between 2012 and 2021, “creating $145 billion of revenues for manufacturers.” With an average rate of 108 satellites launched every year over the same period, “these will bring more than $52 billion to launch services providers and represent a total of 2,200 tons to lift into orbit,” the industry analyst firm said (http://xrl.us/bm75sq).
Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance President Genevieve Morelli urged the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee to reform USF contributions in a “competitively neutral manner,” in a letter sent Tuesday. “Additionally, the base of contributors must be expanded to include all service providers that benefit from access to a robust evolving broadband infrastructure,” said the letter sent to Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
The CostQuest Associates broadband analysis tool, proposed as a method of modeling Phase II FCC USF Connect America Fund support for price cap carriers, doesn’t adequately capture Alaska costs, Alaska Communications Systems Group told the Wireline Bureau in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bm7y9m). ACS expressed concern with the model’s omission of undersea cable costs of transporting broadband traffic from Alaska to the nearest Internet access point; the non-fiber transmission cost of transporting voice and data traffic between the serving wire center and other aggregation points in the network; and the fuel, labor and transportation costs of operating and maintaining remote serving wire centers and microwave facilities. ACS also questioned whether the information provided thus far, and access to the model’s mechanisms, are sufficient for third-party analysis.
USTelecom withdrew Kansas, Tennessee and New Jersey from its petition for waiver of certain FCC rules regarding eligible telecom carrier compliance obligations Monday, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bm7y5y). USTelecom had requested waiver of a rule requiring ETCs to obtain a subscriber’s certification form before the carrier can seek reimbursement for providing Lifeline to that subscriber. USTelecom withdrew the states based on assurances that they would be able to meet the June 1 deadline. The association hopes to file another letter removing additional states, including Nebraska, Ohio and Texas, once state authorities provide written confirmation of their impending compliance, it said.
Builders of the national public safety broadband network, FirstNet, should factor an identity management system into the network, said speakers on a cybersecurity panel at the National Broadband Summit & Expo (CD May 15 p1) in Washington Tuesday. A lot of “intelligent people” need to be thinking about such a system for FirstNet, said Ari Schwartz, senior Internet policy adviser at the Department of Commerce. A “federated identity” system should be a “critical component” for FirstNet, said Mark Adams, director of information system technology for Northrop Grumman. The system should allow for the identities of people who access the network to be known at the national level, he said. Such a system will boost security, he said. Adams also wants FirstNet to have a network security operations center that can monitor threats and an “enterprise-hosted” applications center that can vet and approve apps that can operate on the network. A benefit of building a nationwide interoperable public safety network is that security issues arising from the use of commonly used Internet protocols can be addressed in a “centralized way,” said Schwartz. “It is easy to build a secure network from the beginning.” While the FirstNet board can rely on advice from cybersecurity experts at NTIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the FirstNet board would have to make the “determination” of how security is going to be built into the network, Schwartz said. FirstNet can avoid the security pitfalls of the healthcare system and the smart grid system, which started out as regional networks and are being sought to be brought together, he said.
The FCC Media Bureau proposed that Columbia University pay a $10,000 fine for failing to retain all required documentation in the public-inspection file of WKCR(FM) New York. Columbia “failed to prepare twelve issues/programs lists over a four-year period before its transmission facilities were destroyed” as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the bureau said in notice of apparent liability (http://xrl.us/bm7y7s). Although the university has a history of compliance, “a downward adjustment is not appropriate here considering the extensive violations that occurred,” the NAL said. The Enforcement Bureau ordered Upper Peninsula Communications, former operator of a cable system in Powers, Mich., to pay an $8,000 fine for failing to install emergency alert system equipment, said a forfeiture order (http://xrl.us/bm72x4).
Although the FCC’s recent order tweaking the High-Cost Loop Support regression analysis was “a productive step forward,” the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association still has concerns, it told Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey Friday, according to an ex parte notice (http://xrl.us/bm7ynq). The caps will not encourage “alleged ‘efficiency'” because “it remains difficult, if not impossible, with the information currently available to discern the reasons that any given carrier may or may not be affected by the caps,” NTCA said. More transparency alone might not be effective because the caps will be adjusted annually “based upon reasons that are both within and beyond any given carrier’s control,” the group said. NTCA also raised concerns about the waiver standard outlined in the November 2011 order, which it said does not satisfy the standards required of universal service because it conditions the availability of waivers upon consumer loss of voice service. NTCA also met with a legal adviser to Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday to urge the commission to “resolve the many questions still swirling” (http://xrl.us/bm7227).