The language in rules for cell signal boosters proposed by Verizon Wireless and Wilson Electronics “incorporates technical restrictions appropriate for a market made up of first-generation equipment” but not for later iterations of equipment, representatives of Nextivity said in a meeting at the FCC. Booster maker Wilson and Verizon offered a proposal last summer (CD July 27 p5), which has gotten considerable attention since, as the FCC seeks to craft rules. Nextivity said today there are three generations of boosters, including “Smart Repeaters from vendors such as Nextivity,” which are “carrier grade, mass deployable, consumer installable devices that are unconditionally network safe and offer larger coverage footprints.” Rules proposed by Verizon and Wilson on noise, gain and out-of-band emissions would “adequately ensure that first-generation wideband boosters could operate without harm to the networks but would unnecessarily stifle the implementation of advanced, band-select boosters -- second and third generation boosters -- thus denying consumers the significant expanded coverage and cost benefits of next generation boosters, without any concomitant benefit of increased network protection,” Nextivity said (http://xrl.us/bm4der).
Officials from Motorola Solutions said SMS is not a viable solution for sending text messages to 911, in a meeting with various FCC officials. “Motorola expressed its concerns regarding the reliability of SMS in 911 situations and the technical challenges in implementing this capability from the perspective of a mobile device manufacturer,” the company said in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bm4dbm). “We also discussed that SMS is a best efforts system without guaranteed delivery, which makes SMS a poor vehicle for critical messages.” FCC officials asked whether Motorola phones are capable of supporting three-digit SMS short codes, the filing said. Motorola officials noted that the company has released “well in excess of 100 mobile device and software combinations in the U.S. market within the past three years, none of which has been tested for support of 911 as an SMS short code.” As a result Motorola “cannot predict or guarantee that this functionality would work consistent with end users’ expectations."
XcomIP withdrew the domestic portion of its application for change in control pursuant to Section 214 of the Communications Act Tuesday, explaining that “after discussions with Commission staff, it was determined that no approval from the Wireline Competition Bureau is necessary for the change in control because XcomIP is not offering domestic telecommunications service” (http://xrl.us/bm4dep). The international prepaid calling card company requested approval for the change in control last week to reflect new ownership arrangements.
ISPs should have to filter at the network level and set up an opt-in system to prevent children from seeing pornography online, a U.K. Parliament inquiry into child online protection said Wednesday. Youngsters are seeing more inappropriate content, and device-level filters don’t seem to be working well anymore, the independent panel of lawmakers said. With no central control point on the Internet at global, regional or national levels, and millions of new websites emerging, many think it’s easier to tackle the problem of children seeing harmful content by using filters on individual computers -- device-level filters -- rather than by blocking content at the network level, the report said. There are exceptions, such as the British Internet industry’s creation of the Internet Watch Foundation to counter sites known to contain illegal abuse images, it said. ISPs also filter at the network level under various laws or practices in individual countries and, sometimes, in response to commercial considerations, it said. Many feel that device-level filters don’t offer enough protection for children, because few parents use them, the number of Internet-connected devices is mushrooming and children are often more tech-savvy than their parents, it said. The result is that young people are stumbling across or seeking access to pornographic material, especially violent, degrading content, and that’s having a negative effect, it said. It would be “difficult and wrong” to propose mandatory government censorship of Internet pornography, but “clearly a new approach is required,” it said. ISPs should have to maintain a network-level “opt-in” system that delivers a clean Internet feed to consumers as standard but lets them choose to receive adult material, it said. That would protect consumer choice and set up an additional content barrier to shield children from age-inappropriate material, it said. That model could copy the system already used by most major U.K. mobile phone providers, where access to adult content is blocked until an age verification check takes place, and could use the same filtering technology already at work in schools and on some public Wi-Fi networks, it said. Britain’s top four ISPs recently agreed to install Active Choice controls where consumers actively decide whether to install device-level filters as part of signing up for an account, it said. This will be marketed to all new subscribers by October, it said. Although this is a step in the right direction, given that nine out of 10 children already live in homes with Internet access, ISP plans to roll out the product to all customers “are lacklustre at best,” it said. With the exception of TalkTalk, the product won’t protect all the devices in the home, it said. Active Choice won’t do much to address the underlying problem of inadequate filtering unless ISPs take a more “energetic approach,” it said. ISPs working together will deliver a more effective opt-in system on a self-regulatory basis, and any government regulation should be light-touch, it said. But given the “strength of the ideological resistance” to making the change, the government should plan to intervene if industry fails to make progress, it said. Forcing ISPs to filter adult content at the network level unless users opt out “is neither the most effective nor most appropriate way to prevent access” to inappropriate content, said Internet Services Providers’ Association UK Secretary General Nicholas Lansman. That kind of filtering is easy to circumvent, reduces the degree of active parental interest and mediation, and has clear implications for free speech, he said. Parents should choose how to restrict access to content, whether on the device or network level, with the tools ISPs already provide, he said. Lansman warned against treating a network-level filter as a “silver bullet.” Education is important, and industry already does a great deal to inform parents about age restrictions and parental controls, he said. The government should focus on helping educate consumers, he said. Also, he added, there’s a question of who decides what inappropriate material is and for whom, and “whether there is a guarantee that filtering will not be used for other content."
Tribune’s unsecured creditors’ committee backed the FCC media ownership rulemaking notice proposals as being “fully consistent with the expeditious grant of the Exit Applications and the Waiver Requests” the company has pending at the agency. The committee backed reinstating a rule struck down by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that has a presumption for waivers of cross-ownership rules limiting common ownership in the same market of daily newspapers and radio or TV stations. Tribune’s “applications and waiver requests should be expeditiously processed to enable Tribune to emerge from bankruptcy promptly after Bankruptcy Court confirmation of the reorganization plan,” the committee said in replies Tuesday in docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bm38mx). Others also commented. (See separate report in this issue.)
The FCC dismissed Diogenes Telecommunications Project’s filing asking the FCC to reject a transfer of AWS licenses from AT&T to T-Mobile, part of the breakup fee after AT&T dropped plans to acquire its smaller competitor. Diogenes had charged that AT&T and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom had “made numerous material misrepresentations to the Commission throughout those proceedings, including false and misleading statements and material omissions.” The commission said in an order released Tuesday that Diogenes lacked standing and that its objections were “moot or beyond the scope of this proceeding” (http://xrl.us/bm38ft).
The FCC Wireline Bureau granted requests from Kings Canyon Unified School District and Trillion Partners seeking review of decisions made by the Universal Service Administrative Co. under the E-rate program (http://xrl.us/bm38ay). USAC had found that Kings Canyon accepted gifts in violation of the commission’s competitive bidding rules, but the bureau reversed the decision, finding no evidence of waste, fraud or abuse. However, the bureau emphasized its analysis “could be different under our current rules,” which became effective in January 2011 and “established clear guidelines on permissible gifts.” The bureau also reversed another USAC decision that the Widefield School District violated competitive bidding requirements by engaging in improper communications with Trillion (http://xrl.us/bm38a6). The bureau denied a request for review of a USAC decision seeking reimbursement from the Nuestros Valores Charter School’s service provider for E-rate funds disbursed for services delivered after the end of funding year 2003 (http://xrl.us/bm38bk). “The record demonstrates that Nuestros Valores sought funding for equipment when it did not have a location within which to install the equipment, and that it did not install the equipment until five years after the funding year in which it sought funding,” the bureau said.
DirecTV “soft” launched its HD DVR service at Hilton’s Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, a company spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman declined to identify where the Hilton hotels initially getting the DVR service are located. But the hotels are using a version of the 3D-capable HR24 DVR/satellite receiver that contains a 500 GB hard drive and has been outfitted with software customized for the hospitality market, the spokeswoman said. Hotel guests can record live TV programs and pause or rewind them. But the guests can’t schedule programs in advance or view content previously recorded, the company said. A DirecTV server in the hotel restores default settings once a guest checks out, resetting the DVR program list, company officials said. Hotels deploying the DVR/satellite receiver pay for the equipment and a monthly fee for the DVR service, a spokeswoman said. DirecTV’s Residential Experience platform is deployed at 110 hotel properties. Meanwhile, DirecTV also struck a carriage deal with Starz Entertainment that includes the rights to distribute movies and TV series from Starz, Encore and other networks it owns through the DirecTV Everywhere service that’s due later this year. Starz is the first programmer DirecTV has identified for the multi-platform service that allows users to view content on the Web and mobile devices. DirecTV also is said to have the rights to use Fox cable networks, including FX and National Geographic Channel, as part of a carriage pact it struck with the network operator last fall. In a possible preparation for DirecTV Everywhere, the satellite operator said it partnered with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies on a new extended service plan that will cover both DirecTV hardware as well as products like tablets, TVs and PCs that can be used to watch programming. The service plan will launch Thursday and carry a $19.99 monthly fee that includes maintenance and technical support. There also is an Accidental Damage from Handling program that carries an additional $4.99 monthly fee.
Comcast said it extended its bargain-basement-priced Internet Essentials program (CD Feb 14 p10) to include families with children eligible to get “reduced price” school lunches. The program was initially confined to families whose children were eligible for “free” school lunches. “This change adds about 300,000 households in our service area who can now apply for the program,” the company said. Comcast also has “doubled” the speed of the broadband connection provided under the program to 3 Mbps downstream and up to 768 kbps upstream, it said (http://xrl.us/bm38im).
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on a request by PaeTec Communications to reverse a decision of the Universal Service Administrative Co. that reclassified a portion of PaeTec’s private line revenues to the interstate jurisdiction for universal service contribution purposes (http://xrl.us/bm3795). Comments are due May 17 in docket 06-122, replies June 1.