The FCC needs to take concrete steps to bolster online safety education before expanding broadband access to the 93 million Americans who currently lack it, said Linda Criddle president of Safe Internet Alliance (SIA). While the FCC prepares to submit its National Broadband Plan to Congress March 17, Criddle said “the offline population is on average poorer and less educated than the online majority.” According to a new Financial Times/Harris Poll, 81 percent of Americans are concerned about their personal online data being accessed by cybercriminals, 62 percent say social sites like Facebook make many people vulnerable to cyberattacks and 61 percent question the security of personal online data accessed by search engines. SIA urged the FCC to address these anxieties and ISPs to provide site-specific, easily discoverable safety information in Spanish as well as English.
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The FCC needs to take concrete steps to bolster online safety education before expanding broadband access to the 93 million Americans who currently lack it, said Linda Criddle, president of Safe Internet Alliance (SIA). While the FCC prepares to submit its National Broadband Plan to Congress March 17, Criddle said “the offline population is on average poorer and less educated than the online majority.” According to a new Financial Times/Harris Poll, 81 percent of Americans are concerned about their personal online data being accessed by cybercriminals, 62 percent say social sites like Facebook make many people vulnerable to cyberattacks and 61 percent question the security of personal online data accessed by search engines. SIA urged the FCC to address these anxieties and ISPs to provide site-specific, easily discoverable safety information in Spanish as well as English.
The telcom industry is providing unprecedented relief to Haiti, ravaged by a 7.0 earthquake. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., called Wednesday “the biggest day in history for mobile phone generated charity.” He commended mobile telephone companies for setting up ways for customers to send text messages to make contributions to the Red Cross and charities like Yele Haiti, the foundation established by singer Wyclef Jean. Telecom companies are providing “communications expertise, equipment and manpower to earthquake-ravaged Haiti,” Kerry said.
Free Press and big broadband providers drew different conclusions about future broadband investment and competition from a broadband report requested by the FCC for its National Broadband Plan, written by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI). In comments Friday, companies said the study highlighted significant industry investment, while Free Press said it showed consumers “are faced with slow speeds, high prices and few choices.” Meanwhile, the Satellite Industry Association objected to the report’s assessment of the quality of satellite broadband.
The Satellite Industry Association discussed the role of satellite-based broadband services in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell, according to ex parte filings. Representatives of the association met with the advisers in separate meetings Thursday. The SIA spoke about recent advances in satellite broadband services, planned investments, how broadband should be defined and other matters. Several members of the association joined SIA President Patricia Cooper in the meetings, including representatives of SES World Skies, Inmarsat, Hughes Network Systems and WildBlue Communications, the filings said. The satellite industry has made a determined effort in recent months to be included in policy discussions as broadband expansion has become a major goal of several government agencies.
The Satellite Industry Association discussed the role of satellite-based broadband services in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell, according to ex parte filings. Representatives of the association met with the advisers in separate meetings Thursday. The SIA spoke about recent advances in satellite broadband services, planned investments, how broadband should be defined and other matters. Several members of the association joined SIA President Patricia Cooper in the meetings, including representatives of SES World Skies, Inmarsat, Hughes Network Systems and WildBlue Communications, the filings said. The satellite industry has made a determined effort in recent months to be included in policy discussions as broadband expansion has become a major goal of several government agencies.
The Satellite Industry Association was critical of suggestions by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association and others that it said would “harm current and future satellite operations,” in comments filed Friday with the FCC. The comments were made in response to the commission’s public notice on broadband spectrum allocation. WISPA suggested limits on earth station operations.
The FCC committed a “critical oversight” in failing to include satellite networks as a viable alternative for providing transport to Internet backbone, the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) said in comments filed with the agency (See separate report in this issue). The SIA was responding to the commission’s public notice on middle- and second-mile broadband availability, which is part of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. SIA complains that the public notice fails to even mention satellite service when one of its main goals is to provide connectivity to rural areas, something satellite broadband is well-suited for. Satellite especially makes sense for middle-mile transport because high throughput Ka-band systems and other technological breakthroughs will bring down costs substantially over the next five years, SIA said.
Members of the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) asked the FCC International Bureau on Oct. 28 to grant a blanket waiver to in-orbit satellites that can’t fully vent excess propellent at the end of their lives, as required by the bureau. The SIA asked the bureau to waive the requirements for 11 satellite models made by Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences, Thales Alenia and EADS, according to an ex parte filing by SES Americom on Oct. 29.
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) discussed the pertinence of satellite-based broadband services to the FCC’s National Broadband Plan with the legal advisers to Commissioners Meredith Baker, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, according to ex parte filings. Representatives of the association met with Copps’ advisers Wednesday, Baker’s Thursday and Clyburn’s Monday, the filings said. SIA spoke about recent advances in satellite broadband services, planned investments, how broadband should be defined and other matters. Several members of the association joined SIA president Patricia Cooper in the meetings, including representatives of Dish Network, SkyTerra Communications, SES World Skies, Inmarsat and others, the filings said. The satellite industry has made a determined effort in recent months to be included in policy discussions as broadband expansion has become a major goal of several government agencies.