TV broadcasters in the Mobile500 Alliance are preparing to introduce a commercial mobile DTV product by Q4 2011, Executive Director John Lawson said in an interview. The alliance is working on securing programming contracts for some national networks and is in discussions with consumer electronics manufacturers about incorporating mobile DTV receivers into more devices, he said. Business plans haven’t been finalized, but the group expects to offer a mix of 15-20 free and subscription-based mobile DTV channels and begin rolling out to markets before the end of the year, he said.
The FCC should forbid broadcast networks from signing retransmission consent deals on behalf of affiliated stations they don’t own, several multichannel video programming distributors said in comments (CD May 30 p12) on changing retrans rules. The American Cable Association, several cable operators and DirecTV were among the MVPD interests making that argument, as the last of the comments were posted Tuesday in docket 10-71. Many broadcasters said the commission shouldn’t find good-faith negotiating rules were broken just because affiliates let networks strike retrans deals.
Lawmakers remain divided on their approach to securing the U.S. electricity infrastructure from natural and man-made attacks. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power at a hearing Tuesday again considered bi-partisan legislation to expedite the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) response to an attack on the U.S. power grid. Momentum for power grid security has increased following the release of the Obama Administration’s cybersecurity plan in May, but some lawmakers say the issue has become more complicated.
Funding, jurisdiction and governance issues and state and local regulations are among the challenges of early deployment of regional 700 MHz public safety networks, state and local public safety officials told us. Many jurisdictions that received the initial 22 early deployment waivers granted by the FCC are proceeding on their own, initiating procurements, negotiating and implementing interoperability plans and participating in certification and compliance testing protocols, they said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau is “hard at work” on drafting an order reforming the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes, an FCC spokesman told us Tuesday. Wireline staffers are hoping to have a draft to Zac Katz, Chairman Julius Genachowski’s adviser, by early July, an FCC official and a telco lobbyist told us. Some telco lobbyists raised concerns that the FCC didn’t have a plan of its own after Genachowski went to Omaha and challenged “stakeholders” to help him solve the universal service/intercarrier comp “Rubik’s cube” (CD May 20 p1). The commission spokesman rebuffed those suggestions: “FCC staff is hard at work drafting an order,” he said in an email Tuesday.
Sprint Nextel, a leading opponent of AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile, filed its opposition at the FCC Tuesday afternoon, the day oppositions were due at the agency. The Media Access Project also made an early filing opposing the merger. But the deal got support from the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, the first merger the group has endorsed in 25 years, according to a news release.
Taking advantage of a little-used provision of the Telecom Act, Venice, Calif.-based Digital Broadcasting OVS asked the FCC for certification to operate an online pay-TV service in the top 50 U.S. TV markets, filings show. The Media Bureau published a public notice on the proposal late Friday (CD May 31 p17), providing few details. The service would provide up to 1,000 HDTV channels over the existing Internet infrastructure, the company said in its application for certification as an Open Video System (OVS). It would also provide a special IP channel for “EAS First Responder agencies” it said. The company is a certified exempt telecom company under the 1996 legislation, CEO Roy Jimenez told us.
The White House cybersecurity proposal has raised questions over whether the government could rely on a provision in the 1996 Telecom Act to control the Internet in emergency situations. The absence of any Internet “kill switch” authority in the White House cybersecurity plan was applauded by several entities, but some lawmakers believe the plan should explicitly affirm that the president doesn’t have the authority. Other technology professionals don’t think the Obama administration’s measure indicates any intent to use such authority, they said in interviews.
Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields like those from cellphones may cause cancer in humans, including glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, said a new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization. The last major report on cellphones and cancer, the long-awaited Interphone study, produced no conclusive results (CD March 18/10 p1).
GENEVA -- Some power line telecom gear already on the market and future development of industry specifications for systems using frequencies above 80 MHz may adversely affect a critically important aeronautical instrument landing system, or hobble broadcaster and scientific use in bands up to about 400 MHz, said participants Thursday at an ITU forum on the co-existence of power line telecom (PLT) systems and radiocommunication services. New high-data rate systems that use or may adversely affect frequencies in the HF, VHF, and UHF bands are being introduced into the market, they said.