Republicans and Democrats on the House Communications Subcommittee are likely to spar Wednesday over two particular issues raised by an FCC September notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM): the allocation of unlicensed spectrum and bidder eligibility requirements, according to planning memos. The subcommittee’s majority memo, published this week, said the FCC runs the risk of “short changing” first responders if the commission decides to give away much of the spectrum that is cleared in connection with the forthcoming broadcast incentive auctions. The memo also urged the commission against “picking winners and losers” by excluding parties from the auction. Subcommittee Democrats shot back Tuesday with a minority memo that said Republicans are seeking to “reopen issues that were resolved in the legislation.”
FCC staff working toward a redrafted quadrennial media ownership order to end the current review early next year are considering adding provisions that target some deregulation to aid diversity beyond the current draft, agency, industry and nonprofit officials said. They said career staffers appear to be giving attention to including provisions that industry and nonprofit backers say would help diversity without targeting only minorities. Targeting women and minorities can’t be done until research on barriers to entry is completed (CD Nov 19 p1). If staff finds provisions that are non-controversial inside and outside the agency, those adds could go in the new order to end the review due in 2010 under the Telecom Act, said officials observing the redrafting.
North American connected TV penetration is “going nowhere” at the moment, Paul Gray, DisplaySearch director of TV electronics research, told the TV of Tomorrow Show in New York Monday. Little is being done to drive penetration, aside from Black Friday promotions, he said.
A proposal to allow the U.K. Home Secretary to order the storage of any kind of communications data “is too sweeping, and goes further than it need or should,” the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Data Bill said in a report published Tuesday. While there’s a case for giving law enforcement authorities some further access to communications data, the current version must be “significantly amended” to deliver only necessary data, Lords and Commons members said. Their scathing report (http://xrl.us/bn5u5q) brought cheers from ISPs and privacy advocates.
A new FCC task force will provide recommendations on ways to modernize and coordinate the commission’s policies on Internet Protocol interconnection, the resiliency of modern communications networks, business broadband competition and consumer protection on voice services, officials said. Recommendations for the proper focus of the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force were divided. Large telcos and anti-regulation think tanks encouraged deregulation; CLECs, special access purchasers and smaller providers encouraged adoption of IP interconnection policies. All told us their recommended policies would maximize consumer welfare, competition and innovation.
The American Legislative Exchange Council wants to keep states away from VoIP and cautions against municipally owned telecom networks. It’s eyeing a strong mix of state priorities for 2013, its telecom leaders told us, some controversial and attracting dissent. The 40-year-old organization of conservative state legislators unites industry -- including major telcos -- and public officials for discussion and to craft model legislation that states sometimes adopt. ALEC members include AT&T, CenturyLink, CTIA, Charter, NCTA, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Time Warner and Verizon, with member fees funding much of the organization. ALEC held its 2012 States & Nation Policy Summit Nov. 28-30 in Washington and unveiled 25 pieces of model state legislation in a report Monday (http://xrl.us/bn5pjb).
The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council will recommend creation of a multistakeholder group to oversee voluntary receiver standards and interference limits, Dennis Roberson, chairman of a TAC working group said Monday. Some of the TAC’s recommendations have led to action by the FCC, including Monday’s launch of a Technology Transitions Policy Task Force. (See related story in this issue). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spent about an hour at the TAC meeting to get an update on the group’s ongoing work. The working group is preparing a 60-page white paper set to be released early next year. “We believe we need to get under way and begin to test out this idea,” Roberson said.
An FTC survey of children’s apps “paint[s] a disappointing picture of the privacy protections provided by apps for children” (http://xrl.us/bn5qda). The survey, a followup to a report on the same topic from February (http://xrl.us/bn5qdc), said mobile apps don’t give parents information about what information the apps will collect from children or who that information will be shared with. The “study shows that kids’ apps siphon an alarming amount of information from mobile devices without disclosing this fact to parents,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.
DUBAI -- After a full week of negotiations at the World Conference on International Telecommunication with little progress, “delegations are frustrated,” conference Chairman Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim told us Monday. “This is the night,” one delegate said after Al Ghanim announced a late Monday night session.
It’s time for government agencies to “think very seriously” about patent assertion entities’ (PAEs) activities and how they impact society, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Monday during a joint FTC/Department of Justice workshop. The agencies held the workshop as part of an ongoing effort to determine the effect of PAEs and determine whether the government needs to employ new methods to minimize what they see as harm caused by PAEs. High-quality intellectual property rights are crucial to U.S. innovation, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) chief economist said. PAE-generated lawsuits are eating up a growing chunk of some technology companies’ legal budgets, several high-tech executives said, as a PAE executive said the model helps some patent developers get paid.