FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC will take up orders at its Oct. 17 meeting on speeding deployment of distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells, an order on avoiding interservice interference, and a public notice that would suspend low-power TV construction permit deadlines in the auction. The agency also will launch a rulemaking on LPTV issues related to the incentive auction and a notice of inquiry looking at new spectrum frontiers -- the use of spectrum above 24 GHz, the subject of a speech Monday by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (CD Sept 23 p4). The LPTV and auction items had been expected (CD Sept 9 p4).
Calls by education and library groups, and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a speech Wednesday, to increase E-rate funding are running into opposition from telcos, in comments filed in the E-rate modernization Further NPRM. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom said they worry expanding E-rate could cut into other USF programs like the Connect America Fund.
Calls by education and library groups, and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a speech Wednesday, to increase E-rate funding are running into opposition from telcos, in comments filed in the E-rate modernization Further NPRM. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance and USTelecom said they worry expanding E-rate could cut into other USF programs like the Connect America Fund.
The FCC approved a waiver of its former defaulter rule, which requires bidders to make larger upfront payments for licenses if they ever defaulted on a license or were delinquent on a debt owed to a federal agency (CD June 3 p1). The order largely tracks rules proposed by the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA and NTCA in a recent filing (http://bit.ly/1v3cHMo), FCC officials said Friday.
Cox is expanding its Connect2Compete offering through 2016, and investing $15 million in the program that helps bring broadband to low-income families, it said. C2C offers discounted high-speed Internet service to low-income families with children who qualify for the National School Lunch program, it said. C2C, which launched last year, began as a partnership with Cox, FCC, NCTA and others in the cable industry, Cox CEO Patrick Esser said Tuesday at the National Press Club. The program can help close the “homework gap,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Getting homework done at home takes connecting at home, she said. C2C is important and Cox is “making a big difference in the 18 states where they provide broadband service,” she said. Seven out of 10 teachers assign homework that requires some form of Internet access, she said. FCC and industry must close the gap and “make sure that no child in the 21st century is left off line,” she said. With Connect2Compete, many more students can do their homework, and the service “can mean that their families, too, can participate more fully in a digital world and in modern civic and commercial life,” she said. Rosenworcel also highlighted the FCC’s effort to upgrade the E-rate program and action to begin an initiative to make Wi-Fi more widely available in schools and libraries. Cox and its partners have the power and responsibility “to empower learning beyond the walls of the school,” said Esser. Cox also has a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America, he said: Cox has invested in and built “more than 70 Cox technology centers in clubhouses throughout the country.” The program needs more partners to help step up its offering, said Zach Leverenz, EveryoneOn CEO. He urged other companies to “get behind Cox” and push forward toward an “opportunity-to-access provided for every single student.” Connect2Compete is the flagship program at EveryoneOn for K-12 students, Cox said in a news release.
Cox is expanding its Connect2Compete offering through 2016, and investing $15 million in the program that helps bring broadband to low-income families, it said. C2C offers discounted high-speed Internet service to low-income families with children who qualify for the National School Lunch program, it said. C2C, which launched last year, began as a partnership with Cox, FCC, NCTA and others in the cable industry, Cox CEO Patrick Esser said Tuesday at the National Press Club. The program can help close the “homework gap,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Getting homework done at home takes connecting at home, she said. C2C is important and Cox is “making a big difference in the 18 states where they provide broadband service,” she said. Seven out of 10 teachers assign homework that requires some form of Internet access, she said. FCC and industry must close the gap and “make sure that no child in the 21st century is left off line,” she said. With Connect2Compete, many more students can do their homework, and the service “can mean that their families, too, can participate more fully in a digital world and in modern civic and commercial life,” she said. Rosenworcel also highlighted the FCC’s effort to upgrade the E-rate program and action to begin an initiative to make Wi-Fi more widely available in schools and libraries. Cox and its partners have the power and responsibility “to empower learning beyond the walls of the school,” said Esser. Cox also has a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America, he said: Cox has invested in and built “more than 70 Cox technology centers in clubhouses throughout the country.” The program needs more partners to help step up its offering, said Zach Leverenz, EveryoneOn CEO. He urged other companies to “get behind Cox” and push forward toward an “opportunity-to-access provided for every single student.” Connect2Compete is the flagship program at EveryoneOn for K-12 students, Cox said in a news release.
The FCC Friday approved, over one dissent and two partial dissents, rules requiring all carriers and interconnected over-the-top text providers to have the capacity to transmit emergency texts to 911 call centers by the end of the year. The FCC also approved a further NPRM asking about such issues as extending the mandate to non-interconnected OTT providers and on rules for determining the location of those sending the texts and making the system work for subscribers roaming on another network.
The FCC Friday approved, over one dissent and two partial dissents, rules requiring all carriers and interconnected over-the-top text providers to have the capacity to transmit emergency texts to 911 call centers by the end of the year. The FCC also approved a further NPRM asking about such issues as extending the mandate to non-interconnected OTT providers and on rules for determining the location of those sending the texts and making the system work for subscribers roaming on another network.
President Barack Obama signed a cellphone unlocking bill into law Friday, at a signing ceremony for the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S-517) in the Oval Office, according to his schedule. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that the bill was signed shortly after the scheduled event was to have begun and said it “proves the power of public petition.” The House and Senate approved the final version of the legislation in July. “The most important part of this joint effort is that it will have a real impact,” said a White House blog post Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1sazX6H), written by bill author Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients. “As long as their phone is compatible and they have complied with their contracts, consumers will now be able to enjoy the freedom of taking their mobile service -- and a phone they already own -- to the carrier that best fits their needs.” They said this is the first law directly emanating from a We the People petition to the White House. CTIA applauded the signing. “Even though the vast majority of Americans enjoy upgrading to new devices once their contract terms are fulfilled, we recognize that some consumers may want to unlock their devices to move to another carrier,” CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter said in a statement. “Like the voluntary commitment CTIA’s carriers entered into last December, this bill enables that process. Users should keep in mind unlocked does not necessarily mean interoperable, as carrier platforms and spectrum holdings vary.” Public Knowledge staff attorney Laura Moy also praised the signing: “As a result, competition in the wireless market will improve,” she said in a statement. “In addition, there will be more free and low-cost secondhand phones available on the secondary market. This is also an important first step toward reforming the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the overreaching copyright law that made it difficult for consumers to unlock their phones in the first place.”
President Barack Obama signed a cellphone unlocking bill into law Friday, at a signing ceremony for the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S-517) in the Oval Office, according to his schedule. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that the bill was signed shortly after the scheduled event was to have begun and said it “proves the power of public petition.” The House and Senate approved the final version of the legislation in July. “The most important part of this joint effort is that it will have a real impact,” said a White House blog post Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1sazX6H), written by bill author Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients. “As long as their phone is compatible and they have complied with their contracts, consumers will now be able to enjoy the freedom of taking their mobile service -- and a phone they already own -- to the carrier that best fits their needs.” They said this is the first law directly emanating from a We the People petition to the White House. CTIA applauded the signing. “Even though the vast majority of Americans enjoy upgrading to new devices once their contract terms are fulfilled, we recognize that some consumers may want to unlock their devices to move to another carrier,” CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter said in a statement. “Like the voluntary commitment CTIA’s carriers entered into last December, this bill enables that process. Users should keep in mind unlocked does not necessarily mean interoperable, as carrier platforms and spectrum holdings vary.” Public Knowledge staff attorney Laura Moy also praised the signing: “As a result, competition in the wireless market will improve,” she said in a statement. “In addition, there will be more free and low-cost secondhand phones available on the secondary market. This is also an important first step toward reforming the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the overreaching copyright law that made it difficult for consumers to unlock their phones in the first place.”