The Department of Defense plans to roll out its revised spectrum strategy Thursday, which will articulate a more “proactive” approach to DOD’s future handling of spectrum issues, said Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, deputy chief information officer-command, control, communications and computers. DOD reached an agreement with NAB in November that allowed the department to move ahead with plans to partially vacate the 1755-1780 MHz band and move those operations to the 2025-2110 MHz band, where it will share spectrum with broadcasters (CD Nov 26 p1). That deal is a “very good marriage of industry needs and DOD and federal users’ needs,” which is “the right plan at this particular time,” Wheeler said Tuesday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. DOD has been too reactive in its past spectrum strategic efforts and must “think about how to do this better next time,” he said.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
Comcast, Google, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable, the Consumer Electronics Association and other industry stakeholders said they formed WifiForward, a coalition to urge the FCC and Congress to increase the amount of unlicensed spectrum so it’s available for Wi-Fi use. Wi-Fi use is growing 68 percent a year, meaning policymakers will need to open up additional spectrum for unlicensed use in order to avoid a crunch greater than the current congestion being caused “by a deluge of data from more devices, applications and services,” the coalition said Thursday. Analysts said the coalition is likely to have some effect on the policymaking debate around unlicensed spectrum, but immediate change is unlikely.
The White House marked the one-year anniversary Wednesday of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (CD Feb 14/13 p1), showcasing the release of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) final “Version 1.0” of the Cybersecurity Framework. The White House also touted the start of the Department of Homeland Security’s voluntary Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C3) program to encourage industry adoption of the framework. The Version 1.0 framework drew praise from Capitol Hill and several industry stakeholders.
Capitol Hill’s approach to preparing legislation aimed at curbing abusive patent litigation has shifted since attention moved to the Senate, with industry stakeholders telling us they've noticed the Senate Judiciary Committee has been “deliberative” in its examination of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) and other bills. Senate Judiciary held a hearing on S-1720 soon after the House passed the Innovation Act (HR-3309) in December, but several members of the committee urged further hearings and more deliberative consideration of legislation on the Senate side (CD Dec 18 p11). Work since then has been at a slower pace and largely behind the scenes, which stakeholders on all sides of the debate said has been beneficial.
FirstNet should expand its proposed categorical exclusions (CEs) from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assessments, Nokia Solutions and Networks and PCIA said in comments released Monday. The Department of the Interior (DOI) urged FirstNet to revise the proposed CEs to reflect DOI policies on migratory birds. FirstNet had sought public comment on the proposed CEs, which it said in the Federal Register “do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and, thus, should be categorically excluded from the requirement to prepare an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.” Comments were due Wednesday (CD Jan 8 p10).
The House Homeland Security Committee unanimously approved the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696) Wednesday, advancing the bill to the full House. The bill, supported by both parties’ committee leadership, would codify the Department of Homeland Security’s existing public-private collaboration on cybersecurity issues without extending the agency’s powers. The bill would also allow critical infrastructure companies to seek liability protections under the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act (SAFETY) Act for cybersecurity efforts.
Federal agencies remain underprepared to defend their own information systems against most cyberthreats, said Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday. Committee Republicans, led by ranking member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., released a report outlining “real lapses by the federal government” on internal cybersecurity, even as the government has taken on a larger role in protecting the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure components. Cybersecurity experts told us that federal agencies need to improve their own cybersecurity, but said the report doesn’t give a complete picture of the situation, and risks politicizing the cybersecurity issue.
Frontier Communications’ $2 billion purchase of AT&T’s Connecticut wireline business is unlikely to mean major telcos are prepared to sell off similar statewide assets en masse, said industry experts in interviews. But they said telcos could consider similar deals in the future if it makes sense from a business perspective. Frontier said in December it’s buying AT&T’s wireline residential and business services in Connecticut, including that state’s portion of AT&T’s fiber network, as well as its U-verse video customers and some satellite-TV customers. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2014 (CD Dec 18 p9).
The FCC circulated Wednesday night a draft program comment it plans to submit to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) that seeks to streamline the FCC’s review process for wayside poles that railroads are building for the positive train control (PTC) safety system. The draft would also exempt some PTC infrastructure from review (http://bit.ly/1ffJpho). The FCC began developing the program comment last year amid railroads’ concerns they wouldn’t be able to meet Congress’s mandate to complete work on PTC infrastructure by Dec. 31, 2015. The railroads were concerned the existing preview process under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act would not be able to expeditiously clear each of the more than 20,000 poles in time to meet the deadline (CD Dec 19 p2). An FCC official told us the railroads have “essentially agreed” that the rules in the program comment would create a timeline that “works for them to get everything into our system, reviewed by the tribes and the states and still allow them to get everything constructed by the statutory deadline."
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) plans to “begin a multistakeholder dialogue” in early March on how to improve the notice-and-takedown system instituted as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), said PTO Chief Policy Officer and Director of International Affairs Shira Perlmutter during a speech Wednesday. The multistakeholder consultation on notice and takedown was one of several recommendations PTO included in a green paper on Internet-related copyright policy issues it released in July (http://1.usa.gov/1bySZcG).