The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on the state of competition in the market for public safety equipment and devices. The bureau put out a notice Thursday after House Commerce Committee leaders sent commission Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter asking about competition in the sector and the use of proprietary standards by makers of public safety equipment. Comments are due Sept. 20, replies Oct. 18.
In what could be a messy November election for Democrats, telecom industry lobbyists are closely watching the re-elections of several members active on their issues. Those races include House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and subcommittee members Zack Space, D-Ohio, and Lee Terry, R-Neb. They also include Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Senate Commerce Committee member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Boucher has a large financial advantage over his Republican opponent and political analysts and others give him the edge.
Some college dorms have ditched landlines or are considering doing so as wireless devices become the popular platform for daily and emergency communications, school officials said in interviews. Some schools remain reluctant to do so on wireless capacity and other concerns.
Few companies or groups are pushing the government to mandate a la carte for cable, although some of the conditions proposed for Comcast’s planned purchase of control of NBC Universal echo elements of dormant channel-unbundling proposals. The American Cable Association asked the FCC Thursday to require Comcast to negotiate separately from deals for other programming distribution agreements for its regional sports networks (RSNs) and for the NBC TV stations it will control after the deal closes. Talks on RSNs and stations should also be separate, ACA said.
More than 150 attorneys, economists, professors, assistants and analysts have sought access to confidential or highly confidential data provided to the FCC in its review of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, FCC documents show. That’s more than double the number of people who sought access to such data during the FCC’s review of the News Corp.-DirecTV transaction that concluded in 2003, FCC filings show. Comcast alone had more than 50 people sign the acknowledgements of confidentiality to gain access to confidential data submitted by critics of the deal. They range from partners, associates and legal assistants at a handful of law firms to economic consultants and law professors who are reviewing the information. NBCU has 23 attorneys, assistants and analysts authorized to review the data, and GE has four partners, an associate and two assistants at Lawler Metzger working on the documents.
Only a handful of public safety agencies seeking Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funds got money to build early 700 MHz networks, as the White House unveiled $1.8 billion in awards Wednesday -- the biggest set of announcements in the history of the stimulus program. Many of the 21 governments and government groups that got waivers from the FCC to launch systems in 700 MHz spectrum had applied for BTOP funding. It’s unclear how many more public safety grants will be awarded and how many systems won’t get built without federal funding. New York City, Washington, and Boston were among grant applicants that did not get awards in Wednesday’s round.
LightSquared paid Inmarsat $337.5 million to begin the process of consolidating terrestrial L-band spectrum that LightSquared plans to use for its 4G network, the companies said Wednesday. The process for opening up the spectrum for use by LightSquared has been in place since 2007, when the company was known as SkyTerra. LightSquared has paid an initial $81.25 million to Inmarsat.
An overdue report to Congress on FCC efforts to increase diversity among the industries it regulates and containing recommendations for legislation has effectively recirculated at the commission for a final vote, agency officials said. An updated draft of the report, which mandated to be prepared every three years by Section 257 of the Telecom Act, was sent to commissioners Aug. 11 and doesn’t appear to be controversial, officials said. The revised report doesn’t appear to contain major revisions and sticks with the legislative recommendations of the original draft that first circulated Jan. 8 but was essentially put on hold while career FCC staffers made changes, commission officials said. The report, due to Congress last Jan. 1, drew criticism from some minority advocates for being late (CD Aug 2 p2).
The FCC should clarify important points when implementing the Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) to avoid unintended consequences during retransmission consent negotiations, said DirecTV and Dish Network. The comments were in response to a rulemaking proposing to allow direct broadcast satellite providers to transmit the HD signals of significantly viewed stations (SVS) only if they also transmit the local station network affiliate in HD, if available. DirecTV said the language changes in the law could be construed to require satellite-TV providers during retransmission disputes to lower the resolution of other broadcasts.
Cellular carriers have little to offer toward a compromise on wireless net neutrality rules, CTIA President Steve Largent told reporters Tuesday. He and other CTIA officials said wireless carriers couldn’t strike a bargain if they wanted to, since only rules requiring increased transparency and disclosure make any sense for their business.