The reason some Americans don’t or won’t subscribe to broadband has nothing to do with FCC policies, Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford said Monday during a debate sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Some don’t subscribe because they don’t want broadband in their homes, Ford said. Others can’t because of costs.
How universal service fits into Congress’ planned rewrite of the Telecom Act is expected to come up at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday on the Universal Service Fund, industry lobbyists said Monday. The Senate hearing opens a new avenue of Hill dialog on USF, an issue that lately has been mainly the domain of the House. House and Senate Commerce Committee staff meetings on the telecom law revamp start Friday (CD June 21 p8).
Cable operators can use any set-top box with an Internet Protocol-based connector to output video in a format other devices can receive, instead of the required FCC IEEE 1394 interface for all HD boxes that some consumer electronics makers have said is outdated, the FCC Media Bureau ruled Friday afternoon. The waiver responds to requests for exemption from the IEEE 1394 standard made late last year by Intel, Motorola and TiVo. But any set-top box maker that manufactures compliant devices can take advantage of the waiver, which applies to any cable operator, said a bureau order. Operators won’t need to apply for individual exemptions, it said, http://xrl.us/bho6ne.
The FCC will proceed as planned on the National Broadband Plan while it considers whether to change the regulatory classification of broadband, General Counsel Austin Schlick said Friday during a teleconference sponsored by the National Regulatory Research Institute. Schlick also said the FCC could issue an interpretive order on reclassification without first proposing and taking comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking.
The FCC’s Spectrum Task Force is preparing a rulemaking notice that would promote leasing of 90 MHz of mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum, and it’s expected to circulate for the July 15 meeting, leaders of the task force said at a press conference Friday. The commission is not expected to propose rules similar to those in the order approving the Harbinger-SkyTerra transaction, which requires the nation’s two largest carriers to seek FCC permission before leasing that spectrum.
The idea of mapping telephone numbers to Internet Protocol addresses on the public Internet flopped but e-numbering (ENUM) technology is evolving into a key -- and lower cost -- way for mobile and fixed telecom carriers to route calls, sources said. The plan to have telephone numbers resolve in e.164.arpa faltered for several reasons, but carriers increasingly use ENUM telephone number translation to send calls within their own networks or to other providers’ networks, they said.
Broadcast mobile video network operators could benefit if more wireless carriers adopt mobile broadband usage limits as AT&T has, industry executives said. That’s because services like Qualcomm’s MediaFLO and the TV broadcasters’ mobile DTV don’t consume any bandwidth on the carriers’ network. But some are concerned consumers might avoid mobile video altogether if they're worried about exceeding the limits and don’t understand the distinctions between various mobile video services.
A sharply divided FCC Thursday approved a notice of inquiry seeking comments on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third way” broadband reclassification proposal. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker dissented sharply. Debate on the NOI showed deep divisions among the commissioners in their view of the broadband market and whether the FCC needs to reclassify Internet service under Title II of the Communications Act, while effectively keeping Internet content and applications under more light-handed Title I.
An employer’s search of text messages made during work hours didn’t violate an employee’s right to privacy because the search was reasonable and limited in scope, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in City of Ontario v. Quon Thursday. But the decision is limited and should not be viewed as a broad pronouncement on privacy rights and electronic communication, it said.
A backlog of more than a million indecency complaints pending at the FCC has the agency considering whether to dispose of some, and others have expired because the time for action elapsed, agency and industry officials said. Staffers such as those at the Office of General Counsel are aware of the need to act to trim the backlog, a commission official said. Another agency official said the regulator could dismiss complaints against non-broadcast shows, such as those on cable, that aren’t subject to indecency rules.