AT&T, CTIA and TIA endorsed an FCC proposal to launch an online clearinghouse for information-sharing about products and services that promote access to devices tailored to people with disabilities. In a post May 17 to the FCC’s Blogband, the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau asked for comments on the clearinghouse by Thursday. The post followed up on a recommendation in the National Broadband Plan.
The ongoing fight over whether broadband should be reclassified as a more heavily regulated “telecom” service has resulted in chaos for the broadband industry, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker said Thursday at the annual Broadband Policy Summit, sponsored by Pike & Fischer. Baker also said work on the “third way” reclassification plan by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has distracted attention from the National Broadband Plan. Another danger is that increased FCC regulation of the Internet could lead to more government control of the Internet in other nations, she warned.
A hearing on Internet accessibility legislation exploded into a political brawl after Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., lashed out at CEA President Gary Shapiro. Testifying Thursday to the House Communications Subcommittee, Shapiro had said Markey’s bill (HR-3101) could kill start-up consumer electronics manufacturers by requiring them to make all products accessible to people with any disability. Republicans defended the CEA executive and scolded Markey. Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., tried to steer the discussion back toward areas of agreement.
A long-awaited cybersecurity bill introduced Thursday in the Senate Homeland Security Committee would give the president authority to declare a “national cyber emergency” and take emergency measures to fight it without further congressional approval. It would establish a national cybersecurity center and a formal cybersecurity czar appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The bill was introduced by committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.
STANFORD, Calif. -- A veteran FCC economist fleshed out alternatives for auctioning spectrum that broadcasters give up for reuse in mobile broadband. The commission could give out overlay licenses, hold separate auctions to clear and re-license the spectrum, or set up a process to make both changes at the same time, said Evan Kwerel, senior economic adviser to the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, saying he spoke only for himself.
BRUSSELS -- European and other countries have narrowed the list of frequencies for possible new mobile satellite service allocations at WRC-12 to six bands, an executive said at a conference preparatory workshop. European countries are also considering proposing changes to ITU satellite network filing and coordination procedures, said Samuel Blondeau, senior space development manager at SES Astra in Luxembourg. European countries will sign off on common proposals next year.
Public safety and emergency experts emphasized the need for more clarity, accuracy and relevance in emergency alert procedures and systems, they said at the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 21st Century emergency alerting workshop Thursday, citing lessons learned from an emergency alert system test in Alaska in January. The FCC should extend the deadline for installing updated Emergency Alert System (EAS) gear and the federal government should fund more training to use it, some said.
Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, wants to use the appropriations process to stop the FCC from acting on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband regulation proposal. At a hearing Wednesday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services, Culberson said he would offer an amendment to FCC budget legislation prohibiting the agency from using any federal funds to “regulate the Internet,” including for reclassifying broadband transport under Title II of the Communications Act. Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said he doesn’t support the amendment and won’t work with Culberson to refine it.
The Iowa Utilities Board issued rules on access stimulation, also called “traffic pumping” by some, that take effect Aug. 4. The amendments issued Monday could be rendered obsolete by intercarrier compensation reforms envisioned by the National Broadband Plan, commission staff said. Until that FCC program takes effect, the Iowa commission will focus “on situations in which a local exchange carrier’s rates for intrastate access services are based, indirectly, on relatively low traffic volumes, but the LEC then experiences a relatively large and rapid increase in those volumes, resulting in a substantial increase in revenues without a matching increase in the total cost of providing access service,” it said.
With a week to go before a June 17 FCC vote on a broadband reclassification notice of inquiry, leading broadband and high-tech companies said Wednesday they're starting the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (TAG). That gives reclassification opponents another potential arrow in their quiver. This new group is being chaired by former commission official Dale Hatfield, who logged time last year as a member of the Obama Administration’s FCC transition team. The move comes as some members of Congress pressure the FCC to rethink changing how broadband is regulated (CD June 9 p1). Members include AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Dish, EchoStar, Time Warner Cable and Level 3, said a news release.