ORLANDO, Fla. -- More spectrum is essential to meet growing consumer demand, but inefficient management by federal regulators, including the slow approval process of Dish Network’s proposed new wireless network, is keeping infrastructure lagging behind demand, panelists at the PCIA show said Tuesday. “The technology is ahead of the regulations,” said Associate General Counsel Edward Roach of SBA Communications. Several panelists said both consumers and the market will benefit from Dish’s spectrum, including lawyer Alison Minea of Dish. “We're new to this, but we see a lot of opportunity for the S-band, so stay tuned,” she said.

NTIA acknowledged that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work for sharing federal spectrum with commercial users, in a document released this week responding to recommendations by a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee working group. The NTIA response is slated for discussion at the CSMAC meeting Thursday, the group’s last of the year. In May, NTIA instructed the CSMAC to refocus on sharing between commercial and federal users in the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1850 MHz bands (CD May 31 p1).

The FCC proposed a $5 million fine against NobelTel for deceptively marketing its prepaid calling cards to consumers. The commission said NobelTel violated its rules against “unfair and deceptive” marketing practices by offering cards promising hundreds of minutes of international calls that, in practice, could be depleted after just a few minutes (http://xrl.us/bnscpn). NobelTel did not respond to our requests for comment. The American PrePaid Phonecall Association (APPPA), of which NobelTel is a member, defended the company and warned of litigation to challenge the forfeitures.

Pay-TV distributors attacked efforts by the CEA and AllVid Tech Company Alliance to revive their AllVid policy goals in the context of two set-top box waiver proceedings. In reply comments to waiver requests from TiVo and Nagra USA, DirecTV and the NCTA each took aim at the CEA and AllVid alliance’s arguments that the FCC should clarify what industry standard will be an acceptable home-networking replacement for the phased-out IEEE 1394 connection (CD Sept 25 p10).

There’s “remarkable unanimity of support” among U.S. policymakers, legislators and others for the decision to oppose a World Conference on International Communications proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association to give the ITU more control over the Internet, U.S. Ambassador to the EU William Kennard said Tuesday. The general feeling is very much “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said at an ETNO/Financial Times summit in Brussels. That doesn’t mean the U.S. doesn’t respect the ITU, but it doesn’t see how the ETNO plan will work, said the former FCC chairman. Incumbent network operators, meanwhile, said they are struggling to find ways to monetize the Internet.

The U.S. government can further improve efforts to get Latin Americans online with broadband connections on devices with more computing power than basic smartphones, and should take steps to hire more Latinos, Hispanic activists said at the FCC. Reducing what prisoners are charged to make calls to outsiders, giving iPads to children of migrant farm workers and completing minority media ownership studies before adopting a quadrennial review of media ownership order were among steps they listed. Some activists in particular singled out the commission for not doing enough to increase its staff diversity, which agency officials said they're working on. Chairman Julius Genachowski and FCC staff outlined efforts the agency is taking, at an event the Office of Workplace Diversity organized with the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Other events last week discussed those topics, with some speakers calling broadband a civil right (CD Sept 26 p3).

The FCC spectrum aggregation notice of proposed rulemaking mentions the cap on spectrum holdings the FCC did away with in 2003, then asks a series of questions about whether it should impose new limits on spectrum holdings. But the NPRM doesn’t call this a new cap, instead repeatedly using the phrase “bright line limits.” The NPRM also ties the inquiry back to the carriers with the most at stake if limits on spectrum holdings are imposed -- Verizon Wireless and AT&T, saying both objected to the case-by-case screen that replaced the cap nine years ago. The commission approved the NPRM at Friday’s meeting (CD Oct 1 p5), and released the text after our deadline. Industry officials said Monday they see little difference between a cap and bright-line limits. “The distinction seems thin (like nonexistent) to me,” a telecom lawyer and former FCC official said in an email.

The California bill prohibiting the state’s public utilities commission from regulating VoIP for the next eight years is officially law. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed SB-1161 late Friday, two days before a mandatory decision. The new law “encourages the continued growth” of VoIP and IP-enabled services while leaving “crucial” consumer protections “safeguarded,” Gov. Brown told the Legislature in a message with the bill’s signing. Despite vigorous debate, the bill passed both bodies of the Legislature by large margins this summer. Federal and state statute can change the commission’s authority in the next eight years if need be. The new law immediately provoked a wave of praise as well as some concern from not only California stakeholders but also national forces in the telecom world. California is the 25th state to limit regulation of VoIP, NARUC’s National Regulatory Research Institute Researcher Sherry Lichtenberg estimates. Glenn Richards, Voice on the Net Coalition executive director, estimates California is the 24th state and 25th jurisdiction, including Washington, D.C., to deregulate in this way.

Gen. Keith Alexander, National Security Agency (NSA) director and head of the U.S. Cyber Command, said civilian agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should take a lead role in coordinating the nation’s cybersecurity effort. Alexander’s comments Monday during a cybersecurity panel hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies contrasted with arguments from some lawmakers that the agency should take a back seat to the Defense Department on cybersecurity issues. Alexander also deflected a question from moderator and NPR host Steve Inskeep about whether the general was concerned that other countries could use cyberweapons deployed by the U.S. military against U.S. assets.

When Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto takes office Dec. 1, there could be an opportunity to effect change in the country’s approach to Internet connectivity and speech issues, officials said at an Aspen Institute forum. Aspen’s Communications and Society program and Grupos Salinas and Caminos de la Libertad released a report Monday detailing what the groups believe are “critical deficits” in Mexico’s current policies on those issues (http://xrl.us/bnr7x8). Alec Ross, senior innovation advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said the challenge Mexico faces is the same one the rest of the world faces -- how to make the business and academic environments as data-rich as possible.