The Rural Cellular Association went on the attack against AT&T in replies to a March FCC rulemaking notice on a proposed interoperability mandate for the lower 700 MHz band. RCA said AT&T stands alone in its opposition to a mandate -- a top regulatory priority for small carriers in their advocacy before the agency. AT&T said a mandate makes no sense given movement in the market.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told members he hopes to bring cybersecurity legislation to the Senate floor sometime “between now and the time we adjourn in August,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. His comments came Tuesday during a cybersecurity hearing held by his committee. We were unable to confirm the time line with staff from Reid’s office, but Senate lawmakers said they're working to wrap up the bill before the month-long recess.
A European Commission focus on potential risks of the Internet of Things (IoT) could lead to policies that stifle innovation, the European-American Business Council said in a Thursday response to an EC consultation. The EABC and other industry groups agreed that design and rollout of the IoT must take account of privacy, security, standards, governance and interoperability issues, but not through more regulation. Instead, they pressed for industry-led standards and application of existing measures, such as EU data protection rules. Separately, IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid said the IoT should run on the newest Internet Protocol (IP) version.
GENEVA -- There’s some hope for deal cutting within the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as it gathered for its 24th meeting Monday in Geneva. Efforts to harmonize international copyright legislation may be advanced through some wide support expressed for an international treaty for copyright exceptions for visually impaired and blind people and another one on the protection of broadcasters and cablecasters.
Spectrum sharing presents a tantalizing potential to improve efficient use of spectrum, but the technology and policy fixes needed to make it a reality are at least a decade off, wireless network expert Peter Rysavy said in a report released Monday (http://xrl.us/bng3q5). Underutilized government-only frequency bands will be need to be restructured so non-governmental and commercial entities can share them, the report said. It’s entirely possible for commercial and government entities to share these spectrum bands, but it will take time to determine how they can integrate, Rysavy said during a news conference Monday sponsored by Mobile Future. Getting information from federal agencies on how much spectrum they use can be challenging, an aide to the House Commerce Committee told the event.
The U.S. faces huge challenges trying to stay ahead of growth in wireless broadband use, and putting the right band plans in place is critical, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Monday at the start of an all-day agency workshop conducted by the commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC). “We are going to be listening very closely to what happens at this workshop and what comes out of the TAC process in terms of directions and recommendations for the FCC."
Lawmakers must realize that media marketplace policy has “failed” and is harming consumers, said Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America, in an interview Monday. The media marketplace is facing a “collaborative duopoly at best and a non-regulated monopoly at worst,” Cooper told us. “There is a very serious danger to consumers in this space.” Cooper added that if the proposed Verizon/SpectrumCo deal is approved, it will mark the “end of competition” in the media marketplace.
CNET’s Download.com allegedly took the “unusual and ill-advised steps of distributing software programs that are capable of widespread copyright infringement while simultaneously demonstrating how to infringe copyrights using that software and evaluating the various programs as to their effectiveness in copying copyrighted material,” a federal judge said Friday. Those inducement allegations are enough for a copyright infringement suit against CNET parent CBS Interactive to proceed, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles ruled while approving CBS’s motion to dismiss vicarious and contributory infringement claims.
Other government initiatives to protect mobile privacy are already well under way and the FCC doesn’t need to impose regulations of its own, AT&T and Verizon Wireless said. Their comments responded to a May 25 public notice about carrier practices on network diagnostic information stored on mobile devices. Both companies also assured the FCC they are taking steps on their own to protect consumer privacy. FTC staff suggested carriers and others need to do more to protect consumer privacy. “Providers of mobile products and services must do a much better job of providing consumers with basic information about what information they are collecting, how it is used, and what third parties gain access to it,” staff said.
More than 650 telecom providers signed a letter to commissioners “to ensure” the FCC and Congress “have clear and unambiguous notice of our collective concerns with the ‘regression analysis'-based caps” on USF support (http://xrl.us/bngrm9). A NTCA spokeswoman said the letter was an industry-wide effort in which several national and state associations, other groups and individual members “all reached out collectively to raise the visibility of this issue among policy makers in Washington.” The commission has received eight waiver petitions dealing with support reductions, of which one has been granted interim relief, a spokesman said. The commission also got two expedited waiver petitions dealing with boundary data, which it granted.