STOCKHOLM -- Europe remains divided on privacy regulation, panelists indicated at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance Thursday. With the Privacy Directive review underway in Brussels, the three EU bodies which were all represented on the EuroDIG panel, representatives of industry and non-governmental organizations struggled to agree how far data protection and privacy protection should go.
A State Department advisory group recommended establishing an informal “collaboration group” to allow governments and private companies to work together during an international disaster. The Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP) offered its recommendations at the State Department Thursday, as other officials reported developments of various communications working groups, and Yahoo spoke of its approach to international human rights concerns.
More companies told the FCC Media Bureau that a program-access dispute between Sky Angel and Discovery Communications is the wrong venue to resolve questions about whether online video distributors (OVDs) can be classified as multichannel video programming distributors and benefit from the same regulatory system. Intel urged the commission to initiate a rulemaking on the topic (http://xrl.us/bnbswz). “As much as the video marketplace has already evolved, we are on the cusp of even more profound changes as devices become more powerful, high capacity broadband Internet access becomes more ubiquitous and innovative ways to present and curate video content continue to develop,” the company said. “In such a dynamic and evolving environment, the issue of which video programming distributors are covered by the Communications Act warrants careful analysis."
The White House gave the General Services Administration and Department of Homeland Security key leadership roles co-chairing a new Broadband Deployment on Federal Property Working Group. The group was created by an executive order released Thursday, as expected (CD June 14 p1). The working group is to prepare a report to be sent to the Steering Committee on Federal Infrastructure Permitting and Review Process Improvement within a year.
SAN FRANCISCO -- With a boom in the number of a new class of apps for tablets, smartphones and smart TVs using automatic content recognition (ACR) software to identify what a device’s user is watching on TV (CD April 16 p7), and potentially selling ads based on that, a battle between content owners and app developers may be looming. That’s what executives told the TV of Tomorrow conference this week. The technology could let any app developer sell ads against or otherwise monetize TV programming.
The FCC approved an order authorizing ID codes of longer than three characters for new wireless devices that have been submitted for testing. Rashmi Doshi, chief of the FCC’s lab in Columbia, Md., told commissioners the Office of Engineering and Technology also is looking at other changes to streamline the certification process. The agency must certify a broad range of consumer and business products, from cellphones to Wi-Fi devices to children’s toys.
President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Thursday that aims to make the deployment of broadband infrastructure more efficient and less expensive, White House officials said. The order encourages a “dig-once” policy for broadband deployment that calls on federal agencies to provide guidance to states for including broadband conduit during the construction of federal highways. House and Senate Democrats supported the administration’s order, which they said would promote broadband deployment with bigger savings for taxpayers.
The FCC approved on a 5-0 vote Wednesday changes to rules designed to push more widespread use of the 4.9 GHz band. The band, once set aside for federal operations, was reallocated to public safety a decade ago, but is little used today. Almost all public safety focus in recent years has been on its fight for a wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band. Among proposals on which the agency will seek comment is whether to allow commercial use of the 4.9 band by utilities and other critical infrastructure providers and possibly other companies as well.
The FCC shouldn’t make any substantive changes to the special access pricing flexibility triggers until it gathers and analyzes competitive data, large telcos that sell such services have been telling commissioners in meetings this week. Those who buy special access have continued to express frustration at a system they say favors incumbents in areas where there’s no competition, allowing them to raise prices without fear of losing customers. A draft order that’s been circulating for over a week plans to seek data to reform the 1999 pricing flexibility rules, and FCC officials have said the existing special access framework is “broken” (CD June 5 p3).
Nonprofits hailed a reported Justice Department investigation of how cable operators price broadband service and treat traffic from online media providers. Spokesmen for the FCC and Justice Department declined to comment on The Wall Street Journal report. The DOJ and FCC are looking into the extent to which Comcast has been complying with or violating the terms of its consent decree that paved the way for its purchase of control of NBCUniversal, an industry source said. The investigation is wide-ranging and has involved a variety of companies involved in streaming media, the person said. That was welcome news for some public interest groups.