The White House offered a scathing criticism of an alternative cybersecurity bill introduced Thursday by a group of Republican senators. Meanwhile, AT&T and USTelecom hailed the Strengthening and Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and Technology (SECURE IT) Act, which competes directly with the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-2105). The SECURE IT Act is sponsored by GOP Sens. John McCain or Arizona; Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; Chuck Grassley of Iowa; Saxby Chambliss of Georgia; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Dan Coats of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
A Georgia bill would rapidly eliminate the state’s $16 million Universal Access Fund (UAF), which funds rural phone companies and is financed by larger telecom companies like AT&T. HB-855 (http://xrl.us/bmwmgc) is being considered in the House. It would ignore the 20-year phase out of the UAF passed in 2010 and instead eliminate it by 2015. If the bill were passed, the UAF would be reduced to $6 million in 2013, to $3 million in 2014 and be eliminated in 2015.
Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein defended the pace of broadband stimulus projects and the failure of Open Range Communications, at a budget hearing Thursday of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture. The White House’s FY 2013 budget proposal provides “adequate” broadband funding for rural areas, Adelstein said. RUS is studying the impact of the recent Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation overhaul, he said.
ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure underlined the role of private sector contributions to the review of the International Telecommunication Regulations, at a preparatory meeting for the World Conference on International Telecom (WCIT) in Geneva. A new edition of the ITRs that date from negotiations of the World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference in Melbourne in 1988 await approval by ITU member countries in Dubai in December. The ITRs establish general principles and provisions governing international telecom services.
Public Knowledge, which has informally asked the FCC’s Wireline and Wireless bureaus to investigate usage-based data caps, is considering formally asking for an investigation, Legal Director Harold Feld said in an interview Wednesday. “The longer this issue persists the more likely we are to do it,” Feld said of filing a formal complaint.
Whether a sports blackout rule supports terrestrial TV by keeping professional games on over-the-air broadcasts and not only on multichannel video programming distributors was debated in replies to the FCC on a petition from five groups to end the rule. The affiliate associations of three of the four major U.S. broadcast networks chimed in for the first time on the request, backing NAB’s opposition. The groups that petitioned (http://xrl.us/bmwid3) the commission (CD Nov 15 p3) to end the 1970s-era requirement that MVPDs not carry games in markets where contracts between leagues and stations keep them off-air said there’s “no compelling economic rationale” to keep the rule.
The future of the 1755-1780 MHz band remains uncertain, almost half a year after NTIA wrapped up a report on the band. The band is carriers’ top priority for reallocation for wireless broadband. Congress left language out of recently enacted spectrum legislation that would have required reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band for auction, following pressure from the Defense Department (CD Feb 21 p4). NTIA remains evasive about the band in a document slated to be presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) Thursday. A spokesman said Wednesday the report is set to be released in coming weeks.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The chances that Congress will pass some sort of cybersecurity legislation have improved in recent months, Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president, said Tuesday. “Hopefully we'll see something before the summer break and it gets into the election season,” he said. If legislation can focus on consensus items and leave longer-term debates for another day, the prospects seem good, he said. “I think there are better chances now than we've ever had before,” he said. He spoke on a panel on international cybersecurity at the German American Business Association and Goethe Institut.
The quest to solve the spectrum crunch is far from over, said panelists at an Institute for Policy Innovation conference Wednesday. The success of the wireless industry, with new technologies and more efficient spectrum usage, is “far from final,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. U.S. carriers will need more spectrum, and competition in the industry is needed to keep up with innovation and usage levels, meet consumer needs and for the country to remain a global wireless leader, he said.
If Republicans gain control of the Senate, free-market hero Jim DeMint could lead the Senate Commerce Committee after the unexpected announcement Tuesday that Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will not seek re-election (CD Feb 29 p14). DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina and the ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee, is next in line by seniority to replace retiring Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. DeMint is a staunch conservative and tea party favorite who marks a sharp contrast to the moderate Snowe.