The FCC has put off action on more than 30 waiver requests from local governments that have proposed public safety networks using 700 MHz spectrum (CD Sept 15 p1). Some officials at the FCC and industry say the reluctance to grant the waivers appears tied to the desire of Chairman Julius Genachowski not to muddy the waters as Congress pushes forward on broader spectrum legislation, which addresses a national wireless network for public safety.
As the FCC prepares to vote on an order on VoIP outage reporting at Wednesday’s meeting, carriers continued to characterize the proposed rules as unrealistic, unnecessary and burdensome. That’s even though they've been greatly curtailed from what was originally proposed.
The FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee met Friday for the first time since issuing a contested report last year on the future of emergency communications for people with disabilities. Industry representatives on the EAAC filed an addendum to the report questioning many of the findings (CD Dec 27 p4). Members of the EAAC representing the disabled said in an FCC filing they found it “very contradictory” that industry members “organized and jointly questioned nearly all the key recommendations.”
The record so far shows that commenters “overwhelmingly” support “voluntary, industry-led collaborative efforts” aimed at developing a mechanism allowing texting to 911, CTIA said in reply comments filed at the FCC. Carriers offered similar comments. But the National Emergency Number Association advised the FCC to act quickly and warned that any interim solution is likely to be in place for some time. Several commenters said the best short-term solution would be IP Relay, as identified by the ATIS Interim Nonvoice Emergency Services Incubator.
Work by career FCC lawyers is picking up steam on making all TV stations post almost all of their public inspection files online, agency and industry officials told us. They said staffers in the Media Bureau are intensifying work toward a final order to require the files now kept on paper in TV stations’ main studios to be given electronically to the FCC to put on its website. Commissioner Robert McDowell Friday slammed the agency for moving toward a fix to a problem that appears to be “non-existent,” by imposing unnecessary burdens on industry. Broadcasters, meanwhile, continued to oppose a notice of inquiry in another proceeding that would make them file quarterly standardized forms about the types of local programming they air.
An FCC committee won’t likely reach complete consensus on all items to be covered in three upcoming reports to the agency on implementing parts of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, participants said. Some areas where consumer electronics firms and other companies may not agree with advocates for those with vision or hearing problems were pointed out during Thursday’s meeting of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (http://xrl.us/bmhahx). One such area deals with the quality of video descriptions, describing aurally on-screen action sequences that aren’t captioned, when programming is transmitted by CE apparatus, industry and nonprofit officials said. A commission official discussed the limits on lobbyists’ participation in preparations for the forthcoming reports, and how VPAAC members could get input from those officials under current rules.
Supreme Court TV moved one step closer to show time after the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted 11-7 to approve S-1945 by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and one other Republican voted for the bill, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California cast the sole Democratic vote against. Feinstein argued forcefully that the bill is an unwelcome breach of the separation of powers envisioned by the U.S. Constitution.
For K-12 schools to switch to digital textbooks by 2017 is a good goal, but it may be easier said than done, experts said. The FCC and the Department of Education recently endorsed an effort for schools to implement digital textbooks as replacements for paper texts. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski challenged schools to complete the transition in the next five years, a goal recently echoed by the Obama administration. Digital books are “one of the cornerstones of digital learning,” Genachowski told a meeting on e-books for schools last week, and they're the next step in education technology. Interested parties told us they see several hindrances to the change.
GENEVA -- How to carry out ITU-R studies for mobile broadband over the next 30 months is an important remaining discussion, following initial agreement on a 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) agenda item, officials said. A 2012 WRC sub-working group on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) agreed to no change on the satellite component for command and control, chairman Eric Allaix told us. A 2015 agenda item was agreed to, he said.
Verizon Was Providing IPv6 for DOD Official Who Accused Networx Carriers of Shirking, Says Executive
When a Defense Department official accused most of the five Networx carriers of shunting aside federal agencies’ requests to do mandated IPv6 upgrades (CD Nov 3 p8), Verizon was already providing the department under his leadership with data-transport services supporting the protocol, an executive said Thursday. “We're very supportive of the Department of Defense IPv6” transition, the chief technology officer of Verizon Public Sector, Steve LeFrancois, said in an interview. He said he could see no reason for other carriers to discourage requests for help adopting the technology, which the Networx contractors have committed to offering.