Creation of a next-generation public safety communications network will require leadership “from a single non-profit organization devoted to this purpose,” said a report released Tuesday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT). The report also said any network should “incorporate commercial technology where appropriate” and find ways to “extend commercial technology to achieve robustness.” It emphasized the importance of ease of use and affordability in any network used by public safety (http://xrl.us/bmqc8z).
A New York State appeals court rejected Dish Networks’ challenge to sanctions a lower court imposed on Dish for allegedly destroying evidence tied to Cablevision’s $2.5 billion suit against it. The New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division upheld Judge Richard Lowe’s ruling that he could tell jurors about erased emails in an upcoming trial into Cablevision’s claims that it breached a contract to carry the defunct Voom network. Jurors could assume the email evidence would benefit Cablevision, Lowe said. Cablevision sued EchoStar in 2008, but Dish assumed related litigation when EchoStar was spun off as a separate hardware company.
Comcast said it will expand the pool of customers eligible for its discount broadband program to households that have a school-age student receiving a free or reduced school lunch. And Comcast said it will double the download speed it offers for the Internet Essentials service to 3 Mbps. Those were among the changes Comcast said it plans to make to the program after five months operating it. Other changes include working to drop the price of the subsidized computers it offers, increase its efforts to market the program through local partners and print more digital literacy material to distribute, said Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen during a call with reporters.
Sen. John Kerry worries about a one-sided negotiation over spectrum in the House-Senate conference working on the payroll tax cut extension, the Senate Communications Subcommittee chairman said Tuesday. The extension bill, due by month-end, is expected to include spectrum auction authorization to pay for the bill. While the House and Senate Commerce committees have developed individual spectrum bills, the conference has three members from the House Commerce Committee and zero from Senate Commerce. In a speech Tuesday at a New America Foundation event, Massachusetts Democrat Kerry said he’s particularly concerned with a provision in the House bill prohibiting the FCC from setting spectrum aside for unlicensed use.
Senate Privacy Subcommittee members expressed their concern with the House’s attempt to modernize the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), during a subcommittee hearing Tuesday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., along with Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., and Ranking Member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the 24-year-old law should be updated, but each said they were concerned about the unintended consequences of the House amendment, HR-2471.
The FCC approved an order Tuesday rewriting the rules for the Universal Service Fund Lifeline program. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn found aspects of the order lacking, but both voted to approve the order as a whole. McDowell dissented in part and concurred in part. Clyburn issued a concurrence on one part of the order.
A demand to interview high ranking officials including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack has soured cooperation between the government and Open Range stakeholders within Open Range’s bankruptcy proceeding, filings show (http://xrl.us/bmqcqt). The Open Range’s Unsecured Creditors Committee has sought to compel the Justice Department to make FCC and USDA officials available, something the DOJ said Friday it won’t do and isn’t required to do. Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, RUS Broadband Division Chief Kenneth Kuchno and other RUS officials have already been interviewed and thousand of government documents have been provided, said the DOJ.
A Commerce Department official offered no certainty Tuesday about how quickly a long-promised department white paper on the administration’s privacy policy will come out. “I would hope in the coming weeks,” said Alexander Hoehn-Saric, the deputy general counsel for strategic initiatives. But he said that “it always seems to take longer than you would want.” Speaking at a webcast Practising Law Institute seminar in New York, Hoehn-Saric didn’t explain the uncertainty, and a department spokeswoman didn’t get back to us right away. A draft report was released late in 2010, the final version was promised at least as long ago as summer 2011, and members of Congress have pressed for prompt action.
Making all TV stations report quarterly on the types of local programming aired is an impractical change to the issues/program lists now required and raises First Amendment concerns, many broadcasters told the FCC. Some backed a more limited reporting requirement to replace the now-junked Form 355, while nonprofit groups sought more expansive documentation. Nonprofits representing the disabled said in comments posted Monday in docket 11-189 (http://xrl.us/bmp9v5) on a commission notice of inquiry about a successor to Form 355 that stations ought to report the extent to which their shows have captions.
Operators in Florida are pushing a bill to update the state’s communications tax law. The bill (HB-809) would prevent governments from taxing new telecom services using what the industry claimed were outdated tax laws, industry officials said. However, the bill might result in millions of dollars in lost annual tax revenue, analysts from the state’s Department of Revenue claimed.