A pair of Senate bills aim to clarify the nebulous legal framework surrounding geolocation data and its interception, use and dissemination by companies and law enforcement agencies. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act Wednesday in order to resolve legal ambiguities over how geolocation data is treated, they said. On the same day, the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced the Location Privacy Act of 2011.
A data protection draft bill took shots from the left and the right at a hearing Wednesday of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing and Trade. Senior Democrats said the draft by Chairwoman Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., removed key consumer protection provisions from last Congress’ DATA Act proposal. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said he saw Bono Mack’s version as an overreaction to recent breaches of Sony and Epsilon. But both sides said they hoped to reach consensus.
CHICAGO -- FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said he’s puzzled why more U.S. ISPs don’t meter broadband usage, by charging for what subscribers consume as opposed to the current practice of sending monthly bills of similar amounts to each category of customers. The all-you-can-eat broadband model doesn’t make sense to him, and is unlike other services, he said during a Q-and-A at a Cable Show luncheon. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she understands those who oppose usage-based pricing, while acknowledging that a certain number of broadband users consume a disproportionate share of capacity.
CHICAGO -- The FCC’s overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system may take a little longer than had previously been anticipated, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the Cable Show in Chicago. Finishing an order on the subjects may take until the fall, said Sherrese Smith, who advises Genachowski on media issues. “I'm only talking about a month or two delay,” not a longer period of time, she told us during a Q-and-A Wednesday. She also said an item on program carriage will be out soon.
Dish Network was chosen to provide the stalking horse bid for bankrupt TerreStar, setting the minimum bid price for the S-band licensee at $1.375 billion, court documents filed Wednesday said. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York must still approve the bid. Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish and EchoStar, had appeared to be the front-runner to win the TerreStar assets (CD April 15 p3) despite saying during an earnings call this year that EchoStar, which has some ownership in TerreStar, would not bid on the company.
CHICAGO -- Updating the Telecom Act is something FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski still thinks is a good idea, and in the meantime the agency has broadband challenges that require immediate attention, he said Wednesday. He expanded on remarks Friday from his chief of staff on a new broadband initiative (CD June 13 p6), with Genachowski saying he'll work with other commissioners to get it underway. He agreed with comments Tuesday at the Cable Show by NCTA CEO Michael Powell, with whom Genachowski engaged in a Q-and-A, that “regulatory humility” is good.
BRUSSELS -- Operators may need more spectrum for new wireless services but they also have to use what they already have more efficiently, speakers said Wednesday at a Forum Europe spectrum management conference. One growing area of interest is combining broadcast and mobile broadband services, they said. Shared access models, cognitive technologies and more standardization are also under consideration to help meet Europe’s goal of broadband for all, they said.
A GPS Working Group report due to be delivered to the FCC Wednesday on LightSquared interference to GPS systems is expected to cite several potential problems if the company is allowed to offer terrestrial service in mobile satellite service spectrum. Members of a group writing the report were still working on the language, and several sources said Tuesday they don’t expect anything to be released much before a midnight deadline.
The Universal Service Fund’s contribution factor will dip to 14.4 percent in the third quarter of 2011, the FCC said in a public notice released Tuesday. It’s a dip from the second quarter’s 14.9 percent, but it’s not enough of a dip to ease pressure on Chairman Julius Genachowski as he focuses on universal service distribution reform through the fall, officials said. “Whether the contribution factor goes slightly up or slightly down is irrelevant,” Commissioner Robert McDowell told us Tuesday: “What’s important is that it’s either at or near record highs, indicating that the system is broken."
CHICAGO -- Some House Commerce Committee members are skeptical of the need for AllVid rules the FCC has been aiming to propose, its Republican counsel said. The rulemaking notice being worked on by the commission doesn’t seem likely to be finished soon, said an aide to Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass. Both aides, who spoke at the Cable Show Tuesday, said an earlier panel demonstrated that cable operators and programmers are trying to make content more accessible to subscribers. (See separate story in this issue.)