Representatives of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUS) had meetings at the FCC last week to ask that NTUA Wireless be approved as eligible telecommunications carrier under the FCC’s Universal Service Fund program. Among those NTUA Wireless met with were Commissioner Robert McDowell and Zac Katz, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmmqub). NTUA Wireless officials discussed the build-out of the company’s broadband infrastructure project covering parts of the Navajo Nation, the filing said. “The group discussed the services to be enabled by the broadband project, as well as services that would be enabled through participation in USF programs,” the filing said. “The Tribal members of the group representing NTUA Wireless discussed the need for ETC designation to enable potential funding to address various communications needs on the Navajo Nation. The NTUA Wireless business representatives reiterated their desire for the FCC to act on NTUA Wireless’ pending petition for ETC designation, acknowledging the FCC’s workload."

House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-Calif., introduced a cybersecurity bill late Thursday that puts the Department of Homeland Security at the forefront of evaluating and mitigating cybersecurity risks. The Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PRECISE) Act, HR-3674, solidifies the roles and responsibilities of DHS in protecting against cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, Lungren said. By providing a trusted information-sharing structure, the bill provides “critical infrastructure owners and operators the timely access to actionable cybersecurity information necessary to protect their own networks and facilities.” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., also a bill sponsor, said the PRECISE Act “protects our critical infrastructure without a heavy-handed and burdensome regulatory approach that could cost American jobs.” The bill directs DHS to identify and evaluate risks on a continuous sector-by-sector basis. In its evaluation, the department should take into account factors like target attractiveness, deterrence capabilities, the extent and likelihood of “serious adverse effects to human health and safety” and harm to the economy, the bill said. As indicated in a draft issued last week, the bill creates the National Information Sharing Organization, a nonprofit organization that would serve as a “national clearinghouse for the exchange of cyber threat information” (WID Dec 7 p1). The entity would allow network operators in the private sector, state, local and tribal governments and the federal government to gain access to “timely and actionable information in order to protect their networks or systems as effectively as possible,” the bill said. “While I am not prepared to give my full support to the bill at this time, there’s a lot to like in this bill,” said Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. It gives DHS the authority and resources it needs to fulfill its cybersecurity mission “instead of creating a whole new bureaucracy or complicated regulatory framework."

The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database with permission to start commercial operations in the U.S., industry and agency officials told us last week. That could lead to deployment of the first commercially available white spaces technology as early as Q1. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology earlier this year completed a 45-day public trial of the Spectrum Bridge database and this month began a 45-day trial of rival database provider Telcordia Technologies, making those the first two of the 10 commission-designated database operators to be ready for trials. White spaces devices, including one produced by Spectrum Bridge’s partner KTS, are being tested in the OET lab, and could soon be certified for commercial use as well, said industry executives. Wireless providers and equipment makers see FCC approval of white spaces databases and radios that connect with the databases as potentially opening a market with $5 billion to $7 billion in annual sales. They say the market would be initially for broadband from fixed locations in rural areas, and eventually if the technology is proven to work for portable, unlicensed devices capable of getting broadband service. “This technology could be a very good opportunity to introduce cost-effective high-speed broadband into some underserved or unserved rural communities,” said John Malyar, Telcordia’s chief architect of interconnection solutions. “There’s a large opportunity here for looking at other applications of this, with the personal portables or even the machine-to-machine communications, both here and in other parts of the world. Showing that a database can support dynamic spectrum access has broader applications than just the TV bands frequencies.” Hardware producer Carlson Wireless expects to submit its second-generation white spaces device to the FCC for testing in January, CEO Jim Carlson said. “It’s a real chicken and egg situation.” Until the database and the equipment are both certified, companies are only able to do field tests under experimental licenses from the commission. Ultimately, the databases must all be able to interoperate with each other, once they've all passed FCC muster. Carlson has been testing rural broadband and hot spots on Native American tribal lands. “Our passion in this is to get the rural users of this country, including the Native Americans and businesses and farms, to be connected so we can be economically more viable,” he said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment. Companies are waiting for the FCC to act on petitions for reconsideration, as well as objections raised by NAB and requests from the equipment makers for flexibility in the fixed transmitter height requirements and a relaxed adjacent channel spectrum mask, to allow greater throughput. NAB’s comments were largely logistical and broadcasters primarily want assurance that the FCC will continue to monitor implementation and guard against interference, said Victor Tawil, the association’s senior vice president of technology. Ultimately, the commercial space could contain multiple possible databases and radios so that

The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database with permission to start commercial operations in the U.S., industry and agency officials told us last week. That could lead to deployment of the first commercially available white spaces technology as early as Q1. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology earlier this year completed a 45-day public trial of the Spectrum Bridge database(CD Nov 14 p13) and this month began a 45-day trial of rival database provider Telcordia Technologies, making those the first two of the 10 commission-designated database operators to be ready for trials. White spaces devices, including one produced by Spectrum Bridge’s partner KTS, are being tested in the OET lab, and could soon be certified for commercial use as well, said industry executives.

The FCC may certify Spectrum Bridge as the first TV white spaces database with permission to start commercial operations in the U.S., industry and agency officials told us last week. That could lead to deployment of the first commercially available white spaces technology as early as Q1.

Draft FCC orders would make it a bit easier for radio stations to move to urban areas from suburban and rural communities and also ease the process for U.S. tribes to seek new allotments, agency officials said. Those draft Media Bureau orders follow up on one approved at March’s commission meeting that made such station move-ins to urban areas harder and that allowed tribes without government-recognized lands to get stations more easily (CD March 4 p10). The two current drafts are moving on two different tracks, agency officials said. The move-in order is likely to change, possibly significantly, and won’t be voted on right away. The tribal order will be approved in coming weeks, likely without significant changes.

"Public safety continues to have serious concerns with some aspects” of spectrum legislation proposed by Republicans in the House Commerce Committee, said Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen for the Public Safety Alliance. In a statement Thursday, McEwen objected specifically to the proposed giveback of narrowband spectrum and a “troubling governance model” for the public safety network. But public safety is united in its desire to “work constructively” with all members of Congress to get the bill done, he said. The alliance gets that Congress must consider fiscal realities, but “any legislation must also recognize the practical operational implementation and sustainability of this effort by local, state, tribal and federal governments, departments and their public safety agencies,” PSA spokesman Sean Kirkendall said. A successful network requires sufficient spectrum, funding, and operational control and flexibility, he said.

Sprint Nextel began in Kansas its Lifeline program Assurance Wireless, the company said. The service includes a free cellphone and 250 free monthly voice minutes for eligible residents. Customers eligible for the program, which is funded by federal Universal Service Fund, include those who participate in Medicaid, Food Stamps/SNAP, General Assistance, Head Start, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, United Tribes Food Distribution Program, Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, Tribally Administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the National School Lunch Program’s Free Lunch Program. Customers may also qualify based on low household income.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, is having trouble getting lawmakers to pay attention to his Internet gambling bill, HR-2366, he said after a House Commerce Manufacturing Subcommittee hearing on Internet gambling Friday. “This is an issue that is not on everybody’s list. It’s not a high visibility issue,” Barton told us. “There is a focus on getting bigger things done like reducing the federal deficit.”

Indian tribal leaders have significant concerns about federal efforts to legalize and regulate Internet gambling, they said at a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing Thursday. Internet gambling is illegal in the U.S. under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), though some lawmakers have expressed hope that legalization could generate significant revenue for state and federal governments and curb abuses in the offshore gaming market. But tribal leaders said existing legislation would put them on unequal footing with established commercial gaming sites and fail to honor the sovereignty of their tribal agreements.