The House Communications Subcommittee plans to work on cybersecurity, broadband stimulus, market competition and spectrum, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said this week. He also expects to do oversight on the national public safety network. He questioned the need for an FCC rule requiring broadcasters to post public files online, as well as legislation to stop employers from asking for Facebook passwords. His comments came in a recorded show scheduled to be shown this weekend on C-SPAN’s The Communicators.
SILICON VALLEY -- Privacy problems are among the most stubborn of a cluster of obstacles to a shift to mobile and Internet technologies that healthcare needs for financial and service reasons, executives said. Telehealth requires a high “level of invasiveness” in patients’ homes, “in their personal lives,” said Dr. Michael Blum, chief medical information officer of the University of California-San Francisco’s Medical Center. It calls for monitoring of patients’ weight and activities including eating and movement, he said late Wednesday at the Institute for Health Technology Transformation’s Health IT Summit, and only “a small group accepts that.” Dr. Yan Chow, Kaiser Permanente’s director of advanced technology, said there are techniques for placing devices for digital monitoring and communication so they are unobtrusive.
A New Hampshire deregulation bill that sailed through the state Senate recently is making its way through the House. Supporters said SB-48, which will loosen retail service requirements on regulatory reporting, service quality penalties and rates, has broad industry support and will be passed this year. However, independent ISPs like Destek Group see deregulation as bad news for consumers and small ISPs in the state. The bill would overturn a New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission decision to regulate VoIP.
Verizon defended itself against claims by Level 3 and others who the telco says “mischaracterize Verizon’s special access discount plans and their pro-competitive economic justifications” (http://xrl.us/bmzp86). Level 3 has long argued that the special access market is “broken” (CD July 23/10 p13), accusing Verizon and others of imposing unfair special access contracts (CD Feb 7/11 p13). The Internet backbone company told the FCC last month that incumbent price-cap LECs continue to use “exclusionary and anti-competitive contracting practices to minimize competition in the special access marketplace, thereby ensuring that they can reap the rewards of pricing well above competitive rates” (http://xrl.us/bmzp88). Level 3 asked the commission to declare Verizon’s “lock-up contracts” unlawful under Section 201(b) of the Communications Act.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is working hard to wrap up a decision on the various longstanding applications from Oklahoma, New Orleans and other jurisdictions for waivers so they can build out early networks in the 700 MHz band, Chief Jamie Burnett said Wednesday. But Barnett, who spoke at a National Emergency Number Association conference, declined to provide a timetable for when the FCC will make a decision.
Sirius XM’s antitrust lawsuit against SoundExchange and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) is the latest chapter in a long-running battle that’s been waged for more than six years over royalty rates paid music labels for performance rights. The company sued SoundExchange and A2IM Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, arguing that the music rights organizations are violating the federal Sherman Act by interfering with Sirius efforts to secure cheaper direct licenses through another organization that pay 5-7 percent royalty rates instead of the 8 percent statutory rate for master rights owners. Sirius seeks an injunction barring the groups from interfering with its bid to get direct licenses, about 80 of which have been secured so far. The suit asks that SoundExchange be dissolved or an independent monitor be appointed to oversee the group’s compliance with antitrust laws for 10 years.
House Communications Subcommittee cybersecurity recommendations are imminent, Chairman Greg Walden told reporters. The Oregon Republican had no more cybersecurity hearings planned after Wednesday’s, and has already met with the subcommittee’s cybersecurity working group to review draft recommendations, he said after the hearing. The working group had been expected to issue recommendations by the end of this month or early April (CD March 21 p6).
EU governments and lawmakers tentatively cut a deal to reduce mobile roaming charges, the Council of Ministers, European Parliament and European Commission said Wednesday. The compromise, which was endorsed by the council’s Permanent Representatives Committee, must be formally approved by Parliament and the council. They said that’s expected to happen, respectively, in May and June. The exact language wasn’t available Wednesday. Competitive telcos welcomed the agreement, but mobile operators said its price caps are unreasonable.
The House was expected to pass FCC process reform legislation (HR-3309) that has little chance of moving this year in the Senate and is opposed by President Barack Obama. In debate Tuesday, members of the GOP-controlled chamber split by party, with Republicans supporting and Democrats condemning the bill by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The vote was expected to take place after our deadline.
NTIA released its long-awaited report on the future of the 1755-1850 MHz band and whether it can be repurposed for wireless broadband. The report offers a good news-bad news assessment for the wireless industry. It’s “possible to repurpose all 95 megahertz of the band,” the agency said. The bad news is that doing so won’t be easy or cheap, with an estimated cost of $18 billion over 10 years. NTIA warned that carriers likely will have to share part of the band. The report takes a broad overview and does not offer a tight focus on 1755-1780 MHz, the part of the band which has long been a top focus of carriers, who want to see it paired with AWS-3 spectrum for an eventual auction.