The FCC Technological Advisory Committee (TAC) put heavy emphasis on recommendations for getting wireless and wireline for broadband built more quickly in its interim report released Monday. The report also stressed the role femtocells could play in more-efficient use of spectrum. TAC Chairman Tom Wheeler said members of the group continue to meet frequently and more recommendations, including several on the future of IPV6, are coming, likely this summer. The initial report made eight recommendations.
Congressional privacy committees are gearing up to scrutinize Apple and Google’s mobile location tracking policies. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy Chairman Al Franken, D-Minn., will head a hearing next month and House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus Co-Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., plans a congressional investigation. Lawmakers are particularly concerned that unencrypted location tracking could make the millions of children who use smartphones more vulnerable to predators. About 13 percent of all iPhone users and 7 percent of all Android users are under the age of 18, according to a 2010 AdMob survey.
Much of the start of a program carriage hearing against Comcast dealt with whether an independently owned sports channel seeking broader distribution on the company’s systems is similar to other networks owned by the cable operator. Chief FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel heard from both sides Monday in Tennis Channel v. Comcast. He agreed to our request to make as much as possible of the hearing open to the public, after much of past program carriage cases were held in private, and said he'd try to release documents more quickly to the public, after some delays.
Most public officials, consumer advocates and industry executives opposed capping the Lifeline and Link-Up programs, in comments to the FCC. But Verizon backed the cap and suggested that the FCC create a voucher program and a central administrator to watch the fund, and the Mississippi Public Service Commission said the FCC should “seriously consider” a cap, “then a state-by-state cap for the low-income fund may offer some promise.” “In fact, an indexed national cap that considers the unique circumstances of each state, especially from the perspective of poverty rates, per capita personal income, levels and unemployment, is worthy of additional review,” the Mississippi regulators said. But the cap should be scrapped “if low-income persons will be deprived of needed support,” the Mississippi commission said.
The sudden resignation of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., opened the ranking member seat on the Senate Communications Subcommittee. Ensign said late Thursday he would resign effective May 3. A replacement hasn’t been picked, but multiple communications lobbyists said Friday they view Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., as a strong contender to lead subcommittee Republicans. However, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, outranks DeMint in seniority.
As online video streamer ivi TV continues to press its copyright arguments against media companies in federal court, the company has cut staff and refocused its resources on its legal and policy goals, CEO Todd Weaver said in an interview Thursday. After a federal judge ordered ivi to stop streaming TV stations’ signals to its subscribers, the company cut 70 percent of its staff and completely shut down its headend facilities, Weaver said in court documents associated with its appeal of that injunction filed last week. The company is “surviving on subscriber donations and savings” after seeing 95 percent of its sales wiped out, he said in the declaration. The company had claimed it was entitled to carry TV station signals under the Copyright Act’s compulsory license, but the major networks and other media companies sued last year to block the service.
The city of Charlotte, N.C., got broad support from the Public Safety Spectrum Trust and other local governments on its request for clarity from the FCC that use of its proposed wireless broadband network should not be restricted to police, firefighters and emergency medical service providers. Charlotte asked the FCC in March for a declaratory ruling that other government agencies can also use the 700 MHz network. Charlotte was one of the public safety applicants that got a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant last year to build out an early network in the band.
A House Democrat seeking to increase the disclosure requirements of third-party political donors and advertisers sued the Federal Election Commission over a 2007 rule change in that area and also petitioned it to open a rulemaking on a related issue. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., filed suit in the U.S. District Court, D.C., alleging the FEC violated administrative procedure in adopting a 2007 rule that eased electioneering communications disclosure rules. Van Hollen also asked the agency to quickly amend its independent expenditure disclosure requirements “that has similarly allowed groups to [raise] millions of dollars … while keeping secret the donors whose funds are used to pay for the ads,” the Campaign Legal Center said in a press release. From 2007 to 2010 Van Hollen was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
AT&T formally sought permission to buy T-Mobile in a filing Thursday afternoon at the FCC. AT&T said it’s increasing its projections for how much of the U.S. it will be able to cover with wireless broadband if the deal is approved, from 95 percent to 97.3 percent, closer to the Obama administration’s goal of covering 98 percent of U.S. households within five years. The filing stresses the growing competition in the wireless market, from other carriers ranging from Sprint Nextel to LightSquared. AT&T also emphasized the spectrum that will be freed up as a result of efficiencies if AT&T and T-Mobile are allowed to merge.
Helped by wireless gains, Verizon’s Q1 profit was $1.44 billion, up almost 70 percent from the year-ago quarter. Chief Financial Officer Francis Shammo affirmed the carrier’s spectrum position during a conference call Thursday. Meanwhile, the carrier will stay on the sidelines on the AT&T/T-Mobile merger for now, he said.