TranSwitch’s sharpened focus on video-related components could generate $20 million in revenue this year as it deploys HDPlay transceivers combining support for HDMI, DisplayPort and MHL, CEO Ali Khatibzadeh said at the Needham investor conference in New York. The chip developer has gained more than 50 “design-ins” for the HDPlay chip and will need to land purchase orders for slightly more than half that total to produce $20 million in video-related revenue, Khatibzadeh told us.
The FCC plans to release a public notice soon on narrowbanding compliance, the Utilities Telecom Council said. A council blog post (http://xrl.us/boa8nv) described a meeting this week of land mobile frequency coordinators with FCC officials on the Jan. 1 narrowbanding deadline for operators in the VHF and UHF bandwidth. “The FCC said most licenses are now narrowband compliant and that the FCC is still getting waiver requests for the narrowband deadline,” the council said. “The Commission staff urged licensees that may have narrowbanded, but did not file an application, to file it now. The staff said that the Gettysburg licensing facility has a large backlog of applications related to the deadline.” There’s a good chance the FCC won’t finish dealing with applications until the end of 2013’s first quarter and will then consider an audit of non-compliant entities, with the possibility of canceling their licenses, the post said. The FCC wants “a single point of contact at its Enforcement Bureau” but doesn’t have one yet, it told the council. “Until further notice, these non-compliant wide band systems will be considered as analog compliant narrowband with an emission designator similar to 11K2F3E,” it said.
Spectrum experts at T-Mobile, Ericsson and Qualcomm said Tuesday they are open to the idea of sharing spectrum with federal users but said clearing is the best way to alleviate the demand for greater spectrum, during an event hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association. Steve Sharkey, director of government affairs for technology and engineering policy at T-Mobile, said he is “hopeful” that the company will be able to work out ways to share spectrum with federal agencies. But there “has to be spectrum for the assured and reliable access that customers demand,” he said. Mark Racek, Ericsson’s director of spectrum policy, said he thinks there is a role for spectrum sharing, but “ultimately the clearing and auctioning of spectrum is the clear spectrum policy.” Racek said the government should strive to provide greater clarity for access rights to spectrum use, particularly when it comes to sharing. The spectrum that is most “suitable” for carriers is below 3 MHz, Racek said. “The problem is that that spectrum [band] is most congested [since] the primary user of the band is the federal government.” John Kuzin, senior director of regulatory affairs at Qualcomm, said there are three distinct paths that spectrum policy makers should pursue: first, clear more spectrum for wireless use; second, allow licensed users to share federal spectrum; and third, provide large additional swaths of spectrum at 5 GHz and above for unlicensed use. Financial incentives to relocate or share spectrum are less persuasive to federal users like the Department of Defense, said Peter Tenhula, a senior adviser at NTIA. Agencies “have missions that Congress has authorized them to do, fight wars, make sure planes land safely, catch criminals, fight fires. That is what drives them to do their job. … Until the federal folks get a clear understanding about what is in it for [them] from a mission standpoint … there’s no incentive.” Recent budgetary demands on federal agencies might encourage some federal users to seek spectrum sharing or relocation scenarios, said John Leibovitz, chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau. “You have to think about the cost not in pure dollars but the procurement cost they have to go through.” Leibovitz said the commission is focused on three sharing opportunities, the 1.7 GHz band, the 5 GHz band and the 3.5 GHz band.
A Federal Aviation Administration-led (FAA) group of government and industry experts began meeting Tuesday to re-examine the agency’s current policies on portable electronic devices (PEDs). The FAA’s current regulations for commercial flights require that all PEDs be powered off during takeoff and landing. Although the group will consider easing those restrictions and determine ways to protect future aircraft from interference, it will not consider easing restrictions on use of mobile phones for voice calls during flight because of the FCC’s existing rule against that use, the FAA said. The group plans to meet over the next six months and then present its recommendations to the FAA (http://1.usa.gov/W7n7VU). The FAA began seeking input in late August on a possible rule change, although industry experts at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month were uncertain whether the agency would actually drop its takeoff and landing requirement (CD Jan 14 p6). Industry experts in the FAA-led group include: Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC’s office of Engineering Technology; Doug Johnson, the Consumer Electronics Association’s vice president-technology policy; and Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president-global public policy (http://xrl.us/boa35q).
An FAA-led group of government and industry experts began meeting Tuesday to re-examine the agency’s current policies on portable electronic devices (PEDs). The FAA’s current regulations for commercial flights require that all PEDs be powered off during takeoff and landing. Although the group will consider easing those restrictions and determine ways to protect future aircraft from interference, it will not consider easing restrictions on use of mobile phones for voice calls during flight because of the FCC’s existing rule against that use, the FAA said. The group plans to meet over the next six months and then present its recommendations to the FAA (http://1.usa.gov/W7n7VU). The FAA began seeking input in late August on a possible rule change, although industry experts at CES last week were uncertain whether the agency would actually drop its takeoff and landing requirement (CED Jan 14 p7). Industry experts in the FAA-led group include: Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC’s office of Engineering Technology; Doug Johnson, the Consumer Electronics Association’s vice president-technology policy; and Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president-global public policy (http://xrl.us/boa35q).
A Federal Aviation Administration-led (FAA) group of government and industry experts began meeting Tuesday to re-examine the agency’s current policies on portable electronic devices (PEDs). The FAA’s current regulations for commercial flights require that all PEDs be powered off during takeoff and landing. Although the group will consider easing those restrictions and determine ways to protect future aircraft from interference, it will not consider easing restrictions on use of mobile phones for voice calls during flight because of the FCC’s existing rule against that use, the FAA said. The group plans to meet over the next six months and then present its recommendations to the FAA (http://1.usa.gov/W7n7VU). The FAA began seeking input in late August on a possible rule change, although industry experts at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month were uncertain whether the agency would actually drop its takeoff and landing requirement (WID Jan 14 p7). Industry experts in the FAA-led group include: Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC’s office of Engineering Technology; Doug Johnson, the Consumer Electronics Association’s vice president-technology policy; and Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president-global public policy (http://xrl.us/boa35q).
It will be two to three years before CE remote control functions are standard in smartphones and tablets and generate “material” revenue for Universal Electronics, CEO Paul Arling said at the Needham investor conference in New York. Much of the lag can be blamed on mobile product design cycles, he said.
The outlook appears uncertain when or if the FAA will drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights, speakers said Thursday at CES. CEA, CTIA and other industry groups called for a change in U.S. policy last year in filings at the FAA. The FAA sought comment in docket 2012-0752, reacting to the desire of many travelers to use their iPads, computers and Kindle Fires below 10,000 feet. Flyers are “frustrated,” said Paul Misener, Amazon vice president-global public policy. Amazon polled its customers, he said: “We get lots of comments saying things like, ’this is stupid, dumb, idiotic.’ But they're also experienced flyers and they've been observing … that other customers are keeping their PEDs on at all phases of the flight and this happens frequently. … They're rightfully wondering why planes aren’t coming down if this is a problem.” Flyers also recognize that flight crew make use of PEDs throughout the flight without incident, he said. Misener said he’s participating in the aviation rulemaking committee that will look at whether rules for PEDs should be relaxed. The complicated testing process is why there has been little movement so far by aviation authorities on PEDs, he said. “The rules have devolved to the point to where each airline is required to test each device with each plane and therefore no testing gets done, no certification gets done,” he said. Meanwhile, “the gigantic experiment, which is people leaving their devices on anyway, goes on.” Misener, a former FCC and NTIA official, said the FCC could help by testing PEDs against the emission masks of sensitive electronic systems used by aircraft in flight. Derek Spicer, senior training captain at Airbus, warned that the FAA faces a tough task trying to sort through whether PEDs pose a risk during takeoff and landing. Spicer said he has never experienced “electromagnetic” interference as a result of PEDs on a flight, but other pilots have reported problems. Spicer said the FAA rulemaking is unusual in that it was prompted by customer demand, rather than safety concerns. “Certification is a very slow, labored process,” he said. “As operators of airliners, as manufacturers of airliners, we're not driven by the customers, we're driven by the safety standard.” Spicer also said some models of commercial aircraft appear more likely to face problems if the rules for PED use are relaxed.
LAS VEGAS -- The outlook appears uncertain when or if the FAA will drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights, speakers said Thursday at CES. CEA, CTIA and other industry groups called for a change in U.S. policy last year in filings at the FAA (CED Nov 2 p6). The FAA sought comment in docket 2012-0752, reacting to the desire of many travelers to use their iPads and Kindle Fires below 10,000 feet.
LAS VEGAS -- The outlook appears uncertain when or if the FAA will drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights, speakers said Thursday at CES. CEA, CTIA and other industry groups called for a change in U.S. policy last year in filings at the FAA (CD Nov 2 p9). The FAA sought comment in docket 2012-0752, reacting to the desire of many travelers to use their iPads, computers and Kindle Fires below 10,000 feet.