CBP announced the location and agenda for next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC), Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. (ET) in Washington, D.C. Online registration for webcast and in-person participation is available through Nov. 30, said a notice in the Federal Register Nov. 16.
Specifics were scarce in CEA’s announcement Monday that it will “partner” with the Digital Entertainment Group to promote UltraViolet at CES. Under questioning from reporters at CEA’s CES Press Preview news conference in New York, CEA executives said the DEG would mount an UltraViolet promotional stand in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But DEG representatives told reporters to stay tuned for further announcements on what if anything DEG would announce on UltraViolet news at the show. UltraViolet is “the breakthrough way to collect, access and enjoy your movies and TV shows in the cloud,” Universal Studios Home Entertainment President Craig Kornblau told the news conference. UltraViolet is “ideally poised to meet consumer demands for simplicity and convenience and ownership,” said Kornblau, a DEG vice president. UltraViolet “arguably is the studios’ single most important growth initiative,” he said. In the year since its launch, UltraViolet has amassed more than 6 million consumer accounts, and more than 7,000 titles are UltraViolet-enabled, he said. The content industry likes UltraViolet because it’s “an open platform that offers a revenue stream for all who support it,” he said. A big question is whether UltraViolet will be able to land the support of Disney, which has been a huge UltraViolet studio holdout. Disney has been playing “wait-and-see” on UltraViolet because it hasn’t been “as robust as we had expected or as consumer-friendly as we had hoped,” CEO Robert Iger said on a February earnings call (CD Feb 9 p24).
Federal users need financial incentives to get off their spectrum, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday at a conference on the next ten years of spectrum policy. Giving federal users the proceeds from spectrum auctions could be a “catalyst” to get federal frequencies into the hands of commercial users, and let the commission reach the 500 MHz benchmark for new wireless broadband use called for in a 2010 executive order, she said. Rosenworcel urged creating model rules for tower siting, and an “honest conversation” about network reliability after storms like superstorm Sandy. The conference was presented at the Pew Research Center by CTIA, Public Knowledge and the Silicon Flatirons Center.
Specifics were scarce in CEA’s announcement Monday that it will “partner” with the Digital Entertainment Group to promote UltraViolet at CES. Under questioning from reporters at CEA’s CES Press Preview news conference in New York, CEA executives said the DEG would mount an UltraViolet promotional stand in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center. But DEG representatives told reporters to stay tuned for further announcements on what if anything DEG would announce on UltraViolet news at the show. UltraViolet is “the breakthrough way to collect, access and enjoy your movies and TV shows in the cloud,” Universal Studios Home Entertainment President Craig Kornblau told the news conference. UltraViolet is “ideally poised to meet consumer demands for simplicity and convenience and ownership,” said Kornblau, a DEG vice president. UltraViolet “arguably is the studios’ single most important growth initiative,” he said. In the year since its launch, UltraViolet has amassed more than 6 million consumer accounts, and more than 7,000 titles are UltraViolet-enabled, he said. The content industry likes UltraViolet because it’s “an open platform that offers a revenue stream for all who support it,” he said. A big question is whether UltraViolet will be able to land the support of Disney, which has been a huge UltraViolet studio holdout. Disney has been playing “wait-and-see” on UltraViolet because it hasn’t been “as robust as we had expected or as consumer-friendly as we had hoped,” CEO Robert Iger said on a February earnings call (CED Feb 9 p6).
The Edison Electric Institute said its members “are in fact among this nation’s largest users of communications networks” and need more spectrum, including access to the 4.9 GHz band. EEI represents electric utilities. “Electric utilities have a strong interest in broad, efficient use of the 4.9 GHz band by utilities and other [critical infrastructure] entities, which will go far to ensure reliability and efficiency of utility communications, particularly during and in the immediate aftermath of emergency situations, when communications may be disrupted,” EEI said (http://xrl.us/bnx44m). Motorola said a key use of the 4.9 GHz band could be wireless backhaul for the new FirstNet (http://xrl.us/bnx46b). “The Commission’s actions in this proceeding on [implementing a nationwide, broadband, interoperable public safety network in the 700 MHz band] should seek to preserve existing uses of the band while enabling continued innovation and efficiency in 4.9 GHz applications,” Motorola said. But the FCC needs to improve frequency coordination procedures for the band “through leveraging the capabilities and expertise of private land mobile radio frequency coordinators and the Regional Planning Committees,” the company said. “The Commission also should revise its 4.9 GHz band licensing policies to promote a diversity of public safety uses, including by expanding eligibility to critical infrastructure industry users and by encouraging jurisdictional licensing."
CTIA, CEA and other industry groups -- which asked the FAA to drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights -- got key support from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), an advocacy group for the aviation industry. But a second major association, Airlines for America (A4A), expressed some doubts about whether a rule change is warranted. Both made filings this week in FAA docket 2012-0752 that address the desire of many travelers to use their iPads, computers and Kindles below 10,000 feet.
CTIA, CEA and other industry groups -- which asked the FAA to drop requirements that all personal electronic devices (PEDs) be powered off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights -- got key support from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), an advocacy group for the aviation industry. But a second major association, Airlines for America (A4A), expressed some doubts about whether a rule change is warranted. Both made filings this week in FAA docket 2012-0752 that address the desire of many travelers to use their iPads, computers and Kindles below 10,000 feet.
"Convergence” in public safety communications could help “protect” the tens of billions of dollars public safety has invested in traditional radios over many decades, said Andy Thiessen with the Commerce Department’s Public Safety Communications Research program. Agencies that have spent millions on new radios “are not going to be looking to change over to LTE even if the LTE network could meet all of their needs,” he said on a Wednesday webinar sponsored by Urgent Communications and Harris Corp. “There’s political questions in play here as well … which is trying to make the best use of some massive investment that state or local government just made.” Convergence could take different forms, Thiessen said. “We could see convergence in the device … where maybe you have a land-mobile capability combined with an LTE capability on a single device,” he said. “We could call convergence simply the connection of a land-mobile radio capability into the LTE network itself or it could be some combination of both.” Thiessen said one key is to guarantee that public safety is no longer a niche market. Public safety has 2 million to 4 million users nationwide depending on who is counting, compared to more than 100 million each for Verizon Wireless and AT&T. “When public safety goes out to buy devices … clearly they're paying quite a bit more for those devices,” Thiessen said. The Department of Homeland Security has to rely on some 20 legacy systems, many of which were deployed more than 20 years ago, said Patrick Flynn, director of communications and outreach for the DHS Joint Wireless Program Office. LTE “enables us to leverage a wider pipe and save money, because we're able to leverage what’s currently out there,” he said. Flynn said DHS plans to play a big role in the new FirstNet once it is launched. “We have a great interest … in convergence,” said Felix Perez, director of the radio communications information division of Miami-Dade County, Fla. “Finally the IT shop is going to have to talk to the radio shop and it’s going to be a big improvement.” Perez said the county is in the process of replacing 24,000 radios and revamping its infrastructure, at a cost of some $200 million. “It’s like changing tires on a moving-fast freight train,” he said. “Today doing over-the-air programming with a land-mobile radio takes minutes,” said Joe Ross of consultant firm Televate. “With an LTE chipset inside the device it could take seconds. You could dynamically push out new fleet maps to the user community. There alone, I think it augments. I think a lot of people focus on how broadband is going to replace land-mobile radio. I don’t think there’s enough discussion about how broadband can augment today’s land-mobile radio.” Ross said “the more niche we make some of these devices … the more the costs are going to increase.” A recent study Televate did for Minnesota found that first responders preferred smartphones to traditional rugged devices by a 10 to one margin, he said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association said the FAA should give deference to work by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) as it considers rules for the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) on commercial flights. TIA responded to an FAA request for comment on current policy, guidance and procedures aircraft operators use when determining if passenger use of PEDs should be allowed during any phase of flight on their aircraft. (http://xrl.us/bnw7ju). “From a technical standpoint, TIA members believe that guarantee of safety from PED emissions to the airline passenger should rest with the airline operator -- as it does today -- and that all aircrafts (sic) should be able to handle PED transmissions, including those originating from PEDs accidentally left powered on during a flight,” TIA said. “Adopting flexible regulations that allow for any technology that does not cause safety concerns to the aircraft ... will result in maximum market participation, with the consumer benefitting in the end from a heightened quality of products and services. In short, if no safety or health issues are clearly present, any particular technology should be allowed for in-flight use [of] PEDs, and the FAA should further promote all capable technologies as viable options.” Comments were due Tuesday and are still being posted by the FAA (http://xrl.us/bnw7kt). CTIA agreed in comments released Wednesday that the FAA’s inquiry should be a “data-driven agency initiative.” “The lack of compelling evidence here raises questions about the need for the ban on the use of PEDs during takeoffs and landings provided that they are not transmitting in CMRS spectrum,” CTIA said (http://xrl.us/bnw8yx). The FAA’s current rules are based on research conducted between 1958 and 1961, which “concluded that portable frequency modulation (FM) radio receivers caused interference to navigation systems,” the comments said. “PEDs have evolved dramatically since then and today range from smartphones, tablets and e-readers to laptops, DVD players and video games,” CTIA argued. “Despite this evolution, the FAA’s approach has remained essentially unchanged -- even though more recent studies by the FAA’s federal advisory committee, RTCA, Inc., have not found conclusive data showing that PEDs interfere with aircraft systems.”
Despite many warnings that Internet growth is unsustainable, its predicted collapse didn’t happen and won’t, Analysys Mason said in an Internet Society-commissioned study. The latest alarms appear to stem mostly from the burgeoning global demand for mobile broadband access and usage, it said. But the same forces that met earlier challenges are already addressing the new demands, particularly in developing countries, it said. Generally, in the face of new demands, networks can either boost their capacity or find ways to reduce the capacity required, the study said. Both approaches are usually followed, based on several overlapping responses, it said: (1) New core and access technologies are developed to increase capacity in existing networks and make new investment more efficient. (2) Investments are made to upgrade existing networks with the new technology such as fiber or submarine cables, and where upgrades aren’t possible or sufficient to meet demand, networks are extended. (3) New technologies and business models are created to distribute content to many locations, making it closer to end users and cheaper to deliver. Three related changes that have altered traffic flow to increase its delivery are Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), content delivery networks and cloud services, it said. Those trends have lowered the demand on international and national infrastructure by allowing providers to move content to caches in IXPs and data centers close to end-users, it said. Along with infrastructure investment, that activity has significantly improved Internet sustainability in the face of growing demand and new applications, it said. All indicators show that this process is repeating itself as pressure on the Internet grows, particularly those of meeting mobile broadband demand in emerging markets, it said. Many recent doubts suggest that the issue of sustainability is global when in fact developed and developing regions are at very different stages, with telecom markets in developing counties growing faster and receiving more investment than those in the more saturated nations, it said. The evidence shows that multinational operators are already opting to direct their investments to developing areas, which are also getting significant funding from domestic and regional players, it said. Those investments should ensure that Internet growth is sustainable without any global regulation, it said. Emerging markets will face challenges akin to or more acute than those in developing countries when deploying network infrastructure nationwide because of low income levels and/or high unemployment in some regions. But there’s no evidence that those shortfalls in meeting demand can’t be addressed with best-practice policy and regulation that focus on more investment and access, it said. In developing areas, investment is taking place in submarine cables to connect coastal countries to one another and other continents, and in terrestrial fiber to connect ISP points of presence to submarine cable landing stations and enable ISPs in landlocked nations to access submarine cable capacity in adjacent countries. There is also investment in traffic exchange solutions to allow ISPs to exchange traffic with each other and access content caches; and in last-mile access, especially mobile infrastructure, to cover populations and/or be upgraded to offer broadband Internet access. In addition, content providers are investing in ways to deliver traffic to developing economies, it said. Examples such as Google Global Cache’s African network with cache servers and points of presence, and Facebook Zero’s low bandwidth text version of its mobile site, show that there’s a connection between the value content providers receive from delivering their content to end-users in developing markets, and the investments they're willing to make to make the process more efficient, Analysys Mason said. It’s true that there are still roadblocks to the expansion of mobile Internet access, given the amount of territory to be covered and the income levels of potential users, it said. Those challenges need policy and regulatory responses such as market liberalization and/or targeted, creative policy and regulatory access programs. But there’s “no indication that the Internet and its growth are unsustainable in developing regions, or that any outside global intervention is required,” it said.