Reallocating the 1675-1710 MHz band for wireless broadband would cause “irreparable damage” to SeaSpace’s business, which relies on the band for direct reception ground station sales, the company said in an FCC filing. The filing responds to an Office of Engineering and Technology public notice on using the band for mobile broadband services (CD June 7 p6). SeaSpace’s customers include government agencies, military, universities and companies involved in defense or weather services and use the ground stations to receive meteorological, oceanographic and land data directly from several satellites, it said. SeaSpace would likely lose all U.S. customers and possible be forced to move overseas if the proposal is adopted, it said.
Illinois telecom regulation will change immediately under a bill Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, signed Tuesday, he said. Senate Bill 107 updates a 1985 measure written before cellphones and broadband achieved wide use. About 25 percent of Illinois households rely only on cellphones, Quinn’s office said. “The new law eliminates obsolete regulatory standards which will enable telecom companies to shift more investment to wireless and broadband technologies,” a release said. A 1-3 percent increase in broadband penetration in Illinois would create 13,000 to 39,000 non-farm jobs, according to the Brookings Institution, the statement said. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Michael Bond and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, both Democrats, allows telcos to opt in to a new regulatory scheme that promotes competition and encourages investment in new technologies. The law will ensure that Illinois residents have affordable telecom options by extending low-cost packages aimed at consumers relying on landlines, but with varying communication needs, Quinn said. Low-cost package rates will be frozen through June 2013. “One of the most important aspects of this legislation was that we have safeguards in place to protect consumers in Illinois,” said Bond. “We wanted to ensure that residents who still rely heavily on land-line telephone service will have affordable options to choose from. We want to make sure we are providing security for those individuals who rely on land-line phone service.” Enactment of Senate Bill 107 “considerably” bolsters the possibility of greater private sector broadband investment in Illinois, McCarthy said. The Illinois Commerce Commission will keep its authority to sanction providers who don’t comply with service quality requirements. Violators risk more than $200,000 per offense.
Draft public safety legislation by House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., envisions $11 billion for the construction and operation of a nationwide, interoperable public safety network. A draft we obtained Monday would fund the network using proceeds from auctions of the 700 MHz D-block and other spectrum, with additional money from the U.S. Treasury. Public safety groups have opposed that approach, favoring legislation to directly allocate the D-Block to public safety (CD June 8 p1). The House Communications Subcommittee plans to discuss the bill at a hearing Thursday.
BRUSSELS -- ITU members have focused on modest improvements in the international regulatory framework for some terrestrial services in WRC-12 preparations, an official said Thursday at a workshop on European objectives. A Canadian proposal suggests bigger changes but requires additional study of the effects on other provisions, according to a May impact study by the Radiocommunication Bureau. Participants in ITU-R and the European Conference of Postal Administrations are settling on making no changes in satellite service definitions in the conference preparatory talks.
The Canada Border Services Agency has launched a three-month pilot project to broadcast via Twitter estimated border wait times for crossing the Canada-United States land border.
ESPN 3D debuts Friday with the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, armed only with carriage agreements from Comcast and DirecTV. But ESPN 3D is satisfied with its position at launch, senior executives said in an interview. That’s because ESPN is well ahead of where it was, in terms of coverage of homes, when it began ESPN HD in March 2003, the executives said.
ESPN 3D debuts Friday with the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, armed only with carriage agreements from Comcast and DirecTV. But ESPN 3D is satisfied with its position at launch, senior executives said in an interview. That’s because ESPN is well ahead of where it was, in terms of coverage of homes, when it began ESPN HD in March 2003, the executives said.
Communications should be treated as critical infrastructure and security access should be allowed during disasters and emergencies, citing lessons learned from disasters like the Haiti earthquake, speakers said during a Federal Communications Bar Association panel. Ken Moran, senior deputy chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, identified the National Response Framework as the legal framework for all levels of domestic incident response.
The FCC should adopt proposals in a radio rulemaking to give tribes without lands priority for stations (CD May 5 p7), said a reply by Native Public Media and the National Congress of American Indians. “Applying the Tribal Priority to federally recognized Tribes with little or no land holdings will open up the Tribal Priority to more than just the 312 Tribes that reside on reservations and pueblos, and will make it potentially available to all 565 federally recognized Tribes,” said the Wednesday filing in docket 09-52. “Providing applicants with a substantial Tribal Bidding Credit, in tandem with the New Entrant Bidding Credit, will provide Tribes, for the first time, with the real possibility of outbidding existing media companies for facilities that have been allocated to serve Indian Country."
The FCC should amend its Part 90 rules so more use is made of bands below 470 MHz, PCIA said in reply comments at the commission in docket 07-100. PCIA said it’s an active member of the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC), but the council’s proposed rules in this area “represent an overly conservative approach.” Various commenters continue to disagree about whether the FCC should allow secondary access for medical telemetry devices in 2.5 MHz of the 1427-1432 MHz band (CD May 18 p7), assigned to nonmedical telemetry use.