The NTIA and the RUS should change the broadband- stimulus notice of funds availability to promote minority and small business participation more and to lower broadband prices for vulnerable populations, the Broadband Opportunity Coalition said in a letter Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. Projects that would serve large numbers of low-income households or promote rural deployment or adoption on tribal lands should receive higher priority than other rural efforts, the coalition said. When the RUS reviews applications for the Broadband Initiatives Program, affordability should count for as much as Internet speed, and projects to give access to consumers with scant credit history and don’t require large deposits should get an advantage, the coalition said. A Diversity Advisory Committee should be formed to provide guidance during reviews of loan and grant applications and to reduce the influence of unconscious reviewer biases, it said.
Mobile advertising doesn’t need government regulation, speakers said during a webinar sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Wednesday. A new IAB report, a Mobile Buyer’s Guide, was released with the session. Advertisers see privacy as a fundamental consideration in mobile advertising, said Cameron Clayton, vice president of Mobile Weather Channel Interactive. The industry regulates itself with guidelines and rules on consumer education, disclosures about what information is collected and special protections for sensitive data, he said. “Government regulations will only be problematic,” he said, saying industry groups are working on more-developed privacy guidelines and rules.
Beware of boarding the wrong airplane if you're planning to attend the 3D Entertainment Summit, Sept. 16-17 at the Hilton Universal City near Los Angeles. Organizers, including the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, are billing the conference as the “must-attend event for individuals and companies working at the intersection of content, technology and entertainment” in 3-D. Details about the conference are at www.3d-summit.com. But don’t forget the hyphen in the address. Omitting it will land you at a site for an event called the 3D Summit, described as the “most advanced and comprehensive learning experience in 3D digital dentistry.” It’s scheduled for Sept. 17-19 at the Scottsdale Center for Dentistry in Arizona.
On July 9, 2009, seven trade groups sent a letter to President Obama asking that as the Administration addresses the political situation in Honduras, it do everything possible to maintain the close commercial ties and economic engagement between the U.S. and Honduras. (Letter, dated 07/09/09, available at http://www.apparelandfootwear.org/letters/caftahondurasltrassns090709.pdf.)
Consumer Product Safety Commission staff have requested that the CPSC Commissioners vote by July 10 on whether to give the youth all-terrain vehicle (ATV) industry an additional 90 days to file a report on the lead content of component parts of youth ATVs, off-road motorcycles, and snowmobiles (collectively youth ATVs), made of metal that are accessible to children. The report is required by the CPSC's stay of enforcement of the lead content limits for certain parts of these youth ATVs, and had been due July 11, 2009. (CPSC notice available at http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/rvlead.pdf.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message announcing that the Customs Automated Forms Entry System (CAFES) application will be retired from the CBP automated operations environment when ACE M1 (e-Manifest: Ocean and Rail), goes into production during fiscal year 2010.
Sprint Nextel reported slow but steady progress on 800 MHz rebanding, in an update filed Wednesday at the FCC. In Phase I, Sprint has completed the retuning of all non-Sprint Nextel, non-Southern LINC Channel 1-120 incumbent licensees in 49 NPSPAC regions, adding Georgia in June, the company said. “More than 98 percent of the nearly 1200 Channel 1-120 licensees that must be retuned during Phase I of 800 MHz band reconfiguration have been retuned.” In Phase II, 371 non-border area public safety licensees have completed retuning to their new channel, a 40 percent completion rate, and more than 80 percent of non-border licensees have signed frequency reconfiguration agreements. Sprint also reported on its progress retuning licensees along the Canadian border. “In the short time that the public safety and business/industrial land transportation community has had the new 800 MHz band plans available, a significant amount of progress has occurred,” the carrier said. More than “300 … licensees in each of the border regions have received their replacement frequency proposals from the [Transition Administrator] and negotiations and planning efforts are well underway.” Some 63 planning frequency agreements have already been signed.
Washington-area noncommercial broadcaster MHz began carrying Al Jazeera English on one of its multicast streams. The move gave the 24-hour international news service over- the-air and pay-TV distribution to the region’s 2.3 million TV viewers. That could be a big boost for a fledgling network that has struggled to land a spot on cable and direct broadcast satellite lineups in the U.S. (CD Nov 20/06 p5). “We hope this is the first step into breaking into many of the other major markets,” said Kimeran Daley, head of Al Jazeera English’s U.S. distribution.
Nvidia is charting a careful course for its Tegra processor that will see it navigate the Intel Atom-dominated netbook market by targeting so-called mobile Internet devices (MIDs), company executives said. The Tegra-based MIDs are expected to emerge this fall as means for cellular carriers to sell data services, they said.
Nvidia is charting a careful course for its Tegra processor that will see it navigate the Intel Atom-dominated netbook market by targeting so-called mobile Internet devices (MIDs), company executives said. The Tegra-based MIDs are expected to emerge this fall as means for cellular carriers to sell data services, they said. The standard MID would likely have a 8.9-inch or 10.1-inch LCD and carry a $100 to $200 cost for carriers. The carriers will likely subsidize the hardware with a goal of making money by selling subscribers long-term service contracts, said Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia’s mobile business unit. Nvidia has had discussions with 27 potential carrier customers, but hasn’t landed an agreement yet, Rayfield said. The MIDs typically use hard drives in models with 20 GB or more storage, he said. - MS