Governors around the U.S. have signed telecom bills on phone deregulation, municipal telecom entry, building access, wireless E-911 and other wireless services. And more legislation is pending on video franchising, competition and PSC powers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released National Workload Statistics of port traffic numbers for fiscal years (FY) 2000 - 2004, for air (passenger, commercial plane, private plane), land (passenger, auto, rail, truck), and sea (passenger, vessels, cargo). For example, sea cargo is listed as 9,796,282 for FY 2004, and 5,813,244 for FY 2000. National workload statistics, dated 06/01/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/accomplish/national_workload_stats.xml
The FCC wants input on rule changes needed to implement the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA), signed in Dec. by President Bush as part of a wider HR- 5419 legislation creating a spectrum relocation trust fund. The fund guarantees use of eligible frequency auction revenue to compensate federal agencies for moving off the 216-220 MHz, 1432-1435 MHz, 1710-1755 MHz, 2385- 2390 MHz bands. The Act requires all auctions of eligible frequencies to raise at least 110% of total estimated federal users’ relocation costs, but doesn’t define “total cash proceeds.” The Commission in a declaratory ruling Thurs. defined “total cash proceeds,” for purposes of CSEA, as “winning bids net of any applicable discounts, such as small business bidding credits.” The FCC asked for comments on possible modifications to implement CSEA and update its spectrum rules, including: (1) Revising the reserve price rule to ensure auctions of frequencies eligible under SCEA aren’t concluded without raising 110% of the estimated federal user relocation costs. (2) Options for preserving availability of tribal land bidding credits in eligible frequencies auctions. (3) Increasing FCC discretion with respect to amounts of interim bid withdrawal and additional default payments. (4) Setting procedures in advance of each auction for apportioning bid amounts among licenses in a package. (5) Changing payment rules and procedures for broadcast construction permits won at auction to conform to those for non-broadcast licenses. (6) Facilitating use of small business consortia. The action moves the Commission closer to auctioning spectrum for advanced wireless services (AWS), the agency said. The 1710-1755 MHz band accounts for half the spectrum the Commission plans to auction as early as June 2006 for AWS, including 3G services. Wireless Bureau interim chief Catherine Seidel told reporters the FCC is “on target for the June 2006 [AWS] auction date but there are a number of things that need to happen between now and then, [especially] acting on reconsideration petitions” pending before the Commission. The FCC is expected to act on petitions for reconsideration of the AWS I (1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz) rules in the next couple of months, sources said. NTIA is expected to notify the FCC in Dec.
A worldwide campaign launched Wed. by U.K. charity Childnet International will educate parents about file- sharing and music on the Internet. With only one parent in 10 savvy about downloading -- and surveys showing at least ? of U.K. students have used peer-to-peer (P2P) -- Childnet and the international music industry want to get parents up to speed. With Pro-music, a digital music education campaign, Childnet will create a guide about P2P and downloading for parents. The guide will be distributed through music retailers, supermarkets, schools, libraries and websites in at least 8 languages and 19 countries. The first pamphlets will appear this month in Germany, Italy, Spain, Singapore, the U.S. and the U.K., as well as at www.pro-music.org. Britain’s recording industry welcomed the campaign. “There has already been huge publicity about this issue, but we are committed to doing even more to get the message across: Unauthorized file-sharing is illegal and could land you or your child in court,” said BPI Chmn. Peter Jamieson.
LAS VEGAS -- Battered by plunging prices in plasma TVs, Viewsonic is dropping 55W models and moving the remaining sizes to the digital sign market, Advanced Technologies Business Development Vp Gene Ornstead told us at the Infocomm show here. Viewsonic will move the existing 42W models and eventually a 50W to a newly created digital sign business that will target retail, hospitality and healthcare industries, Ornstead said.
When the USF was new, Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t halfway through his first term. Even so, the venerable program still has a startling capacity to make news.
Ford Motor Co. announced it’s extending its contract with Sirius through Sept. 2011. Ford’s exclusive deal to install Sirius, which was to end in 2008, covers all Ford brands in the U.S. -- Ford, Lincoln Mercury, Land Rover, Jaguar, Volvo, Aston Martin and Mazda. Revenue-sharing terms were not disclosed. Sirius said by the 2008 model year satellite radio should be available as a factory installed option on nearly 90% of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. The pact with Sirius will let Ford go non-exclusive in its satellite radio arrangements in Jan. 2009, they said, but also lets Ford extend the agreement through 2013. Ford offers Sirius as a factory-installed option on the 2006 Ford F-150, Ford Explorer, Lincoln Mark LT and Mercury Mountaineer. Sirius said Ford is targeting another 17 models for the option in the 2006 and 2007 model years.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the May 2005 issue of its U.S. Customs and Border Protection Modernization newsletter which discusses, among other things, the continuing deployment of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Release 4 (Truck Manifest).
A radio industry group is offering a prize for the best pro-radio, anti-satellite radio spot, Inside Radio reported. Trying to land a few punches in the terrestrial versus satellite radio fight, the N.Y. State Broadcasters Assn. put up a $10,000 prize for the best creative radio spot touting terrestrial radio’s benefits over satellite. The winner will be announced June 26, and NYSBA will distribute the spot to all N.Y. stations.
No agreement exists among wireless manufacturers and public safety community on whether the FCC should adopt the TIA-902 Scalable Adaptive Modulation (SAM) standard for 700 MHz wideband interoperability channels and require radios in that band to be SAM-capable, comments revealed. The Coalition for Wideband Data Deployment (CWDD) said it was “premature and counter-productive” to adopt any 700 MHz wideband interoperability standard at this time, because: (1) “The pubic safety community has not identified any genuine communications need that would be met by having interoperable 700 MHz wideband data equipment.” (2) “There is no commercially available SAM- capable equipment today and it is unclear when it will be available.” (3) “SAM technology will present significant cost and complexity challenges for public safety licensees.” CWDD represents land mobile manufacturers that make wireless data systems and products for the mobile radio industry. Several public safety entities expressed similar concerns. “We had planned on and need the option of operating radios on the wideband general use channels to meet our specific wideband data applications,” several commenters said: “Forcing us to have SAM capability in those radios certainly will make that difficult and may make it impossible.” But the National Public Safety Telecom Council (NPSTC) representing 13 public safety groups supported the proposed rule changes as “a necessary step toward providing for interoperable communications… amongst public safety entities not only in a voice mode of operation but also in a data mode.” Motorola urged the FCC to “expeditiously” adopt the proposed changes to “provide clarity and flexibility in the design and manufacture of 700 MHz equipment that is urgently needed to address urgent Homeland Security and mission critical applications.” Meanwhile, M/A-COM urged the FCC to revert to its original Dec. 31, 2006, transition deadlines for banning the marketing, manufacturer and importation of 700 MHz public safety equipment using 12.5 kHz bandwidths, and the filing of applications for new 700 MHz public safety systems using 12.5 kHz voice channels. It said the Commission’s recent deadline extension until Dec. 31, 2014, was based “on a stale record developed in early 2003,” consisting mostly of “unsubstantiated claims of Motorola.” But, it said, in the subsequent 2 years, the development of “public safety equipment using more efficient 6.25 kHz bandwidths has progressed rapidly.” It said it has tested 6.25 kHz equipment and already installed one such system. As demand for public safety spectrum grows, M/A-COM said “public safety agencies have begun to require more efficient equipment… to meet their spectrum needs.”