NTIA asked the FCC to turn down an application by Maritel to partition and assign certain public coast VHF station licenses to Va. In a letter to Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta, NTIA highlighted that the frequency associated with maritime VHF Channel 87B would be involved in the partitioned licenses Maritel propose for assignment to Va. NTIA Assoc. Administrator-Spectrum Management Fred Wentland said the spectrum is the focus of an NTIA petition that urged the FCC to work with NTIA to reallocate maritime VHF channels 87B and 88B exclusively for Automatic Identification System (AIS) operations. “The Maritel assignment applications seek to encumber this channel in a manner inconsistent with NTIA’s petition,” it said. Earlier this year, NTIA urged the FCC to reject a request by Maritel to be sole frequency coordinator for 2 channels in the AIS. Based on concerns raised by the U.S. Coast Guard and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., NTIA urged the FCC to instead allocate these maritime VHF channels only for AIS. On the channels that Maritel wants assigned to Va., NTIA cited technical objections involving: (1) A proposed 65-mile setback from any navigable waterway using public correspondence channels, including Channel 87B. “Based on the limited calculations presented by the Coast Guard, a 65-mile setback may not protect AIS from interference,” NTIA said. (2) The bid for a waiver of maritime regulations in Part 80 of FCC rules to let Va. deploy land mobile operations under Part 90 on all the VHF Public Coast station frequencies licensed to Maritel. “The grant of such a waiver would affect a reallocation of these frequencies from maritime mobile to land mobile in the partitioned area,” NTIA said. NTIA also noted Maritel had told the Commission that for its partitioning and disaggregation plans, it will be responsible for coverage requirements laid out in FCC rules. NTIA said Maritel certified the 5-year coverage requirements have been or will be met: “Yet Maritel clearly has not yet met this requirement and its request for a waiver of this requirement is the subject of an application for review.” The Coast Guard wrote NTIA in March, voicing concerns about the application by Maritel for transfers of control of licenses to Va. The Coast Guard said it had reasons to “be concerned that if granted, interference to shipborne universal automatic identification systems (AIS) would be caused, jeopardizing the safety of life and property on navigable waters.” The Coast Guard said the James River, extending 75 mi. from the Chesapeake Bay to Richmond, didn’t seem part of Maritel’s calculations for interference protection. Even if the 65-mile setback were observed, the Coast Guard said this wouldn’t be enough to protect AIS from interference.
Gambling long has inspired technological innovation. More than 20 years ago, one of the first handheld computers was a dedicated device for handicapping horse races. Now, U.K. satellite programmer Sky is applying high-tech to generate programming for its new gambling channel -- but the system has roots in an audio innovation developed in the U.S. about 60 years ago. Sky’s channel is a virtual Las Vegas generated by computers in a U.K. studio and includes betting on horse races. But because horses don’t run 24/7, the races can’t be live. Pony aficionados in the U.K. already have gala dinners at which the guests bet on film or video footage of old races. The organizers find recordings of old races at obscure tracks and reckon no one in the house can know the winning mount. But there aren’t enough obscure recordings to keep all of Sky’s bettors in the dark and all the time, so the satellite programmer is airing virtual racing. Computer-generated horses run round a computer-generated track, past computer-generated crowds and scenery, and a computer program decides which horse will win. Unlike with real horse racing, there’s none of the form-studying and skill-spotting usually indulged in by horse bettors. The outcome of Sky’s races is simply up to chance. But what Sky presents as innovation is actually an old idea, conceived in the U.S. and an attraction of bookie parlors in the 1940s. At the time, a record company pressed shellac 78 rpm discs with 2 grooves per side instead of one, tightly interleaved in 2 spiral tracks. It was pure chance which groove the needle followed when the mechanical pickup arm was lowered. One groove had a race commentary with a particular horse winning, and the 2nd groove had a different commentary and a different winner. So, fanatics in the gambling joints could bet the ponies even when no live races were running. Such novelty disc pressings found an afterlife as family parlor games, and even music recordings. One example, a “Horseless Horse Racing” family game, consisted of fictitious racing forms and multi-grooved records, with each groove featuring a different outcome of the race. More recently, the Monty Python team in 1973 released what the troupe touted as the “first 3-sided LP.” The title, Matching Tie and Handkerchief, had 2 “B” sides, one with a double groove. Listeners heard different sketches depending on where the pickup stylus landed when the tonearm dropped. The album was never released with the trick side in the U.S., but we found a used import copy selling for $31 on the Internet last week. Other novelty discs with multiple, randomly accessed grooves have been issued over the years by MAD magazine, the comedians Cheech & Chong, the Harvard U. Lampoon, even contemporary hip-hop artist LL Cool J. Meanwhile, in the digital domain, CD and DVD technology allows random play of tracks, so discs theoretically could feature races with winners that depend on the luck of which track played first. But after a few plays the results become predictable once the race has begun, hence Sky’s decision to use a computer-generated system.
Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to grant a paging company’s petition by preempting a Tex. PUC order that it said violates FCC requirements for local dialing parity. Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to rule LECs must treat as local, not toll, calls to wireless numbers rated in extended local dialing areas. Verizon Wireless argued commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers can interconnect indirectly and maintain different rating and routing points. It commented on a petition by ASAP Paging, which sought preemption of an Oct. Tex. PUC order. That order allowed CenturyTel to require end users in the San Marcos rate center to dial 1-plus and pay retail toll charges when they call ASAP subscribers with numbers rated in 3 local exchanges -- even though all 3 exchanges are part of a mandatory Extended Local Calling Service (ELCS) plan. Verizon Wireless said the key issue was whether wireline carriers such as CenturyTel can require 1-plus dialing to CMRS numbers “rated in exchanges that are local for landline calls, particularly when, as in this case, the CMRS provider has opted not to interconnect directly to those exchanges.” Verizon Wireless asked the FCC to clarify that: (1) LECs can’t require landline customers to dial extra digits or incur toll or long distance charges when they call mobile numbers rated in otherwise local exchanges. (2) The rate center assignment of the calling and called parties -- not the geographic location of the wireless customer or mobile switch -- determines the rating of land-to-mobile calls. (3) CMRS providers aren’t required to establish direct connections to establish local calling and can designate different rating and routing points. In carrying out Telecom Act provisions on dialing parity, Verizon Wireless said, the FCC required LECs to permit telephone exchange service customers within a local calling area to dial the same number of digits to make a local call, “notwithstanding the identity of the calling or the called party’s local telephone service provider.”
Major disagreements between the upper (Bundesrat) and lower (Bundestag) chambers of the German Federal Parliament on key parts of the country’s draft Telecom Act could further delay its compliance with the European Union’s (EU) new regulatory framework for electronic communications. The European Commission (EC) last fall warned Germany it would impose legal sanctions on the country if it failed to implement 5 EU directives into national law on time. The German Federal Cabinet responded last Oct., approving the draft (CD Oct 16 p4) and clearing the way for it to move to the German Parliament for a vote. After the Bundestag recently voted on the modified draft, however, “it is becoming more and more obvious that [Bundesrat] will reject the [Bundestag’s] bill in its entirety and send it to the Chambers’ Joint Reconciliation Committee,” said Axel Spies, a German attorney at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman in Washington. He said there were “a number of issues” where German states represented in Bundesrat wanted “significant modifications.” For example, he said states had asked for the introduction of a minimum data retention period of 6 months for voice and e-mail traffic. They said they favored strengthening the German telecom regulator’s (RegTP) independence and asked that it be allowed to impose stiffer penalties for law violations. States have also pushed for changes of rules governing: (1) RegTP’s market analysis. (2) Annual contributions by the industry to finance the RegTP. (3) Calculation of interest rates for significant market power charges. Given the schedule of the Joint Reconciliation Committee, Spies said it could be expected to vote May 14 at the earliest, “with June 11 being more likely.” He said the final votes of the 2 chambers were expected by late June-early July or later. Spies, who also represents the German Competitive Carriers Assn., said “any delay creates further uncertainty” for investors who, “almost one year after the implementation deadline of the” new EU directives, didn’t “know what the law of the land is.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress that tying trade agreements to labor or human rights standards amounts to protectionism that may ultimately harm the U.S. According to Greenspan, using such standards as a cure for the migration and outsourcing of jobs overseas could actually result in job losses. (WSJ Pub 03/12/04, www.wallstreetjournal.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site various documents related to its development and expansion of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The following are highlights of these documents:
In September 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a proposed rule to amend the regulations in 7 CFR Part 319 to require that a phytosanitary certificate accompany all fruits and vegetables imported into the U.S., with certain exceptions.
(a) These companies as both exporter and producer have de minimis CV rates (Boccam: 0.41% and Sechoirs: 0.60%) and are excluded from the CV duty order.
Due to outstanding accounting issues raised by the SEC, a conference call on EchoStar’s financial results was delayed. Instead, the company discussed its new agreement with Viacom, settlement agreements with Gemstar, and future plans for broadband and multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS) spectrum. EchoStar Chmn. Charles Ergen said the company “wouldn’t be able to survive” without a carriage agreement with CBS and Viacom. He said the final deal wasn’t “as good as we wanted, but it’s good enough.”
Due to outstanding accounting issues raised by the SEC, a conference call set to discuss EchoStar’s financial results focused instead on operational issues. The company discussed its new agreement with Viacom, settlement agreements with Gemstar, and future plans for broadband and multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS) spectrum. EchoStar Chmn. Charles Ergen said the company “wouldn’t be able to survive” without a carriage agreement with CBS and Viacom. He said the final deal wasn’t “as good as we wanted, but it’s good enough.”