The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS') Undersecretary testified before a House subcommittee that by January 5, 2004 U.S.-Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) was in operation at 115 airports and 14 seaports, covering 99% of all foreign visitors. While the Undersecretary stated that more than 600,000 foreign visitors have been processed under U.S.-VISIT without increasing wait times, the Journal of Commerce (JoC) reported that the implementation of the program at the 50 busiest land border crossings could slow down the flow of goods and people. US-VISIT is scheduled to be extended to these border crossings by December 31, 2004. (DHS Press Release 01/28/04, available via fax by emailing staff@brokerpower.com , JoC report www.joc.com)
Wireless firms and historic preservation officials failed to reach a compromise by an FCC target date on outstanding issues connected to a tower siting pact, according to a filing Thurs. at the agency. The Commission planned to have the national program agreement (NPA) ready for its Feb. agenda meeting, but last month gave participants until Feb. 19 to work out issues in time for the March meeting. “It appears in some important ways ground has been lost since then,” said the filing by the wireless coalition.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has lined up a supplier and is expected to introduce a 30W LCD TV, marking its much-anticipated entrance into the flat-panel display business. Taiwanese supplier Chi Mei Optoelectronics is said to have secured a contract for the 30W panels, the first of which could find its way into an HP LCD TV within 60 days, sources said. Pricing and features weren’t available at our deadline Thurs. and HP officials weren’t immediately available for comment.
A new terror is abroad in the land, if Aiwa Europe and Internet manifestos can be believed. The threat is alleged to come from an anti-digital music pressure group called the Vinylists (www.vinylism.org), who disrupted a Feb. 4 Aiwa news conference in Tokyo and did the same in London yesterday, kidnaping an Aiwa executive, the company said. But marketers of digital audio products can rest easy now, as each reported incident was a hoax perpetrated in cyberspace to draw attention to the Sony-owned Aiwa brand’s relaunch with PC-based digital audio portables.
Public safety officials have pushed for streamlining federal spectrum decision-making in talks under President Bush’s call for recommendations on promoting efficient spectrum use. But groups have warned against merging the duties of NTIA and the FCC to accomplish that. At an NTIA forum on public safety spectrum Tues., issues debated as part of the year-long process included simplifying federal frequency coordination, spelling out spectrum requirements of agencies and improving interference analysis.
The FCC Wireless Bureau said it reached the final phase of its private land mobile radio (PLMR) spectrum audit. Call signs for which licensees have failed to respond will be viewed as having been cancelled automatically when the audit closes, the Bureau said. It has been auditing the construction and operating status of certain PLMR stations, including those licensed below 512 MHz that are subject to frequency coordination and construction and operational requirements under FCC rules. The FCC’s Part 90 rules for PLMR operators require construction within a certain period and that stations remain operational for the license to remain valid. If construction hasn’t been completed in the required time, or a station hasn’t operated for a year, the license cancels automatically. The Bureau sent 267,000 letters involving 420,000 call signs from Aug. 2001 to Jan. 2002 had a 73% response rate. A 2nd mailing in 2002 generated an 88% response rate. The Bureau said there now were 14,000 call signs for which it hadn’t received a response. In a public notice this week, it described its plans for call signs with outstanding audit responses when PLMR letters were returned to the FCC as undeliverable. In the final phase of the audit, the agency said undeliverable call signs that remained without a response for 30 days after the agency published its list in the Federal Register would be deemed to have cancelled automatically. The FCC said 2,300 call signs were covered in letters returned to the Commission as undeliverable.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a letter to stakeholders and a fact sheet concerning its Radiation Monitoring Program under which radiation detection equipment will be purchased and installed at U.S. ports of entry.
On February 2, 2004, President Bush transmitted to Congress his fiscal year (FY) 2005 budget request. (FY 2005 is October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005.) President Bush has requested $40.2 billion for Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a 10% increase over the comparable FY 2004 budget.
The FCC reached agreement with an intergovernmental tribal group Tues. on best practices for communications tower siting. The Commission called the pact the first of its kind. It also created a database for a voluntary system that Chmn. Powell said would provide an “early notification” of tower construction that might affect historic properties or tribal religious sites. When final, the best practices will provide guidance to the FCC, tribes and the industry, he said.
A program agreement that would streamline wireless and broadcast tower siting reviews ran into trouble last week when the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) raised concerns about how certain types of sites would be excluded, sources said. FCC and some industry officials said they remained bullish that differences could be worked out relatively quickly. But they said a key unresolved issue was one that had drawn recent Capitol Hill attention: Treatment of sites “potentially” eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.