Boeing announced 2 successful launches Tues.: (1) Its Delta II carried NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover-A (MER-A). The rover is expected to land on Mars Jan. 4. MER-B will be launched June 25 and will land on Mars Jan. 25, the company said. (2) Boeing-built Thuraya-2 was launched by Sea Launch. The satellite will provide mobile voice and data communications services to more than 100 countries in Europe, the Middle East, N. and Central Africa and S. and Central Asia.
GENEVA -- The World Radio Conference (WRC) here Tues. moved Boeing a step closer to a global secondary allocation for its in-flight broadband service Connexion. A working group of the committee that oversees allocation policy approved an extension of the mobile satellite service (MSS) on a secondary basis at 14-14.5 GHz for aeronautical MSS. While the proposal is expected to pass the full committee, with yet another subgroup poised to take up regulatory issues, the decision was seen as significant because it came after last-minute bickering over finer procedural points. U.S. officials have termed the proposal a top priority for this WRC, which runs through July 4.
Unless proved otherwise, existing copyright law -- properly enforced -- is way to deal with peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Internet & Intellectual Property (IP) Chmn. Smith (R-Tex.) said Tues.
On the day after the FCC established new broadcast ownership regulations, companies, Wall St. analysts, consumer groups and others were picking apart the decision, and while some said they saw opportunities for deal-making, others said legal challenges to the decision might threaten those deals. All predicted increased consolidation, but there was some debate over whether the deal-making would begin immediately or would happen over time. Meanwhile, all 5 FCC commissioners were preparing to answer questions before the Senate Commerce Committee today (Wed.), where ranking Democrat Sen. Hollings (S.C.) was expected to be especially tough on the FCC’s 3-Republican majority.
The Senate is likely to address the broadcast ownership cap, although it remains unclear whether there is enough support to reverse the FCC’s decision Mon. to ease ownership rules, congressional leaders said after the FCC meeting. Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) said he believed Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) would let the committee vote on legislation (S-1046) that would preserve the 35% cap, even though there were indications that McCain himself didn’t support retaining the cap. “I'm convinced we can get a majority vote” in the Commerce Committee, said Hollings, who informally surveyed the panel’s members. The FCC commissioners will appear before the committee Wed. to answer questions about the media ownership ruling.
Lonna Thompson promoted to vp-gen. counsel, Assn. of Public TV Stations… Changes at Terawave: Bill Jarvis, ex- NEC America, named vp-global sales; Frank Lockwood, ex- Nortel, to vp-mktg…. Sean Cunningham, ex-Universal McCann, appointed pres., Cable Ad Bureau… In restructuring at MTV: Judy McGrath named MTV Networks Group pres.-MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT and Comedy Central; Herb Scannell appointed MTV Networks Group pres.-Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land, Noggin and SPIKE TV… Bruce Churchill to oversee News Corp. acquisition of Hughes Electronics.
The American Assn. of Paging Carriers (AAPC) asked the FCC to reconsider changes it made in its rules on low-power operations in the private land mobile radio band of 450-470 MHz. The rules allow different types of operation in the low-power channels in response to a request by the Land Mobile Communications Council. Among the changes in the Part 90 rules for low-power operations in that band were designation of twenty-one 12.5 kHz channels pairs and 4 unpaired frequencies for noncoordinated, itinerant mobile use, subject to certain power restrictions for both mobile and portable units. In its petition for reconsideration, AAPC said that within that pool of frequencies were 8 that were 12.5 kHz removed from paging-only frequencies licensed on a shared basis in the commercial mobile radio services. At least 7 of those 8 now are available for assignment to hospitals and other health care facilities for medical radio telemetry operations on a secondary basis. But the Commission concluded that noncoordinated, itinerant use of those Group C frequencies could interfere with telemetry operations. As a result, it barred itinerant use stations on the frequencies until the end of a transition period, set for Oct. 2003, for the migration of such operations to the new wireless medical telemetry service. AAPC said many of its members operated systems on the 462 MHz paging frequencies and were hampered by the new rules. Continued use of those frequencies “is fundamentally inconsistent with the statutory requirement” that Part 90 CMRS licensees be subject to technical requirements that were comparable to those faced by operators that provided substantially similar services, AAPC said. “Rather than continue using the frequencies for low- power operations, therefore, the Commission properly should prohibit altogether the licensing of any new stations on these 8 frequencies,” AAPC said. It also argued that noncoordinated, itinerant use of those frequencies posed “an unacceptable risk of harmful interference to paging receivers operating on the 462 MHz CMRS paging frequencies.”
The NTIA opened a State and Local Rights-of-Way (ROW) Resources Web site to foster what it called “an exchange of ideas” among state and local land managers, communications providers and other stakeholders. The site provides information about the laws, regulations, policies and practices that affect state and local management of ROW. “Access to rights-of-way is critical for the deployment of broadband services,” NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory said. To promote the deployment of broadband networks, the NTIA had been working with agencies and associations to streamline and simplify ROW processes and procedures, she said. -- www.ntia.doc.gov.
The military will continue to assist in the freeing of spectrum through negotiations with NTIA, adoption of new technologies and more efficient use of existing technology, a Defense Dept. official said Mon. John Stenbit, who last Fri. shifted from Asst. Secy. for C3I to Asst. Secy. for Networks & Information (a new position), said the military already had made “fantastic milestones” in working with industry and NTIA to free spectrum for Wi-Fi and other services.
While much of focus in advance of this week’s E3 Expo in L.A. has been on whether console makers Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft would cut price of hardware, publishers, retailers and industry observers also were keeping close eye on console software pricing for rest of 2003. Heading into E3, they offered mixed opinions on what to expect.