U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is monitoring recent research by NASA on interference to aircraft communications systems posed by ultra-wideband (UWB) devices, agency spokeswoman said. She said CAA would have to be convinced by airlines or UWB developers that technology didn’t pose threat before its use would be allowed on planes in laptop PCs or other devices. Issue has received flurry of attention in U.K. with news reports that any CAA ban would have to entail outlawing use of all laptop computers on aircraft because there would be no way to pinpoint only devices with UWB technology. Earlier this year, NASA’s Langley Research Center conducted tests on United Airlines aircraft in Victorville, Cal., examining impact of UWB emissions to plane radios. NASA in presentation in May to Air Transport Assn. said preliminary test results showed UWB source caused loss of targets on Traffic Alert & Collision Avoidance System of planes. Limited testing also recorded interference incident at lower emission levels involving part of instrument landing system (ILS). CAA spokeswoman said NASA tests appeared to have involved higher power levels than what would be available on commercially offered UWB equipment. One industry source said ILS system that was tested operated in 108-137 MHz band, below 3.1 to 10.6 GHz at which UWB handheld and indoor systems are allowed to operate. Only emissions from UWB at those levels would be unintentional, source said. TCAS system tested also operated on 2 frequencies that UWB operators aren’t allowed to use, 1030 MHz and 1090 MHz, source said. For now, CAA hasn’t made any decisions on possible UWB ban. “We are waiting for more research to be done,” CAA spokeswoman told us, and “for the technology developers and the airlines if they are looking into it to come to us and tell us that it is not a threat to flight safety.” In U.K., portable electronic devices can’t be used during take-off, landing or when seatbelt sign is on, she said. CAA already has conducted research on interference from wireless phones on ground on frequencies used by those headsets, she said. “We did find that there was potentially significant interference coming from those frequencies.” That led to retention of ban on cellphone use, spokeswoman said, with wireless phone users required to switch off devices when plane’s engines are turned on.
FCC in recent weeks has been virtually overrun by lobbyists seeking to convince commissioners and their staffs that “primary video” means either single video programming stream or as many as 6 streams of video, data and other material. Whether agency is poised to make decision remains unclear. Question could land Commission in Supreme Court, which is why commissioners are weighing arguments so carefully, FCC sources said. Sources said Commission may soon put issue out for public comment in new rulemaking in order to further spur DTV transition, but it couldn’t be determined at our deadline whether it would be on Sept. 12 meeting agenda. Issue centers on “must-carry” in digital world, where broadcasters will have 6 MHz of digital spectrum at their disposal. Although FCC already has decided broadcasters have right to carriage on cable systems, cable MSOs are fighting idea that stations have right to carriage of however many streams they can pack into that 6 MHz using digital compression technology.
Microsoft’s selection of Wistron as 2nd contract manufacturer for Xbox game consoles (CED Sept 4 p3) won’t affect Flextronics at all, latter’s chief mktg. officer, James Sacherman, told us after our Tues. deadline. Sacherman said: “We've known since the beginning of [our Xbox deal with Microsoft] that there would be a 2nd source and so this has always been a planned event for both us and Microsoft.”
Palm Beach County asked Fla. state court to bar Cingular Wireless from operating cellular telecom tower in Boca Del Mar until it obtained required permits from county government. County’s suit in Fla. 15th Judicial Circuit Court has its roots in 1995 decision by Cingular’s predecessor, BellSouth Mobility, to replace 1973-vintage communications tower at Boca Del Mar Country Club with new 100-ft. tower. Carrier told county new tower was same height and used for same purposes as old tower. After new tower was placed in service, county said it learned from residents that old tower actually was 60-ft. 2-way radio tower that never had been approved for commercial cellular phone service. County in 1998 told then-BellSouth to prove prior existence of 100-ft. tower for commercial cellphone service. When BellSouth failed to do so, county revoked tower permits and ordered demolition of structure. BellSouth began 2-year series of unsuccessful appeals, first to Fla. Construction Board and then to state courts. That odyssey ended in Oct. 2001 when state appellate court refused to hear further appeals. However, carrier continued to operate tower without local permits. In new suit (Case CA-02-10157AH), Palm Beach County asked state circuit court for injunction to shut down tower until BellSouth/Cingular obtained land-use permits. If carrier chose not to seek permits, county asked court for order requiring demolition of tower within 30 days.
Consumers still may be battling sweltering heat, but many game publishers are shifting into holiday mode long before leaves change this year. Companies this year are shipping some of their key titles in Oct., Sept. and even in some cases late Aug. -- Namco’s Dead to Rights and Nintendo’s Super Mario Sunshine as 2 clear examples -- to beat expected flood of holiday games to shelves.
Key details were missing or murky in Toshiba-NEC joint announcement Thurs. that they had developed HDTV-quality playback-only and recordable DVD format based on blue laser and recorder deemed to be alternative to recordable Blu-Ray system with which it would be mutually incompatible. On same day, Toshiba and NEC said they had proposed as-yet-unnamed system to DVD Forum for consideration as standard. That’s in direct contrast to tack taken by Blu-Ray group, which has said it sees no need to involve DVD Forum as Blu-Ray is system that’s separate from DVD.
When Comcast rolls out Voice-over-IP service in Philadelphia next year, as company has said it will do, many in telecom industry and at FCC will be waiting to see how much market share VoIP takes from traditional telephone business. Although no proceeding is teed up on issue at FCC, some among Commission’s staff are thinking about how that new service will be regulated, given that industry analysts predict VoIP eventually will compete and perhaps even overtake circuit-switched telephony delivered by CLECs. Technical issues aside, Comr. Abernathy last week laid out principles of new services doctrine she believes should include light regulatory touch, at least in beginning, while services such as VoIP remain immature competitors (CD Aug 20 p2).
NOAA rejected industry claims that companies seeking to lay fiber in National Marine Sanctuaries shouldn’t be charged fair market value (FMV) on top of other deployment-related fees. Although it decided against suggestions by environmental group to assess FMV based on $280,000-per-mile methodology used by Cal. State Land Commission, it said in its final report on issue that it would continue to assess FMV based on recent comparable transactions, which range from $40,000 to $100,000 per mile of fiber. Agency also said methodology used by other agencies to levy right-of-way fees on land-based fiber projects was inappropriate for submarine fiber crossing protected waters: “NOAA does not believe the public views the sanctuary as a limitless supply of cable routes.” NOAA said it would take into consideration industry’s position that “economic state of the telecommunications industry today is less favorable than is reflected in the draft report” published last year. It gave assurances to industry that “periodic updates of the fee are envisioned” and that federal telecom policy and “current market trend data” would be considered when applying FMV methodology to fee.
Forum of state lawmakers is considering 3 draft telecom bills for introduction in fall when many legislatures return for sessions. American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Telecom & Information Technology (IT) unanimously approved proposed bill at recent annual meeting that will be considered by its board in late Sept. If approved, members will be encouraged to introduce bills that would: (1) Reform rights-of-way (ROW) management to limit what states could charge for access. (2) Establish protections for industry against municipalities that offered competing telecom services. (3) Establish statewide standards for cellphone driver safety legislation. ALEC describes itself as bipartisan association of conservative state lawmakers who focus on principals of limited govt., free markets, federalism, individual liberty. Aug. annual meeting in Orlando drew 2,500, including 1,000 state lawmakers. Task force meeting drew 45 state legislators.
PCIA asked Cal. legislator last week to add wireless infrastructure companies to list of parties eligible to enter proposed leasing agreement program for state-owned lands. Assembly Majority Floor Leader Marco Firebaugh (D-South Gate) is sponsoring bill that would require that 20% of revenue derived from certain leases of state-owned property to wireless telecom facilities be redirected from state’s general fund to separate account. That account would be administered by Cal. PUC to fund “Digital Divide” grant program. Legislation also would require state’s Dept. of General Services to develop and maintain list of state-owned properties that could be available for siting telecom facilities. PCIA told Firebaugh in letter last week that current version of legislation characterized only wireless service providers as eligible entities and didn’t specifically cover wireless infrastructure owners, operators or managers. PCIA is seeking broader language to include those other providers. “By specifically including wireless infrastructure companies in the bill, the state of California stands to generate up to 5 times more revenue for its digital divide programs,” PCIA Pres. Jay Kitchen said. “Tower companies account for approximately 80% of the wireless facilities market in California.” PCIA said bill now was headed to Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.