Congress and the FCC should encourage e-care technologies by deploying “significant public resources to deliver broadband” to unserved areas, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., at a Senate Special Aging Committee hearing Thursday. And rural healthcare providers should receive assistance to buy broadband services if they're not affordable in their area, said Wyden, who guest-chaired the hearing on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. The senator later talked net neutrality, asking if health care should get a priority lane on wireless broadband.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Deputy Managing Editor for Privacy Daily. Bender leads a team of journalists and reports on state privacy legislation, rulemaking and litigation. In previous roles at Communications Daily, he covered telecom and internet policy in the states, Congress and at the FCC. He has won awards for his reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW). Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of multiple dystopian sci-fi novels. Keep up to date with Bender by reading his blog and following him on social media including Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn.
The Senate Small Business Committee plans a broadband hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m., a committee spokesman said. Confirmed witnesses include FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling and RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, he said. Meanwhile, April 29 may be the new date for a set-top box hearing of the House Communications Subcommittee, industry officials said. A National Broadband Plan hearing on set-top boxes had been planned for last week, but a House Commerce Committee markup forced its postponement.
A Senate attempt to “hotline” a spectrum inventory bill was thwarted by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. The bill was put up for a unanimous consent vote last week (CD April 19 p9). Hill staffers said Coburn objected to additional spending that would be required by the bill (S-649), which is sponsored by Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Kerry and Snowe are working with concerned parties to see if they can find a way forward soon, said a Senate staffer. A Kerry spokeswoman declined comment and a spokesman for Coburn didn’t respond to a request for comment. Coburn Communications Director John Hart told NextGov.com that his boss “believes our budget crisis is more pressing than our bandwidth crisis. Congress should pay for this bill by reducing wasteful spending instead of borrowing more from future generations.” The House last week passed similar legislation (HR-3125) by House Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
It’s “somewhat optimistic” to say 95 percent of the U.S. is served by broadband, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va. Boucher said at a hearing Wednesday he had “serious concerns about the accuracy of that number” in the National Broadband Plan “and the methodology that was employed in order to derive it.” Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said the figure may show the U.S. can get ubiquitous broadband without government intervention. FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Sharon Gillett cautioned that availability estimates in the plan may paint a rosier-than-reality portrait of broadband access.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is “flexible” on the pathway toward writing a nondiscrimination rule for the Internet, he told reporters at the Capitol Clean Tech Expo. Markey has a bill (HR-3458) that would clarify the FCC’s authority over net neutrality. “My obvious goal is that there is a policy of nondiscrimination in the Internet space,” he said. “We just have to spend a little bit of time thinking about what the correct pathway is, but be nonnegotiable in terms of what the ultimate conclusion has to be.” All stakeholders should be involved in the discussion, he said. “Ultimately it would be good if we could codify the rules of openness and nondiscrimination” through legislation, “but there are regulatory ways to accomplish similar goals,” Markey said. He declined to say if he supports reclassifying broadband under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. And Markey said he hasn’t “had an extensive conversation” with House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., about Boucher’s desire to overhaul telecom laws in the next Congress. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who also spoke at the event, declined to comment.
Energy and telecom are becoming increasingly interconnected issues, said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Tuesday at the Capitol Clean Tech Expo. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse also spoke at the event, which was hosted by CTIA and the Clean Economy Network. “We have to go from the iPhone to the iHome,” said Markey. To get there, the telecom and energy industry needs to think creatively, he said. Congress asked the FCC to consider in the National Broadband Plan how broadband can help solve energy challenges, said Genachowski. Connecting the country to broadband will spur innovation and investment in smart grid, he said. Also at the expo, Sprint introduced its third green cellphone, the Samsung Restore. The phone’s casing is made from 27 percent recycled plastic, and 84 percent of the phone is recyclable. Features include a QWERTY keyboard, 2.0 MP camera and camcorder, Bluetooth capability and MP3 player. The new device shows that “customers don’t need to make sacrifices to go green,” Hesse said.
Politicians will increasingly use “augmented-reality” smartphone applications and the mobile Web in election campaigns, said Hill and industry officials. Interactive mobile apps are a novel tool to engage potential voters, but compelling content is still critical, they said Monday at the Politics Online Conference. “People buy the shovel, but they want the hole,” said Will Hurley, chief architect of open source strategy at BMC Software.
A Senate “hotline” of a spectrum inventory bill is in progress and could wrap up this week, but it’s unclear whether unanimous consent will be given, a Senate aide told us Friday. Republicans on Monday last week began asking senators from their party whether any object to the bipartisan bill (S-649) by Senate Commerce Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., the aide said. The Democrats started their own hotline Wednesday, said Senate and industry officials. It’s not unusual for the process to take several days, and it’s not clear whether any qualms have been raised, the Senate aide said. The House passed similar legislation on a roll-call vote last week (CD April 15 p10).
The House Commerce Committee approved by a 47-0 roll-call vote a cybersecurity bill that would amend the Federal Power Act to enable FERC to quickly address security threats to the electric grid. The committee approved by voice vote a manager’s amendment that included tweaks requiring notification of Congress whenever the president determines a grid security threat exists, and to require FERC consultation with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). Democratic and Republican members agreed the bill (HR-5026) would improve national security and saluted friendly work between parties.
The House passed caller ID spoofing and spectrum inventory legislation, in votes under suspension of the rules Wednesday. It also passed a tax reform bill (HR-3994) that would remove a requirement that companies and employees keep track of personal calls on employer-supplied cellphones. All the bills had bipartisan support, but the inventory bill faced a roadblock on its first presentation when a single representative objected, forcing a recorded vote later in the afternoon. A suspension vote prevents amendments and requires a two-thirds majority.