The FCC will seek comment on reallocation of the 1675-1710 MHz band, which could be paired with the AWS-3 band for wireless broadband, commission officials said Wednesday. An Office of Engineering and Technology public notice is circulating on the eighth floor and is expected to be published Friday.
The FCC should amend its Part 90 rules so more use is made of bands below 470 MHz, PCIA said in reply comments at the commission in docket 07-100. PCIA said it’s an active member of the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC), but the council’s proposed rules in this area “represent an overly conservative approach.” Various commenters continue to disagree about whether the FCC should allow secondary access for medical telemetry devices in 2.5 MHz of the 1427-1432 MHz band (CD May 18 p7), assigned to nonmedical telemetry use.
The FCC said Tuesday it plans to gather data on wireless broadband connections and released a public notice seeking comment on how to do that. The commission also asked for 10,000 volunteers to allow hardware to be installed in their homes to test the actual speed of their wireline broadband connections, in a scientific study to be run by SamKnows Ltd. The regulator still hasn’t decided what it will do with the results and whether they could lead to additional regulation, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin told reporters.
Free Press and Public Knowledge said they're concerned that wireless is getting special treatment in a notice of inquiry about Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” broadband reclassification proposal. That’s based on discussions they've held at the commission and on a notice on the June meeting. Wireless industry representatives had no comment Friday. Meanwhile, AT&T and USTelecom noted that a majority of House members appear to oppose the reclassification proposal.
Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” proposal for reclassifying broadband isn’t about FCC policy on the Internet itself, but the legal foundation for net neutrality and other policies that the agency decides to pursue, FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick said on a Thursday webinar sponsored by Broadband US TV. Meanwhile, as expected, Genachowski circulated his reclassification proposal to the other commissioners for a vote at the June 17 commission meeting. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., sharply opposed the plan.
A new FCC survey shows that “bill shock” is a major concern to wireless customers, said Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The commission will consider imposing rules on carriers, but no decision has been made, Gurin said. CTIA went on the attack immediately, asking why the FCC seems intent on micro-managing a competitive industry.
The broadband reclassification proposal that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate Thursday makes clear the agency won’t forebear from its responsibilities under Section 257 of the Telecom Act to file reports on reducing market barriers to small and minority-owned companies, a commission official said. Genachowski’s proposal is for the agency to reclassify broadband transport from a lightly regulated information service to a common carrier service under Title II and forbear from all but six of its 48 sections. Concerns have been raised that the commission would forgo enforcement of the civil rights provision.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed forbearance on broadband reclassification Thursday, with a vote at the FCC’s June 17 meeting, FCC officials confirmed Tuesday. Genachowski hopes to have a final order before the FCC in the fall in the form of a declaratory ruling, FCC officials said.
"Sorry, privacy is a thing of the past,” Martin Cooper, the cellphone’s inventor, said on a 60 Minutes interview broadcast Sunday. A report showed Cooper strolling among the crowds at the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas and on the New York street corner where he made his first mobile call on a phone that weighed 2 1/2 pounds. “I think the whole concept of privacy requires a new mindset among people,” he said. “There are people that object to somebody monitoring their buying habits. I'm delighted if people know what I buy, because they're going to tailor their marketing to me.” Cooper said the industry is in its infancy and he expects cellphones to continue evolving. “I think we are just basically scratching the surface,” he said. “The health care industry is going to be revolutionized, because you will have sensors in various points of your body measuring different things and a computer somewhere, or maybe a doctor, will be examining you all the time.”
The FCC’s wireless competition report cites a Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) increase as a clear warning sign that the industry has grown less competitive. But the CTIA questions the commission’s reliance on the index as one of the key measures in the report, the first in years that didn’t find the industry competitive (CD May 21 p1). CTIA also questioned how the measure was calculated for the report.