"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.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third way” regulation of broadband is already having a “dampening effect” on investment in telecommunications equipment, former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said Friday during a webinar sponsored by TIA. The FCC is expected to vote on a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed forbearance on the reclassification proposal at its June 17 meeting.
FCC Republicans objected strongly Thursday to an order approving the agency’s latest version of its annual wireless competition report, which unlike previous reports does not find that the U.S. wireless market is competitive. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker “concurred” with the order, rather than approving it without reservations. The report reflects the state of the industry based on 2008 data.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he’s concerned the proposal for a national wireless broadband network outlined in the National Broadband Plan has not won the support of most public safety groups. Copps also said in an interview he has grown increasingly optimistic Congress will approve funding for the network, as proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Copps also predicted that compromise is possible among the five commissioners on comprehensive Universal Service Fund overhaul. Bringing in outsiders to oversee “every difficult issue” at the commission isn’t necessarily the way to go, Copps said when asked about the hiring of a head for the review of Comcast-NBC Universal deal. (See separate item in this issue.)
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sought to find a possible date from his fellow commissioners for a special agency meeting to vote on a notice of inquiry and notice of proposed forbearance on the “reclassification lite” plan he unveiled earlier this month (CD May 7 p1), we learned. But commissioner schedules prevented holding a special meeting on the plan, also referred to as “third way.” As a result, the order is likely to circulate for an electronic vote, but it’s not likely to be handled on circulation but at the planned June 17 meeting, FCC officials said. Aides to Genachowski said after he released his reclassification statement an order would circulate in a matter of weeks. The commission is sharply divided on the plan, with Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker vehemently opposed and Democrats Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn in strong support. The Republican commissioners could assure a public vote by declining to vote the order on circulation. Genachowski’s spokeswoman had no comment.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on interoperability, out-of-band emissions and equipment certification rules for a proposed public-safety broadband network using 700 MHz spectrum. A public notice Tuesday from the bureau builds on preliminary rules that 21 local governments which won waivers last week will have to follow if they build out systems early (CD May 13 p1).
CTIA and two Louisiana Public Service Commission members asked the FCC to reverse a requirement by the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) that AT&T, T-Mobile and TracFone repay money they got for providing free wireless service after Hurricane Katrina almost five years ago. The carriers provided service under an emergency FCC program that provided $39 million in Lifeline money to help hurricane victims and temporarily made each an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC). A USAC audit later found that the carriers had failed to provide adequate documentation.
Philips Healthcare Systems and the Land Mobile Communications Council disagreed sharply over whether the FCC should allow Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) devices to operate on a secondary basis in the parts of the 1427-1432 MHz band not set aside for medical telemetry. On a second question that the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus also sought comments on in a March 16 notice, there was general support for a proposal by the Association of American Railroads that its members be allowed to operate end-of-train telemetry devices at transmit power of up to 8 watts.
The long-awaited Interphone study, looking at whether heavy cellphone use causes central nervous system tumors, produced no conclusive results, according to a report to be released Tuesday in Geneva. Wireless industry groups said the results largely confirm what other studies have shown.