Georgia is the latest state to join the fight over municipal broadband. While the industry claimed the recently proposed Broadband Investment Equity Act (SB 313) would encourage private investment and level the playing field, opponents said the bill would overrule local decision-making authority in broadband.
Most commenters agree the FCC should allow a 24-month transition period if the commission changes hearing aid compatibility (HAC) rules to incorporate the 2011 revision of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) technical standard C63.19, AT&T said in reply comments. “AT&T agrees with the Commission that adopting the 2011 ANSI Standard would serve the public interest by updating the Commission’s rules in a manner that brings those rules more in line with new technology and allows additional frequency bands and air interfaces to become HAC compliant,” the company said (http://xrl.us/bmp9mj). “The Commission has recognized that a two year transition period is consistent with the Commission’s approach in other complex rulemakings, such as the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, closed captioning for digital television, and the V-chip. It is also consistent with the transition period adopted by the Commission when it narrowed the application of the HAC de minimis rule.” In the initial comment round, the wireless industry, led by CTIA, pressed the agency for a two-year transition, while groups representing the hearing impaired questioned whether that amount of time is necessary (CD Jan 18 p9). AT&T also said the 2011 revisions do not include a “T” HAC rating for VoIP carried over the LTE interface, an issue previously raised by Samsung (http://xrl.us/bmp9od). “The Commission’s proposed rules should be modified to consider LTE capable devices to be HAC compliant if those devices otherwise meet the applicable technical standard for the frequency bands and air interfaces covered by the 2011 ANSI Standard,” AT&T said.
Changes at Intel: Brian Krzanich, vice president of manufacturing and supply chain, named chief operating officer; Andy Bryant resigns as chief administrative officer, remains vice chairman; Dadi Perlmutter promoted to chief product officer, will continue as general manager of Intel Architecture Group … Edward Esposito, Rubber City Radio Group, named secretary and treasurer of RTDNF, the educational arm of the Radio Television Digital News Association … New Satellite Industry Association officers: Jennifer Warren, Lockheed Martin, chair; Kalpak Gude, Intelsat, vice chair; Bill Weller, Space Systems/Loral, treasurer … Lobbyist Registrations: Semiconductor Industry Association, Dow Lohnes, effective Dec. 15.
Cable operators could be poised to change their position on offering Slingbox-like technology to their subscribers, Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger wrote in a note to investors. So far, most providers have avoided using Sling-branded technology because of the copyright issues associated with letting subscribers watch programming outside of their homes and because it’s an EchoStar subsidiary, he said. Furthermore, the cable operators’ upstream broadband capacity has been viewed as too constrained to handle widespread Sling use, he said. But, “over the last year, several developments have led us to believe that the MSOs may be closer to using Sling technology (or at least threatening to use Sling technology) than before,” he said. For one, Sling Media has licensed its technology to Broadcom, which will offer a chip that lets set-top boxes and other CE devices use the technology, he said. And Credit Suisse research suggests that new set-top boxes made by Motorola for Comcast could offer such technology, though Comcast has not indicated it is interested in letting subscribers watch live TV outside the home, he said. Moreover, cable’s DOCSIS 3.0 deployments are increasing the amount of upstream bandwidth they can offer, he said. Adding Sling-like features would give cable operators more leverage in affiliation talks with programming networks, he said. “The simple threat of enabling cable subs to Sling live (and DVR'ed) video beyond the home, without the consent of programmers and without paying for it -- something the programmers would likely find abhorrent, might give cable operators a ‘chit’ in their heated negotiations over content rights and costs,” he said.
As the use of mobile commerce becomes more widespread, ISPs, payment service companies, government agencies and other entities are increasing efforts to address challenges around privacy and security. Companies like MasterCard and Sprint Nextel have practices in place to protect consumer data and resolve customer disputes concerning mobile transactions. The FTC Division of Financial Practices is attempting to rev up its expertise in the mobile space to protect consumers.
Supreme Court justices limited discussion of First Amendment issues on the government’s appeal of a lower court ruling against the FCC finding indecent a single curseword or incident of nudity on broadcast TV. Oral argument Tuesday mainly focused on how the agency’s so-called fleeting indecency policy squared with the high court’s landmark Pacifica decision, which allowed the commission to censure indecent content on terrestrial radio and TV. The 1969 Red Lion case involving spectrum scarcity didn’t come up, conforming with expectations (CD June 28 p1).
The FCC continues working on several radio rulemakings, has completed one proceeding and may finish two others later this year. The attention by staffers in the Media Bureau to radio issues is in contrast to what some see as the commission’s overall lack of attention to other media issues. The agency in December approved a tribal radio order, which industry lawyers said the bureau made quick work of. By contrast, the commission is more than a year behind schedule on its media ownership review, in which industry lawyers said radio isn’t much in play.
LAS VEGAS -- With 2012 widely seen as a make or break year for mobile DTV, the Mobile 500 Alliance and Mobile Content Venture (MCV) are expected to continue discussions at CES this week on a potential merger, industry officials said.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell expects Universal Service Fund reform to dominate the FCC’s agenda in the early part of 2012, starting with a Lifeline cleanup order at the Jan. 31 meeting. McDowell hopes that will be followed by an order addressing USF contribution issues left unsettled by last October’s order (CD Oct 28 p1), he said during an interview last week. McDowell said he remains open minded on a 700 MHz interoperability order and stressed the importance of spectrum efficiency. McDowell also thinks more media ownership deregulation than the FCC proposed in the quadrennial review may be needed.
EchoStar signed a deal with Broadcom to build Sling Media place-shifting technology into chips for cable set-top boxes, the company said. Set-tops containing Sling Media software will be available by Q3, the company said. The companies didn’t announce agreements with major U.S. cable set-top suppliers, including Motorola and Cisco, but EchoStar itself has sought to develop cable set-tops for the U.S. market. EchoStar supplies satellite set-tops to Dish Network and Bell Canada’s ExpressVu, and also provides set-tops for German cable operator Unity Media. Broadcom supplies processor chips for EchoStar’s set-tops and for Motorola and Cisco products. Time Warner Cable began testing standalone Slingbox set-tops last year in New York City.