CTIA fired back at NAB comments last week urging a renewed discussion at the FCC of the “merits of radio-enabled smartphones.” NAB heralded comments by Commissioner Michael Copps at Thursday’s public safety workshop also raising the issue. “While cellphone signals jammed and power was down during Hurricane Irene and the recent East Coast earthquake, it was the robust ‘one-to-many’ transmission architecture of local broadcasting that kept listeners and viewers in touch and informed,” NAB said. Wireless networks worked after both the Virginia earthquake and the hurricane, CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe said on the association’s blog. “An examination of FM radios in cellphones is moot,” Guttman-McCabe said. “NAB is already well aware that there are dozens of mobile devices currently offered with enabled FM radio. At least 41 phones are offered with enabled FM radio and that number continues to grow, as NAB itself acknowledges.” NAB then responded to the CTIA’s response. “Broadcasters welcome a debate on whether broadcasting is more reliable in times of crisis than cellphone networks, which is why NAB supports VOLUNTARY activation of radio chips in cellphones,” NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said in response. “Surely, cellphone companies are not blind to the fact that tens of thousands of Americans were unable to connect with loved ones after the recent East Coast earthquake because of an overload in the ‘one-to-one’ cellphone network."
Trident Microsystems said it introduced a new set of system-on-a-chip for “smart TVs” running on Google’s Android operating system. The Fusion HiDTV chips are geared for sets with high video frame-rate and 3D TV capabilities, Trident said.
PHILADELPHIA -- LightSquared faced tough questions from public safety officials late Monday after a presentation at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials annual conference. The same question came up repeatedly: Will LightSquared be another Nextel, which caused so much interference to public safety systems in the 800 MHz band that ultimately the FCC had to broker the restructuring of that band. That process still is unfolding seven years after the commission approved its landmark 800 MHz rebanding order.
Division over the 700 MHz D-block is the main barrier to bipartisan spectrum legislation in the House, lawmakers said at a Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday. The Commerce Committee’s top Democrats and top Republicans have signed onto separate draft bills. The Democrats want to reallocate the D-block to public safety and the Republicans seek to auction it to commercial providers. While both sides voiced optimism about reaching consensus, debt limit negotiations threaten to suck up a key component of the legislation: Voluntary incentive auctions. (See separate report in this issue.)
The FCC approved further tweaks to location accuracy rules for wireless carriers, and also asked still more questions about the future of 911. Most significantly, the commission moved the industry another step toward a requirement that all carriers -- GSM and CMRS -- evaluate how well they do meeting location accuracy rules using handset-based testing. The agency approved a report and order, a second further notice of proposed rulemaking and an NPRM by a 4-0 vote Tuesday. None of the documents were posted by the FCC by our deadline.
The EU will start 13 photonics research projects aimed at developing technologies to deliver super-fast broadband speeds, the European Commission said Tuesday. The projects were jointly chosen by the EC, Austria, Germany, Poland, the U.K. and Israel, who will pay a total of €22.3 million ($31.8 million) toward them, it said. The research focuses on how components such as transceivers, amplifiers and routers and information technology systems can deliver speeds of 1 Gbps and above to home subscribers while cutting operational costs for ultra-fast broadband, the EC said. It said the projects include Addonas, which could boost the quality of mobile video and real-time applications such as cloud computing by making better switching technology for very fast broadband circuits, and Aloha, intended to upgrade the transmission capacity of broadband semiconductors.
The Parents TV Council asked the FCC to review v-chips, given that studies in Pediatrics reported that parents want improvements and noting that Chairman Julius Genachowski in 2009 said he'd work on improvements to the system. “These reports serve as concrete evidence that the government has failed in that goal,” Tim Winter, president of the group that asks members to file indecency complaints with the commission, said Tuesday night. “After two years we still have yet to see a single significant action taken.” A Media Bureau spokeswoman had no comment.
CHICAGO -— Comcast plans to introduce a Web-connected, personalized TV program guide and content navigation platform to its Xfinity TV digital cable subscribers. That’s part of its effort to put video content on multiple screens and stave off competition from telco TV, DBS and over-the top (OTT) video providers.
Comcast said it will demonstrate on stage at the Cable Show Thursday new features of its next general cable service which it’s testing in Augusta, Ga. The new system includes interactive apps, a personalized TV lineup called MyTV, and a search function that scans content on TV, VOD and DVR, it said. The new system works on Pace set-top boxes with an Intel chip, it said. It’s using the cloud-based video publishing system of its unit thePlatform, the companies said.
The House Commerce Committee is content to let the FCC take a first run at the Universal Service Fund overhaul, a committee spokeswoman told us Friday. “We are waiting to see what the FCC decides to do before we make a decision on whether legislation is necessary,” the spokeswoman said. Congress’ tacit approval of the FCC’s reform schedule had been expected (CD Feb 8 p1) but Friday’s statement comes amidst a blitz by rural telcos trying to get the Hill to intervene in the USF proceedings (CD May 25 p8). On the Senate side, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. has said D-block legislation is his “highest priority” (CD Feb 17 p4).