Verizon Wireless’ LTE network will expand current applications and support completely new kinds, said Brian Higgins, the company’s executive director for ecosystem development. A combination of device availability, speeds, content and applications are needed for LTE service to reach a critical mass, he said.
Intel again sought prompt approval of its request for a cable set-top box waiver (CD Dec 29 p7), according to an ex parte filing at the FCC last week. The commission’s waiving IEEE 1394 output requirement would help make set-tops with Intel’s system-on-a-chip processors economical, said the filing. It concerned meetings with aides to FCC members Michael Copps, Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell. “Unless the waiver is granted promptly, Intel will miss its opportunities to sell these advanced set-top box processors in the United States during the limited window in which set- top box manufacturers are not designing and developing their next new products.”
Oral argument in Fox. v FCC made clear that the three judges don’t know how V-chips work, said a group that asks members to file indecency complaints with the commission. “It’s not surprising that the networks’ hand-picked court appeared to view their position favorably,” Policy Director Dan Isett of the Parents Television Council told us. The jurists “showed no interest in hearing about the shortcomings of the system,” he added. “The panel’s unwillingness to consider that fact borders on judicial contempt.” C-SPAN late Wednesday aired the argument (CD Jan 14 p4) after getting permission from the court, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, to record it. The session ran on C-SPAN radio and the C-SPAN2 cable network and is online, a spokesman for the programmer said.
Canada’s national radio broadcaster CBC Radio successfully tested an application from e-Radio to manage the energy use of household devices using the FM frequency that the companies said could “revolutionize the way electricity is consumed across Canada and around the world.” The energy management application was enabled by an e-Radio chip that’s embedded in smart appliances that can be remotely operated using FM frequencies.
The three judges who heard Fox. v. FCC oral arguments expressed varying degrees of skepticism that the agency can effectively or constitutionally find unscripted curse words indecent under certain circumstances. Judges Rosemary Pooler and Pierre Leval asked the most questions and appeared the most skeptical on the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Appeals Court in New York. Judge Peter Hall homed in on the commission’s exception to its fleeting indecency policy for news.
A federal court issued a $51 million judgment against Robert Ward for supplying software files allowing nonsubscribers to receive Dish Network programming, the company said Monday. A U.S. district judge in Tampa said Ward violated the federal Communications Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Dish accused him of uploading software and keys to its security system, which can be loaded onto the circuit chips of free-to-air receivers, mimicking Dish access cards and allowing users to watch the programming without paying. The court said Ward provided 255,471 software piracy files. There’s a minimum statutory penalty of $200 per download.
Receivers and other devices for the ATSC’s Mobile DTV standard are to be showcased at CES this week. They're to feature live, over-the-air programming from local broadcasters. The showcase and demonstrations will be at the CES Mobile DTV TechZone, said the sponsor, the Open Mobile Video Coalition.
Motorola asked the FCC to approve Intel’s cable set-top box waiver request (CD Dec 29 p7) and similar other petitions. Intel “made the requisite showing” in the petition for exemption from a mandate that the devices include IEEE 1394 connections and instead use its system-on- a-chip media processors, Motorola said in Dec. 22 reply comments on the waiver. “Waiver is justified given the lack of marketplace demand for the 1394 interface and the costs of compliance with the 1394 Rule,” Motorola said. Waiver opponents Texas Instruments and the 1394 Trade Association contend the connections are widely deployed and accepted by consumers, the company said. “However, the large numbers of set-top boxes shipped with the 1394 interface is merely a function of the Commission’s mandate, not of any existing marketplace demand for, and consumer interest, in 1394.”
Representatives of set-top box developer Beyond Broadband Technology visited FCC Broadband Task Force officials to brief them on its downloadable security solution, an ex parte notice shows. The FCC’s past encouragement and approval of BBT’s design has helped the company continue its efforts, said Steve Effros, strategic development and communications director, in a meeting with Carlos Kirjner, Peter Bowen and Elvis Stumbergs, the notice said. BBT has tested a new chip in a USB “thumb drive” that allows cable subscribers, “employees or any other group seeking secure, encrypted communication over the Internet to customize the level of both security and authentication consistent with the type of information being transmitted,” the notice said.
The recent approvals of IEEE 802.11n and 802.11w standards marked the start of a wave of Wi-Fi innovation, experts told us. Additional specifications under development would enable personal area Wi-Fi, peer-to-peer communications and cooperation with networks using other technologies, they said.