Cable, broadcasters and consumer electronics firms must do more to educate consumers about DTV, with less than 3 years before analog sets go dark, said FCC Comr. Adelstein. The FCC must play a role in the effort by working with the NTIA, he told consumer electronics executives at a CEA conference Wed. in D.C. The Commission has the authority to lead a campaign, Adelstein said: “We just need to do it.” The FCC has budgeted about $500,000 for such efforts; NTIA, $5 million (CD Feb 3 p6). “There’s a critical need for the Commission and NTIA to work together,” he said.
IBM has developed RFID chips that can be separated from the antenna needed to transfer data stored on the chip, it said at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. The “decapitated” chips would let customers control reading of the information stored on the chip -- a feature demanded by data protection officials in various European countries as a safeguard against reading of the RFID tags without users’ consent or knowledge. IBM said it doesn’t produce chips itself but offers server solutions for RFID systems, and said companies could respond to data protection concerns by using the chips. The antennas of the proposed new RFID tags can be manipulated by cutting off the link between chip and antenna on the tag, by completely snapping the antenna at a perforated line or by taking away a foil that attaches it to the chip. Information on the chip wouldn’t be erased and could be reread through new antennas if it had to be restored, such as to prove there was still a warranty on the product. IBM has patent applications, but a company representative said it was prepared to give them up if EPCGlobal, the RFID industry standardization organization, accepts the proposals. Compared to the kill-command proposed by EPCGlobal to solve the privacy question, the proposals would make customer control more visible, they said. The price of the tags wouldn’t be higher than of ordinary tags and the chip information doesn’t have to be destroyed. The technology will be in use for expensive goods in 5 years, said IBM. The company this month opened a 15,000 square meter RFID test center in Dublin.
Tex. Instruments (TI) released a new VoIP chip, the TNETV1061, Wed., which it said provides advanced VoIP and data routing features for residential applications. TI said the chip is best in settings “where voice quality, scalability, low cost and reliability are essential for service provider deployments,” like exurban neighborhoods.
There’s confusion among stations about whether the FCC experimental authorization under which they operate HD Radio multicast channels allows them to air underwriting messages and ads, according to public broadcasting and other officials we interviewed. The Commission’s experimental authorization doesn’t bar ads on the multicast channels, said one commercial broadcasting source. The HD Radio Alliance has said it will offer commercial-free programs at least for now.
SAN FRANCISCO -- “Ultra mobile PCs” capable of full Web displays -- unlike today’s major handhelds -- will reach the market this month, said Intel Exec. Vp Sean Maloney. Speaking at the Intel Developer Conference here late Tues., Maloney said he expects a “tremendous wave of experimentation in the next year and a half to 2 years” in the category, with a wide array of sizes and configurations, as with mobile handsets.
In a letter to the FCC, the Wireless Communications Assn. questioned the logic of arguments by Axcelis Technologies that proposed restrictions on IMS devices threaten its ability to manufacture a range of industrial equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. Sprint Nextel and WCA have proposed limits under Part 18 of FCC rules for ISM devices -- including microwave ovens, paint drying equipment and some medical imaging equipment -- to protect wireless broadband operators as they're moved from the 2150-2162 MHz band to the 2.5 GHz band as part of an FCC relocation plan. Axcelis told the FCC in Feb.: “If enacted, this proposal will have a negative impact on Axcelis, and more broadly, threatens to damage the utility of a wide variety of devices used only in manufacturing settings.” WCA said Axcelis is calling attention to a problem that doesn’t exist. “Of course, as even a cursory review of the record will reflect, no such proposal is pending before the Commission -- no one is suggesting that the Commission reduce the size of the ISM band at 2.4 GHz,” the Assn. said. “What is pending before the Commission is a proposal by WCA and others for imposing reasonable limits on emissions by ISM devices… Axcelis’s arguments simply are inapplicable to the interference… operations will suffer from the ISM devices that Axcelis does not sell.”
The Consumer Electronics Powerline Communications Alliance (CEPCA) expects to approve a final PLC system specification for coexistence between different BPL technologies by mid-April, CEPCA Pres. Michael Stelts told us. CEPCA is doing a 3rd revision of its draft specification with the United Powerline Assn. (UPA), whose members use Design of System on Silicon (DS2) technology. That technology got a boost from its recent adoption by the Open PLC European Research Alliance (OPERA) as the baseline technology for its global BPL access and in-home specification (CD Feb 22 p3).
BellSouth, lagging in video deployment, likely will move faster on its IPTV plans if AT&T’s takeover gets approval from the FCC and other regulators, said industry observers. The firm largely has sat out the pay TV wars, but it has spent extensively on fiber that would allow it to scale up quickly, said executives from both Bells Mon.
Philips, Samsung and T3G will collaborate to bring TD-SCDMA handsets to the Chinese market, the companies announced Thurs. The companies will collaborate to release the dual-mode Samsung video phone in China “most likely in Q2 2006,” they said; it will combine the Philips EDGE Nexperia cellular system with a T3G protocol stack and a TD-SCDMA processor developed jointly by the 2 chip manufacturers. Samsung said its handsets will be available for launch as soon as the Chinese govt. gives the companies the proper licenses, which are pending.
A 3-in-1 TV tuner chip for ATSC, NTSC and digital cable reception is shipping from Microtune, the Tex. company said Tues. Its MicroTuner MT2131 is smaller than a thumbtack, Microtune said. Its size and $3 price slash the bill-of- materials cost 60% and enable manufacturers to deploy a tuner across all TV models, sizes and prices -- from multituner, giant-screen home theaters to small, affordable LCD TVs and inexpensive DTV set-top converter boxes, the company said. The MT2131 was engineered to solve 3 technical problems commonly identified as sources of DTV dissatisfaction -- picture break-up from interference, picture freezing and picture loss, Microtune said. The chip also is claimed to significantly improve TV reception using antennas in attics.