Senate Governmental Reform Committee ranking Democrat Lieberman (Conn.) and Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) are crafting legislation that they hope will lead to a “permanent stream of funding” for research into the impact of electronic media on children. The bill specifically would create a new unit at the National Institutes of Health to determine how media consumption could be detrimental -- as well as beneficial -- to childhood development, they announced Wed. at a Children’s Digital Media Center news conference at the National Press Club.
FCC Comr. Abernathy announced a new initiative to help parents wade through TV networks and programs to find shows that were age-appropriate for their children. Working with the Consumer & Govt. Affairs Bureau, Abernathy told a meeting of the Cable TV Public Affairs Assn. Tues. that she was working on a page for the FCC Web site where parents could go to get information explaining broadcasters’ children’s educational and information (EAI) requirements, links to stations’ family-friendly programs, information on how the V- chip and other blocking tools worked, and on the Commission’s indecency rules, as well as how to file an indecency complaint. Abernathy said the “Parents’ Page” should be available in a few weeks.
The global market for DSL and cable broadband has grown “dramatically” to over 57 million subscribers in 2002 from 14 million in 2000, a new study by Forward Concepts said. It predicted that by 2006, the global DSL and cable modem equipment market would exceed $4 billion and the broadband- specific semiconductor market would top $800 million. Forward Concepts said the market for DSL and cable modem equipment and semiconductors was “now emerging into a new phase of opportunity” for new products. Beginning this year, it said, new equipment and chips incorporating the latest ADSL2, ADSL2+ and DOCSIS 2.0 standards would begin to have a significant impact on the market and on the capability of system operators to offer advanced triple-play, voice, video and data services. The report said the number of DSL and cable broadband subscribers would exceed 192 million by the end of 2006. It predicted the resulting subscriber revenue would exceed $80 billion annually that year: “This revenue growth opportunity represents a key strategic objective for the telecom companies and cable operators competing for broadband subscriber market share in the increasingly deregulated and competitive communications marketplace.” With traditional phone revenue declining, cellular markets saturating and telephone and cable companies looking for new sources of growth, broadband revenue is becoming a strategic imperative, Forward Concepts said.
Commerce Secy. Donald Evans faced questions from Senate Appropriations Committee members Thurs. about the elimination of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Sen. Kohl (D- Wis.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee, questioned why it was necessary to reduce spending on the MEP. Evans said both MEP and ATP were good programs, but not good enough. “It’s a matter of priorities,” he said of the programs. “At some point, you have to draw the line. There’s just a difference of opinion on this,” Evans told Kohl. Evans said one problem with ATP was that despite the fact it worked like a venture capital program, the govt. didn’t get any return on its investment. Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee Chmn. Gregg (R- N.H.) asked Evans whether he had developed any legislative language that would create such a return, to which Evans replied he wasn’t interested in moving in that direction on the program. On another topic, Gregg asked Evans how he intended to handle the backlog of 400,000 patent applications and expressed concern that Evans’ plan was vague. The Bush Administration’s 2004 budget requests an additional $70 million for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) for a total of $1.4 billion. Evans told Gregg the additional money for PTO would help with the backlog, as well as a transition to a “paperless” electronic patent filing system. “Many of my constituents have expressed concern about how long it is taking,” Gregg said of the patent backlog. “Some have gotten frustrated and pulled out of the process.” Evans said the govt. was “moving aggressively” toward a more global patent system, citing the need to work more closely with the European Union and Japan. Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) expressed concern about the U.S. trade deficit in certain products, including semiconductors. Evans also told the subcommittee that the transition of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) from Commerce to the Dept. of Homeland Security had gone smoothly. In a sign of the times, Hollings said he was less worried about programs such as MEP and ATP and asked Evans whether he would do more to help bring countries such as Canada and Mexico into the Iraq war effort.
Industry negotiations on cable carriage of broadcast DTV programming have seen “only minimal progress” and cable carriage is vital for the DTV transition if most consumers continue to get their broadcast channels through cable, NAB Pres. Edward Fritts told the annual meeting of the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) Tues. NCTA Pres. Robert Sachs later said broadcast signals were an important part of “cable’s mix” of services, but he challenged broadcasters’ contentions that cable systems were “blocking access” to high-definition (HD) broadcast programming. It was Round 2 in the continuing rhetorical battle between Fritts and Sachs, one day after similar arguments at the Consumer Electronics Assn.’s HDTV Summit (CD March 11 p4).
FCC Comr. Abernathy, speaking on panel on children’s programming, said Fri. that she had been having informal talks with broadcasters on ways to make parents more aware of educational children’s TV programming since various formats of TV guides didn’t make that information available and current ratings system wasn’t specific enough to contain such information. Speaking on same panel, Rep. Markey (D-Mass.) said he believed broadcasters using public airwaves needed to do more to educate parents about use of V-chip technology to block shows with graphic sex and/or violence and vulgar language. Specifically, Markey said broadcasters should formulate public service announcements (PSAs) as part of that effort. Panel was put on by U. of Pa.’s Annenberg Public Policy Center at National Press Club in Washington.
NARUC is forming 2 task forces to address state-related issues arising out of last week’s FCC Triennial Review order on UNEs (CD Feb 21 p1). Meanwhile, NARUC speakers at group’s annual winter meeting in Washington explored potential ramifications of Commission’s order on states and industry.
UBS Warburg said start of 3GSM World Congress in Cannes indicated there still was “limited visibility” on commercial rollout of new mobile data services such as multimedia messaging and 3G Wideband CDMA. Firm said in note to investors that operators had signaled unwillingness to invest heavily in 3G until more “signs of life” emerged for mobile data services. It cited general lack of conviction in expected return on investment in new mobile data services. View that emerged in first session of conference Mon. was that 3G commercial launches weren’t likely before 2004-2005, UBS said. Orange said it would launch test 3G network in summer. Key technical barriers for industry that emerged include site acquisition, particularly because for 3G, double number of 2nd-generation sites was required, UBS said. On Mon., Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector disclosed results of what it billed as first live, over-air call of wireless handset platform for 3G. Platform is being sampled with handsets from Siemens and Motorola. Motorola said platform was designed to “shave months” off development and integration time so manufacturers could develop 3G devices more cheaply. Meanwhile, Nokia said Tues. its 6650 phone, dual-mode WCDMA/GSM unit, completed interoperability testing with infrastructure vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Nortel, Siemens. Nokia said tests for intersystem voice handover with 6650 handsets showed progress to 3G systems from 2G.
FCC began 2nd periodic review of DTV transition Mon. with rulemaking that asked how agency should develop policies to accelerate clearing of broadcast spectrum. Rulemaking revisits some issues from first review, but also addresses several new issues that parties have said they considered trickier aspects of transition. Those would include how FCC should interpret test developed by Congress to determine whether at least 85% of viewers have access to digital broadcast signals, either over air or through cable or satellite, and how agency should deal with issue of simulcasting.
Bipartisan group of 20 House members asked FCC to delay final decisions on Unbundled Network Element (UNE) Triennial Review and wireline broadband proceedings “until Congress has a sufficient opportunity to consider the impact of the pending proposals on consumers and competition,” they said in letter Jan. 24. Signers included House Govt. Reform Chmn. Davis (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Conyers (Mich.).