Internet policy makers are girding themselves for future fights with those in the international community who seek to impose new restrictions and regulations on the Internet. While lawmakers Tuesday commended the work of U.S. delegates to oppose new international regulations at the recent World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), they said at a joint Congressional hearing on the topic they must redouble efforts to combat further restrictions on the Web.
The FCC released the source code of and sought comments on an update to its broadcast TV interference analysis software that it will use to repack the TV band following the incentive spectrum auction. Broadcasters had been asking for the software, and can now begin kicking the tires on it. The program, called TVStudy, and the data needed to run it are at http://xrl.us/boezm9. The new software is an update to OET-69, the system the FCC used in the DTV transition, a public notice released Monday said (http://xrl.us/boezm9).
Sirius XM’s recent telematics agreement with Nissan and its Internet protocol-based personal radio project give the satellite radio operator a foothold in the automotive industry’s push to make Internet connectivity broadly available in vehicles, Sirius XM executives said Tuesday on the company’s earnings call.
Questions about telecom reliability and public safety dominated the first days of the winter NARUC meeting in Washington. Two resolutions addressed public safety concerns -- one proposed more emergency coordination, and another dealt with the possibility of spectrum interference and its possible dangers to public safety entities. Panelists discussed safety implications of technology transitions and the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
Witnesses will urge lawmakers to increase their efforts to encourage a multistakeholder model of Internet governance, according to testimony published ahead of Tuesday’s joint hearing with three House subcommittees to examine the events that occurred at the December World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The joint hearing will be in Room 2123 Rayburn hosted by the House subcommittees on: Communications and Technology; Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade; and Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. Invited to testify are: FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell; former Ambassador David Gross; Sally Shipman Wentworth, senior manager-public policy at the Internet Society; Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge and Bitange Ndemo, the permanent secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications.
Pressure is growing on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to say something, anything, about his plans for the future, now that the second term of the Obama administration is underway. Last week, Genachowski was peppered with questions in the news conference after the commission meeting, but said nothing about his departure plans (CD Feb 1 p11). Also on the rise is pressure on the administration to appoint the first-ever woman to chair the FCC, one of the most high-profile of the independent federal commissions, following the departure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
What’s it like to win the Super Bowl? “Fucking awesome!” according to Joe Flacco, just before the Baltimore Ravens quarterback was named game MVP. He let those words loose while giving teammate and offensive lineman Marshal Yanda a celebratory slap on the shoulder pads in front of CBS’s cameras and microphones following the game Sunday night. The words carried through CBS’s network and out over the air of its owned and affiliated TV stations, where the FCC’s rules against indecency apply.
The FCC’s Connect America Fund will be the subject of a cost-model order and a new boundary mapping tool soon, agency officials told state regulators at the winter NARUC meeting. But as the FCC moves full steam ahead on what it’s calling its highest priority, state regulators worried about boundary area mapping expressed concern that some of the FCC’s plans may be coming too soon for states and companies to handle.
CompTel CEO Jerry James told state regulators that incumbent telcos must abide by the interconnection regulations of the Communications Act and must file the agreements on the state level. “The ILECs must comply with Sections 251 and 252,” James said in a Monday speech. “This interconnection must be filed and should be filed at each state commission.” The regulations are still “applicable” as well as vital and aren’t a matter of wanting to “regulate the Internet” or trying to “turn back the clock,” he said.
State regulators tackled the significance of the FCC’s access recovery charge (ARC) early on at its winter committee meetings in Washington. Panelists struggled to make sense of the charge, which has spurred heated filings between the D.C. Public Service Commission and Verizon and is a concern that’s come up in other states, as FCC filings have shown. A panel of telco and state regulators met Saturday afternoon to discuss the contested charge, introduced to make up for revenue telcos lost in reduced access rates when the FCC issued its November 2011 USF order.