Collision avoidance systems should be standard on all new passenger and commercial vehicles, said the National Transportation Safety Board in a report released Monday. NTSB said only four of 684 passenger vehicle models in 2014 came with a complete forward-collision avoidance system as a standard feature. “You don’t pay extra for your seatbelt,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said in a news release. “And you shouldn’t have to pay extra for technology that can help prevent a collision altogether.” The FCC is examining whether Wi-Fi and other unlicensed devices can also safely use the 5850-5925 MHz band, dedicated to vehicle-to-vehicle crash avoidance systems. Cisco has been working with automakers on a “Listen, Detect and Avoid” protocol that would allow shared use of the spectrum (see 1505070051).
Most Xfinity Voice customers don't want spare batteries for their residential phone service, so the company has opted not to provide them, Comcast said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 14-174. FCC staff had asked for information about Comcast's backup battery policy for Xfinity Voice customers, and the company sells them for about $41 for its voice modem, Comcast said. Before February 2013, those batteries were free, and customers were notified when a battery was depleted and needed replacement, the company said. But only 13 percent of customers would follow through and get the replacements, and in 2014 fewer than 1 percent of Xfinity Voice customers bought backups, the company said. "It would be inequitable to require its entire residential voice customer base to support the significant costs of providing backup batteries to all customers when only a small fraction of those customers valued the batteries."
The U.S. delegation should push for an agenda item on spectrum for unmanned aerial systems at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019, Nokia Networks said in comments posted by the FCC Tuesday. WRC-15 is to start Nov. 2 in Geneva and one of the items will be a look at whether spectrum for drones should be taken up at the following meeting (see 1505200052). The FCC WRC Advisory Committee has been unable to reach consensus on that question. The U.S. “has been investing heavily” in the sector “including for the delivery of broadband communications to underserved, rural, and remote areas and areas suffering from disasters,” Nokia said. It said the U.S. shouldn't ignore the need for more globally harmonized spectrum for broadband. “The amount of spectrum required to support mobile broadband services is expanding exponentially,” Nokia said. “Correspondingly increasing is the desirability for the existing and newly identified spectrum to be harmonized globally across frequency range, channel plans, and emissions requirements.” The filing was in docket 04-286.
In response to a request from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the FTC agreed to investigate potentially deceptive third-party hotel booking website practices to decide whether enforcement or other actions are appropriate, a Grassley news release said Tuesday. In May, Grassley wrote a letter asking the agency to investigate the matter (see 1505260042). FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez responded in a June 5 letter citing actions the agency had taken against hotel operators that deceived consumers with how much a hotel room may cost by omitting resort fees for amenities such as newspapers, onsite exercise or pool facilities, and Internet access.
More consumers will get AT&T's GigaPower wireline broadband -- and without any public subsidies from the Connect America Fund -- if AT&T's DirecTV merger is allowed to go through, executives of both companies told FCC officials, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-90. AT&T's GigaPower service will extend to an additional 2 million locations within four years of the close of the deal, and AT&T periodically will give updates to the FCC on the status of that broadband rollout that show that work is being done without CAF money, company officials said. AT&T also continues to stand by its plan to offer a 6 Mbps stand-alone broadband service for three years after closing, company officials said. That's slower than the FCC-set benchmark speed 25 Mbps that some opponents of the deal had tried to set as a condition for the merger, but 6 Mbps "would be more widely available than a service of higher speeds," the company said. AT&T also attempted to rebut arguments about another proposed condition setting up how it would market that stand-alone broadband service -- a requirement that "would only prevent AT&T from adapting to market conditions and making the sales experience as efficient and responsive to customer needs as it can," it said.
The FCC suspended Oscar Enrique Perez-Zumaeta from participating in Lifeline activities, after he was convicted of money laundering in connection with fraudulent claims against the Lifeline USF program, said an Enforcement Bureau letter released Monday. Perez-Zumaeta owned and managed PSPS Sales, a California entity that recruited low-income people to apply for Lifeline-supported phone service through Icon Telecom, the bureau said. Icon pleaded guilty to knowingly making a false statement to the Universal Service Administrative Co. about fraudulent Lifeline claims, the letter said. "According to court records, you were charged with directing PSPS workers to enroll fictitious customers and falsify Lifeline recertification forms for use in Icon’s fraudulent scheme," the letter said to Perez-Zumaeta. "On November 7, 2014, you pled guilty to one count of money laundering for depositing a $52,390.00 check from Icon into a PSPS bank account, despite knowing that more than $10,000.00 of those funds was the result of criminal fraud against the Commission." Under FCC rules, the conviction requires the bureau to suspend Perez-Zumaeta from participating in any activities involving Lifeline, the letter said.
Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge made a pitch for approval of Charter's buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, as he met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to discuss the deal, the company said in an ex parte notice posted Friday in dockets 14-28 and 10-127. Rutledge told Wheeler the acquisitions "will bring substantial consumer benefits," such as improved Internet service for users, and won't lessen competition, the company said. Rutledge also told Wheeler that Charter generally agrees with open Internet rules, such as prohibition of paid prioritization, but "the company remains concerned about the regulatory uncertainty and potential unintended consequences" of the net neutrality order.
Cox Communications is repeating its push for substantial conditions on AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV. The cable company said a combined company would mean "substantial dangers ... to competition for bundled video, voice, and data services." In an ex parte notice posted Friday in docket 14-90, Cox repeated and elaborated on several objections to the proposed deal and proposed regulatory steps to fix them, including that all video services offered by AT&T/DirecTV should be subject to Communications Act Section 628 rules, and requiring that AT&T/DirecTV use its own wiring -- not another provider's -- in any multidwelling unit it serves, or that it take steps to ensure it doesn't somehow interfere with a competitor's broadband service on that wiring infrastructure. AT&T/DirecTV will mean higher programming costs for smaller operators like Cox, as programmers raise prices on them to make up for the volume discounts a larger player like AT&T/DirecTV will be able to command, Cox said, repeating its request the FCC to limit those volume discounts as well to limit any exclusive programming contracts of AT&T/DirecTV. AT&T and DirecTV previously called some of the proposed conditions being put forward by deal critics “self-serving demands ... designed only to advance unrelated business interests" (see 1505270049).
The FCC made the right decisions in February in its net neutrality order, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the Greater D.C. Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. “Those of us who voted to support the Order have and will continue to take some heat, but I firmly believe this approach is in the best interest of the people we have pledged to serve, including the small and medium-sized business owners in this room,” Clyburn said in the text of the speech posted Thursday. Clyburn also stressed the importance of expanding the Lifeline program. An order and further rulemaking on Lifeline are teed up for a vote at the FCC’s June 18 meeting (see 1505280037). There are issues with Lifeline but the “level of criticism the program has received is not entirely justified,” she said. Clyburn said current efforts to reshape the program started in 2013 when she was acting chairwoman. “Like many of you, I know what it is to be underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood,” she said. “When I was appointed Acting Chair of the FCC, many concluded that I would be a mere bench warmer, accepting the title and the perks, but hanging out until the permanent appointee assumed the post. But like many of you, being underestimated, under-appreciated and misunderstood just causes me to shift into this highly motivated, hyper-driven state -- where I do as much as I can for as long as I am able.”
Dozens of hospitals have filed at the FCC in recent days raising concerns about the agency’s proposal to allow TV white spaces (TVWS) devices to operate in Channel 37 following the TV incentive auction. The frequency is currently used for licensed wireless medical telemetry. The FCC posted them in batches in docket 14-165. Typical of the filings, PMH Medical Center in rural Washington state said it uses wireless telemetry mostly to monitor cardiac patients, allowing a single nurse to keep track of 20 patients. If the hospitals system were affected by an outside source, such as a TVWS device, “it would have a drastic effect on the overall quality of care provided and may indeed cause life threatening lapses in an episode of care for extremely ill patients,” PMH said. Any lapse in its wireless monitoring system “could result in the death of the patient, especially with cardiac critical patients,” said St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno. Both letters were in the same batch of filings posted by the FCC.