The FCC should file the results to proceedings on the terrestrial low-power service demonstrations held at the agency’s Technology Experience Center in March, said Gerst Capital in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 13-213. Those TLPS measurement results should include resolution bandwidth, video bandwidth, center frequency and frequency span, Gerst said. The measurements are required to “validate Globalstar’s claim that all devices will only require ‘firmware modifications’ to support TLPS,” the letter said. It said the measurements could impair channel 14/TLPS, which would bring the claim into question. If the problem does exist at the access point, it will exist for almost any LTE-enabled smartphone, too, Gerst said. Globalstar has said Gerst is a short-seller that profits from creating doubt, and defended its tests (see 1503230030).
Comments are due April 24, replies May 11 on The Compliance Group’s Jan. 27 petition for a declaratory ruling to clarify the exemption for systems integrators from USF contribution obligations, said an FCC Wireline Bureau public notice Tuesday. It said Compliance wants a clarification on whether the exemption applies to the resale or provision of interconnected VoIP when resold or provisioned by a systems integrator.
Comcast retreated from earlier defenses of its proposed buy of Time Warner Cable, Dish Network said in a partially redacted ex parte filing posted Tuesday in FCC docket 14-57. Comcast previously portrayed online video distributors as a benefit to its content and ISP businesses, but now “applicants acknowledge OVDs are a threat,” Dish said. Comcast also shifted its stance on whether the deal will lead to a rate increase and whether it ever considered an out-of-footprint over-the-top offering, Dish said. Comcast also “sidestepped” Dish arguments about the cable company’s “evasion” of previous deal conditions, said the DBS company. “The point is not that Comcast will overtly violate the law, but that Comcast can and will exploit any lack of clarity, complexity in the facts, and the likely frequent inability of either the Commission or possible victims to detect the relevant conduct,” Dish said. "This is just another example of Dish repackaging its old arguments and misrepresenting the facts," a Comcast spokeswoman told us. "We’ve already responded to their claims, and will do so again in due time.”
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) again said demonstrations show terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) interferes significantly with Bluetooth devices, in an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 13-213. Globalstar said broadband TLPS “is a good neighbor” to Wi-Fi operations on IEEE 802.11 channel 11 and other channels (see 1503230030). Bluetooth SIG said it's suspicious of the conclusion from Globalstar's Bluetooth speaker test, which was reported to show clear audio quality, considering the SIG's finding in a Bluetooth speaker test without TLPS that the audio quality was poor, the filing said. Bluetooth SIG said it became clear during recent demos (see 1503190025) that all the access points had a very low level of traffic when compared with the maximum possible for those points. It said specific media files were used by those operating the TLPS setup for the Bluetooth demos, which may have produced a lower level of traffic. "These limited demonstrations prove that there should be significant concern about the interference caused by TLPS on Bluetooth communications," said a Bluetooth SIG spokeswoman. "There were other demonstrations that we had prepared but were unable to conduct due to the facilities provided and we believe that these other demonstrations would also have shown the effect of TLPS interference." Bluetooth had two days to set up and test its products before the demonstration and only decided to demo two devices, even though the company brought others, said Barbee Ponder, vice president-regulatory affairs for Globalstar. "Bluetooth's claim that they didn't have enough time or space is absurd," he said. "They could have returned Monday and Tuesday of the following week for the continuation of the demonstration but decided not to do so." Ponder said Globalstar demonstrated that four different mainstream BlueTooth-enabled devices worked flawlessly and simultaneously with all three public Wi-Fi channels and TLPS operating in the FCC's Technology Experience Center.
Broadcasters overwhelmingly support a rule change letting contest rules be disclosed online instead of on-air, but want flexibility over how often the online location should be broadcast and how specific the announcement of the Web address should be, according to replies in docket 14-226. Only iHeartMedia, the state broadcast associations of North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia and Clarke Broadcasting replied. “Announcement of a short, branded home page URL address makes more sense than announcement of a lengthy URL address containing backslashes and potentially unusual characters because the short home page address is almost always more memorable and understandable,” said the broadcast associations, echoed by iHeartMedia. Requiring stations to recite long, specific Web addresses on air is “unnecessary given consumers’ familiarity with website addresses and how to enter them into their browsers,” iHeartMedia said. Stations should be able to decide how often to mention the Web address, commenters agreed. “It would be bad programming to follow each 'mention' of one of these contests with an announcement that the contest terms are available on our website,” said Clarke. “The announcement itself would disrupt the normal programming flow and quickly begin to irritate our listeners, who are very familiar with these long-running contests.” Broadcasters were similarly supportive in initial comments, with several referring to the change as a rare FCC action where everyone agrees (see 1502200035).
The FCC should let American Cable Association Senior Vice President Ross Lieberman access highly confidential information in the Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV deals, ACA said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 14-57. Though access to video programming confidential information (VPCI) about the deals is the subject of a pending U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision, other parties in the transactions have been allowed access to other confidential documents, ACA said. Lieberman was one of several attorneys objected to by the group of content companies challenging the FCC’s right to release VPCI, but the agency eventually granted them access to the lesser forms of confidential information on the grounds that the objections against them had specifically referenced VPCI. Lieberman and Ellen Stutzman, in-house counsel of the Writers Guild of America, West, were the only attorneys who remain barred from accessing any CI in the proceedings. Though the confidentiality orders in the proceeding mandate access by outside counsel, in-house lawyers for Comptel have been granted access, ACA said. ”Mr. Lieberman’s limited participation puts ACA and its members at a significant and unfair disadvantage, and as a matter of fairness, the Commission must promptly rectify this matter."
Globalstar's broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) "is a good neighbor" to Wi-Fi operations on IEEE 802.11 Channel 11 and other channels and Bluetooth device operations within an unlicensed band at 2400-2483.5 MHz, the company said. It cited a recently completed TLPS demonstration at the agency's Technology Experience Center, in a filing Friday in docket 13-213. Bluetooth, cable and other interests have criticized that demo (see 1503190025). "Globalstar’s demonstration showed that Bluetooth-enabled devices, including a heart rate monitor, wireless speaker, and various computer mouses, worked without any service impact in the presence of TLPS," said the filing on the satellite company's meeting with an aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. "Consumers will benefit significantly from the provision of TLPS across 22 megahertz of additional broadband spectrum in the 2.4 GHz band." Globalstar said it seeks adoption of the commission's proposed TLPS rules.
EchoStar wants to “underscore its request” that the FCC Media Bureau “grant expeditiously” the waiver it seeks of the analog tuner requirement (see 1502270044) so it can market a new model of SlingLoaded HD Internet-enabled DVR in the U.S. without an over-the-air analog tuner, said the company in reply comments posted Friday in docket 15-47. No opposition to the petition was filed in the docket, and “the lone commenter,” CEA, “unambiguously supported grant of the waiver in order to provide consumers with access to a new, competitive, cost-effective choice in an increasingly popular category of consumer entertainment devices” (see 1503130017), EchoStar said. The waiver EchoStar seeks will give consumers "access to a new device that combines over-the-air television content with over-the-top streaming content functionality from almost any broadband-enabled multimedia platform, all in a sleek, ultra-thin, energy-efficient form factor,” the company said. Although EchoStar believes consumers won’t be “adversely impacted” by a waiver, EchoStar “has committed to the labeling, marketing, and consumer education conditions” the bureau imposed in granting past waivers, it said. “Any such obligations should be lifted if the Commission declines, as it should, to impose labeling and education requirements in the pending analog tuner rulemaking proceeding” for low-power TV, it said.
The FTC is hiring technologists to staff its newly formed Office of Technology Research and Investigation (OTRI), which was created to “expand the FTC’s capacity to protect consumers in an age of rapid technological innovation,” wrote FTC Chief Technologist Ashkan Soltani in a blog post Monday. In its hundred years, the commission has protected consumers as new technologies, from movies and radio to smartphones and connected cars, emerged, Soltani said. “When smart phones began to become ubiquitous, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection created a Mobile Technology Unit” (MTU) to highlight “consumer protection challenges posed by mobile technologies,” and developed tools and techniques to protect consumers, Soltani said. The OTRI is the successor to the MTU and will tackle "an even broader array of investigative research on technology issues involving all facets of the FTC’s consumer protection mission, including privacy, data security, connected cars, smart homes, algorithmic transparency, emerging payment methods, big data, and the Internet of Things,” he said. New positions the FTC announced include a technology policy research fellowship, research coordinator and technology research internship program, Soltani said. The FTC’s tech blog, traditionally reserved for posts from the agency’s chief technologist, soon will expand to allow posts from “invited FTC staff, including members of OTRI,” who will guest blog about technical research findings and technology-related issues affecting consumers, he said.
FCC letter of credit requirements for recipients of rural broadband experiment (RBE) funding are "inconsistent with commercially prudent lending practices,” CoBank said in a letter to the agency posted Friday in docket 10-90. RBE recipients need to obtain a letter of credit when they are selected for funding and then renew and increase the letter of credit each year to reflect the amount of funding they will receive over the next year, the rural lender noted. If a recipient can't obtain a letter in any year, it would be considered in default by the commission, which would be able to demand repayment of the funds, the filing said. The bank that initially approved the letter of credit would effectively be in the position of having to renew the letter of credit each year or having the borrower face default, CoBank said. The lenders’ exposure would increase over time “as it is impossible to assess the various risks facing operators in the rapidly changing telecommunications industry over a 10-year horizon,” the filing said. The amount required to be covered by a letter of credit should increase only through the build-out period and then be reduced or eliminated, CoBank said. The commission’s ability to change performance requirements for carriers also “adds an element of regulatory and political risk,” and is also “inconsistent with commercially prudent lending practices,” CoBank said. The agency should clarify that award recipients are responsible only for meeting the performance standards that exist when the awards are granted, the filing said.