AT&T could serve Government Emergency Telecommunications Services customers on an interim basis with Wireless Priority Services in the areas where the company is conducting its IP trials, company officials told officials from the FCC’s Wireline and Public Safety and Homeland Security bureaus on Feb. 12, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 12-353. GETS calls currently compete across the consumer VoIP platform, but call prioritization will occur only in the TDM or AT&T business portion of the call. The company plans to stop offering TDM services to new customers in the trial areas, West Delray Beach, Florida, and Carbon Hill, Alabama, in the second half of this year (see 1405290053). The interim solution would continue while the industry discusses the engineering of GETS prioritization on consumer VoIP platforms with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Emergency Communications, AT&T said. Among those representing the carrier were Frank Simone, assistant vice president-federal regulatory; Christopher Heimann, general attorney; and Stacy Schwartz, vice president-public safety for AT&T Government Solutions.
Broadcasters need to become more aggressive in meeting consumer demand, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the North American Broadcast Association in a speech Thursday. "Internet streaming and podcasts are good examples of radio broadcasters reaching out to meet listeners where they are," Pai said. “Broadcast and broadband are complements, not substitutes.” That most cellphone FM chips aren’t activated is “perplexing,” Pai said. Activating them would preserve spectrum, he said. “Streaming FM stations on consumers’ smartphones using cellular networks just doesn’t make much sense. All of that data is unnecessarily using spectrum and contributing to network congestion.” But Pai said he wouldn't support mandatory activation of the chips. “If there is consumer demand for activating FM chips -- and I believe that there is -- I am optimistic that we will continue to see progress on this issue as a result of commercial negotiations and competitive pressure in the private marketplace,” said Pai, known for his role in championing radio and AM in particular. The role of government in radio is to get rid of obsolete regulations, such as those preventing cross ownership, he said. The FCC should take action on AM revitalization because it has broad support, Pai said. “It’s no secret that the FCC has been deeply divided on many key issues recently,” Pai said. “AM revitalization is one area where we could come together to advance the common good.”
The initial meeting of the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee was rescheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at FCC headquarters, the agency said in a public notice Wednesday. The meeting had been set for Feb. 17, but was canceled after the federal government partly shut down in Washington for inclement weather.
The FCC must ensure that Globalstar will use Wi-Fi channel 14 in a way that “both safeguards and enhances” unlicensed spectrum in that band before it forecloses “existing and future public use of the unlicensed spectrum at 2473 to 2483.5 MHz,” New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute head Michael Calabrese told an aide to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly in a meeting Feb. 11, an ex parte filing said. To do so, the FCC should allow cooperative testing to determine the interference impact of unlicensed use in the band, Calabrese said. If Globalstar's use of the band won't interfere with other unlicensed use, the commission should condition the use of the spectrum on the company providing a guard band to prevent interference to neighboring spectrum or on Globalstar allowing shared use of channel 14, Calabrese said.
The FCC dismissed the American Hotel & Lodging Association's, Marriott International's and Ryman Hospitality Properties’ petition for declaratory ruling on Wi-Fi containment capabilities, in an order in RM-11737 on Feb. 13. The hotel associations withdrew a request for declaratory ruling Jan. 30. In 2013, Marriott prevented guests at the Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville from bypassing the hotel’s Wi-Fi to use their own Wi-Fi hot spots, the Enforcement Bureau said in an Oct. 3, 2014, order. Marriott signed a consent decree to settle the $600,000 fine after the commission completed an investigation of the Wi-Fi jamming in 2013. The FCC issued two enforcement advisories, one Dec. 8, another Jan. 27, calling Wi-Fi jamming “a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hotspots on the commercial establishment’s premises.” Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, the FCC said. The commission shouldn't dismiss the petition or close the proceeding, Public Knowledge said in an opposition filed Friday. It suggested dismissing the petition with prejudice, because Marriott filed a request for declaratory ruling but didn't file a motion requesting that the commission dismiss the pleading. In Marriott's opinion, Section 333 doesn't apply to unlicensed devices operating under Part 15 and it has the right to use jamming technology for cybersecurity reasons, Public Knowledge said.
CEA hails the Federal Aviation Administration for finally releasing its proposed rules on small drones, President Gary Shapiro said Monday in a statement. But the rulemaking notice is “only the liftoff stage toward needed final rules,” Shapiro said. “It will be important to strike the appropriate regulatory balance between innovation and safety, and we urge the FAA to expedite this rulemaking action to fully realize commercial drones’ potential as a truly disruptive technology.” CEA thinks drones “will revolutionize a broad array of consumer and commercial sectors, bringing with them innovative new businesses and thousands of jobs,” Shapiro said. Amazon had asked the FAA for an exemption to test-fly small commercial drones on its Seattle property (see 1407150075). The FAA’s proposed rules wouldn't prohibit industries from using drones to transport cargo, “so long as it is not done for compensation and the total weight of the aircraft, including the property, is less than 55 pounds,” the notice said. The agency seeks comment on whether drones should be permitted to transport property for payment “within the other proposed constraints of the rule,” such as the requirements for line of sight operations. It also seeks comment on whether a special class of “air carrier certification” should be developed for commercial operations of small drones. Release of the rulemaking notice came roughly 11 months after CEA and the Aerospace Industries Association joined in urging the FAA to speed the rulemaking process along (see 1403280033). The rulemaking notice also came nearly five years after an FAA-“chartered” aviation rulemaking committee completed work on a 74-page report of comprehensive recommendations on small drones use (see 1403310035). Comments on the proposed rules are due 60 days after they’re published in the Federal Register. Although privacy issues as they pertain to drones "are beyond the scope" of its rulemaking, the FAA and the Department of Transportation will participate in NTIA's "multi-stakeholder engagement process" on the "privacy, accountability, and transparency issues" of commercial drone operations, the notice said (see 1502170038).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler hopes the commission's new Disability Advisory Committee will look into applications that can sync video description to smart devices used while watching video programming, he said in a blog post Friday. Wheeler also praised CBS, Fox and PBS for “going above and beyond current FCC rules” in offering programming with video description, highlighting a Stevie Wonder performancebroadcast on CBS Monday as the first musical performance program to use video description. Wonder visited the FCC months ago to discuss raising awareness for video description, Wheeler said.
The FCC should create a new fee category for multichannel video programming distributors, the American Cable Association said in a ex parte notice Friday in docket 13-140. Cable operators and IPTV providers shouldn’t be the only MVPDs supporting the Media Bureau’s MVPD regulatory activities through fees, ACA said. The commission should assess regulatory fees on direct broadcast satellite providers the same way it assess fees for cable and IPTV providers, ACA said. The commission could add DBS to the cable/IPTV fee category, as it added IPTV to the cable-TV category in its 2013 regulatory fees order, ACA said. "The FCC should reject cable's latest proposal to raise satellite fees, just as it did the last five times cable proposed it," DirecTV said in a statement Friday. "The dominant cable providers require more regulation by virtue of their size and broadband offering and since regulatory fees are supposed to recover the costs of regulation, there's no reason for the FCC to revisit the current fee structure." Dish Network didn’t comment.
Establishing an air-ground mobile broadband service could affect secondary service on irregular fixed-service satellite (FSS) operations, including satellite launches, said the Satellite Industry Association in an ex parte notice Thursday in FCC RM-11640. Temporary FSS operations are done under special temporary authorizations, SIA said. The commission should note in a report or order the importance of protecting temporary FSS operations and new satellite constellations from interference from secondary users, SIA said. Earlier this month, the FCC removed from circulation a draft order on establishing an ATG service over national security concerns (see 1502120054).
The FCC authorized AT&T’s maximum bit rate program, the carrier said in a comment filed Friday that hasn’t yet appeared in docket 14-28. The Enforcement Bureau is considering whether to issue a notice of apparent liability against AT&T alleging that the company's public disclosure of its maximum bit rate program failed to satisfy the FCC's transparency rule and proposing statutory forfeitures, AT&T said in a motion to dismiss filed Jan. 5. The FCC endorsed managed bit rate programs in staff reports on AT&T, Comcast and T-Mobile, AT&T said. The company disclosed its network management program and informed customers that it may “slow speeds once an unlimited plan customer has used a set amount of data” through bill statements, emails, text messages and its website since 2011, it said. T-Mobile recently agreed to offer more accurate information to customers checking their mobile broadband speeds after reaching their monthly data caps (see 1411240062).