The Senate Judiciary Committee will take up re- authorizing the Satellite Home Viewer Act once the committee gets through its first round of Obama nominations, Senate officials said. The satellite bill must pass in 2009 or the direct broadcast satellite industry will lose access to some copyrighted programs. “Very quickly I suspect there will be a time when they will turn their attention to other matters” than the nominations, said a Senate aide close to Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “I don’t anticipate this will be an issue that will be held, because the legislative process can be long.”

Brands and retailers are turning to digital coupons, particularly mobile coupons, to sweeten consumer offers, in response to the spread of Internet-enabled phones and the tightening of consumer budgets, companies and analysts said. Distribution of coupons across social networking sites and mobile platforms increased last year. It will again in 2009, companies said.

Global Security Systems signed an agreement with Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems unit to deploy national, state and local alert and warning systems that feature wireless and wireline infrastructure and consumer devices, the companies said. The systems will enable the federal, state and local officials and emergency management agencies to communicate with first responders and citizens in the event of a war, natural disaster, national, regional or local emergency, they said. The collaboration addresses the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security to deploy an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. The partnership enables rapid rollout of future Commercial Mobile Alert Systems, said Dave Nastase, vice president of the Mission Support Solutions Operating Unit.

AT&T’s U-Verse PEG product is being investigated by the Illinois Attorney General’s office to determine whether its treatment of public, educational and government access channels complies with state law, a consumer advocacy group said. A Dec. 22 statement by Chicago Access Network Television attributed word of AG Lisa Madigan’s investigation to the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, a Chicago-area advocacy group. The 2007 Illinois Cable and Video Competition Law requires that PEG channels be delivered at signal quality and functionality equivalent to that for commercial channels. AT&T, the first video provider to get an Illinois state franchise, claims its U-Verse system can’t do that, CANTV said. A study by the Illinois unit of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, representing local government officials, said technology is available to allow delivery of PEG channels on U-Verse without the AT&T system’s deficiencies, CANTV said. U-Verse pulls local PEG channels from the standard cable lineup, grouping them under Channel 99, “stripping away individual channel identities and depriving those channels of basic functions viewers have come to expect,” CANTV said. “AT&T subscribers can no longer tune to the familiar cable channel for the village board meeting or homework help program,” the group said. “Viewers can’t switch between commercial and PEG channels, set a DVR to record a PEG program, receive closed captioning, or depend on getting timely local emergency alerts.” AT&T and the AG’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Rama Communications’ request for the FCC to reduce or cancel a $16,000 fine for failing to maintain a working emergency alert system and complete public inspection file at WLAA(AM) Ocoee, Fla., was denied by the Enforcement Bureau. In an order released last week, the bureau gave the company 30 days to pay before it risks having the case referred to the Justice Department for collection.

Executives of the Association for Maximum Service Television opposed the FCC’s proposed white spaces order at a Friday morning meeting with legal advisers for the five commissioners, FCC sources said. David Donovan, MSTV’s president, Victor Tavil, senior vice president, and Bruce Franca, vice president, spoke for the group. Catherine Wang, an attorney for Shure, represented the wireless microphone maker. The business representatives objected to power levels in the proposal being considered by the FCC and recommended how the agency should approve and certify white spaces, said an official who attended the meeting. Walter Liss, president of ABC-owned TV stations, raised a single question for the FCC in a letter sent to commissioners Friday: “Are you really prepared to authorize millions of unlicensed/portable devices in the TV band based on the hope that none of them will ever break and cause untraceable interference to consumer TV reception?” Robert Reymont, co-chair of the Arizona Emergency Communications Committee, said in a letter to the FCC that the commission’s white-spaces proposal raises basic public-safety questions. “In the past year, Arizona people have depended on the Emergency Alert System and local broadcasters to warn them about such life threatening- emergencies as flash floods from broken levees to hazardous materials spills to severe weather to AMBER Alerts,” he said. “But if interference from ‘white-space devices’ degrades television reception our residents and visitors won’t be able to depend on local broadcasters for this critical information.”

Southern California networks held up fairly well overall in fall 2007’s firestorms but could do better, said the Public Utilities Commission. The report said reverse 911 systems in San Bernardino and San Diego counties helped save lives by alerting more than 350,000 people in the fires’ paths. But people with only wireless or VoIP service missed evacuation warnings because their numbers don’t appear automatically in conventional 911 databases used for outbound emergency notices. Local safety officials should encourage people to register non-wireline numbers with those agencies, the PUC said. The disaster caused traffic spikes that delayed or blocked calls. The PUC said carrier networks “performed as designed” but added that there’s “room for improvement” in how carriers monitor and report network performance during massive emergencies. In states of emergency, carriers should closely monitor traffic volumes and blocked calls so they can address congestion as quickly as possible, the report said. And after disasters, carriers should coordinate network recovery with work by other utilities and emergency management agencies.

The FCC fined four radio stations $52,000 total, most for broadcasting phone conversations without telling the callers in advance, the Enforcement Bureau said Friday. FM stations WXDJ North Miami Beach, Fla., WSKQ New York and WWAW Williston, S.C., got notices of apparent liability. WLAA(AM) Ocoee, Fla., got a forfeiture order for emergency alert system and other violations.

Keep interconnected VoIP eligible for Universal Service Fund E-Rate schools and libraries support, a cross section of industry and E-Rate applicants said in Thursday comments on a rulemaking. But commenters differed on funding year 2009 eligibility for filtering software, dark fiber and other new services.

Mobile devices have been brought to college classrooms to further educational goals, educators said. Operators and vendors see higher education as a promising market, they said. But “digital cheating” and security issues were on the rise too, said safety expert Ken Trump, CEO of National School Safety and Security Services. Most K-12 schools have banned cellphone use in class, Trump said.