Participating Government Agencies (PGAs) should look to CBP's protocol for processing holds and pauses as a way to improve the PGA process, said the Advisory Committee On Commercial Operations (COAC) Trade Facilitation Subcommittee in a list of recommendations based of its first-ever trade survey. Survey respondents said interactions with CBP on holds and pauses was far more favorable than dealing with PGAs. The subcommittee advises the process reviews could be performed through the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs). The list of recommendations were posted Aug. 10.
The FCC should reject AT&T’s proposals on how the agency should handle renewal applications by Wireless Communications Service licensees, Green Flag Wireless said in a letter to the commission. Those proposals were laid out by AT&T in an ex parte filing last month (http://xrl.us/bnjm2z). “The thrust of AT&T’s presentation to the Commission’s staff seems to have been an effort to circumvent both the existing rules adopted by the Commission to handle precisely the situation that has arisen and the sixty-odd years of precedent establishing that incumbents may not simply be granted a renewal in the absence of substantial service,” Green Flag said (http://xrl.us/bnjm3w). “AT&T adopts an attitude of prima facie entitlement to the WCS spectrum and invites the Commission to join with it in devising a scheme to eliminate the irksome complication of competing applications. ... The right to equal treatment is not merely a legal nicety that must be given grudging obeisance. AT&T did absolutely nothing with these licenses during the license term. There are no equitable or other considerations that should give a regulator pause in stripping a do-nothing incumbent of its license.” AT&T’s proposals are “both contrary to law and contrary to the public interest,” Green Flag said. “Rather than clarifying the current situation, the proposal would muddy the waters further, overturn a half century of settled law on renewal expectancies, and set a dangerous precedent in support of spectrum warehousing."
The 700 MHz waiver order released by the FCC last Monday approved the interoperability showings of Charlotte, N.C., and Harris County, Texas. The order otherwise did little to smooth their way to starting early first responder networks, officials said. Meanwhile, government and public safety officials told us, there appears to be no real accounting of how much the 21 700 MHz waiver recipients have spent so far on the groundwork to build out networks that may well never start.
Apple shares closed 4.3 percent lower Wednesday at $574.97 despite the company’s report of stronger profit and revenue for Q3 ended June 30 and executives providing a confident forecast on an earnings call late Tuesday. CEO Timothy Cook said Apple remains unfazed by iPad rivals.
Energy efficiency efforts are spreading among the range of industries involved in TV programming, said government officials, consumer electronics and multichannel video programming distributor executives and those aligned with groups seeking less electricity consumption. With the specter of U.S. regulation of set-top box energy efficiency comes private stakeholder discussions of ways to voluntarily give MVPD customers more efficient boxes, with cable, telco and satellite-TV deployments under way for years in some cases. Executives said MVPDs are moving from set-tops to Internet Protocol streaming to networked TV sets and other CE devices, reducing household energy use through increasing what’s stored in data centers and other company facilities. So operators try to use less energy in data centers, as TV stations cut electricity use, executives said.
Energy efficiency efforts are spreading among the range of industries involved in TV programming, said government officials, consumer electronics and multichannel video programming distributor executives and an advocate seeking less electricity consumption. With the specter of U.S. regulation of set-top box energy efficiency comes private stakeholder discussions of ways to voluntarily give MVPD customers more efficient boxes, with cable, telco and satellite-TV deployments under way for years in some cases. Executives said MVPDs are moving from set-tops to Internet Protocol streaming to networked TV sets and other CE devices, reducing household energy use through increasing what’s stored in data centers and other company facilities. So operators try to use less energy in data centers, as TV stations cut electricity use, executives said.
Energy efficiency efforts are spreading among the range of industries involved in TV programming, said government officials, CE makers and multichannel video programming distributor executives, as well as a green advocate. With the specter of U.S. regulation of set-top box energy efficiency comes private stakeholder discussions of ways to voluntarily give MVPD customers more efficient boxes, with cable, telco and satellite-TV deployments under way for years in some cases. Executives said MVPDs are moving from set-tops to Internet Protocol streaming to networked TV sets and other CE devices, reducing household energy use through increasing what’s stored in data centers and other company facilities. So operators try to use less energy in data centers, as TV stations cut electricity use, executives said.
Energy efficiency efforts are spreading among the range of industries involved in TV programming, said government officials, CE and multichannel video programming distributor executives and an advocate seeking less electricity consumption. With the specter of U.S. regulation of set-top box energy efficiency comes private stakeholder discussions of ways to voluntarily give MVPD customers more efficient boxes, with cable, telco and satellite-TV deployments under way for years in some cases.
Municipalities whose federal grants for public safety networks were suspended say they remain frustrated that, more than two months after the NTIA suspended seven municipal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants, there’s no timetable to save them. Public safety advocates and NTIA encourage patience and wise tax spending, while leaders of some of the 700 MHz projects worry about what suspending the projects has done to safety and tax dollars, they said in interviews. A prominent former Seattle official is urging the FirstNet board, once established in August, to re-engage with the BTOP grantees and kickstart their projects as a potential answer to the limbo and sense of frustration.
A U.S. regulator gave more time to agree on set-top box energy efficiency standards among advocates at nonprofits seeking reduced energy use, and executives of CE companies and multichannel video programming distributors hoping to avoid rules. The executives said the talks on standards for set-tops have been fruitful, and they're hopeful conversations will pick up steam. The Department of Energy said Thursday it’s delaying a rulemaking schedule until after Oct. 1 to give the talks time to progress, and executives told us a fall time frame for a deal is reasonable.