The FCC should require all wireless microphones to cease operation in the 700 MHz band by Feb. 18, 2010, said CTIA and three public safety groups in a letter to the FCC Tuesday. CTIA, APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council have advocated for 700 MHz wireless mic shutdown before (CD March 19 p13), but Tuesday’s letter contained more concessions to wireless mic makers who have opposed them. The groups said they'd prefer to clear devices on June 12 -- the day of the DTV transition -- but would support a Feb. 18 deadline as long as the FCC ensures “any public safety or commercial systems deployed prior” to that date “can operate free of any interference from wireless microphones or other LPAS devices.” A Feb. 18 deadline “would provide an additional twelve months beyond the date originally proposed by the Commission in the 700 MHz Wireless Microphone Notice, and a transition period of eighteen months from the release of that notice,” they said. CTIA and the other groups proposed a 60- day notification process whereby any 700 MHz licensee intending to start operations before Feb. 18 would provide advance notice to wireless mic users in the market. Wireless mic operations would be required to cease within the 60-day period, they said. The groups also urged the FCC to issue a consumer advisory alerting wireless mic users that they must vacate the 700 MHz band, and notifying equipment makers and others that they must stop manufacturing, selling and marketing mics made for the band. The FCC must act quickly, they said. “Absent prompt Commission action, interference and communications disruption in the 700 MHz band are inevitable -- to first responders, to broadband customers, and to users of wireless microphones.”
Broadcasters and state and local emergency management officials are wary of putting too much money into new emergency alert system equipment before the federal government finalizes plans for a new system that won’t soon be obsolete. Their comments at the National EAS Summit Monday echoed concerns raised a year ago (CD May 20 p1). At issue is how quickly broadcasters will have to install new equipment after FEMA adopts a new common alerting protocol. An FCC rule says EAS broadcasters have to be able to receive the new signals within six months of FEMA’s adoption of CAP.
First Alert System Text Corp. filed a petition for rulemaking at the FCC asking that its emergency alert system be provided for free to all cellphone users participating in the Lifeline program.
Ntelos got a waiver of FCC emergency alert system rules for wireline video providers and other pay-TV companies, but with a twist. A Homeland Security Bureau order released Monday gave the company a waiver only until Feb. 28. The company hadn’t sought an extension until after the rules took effect. The matter was referred to the Enforcement Bureau.
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.”