The FCC’s allocation of 5 channels for amateur operations wouldn’t significantly affect proposed broadband over power line (BPL) operations, said Brett Kilbourne, regulatory dir. of the United Power Line Council (UPLC). In a decision released last week, the FCC said it was allocating 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5368 kHz, 5373 kHz and 5405 kHz for amateur radio services despite a plea from the UPLC to defer the allocation to avoid the “potential for interference” to BPL that might result from amateur operations in the 5 MHz range. The amateur operations will be secondary to licensed govt. operations in the band, Kilbourne said, and are “significantly less” than the 150 kHz that the amateurs had originally requested. The FCC refused a delay because the BPL systems weren’t yet deployed, he said, and the agency didn’t consider the potential for interference as likely as was the case with other proposed allocations in other bands that utilities use for narrowband power line carrier operations. However, the FCC did set restrictions on output power and antenna height that could mitigate the potential for interference from amateur operations to BPL systems, he said. As unlicensed operations, BPL systems must not cause interference to amateurs in those bands, he said.
Country of origin cases
NTIA Deputy Dir. Michael Gallagher is widely expected to leave his post to become deputy chief of staff to Commerce Secy. Donald Evans, sources said. Intensified speculation about Gallagher’s pending move came as Commerce was continuing plans to merge NTIA, the Technology Administration and the e-commerce duties of the International Trade Administration. Evans had unveiled plans for the reorganization earlier this year as part of what would be a new agency headed by TA Undersecy. Phil Bond, formerly Evans’s chief of staff. A Commerce Dept. spokeswoman didn’t return a call for comment Wed. Despite Gallagher’s rumored move, several sources said it wasn’t immediately clear who would take his place, meaning he would be expected to keep an eye on at least some broad spectrum issues for a time in his new role. That may be the case because the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management has been without a permanent head for months, with Assoc. Administrator Fredrick Wentland in an acting capacity. Gallagher’s new post also is seen as another likely step in the proposed NTIA reorganization, which has been described by its proponents as consolidating communications and information policy issues into a “superagency” that would give them a higher profile. The plan would keep NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory as asst. secy. for communications & information, but reporting to Bond, instead of directly to Evans, as she does now (CD Feb 14 p1). Several sources said the White House Office of Management & Budget hadn’t yet released a legislative proposal on the plan, which originally was expected to be sent to Congress 45 days after Evans unveiled it Feb. 14. Gallagher joined NTIA in Nov. 2001 and has been closely associated with several spectrum policy issues, including development of the controversial ultra-wideband rulemaking, an area from which Victory had been recused.
MCI won a 7-year contract from NOAA to provide VSAT satellite links to more than 90 meteorological locations worldwide, the company announced Tues., a day after the SEC fined it $500 million for fraudulent practices. This was the 2nd govt. contract MCI had announced in less than a week, following its contract in Iraq (CD May 19 p2) to build a wireless telephone network there. NOAA expects to use MCI VSAT voice, data and Internet capabilities to “collect and disseminate information essential to the nation’s security, environment and quality of life, from almost anywhere in the world,” MCI said.
IBiquity is continuing to put radio stations on the air despite the NRSC decision to suspend in-band, on-channel (IBOC) standards-setting (CD May 19 p8) because of serious concerns about AM audio quality of the IBOC digital radio system (CD May 19 p8). “That NRSC decision doesn’t change the fact that we still have an interim ruling from the FCC,” iBiquity COO Jeffrey Jury told us. “Everything is moving forward.” However, Jury said, the NRSC decision would impact the roll out of commercial receivers originally scheduled for late this year. “With what is going on right now [with NRSC] it’s going to slow down some of the FY 03 receiver activity.” The roll out has now been moved to early next year, he said. More specifically, the NRSC decision hasn’t affected DAB testing in 13 seed markets identified by iBiquity for IBOC launch, he said. The markets are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, L.A., Las Vegas, Miami, N.Y., San Francisco, Seattle, Washington. Both commercial and public radio stations are part of the trials. In fact, Jury said, 2 NPR stations -- KUSC(FM) L.A. and KUOW Seattle -- recently licensed IBOC technology. More than 120 stations have licensed iBiquity and 40%-50% of those are in the seed markets, Jury said. NRSC did like the system and coverage reception, he said: “They had some issues with audio quality in the AM band, so we are going to work with them on that.” IBiquity already had started a program for improvement of audio quality on AM, he said, and “we will continue to execute that plan.” The NRSC decision also won’t affect NPR’s proposed Tomorrow Radio project to test multichannel digital broadcasting at local stations, he said. The testing of digital secondary audio channel is scheduled to start in the fall at KKJZ(FM) Long Beach, Cal., in collaboration with receiver and transmitter manufacturers. NPR believes secondary audio capability will be akin to doubling the number of public radio stations, given the dearth of spectrum. Some of the tests are evaluations, Jury said, in which iBiquity isn’t directly involved because it’s an industry initiative. “But I know that there is still enthusiasm from the receiver manufacturers and from NPR for Tomorrow Radio.” Last month, NPR and other broadcasters identified “certain limitations in the PAC code” and informed iBiquity that its current prototypes were “not of best in class quality,” NPR Vp-Engineering Mike Starling said: “We are naturally pleased that the NRSC and iBiquity have concurred that improvements need to be made and iBiquity is taking the time to resolve this issue.” He said iBiquity had informed NPR that it intended to resolve AM quality issues within 60 days. If that goal were met, Starling said, “it will not slow down either our Tomorrow Radio tests” or the rollout of commercial radio receivers next year: “On any timetable, we consider it imperative that iBiquity get its technology correct first rather than prematurely rush to market.”
FCC Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Edmond Thomas said Tues. the Commission expected to start a proceeding by year’s end to open a debate on “interference temperature,” which he called “an extremely difficult technical concept to implement.” He told a National Spectrum Managers Assn. conference in Arlington, Va., that the FCC also planned to open a proceeding by year-end on cognitive radio technologies. On both counts, the end-of-year period is “exactly what we are shooting for and it looks like we are going to do that.”
When AOL wanted to merge with Time Warner back in 2000, critics feared the marriage of such a large content company with an Internet service provider would put a stranglehold over a relatively new communications technology -- Instant Messaging (IM). The federal govt. agreed then, placing as one of the conditions on the merger a requirement that the new company work toward developing interoperability for IM that would allow other companies to provide IM services that would let their customers communicate with AOL’s IM customers.
Commenting on the progress of the News Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Hughes Electronics and subsidiary DirecTV, latter’s CEO Eddy Hartenstein said he thinks that marriage proposal “will stick, at least we'll get to the alter. We're optimistic, having just been put on public notice with the FCC to begin the so-called 180-day clock. We're optimistic we'll get approval before the end of the year.”
The Canadian Radio-TV & Telecom Commission (CRTC) can’t require power companies to make their poles available to cable companies, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled Fri. in Canadian Cable TV Assn. v. Barrie Public Utilities. But the Canadian Cable TV Assn. (CCTA) immediately called on the federal govt. to change the law to broaden CRTC’s powers, saying the result would be higher costs for consumers.
The launch of SES Americom’s AMC-9, rescheduled for Mon., was postponed again because of a launch vehicle anomaly, International Launch Services (ILS) said. The launch originally was scheduled for April 19 (CD May 16 p10).
CENTURY CITY, Cal. -- A trio of Hollywood producers blamed vertical integration for undercutting programming innovation. Speaking at a NATPE-sponsored panel Sat. for L.A. Screenings attendees, Caryn Mandabach of Carsey-Werner- Mandabach said network ownership of shows was another factor in Hollywood’s producing fewer ground-breaking shows with intense international appeal than in the past: “I don’t want to use the word interference -- perhaps input is a better word. But it is increasing and the growing corporatization of the entertainment industry is a fact of life. And they will move a show like 3rd Rock 14 times” in order to put network-owned shows in protected time slots behind established hit series.