Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is set to take over lead for Project Safecom, which now is designed to be “single point of contact for all federal wireless communications efforts for public safety,” FEMA Chief Information Officer (CIO) Ron Miller told us Fri. Move for White House Office of Management & Budget project comes as FEMA is set to be transferred to overarching Dept. of Homeland Security under proposal outlined by President Bush Thurs. CIO meeting of several federal agencies, including Depts. of Justice and Treasury, earlier this month decided to broaden direction of Project Safecom, which originally was envisioned as focusing on interoperability of federal public safety systems, Miller said. “We want agencies in the federal government to come together to ensure that we aren’t duplicating efforts and that we are solving problems that we have set out to solve,” he said.
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Verizon Wireless expressed concerns at FCC on draft merger review guidelines in works at agency for evaluating wireless merger proposals after spectrum cap sunsets Jan. 1. Merger review guidelines, which have been crafted by office of FCC Chief Economist David Sappington and others at agency, are expected out as early as today (Mon.). Commission voted last fall to phase out cap, which had been 45 MHz, except for rural markets where it was 55 MHz, by Jan. 1, 2003. In interim, Commission lifted cap to 55 MHz for all markets. FCC economists have been looking at merger guidelines used by FTC and Justice Dept. to ascertain whether they could any of those provisions for FCC when processing license transfer applications (CD March 19 p6). Verizon Wireless Vp John Scott told press breakfast Fri. that his company was concerned that guidelines that emerged from FCC would be more restrictive than originally thought. “It’s not clear to me why there should be guidelines for this particular industry and not all industries that the Commission regulates,” Verizon Wireless Vp John Scott said. Carrier has met with Wireless Bureau and has urged it to not adopt guidelines for 2 reasons, he said: (1) “Guidelines tend to become requirements,” with concern that guidelines not be adopted that essentially would replace spectrum cap. Otherwise, premise of spectrum cap’s being eliminated to avoid proscriptive ownership requirements “would be undercut,” Scott said. (2) Industry is changing so rapidly that “adopting a set of guidelines based on the way the industry looks today may be the most inappropriate set of guidelines 2 years from now or 5 years from now,” he said. Justice Dept. told FCC in spectrum cap proceeding last fall that “a mandatory, inflexible set of rules” is not way to go, point that Verizon Wireless has reiterated to FCC, Scott said: “We have made that point to the Commission. We hope that the full Commission will agree with it.” Comments are expected to be sought on merger review guidelines that FCC releases, he said. Scott said carrier’s understanding of guidelines was that they would be more substantive than FCC’s simply indicating it would process transaction proposals within certain number of days. “To look at the concept of guidelines that come before the Commission under [Sec.] 310, if they are going to adopt any particular guidelines for when transactions above a particular size are involved and certain carriers or certain markets merit some higher level, that to me seems a concept that should be looked at by the full Commission,” he said. On issue of extent to which large wireless carriers still are beholden to FCC for original bids in re-auction of NextWave spectrum that has been overturned by D.C. Circuit, Scott said those financial obligations were having impact in other spectrum areas. He cited lower 700 MHz band auction June 19: “There were 48 MHz of spectrum at stake in that auction and if you look at who bid for that spectrum, the wireless industry didn’t show up. There’s one very apparent reason why they didn’t show up. From a government fiscal policy, as well, it should be concerning the government that they will not be raising the revenues they otherwise would raise.” Unless NextWave re-auction issue is resolved, upper band auction, which FCC recently delayed by 7 months, is likely to suffer from same lack of interest, Scott said.
Ariz. Gov. Jane Hull (R) called for state audit of Qwest’s high-speed Internet access contract with Ariz. School Facilities Board because of cost increase to $180 million from original $100 million estimate over last year. Hull also asked Attorney Gen. Janet Napolitano to review pact and for state Office of Procurement to review payments to Qwest for completed work. Agreement calls for Qwest to install and support high-speed Internet access facilities for state’s 228 public school districts. Project covers 1,470 buildings, of which 37% have been completed, with rest at varying stages of progress. In letter to Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which must approve any state audit of pact, Hull said she thought Qwest’s request for 80% increase was is out of line. Negotiated no-bid agreement was made with Qwest last year by facilities board’s then-Exec. Dir. Phil Geiger. Project wasn’t structured as conventional contract but rather was implemented through series of purchase orders submitted by Qwest to facilities board. Legislative audit committee’s chief, state Rep. Roberta Voss (R-Glendale), said she doubted audit would reveal anything beyond obvious fact that it was foolish for any state agency to commit $100 million to open- ended deal without signed written agreement spelling out limits and accountability and with clear understanding of what state would get for its money. Qwest said it made clear to state that project’s cost probably would rise beyond $100 million estimate because no one at start knew for sure how much work job actually would entail. Qwest said it would cooperate with inquiries and was confident they would show nothing improper had occurred. But Qwest also said it wouldn’t be starting any new school facility construction projects until financial questions were settled. Jim Jurs, acting School Facility Board exec. dir. who succeeded Geiger, said he agreed work should stop for time being. He said Qwest claimed it already had done $115 million worth of work even though there had been no formal approval to exceed $100 million estimate. He said board needed to determine whether to let Qwest finish project, perhaps under amended terms, or dismiss telco and hire someone else through competitive bidding to finish job.
Hollywood finds itself on defensive in 2 new suits related to digital copy protection and fair use of TV content. On Thurs., 5 users of ReplayTV sued 28 studios to defend what they described as fair-use rights of digital content received on their personal video recorders (PVRs), and Electronic Frontier Foundation, which facilitated suit, said case could be consolidated with existing one against ReplayTV owner SonicBlue. EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann said case was “linked” with digital rights management (DRM) debate in Congress and suits by RIAA over peer-to-peer (P2P) Web sites in that all involve fair use differently interpreted. Two EFF attorneys said Thurs. suit was brought in part because broadcasters were holding on to business model based on TV ads that they said was long due for change. Separately, a Web site operator has sued MPAA, charging commercial interference, libel and defamation because it was forced to take down its site over what it termed false piracy charges by MPAA.
Broadcasters again asked FCC to delay Sept. 6 deadline for mandatory negotiation period for 2 GHz band relocation (CD Dec 4 p8, July 6/00 p3). In letter to FCC Chmn. Powell, NAB and MSTV said mobile satellite service (MSS) operators had engaged in “no substantive relocation negotiations,” despite approach of deadline. They said FCC was seeking comments on proposals for MSS to use spectrum for terrestrial services or to reallocate spectrum to other wireless services: “If the use for this spectrum does change -- as all interested parties seem to agree it should -- then the relocation plan to facilitate the original MSS allocation must be changed as well.” Broadcasters said relocation was squeezing broadcasters’ ability to use frequencies to relay news reports from remote sites, such as disaster scenes. NAB and MSTV cited recent meeting of FCC’s Media Security & Reliability Council, which it said emphasized importance of media in keeping public informed in times of crisis: “Without the ability to transmit pictures and sound from news events, the immediacy and vibrancy of news coverage would suffer greatly.”
FCC issued $10,000 forfeiture order against Rev. Philius Nicholas for operating radio station at 88.1 MHz without license, it said. Nicholas didn’t respond to original complaint, which was result of investigation by N.Y. field office, FCC said.
Gray Communications is expected to finalize its acquisition of most of Benedek Bcstg.’s 22 TV stations later this week in $500 million cash deal announced earlier (CD April 3 p3). Under original deal, combined groups would control 35 stations but under revised contract it will be only 28 stations (all owned by Gray) in 23 markets -- with Benedek now planning to sell 9 to other buyers. Benedek is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and most of cash received from Gray will go to pay off outstanding debt.
Charter Communications told institutional investors and analysts at Deutsche Bank Securities media conference that company would deploy nCUBE’s video-on-demand (VoD) equipment in 6 Charter markets that currently had VoD service, and in additional markets later this year. “This agreement with nCUBE builds on our strategy of working with multiple vendors,” Charter CEO Carl Vogel said. He said Charter had been working with both nCUBE and Concurrent Computer Corp. for several months in event Charter’s original VoD provider, DIVA, couldn’t continue to deliver services. DIVA, which is under bankruptcy reorganization, has substantially been acquired by Gemstar-TV Guide International. Vogel said Charter already had installed and tested nCUBE VoD equipment in markets where company had been offering VoD service on Scientific-Atlanta platform and also planned to offer nCUBE on Motorola platform later this year. Company said it had installed nCUBE’s equipment in Birmingham, Ala.; Ft. Worth, Tex.; Newtown, Conn.; Glendale, Long Beach and Pasadena, Cal. Charter has installed and tested Concurrent VoD equipment in Asheville, N.C.; Duluth, Ga.; Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C.; Hickory, N.C.; Slidell, La.; St. Louis.
Challenge by ARRL, National Assn. for Amateur Radio, that questions FCC’s jurisdiction to authorize unlicensed devices that can cause “significant interference” has sparked protests from Apple Computer, Cisco, Microsoft. Those companies, along with VoiceStream Wireless and Lucent spin- off Agere Systems, contend ARRL’s position would create “bureaucratic nightmare” by uprooting regulatory regime that has given rise to cordless phones, PCs, garage door openers and broadband wireless networks. Another group of high-tech companies, including ultra-wideband developer XtremeSpectrum, also filed opposition to ARRL petition Fri. In Feb., ARRL asked FCC to reconsider its order that would allow operation of unlicensed fixed, point-to-point transmitters at 24 GHz. It said Commission didn’t have jurisdiction under Communications Act to authorize unlicensed devices “which have significant potential for interference to licensed radio services.” Christopher Imlay, counsel for ARRL, said group rarely challenged FCC decisions in court, but it was likely to take its arguments to U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., if Commission rejected its petition.
Decision by Lockheed Martin (LM) to sell Comsat International (CI) to World Data Consortium (WDC) marks latest step by company “to divest noncore businesses in a prudent but timely manner,” Chmn. Vance Coffman said. LM announced late Thurs. it would sell 81% of Comsat International for undisclosed amount as part of effort to leave satellite telecom market because of overcapacity (CD May 17 p7). On May 21, company announced sale of its stake in Astrolink to Liberty Satellite. CI agreement needs regulatory approval, but is expected to close in 4-6 months, LM said. LM will retain 19% of WDC, which reported revenue of $80 million in 2001. WDC is one of lowest-producing units in LM portfolio. LM announced last Dec. it was going to eliminate satellite unit just one year after acquiring former Intelsat signatory. LM bought Comsat in 2000 with hope of offering satellite and Internet communication services, but unit never turned profit, industry source said. Earlier, Lockheed sold mobile telecom unit and World Systems satellite business.