Better ways to collect information for tracking broadband adoption in homes are needed to increase uptake, said speakers at a Broadband Breakfast sponsored by BroadbandCensus.com. The FCC is trying to improve its ways of collecting, studying and putting out data, Office of Strategic Planning Chief Paul de Sa said in a keynote speech. “It’s about getting data out in a way that is useful to people and industries,” he said.
Notable CROSS rulings
Don’t use the debate on Europe’s future digital strategy to rehash issues resolved in the overhaul of telecom rules, several EU lawmakers and a European Commission official said Thursday. The European Parliament Industry Committee began considering a draft report by Pilar del Castillo of Spain and the European People’s Party that responds to EC proposals for a digital agenda -- “digital.eu” to 2015. It encourages the EC to speed up resolution of digital content issues, develop EU-wide copyright rules and create an Internet users’ bill of rights.
“I don’t know that we're ready to declare victory” about digital radio’s going mainstream, “but we're certainly getting close,” CEO Bob Struble of iBiquity Digital told us Monday. The licensor of HD Radio technology to stations and device manufacturers is “getting closer” to shipments of 3 million units annually, though reaching that would be “a stretch for this year,” he added. “It’s within sight. … We've been on a very nice growth path.”
Critical infrastructure systems worldwide are the targets of repeated cyber-attacks, said a study by PC security provider McAfee commissioned by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security proposed partnerships with the private sector and cross-sector coordination, during a panel Thursday, when the report was released.
The FCC issued a rulemaking notice Tuesday to update Part 25 of the agency’s rules on satellite requirements. The changes would eliminate redundancy, update cross-references and correct typographical, grammatical and spelling errors as part of its biennial review, the commission said. None of the proposed changes are of a “substantive nature,” it said. Comments are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, it said.
Cash strapped and debt-laden broadcasters would be helped by FCC deregulation, all but one speaker on two panels of a commission media ownership workshop Tuesday said. Some said the prospect of widescale consolidation has waned as investor interest in the industry has declined along with ad revenue and the economy. “Scary conglomerates” are unlikely to come to fruition, said analyst Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo. Managing General Partner Terry Jones of media investor Syncom Funds was the only speaker wary of deregulation.
The FCC put off for the tenth time a deadline for changes to requests for waivers (CD Oct 6 p16) of media ownership rules and for new filings. What had been a Jan. 7 deadline is now April 7 for waivers of rules limiting common ownership of a broadcaster and a daily newspaper in a city, said a Media Bureau order released Thursday. The order followed a request by Bonneville, Calvary, Cox Enterprises, Morris Communications and Scranton Times for the final deadline to be delayed until 90 days after a court decision on cross-ownership rules.
Louisiana’s Public Service Commission is starting a mediation program to resolve disputes between it and regulated companies and between ratepayers and utilities. Any party to a proceeding can request an “Order to Submit” any dispute to mediation. The “purely voluntary” program aims to avoid “automatic adversarial process and costly litigation,” the commission said Thursday. The state’s five commissioners each will name mediators who will serve at their patrons’ pleasure, mainly handling disputes and claims in their districts but also matters crossing district lines. Commissioners can order mediation in matters particular to their districts. In cases crossing district boundaries, a majority of commissioners must approve mediation. The commission has final say over settlements. Companies can opt out of mediation. “Under the rules as adopted, if the company responsible for the costs opts out of the mediation, then the mediation will not take place,” commission deputy general counsel Brandon Frey told us by e-mail. Mediators have 15 days after completing a case to report. Comments are due by Jan. 4 on mediation arrangements elsewhere that might be models for Louisiana and the question of whether to amend commission rules and orders to incorporate the mediation program.
BRUSSELS -- European telecom regulators should be paying attention to environmental matters but aren’t, said John Frieslaar, Huawei Technologies’ chief technology officer for key U.K. accounts. But representatives of national authorities on a panel at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association regulatory conference said environmental protection isn’t part of their mandate, though some are looking into the topic. Frieslaar said in an interview Wednesday that regulators should work with their counterparts in energy and other public-service sectors to cross-subsidize a more energy-efficient approach to providing services, instead of pushing the rollout of more networks. Also Wednesday, network operators urged the European Commission to make climate change a high priority.
BRUSSELS -- The economic downturn may have been the “spark we needed” to shift information and communication technologies to the top of European priorities, an official from the incoming Spanish EU Presidency said Tuesday. The EU is in the process of setting its digital agenda for 2020, and must answer several key questions about its future or fall behind, said Francisco Ros Peran, secretary of state for telecommunications and information society for Spain’s 2010 presidency. He spoke at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association regulatory conference.