Democrats Urge Tighter FCC Rules
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Senate Democrats pressed the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission yesterday to slap tighter controls on media ownership, public-interest broadcasting and television violence.
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Open access advocates say an FCC plan for new spectrum doesn't go far enough to boost competition.
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Senate Democrats urged the head of the Federal Communications Commission today to take a more challenging approach to the industries he oversees.
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(InfoWorld) - Police and fire organizations called on the U.S. Congress to give them more radio spectrum for communications interoperability than the 24MHz they're due to get in early 2009. Representatives of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Thursday told a U.S. Senate committee that they need an additional 30MHz of spectrum. The government is scheduled to auction spectrum to commercial users as U.S. television stations abandon the upper 700MHz spectrum band in February 2009, under a law passed last year. The additional spectrum would help public safety agencies deploy broadband communications systems that would fix the radio interoperability problems that plagued emergency workers following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Charles Werner, fire chief for Charlottsville, Virginia. Congress must act before the spectrum is auctioned to private companies in the next year, he said. "I encourage Congress to take advantage of this very limited, one-time opportunity," Werner said. "We cannot suggest too strongly the urgent and identified need for broadband capability that public safety can use with assurance that it will work when needed, be available when needed, and is affordable." But some members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned the plan to put the additional 30MHz of spectrum into a public safety broadband trust. The new spectrum plan, first advanced by Cyren Call Communications last April, could potentially cost the government billions of dollars in lost auction revenue, said Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican. The committee, in its DTV (digital television) transition bill, budgeted at least $10 billion to be raised by the spectrum auctions, with $1 billion going to fund emergency communications interoperability efforts. The Cyren Call plan is "impossible for us to do fiscally," Stevens said. Stevens' criticism echoed the High Tech DTV Coalition, a group of technology vendors, whichÂ on Tuesday called on the Senate to stick to the original spectrum plan. Cyren Call Chairman Morgan O'Brien said the company's plan calls for the broadband trust to raise $5 billion from private investors to pay for the 30MHz of spectrum. Private investors would pay for expensive public safety broadband networks instead of Congress or local governments, he said. Nearly all public safety organizations support the broadband trust concept, O'Brien added. "This is a crying out for help," he said. "We're sending men and women into dangerous situations every day knowing their devices are inferior." But the spectrum auctions could raise billions of dollars more than what the Cyren Call plan offers to pay, Stevens said. And Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA, a trade group representing wireless carriers, questioned whether the broadband trust would find enough investors to fund a broadband wireless rollout for public safety, especially in rural areas. Other senators suggested alternative approaches to the Cyren Call plan. Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, suggested that public safety agencies could better use the 25MHz of spectrum they already have. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, said public safety agencies in her state and elsewhere are finding success using existing spectrum with radio over IPÂ devices. This "boot-strap" approach using open standards and radio over IP could cost as little as $300 million across the U.S. as opposed to an average of about $1 billion per state using other equipment, said David Billstrom, chairman and CEO of public safety consulting group National Interop and a volunteer firefighter. Â
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Senators threaten to enact an opt-in rule. Wireless carriers say it's not necessary because they're doing just that.
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(InfoWorld) - Plans for valuable wireless spectrum being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may not go far enough to encourage a new broadband competitor, said groups calling for open-access rules for part of the spectrum. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, in an interview with USA Today published Tuesday, said he wants a "truly open broadband network" for the 700MHz spectrum scheduled to be auctioned by early next year. That would mean customers could attach any device to the network and download any application, Martin told the newspaper. Martin's proposal, reportedly to be applied to about a third of the 60MHz of spectrum to be auctioned, is similar to net neutrality rules that several consumer groups and Internet companies have championed for broadband networks. But groups calling for open access to the 700MHz spectrum want more than that. Groups like Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, and Free Press want the FCC to require winners of part of the spectrum to provide wholesale access to any wireless or broadband provider that wants to offer service on that spectrum. Rules that would allow customers to attach any device and download any application are a good first step, but what Martin seems to be proposing is "not open access," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. "Our definition of open access includes wholesale. You're not going to get competition in the broadband space unless you have wholesale as well." The FCC is expected to set rules for use of the 700MHz spectrum within weeks, and there's heavy debate in Washington, D.C., over what those rules should look like. Many observers say the 700MHz spectrum, now used by U.S. television stations for over-the-air broadcasts, is the ideal spectrum for long-range wireless broadband services. With no other large auctions of spectrum in sight, Public Knowledge and other members of the Open Internet Coalition say open access rules offer the best chance for U.S. customers to ever see a third broadband service that competes with large cable and telecom providers. But some wireless providers, think tanks, and lawmakers have questioned open access rules. On Monday, 38 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the FCC calling on the agency to reject open access rules. Such rules could hinder public safety communications on the spectrum, said the letter, signed by Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, plus 36 other Republicans and one Democrat. The 700MHz spectrum includes 60MHz to be auctioned to commercial users and another 24MHz set aside for public safety agencies, such as police and fire departments. One proposal before the FCC, from startup Frontline Wireless, would marry 10MHz of commercial spectrum to be auctioned with 12MHz of public safety spectrum for a network that would have both public safety and commercial users. Open access rules would dictate how auction winners manage their networks and could reduce the value of the spectrum, the letter said. "We urge you to ensure that the rules the FCC crafts to govern the 700MHz auction do not impose burdensome and unnecessary open access regulations on licensees," the letter said. But members of the Open Internet Coalition said consumers want more freedom than current wireless networks provide. While the wireless industry likes to trumpet competition among carriers, mobile devices are tied to one network, and customers often have to pay huge early termination fees, said Ben Scott, Washington policy director for Free Press, a media reform group.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission this week hopes to do what Congress could not accomplish this year -- help AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications get into the television business faster.
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Some U.S. lawmakers want wireless networks to be opened up to new devices and applications, and they questioned expensive early termination fees on wireless service contracts.
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Democrats today tried to draw attention to Republican candidate for governor Mitch Daniels&#39; 1970 drug arrest, holding a news conference to demand more details about the case.
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Congressional Democrats are looking at ways to strengthen open government laws and force the Bush administration to release more documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
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A senior Democratic lawmaker urged  the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to either  create a more accurate Web site identifying corporations with  investments in &quot;terrorist-financing states&quot; or pull the plug on  it.
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With more conservatives in power, the Federal Communications Commission may become more forceful about indecency fines. The agency may even try to expand its jurisdiction into cable TV, satellite radio and the internet. By Randy Dotinga.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Congress still needs to deal with network neutrality, and supporters in Congress are willing to block any legislation favored by broadband providers until the issue is resolved, a leading Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday. "Network neutrality is a large, unresolved debate," said Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, speaking at the State of the 'Net Conference in Washington, D.C. "It's [the Internet's] open and accessible policy that has enabled it to be a platform of innovation." A net neutrality law, which would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors,Â stalled in Congress in 2006, and large broadband providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, opposed efforts to pass a law. But net neutrality advocates -- many of them part of the Democratic majority that now controls both houses of Congress -- would block any legislation requested by the large broadband providers until a net neutrality compromise is hammered out, Boucher predicted. Last year, AT&T and Verizon pushed for a new law that would streamline the franchising process they must go through to offer television over IP service in competition with cable TV. But this year, the large broadband providers have largely backed off on their lobbying efforts, and Boucher suggested that's because Democrats will demand a net neutrality law as a trade-off for any legislation that benefits providers. Boucher supports a net neutrality law, but he called for compromise. Congress should not pass a net neutrality law with "unintended consequences" that hurt the development of the Internet, he said. "I don't want to do anything ... that has the effect of hobbling innovation inside the network," he added. Other speakers at the conference, sponsored by the bipartisan Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus, suggested a net neutrality law would hurt efforts to increase broadband adoption in the U.S. A net neutrality law would limit broadband providers' options for providing new services, said George Ford, chief economist at the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies, a free-market-focused think tank. "We should exercise discipline," Ford said. "We rarely do that with communications policy." Other speakers argued there's little evidence of broadband providers blocking competitors' Web content, a scenario net neutrality advocates want to prevent. "Economic change and technological change need room to breathe," said Christopher Yoo, a tech law professor at Vanderbilt University. If broadband providers eventually take action that harms customers and competition, then Congress should pass a law, Yoo said. Yoo and David Farber, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, argued that broadband providers need the ability to block Internet content such as spam and to shut down Web applications that hog bandwidth. Providers should also be allowed to prioritize Web applications such as video or voice, allowing customers to have a high quality of service, Farber said. "If you try to get quality of service for everyone, you don't get quality of service," Farber said. But Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia University Law School, said providers should only block Web content in the most extreme circumstances. The difference between "good blocking" and "bad blocking" depends on the user's perspective, he said. "Blocking should be highly suspect," Wu added. "We say good blocking is good and bad blocking is bad, but so does the Chinese government. They're making bad decisions at the center [of the network]."
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Democratic Senators seek federal probe of plan to air anti-Kerry film 2 weeks before election day. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - At least 18 Democratic senators are seeking a federal probe of Sinclair Broadcast Group&#39;s
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Plans for valuable wireless spectrum being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may not go far enough to encourage a new broadband competitor, said groups calling for open-access rules for part of the spectrum.
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WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission this week hopes to do what Congress could not accomplish this year -- help AT&amp;T Inc. and Verizon Communications get into the television business faster.
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As Senate prepares to consider a Net access ban extension, Democrat behind original ban warns changes to current law approved by the House of Representatives could make that so.