Rebecca Day

Helen Disenhaus, ex-Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, joins Holland & Knight as partner in the Telecommunications Group… President Bush announced plans for 3 nominations: Commerce Dept. Undersecy.-Technology Benjamin Wu to become asst. secy.-technology, replacing Bruce Mehlman; Fabrica International Co-Founder Albert Frink to the newly created post of Commerce Dept. Asst. Secy.-Mfg.; MPAA Vp- Congressional Affairs Jon Leibowitz to FTC comr., replacing Mozelle Thompson… Arun Netravali, ex-pres. of Bell Labs, named to Veridicom International’s Advisory Board… Catherine Moran, ex-AMC Network, joins Lifetime Entertainment Services as mktg. vp.

The Journal of Commerce reports that in response to concerns about port congestion, the California legislature is considering a bill to require a premium fee for daytime use of marine terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach. According to the article, the bill's author, Assemblyman Lowenthal, has said he will push for passage of the bill if the port community does not establish a program for extended gate hours by summer. (JoC dated 03/22-28/04, www.joc.com.)

Wireless technology developers and users told a Commerce Dept. forum Thurs. on wireless sensor technologies such as radio frequency ID (RFID) that globalized spectrum allocations are needed for some RFID applications. While panelists stressed that the market has grown in recent years for RFID, they ticked off remaining challenges, including working on standards and assuring customers about privacy protection.

A common HDTV standard for the entire Western Hemisphere “makes eminent sense,” and the recommendation last week that Mexico adopt the U.S. ATSC standard was a big step in that direction, said Phillip Bond, U.S. Undersecy. of Commerce- Technology. He told the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) conference this week he hoped the Mexican govt. would finalize that decision soon. The Commerce Dept. has given the ATSC a 3-year, $400,000 grant to promote adoption of the U.S. standard. ATSC has estimated a common hemispheric standard would generate $8 billion of U.S. exports by 2014.

A common HDTV standard for the entire Western Hemisphere “makes eminent sense,” and the recommendation last week that Mexico adopt the U.S. ATSC standard was a big step in that direction, said Phillip Bond, U.S. Undersecy. of Commerce- Technology. He told the Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) conference this week he hoped the Mexican govt. would finalize that decision soon. The Commerce Dept. has given the ATSC a 3- year, $400,000 grant to promote adoption of the U.S. standard. ATSC has estimated a common hemispheric standard would generate $8 billion of U.S. exports by 2014.

The FTC plans a workshop June 21 on radio frequency ID applications and implications for consumers. The Commerce Dept. held a forum on wireless sensor technology Thurs., focusing on policy and market questions (see separate story, this issue.) Like the Commerce Dept. workshop, the FTC forum will focus on privacy and security issues. It will 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. at the FTC conference center -- www.ftc.gov/ftc/workshops.htm.

FCC Chmn. Powell defended himself against vague accusations that the FCC “intimidated” broadcasters to prevent them from challenging FCC fines, during a hearing on the FCC’s budget Wed. House Appropriations Commerce Justice State ranking Democrat Serrano (N.Y.) also implied that the FCC pressured Clear Channel to drop Howard Stern from its 6 stations that carried the program. Powell defended the FCC’s actions on indecency, denied any role in Clear Channel’s decision and asked Serrano for more specifics, saying Serrano was making “ethical accusations.”

Last week saw still more back-and-forth on the Internet tax debate, with supporters of S-150 by Sen. Allen (R-Va.) touting an endorsement from the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a group that hadn’t been active in the debate. Commerce Dept. Secy. Donald Evans called in Hill testimony for a permanent ban on discriminatory Internet taxes and access taxes, an endorsement praised by groups such as the Consumer Internet Access Coalition, a group backed by telecom companies and anti-tax groups. Supporters of alternative legislation (S-2184) by Sen. Alexander (R-Tenn.) took issue with Evans’ remarks. National Assn. of Counties (NACo) Exec. Dir. Larry Naake said Evans had failed to note that S-150 would broadly expand the definition of Internet access, “giving major tax breaks to the telecommunications industry, and in turn, hurting state and local taxpayers by creating a huge unfunded mandate.” But a CDT paper said a manager’s amendment to S-150 by Allen “responds to the central concerns that have been expressed about the moratorium.” CDT’s James Dempsey and Paula Bruening said that amendment “seems to respond to the states’ concern that the House bill is too broad by making it clear that telecommunications services bundled with Internet services are not exempt from the bill.” CDT said the moratorium, by helping keep the Internet affordable, has contributed to the medium’s great growth, which CDT believes is critical to expansion of democratic participation, innovation and creativity. “The Internet tax debate is arising in part because of the success of communications policies put in place over the course of the last decade,” CDT said. Alexander has expressed concern that migrating voice traffic to VoIP could hurt states relying on telecom taxes. His bill extends the moratorium only 2 years to give Congress and regulators time to assess VoIP. But CDT said it’s “impossible to achieve a one-size-fits-all regulatory categorization of VoIP, and the Internet access tax debate should not be held up for that.” CDT also took issue with the grandfathering in the Alexander bill, which not only would keep taxes grandfathered in after the original 1998 bill, but also DSL taxes imposed in recent years that resulted in the new language in S-150. Bruening told us this isn’t an issue CDT regularly is involved in, and it was “difficult to parse,” but CDT believed the group should take a position on the issue given its importance.

National broadcasters are more effective in communicating a national emergency to the disabled than the FCC-administered emergency alert system (EAS), said Susan Fox, Disney vp-govt. affairs. “EAS -- the sense that I got from the folks in my own company -- is not the answer,” Fox said during a panel here on defining emergency at FCC’s Emergency Communications and Homeland Security: Working With the Disability Community Summit. “I think what we do, the information that we provide, is greater and broader than EAS,” she said.

Groups ranging from citizens advocates to wireless companies told NTIA they would like more-efficient spectrum management, but many drew the line at consolidating that function in one place, such as the White House. Reflecting the controversial nature of the Bush Administration’s inquiry into spectrum management improvements, a think tank defended a report it presented last fall against critics who argued the report would place all spectrum regulation under one person. Meanwhile, several other commenters said they were as concerned about improved management as they were about who was responsible for it.