Questions whether satellite service competition has grown since passage of Orbit Act in 2000 are being raised once again on Capitol Hill, as ranking Democrats of Senate Commerce Committee and House Telecom Subcommittee urged General Accounting office (GAO) to open new inquiry. Sen. Hollings (S.C.) and Rep. Markey (Mass.) are particularly interested in having GAO review what FCC and NTIA have done since passage of law to improve access to foreign markets by U.S. satellite companies.
In cooperation with Commerce Dept.’s International Buyer Program, NAB said delegations from 33 countries had registered to attend April 6-10 convention in Las Vegas. Further international delegations are being formed by various embassies, NAB said, while 225 foreign companies have signed up as exhibitors.
Restrictions on controversial Total Information Awareness (TIA) program were kept in omnibus appropriations bill for 2003 that was passed by both House and Senate Thurs. night. Defense Dept. project was designed to develop data mining technologies that capture information from people on Internet and from medical, financial or educational databases.
FCC is moving toward compromise on contentious UNE proceeding, although people in and out of Commission said everything still was quite uncertain. Industry sources said they thought agency now was looking at draft proposal that FCC Comr. Martin, considered swing vote, and others might be able to accept. However, one 8th floor aide said his office hadn’t seen anything on paper yet.
Commerce Department (DoC) said Thurs. that, pending statutory approval, it would fold NTIA, Technology Administration (TA) and e-commerce duties of International Trade Administration into new agency headed by TA Undersecy. Phil Bond. The move would keep current NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory as asst. secy. for communications & information, but she would report to Bond and not directly to Commerce Secy. Donald Evans, as she does now. Proposal sparked public plaudits from several trade groups, but privately several industry observers questioned whether plan would lower profile of telecom in Administration.
Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) is working with Harvard U.’s Center for Public Leadership to aid agency in its transition to Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) from Commerce Dept. Effective March 1, CIAO will migrate to DHS Information Analysis & Infrastructure Protection Directorate. Harvard will develop series of consultative documents under title “Leadership in Turbulent Times.” Papers will tackle subject of state and local govt. interaction with CIAO, an issue that “urgently needs to be addressed,” agency said.
Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) and information analysis R&D project began this week that Army said it would administer in cooperation with Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). Army will develop selected concepts in conjunction with Combating Terrorism Technology Support Office of the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), which also has CIP subgroup whose mission includes development of advances in cybersecurity. Subgroup is evaluating potential impact of radiofrequency attacks on civilian electronic systems. Development of next-generation cyberattack-detection, response and alert capabilities also is priority. Advancements in those tools are necessary “to strengthen the viability” of e-commerce, it said. An advance-planning briefing for industry is scheduled Feb. 19 -- (703-247-9478).
FCC’s “fairly sweeping reforms” reduce need for Congress to legislate in telecom, Libertarian think tank scholar said Fri., but Congress could be building up to major overhaul of Communications Act. At Cato Institute briefing for Capitol Hill staff, Telecommunications Studies Dir. Adam Thierer offered support for FCC actions on Bell deregulation and spectrum reform, suggesting agency’s likely action Feb. 13 “lessens the need for Tauzin-Dingell” but that Spectrum Policy Task Force and recent deal with Dept. of Defense on 5 GHz “doesn’t mean the Hill can take a pass.” Thierer said he could envision effort to completely overhaul telecom regulation in 2005 leading to “clean-up in 2006, a Telecom Act of 2006.” He urged Hill staff to “beware of pork-barrel approaches on broadband,” with subsidies not answer. Assn. for Competitive Technology Vp-Corp. Affairs Steve DelBianco, also participating in briefing, said high-tech companies weren’t pursuing “a New Deal. That brings to mind the telecom industry, and that’s not a model we want to follow.” Other issues: (1) Thierer said media ownership would be “red-hot this year” with bills anticipated from both sides after FCC acted. (2) Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) is likely to offer free air time bill, Thierer said, what’s being called McCain-Feingold II. Thierer said that would violate First Amendment and be unfair punishment for broadcasters vs. other media. He said issue could lead to debate on perhaps forcing broadcasters to give up some DTV spectrum, calling DTV “a misguided policy going nowhere.” (3) Intellectual property debate will be big, Cato Technology Studies Dir. Clyde Crews said. He urged Congress not to ban file sharing but to permit content owners to protect content as long as it didn’t involve being free of liability on hacking. DelBianco said Congress should “avoid any quick fixes” in intellectual property protection. Hands-off approach advocated by Cato and ACT wasn’t surprising, and Crews best summed up attitude of panelists by referring to “one kind of government action I can get behind” -- creation last year by FTC of cybersecurity mascot, Dewey the Turtle.
Dept. of Defense (DoD) created 2 blue-ribbon panels to address privacy concerns involving Total Information Awareness (TIA) project and to establish procedures to oversee transfer of TIA technology to other agencies once system was developed. TIA program, conducted by Defense Advanced Research Agency, seeks to develop multimedia data mining and electronic surveillance system to detect patterns of terrorists before they strike.
General Accounting Office (GAO) report released Mon., citing past govt. difficulties in resolving conflicts among spectrum users, called for independent federal commission to examine U.S. spectrum management. Report, requested by Sens. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Burns (R-Mont.), said NTIA and FCC already had stepped up communications on spectrum issues but “their different jurisdictional responsibilities appear likely to result in piecemeal efforts that lack the coordination to facilitate major policy changes.”