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.
General Accounting Office (GAO) report that will help guide Sen. Burns (R-Mont.) in developing spectrum management reform legislation is expected next week, his spokesman told us. At Comcare Conference in Washington, Burns said he was looking toward end of year for introduction of bill. He acknowledged there wouldn’t be time to move bill through Congress this session, but said he wanted to get debate started. He said he was working with Sens. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Inouye (D-Hawaii) to develop effective bipartisan bill addressing many aspects of spectrum management. “We think it should be comprehensive,” Burns said. He requested GAO report on U.S. spectrum management system nearly a year ago and it’s expected to examine system comprehensively, spokesman told us. Spokesman for Hollings told us Senate Commerce Committee chmn. believed FCC’s policy on spectrum had “flipped the law,” allowing companies to act as if they owned spectrum, instead of renting it. Spokesman cited NextWave case, saying company was allowed to treat spectrum allocations as though they were company property instead of property that it rented from govt. “If a company fails to make a payment, the license should go back to the government,” Hollings spokesman said. If NextWave case creates precedent on spectrum policy, FCC wold become “moot” in regard to spectrum, spokesman said.
House Commerce Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) was critical of FCC ultra-wideband (UWB) order Wed.,, saying at Telecom Subcommittee hearing that Commission was too quick to adopt restrictions based on NTIA recommendations. He said NTIA’s concerns were based on hypotheticals that had little research backing them up. “We have an FCC order that permits a limited deployment of new technology,” Tauzin said. “NTIA determined the outcome of this proceeding, and the FCC’s order is pretty clear about that. The Commission adopted emissions limits based on levels with which NTIA was comfortable.” Tauzin said FCC had to draw conclusions on “mountains” of conflicting data, with NTIA detailing potential interference and UWB developers arguing that devices wouldn’t cause harmful interference. He said he was hopeful FCC would be able to conduct enough “real world” tests in next 6-12 months to determine whether there was “solid” evidence that UWB created harmful interference in restricted bands.
Export regulation and enforcement will continue to be core function of Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS), but agency increasingly will take action in areas of cybersecurity and homeland security, Undersecy. Kenneth Juster told Commerce Dept. advisory panel Tues. BIS until last month was known as Bureau of Export Administration. In response to growing national and economic security concerns, BIS this fall will release cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection policy guidelines, Juster told BIS Regulations & Procedures Technical Advisory Committee.
Commerce Dept. figures confirm that DVD players enjoy fastest adoption rate of any consumer electronic product. Four million players have been sold so far this year compared with 3.2 million in 2001, said Chris Israel, Commerce Deputy Asst. Secy. for Technology Policy, at opening of DVD 2002 conference at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hq. NIST currently has several projects under way that are important to DVD industry, Israel said, among them reliability testing of writable CD/DVD media and interoperability evaluations of commercially available DVD writers and players. Tests include accelerated aging that simulates 20 years or more shelf life. Information on lifetime and reliability of data archived onto DVD will be shared with manufacturers, he said. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also has been seeking research information on data archiving since Sept. 11, Israel said. FEMA and NIST recently signed memorandum of understanding under which NIST becomes research resource for disaster recovery agency. DVD 2002 conference is co-sponsored by NIST and DVD Assn.
Minn. PUC administrative law judge agreed to reopen evidentiary record in PUC investigation of charges that Qwest failed to file with agency allegedly preferential agreements it made with selected CLECs. ALJ Allen Kline granted motion by plaintiff, Minn. Dept. of Commerce, for inclusion in record of additional Qwest-CLEC agreements that came to light after Commerce filed its complaint against Qwest dealmaking in Feb. Commerce Dept. said substance of new agreements differed significantly from those already in case record and would shed further light on matters at issue. Motion didn’t go into details about CLEC names or agreements’ terms. With new evidence to be filed, ALJ suspended rest of briefing schedule and said new schedule would be set soon (Case P- 421/C-02-197). Iowa regulators last week concluded Qwest had violated federal and state laws by failing to file CLEC agreements that made significant amendments in interconnection agreements (CD June 3).
There’s possible boon in store for CE manufacturers if airlines voluntarily install video surveillance systems for passenger aircraft -- or if federal govt. mandates them. Issue is being considered by Transportation Dept., was discussed at recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing, and some airlines already are prototyping surveillance systems from at least 3 avionics suppliers. On CE side, beneficiaries would be makers of video cameras, LCD panels and PDA with wireless communications.
Digital divide is real and in need of policy attention, consumer groups said Wed., accusing Bush Administration and FCC of denying its existence. Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Consumers Union (CU) and Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy (CRFCP) issued report, Does the Digital Divide Still Exist? Bush Administration Shrugs, But Evidence Says ‘Yes.’ Groups’ evidence of Bush Administration’s dismissal of digital divide was based on Commerce Dept. report earlier this year that suggested divide was closing (CD Feb 6 p4) and President’s FY 2003 budget, which slated for elimination 2 programs addressing digital divide, Commerce Dept.’s Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) and Education Dept.’s Community Technology Center, which coincided with Commerce’s report (CD Feb 6 p1). “The Administration’s claims that we no longer need policies to close the gap is simply wrong,” CU Legislative Counsel Chris Murray said: “Rather than misdefine the problem of the digital divide, the Bush Administration would like to misinterpret it out of existence.” Report said digital divide still existed, in part because: (1) 45% of Americans don’t use Internet. (2) More households with annual incomes above $75,000 have broadband than those below $25,000 have dial-up Internet access. Although Administration hasn’t yet decided whether to adopt broadband policy (CD May 23 p1) and has remained neutral on broadband legislation such as the Bell deregulation bill sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.), CFA Dir.-Research Mark Cooper said “the Administration’s current policies aimed at enhancing the price-setting power of cable and phone monopolies will only worsen the problem.” Groups linked FCC with Administration on that issue, including suggestion that FCC Chmn. Powell had failed to recognize, as CRFCP Exec. Dir. Mark Lloyd put it, that “access to the Internet today is as important as access to the street or sewers or electricity was 50 years ago.” -- www.consumerfed.org/DigitalDivideReport20020530.pdf.
While abandonment of controversial FTC-Justice Dept. (DoJ) merger review agreement late Mon. may not result in renewed focus by FTC on media merger issues, Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.) is more concerned about long-term policy rather than policies of individual FTC chairmen, spokesman for Senate Commerce Committee head said. “Hollings is looking past this particular [FTC] chairman and is focusing on issues down the road,” spokesman said: “FTC Chairman [Timothy] Muris may not seek media merger cases as aggressively as did [former FTC Chmn. Robert] Pitofsky, but the policy is what’s important.” Policy that would have restricted FTC from reviewing certain types of mergers, and therefore from building expertise in those areas, would have constrained future chairmen, spokesman said.
Federal regulators “appear to have at their core the single-minded but mistaken notion that open, nondiscriminatory telecommunications platforms no longer serve the public interest when they are used to provide so- called ‘broadband’ services,” Vint Cerf WROTE Mon. to key Washington officials, adding “the FCC appears determined to deny CLECs and ISPs the very capabilities they need to survive.” Cerf, co-creator of Internet Protocol (IP) standard used for Internet and now senior vp-Internet Architecture & Technology for WorldCom, wrote FCC Chmn. Powell and Commerce Dept. Secy. Donald Evans urging open broadband markets to promote competition. “If you want competition there is one absolute way to guarantee it,” Cerf told our affiliated Washington Internet Daily -- namely, that federal regulators should ensure that “we compete within each medium.”