Americans, not Europeans, are leading the way on wireless and the use of data, CTIA President Steve Largent said in a Thursday blog post. “There is a troublesome trend occurring where some people are suggesting that the mobile environment in Europe is better for consumers than the U.S.,” Largent said (http://bit.ly/1i4TO4n). “This is bothersome and unfortunate since these individuals fundamentally fail to understand reality, or selectively choose facts to support their beliefs. Around the world, it is understood that the United States is leading the mobile revolution.”
The TV White Space Database Administrators Group filed a revised version of its “Database-to-Database Synchronization Interoperability Specification” at the FCC. The document (http://bit.ly/1i4nQoW) lays out a standard for database operators to exchange information on protected entities, as required by FCC rules.
"Illustrative model outputs” of version 4.0 of the Connect America Cost Model are available at http://fcc.us/18RrTfQ, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday (http://fcc.us/18RrU3A). The site also contains lists of the census blocks that would be funded if the bureau adopts this version of the model, it said.
Ex-Commissioner Deborah Taylor-Tate and Education Networks of America met Nov. 13, 14 and 15 with FCC Wireline Bureau staff and aides to several commissioners, they said in an ex parte filing posted online Tuesday (http://bit.ly/18RnrOi). The group said it supports the FCC’s goals for modernizing the E-rate program, and offered ideas on streamlining the application process for E-rate funds. The E-rate program should also be able to provide partial funding “in situations that merit such treatment,” they said in a presentation that was included with the filing(http://bit.ly/18RnARR). They recommended exemption of schools, libraries and their underlying providers from paying into the Universal Service Fund on services and service components. They also suggested a standing committee of “E-rate constituents” to help ongoing improvement of the rules.
Time Warner Cable customers can now access TWC’s on demand and TV Everywhere services on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets, Samsung Smart TVs, Roku players and Xbox 360s, TWC said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1bQ3lnA). The TWC TV service allows customers to watch 5,000 on demand channels, and 300 live TV channels, it said. The service was already offered on iPhones, iPads, Android mobile devices, and computers.
President Barack Obama nominated Elisabeth Cook to continue her membership on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Cook is an attorney with Wilmer Hale and has sat on PCLOB since August 2012. Cook’s reappointment nomination, sent to the Senate Tuesday night, would place her on the board through Jan. 29, 2020. PCLOB, an independent body within the executive branch, has four part-time members and a full-time chairman and is investigating surveillance practices, with the intent to submit recommendations to Obama.
Requests for an FTC investigation into Disney and Sanrio for their alleged noncompliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) were filed by the Center for Digital Democracy Wednesday, said a CDD news release (http://bit.ly/1kiHcpR). Neither company “provides adequate notice or obtains verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information about its child users,” as required by the FTC’s revision of COPPA one year ago (CD Dec 20 p10), said the release. “These two complaints reveal a pattern of disturbing practices that threaten children’s privacy and undermine the ability of parents to control how information is collected and used,” said Executive Director Jeff Chester. The complaints (http://bit.ly/1gGGHG3, http://bit.ly/19yAfN6) are directed at Marvelkids.com, a Disney subsidiary, and the Hello Kitty Carnival mobile app, a joint venture between Typhoon Games and Sanrio, said the release. “CDD’s investigations should spur the FTC to investigate both these companies, and also closely review how many in the online marketing industry appear derelict in complying with the updated COPPA Rule,” said CDD Legal Director Hudson Kingston. The two companies had no comment.
Several telecom associations asked the FCC for a stay of rules requiring their members to “reconcile and revise study area boundary data” that will ultimately be published in an online map of study area boundaries (http://bit.ly/JIaL6y). NTCA, USTelecom, the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Western Telecommunications Alliance and Eastern Rural Telecom Association asked Wednesday for a stay or a six-month extension to let the companies gather the information. The Wireline Bureau’s study area boundary order said the data would be used to implement the USF/intercarrier compensation benchmarking rule, which uses quantile regression analysis to generate capital and operating expense limits for each rate-of-return carrier study area. “The Chairman has indicated that consideration will be given by the Commission to the elimination of the quantile regression analysis ... mechanism in the near future,” the petition said. “Absence of the QRA would remove the stated reason for the study area boundary process, and particularly for the burdensome and time-consuming efforts that will be involved in reconciling many hundreds of overlaps and voids.” If the boundary data are still required, the groups said, a six-month extension is necessary to ensure accuracy. The groups are awaiting details of the QRA replacement FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told Congress the agency is working on (CD Dec 18 p2).
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile agreed to a spectrum swap involving AWS-1 and PCS licenses. The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on the proposal Wednesday. The companies are set to exchange 5 to 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in 153 counties across 47 cellular market areas, the document states. In 11 counties in Texas, Verizon would assign 20 MHz of PCS spectrum to T-Mobile, and would receive 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in return. Verizon would also assign 5 to 10 MHz of PCS spectrum to T-Mobile in another 34 counties. “Preliminary review of the applications indicates that, post-transaction, Verizon Wireless would hold 67 to 149 megahertz of spectrum and T-Mobile would hold 30 to 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 518 counties covering parts or all of 133 Cellular Market Areas,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1bdMlHJ). Petitions to deny are due Jan. 6, oppositions Jan. 16, and replies Jan. 24. “There will be no loss of an existing service provider in any of the market areas subject to these transactions,” the companies explained in a public interest statement filed at the FCC. “The VZW Licensees are using some of their Exchange Licenses to provide service to customers. The VZW Licensees will continue to provide service on exchanged spectrum or other spectrum currently held by Cellco [a Verizon subsidiary]. Similarly, the T-Mobile Licensees are currently using some of their Exchange Licenses to provide service to customers. The T-Mobile Licensees will continue to provide service on exchanged spectrum or other spectrum currently held by the T-Mobile Licensees or their affiliates."
Reports that Sprint and T-Mobile could merge have added a new wrinkle to one of the most contested issues on rules for the TV incentive auction -- spectrum aggregation limits, said NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan on the group’s blog Wednesday. “Let’s assume that the FCC is contemplating rules that would ensure that each of the top four wireless carriers has a reasonable shot at acquiring spectrum in the incentive auction,” Kaplan said (http://bit.ly/1bQPfWl). “What happens, then, if those rules are enacted, and Sprint and T-Mobile subsequently reach a deal to merge, but prior to the auction itself? Or, what happens if the two companies participate in the auction independently, benefit from competitive rules designed for them, and then merge with spectrum assets they wouldn’t have had access to had they merged pre-auction?” Kaplan, former chief of the Wireless Bureau, said the association hasn’t staked out a position on spectrum aggregation. But, he said “the rumors of a Sprint/T-Mobile merger seriously raise the stakes for the wireless competition issue; one that has already had more airplay than any other."