June 2008

Sprint Nextel said on Wednesday it was asking the Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline for it to stop using a key piece of airwaves close to the networks of public-safety agencies. The company is asking the FCC to push back a June 26 deadline for Sprint to vacate some of the 800 megahertz spectrum that it currently uses. Sprint is required to vacate the spectrum as part of a larger FCC plan to swap spectrum with public-safety agencies in the 800 megahertz band, a move aimed at minimizing interference between wireless service and public-safety users. Sprint's request, filed late on Tuesday, came shortly after the FCC granted requests from many public-safety agencies to delay relinquishing their spectrum under the swap until July 1, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1848677120080619

They say the neon white spaces are bright on Broadway. But, according to Broadway theater owners, the lights of the "Great White Way" could be extinguished by mobile wireless devices in the "white spaces" between digital-TV channels. These owners squared off with the technology industry Wednesday over the issue of using those white spaces (opponents of the devices call them "interference zones") between DTV channels for unlicensed mobile devices like laptops and spectrum-sensing radios. In the technology-industry corner was the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Dell, Microsoft and Motorola. It said Wednesday that it asked the Federal Communications Commission to back a "compromise" proposal for solving interference issues with wireless microphones -- which also use the TV-spectrum band -- pointing out that a combination of beacon and spectrum-sensing technology had been proposed by Shure, one of the top wireless-mic manufacturers. The Broadway League -- which represents theater owners, producers and others -- shot back that the microphone-protection plan was a public-relations blitz intended to mask "fatal flaws" in proposals to use the white spaces for national voice- and data-transmission services.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571307.html?rssid=193

The Consumer Federation of America will bestow the Esther Pererson Consumer Service Award on CFA Research Director Mark Cooper in a June 19 ceremony. The CFA said Cooper has testified more than 100 times and helped to translate exhaustive studies and complicated issues into layman's terms. "In more than a century of consumer activism, fewer advocates have done more than Mark Cooper to advance the consumer interest," the CFA added.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571395.html?rssid=193

Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking Republican on the House Commerce Committee, wrote Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to say he is concerned with consolidation in the online-advertising industry and how its partnership with Google could affect competition. He said he was concerned about the impact on data storage, collection and privacy and asked Yang for a bunch of information. It included: which company made the first move in forming the partnership (names and dates, please); the names and titles of executives at his company who expressed concern that the partnership would result in a "monopoly in the online-search market"; what criteria Yahoo will use to decide on what pages Google's paid advertising will appear and whether the price advertisers paid affects the placement; and an explanation of the $800 million in additional revenue Yahoo predicted from the partnership.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6571444.html?rssid=193