March 2011

On March 17, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission will host a town hall at the 26th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference, hosted by the California State University at Northridge (CSUN).

The town hall is one of many steps that the Commission is taking to obtain public feedback as it implements the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Programming Accessibility Act (CVAA or the Act), signed by President Obama on October 8, 2010. The CVAA is landmark disability legislation, designed to ensure that people with disabilities have access to emerging twenty-first century communications and video programming technologies. The CVAA, which enacted many recommendations of the National Broadband Plan, will ensure access to advanced communications equipment and services, expand the availability of hearing aid compatible telephones used with those services, enhance the scope of and contributions to the nation's telecommunications relay services, and create an equipment distribution program for people who are deaf-blind. In addition, the law will fill accessibility gaps in video programming through the provision of video description on television and closed captioning on television programming re-shown on the Internet, ensure the accessibility of video programming devices, and require televised emergency programming to be accessible by people who are blind or visually impaired. As it works through its implementation of the CVAA, the Commission is collaborating closely with consumer and industry stakeholders through two mandated advisory committees. The Town Hall meeting at CSUN will begin with an orientation to the CVAA that will focus on what the CVAA means to consumers with disabilities.

The FCC will then conduct an open dialogue on the Act's provisions, providing an opportunity for attendees to express their opinions on ways the FCC can best implement the CVAA. For purposes of the Commission's ex parte rules regarding permit-but-disclose proceedings (47 C.F.R. § 1.1206(b) (2)), any comments made at the Town Hall on the implementation of the CVAA that pertain to the Act's provisions on advanced communications services, video description, the deaf-blind equipment distribution program, and TRS contributions by VoIP providers, will be deemed oral ex parte presentations in the pending rulemaking proceedings to which they relate. A written transcript of the Town Hall meeting (captured from computer-aided real-time transcription) will be placed in the dockets of the relevant proceedings to comply with the disclosure requirements of the ex parte rules.

After investigating itself for almost a year, the Justice Department reported to the National Archives and Records Administration that it is unable to determine whether any e-mails related to its notorious 2002 "torture memos" were improperly destroyed.

The department's finding, which it delivered to NARA in February, appears to close a troubling case of lax records management by a federal agency. Officials at NARA accepted the explanation of the Justice Department's chief records keeper of why thousands of e-mails vanished when they were needed for an investigation and closed the agency's examination of the matter. The torture memos case underscores the importance of preserving records, and it highlights shortcomings in the way agencies are handling the shift from paper records to electronic formats. Earlier this week, NARA released a report based on the self assessments of 270 federal entities. The survey indicates 95 percent of agencies "are at high to moderate risk of compromising the integrity, authenticity and reliability of their records." The so-called torture memos are a case in point. Written by then-Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and several of his deputies, they provided the Bush administration with legal justification for using waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques on prisoners in the war on terrorism.

Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Administrator Jonathan Adelstein announced that USDA is accepting applications for grants to provide broadband access in rural communities currently without broadband service.

Joining him to make the announcement was Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Funding is provided through the Community Connect Grant program. Grants are available to communities in the most rural, economically challenged areas where loans would not be sustainable. Funds may be used to construct, acquire or lease facilities to deploy broadband to residents, businesses and essential community facilities such as police and fire stations, libraries, schools, and health care clinics. Eligible entities are incorporated organizations, Tribes and tribal organizations, state and local government bodies, for-profit or non-profit cooperatives, private corporations and limited liability corporations. Individuals are not eligible to apply. Grants range from $50,000 to $1.5 million. While grants cannot be renewed, applications to extend existing projects are welcome. Each project requires matching contributions, must serve a rural area where broadband service does not exist, must provide services to critical communities free of charge for two years, and must offer basic service to all premises within the proposed service area. $25 million is available.

City Telecom has grown its business into the number two player on the Hong Kong fixed market, behind incumbent PCCW.

In 2010 the operator took 93 percent of net additions on the market. This takes the company closer to its goal announced in 2006, to be the market leader within ten years. City Telecom's strategy is centered on the roll-out of a new network (a combination of FTTB and FTTH), very high bandwidth (1 Gbps) and very low prices (around EUR 18.75 per month). The penetration of subscribers versus homes passed has reached 63 percent. The CFO, NiQ Lai, and CTO, Ivan Tam, recently outlined the strategy in an interview with a local publication. Central to the strategy is the offering of very high bandwidth for very low prices. City Telecom has chosen the path of abundance, rather than the usual scarcity employed by telecom operators. “We’re out to commoditise bandwidth," according to the CFO. Thinking in terms of abundance is linked directly to the fact that a new network benefits from a high utilization ratio. Offering 1Gbps also clearly drives demand: a film is downloaded in no time, anyone downloading video can directly start with fast forward, YouTube is available in much higher quality, etc. This also feeds the explosion in connected devices, which all need powering. In addition, City Telecom has 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, spread across Hong Kong. The question is why don't more telecom operators do this? Two reasons: they can't and they don't want to.