May 2011

House GOP fears big taxpayer tab for public safety network

Republicans on the House Commerce Committee remain wedded to the goal of building a cost-friendly public safety network even though the White House and senators in both parties have backed a more expensive option.

A GOP memo drafted to prepare staff for a May 25 hearing shows that cost is a serious hang-up for the committee Republicans as Congress debates how to build a communications network for police and firefighters. The public safety lobby wants Congress to hand over a valuable chunk of airwaves known as the D Block along with billions in federal funding, a proposal with broad backing — but not among House Republicans. "While we all share the goal of creating a nationwide interoperable public safety network, questions remain about how to achieve it," the memo says. The Commerce Committee memo pointed out that the center of gravity in this debate has moved away from fiscal hawks since the last Congress. This year, the Administration sided with public safety advocates.

White House Beefs Up Online Rapid Response

The Obama Administration has created and staffed a new position tucked inside their communications shop for helping coordinate rapid response to unfavorable stories and fostering and improving relations with the progressive online community.

"This week, Jesse Lee will move from the new media department into a role in the communications department as Director of Progressive Media & Online Response," read an internal memo from Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. "For the last two years, Jesse has often worn two hats working in new media and serving as the White House's liaison with the progressive media and online community. Starting this week, Jesse will take on the second role full time working on outreach, strategy and response." The post is a new one for this White House. Rapid response has been the purview of the Democratic National Committee (and will continue to be). Lee's hire, however, suggests that a portion of it will now be handled from within the administration. It also signals that the White House will be adopting a more aggressive engagement in the online world in the months ahead.

FCC to consider proposal that could boost Clearwire network speeds

During its June 9 open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission will consider a proposal that would allow operators in the 2.5 GHz band to make use of wider channel bandwidths. If the proposal is approved by the FCC, it could allow WiMAX operator Clearwire to expand from its recommended 5.5 MHz channel bandwidths to 20 MHz channel bandwidths or more, thus allowing the carrier to offer significantly faster upload and download speeds.

To be clear, a number of pieces must fall into place before Clearwire can actually widen its channels and boost its network speeds. First, the FCC must issue a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the topic and solicit comments from the public. If the FCC does approve the proposal, then network equipment vendors will have to build suitable equipment for wider spectrum channels -- and Clearwire must deploy that equipment. Nonetheless, "the rule change would be beneficial to companies like Clearwire who may adopt wider channelization plans in the future," noted Clearwire spokesman Mike DiGioia.

T-Mobile kills unlimited data, unveils new tiered data plans for smartphones

T-Mobile USA quietly eliminated its $30 per month unlimited data plan for smartphones in favor of four new tiered data plans. The operator also said that if customers go over their allotted data cap they will not incur overage charges but instead will have their data speeds throttled down to an EDGE, or 2G, experience of around 100 Kbps or less.

T-Mobile customers with smartphones can now select from the following new options:

$10 for 200 MB per month
$20 for 2 GB
$30 for 5 GB or
$60 for 10 GB

According to a T-Mobile spokeswoman, customers will be notified via a free text message when they exceed their monthly data threshold. At that time, they will have the option to change their data plan to one with more data or continue to use their existing plan with the reduced speeds for the remainder of the month.

CenturyLink beats Silverton in Round 1 over fiber optics

A judge for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has ruled against Silverton in its bid to force CenturyLink -- formerly Qwest Communications -- to complete a 16-mile fiber-optic linkup to the small mountain town north of Durango.

The decision means Silverton will remain the only county seat in Colorado that lacks a fiber-optic connection. The town plans to appeal the decision issued this month by Administrative Law Judge G. Harris Adams to the three full-time PUC commissioners, said Patrick Swonger, a Silverton town trustee. Silverton and San Juan County officials accuse of failing to complete a $37 million state contract to provide high-speed fiber-optic connections to every county seat by June 30, 2005. Qwest laid fiber as far as Cascade Village but stopped there, saying it could not obtain rights of way all the way to Silverton. Instead, Qwest completed the connection with a microwave-radio link-up that provides high-speed connectivity to Silverton. CenturyLink said the service complies with all applicable standards, and there is no requirement for a fiber network to provide additional broadband capacity.

PBS proposes to interrupt primetime shows with promo and underwriting credits

The Public Broadcasting Service will begin breaking into programs with underwriting and promo spots four times per hour on an experimental basis beginning this fall, it told station members at the PBS National Meeting.

The move could be controversial for the network, which has traditionally prided itself on offering uninterrupted programming over its 40-year history. In the trial run of the proposed format change, Nova and Antiques Roadshow will have breaks at approximately five, 20, 40 and 55 minutes after the start of an hourlong program. National underwriting will run at five and 55; national or local spots promoting programs or other pubTV services will be inserted at 20 and 40. Sources say the shows were selected as they are the most easily segmented to accommodate the interruptions. The immediate purpose of the proposal is not to squeeze in a significant amount of underwriting time.Program content time will remain unchanged at 50 minutes, 10 seconds. PBS says it's objective is to clear away underwriting and promo spots from the beginning and end of programs so that viewers are more likely to see a little of the next program and stay tuned rather than tuning away to catch the start of programs on other channels.

Three dead after Foxconn factory blast, Apple investigating

A third employee had died from injuries caused by an explosion at a factory of Foxconn in Chengdu, China.

Initial findings show the blast was caused by "combustible dust in a duct." Apple said it was working with Foxconn to understand what caused the incident. The May 20 explosion injured 15 other employees, six of whom have been treated and released from the hospital. Taiwan-based Foxconn is still working with Chinese authorities to investigate the root cause of the explosion. Operations at the Chengdu factory have been suspended. Foxconn has also suspended production at its other factories that carry out "similar processing functions."

AT&T: Keep Qualcomm and T-Mobile Reviews Separate

AT&T Mobility and Qualcomm urged the Federal Communications Commission not to combine its evaluation of AT&T's proposed $1.93 billion purchase of Qualcomm's MediaFLO spectrum with the FCC's evaluation of AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

Their letter is a response to a petition filed by Cincinnati Bell Wireless, MetroPCS, Ntelos, Sprint Nextel, the Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommunications Group asking that the FCC combine the proceedings. These parties are all vehemently opposed to AT&T's acquisitions, arguing they will give AT&T too much market power. In the letter, AT&T and Qualcomm argue the FCC has refused to consolidate other proceedings under similar circumstances. The companies also said the licenses involved in the proceedings are different and the transactions are not related.

Some Sprint customers seeing overage charges due to Google Voice integration

Sprint sent a ripple through the mobile phone world recently by teaming up with Google to allow customers to integrate phones with the Google Voice (GV) service. Google Voice is the free service that assigns a phone number to an account that is not tied to phone service, allowing the number to be used with any phone by having calls forwarded by Google to the configured phone. This works for both voice calls and SMS messages sent to the Google Voice number. Users can also set up multiple phones (and numbers) to work with Google Voice by having calls sent to a specific phone, mobile or landline, based on the user’s configuration.
The recent deal between Sprint and Google allows customers to tightly integrate Sprint mobile phones with Google Voice. A simple one-time setup can let Sprint mobile phone customers get their Google Voice calls on the Sprint phone without further action. Outgoing calls can be placed with the Caller ID showing either the Sprint phone number (Option 1) or the Google Voice number (Option 2) as desired.

Customers are beginning to appear on both the Google Voice and Sprint support forums reporting on an unexpected phenomenon after integrating the two services. Sprint customers who chose Option 2 when setting up the integration with Google Voice are seeing unexpected hits on their mobile-to-mobile minutes, sometimes resulting in overage charges by Sprint. According to Sprint representatives chiming in on the forums, when a customer makes a call after activating GV integration using Option 2, each phone call shows the GV phone number as the call originator as expected. What customers don't realize is that national carriers show GV phones to be landlines, no matter what the actual source is for the call, and thus recipients of such calls treat them as landline calls. Sprint customers calling other Sprint customers get free mobile minutes for such calls, but not the recipient once the GV Option 2 integration has been activated. Some customers complaining in the forums incurred overage charges even while all calls went to other Sprint phones on their own bill, as even Sprint classes the calls as landline calls for the recipient.

Homes, cars and phones slowly linking up

Chat by video on multiple screens as you stroll around your house. Start a game on your living room TV and finish it on your car entertainment system. Automobiles, phones, TVs and home appliances that talk to each other is a future technology companies have envisioned for a long time. And bit by bit, it is starting to happen. Silicon Valley insiders are zeroing in on new ways to let people share media across different gadgets and make it safer to manage your locks and alarm systems over your iPhone.

Benton

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