July 2010

FCC, FDA unveil partnership to promote wireless medical technology

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a partnership on July 26 designed to promote wireless medical technology, a field they say will cut medical costs and improve care.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg signed a memorandum of understanding and released a joint statement of principles at the beginning of a two-day conference on wireless medical technology.Calling the partnership "unprecedented," Chairman Genachowski said that "all Americans stand to benefit from wireless-enabled health solutions." The FCC's National Broadband Plan, released in March, called on the government to streamline processes to promote wireless medical technology. The joint statement says that the FDA and the FCC should encourage investment in wireless medical technology, ensure that all devices operate safely, and streamline regulatory processes, including by clarifying the agencies' jurisdiction over wireless devices.

Here's the joint statement:

Innovation in broadband and wireless-enabled medical devices holds significant promise for enhancing health and reducing the costs of health care for all Americans. Examples include wireless sensors that remotely monitor heart rhythm and portable glucose monitoring systems. All Americans should be afforded the opportunity to benefit from medical technology advances with improved broadband and wireless technology.
Developing and integrating wireless and broadband communications technology with medical devices and applications requires agencies to assure that such devices operate in a safe, reliable and secure manner.
It is important for the federal government to provide leadership and encourage innovation and investment in new health care technologies that enable patients, doctors, and other health professionals to access the highest quality care.
The American public -- including industry, providers, patients, and other interested stakeholders -- should have clear regulatory pathways, processes, and standards to bring broadband and wireless-enabled medical devices to market. This includes clarity regarding each agency's scope of authority with respect to these devices, predictability regarding regulatory pathways, and streamlining the application process, as appropriate, to facilitate innovation while protecting patients.
The FDA and the FCC agree to build upon this initiative launched today to proactively serve the national interest in finding innovative solutions to America's health care challenges.

Industry Group to Study How a Mobile Nation Uses Media

Some of the nation's biggest media companies and advertisers, seeking to develop new ways of measuring audiences, could make Apple's iPhone the vehicle for a study of how Americans consume media on a range of devices -- from TV sets to mobile phones to computers.

The study would be one of the first major initiatives of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, a high-profile collaboration between the media and ad industries begun last summer with much fanfare. The group is in talks to hire Media Behavior Institute LLC, a New York media-research firm, to conduct a study in which participating consumers would get an iPhone in exchange for agreeing to report their media use several times a day. The effort could get off the ground in the fall, if approved by the group's board members. The iPhones would come with a specially designed app that study participants would log on to every half hour to answer questions, such as what media they were watching or listening to, who they were doing it with and whether they were using more than one device at a time. In a media world that has grown increasingly fragmented, advertisers are eager to figure out how best to allocate their ad budgets. At the same time, media companies, which have seen TV audiences splinter over the years, are eager to find a way to prove that people are watching their shows on devices beyond the traditional TV set. They also are more frequently trying to sell ad packages across their different properties, such as a mix of broadcast and cable channels.

Vermont broadband Internet access: Where is it?

Vermont is in the heat of a gubernatorial campaign, and the candidates are making a new round of promises about broadband and fixing Vermont's spotty cellular phone coverage.

Experts say Vermont's mountains and hills block wireless signals. Its sparse population of about 622,000 makes stringing cables to widely scattered rural homes and businesses too expensive to be profitable in many areas. The upshot is that Vermont has struggled to keep up with the information age. "In most rural areas you have a very challenging business proposition for broadband," said Christopher Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority. That state agency, created in 2007, is promoting Vermont's efforts to expand both broadband and cellular phone service statewide. "That doesn't mean it can't be done," Campbell added. "It has been done. It's been done in Vermont. It's even possible that if we waited long enough somebody would figure out how to do it all without any help. The problem is we can't afford to wait." It's difficult to quantify exactly how much broadband and cell phone coverage there is in the state. On broadband, estimates range up to 90 percent.

ACA Chairman: Comcast/NBCU Would Have More Power Than Any Company Deserves

Talking to a roomful of small and medium-sized cable operators, American Cable Association Chairman Steve Friedman said it was time for the discrimination against smaller operators to stop, including arguing that a Comcast/NBCU merger has more clout "than any one company deserves."

In a speech at a Washington policy update session at the Independent Show in Baltimore, Friedman said that whether the issue is network neutrality, retransmission consent reform, broadband reclassification or the Comcast-NBCU merger, the problem boils down to big vs. small.

AT&T Begins Fix for Glitch That Slowed Some IPhones

AT&T said it began a fix for a glitch in software supplied by Alcatel-Lucent SA that was causing slower speeds in some areas of the U.S. for customers using Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4 and other devices.

Private and Public Stakeholders to Collaborate on Better Informing Consumers About Accessible Apps

What industry can do to ensure that consumers are aware of the great number of accessibility apps that are available now and may become available in the future?

CTIA - the Wireless Association has volunteered to work with consumers and the Federal Communications Commission to figure out the best way to make this information available to consumers. Among other things, this may include updating and expanding the wireless association's accessibility website, so that it would be a first stop for consumers searching for information about accessible wireless devices, services, and apps. CTIA's acceptance of this challenge was conditioned on the agreement of consumers, the FCC, and other stakeholders to collaborate with industry representatives on this project. We and all of the consumer groups in attendance at the event readily agreed to work together and committed to moving the project forward in a coordinated effort with CTIA.

Univision Radio Pays $1 Million to Resolve "Pay-For-Play" Investigation

The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau released a Consent Decree entered into with Univision Radio to resolve allegations that Univision radio stations or their employees secretly accepted payment from a record label in exchange for the radio stations giving more frequent airplay to the label's artists, without making the disclosures to listeners required by section 507 of the Communications Act.

In a companion criminal action, a federal district court has accepted the plea of Univision Services to charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ"), based on the same facts. The FCC and the DOJ coordinated their respective investigations and enforcement actions. As part of the FCC settlement and the DOJ action, the Univision companies will pay $1 million to the U.S. Treasury. The FCC-Univision Consent Decree also obligates Univision to implement certain business reforms and compliance measures designed to ensure future compliance with the Commission's rules.

Key provisions of the settlement include:

General prohibition on Univision stations and employees exchanging airplay for cash or other items of value, except under specified conditions, and provided that such exchanges comply with sponsorship identification laws;
Limits on the size of gifts, concert tickets, and other valuable items that Univision stations and employees can accept from record labels;
Appointment of a Compliance Officer and regional Compliance Contacts responsible for monitoring and reporting company performance under the settlement; and
Regular training of programming personnel on payola restrictions.

Genachowski says US broadband numbers "unacceptable"

Speaking at the 72nd Communications Workers of America Conference, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said the "proverbial bridge to the 21st century isn't made of bricks and concrete. It's made of copper and fiber." He noted the work CWA members to help build that bridge. But in a reference to the FCC's recently-released "section 706" report, Chairman Genachowski said the US has far to go reach universal broadband. The report, the says, offers more incentive to work to implement the National Broadband Plan released in March.

Cybersecurity, Innovation and the Internet Economy

The Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force is conducting a comprehensive review of the nexus between cybersecurity challenges in the commercial sector and innovation in the Internet economy. The Department seeks comments from all stakeholders, including the commercial, academic and civil society sectors, on measures to improve cybersecurity while sustaining innovation. Preserving innovation, as well as private sector and consumer confidence in the security of the Internet economy, are important for promoting economic prosperity and social well-being overall. In particular, the Department seeks to develop an up-to-date understanding of the current public policy and operational challenges affecting cybersecurity, as those challenges may shape the future direction of the Internet and its commercial use, both domestically and globally. After analyzing comments on this Notice, the Department intends to issue a report that will contribute to the Administration's domestic and international policies and activities in advancing both cybersecurity and the Internet economy.

Are computers for every student a wise investment?

Daily technology use in core subject-area classes, frequent technology use in intervention courses, and a low student-to-computer ratio can play a critical role in reducing dropout rates, new research suggests -- and the study's authors argue that a federal investment in mobile computers for every child would pay huge dividends in terms of national productivity.

"Technology is an investment, not an expense," says Project RED (Reinventing Education), the group behind the research. The project's researchers surveyed nearly a thousand schools with diverse student populations and varying levels of ed-tech integration. The researchers found that 45 percent of all schools said their dropout rates are going down -- but for schools that have implemented one-to-one computing programs, that figure is 58 percent. And for schools that are implementing 1-to-1 programs effectively, employing strategies such as regular formative assessment and frequent teacher collaboration, that figure jumps to 81 percent. Based on these findings, Project RED says policy makers should consider the economic impact a federal investment in 1-to-1 computing and education technology could have on the nation's future.

Benton

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