September 2010

Should Drivers Hang Up? State Officials To Weigh In

Highhway safety officials from the 50 states meeting in Kansas City (MO) will decide whether to recommend banning all cell phone use by drivers. Such a ban would include handheld and even hands-free devices.

"I think it's prompted by concern that, regardless of law, any type of cell phone use while driving is dangerous. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Carnegie Mellon and a whole host of other entities have shown that just because you're hands-free there's no safety benefit to that," says Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association. More than 5,000 highway deaths were attributed to distracted driving last year. Adoption of the resolution wouldn't be binding; each state legislature would need to act. But there is clearly some momentum behind the notion of banning or restricting cell phone use in cars. Eight states and the District of Columbia now ban handheld cell phone use; 30 states ban texting while driving. Automakers say they're doing what they can to keep drivers' hands on the wheel. Louis Tijerina, a senior technical specialist with Ford, says the company's onboard computer system called SYNC is aimed at helping drivers avoid fiddling with navigation and music systems.

As Unfair and Unbalanced as You Like

A look at the new video aggregation and curation service NewsLook.

Of course the narrow mind will want to filter the feed to reaffirm their prejudices, but there is also the opportunity to review the ideological range of opinions on any hot topic. The ideology search tool is actually a bit buried in the Newslook tool set. It could be turned into a standalone product of its own. This is a curious but very useful tool for the Newslook service that launched last month. The site pulls together thousands of current and past news clips from scores of sources. Editors pick the best videos to offer and categorize the content, including the content's ideological perspective. They tag them and add denser descriptions. Newslook has a modestly designed site that faces consumers. But the business model seems aimed at supplying customized feeds of aggregated and curated content to publishers. There are interactive widgets that can pull video streams into other sites, and Newslook says that it will add ads to the feeds to monetize the video themselves.

Slow development of radio standards frustrates first responders

Delays persist in finalizing standards that would make the radios that first responders use interoperable, a problem that frustrates government officials struggling to find communication solutions in the vendor community. Public safety professionals are developing an open suite of standards, called Project 25 or P25, for manufacturing interoperable two-way wireless communications products. But development of the standards continues, making compliance impossible, according to witnesses who testified before the House Technology and Innovation Subcommittee on Sept 22.

White Spaces and the FCC: A Decision Behind It and a Challenge Ahead

[Commentary] The benefits of the Federal Communications Commission's white spaces order will likely be greater in rural areas, where spectrum congestion is not an issue even after the digital transition.

As long as the FCC lives up to the Prime Directive of not causing interference to existing inhabitants of the TV band, the benefits of better utilization of spectrum are hard to dispute. The FCC needs to keep an open mind as it implements its proposed use of white spaces. A well-performing database that keeps licensed and unlicensed operators adequately separated is in everyone's interest. If some of the FCC's initial conclusions need to be rethought in order to accomplish that, those discussions will be healthy ones. Equally important is ensuring that equipment manufacturers fastidiously comply with the FCC's interference protocols. Broadcasters are rightly concerned that non-compliant or just poorly designed and manufactured unlicensed devices can cause immense damage, and the FCC lacks the tools to put the genie back in the bottle should that occur. Fining such manufacturers after the fact won't help much if millions of interference-inducing devices are already out there interfering with the public's ability to watch TV, listen to a sermon, or attend a Broadway show. As the FCC proceeds down this path, getting it right is going to be far more difficult than just getting it done.

Support for Library Facilities Across the Country

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced investments in 30 states that will create jobs by building and enhancing libraries in 129 rural communities across the nation. The projects are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act).

"Libraries are the centerpiece of rural community life, but in many cases they need additional funding to provide rural residents with computer access, modern equipment and new training and educational opportunities," Sec Vilsack said. "These Recovery Act investments in our nation's libraries will serve rural America for generations to come."

The $15 million in Recovery Act funding is being provided through USDA Rural Development's Community Facilities Program. It will be combined with $10.2 million from other sources. Funding of each loan and grant is contingent upon the recipient meeting the conditions of the agreement.

Why the Fox News Suit Against Robin Carnahan's Campaign Is Bogus

Last week, in an apparently unprecedented move, Fox News sued Robin Carnahan, Missouri's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, for copyright infringement. Admittedly, Fox attacking a Democratic politician isn't surprising. Nevertheless, the lawsuit is something of a watershed, because it appears to be the first time a news organization has filed a copyright lawsuit against a political candidate for using a news clip in a campaign ad before an election. The lawsuit highlights the troubling tendency of copyright owners to make overreaching claims about the scope of their legal rights. The Carnahan case is also an example of something even more pernicious: the potential for copyright law to become a means of political censorship.

Zucker Departure in Hands of Justice, FCC

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said he will be leaving NBCU as soon as the merger with Comcast is a done deal. So the timing of his departure now depends on the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission completing their reviews of the proposed merger.

The FCC's current informal shot clock on the merger has a target date of completion as Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving. That would definitely be a day of Thanksgiving for Comcast, which wants the deal done as soon as possible. Of course, there is also the possibility that Justice or the FCC could impose potential deal-breaker conditions like, say, spin-offs of the stations or regional sports nets in markets where they overlap, or public interest conditions that Comcast could not live with. Either scenario is considered unlikely, however. Zucker and Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts became a familiar tag team in Washington in 2010 as they testified in front of various committees in defense of the deal. Andrew Schwartzman of Media Access Project opposes the merger and did his own sparring with Zucker during the hearings. At the time, Schwartzman said the merger would be the biggest media marriage since Lucy and Desi. Zucker countered that he only wished for those days, with three networks dividing up the audience. Schwartzman said Friday he did not think Zucker's announcement would have any impact on the merger proceedings, suggesting it had already been factored in. "I think it was pretty clear that his days were numbered," he said.

US wireless users hold onto phones longer, higher fees cited

Americans are holding onto their old cellphones much longer because of the bleak economy, and penalties and other fees attached to new purchases are turning off buyers, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

The report comes as federal regulators are being pressured to impose guidelines to better protect consumers who have seen a rise in contract cancellation penalties by major wireless providers over the last year. In a report released Thursday, the marketing information firm found that in 2010, basic cellphone and smart phone users said they had kept their wireless cellphones for about 20.5 months. That's 17 percent longer than from the previous year and the longest duration since J.D. Power began its survey in 1999. "Typically, when upgrading to a new cellphone, there's the added expense of either subscribing to a more expensive service plan and/or incurring termination fees when switching service providers," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "Today, consumers are really watching their wallets, and any added discretionary expenses are being considered more thoughtfully than in the past."

Super Wi-Fi is Super for Energy, Too

Super Wi-Fi isn't just for consumers; it's super for improving how we transmit and distribute energy in America too. The National Broadband Plan made several recommendations designed to integrate broadband into the emerging Smart Grid and enable improved Smart Grid communications; white spaces spectrum is yet another option for utilities to use for their communications networks. As we have seen in a recent trial in Plumas-Sierra County, California, white spaces spectrum can be used effectively and securely for grid automation applications, as well as retail broadband services. Opening white spaces spectrum is also likely to have a particular impact on utility operations in rural areas, which often have challenging terrain and fewer options for broadband service than urban areas.

New FCC white space rules: inside the Satanic details

If the devil really is in the details, let's look inside the Federal Communications Commission's white space to find, well, I don't know who it could be, maybe Satan!

The FCC feels confident that its new allocation of two more channels where unlicensed devices will not be allowed to operate will compensate for a change in spectrum sensing requirements. In fact, the FCC even declined to go with microphone maker requests that wireless mics get more spectrum and be included in the white space database system. But in occasional instances where "major events" are being staged and all channels reserved for wireless mics have been used, the event coordinators may petition the FCC for wireless mic database inclusion. And the agency says it's open to considering spectrum sensing devices on a "proof-of-performance" standard, and will accept applications for white space "sensing only" devices when vendors are "ready to do so." The FCC divides white space devices into two categories—"Mode I" and "Mode II" gadgets. Mode II and fixed location devices communicate with the central database command and include lists of available channels. Mode I devices float more freely. To compensate for the elimination of sensing, devices in Mode I mode now must receive regular signals from Mode II gadgets that provide an updated list of good-to-go channels, or they must contact the Mode II channel themselves at least once per minute. Meanwhile the Mode II and fixed devices must check their own locations at the same rate, except if in "sleep mode"—that is, the machines aren't transmitting data, but they aren't powered down either.

Benton

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