March 2011

The next government auction of valuable wireless spectrum in Canada is still at least a year and a half away, but the fight among telecom companies over how the auction should be run is already in full swing.

The big issue is whether any of the prime 700 MHz airwaves need be set aside for new entrants to the market as was the case in the government auction of wireless spectrum in 2008. At the time, Canada's Conservative government was pushing for more competition in wireless, long dominated by three companies: BCE Inc's Bell Canada unit, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. The "Big Three" -- which together hold 95 percent of the market -- say the new entrants need no more help.

A Swiss court is considering a request from the country's data protection commissioner that Google should manually blur people's faces in its Street View imagery application rather than use automated technology.

Hanspeter Thuer, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), contends that too many faces are missed by the automated blurring technology and that people should review the images. Google and the FDPIC both made presentations to a five-judge panel of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, which will issue a ruling in a few weeks, said Eliane Schmid, the FDPIC's information officer. Google has been in a long-running battle with Switzerland over Street View since it came online in that country in August 2009. A month after Street View's launch, Google was warned by the agency that it should take more steps to protect people's privacy and gave Google some recommendations, including to more carefully blur people who are outside sensitive facilities, such as hospitals and prisons.

A proposal from House Republicans to repeal network neutrality could tie the hands of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and prevent the agency from reissuing Internet line rules, which have been broadly accepted, House Democrats said.

The memo says that the Republican plan to roll back the rules through the Congressional Review Act (CRA) could create "uncertainty" about the FCC's role. The memo prepares House Commerce Committee staffers for a March 2 markup of a resolution of disapproval against network neutrality rules. The resolution was introduced by committee Republicans. The Democratic memo points out that if the House votes to disapprove of network neutrality rules, the regulations may not be reissued except by legislation, according to the Congressional Review Act. In the Democrats' view, this means the resolution would "introduce significant uncertainty regarding the role of the FCC, even where there is general agreement on the need for FCC action." The memo objects to CRA repeal of net-neutrality rules because there is "broad agreement on certain aspects of the FCC’s rules, such as the need for transparency, the prohibition on blocking of lawful content, and the right to exercise reasonable network management." The CRA repeal, however, "would bluntly remove the FCC’s authority to enforce even these consensus measures," the Democrats argue.