December 2011

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Public Notice announcing that the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) has approved Spectrum Bridge’s television white spaces database system, which may provide service to devices beginning January 26, 2012.

OET has also approved a device by Koos Technical Services (KTS) as the first product allowed to operate on an unlicensed basis on unused frequencies in the TV bands. The KTS device will operate in conjunction with the Spectrum Bridge TV band database. The new KTS TV bands device is designed and approved for fixed operations that serve any broadband data applications. The device will contact the Spectrum Bridge database to identify channels that are available for operation at its location and can provide high-speed Internet connectivity.

The approval granted by OET allows Spectrum Bridge to commence operational service to new devices that can take advantage of the TV spectrum to provide service over greater ranges than those of Wi-Fi devices operating on higher frequencies.

Initial operation under this approval will be limited to Wilmington, NC and the surrounding area and will expand nationwide pending completion and activation of the Commission’s facilities for processing requests for protection of unlicensed wireless microphone at event venues. Parties in the Wilmington area that wish to register wireless microphones for event venues during this period of limited operation must send a request to OET by e-mail.

Stakeholders in the year-long debate over spectrum legislation find themselves in a bit of a holding pattern while lawmakers try to figure out how to break a congressional logjam over how to extend a payroll-tax holiday.

House GOP leaders included a version of spectrum legislation approved earlier this month by the Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee in legislation the House passed last week providing a one-year extension of the payroll-tax cut. But the package passed by the Senate on Dec 17 providing a two-month payroll-tax holiday did not include spectrum legislation. On Dec 20, House GOP leaders balked at calls to pass the Senate’s payroll bill before leaving town for its holiday break, and instead say they want to negotiate with the Senate over the differences between the two bills.

The spectrum legislation seeks to free up more spectrum for wireless broadband technologies by enticing broadcasters to give up some of their airwaves in exchange for some of the money from auctioning that spectrum, while also producing funds for the Treasury. It also would provide spectrum and authorize funding to help public-safety officials build a national broadband network to improve communications at the scene of emergencies. Public safety officials, House Democrats, and supporters of a Senate Commerce spectrum bill have concerns with several provisions in the House bill. The impasse over the payroll legislation may at the very least give lawmakers more time to work through some of the remaining differences between the House and Senate versions.

As if marketers didn’t have enough to worry about in 2012, with troubling signs that the economy will remain less than robust, they will also have politicians and their war chests interfering with planned media campaigns for the coming year.

That’s the word from MediaVest, which has issued new research to clients predicting that ad inventory during the upcoming political year will be tighter than ever, given the record dollars that politicians will raise and spend next year in their bids to get elected. The research was generated from the agency’s Civic Observatory unit, an ongoing tracking study that draws on a pool of 1,500 consumer respondents. The biggest crunch will come at the local level. In 2008, roughly 85% of measured media advertising placed for the November general election was in local TV, where political ads take precedence over those from regular marketers. The Publicis media shop estimates that political spending next year will be up roughly 30% from four years earlier and could reach $4 billion. Plus, it’s not just the local TV airwaves that will be jammed, per the MediaVest research. “Increased fundraising in 2012 will drive broader tactical use of more media,” the agency reports. “It will impact marketers across all categories.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will create an online dashboard that it will use as a tool to evaluate and improve the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) through its grants to states and other assistance.

The data sets that ONC is developing and will share with partners will enable it to assess how well grantees, such as the 62 regional health IT extension centers, are doing compared with each other, validate their progress reports and track performance improvements so they can receive payment. ONC will also make publicly available de-identified data from the records, such as health IT adoption estimates at the state and national level, according to ONC in a Dec. 21 announcement in a preview section of the Federal Register. Federal agencies must publish a notice when they are creating a new system of records with information that is covered by the Privacy Act and how they plan to safeguard it. The public can comment on the new data system for 30 days. Hospitals, physicians, community colleges and state-designated organizations have received ONC grants and assistance with EHR deployment.