Google says it has reached an agreement over copyright issues with a group of French-language Belgian newspapers, ending a six-year dispute. The parties also agreed to promote each other's services by placing Google advertising in publishers' media.
The House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held an oversight hearing on implementation of provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 that allow for new spectrum auctions. Subcommittee Republicans expressed that the Federal Communications Commission will fail to generate enough revenue from its planned auction of spectrum currently used by television broadcasters. Congress authorized the FCC to auction local TV stations' airwaves to cellphone carriers as part of a payroll tax cut extension bill earlier this year. The auction is intended to generate enough revenue to pay the TV broadcasters, fund a nationwide broadband network for first-responders and help pay down the federal debt.
"While I’m not about to micromanage how the FCC operates the auction, I do expect the FCC will follow the law, including maximizing the proceeds from the auction," said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). Republicans are concerned that the FCC will set aside too much unlicensed spectrum, which can be used by any company for free. Chairman Walden said he believes that some unlicensed spectrum is important to allow for innovation and to power WiFi networks, but he worried that the FCC is going too far. He estimated that the FCC's plan to reserve unlicensed spectrum blocks could cause the federal government to forgo an estimated $7 (AdWeek reports he said $19) billion in revenue.
Democrats voiced support for the FCC's unlicensed spectrum plan. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the full Commerce Committee, said unlicensed spectrum has been an "incredible economic success story" and that additional unlicensed spectrum will allow businesses to "invent things we can't even imagine." Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the subcommittee's top Democrat, said Republicans were putting too much emphasis on maximizing government revenue at the expense of pursuing policies that would benefit the industry and consumers. Democrats also raised concerns about spectrum ownership consolidation, though no member used the names AT&T and Verizon. “The FCC must have the authority to write auction rules that aim to avoid the concentration of spectrum in the hands of just a small group of companies,” said Rep Waxman. Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell testified that a cap on the spectrum that any one company can win at auction could "create harmful uncertainty and may reduce the pool of auction participants."
Preston Padden, executive director of the newly formed Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, confirmed that there are now more than 25 stations "in major markets" represented his group of broadcasters interested in making some spectrum available for auction.
House Commerce Committee members came prepared with a boatload of questions for the five Federal Communications Commission commissioners. Several legislators brought up diversity and the FCC's media ownership proposal.
Leading that charge were Reps Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA). Rep Rush said he was tired of a procession of platitudes from commissioners over his past 17 years on the committee, "but absolutely no performance." He thanked the FCC for putting off a vote on the item -- the chairman had wanted to vote it by the end of the year, but has effectively put that off, at least until early January. But Rep Rush said he was "tired of this continuum of excuses," and wanted to know what, other than a tax certificate policy, could be done to boost minority ownership. All the commissioners agreed that it was not acceptable that there were only 28 full-power TV stations in the country owned by minorities. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski defended his decision to proceed to a vote on loosening cross-ownership rules, saying it was time to wrap up the 2010 quadrennial and that the FCC would continue to make diversity a core mission, including seeking funding to complete the studies that would allow it to better justify a number of associated diversity proposals, which were remanded back to the FCC by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for better justification. Critics of that dual-track strategy continue to argue that the FCC should not take any action on its rules until their impact on diversity can be gauged via those studies.
A number of Members of Congress from California have written the Federal Communications Commission advising that it should make preserving viewer access to free over-the-air (FOTA) broadcasting a "top goal" of its incentive auction rulemaking.
In a letter Dec. 11, a day before the House hearing on the auctions, the legislators pointed to statistics that the number of viewers relying on FOTA had grown to 54 million, and was continuing to grow. Given that California's diverse populations are even more likely to be over-the-air only viewers than the general population, they said preserving the service was "absolutely critical." They said they were concerned that the FCC's incentive auction proposal -- released in September -- lacks details about border coordination with Mexico and Canada and details on potential viewer disruptions from the auction, including potential loss of programming.
Acting to expand access by health care providers to robust broadband networks, the Federal Communications Commission established the Healthcare Connect Fund to reform and modernize its universal service program for health care.
The new Healthcare Connect Fund will help expand access by health care providers to the high-bandwidth connections they need for modern telemedicine by:
Covering upgrades to higher speed service required for health care applications In addition, the reforms establish a new competitive Pilot Program to test expanding broadband healthcare networks to skilled nursing facilities. Because these facilities are often remote from doctors and sophisticated lab and testing facilities, frail and convalescing patients will benefit greatly from broadband services that can reduce the time, expense and stress of travelling to receive medical care. Up to $50 million over three years will be available from the Fund for these competitively-awarded Pilots. The Order implementing these reforms maintains a $400 million ceiling on the cost of universal service support for broadband health care networks. Savings achieved by group purchases through consortia and other increases in efficiency could cut the cost of robust broadband health care networks in half for both providers and the Universal Service Fund, based on the FCC’s analysis of successful Rural Health Care Pilots.
The Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to bring Americans the ability to send text messages to 911 more rapidly and uniformly, and to inform consumers about the availability and appropriate use of text-to-911. The FCC’s proposed action builds on prior FCC initiatives and the recent voluntary commitment by the nation’s four largest wireless carriers, with support of leading public safety organizations, to make text-to-911 available to their customers by May 15, 2014, with significant deployments expected in 2013. The FCC’s proposed action also seeks to accelerate the nation’s transition to a Next-Generation 911 system that will use cutting-edge communications technology to assist first responders in keeping our communities safe.
In the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted, the FCC proposed to require that all wireless carriers, as well as providers of certain Internet-based (“over the top”) text messaging applications – that is, those that send text messages to phone numbers – enable their customers to send text messages to 911 in areas where local 911 call centers (known as Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs) are also prepared to receive the texts. Noting the voluntary commitment of the four largest wireless carriers to deploy text-to-911 capability by May 15, 2014 in areas where the 911 call center is prepared to receive the texts, the FCC sought comment on whether this timeframe is achievable for all carriers and third-party
messaging providers.
The FCC proposed to require all wireless carriers and certain “over the top” text messaging providers to send automated “bounce back” error messages to consumers attempting to text 911 in areas where the service is not yet available. The error message would indicate that the text did not reach 911 and that the consumer should instead place a voice call to 911 if possible.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed to make available 100 megahertz of shared spectrum in the 3.5 GHz Band (3550-3650 MHz) using small cell and database technologies. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) broadly reflects the innovative thinking of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which issued a report this summer recommending spectrum sharing and small cell use in the 3.5 GHz Band. It also builds upon the FCC’s previous work to free up spectrum by promoting spectrum sharing and enabling innovative licensing techniques.
The proposal lays the groundwork for the widespread deployment of small cell technologies across 100 megahertz of spectrum, and would spur significant innovation in wireless technologies and applications throughout the economy, while protecting incumbent users in the band.
The proposal envisions three tiers of users, each with different levels of rights and protections in the 3.5 GHz Band:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new rules governing how wireless broadband providers can share the airwaves with government users, adopting an innovative model first proposed earlier this year by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in its landmark report, Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth.
The FCC action comes amidst an array of Administration initiatives aimed at freeing up more spectrum for wireless broadband in order to drive productivity, jobs, and innovation, while also protecting the essential government systems – including public safety, law enforcement, border protection, and military defense -- that also rely on spectrum and are relied upon by the American taxpayer. It is this type of public-private commitment and collaboration that is crucial to maintaining America’s leadership in the development and use of advanced wireless technologies. Reflecting PCAST’s recommendation to apply creative approaches to spectrum sharing, the FCC’s proposal would allow sharing of certain parts of the spectrum under a three-tiered prioritization scheme, allowing two new categories of commercial use into a radio band that until now has been reserved for exclusive use by the government. The proposed rules would ensure absolute protection of the vital government systems operating at those frequencies; a more limited degree of access for commercial users who, within limits, could use those frequencies outside of government protected zones; and a third class of “general authorized access” that would be engineered so as to avoid interference with the first two categories. All users would be required to register in a database, so market participants could make informed decisions about when and where to deploy their systems. While these proposed rules would, if adopted, govern only one slice of the radiofrequency spectrum, they offer a window into how sharing of government spectrum can become an important component of the more efficient approach to spectrum management called for by President Barack Obama.
We have to learn how to “outrace the robots.”
“Given the trends of globalization, automation and demographics, there will definitely be a small number of people who will be very prosperous,” said Google’s Eric Schmidt. The challenge is to let as many people into that class as possible, and, even more important, get masses of people educated to a level where they can qualify for work in the new businesses these people create. Robots may hollow out the factories in China, which count on cheap human labor, and bring manufacturing back to the United States. Those machines will need people to service them, and those people will need to be reasonably skilled. But who says those robot operators have to be United States-based, just because the machines are? “The way to combat it is education, which has to work for everyone, regardless of race or gender. You’ll have global competition for all kinds of jobs,” said Schmidt.
Understanding this, he said, should be America’s “Sputnik moment,” which like that 1957 Russian satellite launch gives the nation a new urgency about education in math and science. “The president could say that in five years he wants the level of analytic education in this country – STEM education in science, technology, engineering and math, or economics and statistics – has to be at a level of the best Asian countries.” Asian nations, Mr. Schmidt said, are probably going to proceed with their own increases in analytic education. “Employment is going to be a global problem, not a U.S. one,” he said.
According to Eric Schmidt, Google‘s executive chairman, the most interesting project going on at the search giant is its high-speed broadband trials in Kansas City. (Missouri and Kansas versions)
“All of the distinctions, like HD, DVD, that we grew up with, go away,” he said. “You really imagine that your computer is really in a data center.” Google is considering introducing the service to other select cities, Schmidt said, but would not specify which towns would get the fiber. Google is likely not interested in being a service provider, like Verizon, but rather in fostering a competitive climate in which ultrafast broadband becomes the norm. “Teleconferences will become holographic,” he predicted. “People take advantage of this kind of increase.” The more people are on the Internet, Google has found, the more they search for things, which is good for Google’s core ad business. In addition, Google can tailor other services to people, like its videoconferencing Hangouts service, which it sells to corporations. Watching consumers use more Google products also makes Google’s ads more profitable, because the company can personalize the pitches better.
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