DIGITAL DIVIDE
Natives to Canada: Broadband Now (WIRED)
INTERNET
Internet Board to Mull Security Issues (WSJ)
Senate Net Tax Vote Looms (WIRED)
FCC
FCC to Lift Controls on Wireless Spectrum (WP)
FCC To Examine Multiple Ownership Radio Stations (FCC)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
NATIVES TO CANADA: BROADBAND NOW
Issue: Digital Divide
Canada's native people want to create a "First Nations Broadband Network" to
bring high-speed Internet access to all indigenous communities across
Canada, and are calling on the government to make the construction of the
network a high priority. The primary purpose of the high-speed connection
would be to provide health and education services to communities that cannot
support full-time doctors, nurses or teachers said Matthew Coon Come, head
of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) the national organization of native
people in Canada. "If done properly, this will not be a handout. It will be
a hand up, and an investment by Canada in itself. It will be
'inter-national' development between First Nations and the Canadian nation,"
Coon Come said. The AFN has estimated the cost of building the network at
between $400 and $500 million, $112 million of which it has committed to
raising for the project. AFN drafted the plan in response to the current
government's election promise to make the Internet accessible in every part
of Canada.
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Michelle Delio]
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48184,00.html)
INTERNET
INTERNET BOARD TO MULL SECURITY ISSUES
Issue: Security
The issue of Internet security has gained such urgency that it will dominate
the agenda at next week's quarterly meeting of the Internet Corp. for
Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, in Marina Del Rey, Calif., pushing
aside previously scheduled matters. Icann is the nonprofit organization
charged by the federal government with overseeing the allocation of Internet
addresses, a function essential to the Internet's stability. The fear is
that a physical or cyber attack could be launched against computer servers
and other pieces of infrastructure that help steer users to Web sites and
other Internet services. "If we don't have a secure and stable domain-name
system, we can just as well forget about everything else," M. Stuart Lynn,
Icann's president and chief executive, said Thursday during a conference
call with reporters.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Loftus]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1005252731411174040.htm)
SENATE NET TAX VOTE LOOMS
Issue: E-Commerce
The Senate may vote as early as Tuesday on a plan that would permit states
to collect Internet sales taxes. The bill, championed by Sen. Mike Enzi
(R-Wyoming), abandons Capitol Hill's hands-off approach to online taxation:
It would usher in a cavalcade of levies on mail order and Internet
purchases. Enzi admits his Internet Tax Moratorium and Equity Act, which
state legislators hope will hand them an extra $50 billion or so in tax
revenue by mid-decade, is controversial. If the Senate adopted Enzi's bill,
it seems unlikely that the House would go along with it.
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48250,00.html)
FCC
FCC TO LIFT CONTROLS ON WIRELESS SPECTRUM
Issue: Wireless
Regional telephone companies and other major wireless providers gained more
freedom to buy or merge with their rivals yesterday as federal regulators
began to do away with a cap on limiting how much of the airwaves any one
company can control. The FCC voted 3 to 1 yesterday to begin a two-step
process that would first raise the cap by 22 percent and then abolish it
altogether on Jan. 1, 2003. Without the cap, companies would find it easier
to team up, leaving a market like the Washington area with fewer providers
than the more than half-dozen which now exist. The move is part of a push by
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell to deregulate
the telecommunications industry. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat
who cast the lone vote against eliminating the cap, worried the decision
would bring little benefit to consumers. "Let's not kid ourselves," Copps
said. "This is, for some, more about corporate mergers than anything else.
Just look at what the analysts are talking about as the specter of spectrum
cap removal approaches: Their almost exclusive focus is on evaluating the
candidates for corporate takeovers and handicapping the winners and losers
in the spectrum bazaar."
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Christopher Stern]
(http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/13618-1.html)
FCC TO EXAMINE MULTIPLE OWNERSHIP RADIO STATIONS
Issue: Ownership
In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) adopted today, the FCC seeks to
undertake a comprehensive examination of the rules and policies concerning
multiple ownership of radio stations in local markets. The FCC said it
intends to be more responsive to current marketplace realities while
continuing to address its core public interest concerns of promoting
diversity and competition
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/News_Releases/2001/nrmm0115.html)
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