Tag: FCC

The Fairmont Hotel San Jose
170 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113-2307

The Federal Communications Commission todayannounced that the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services will hold a meeting on broadband policy Thursday, November 6, 2008 at the Wireless Communications Association International’s 14th Annual Symposium and Business Expo at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California.

Last Friday, Gigi delivered a speech to a conference examining the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters, or Gore Commission, ten years after its report. Ten years ago, the Commission was organized to examine public interest obligations that broadcasters might have in the digital age. Listening to the speakers, it was clear that a number of things have changed since 1998. While all of them supported the ideals of public interest obligations for broadcasters, none of them felt that the current system was advancing those ideals.

Gigi’s speech was the most provocative. She called on regulators to move out of a mindset that was born in the 1920s and 30s and to start looking at spectrum through the lens of modern technology.

Remember how we filed a petition to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking them to make sure that carriers are nondiscriminatory when it comes to text messages? While we haven’t posted about it much lately, work on the issue has been chugging quietly along behind the scenes. Today, all of the parties of the original petition filed a follow-up letter at the Commission dealing with some of the arguments which have been raised, primarily by Verizon Wireless and CTIA (the industry group for wireless carriers). The short version is that carriers claim they won’t be able to stop spam if they can’t also pick and choose who is allowed to text with you. Needless to say, we disagree.

FCC
Room TW-C305
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C.

On Item 17 of the meeting agenda the Commission will consider a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on rules governing the Upper 700 MHz D Block, the public safety broadband spectrum, and the 700 MHz Public/Private Partnership.

For more information please see the meeting announcement here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-285495A1.pdf

Back on August 20, the FCC released its Order resolving the complaint against Comcast for blocking P2P protocols. As part of the remedy, the FCC ordered Comcast to provide a full report on its current “network management practices” within 30 days, along with a transition plan for how it intended to manage traffic after it discontinued its current practices. The FCC then invited Free Press and anyone else interested to “keep a sharp eye on Comcast” and on the FCC’s enforcement.

Comcast has sworn up and down that it will comply with the FCC’s Order and it is only appealing in the D.C. Circuit as a matter of principle. I, having a nasty and suspicious mind, so doubt this noble intention that I have filed a law suit of my own to get the FCC to clamp down on Comcast now and not wait for future compliance. So, here we are at last on September 19, 30 days after the release and effective date of the Order.

National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC

PK President Gigi Sohn will be speaking at this mini-conference sponsored by the Information Economy Project at George Mason University Law School.

For program information please visit: http://iep.gmu.edu/gorecommission

As folks may recall, the primary opponents of opening the broadcast white spaces for use, the broadcasters and the wireless microphone manufacturers — notably our good friend and radio pirate Shure, Inc. (official slogan:”We get to break the law ‘cause we sound so good”) — insisted that the FCC conduct field tests on the white spaces prototypes. Of course, because these are concept prototypes and not functioning devices certified to some actual standard, everyone knew this would leave lots of leeway for the broadcasters and the wireless microphone folks to declare the tests a “failure” regardless of the actual results. Which, of course, they did.

On August 1, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that Comcast’s interference with its customers Internet traffic violated the Commission’s policies and was not reasonable network management. Today, the Commission released an Opinion and Order detailing its analysis and commanding Comcast to cease its discriminatory practices.

The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

“With today’s Order, the FCC acted to protect the rights of Internet users and set the precedent that unreasonable, discriminatory behavior like Comcast’s will not be tolerated. It agreed with public interest advocates and technical experts that Comcast’s conduct violated FCC principles and was not reasonable network management.

I’m a Sprint customer, but thanks to something called “automatic roaming,” I can be reached in the DC Metro subway system, where only Verizon has service. Unfortunately, because of a recent FCC order, wireless customers like me might soon be harder to reach when on the move.

Wireless roaming agreements allow customers of one carrier to get service in areas where that carrier does not have its own network. Unfortunately, a gaping hole in some recent regulation means that an order meant to ensure that wireless customers get the best possible service might actually mean that some customers don’t get any service at all, even in their home region – especially if they’re customers of one of the smaller competitive carriers. This past week, we filed a letter urging the FCC to fix the problem and ensure continued customer access to wireless networks.

For the second straight year, I addressed the EDUCAUSE/Cornell Institute for Computer Policy and Law, held at Cornell’s beautiful campus. The Institute gathers 50+ higher education information technology (IT) professionals – usually campus CTOs, librarians and legal counsels, and teaches them the substantive particulars of IT policy issues and advises them how to be strong advocates.