Last week, the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) voted to make its official recommendations to the FCC on emergency alerts for wireless carriers, which should allow the FCC to issue its notice of proposed rulemaking on the matter in short order. The group recommended an opt-in text-message-based system that would be in place by late 2008.

CMSAAC was established as part of the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act enacted by Congress in late 2006 and consists of technical experts from the commission, the public safety sector, the wireless industry and handset vendors. TIA is represented on the CMSAAC by Cheryl Blum of Alcatel-Lucent. The working group is charged with developing technical standards and protocols to help wireless carriers voluntarily transmit emergency alerts to their subscribers.

TIA supports CMSAAC and the general method in which the working group was mandated and executed because the committee allows various and diverse groups to have their voices heard as emergency preparedness and public safety rulemaking is enacted.  

For more information on CSMAAC, please contact Patrick Donovan at pdonovan@tiaonline.org or +1.703.907.7739.

< Back to Top >

TIA President Grant Seiffert this week commended the FCC for its efforts to introduce new low-power devices in the vacant portions of broadcast television spectrum bands, known as “white spaces.”  In a letter to the FCC, Seiffert also urged the commission, as an “expert agency,” to make its white spaces ruling based on “robust testing and sound technical analysis.”

TIA believes that a thoroughly researched, well-informed white spaces decision by the FCC will help deliver greater broadband connectivity to consumers across the United States while avoiding harmful interference to broadcast television or other authorized services in those spectrum bands. To that end, TIA supports the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), which has already conducted an extensive testing program, including field testing. The Association approves of OET’s recent decision to move forward with a second round of testing to ensure that TV services are appropriately protected.

“The FCC is in a unique position to maximize spectrum efficiency, to open a new market, and above all to stimulate U.S. broadband deployment with its white spaces policy,” Seiffert said after signing the letter.  “We urge it to rely on its talented technical experts when making its decision.”

For more information on TIA's white spaces advocacy, please contact Patrick Donovan at pdonovan@tiaonline.org or +1.703.907.7739.

< Back to Top >

The Critical Infrastructure Protection Advisory Council (CIPAC) held a meeting on October 9, 2007, focused on trade association involvement with the council.  CIPAC was established in early 2006 by the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate effective coordination between federal infrastructure protection programs, the private sector and state and local governments.  TIA and many of its member companies have participated in the Advisory Council since its inception and servce on various committees.

More than 50 trade associations participated in the October 9 meeting, representing 17 critical infrastructure/key resource owners and operators from the private sector.  CIPAC provides these member companies, particularly smaller ones, the opportunity to share the associations’ views with the government, as well as to act as a resource. 

For more information on CIPAC, please visit www.dhs.gov or contact Patrick Donovan at +1.703.907.7739 or pdonovan@tiaonline.org.

< Back to Top >

The deadline for the FCC to act on an AT&T petition seeking forbearance from Communications Act Title II regulations for its broadband services is October 11. If granted, AT&T’s broadband Internet access services offered to enterprise users, such as packet-based and optical transmissions, would not be subject to regulations that govern sharing of their networks and pricing of their wholesale services.  This deregulation would be consistent with the FCC’s national broadband policy of advancing competition.

The FCC has yet to act, raising the question of whether it will proactively make a decision denying or granting the petition. Alternatively, the commission could choose not to act, and the petition will be deemed granted by operation of law. This was the result of a similar Verizon petition granted in 2006.

Qwest, Embarq and Frontier, as well as several Incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), have filed equivalent petitions, which are pending. Qwest withdrew its petition in September, on the day of the FCC deadline to act, and re-filed the next day, reconfiguring the original timeline for its petition. It is possible the FCC may address all the petitions through an order at its next meeting or by circulation beforehand. 

For more information, please contact Rebecca Schwartz at +1.703.907.7477 or rschwartz@tiaonline.org

< Back to Top >

TIA is continuing its efforts to educate Congress about the importance of extending the moratorium on Internet access taxes despite last week's delay on a vote to extend it in the Senate Commerce Committee. 

As you can read in this week's President's Message, TIA supports congressional efforts to pass either The Permanent Internet Freedom Act of 2007 ( H.R. 743/S. 156), sponsored in the House of Representatives by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and in the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), or the shorter term ITFA Extension Act of 2007 (S. 1453), sponsored by Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). While the bills differ in the duration of moratorium they propose, both bills essentially recognize the importance of keeping Internet access tax free.

TIA believes it is crucial for Congress to give President Bush the chance to sign an extension into law well in advance of the tax ban's November 1 expiration date. 

For more information on TIA's efforts to extend the access tax ban, please contact Ian Martinez at +1.703.907.7723 or imartinez@tiaonline.org.

< Back to Top >

On Tuesday, October 2, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, held a hearing entitled Digital Future of the United States: Part VI: The Future of Telecommunications Competition. The primary focus of the hearing was special access, specifically, whether broadband should be subject to pricing regulations. Representatives of AT&T and Verizon testified that more regulation would discourage investment and competition and compared pricing regulations to unbundling rules, which failed to result in the intended effect of stimulating competition. Regulation of the special access market has also gained attention at the FCC due to forbearance petitions submitted by Qwest, AT&T, Embarq and Frontier, as well as pressure from lawmakers to make a change.

For more information on TIA's access market work please contact Rebecca Schwartz at +1.703.907.7477 or rschwartz@tiaonline.org.

< Back to Top >

Chairs from the three subgroups of the U.S.-India Bilateral Dialogue on ICT trade met last week to discuss the next "Bilat," which will take place in New Delhi in December. TIA chairs the telecom subgroup, and joined the subgroup chairs of the Information Technology Association of America (information technology) and the U.S.-India Business Council (broadcasting) in working out the details of the December meeting. 

Included in the agenda items was the suggestion to move the Dialogue forward from its proposed December 14 date, which would allow time later in the week for the two governments to have in-depth discussions specific to the industry recommendations, move it ahead of India Telecom 2007, which starts December 12, and allow for possible coordination with the India Economic Summit. 

TIA pushed for substantive talks on IT taxes and non-uniform 3G spectrum allocation.

For more information on the pending Bilateral Dialogue, please contact Ian Martinez at +1.703.907.7723 or imartinez@tiaonline.org.

< Back to Top >