BloostonLaw Telecom Update Published by the Law Offices of Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy & Prendergast, LLP [Portions reproduced here with the firm's permission.] www.bloostonlaw.com |
| Vol. 12, No. 35 | x October 7, 2009 |
 Tower Compliance Manual BloostonLaw has assembled a compliance manual for all tower/antenna structure owners, as well as any licensee mounting antennas on structures. The manual helps structure owners and licensees avoid FCC fines, minimize Federal and state approval delays, and minimize or avoid the potential for civil and/or criminal liability that could be associated with tower operations/accidents. The manual includes a detailed explanation of FCC, FAA and other Federal regulatory requirements so that your staff can understand the legal do’s and don’ts associated with tower construction and antenna mounting. We have also developed checklists that can be used by your employees and contractors to (1) make sure that necessary compliance steps are taken and (2) create a paper trail documenting such compliance. There are separate checklists for antenna structure owners and radio licensees that will use such structures. These checklists cover such issues as environmental protection, historic preservation, harmful RF radiation limits, interference protection, aviation safety, and Federal reporting requirements. A sample tower log is included. In recent years, tower owners have faced million dollar fines and even higher civil liabilities due to rule violations that may contribute to an aviation accident. Similar liability can arise from environmental or harmful radiation violations. Also, many licensees do not realize that, for every antenna mounted in the United States, the licensee must either obtain the prior approval of the applicable State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), or establish that the antenna qualifies for an exemption from this requirement. BloostonLaw is offering its antenna structure compliance manual in binder format, with the checklists provided on CD-ROM as well, so that you can print off the appropriate checklist for each new structure or antenna. Please contact the firm for a copy of the manual. BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, 202-828-5520; John Prendergast, 202-828-5540; and Richard Rubino, 202-828-5519. |
FCC’s OCTOBER 22 OPEN MEETING: The tentative agenda for the October 22 open meeting includes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on policies to preserve the free and open Internet. INSIDE THIS ISSUE - FCC’s Broadband Task Force submits NBP status report.
- FCC Chair lauds Knight Commission Report.
- FCC seeks comment on broadband clearinghouse.
- Bill would establish Lifeline assistance for broadband.
- Legislation would require provision of call location data to law enforcement.
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FCC’s Broadband Task Force Submits NBP Status Report The FCC’s Broadband Task Force has submitted a status report on the National Broadband Plan (NBP), which must be delivered to Congress by February 17, 2010. The presentation includes an initial report on the current state of broadband in the U.S., and describes the framework the team will use to both analyze gaps in broadband’s reach and find solutions to close those gaps. Comprehensive in scope, the presentation is designed to give Commissioners the information they need to question staff, provide feedback, and recommend any mid-course corrections that may be needed. The public is also encouraged to comment on the findings. To date, the broadband task force’s efforts have focused on gathering the facts and data needed to develop the plan. Its efforts have included 26 workshops and hearings on key topics, with another six scheduled. About 230 witnesses have testified during these sessions. At the same time, nearly 41,000 pages of written comments have been filed with the FCC in response to its National Broadband Plan Notice of Inquiry, with another 143 responses to Public Notices requesting more focused information. Nearly 40 blogs have been posted on the FCC’s new Blogband page, which have prompted over 300 comments to date, all of which will be included in the official record. Following are some of the key areas outlined in the presentation: The Framework: Congress required the Commission to craft a strategy for delivery of universal, affordable, widely adopted broadband to serve vital national purposes. Capturing all the external benefits of broadband to society and the economy is key to the analysis of the costs and benefits of universality, the Task Force said. It added that benefits include consumer savings, health care improvements, educational and employment opportunities, and more. Subsidy mechanisms must also be considered as a means to universal adoption, but current mechanisms, such as Universal Service and stimulus grants, are insufficient to achieve national purposes. On the other side of the ledger, reducing the cost of key inputs, such as spectrum, rights of way, backhaul, and fiber, can extend the reach and performance of broadband. Applications: The Task Force found that most broadband applications focus on browsing, communication and entertainment. Increasingly, these uses are evolving to education, job training, business and other productive purposes. Different applications require different broadband speeds, with the most demanding being high-definition streamed video. But actual broadband speeds lag advertised speeds by as much as 50% to 80%. Peak usage hours, typically 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., create network congestion and speed degradation. About 1% of users drive 20% of traffic, while 20% of users drive up to 80% of traffic. A constrained network dictates investment needs in infrastructure. Deployment: The Task Force’s preliminary analysis indicates that approximately three to six million people are unserved by basic broadband (i.e., without access to speeds of 768 kbps or less). The number of unserved increases as the definition of minimum broadband speed increases. The incremental cost to universal availability varies significantly depending on the speed of service, with preliminary estimates showing that the total investment required ranging from $20 billion for 768 kbps-3 Mbps service to $350 billion for 100 Mbps or faster. The cost of providing consumers with a choice of infrastructure providers, and/or ensuring that all consumers have access to both fixed and mobile broadband would be significantly higher than these initial estimates. The cost to provide service in rural areas is significantly higher than in urban areas, and is driven not only by higher capital expenditures, but also significantly higher recurring operating expenses largely driven by transport and transit. Universal Service Fund recipients have made progress bringing broadband to rural America, but the fund faces systemic and structural problems. The task force continues to gather additional data and analysis and refine the above estimates. Adoption: Nearly 2/3 of Americans have adopted broadband at home, while 33% have access but have not adopted it, and another 4% say they have no access where they live, according to the Task Force. But large segments of the population have much lower penetration rates, and adoption levels vary across demographic groups. The cost of digital exclusion is large and growing for non-adopters, as resources for employment, education, news, healthcare and shopping for goods and services increasingly move on line. The task force has commissioned its own survey to learn how three key factors affect adoption: attitudes toward broadband and technology, affordability and personal context (home environment, access to libraries, disabilities, etc.). Results are expected in November. Spectrum: Wireless is increasingly moving to broadband, with smartphone sales projected to overtake sales of standard phones by 2011, the Task Force said. However, these bandwidth-hungry devices, applications and users are buffeting existing network capacity and driving many to cite the need for additional spectrum. The task force is actively assessing the long-term spectrum needs of the country for mobile broadband services. International Broadband Plans: The driving force behind national broadband plans in other nations has been competitiveness, job creation, and innovation. Successful plans need four or more years of continuous effort and consistent funding sources to implement. National Purposes: The Task Force said that broadband can be part of the solution to many of the nation’s challenges, creating economic and social benefits, which include: - Healthcare: Electronic health records, telemedicine, and mobile monitoring result in better, more affordable health care, but the record shows a need for higher connectivity in many locations to capture those benefits.
- Energy and the environment: Enabled by broadband, smart grids, smart homes and smart transportation will be a critical part of our clean energy future.
- Government operations and civic engagement: Delivery of services, civic engagement, transparency in public policy can all be improved by broadband access and adoption.
- Education: Over 70 percent of all high school students use the Internet as a primary source for homework. Digital textbooks, online learning, teacher support and communications, digital student records can improve weak U.S. educational outcomes. While the E-rate program has connected schools, faster speeds are needed.
- Disabilities: Internet use among people with disabilities is less than half that of the general population. Networks, equipment, services, devices and software are not designed to be accessible to people with disabilities. Accessibility is also lacking in Internet content, interfaces, programming guides and menus, and tech support.
- Consumer welfare: Consumers say online purchases save time and money. Yet 39% have strong worries about giving out personal or credit card information. These worries are heightened among low-income users, only 29% of whom have made purchases online, compared to 82% of upper income users. More transparency in billing and the on-line environment could ease security concerns, as could education and consumer workshops on privacy and security.
- Public Safety: Public safety entities only have access to commercial broadband services. There are no mobile, wireless broadband communications services that meet all of the public safety community’s specialized needs. These services should be provided over time.
- Economic Opportunity: As of 2005, over 77 percent of Fortune 500 companies posted jobs and accepted applications solely online. An ever-increasing majority of employees are required to use the Internet in their daily work.
BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, John Prendergast, and Mary Sisak. FCC Chair Lauds Knight Commission Report FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week lauded the launching of The Knight Commission Report on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The report states that the digital age is creating an information and communications renaissance. But it is not serving all Americans and their local communities equally. It is not yet serving democracy fully. How the U.S. reacts, individually and collectively, to this democratic shortfall will affect the quality of our lives and the very nature of our communities. America needs “informed communities,” places where the information ecology meets people’s personal and civic information needs. This means people have the news and information they need to take advantage of life’s opportunities for themselves and their families. They need information to participate fully in our system of self-government, to stand up and be heard. Driving this vision are the critical democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation, empowerment, and the common pursuit of truth and the public interest. To achieve this, the Commission urges that the nation and its local communities pursue three ambitious objectives: - Maximizing the availability of relevant and credible information to communities. The availability of relevant and credible information implies creation, distribution, and preservation. Information flow improves when people have not only direct access to information, but the benefit also of credible intermediaries to help discover, gather, compare, contextualize, and share information.
- Strengthening the capacity of individuals to engage with information. This includes the ability to communicate one’s information, creations and views to others. Attending to capacity means that people have access to the tools they need and opportunities to develop their skills to use those tools effectively as both producers and consumers of information.
- Promoting individual engagement with information and the public life of the community. Promoting engagement means generating opportunities and motivation for involvement. Citizens should have the capacity, both individually and in groups, to help shoulder responsibility for community self-governance.
Information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools, and public health. People have not typically thought of information in this way, but they should. Just as the United States has built other sectors of its vital infrastructure through a combination of private enterprise and social investment, Americans should look to a similar combination of strategies in developing its information infrastructure as well. Information is essential to community vitality. Informed communities can effectively coordinate activities, achieve public accountability, solve problems, and create connections. Local information systems should support widespread knowledge of and participation in the community’s day-to-day life by all segments of the community. To achieve the promise of democracy, it is necessary that the creation, organization, analysis, and transmission of information include the whole community. In addition to the information necessary to participate in elections and civic affairs, people need access to information to better their lives. Where families struggle to make ends meet and many men and women work multiple jobs, free time is limited. Indeed, the path to active civic engagement may begin with fulfillment of basic information needs, including information about jobs, housing, taxes, safety, education, transportation, recreation, entertainment, food, shopping, utilities, child care, health care, religious resources, and local news. A community is a healthy democratic community—it is an “informed community”—when: - People have convenient access to both civic and life-enhancing information, without regard to income or social status.
- Journalism is abundant in many forms and accessible through many convenient platforms.
- Government is open and transparent.
- People have affordable high-speed Internet service wherever and whenever they want and need it.
- Digital and media literacy are widely taught in schools, public libraries and other community centers.
- Technological and civic expertise is shared across the generations.
- Local media—including print, broadcast, and online media—reflect the issues, events, experiences and ideas of the entire community.
- People have a deep understanding of the role of free speech and free press rights in maintaining a democratic community.
- Citizens are active in acquiring and sharing knowledge both within and across social networks.
- People can assess and track changes in the information health of their communities.
Regarding the media: The challenge is not to preserve any particular medium or any individual business, but to promote the traditional public-service functions of journalism. Rather than ask how to save newspapers, a better question is, “How can we advance quality, skilled journalism that contributes to healthy information environments in local communities?” The Commission applauds efforts throughout the country to find new solutions and business models to preserve valued journalistic institutions and create new ones. There is a transition underway requiring fresh thinking and new approaches to the gathering and sharing of news and information. The Commission has formulated 15 strategies for pursuing the three fundamental objectives of information availability, citizen capacity, and public engagement. The recommendations propose action by government, communities, the media, and citizens. The following are condensed versions of those recommendations. The Knight Commission recommends: Recommendation 1: Direct media policy toward innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism. Recommendation 2: Increase support for public service media aimed at meeting community information needs. Recommendation 3: Increase the role of higher education, community and nonprofit institutions as hubs of journalistic activity and other information-sharing for local communities. Recommendation 4: Require government at all levels to operate transparently, facilitate easy and low-cost access to public records, and make civic and social data available in standardized formats that support the productive public use of such data. Recommendation 5: Develop systematic quality measures of community information ecologies, and study how they affect social outcomes. Recommendation 6: Integrate digital and media literacy as critical elements for education at all levels through collaboration among federal, state, and local education officials. Recommendation 7: Fund and support public libraries and other community institutions as centers of digital and media training, especially for adults. Recommendation 8: Set ambitious standards for nationwide broadband availability and adopt public policies encouraging consumer demand for broadband services. Recommendation 9: Maintain the national commitment to open networks as a core objective of Internet policy. Recommendation 10: Support the activities of information providers to reach local audiences with quality content through all appropriate media, such as mobile phones, radio, public access cable, and new platforms. Recommendation 11: Expand local media initiatives to reflect the full reality of the communities they represent. Recommendation 12: Engage young people in developing the digital information and communication capacities of local communities. Recommendation 13: Empower all citizens to participate actively in community self-governance, including local “community summits” to address community affairs and pursue common goals. Recommendation 14: Emphasize community information flow in the design and enhancement of a local community's’s public spaces. Recommendation 15: Ensure that every local community has at least one high-quality online hub.
BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak. FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON BROADBAND CLEARINGHOUSE: The FCC has requested comment on establishing a broadband clearinghouse. The FCC wants to know if the federal government, through either the FCC, or through another governmental entity, should initiate or create a national broadband clearinghouse of best practices. If the federal government should not create such a clearinghouse, should a non-governmental entity create one? What would be the primary goals and purpose of such a clearinghouse? What type of content would be most useful? Would this be a user-generated content web site about deployment experiences? Should this be mere aggregation of broadband data? How could such a clearinghouse most effectively collect and make available information about efforts to promote or facilitate broadband adoption? Are there other aspects of broadband adoption that should be addressed? How could such a clearinghouse disseminate information related to government’s use of broadband for either improving the operations of government or improving the delivery of government services? Should such a clearinghouse also be expanded to include best-practices for the utilization of broadband from the private or non-profit sectors? How should such a clearinghouse be constructed to best engage the public? Should the site include information or resources such as experts in any of the following areas related to developing broadband initiatives: finance, regulatory/legal, engineering/construction, technology, marketing? Should the clearinghouse include unique content such as training videos or sample program materials generated by or on behalf of the site manager to further the mission of the clearinghouse? Are there currently existing clearinghouses (for broadband or other purposes) that could serve as good models for a national broadband clearinghouse? Commenters should also address issues related to the type of audience, to utility issues, and to maintenance. Comments in this GN Docket Nos. 09-47, 09-51, 09-137 (NBP Public Notice #10) proceeding are due November 16. There is no reply date. BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak. BILL WOULD ESTABLISH LIFELINE ASSISTANCE FOR BROADBAND: U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) has introduced the Broadband Affordability Act of 2009 (HR 3646), which would establish a Lifeline assistance program for universal broadband adoption. Not later than 270 days after enactment, the FCC shall take all actions necessary to establish a broadband Lifeline program that enables qualifying low-income customers residing in urban and rural areas to purchase broadband service at reduced charges by reimbursing providers for each such customer served. The bill directs that the broadband Lifeline program shall be similar in structure to the existing Lifeline program for basic telephone service. Noting the interstate nature of broadband service, however, the bill says that the FCC may determine, in consultation with the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, whether state matching funds must be provided as a condition of eligibility for low-income households within such state. The amount of support will be calculated from the prevailing market price, and the program will be technology neutral. BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak. LEGISLATION WOULD REQUIRE PROVISION OF CALL LOCATION DATA TO LAW ENFORCEMENT: U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) has introduced the Kelsey Smith Act of 2009 (HR 3682), which would require telecommunications carriers to provide call location information to law enforcement agencies in emergency situations; to authorize education and training for state and local law enforcement agencies with respect to the collection and use of call location information; and for other purposes. The bill is named for Kelsey Smith, an Overland Park, Kansas, teenager, who was murdered on June 2, 2007. Police reportedly found her body three days later because of a cell phone ping that had originated on June 2. Despite search efforts by law enforcement, it reportedly took Verizon Wireless three days to hand over the cell phone records. Shortly thereafter the body was discovered, and a suspect was arrested that evening and charged the next day. HR 3682 would require a telecom carrier, at the request of law enforcement, to promptly provide call location information concerning the user of a commercial mobile service or the user of an Internet protocol (IP)-enabled voice service to (1) a public safety answering point, emergency medical service provider or emergency dispatch provider, public safety, fire service, or law enforcement official, or hospital emergency or trauma care facility, in order to respond to the user’s call for emergency services or to respond to an emergency situation that involves the risk of death or serious physical harm; or (2) providers of information or database management services solely for purposes of assisting in the delivery of emergency services in response to an emergency. BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast. MIZZOU FORGETS TO CLEAN DATA OFF OF OLD CELL PHONES: The University of Missouri athletics department recently became the center of controversy when it sold a box of old cell phones to one Mike Bellman, according to The Associated Press and other media outlets. Bellman reportedly bought the cell phones earlier this year at a university surplus sale with the intent of reselling them for parts. He paid $190 for 25 old cell phones, figuring he would sell the parts for around $1,000, according to AP. However, he discovered that the information on the phones might be worth more than the hardware. No one at the university had deleted the text messages, e-mails and contact numbers from the phones. Bellman told the Columbia Tribune he had hoped to sell the old phones to a sports collector, with an asking price of $3,000. The Tribune reported that among other things, one Sprint Treo previously used by basketball coach Mike Anderson still had text messages between Anderson, football coach Gary Pinkel and Athletics Director Mike Alden. It was nothing controversial — well wishes for upcoming games and congratulations after wins. But the University of Missouri has been criticized for not being more cautious about information that could fall into the wrong hands. The University has said it is evaluating its internal procedures. The lesson, of course, is clean out your cell phones before tossing them. TEXTING WHILE DRIVING STILL RAISES QUESTIONS: At a “distracted driving” conference convened last week by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood, some 300 experts focused mostly on text messaging and cellphone conversations while driving, according to the Washington Post. Both the House and the Senate are considering legislation that would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while driving or risk losing 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding, a strategy similar to the one used to induce states to lower drunken driving limits. The bills would require the Transportation Department to establish minimum penalties that must be included in state laws. President Obama recently banned federal employees from texting while driving government cars or in their own cars when using government cellphones or on government business. The move was saluted by those who hope private employers will follow suit, according to The Post. Text messaging, which takes eyes off the road and hands off the steering wheel, is banned in the District and 18 states, including Maryland and Virginia. Other states are expected to follow, particularly since recent research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that truckers were 23 times more likely to crash when they sent text messages. That was the first study of texting based on data gathered from observing drivers in real-life situations rather than laboratories. Given those findings and vast cellphone use, the experts are puzzled by the fact that overall crash rates haven't increased dramatically, too. Without statistics to show that, persuading drivers — and legislators — not to use cellphones becomes more problematic, even considering the current impact, The Post reported. |
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