4/4. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH), and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) introduced HR 5085, the "American Broadband for Communities Act".

The bill would amend the Communications Act to provide that "Any unused broadcast television spectrum in the band between 54 and 698 megaHertz, inclusive, other than spectrum in the band between 608 and 614 megaHertz, inclusive, may be used by unlicensed devices, including wireless broadband devices."

The bill would also require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to write rules within 180 days of enactment.

The FCC adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on May 13, 2004, regarding use by unlicensed devices of broadcast television spectrum where the spectrum is not in use by broadcasters. However, the FCC has not yet issued any rules in this proceeding.

See, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [38 pages in PDF] in the proceeding titled "In the Matter of Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands Additional Spectrum for Unlicensed Devices Below 900 MHz and in the 3 GHz Band". This NPRM is FCC 04-113 in ET Docket Nos. 04-186 and No. 02-380. See also, story titled "FCC Adopts NPRM Regarding Unlicensed Use of Broadcast TV Spectrum" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 898, May 14, 2004; and story titled "FCC Releases NPRM Regarding Unlicensed Use of TV Spectrum" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 905, May 26, 2004.

HR 5085 would require the FCC to "adopt minimal technical and device rules in ET Docket Nos. 02-380 and 04-186 to facilitate the robust and efficient use of the spectrum made available under section 342 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 342) by unlicensed devices, including wireless broadband devices".

It would also require the FCC to "establish rules and procedures to -- (A) protect incumbent licensed services, including broadcast television and public safety equipment, operating pursuant to their licenses from harmful interference from such unlicensed devices; (B) address complaints, no later than 30 days after receipt, from licensed broadcast stations that an unlicensed device using such spectrum causes harmful interference that include verification, in the field, of actual harmful interference; (C) require manufacturers of unlicensed devices designed to be operated in this spectrum to submit a plan to the Commission to remedy actual harmful interference to the extent that harmful interference is found by the Commission which may include disabling or modifying the unlicensed device remotely; and (D) require certification of unlicensed devices designed to be operated in that spectrum to ensure that they meet the technical criteria established under paragraph (1) and can perform the functions described in subparagraph (C)."

Rep. Inslee stated in a release that "For too long, we've let this high-potential spectrum go to waste ... We now have the technology to put it to good use and leave current users unaffected."

This bill, and the FCC's open proceeding, contemplate the use smart radio technology, that listens first to determine what spectrum is not being used. Uses would include both low power personal portable devices, such as PC cards, and higher powered fixed location devices, such as the wireless broadband internet access base stations.

This bill was referred to the House Commerce Committee. All five of the original sponsors are members.

There are other related bills. See, the companion bill in the Senate, S 2332, the "American Broadband for Communities Act", introduced by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) on February 17, 2006.

See also, S 2327, the "Wireless Innovation Act of 2006", introduced by Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and others on February 17, 2006, and story titled "Sen. Allen Introduces Bill to Allow Unlicensed Wireless Use of Broadcast White Space" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,314, Tuesday, February 21, 2006.

Matthew Flanigan, head of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), stated in a release that "Among their numerous lines of business, TIA member companies design, produce and deploy terrestrial and satellite wireless network and terminal equipment ... As a result, TIA has a substantial interest in current and future spectrum management decisions and activities related to the development of wireless broadband services and the use of the television broadcast spectrum."

"TIA believes that these proposals could provide for more efficient and effective use of the television broadcast spectrum, as well as have significant benefits for the public by increasing competition in the wireless broadband industry and providing incentives for the development of new and innovative broadband devices and services for businesses and consumers."

4/5. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced S  2553, the "Call Center Consumer's Right to Know Act of 2006 ".

This bill provides that "A United States corporation or its subsidiaries that utilizes a call center to initiate telephone calls to, or receive telephone calls from, individuals located in the United States, shall require each employee in the call center to disclose the physical location of such employee at the beginning of each telephone call so initiated or received."

The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rulemaking and civil enforcement authority.

The bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Kerry is a member.

4/11. Andrew "Buddy" Donohue was named to be the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Director of the Division of Investment Management, effective May 15, 2006. He is currently Global General Counsel for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. See, SEC release.

4/12. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deleted one item from the agenda for its April 12, 2006, event titled "Open Meeting". It deleted consideration of a petition filed by the Forest Conservation Council and other groups. See, notice [PDF].

4/12. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division published a notice in the Federal Register that the DVD Copy Control Association (DVDCCA) has filed a notice with DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, that the DVDCCA has added numerous new members. These new members are listed in the notice. See, Federal Register, April 12, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 70, at Page 18769.

4/12. The Department of Defense's (DOD) Defense Acquisition Regulations System (DARS) published a notice in the Federal Register that describes and sets the comment deadline (June 12, 2006) for its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) with respect to the exemption from the Buy American Act for the acquisition of commercial information technology. See, Federal Register, April 12, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 70, at Pages 18694-18695.

4/12. The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) published a paper [12 pages in PDF] titled "Parents Have Many Tools to Combat Objectionable Media Content" The author is the PFF's Adam Thierer. The paper asserts that the combination of various "ratings systems, the V-Chip, set-top box parental controls (including gaming consoles), new Internet and mobile media filtering / screening technologies, and other technological tools like personal video recorders, mean that parents now have multiple layers of technological protection at their disposal." It adds that parents can "get rid of their TV sets and other media devices altogether". It concludes that "markets are bringing parents empowering tools to sort and filter content they might find objectionable. This is being done much more quickly, much more closely tailored to the parents’ own desires, and without concerns about censorship such as is associated with traditional government regulatory efforts."

4/11. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) published a notice in the Federal Register that describes, and sets the application deadline (June 12, 2006) for, Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program grants. See, Federal Register, April 11, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 69, at Pages 18271-18276.

4/11. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published in its web site a transcript of its conference on February 28 an March 1, 2006, titled "Improving Spectrum Management through Economic or Other Incentives".

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Privacy Policy
Notices & Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2006 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All rights reserved.

The House will not meet on Monday, April 10, through Friday, April 21. See, Republican Whip Notice and Whip's calendar.

The Senate will not meet on Monday, April 10, through Friday, April 21. See, 2006 Senate calendar.

9:30 AM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a meeting. The event will be webcast by the FCC. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C05 (Commission Meeting Room).

10:00 AM. The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies will hold a public meeting by webcast and teleconference. See, notice [PDF]. For more information, contact Kevin O’Neill at 202-551-3260.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "USTR’s ``Top-to-Bottom´´ Review of U.S.-China Trade Policy: Where Do We Go From Here?". The speakers will include Timothy Stratford (Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for China Affairs), Angela Ellard (Staff Director and Counsel, Subcommittee on Trade, House Ways and Means Committee), Timothy Reif (Chief Democratic Trade Counsel, House Ways and Means Committee), Patricia Mears (National Association of Manufacturers), Erin Ennis (US-China Business Council), and Mary Patricia Michel (McKenna Long & Aldridge). The price to attend ranges from $5-$25. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

2:00 - 4:00 PM. The Department of State's (DOS) International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) will meet to prepare for a meeting of the ITU Council. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 60, at Page 15798. Location: __.

Passover.

2:00 - 4:00 PM. The Department of State's (DOS) International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) will meet to prepare for the 33rd meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Community Telecommunications and Information Working Group (APEC TEL) in Calgary, Canada, on April 23-28, 2006. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 60, at Page 15798. Location: Verizon Communications, 1300 Eye St., NW.

Deadline to submit written statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee to supplement the record of its April 7, 2006, hearing on the Copyright Office's report [133 pages in PDF] titled "Report on Orphan Works". Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) requested further statements regarding what would constitute a "diligent search".

Good Friday.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) [52 pages in PDF] regarding the assessment and collection of regulatory fees for fiscal year 2006. This NPRM is FCC 06-38 in MD Docket No. 06-68. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 6, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 66, at Pages 17410-17433.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding privacy of consumer phone records. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 15, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 50, at Pages 13317-13323. The FCC adopted this NPRM on February 10, 2006, and released the text [34 pages in PDF] on February 14, 2006. See, story titled "FCC Adopts NPRM Regarding Privacy of Consumer Phone Records" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,308, February 13, 2006, and story titled "FCC Rulemaking Proceeding on CPNI May Extend to Internet Protocol Services" in TLJ Daily E-Mail alert No. 1,310, February 15, 2006. This NPRM is FCC 06-10 in CC Docket No. 96-115 and RM-11277.

Easter.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Diversity Committee will host a brown bag lunch. The topic will be "Impact of Broadband on Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS)". The speakers will be Karen Strauss, Ed Bosson (Texas TRS Administrator), Kelby Brick (National Association of the Deaf), Joe Douglas (NECA), Claude Stout (TDI Executive Director). RSVP to Colin Sandy at 202-682-2496 or csandy at neca dot org. Location: Reed Smith, 1301 K Street, NW, Suite 1100- East Tower 11B.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the Library of Congress's (LOC) Section 108 Study Group in response to the LOC's notice in the Federal Register regarding, among other topics, expanding the scope of 17 U.S.C. § 108. See, notice in the Federal Register, February 15, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 31, at Pages 7999-8002.

9:00 AM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) advisory committee named "Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks" will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 3, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 63, at Pages 16578-16579. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, Room TW-C305, 445 12th St., SW.

12:30 - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "Managing and Protecting Digital Data: Part II -- Getting Paid for Content: Legal Questions in Digital Rights Management (DRM) for Online Distribution". The speakers will include Fritz Attaway (Motion Picture Association of America), David Sohn (Center for Democracy & Technology), and Jack Goodman (Wilmer Hale). The price to attend ranges from $10-$30. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

6:00 - 8:00 PM. The DC Bar Association's Computer and Telecommunications Law Section will host a reception titled "Meet FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate". The price to attend ranges from $10-$15. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: The Westin Embassy Row Hotel, 2100 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The DC Bar Association's Intellectual Property Law Section will host a panel discussion titled "Can I Use It?: Fair Use (Part I) -- ``Traditional´´ Notions of Fair Use of Copyrighted Works". The speakers will include Christine Farley (Washington College of Law) and Arnie Lutzker (Lutzker, Lutzker & Settlemeyer). A second event, on June 14, will address fair use in the context of digital works, computer code, and the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. The price to attend ranges from $20-$40. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

3:15 - 5:00 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a panel discussion titled "Combatting the Diseases of Poverty: Aid Versus Innovation". The speakers will be Barun Mitra (Liberty Institute), Julian Morris (International Policy Network), Roger Bate (AEI), Nicholas Eberstadt (AEI), Maureen Lewis (Center for Global Development), and Vance Serchuk (AEI). See, notice. Location: AEI, 12th Floor, 1150 11th St., NW.

6:00 - 7:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host an event titled "What's Next: Mid-Career Planning, Networking, and Marketing Seminar and Reception". The speaker will be Kathleen Sparrough (Davis and Chapman). See, registration form [PDF]. The price to attend ranges from $10 to $40. Registrations and cancellations are due by 5:00 PM on April 14. Location: Hogan & Hartson, 555 13th Street, NW, 13th Floor West.

Day one of a two day meeting of the Department of Labor's (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Business Research Advisory Council (BRAC). The BLS's vaguely worded agenda in its notice in the Federal Register states that the BRAC's Committee on Productivity and Foreign Labor Statistics will meet at 10:00 AM on April 19 to address "new service industries", "international labor comparisons", and "compensation comparisons", including for China and India. See, Federal Register, March 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 60, at Pages 15768-15769. Location: Conference Center of the Postal Square Building, 2 Massachusetts Ave., NE.