Dear Friends of Wireless Messaging,

Greetings again from Southern Illinois — the land famous for Corn, Soy Beans, Oil, and gangsters.

This week's Wireless News Headlines:

• AAPC Announcements
• FCC Issues Notice of Proposed Rule Making on Government Disaster Drills and Amateur Radio
• Zetron’s IP Fire Station Alerting System Improves Sugar Land FD’s Alerting Speeds and Reliability
• Motorola Drops Google in China
• BloostonLaw Telecom Update
  • Enforcement of Red Flags Rule Effective June 1
  • “Connect America Fund” details spelled out in NBP.
  • FCC seeks comment on harmonizing TCPA rules with those of FTC.
  • Comments sought on NPSTC and Broadband Task Force report.
  • FCC modifies LSS rules.
  • Free Press seeks access to Form 477 data.
• Periodicals' plans for iPad publishing pop up
• Businesses Want Apple's iPad, Too
• A cut fiber optic line leaves thousands without phone service for 7 hours
• Thought For The Week—Evolutionary scientist wins controversial religious award

Now on to more news and views.

Wireless Messaging News
Emergency Radio Communications Wireless Messaging Critical Messaging Telemetry Paging VoIP Wi-Fi WiMAX Location-Based Services	WIRELESS MESSAGING

This newsletter is brought to you by the generous support of our advertisers and the courtesy of iland Internet Solutions Corporation. For more information about the web-hosting services available from iland Internet Solutions Corporation, please click on their logo to the left.

There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major Paging and Wireless Data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers — so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get readers' comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it.

Editorial Opinion pieces present the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of AAPC, its publisher, or its sponsors.

Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, and Vic Jackson are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects. Click here  for a summary of their qualifications and experience. They collaborate on consulting assignments, and share the work according to their individual expertise and their schedules.

If you would like to have information about advertising in this newsletter, please click here.

Advertiser Index

FCC Issues Notice of Proposed Rule Making on Government Disaster Drills and Amateur Radio

03/25/2010

On March 24, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) proposing to amend the Commission’s Amateur Radio Service rules “with respect to Amateur Radio operations during government-sponsored emergency preparedness and disaster readiness drills and tests.” While current rules provide for Amateur Radio use during emergencies, the rules prohibit communications where the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer. In October 2009, the FCC released a Public Notice clarifying the Commission’s rules relating to the use of Amateur Radio by licensed amateurs participating in drills and exercises on behalf of their employers. To date, the FCC has granted several dozen waivers under this new policy.

The FCC notes that while there are some exceptions to this prohibition, “there is none that would permit amateur station control operators who are employees of public safety agencies and other entities, such as hospitals, to participate in drills and tests in preparation for such emergency situations and transmit messages on behalf of their employers during such drills and tests.” Based on that, the Commission proposes to amend the rules to provide that, under certain limited conditions, Amateur Radio operators may transmit messages during emergency and disaster preparedness drills, regardless of whether the operators are employees of entities participating in the drill.

Background

Per Part 97.1(a), one of the fundamental principles underlying the Amateur Radio Service is the “[r]ecognition and enhancement of the value of the Amateur Service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.” The rules, in Section 97.403, also state that “[n]o provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radio communication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.”

In the NPRM, the FCC recognized that Amateur Radio operators provide essential communications links and facilitate relief actions in disaster situations: “While land mobile radio services are the primary means of conducting emergency communications, Amateur Radio plays a unique and critical role when these primary facilities are damaged, overloaded, or destroyed.” The FCC gave Amateur Radio operations during 2006’s Hurricane Katrina as an example, saying that Amateur Radio operators “volunteered to support many agencies [and]...provided urgently needed wireless communications in many locations where there was no other means of communicating and also provided other technical aid to the communities affected by Hurricane Katrina.”

The FCC acknowledged that since Amateur Radio is often an essential element of emergency preparedness and response, many state and local governments and public safety agencies incorporate Amateur Radio operators and the communication capabilities of the Amateur Service into their emergency planning. In this regard, some entities, such as hospitals, emergency operations centers and police, fire, and emergency medical service stations have encouraged the participation of their employees who are Amateur Radio operators in emergency and disaster drills and tests.

The FCC said that its rules “expressly permit operation of amateur stations for public service communications during emergencies, as well as on a voluntary basis during drills and exercises in preparation for such emergencies.” But since the Amateur Radio Service is primarily designated for “amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest,” and rules expressly prohibit amateur stations from transmitting communications “in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer,” the FCC has mandated that public safety entities seeking to have employees operate amateur stations during government-sponsored emergency preparedness and disaster drills presently must request a waiver.

Discussion

The FCC is seeking comments on whether to amend the rules to permit Amateur Radio operators to participate in government-sponsored emergency and disaster preparedness drills and tests, regardless of whether the operators are employees of the entities participating in the drill or test. The Commission’s rules already recognize the importance of Amateur Radio in emergencies, and permit participation in such drills and tests by volunteers (defined by the FCC as “non-employees of participating entities”).

The FCC recognizes that based on experience, it knows that amateur operations “can and have played an essential role in protecting the safety of life and property during emergency situations and disasters. And as evidenced by recent waiver requests, state and local government public safety agencies and other entities often conduct disaster and emergency preparedness drills to be best-prepared for such eventualities.”

The proposed rule would preclude the need for a waiver in such instances by allowing employees of public safety agencies and other entities to operate amateur stations for testing and drilling of emergency communications preparedness. The FCC “tentatively conclude[s] that employee status should not preclude or prevent participation in government-sponsored emergency and disaster tests and drills. Further, we tentatively conclude that extending authority to operate amateur stations during such drills will enhance emergency preparedness and thus serve the public interest.”

In reaching these “tentative conclusions,” the Commission asserts that it agrees with the core principle of the Amateur Radio Service as a “voluntary, non-commercial communication service carried out by duly authorized persons interested in radio technique with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.” Per the NPRM, the FCC believes that the public interest will be served by “a narrow exception to the prohibition on transmitting amateur communications in which the station control operator has a pecuniary interest or employment relationship, and that such an exception is consistent with the intent of the Amateur Radio Service rules.” As such, the FCC proposes that amateur operations in connection with emergency drills “be limited to the duration and scope of the drill, test or exercise being conducted, and operational testing immediately prior to the drill, test or exercise.”

The FCC also proposes that the emergency tests and drills must be sponsored by federal, state, or local governments or agencies “in order to limit the narrow exception to ensure that drills further public safety.” The Commission does understand, however, that there may be circumstances where conducting emergency drills for disaster planning purposes, even if not government-sponsored, would serve the public interest. Accordingly, the FCC seeks comment on whether it should permit employee operation of amateur stations during non-government-sponsored emergency drills “if the purpose of the drill is to assess communications capabilities, including Amateur Radio, in order to improve emergency preparedness and response.”

According to the FCC, a large number of agencies and organizations at the state and local levels coordinate with their local volunteer Amateur Radio operators to conduct drills and exercises in concert with other modes of communication: “This joint activity is essential to allow for a practiced response on the part of the first responder community. Because some of those drills and exercises include transmission of amateur communications by employees of participating entities, we believe the proposed rule changes would be in the public interest, consistent with ongoing national emergency preparedness and response priorities. We therefore seek comment on the tentative conclusions contained herein.”

Proposed Rules

Part 97 of Chapter 1 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows:

1. Section 97.113 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(3), adding new paragraphs (a)(3)(i) and (a)(3)(ii), re-designating paragraphs (c) and (d) as new paragraphs (a)(3)(iii) and (a)(3)(iv) respectively, and re-designating paragraphs (e) and (f) as (c) and (d) respectively, to read as follows:

§ 97.113 Prohibited transmissions.

(a) ***

(3) Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer, with the following exceptions:

(i) A control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in a government-sponsored emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill.

(ii) An amateur operator may notify other amateur operators of the availability for sale or trade of apparatus normally used in an amateur station, provided that such activity is not conducted on a regular basis.

How to File Comments

Information on how to file comments via e-mail or by other means can be found on pages 4-6 in the NPRM. The deadline for comments is 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The deadline for reply comments is 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.

PAGING & WIRELESS
NETWORK PLANNERS LLC
WIRELESS SPECIALISTS

www.pagingplanners.com
rmercer@pagingplanners.com

R.H. (Ron) Mercer Consultant 217 First Street South East Northport, NY 11731
Cell Phone: 631-786-9359

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Zetron’s IP Fire Station Alerting System Improves Sugar Land FD’s Alerting Speeds and Reliability

Redmond, WA, March 24, 2010 –The fire department in Sugar Land, Texas, began to appreciate the benefits of IP-based communications with their recent installation of Zetron’s IP Fire Station Alerting (IP FSA) system. Because the new system sends alerts over the city’s fiber-optic IP network, an operator can dispatch a fire truck, an ambulance, and one or more fire stations almost simultaneously, with the press of just a few buttons. The system also provides automatic indications of alert success and failure, so operators know immediately whether an alert has gotten through.

Prior to installing the new IP FSA system, Sugar Land FD had been running Zetron’s Model 6/26 Fire Station Alerting System. But over the years, the department’s computer aided dispatching (CAD) system had undergone numerous upgrades. It was determined that the new fire station alerting equipment would be a better match for their upgraded CAD system.

“This would also give them an opportunity to obtain a VoIP-based system that would utilize the city’s fiber-optic, wide-area network instead of having to use expensive, leased telco lines,” says Don Cameron of Northwest Radio, the Zetron reseller who installed the system.

Since its installation in 2009, the IP FSA system has been “reliable and trouble free,” according to Brad Porter, IT project manager for the Sugar Land Fire Department. “In addition,” he says, “its Windows interface is so easy to use that our dispatchers learned it very quickly.” “With the IP FSA system, we no longer worry about alerts,” Porter says. “The system automatically polls the fire stations at regular intervals, so our dispatchers know that the stations are online with the server. Our communication links and alerts are no longer in doubt.”

About Zetron

For over 25 years, Zetron has been providing mission-critical communication solutions for customers in public safety, transportation, utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, and business. With offices in Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.; Hampshire, England; Brisbane, Australia; and numerous field locations, Zetron supports a worldwide network of authorized resellers and distributors. This gives Zetron a global reach as well as a local presence in the regions it serves. Zetron is a wholly owned subsidiary within JK Holdings, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.zetron.com.

Zetron, Inc. • PO Box 97004 • Redmond, WA 98073-9704
Phone: (425) 820-6363 • Fax: (425) 820-7031

Source:

Zetron

Motorola Drops Google in China

By Chris Thompson
TheBigMoney.com
Posted Thursday, March 25, 2010 - 2:08pm

As fallout from Google's (GOOG) decision to end censorship in its Chinese search engine continues, Motorola (MOT) has decided to drop many of the search company's services from Android phones it plans to sell in the country. According to BusinessWeek, the phone manufacturer has stopped bundling the Google search engine onto the Zhishang phone it builds for China Telecom Corp. In addition, Motorola had earlier announced that rival options, such as Baidu and Bing, will be bundled onto Android phones in China.

This is just the latest company to end its relationship with Google since the company killed its mainland search engine and redirected users to its Hong Kong site, where results are uncensored. The Internet company TOM Online has declared that its use of Google's search engine will end, China Mobile is expected to kill the Google bar on its mobile home page, and China Unicom is rumored to have at least delayed, and possibly scrapped, plans to build an Android phone. But the news doesn't seem to have hurt Google on Wall Street, where the company's stock is now trading at a healthy $566 a share.

Indeed, it's Motorola that's really feeling the heat here. The company has seen its fortunes decline sharply in recent years and was banking on marketing Android-powered phones to get back on top of the market. With Google's conflict jeopardizing its plans for the Chinese market, Motorola is scrambling to figure out its next move. "If you were partnering with Google in China, your business plans have just fallen apart," tech analyst Bertram Lai told BusinessWeek.

Meanwhile, Sergey Brin is stepping up his morality tour, granting an extensive interview with the U.K. Guardian just days after walking the Wall Street Journal through Google's ambivalence about doing business with a totalitarian state. In the interview, Brin calls on the Obama administration American businesses to launch a campaign to pressure China to end censorship. "I certainly hope they make it a high priority," he said. "Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now … I hope this gets taken seriously."

And he takes time to whack his other great foe, Microsoft (MSFT). When Google's conflict with China first broke onto the surface in January, Bill Gates went on national television and minimized China's censorship problem: "You've got to decide: do you want to obey the laws of the countries you're in or not?" Brin goes after Gates for those remarks, saying of Microsoft, "I'm very disappointed for them in particular."

Danny Sullivan doesn't think much of Brin's newfound conscience. "Google’s hardly the poster child to tell anyone else what to do. Not right now. Not yet. Not just because Google suddenly found it was no longer in its business interests to stay in China," he writes. "Microsoft, with practically no search share in China, has also consequently censored far, far less information than Google has over the years. Complaining about Microsoft’s search censorship is like a giant polluting country screaming that some small country is causing the world’s problems."

Chris Thompson is a writer living in Brooklyn.

www.daviscommsusa.com

Br502 Numeric VHF/UHF-900 MHz FLEX

Bravo Pagers FLEX & POCSAG

Br802 Alphanumeric VHF/UHF-900 MHz FLEX

With or Without Housing With or Without BNC Connector

For information call 480-515-2344 or visit our website
www.daviscommsusa.com

“Connect America Fund” Details Spelled Out In NBP

In its National Broadband Plan (NBP) delivered to Congress last week, the FCC recommends phasing out the universal service high-cost fund by shifting up to $15.5 billion over the next 10 years to support broadband service. The Commission also recommends phasing out the intercarrier compensation system and eliminating per-minute charges over the next decade. Both proposals would radically change the landscape for rural telcos, and may not necessarily be beneficial.

The FCC proposes to accomplish this Universal Service Fund (USF) reform in three stages:

Stage 1 (2010-2011): (a.) create a “Connect America Fund” (CAF) to support broadband and a “Mobility Fund” to expand the reach of 3G wireless networks in a tax-efficient manner; (b.) adopt a framework for long-term intercarrier compensation reform that creates a glide path to eliminating per-minute charges while providing an opportunity for adequate cost recovery, and establishing interim solutions to address arbitrage; (c.) examine middle mile costs and pricing.

Stage 2 (2012-2016): Begin making disbursements from the CAF; begin staged transition of reducing per-minute rates; and broaden the universal service contribution base.

Stage 3 (2017-2020): Eliminate high-cost fund, and hence, all support for voice-only networks, with all federal funding going to broadband; continue reducing intercarrier compensation rates by phasing out per-minute rates for the origination and termination of telecommunications traffic.

The Connect America Fund (CAF). Under the FCC’s plan, the CAF would replace all of the “legacy” high-cost fund programs. In general, the CAF should adhere to the following:

1. The CAF should only provide funding in geographic areas where there is no private sector business case to provide broadband and high-quality voice-grade service. CAF support levels should be based on what is necessary to induce a private firm to serve an area. Support should be based on the net gap (i.e., forward looking costs less revenues). Those costs would include both capital expenditures and any ongoing costs, including middle-mile costs, required to provide high-speed broadband service that meets the National Broadband Availability Target (actual download speeds of at least 4 Mbps and actual upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps). Revenues should include all revenues earned from broadband-capable network infrastructure, including voice, data and video revenues, and take into account the impact of other regulatory reforms that may impact revenue flows, such as ICC, and funding from other sources, such as Recovery Act grants. The FCC should evaluate eligibility and define support levels on the basis of neutral geographic units such as U.S. Census-based geographic areas, not the geographic units associated with any particular industry segment.

In targeting funding to the areas where there is no private sector business case to offer broadband service, the FCC should consider the role of state high-cost funds in supporting universal service and other Tribal, state, regional and local initiatives to support broadband. A number of states have established state-level programs through their respective public utility commissions to subsidize broadband connections, while other states have implemented other forms of grants and loans to support broadband investment. As the country shifts its efforts to universalize both broadband and voice, the FCC should encourage states to provide funding to support broadband and to modify any laws that might limit such support.

2. There should be at most one subsidized provider of broadband per geographic area. Areas with extremely low population density are typically unprofitable for even a single operator to serve and often face a significant broadband availability gap. Subsidizing duplicate, competing networks in such areas where there is no sustainable business case would impose significant burdens on the USF and, ultimately, on the consumers who contribute to the USF.

3. The eligibility criteria for obtaining support from CAF should be company- and technology-agnostic so long as the service provided meets the specifications set by the FCC. Support should be available to both incumbent and competitive telephone companies (whether classified today as "rural" or "non-rural"), fixed and mobile wireless providers, satellite providers and other broadband providers, consistent with statutory requirements. Any broadband provider that can meet or exceed the specifications set by the FCC should be eligible to receive support.

4. The FCC should identify ways to drive funding to efficient levels, including market-based mechanisms where appropriate, to determine the firms that will receive CAF support and the amount of support they will receive. If enough carriers compete for support in a given area and the mechanism is properly designed, the market should help identify the provider that will serve the area at the lowest cost.

5. Recipients of CAF support must be accountable for its use and subject to enforceable timelines for achieving universal access. USF requires ongoing adjustment and re-evaluation to focus on performance-based outcomes. The recipients of funding should be subject to a broadband provider-of-last-resort obligation. The FCC should establish timelines for extending broadband to unserved areas. It should define operational requirements and make verification of broadband availability a condition for funding. The subsidized providers should be subject to specific service quality and reporting requirements, including obligations to report on service availability and pricing. Recipients of funding should offer service at rates reasonably comparable to urban rates. The FCC should exercise all its relevant enforcement powers if recipients of support fail to meet FCC specifications.

Phasing Out the High Cost Fund

In Stage One, the FCC should identify near-term opportunities to shift funding from existing programs to advance the universalization of broadband. These targeted changes are designed to create a pathway to a more efficient and targeted funding mechanism for government support for broadband investment, while creating greater certainty and stability for private sector investment.

While these shifts could move as much as $15.5 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) into new broadband programs, they are not risk-free. Shifting identified funds to support broadband could have transitional impacts that will need to be carefully considered. To the extent the FCC does not realize the full amount of savings described below, it will need to identify additional opportunities for savings in Stage Two in order to achieve the National Broadband Availability Target, unless Congress chooses to provide additional public funding for broadband to mitigate some of these risks.

First, the FCC should issue an order to implement the voluntary commitments of Sprint and Verizon Wireless to reduce the High-Cost funding they receive as competitive ETCs to zero over a five-year period as a condition of earlier merger decisions. Sprint and Verizon Wireless received roughly $530 million in annual competitive ETC funding at the time of their respective transactions with Clearwire and Alltel in 2008. Their recaptured competitive ETC funding should be used to implement the recommendations set forth in this plan. This represents up to $3.9 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) over a decade.

Second, the FCC should require rate-of-return carriers to move to incentive regulation. As USF migrates from supporting voice telephone service to supporting broadband platforms that can support voice as well as other applications, and as recipients of support increasingly face competition in some portion of their service areas, how USF compensates carriers needs to change as well.

Rate-of-return regulation was implemented in the 1960s, when there was a single provider of voice services in a given geographic area that had a legal obligation to serve all customers in the area and when the network only provided voice service. Rate-of-return regulation was not designed to promote efficiency or innovation; indeed, when the FCC adopted price-cap regulation in 1990, it recognized that "rate of return does not provide sufficient incentives for broad innovations in the way firms do business." In an increasingly competitive marketplace with unsubsidized competitors operating in a portion of incumbents’ territories, permitting carriers to be made whole through USF support lessens their incentives to become more efficient and offer innovative new services to retain and attract customers.

Conversion to price-cap regulation would be revenue neutral in the initial year of implementation, assuming that amounts per line for access replacement funding known as Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS) would be frozen (consistent with existing FCC precedent). Over time, however, freezing ICLS would limit growth in the legacy High-Cost program on an interim basis, while the FCC develops a new methodology for providing appropriate levels of CAF support to sustain service in areas that already have broadband. This step could yield up to $1.8 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) in savings over a decade.

The amount of interim savings achieved by freezing ICLS support during the CAF transition is dependent on the timing of the conversion to price caps and carrier behavior before the conversion. There is some chance that rate-of-return carriers could accelerate their investment before conversion to price caps to lock in higher support per line. Depending on the details of implementation, such a spike in investment activity could result in further broadband deployment that would narrow the broadband availability gap, but could increase the overall size of the fund.

Third, the FCC should redirect access replacement funding known as Interstate Access Support (IAS) toward broadband deployment. Incumbent carriers received roughly $457 million in IAS in 2009. When the FCC created IAS in 2000, it said it would revisit this funding mechanism in five years "to ensure that such funding is sufficient, yet not excessive." That re-examination never occurred. Now, in order to advance the deployment of broadband platforms that can deliver high-quality voice service as well as other applications and services, the FCC should take immediate steps to eliminate this legacy program and re-target its dollars toward broadband. This could yield up to $4 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) in savings over a decade.

Freezing ICLS and refocusing IAS could have distributional consequences for existing recipients; individual companies would not necessarily receive the same amount of funding from the CAF as they might otherwise receive under the legacy programs. As the FCC considers this policy shift, it should take into account the impact of potential changes in free cash flows on providers’ ability to continue to provide voice service and on future broadband network deployment strategies.

Fourth, the FCC should phase out the remaining legacy High-Cost support for competitive ETCs. In 2008, the FCC adopted on an interim basis an overall competitive ETC cap of approximately $1.4 billion, pending comprehensive USF reform. As the FCC reforms USF to support broadband, it is time to eliminate ongoing competitive ETC support for voice service in the legacy High-Cost program.

In some areas today, the USF supports more than a dozen competitive ETCs that provide voice service, and in many instances, companies receive support for multiple handsets on a single family plan. Given the national imperative to advance broadband, subsidizing this many competitive ETCs for voice service is clearly inefficient. The FCC should establish a schedule to reduce competitive ETC support to zero over five years, which will be completed in Stage Two. In order to accelerate the phase-down of legacy support, the FCC could immediately adopt a rule that any wireless family plan should be treated as a single line for purposes of universal service funding. As competitive ETC support levels are reduced, this funding should be redirected toward broadband. This could yield up to $5.8 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) in savings over a decade.

Depending on the details and timing of implementation, these actions collectively will free up to $15.5 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) in funding from the legacy High-Cost program between now and 2020. In addition to funding the CAF, the savings identified should be used to implement a number of USF and ICC recommendations in this plan. Approximately $4 billion (present value in 2010 dollars) will go to a combination of activities including the new Mobility Fund, potential revenue replacement resulting from intercarrier compensation reform, expanding USF support for health care institutions up to the existing cap, enabling E-rate funding to maintain its purchasing power over time, and conducting pilots for a broadband Lifeline program. The remaining amount, up to $11.5 billion (present value in 2010 dollars), can be expressly targeted to supporting broadband through the CAF so that no one is left behind.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, John Prendergast, and Mary Sisak.

FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON HARMONIZING TCPA RULES WITH THOSE OF FTC: The FCC has asked for comment on proposed revisions to its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that would harmonize those rules with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) recently amended Telemarketing Sales Rule. The Commission seeks comment on whether these proposed revisions would benefit consumers and industry by creating greater symmetry between the two agencies' regulations, and by extending the FTC's standards to regulated entities that are not currently subject to the FTC's rules. Comments in this CG Docket No. 02-278 proceeding are due May 21, and replies are due June 21. BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

COMMENTS SOUGHT ON NPSTC AND BROADBAND TASK FORCE REPORT: On August 14, 2009, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau sought comment on petitions for waiver filed by a number of states and localities seeking to deploy public safety systems in the 700 MHz broadband spectrum. On December 15, 2009, the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) filed a written ex parte in response, including a report compiled by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) Broadband Task Force (BBTF). The PSST stated that it was submitting these recommendations “to the FCC for the minimum requirements necessary to allow localities and regions to build out local systems as part of the 700 MHz nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband public safety network.” The Bureau now seeks comment on both the recommendations of the PSST and the BBTF Report, and in particular those elements of the BBTF Report that address the technical aspects of the operation and inter-operation of the regional networks the BBTF contemplates. In particular, the Bureau seeks comment from those entities that have filed waiver requests with the Commission seeking to deploy in the 700 MHz broadband spectrum. Should the FCC condition any waiver disposition on adherence to the standards recommended by the BBTF and the PSST? Are these recommendations sufficient to ensure later compatibility with a nationwide interoperable broadband network for public safety? Does the BBTF Report provide adequate architectural details, specificity, consistency and precision to serve as the basis for conditions on waivers? If not, what modifications would serve this purpose? Could these recommendations provide a basis for evolution to new technological standards? Could these recommendations serve as an appropriate foundation for the work of the proposed Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ER-IC)? Additionally the Bureau seeks comment on several specific aspects of the technical recommendations made by the BBTF and the PSST, including: (1) Recommendation 6.2 (Operations), and particularly those functions that the PSST suggests are “Requirements at Startup”; and (2) Recommendation 6.3 (Technical), and particularly those addressed as “Minimum Applications” and “Security” features. Comments in this WT Docket No. 06-150 and PS Docket No. 06-229 proceeding are due April 6, and replies are due April 16. BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, John Prendergast, and Cary Mitchell.

FCC MODIFIES LSS RULES: The FCC has adopted a Report and Order, addressing an inequitable asymmetry in the current rules governing the receipt of universal service high-cost local switching support (LSS) by small incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs). Under the current rules, which were adopted by the Commission at a time when incumbent LEC lines had largely only increased over time, the amount of LSS that an incumbent LEC may receive decreases when its line counts increase above a particular threshold, but does not increase when its line counts decrease below that same threshold. Since the adoption of these rules, incumbent LEC lines have begun to decrease, and, as a result of the one-way rule, many small LECs that have lost lines receive less support than other LECs with a similar number of lines that face nearly identical circumstances. By modifying the rules to permit incumbent LECs that lose lines to receive additional LSS when they cross a threshold, the FCC will provide LSS to all small LECs on the same basis. The FCC emphasizes that nothing in this report and order is intended to address the long-term role of LSS in the Commission’s high-cost universal service policies, which the FCC is considering as part of comprehensive universal service reform. The FCC also dismissed the petition for reconsideration filed by the Coalition for Equity in Switching Support in the jurisdictional separations freeze proceeding. The issues raised in that petition are essentially the same as those raised in its petition for clarification. This decision and the Coalition Petition Order and LSS NPRM wholly address those issues, and therefore the FCC dismissed the petition for reconsideration as moot. BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

FREE PRESS SEEKS ACCESS TO FORM 477 DATA: Free Press has filed a request to review data collected by the FCC in connection with its periodic inquiry into the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans. In particular, it requests that “the public be granted the opportunity to examine and analyze the data collected by the FCC on Form 477.” Free Press states that its request is “limited to the data reflecting subscribership as of December 31, 2008.” Free Press further states that it “understand[s] that some of the companies that provided this information may believe their submissions are competitively sensitive,” and therefore requests “a protective order and ask[s] that the Commission institute appropriate procedures for the public to review the Form 477 data.” Free Press asserts that grant of its requests will allow it “to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of subscribership to high-speed Internet access services” that will “assist the Commission in making well-informed, data-driven policy choices.” Comments in this WC Docket No. 10-75 proceeding are due April 19, and replies are due May 5. BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and Mary Sisak.

This newsletter is not intended to provide legal advice. Those interested in more information should contact the firm.

Source: Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy and Prendergast, LLP For additional information, contact Hal Mordkofsky at 202-828-5520 or halmor@bloostonlaw.com

Periodicals' plans for iPad publishing pop up

Posted on Mar 25, 2010 12:00 pm by Marco Tabini, Macworld.com

With a little more than a week to go before the iPad hits the pavement (figuratively speaking, of course), more details continue to surface about content providers prepping their material for consumption on the device.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the chosen few whose developers have been granted access to a pre-release version of the iPad, has reported (citing “a person familiar with the matter”) that it will charge iPad users $18 per month for a subscription to the paper. That price hardly compares favorably with its existing offers, which allow customers to subscribe to both the print and online version of the newspaper for about $12 per month. Combined with the indefinite source of the report, it could mean that the iPad pricing is not yet finalized—though if not even the Journal knows what the Journal will be charging, who does?

But, if real, that price difference could be the result of a number of potential factors: perhaps the iPad version of the Journal will sport some exclusive features that are not available anywhere else; or, the final pricing model may include special offers and different subscription options (such as an annual subscription for an even lower rate); or maybe Rupert Murdoch has simply decided that iPad users will be willing to pay a premium to get his publication’s content on their brand new devices. As one of the few major publications to successfully charge for its online content, it seems possible that the Journal might just pull that off.

The Journal article also reports that, while the fate of periodicals on the iPad (or, indeed, in general) is anything but certain, early indications are that advertisers are lining up to snatch premium positions in some of the best-known publications. Time magazine has allegedly sold individual ad spots in its first eight iPad issues for $200,000 each to industry giants as Unilever, Toyota, and Fidelity Investments.

NEWS FLASH — SATELLITE FAILURES

• January 11, 1997—Telstar 401 suffers a short in the satellite circuitry—TOTAL LOSS May 19, 1998—Galaxy 4 control processor causes loss of fixed orbit—TOTAL LOSS September 19, 2003—Telstar 4 suffers loss of its primary power bus—TOTAL LOSS March 17, 2004—PAS-6 suffers loss of power—TOTAL LOSS
• January 14, 2005—Intelsat 804 suffers electrical power system anomaly—TOTAL LOSS

DON’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SATELLITE OUTAGE

Allow us to uplink your paging data to two separate satellites for complete redundancy! CVC owns and operates two separate earth stations and specializes in uplink services for paging carriers. Join our list of satisfied uplink customers.

• Each earth station features hot standby redundancy UPS and Generator back-up Redundant TNPP Gateways On shelf spares for all critical components
• 24/7 staffing and support

For inquires please call or e-mail Stephan Suker at 800-696-6474 or steves@cvcpaging.com

GLOBAL TECHNICAL ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS

YOUR SERVICES PARTNER FOR
GLENAYRE™ PAGING EQUIPMENT
GL3000 Paging Terminals - C2000 Controllers
GL3200 Internet Gateways - Transmitter Equipment

GTES is the only Glenayre authorized software support provider in the paging industry. With years of combined experience in Glenayre hardware and software support, GTES offers the industry the most professional support and engineering staff available.

EQUIPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAMS

• GTES Partner Maintenance Program
• Glenayre Product Sales
• Software Licenses and Software Upgrades
• Feature License Codes
• New & Used Spare Parts and Repairs
• Customer Phone Support and On-Site Services
• Product Training

CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS

Intelligent Solutions for Paging & Wireless Data

WiPath manufactures a wide range of highly unique and innovative hardware and software solutions in paging and mobile data for:

• Emergency Mass Alert & Messaging Emergency Services Communications Utilities Job Management Telemetry and Remote Switching Fire House Automation
• Load Shedding and Electrical Services Control

PDT3000 Paging Data Terminal

• FLEX & POCSAG Built-in POCSAG encoder Huge capcode capacity Parallel, 2 serial ports, 4 relays
• Message & system monitoring

Paging Controlled Moving Message LED Displays

• Variety of sizes Indoor/outdoor
• Integrated paging receiver

PDR3000/PSR3000 Paging Data Receivers

• Highly programmable, off-air decoders Message Logging & remote control Multiple I/O combinations and capabilities
• Network monitoring and alarm reporting

Specialized Paging Solutions

• Emergency Mass Alerting Remote telemetry switching & control Fire station automation PC interfacing and message management Paging software and customized solutions Message interception, filtering, redirection, printing & logging Cross band repeating, paging coverage infill, store and forward
• Alarm interfaces, satellite linking, IP transmitters, on-site systems

Mobile Data Terminals & Two Way Wireless  Solutions

Contact
Postal Address:	WiPath Communications LLC 4845 Dumbbarton Court Cumming, GA 30040
Street Address:	4845 Dumbbarton Court Cumming, GA 30040
Web site:	www.wipath.com CLICK
E-mail:	info@wipath.com CLICK
Phone:	770-844-6218
Fax:	770-844-6574
WiPath Communications

 SEE WEB FOR COMPLETE LIST:
www.preferredwireless.com/equipment CLICK HERE

Too Much To List • Call or E-Mail

Preferred Wireless Rick McMichael 888-429-4171 rickm@preferredwireless.com CLICK HERE www.preferredwireless.com/equipment OR HERE

COMPUTERS

March 24, 2010, 12:03AM EST

Businesses Want Apple's iPad, Too

Business demand for the iPad may be greater than expected. Companies and workers are buying the tablet to use it for communications and mobile productivity

By Olga Kharif

Jim Turner has bought 15 iPads that he'll get in April, when Apple (AAPL) starts shipping the tablet-style computer designed for book reading, game playing, and video viewing. Yet Turner won't be using the iPad for entertainment.

"It's for business," says Turner, who runs Hilltop Consultants, a provider of information technology services to law firms and other companies in the Washington (D.C.) area. Turner says he'll use the computer for checking e-mail on the go and taking notes while setting up client computer systems.

The iPad, billed by Apple executives as a digital book reader, video player, and gaming platform, isn't just for fun and games. Many companies and employees are buying the iPad to use it as a tool for business-related communications and keeping employees productive while they're on the go, says Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. "Clearly, the iPad has a role to play in the business market," says Wolf, who has a buy rating on Apple stock. "The demand appears to be far more diverse than I originally expected."

More than half of mobile-phone users surveyed recently by Zogby International said they would use a tablet device such as the iPad for working outside the office, according to mobile software maker Sybase (SY), which commissioned the survey of 2,443 adult cell-phone users.

Of respondents, 52.3% said they would most likely use a tablet for work, compared with 48.2% who said they'd use an iPad-like device for watching movies and TV, and 35.4% who said they'd play games on their tablet. The findings reflect "unexpected emphasis on the iPad's suitability for work-related activities, and…the iPad's potential value to information workers," Dublin (Calif.)-based Sybase said in a Mar. 23 statement.

IWORK SOFTWARE FOR THE IPAD
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs and other officials of the Cupertino (Calif.)-based company have not ruled out the prospect that customers would use the iPad to conduct business. Apple has created an iPad version of its iWork suite of productivity applications, which include a word processing program called Pages, a spreadsheet program called Numbers, and a presentation application similar to PowerPoint called Keynote, which Jobs has been using in his own presentations for years.

Still, Apple's public remarks have tended to emphasize the iPad's more consumer-friendly features. "It's a way to share photos like you've never had before," Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference on Feb. 22. "You can watch videos. You can listen to music. You can read books on it." Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris and spokesman Tom Neumayr didn't respond to requests for comment.

Don Donofrio, a New York-based IT executive in the publishing industry, ordered an iPad and plans to use the device to create graphics. "In my work, I draw a lot of work-flow charts," says Donofrio, who is based in New York. "I like the idea of being able to sit in a meeting and draw."

Of 12 chief information officers surveyed by tech news site TechRepublic in February, 10 said they see a business case for the iPad and other tablets. Of 3,171 consumers surveyed by research firm ChangeWave in February, 13% said their top uses for the device would include working away from the office, and 7% said they'd use it for working on spreadsheets and presentations. "You can see everyone carry it in their briefcase in two or three years," says Paul Carton, vice-president of research at ChangeWave, pointing to findings that 68% of people plan to use the iPad for Web browsing and 44% for checking e-mail.

HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION MARKETS
Professionals in health care and education, as well as students, will probably be among the biggest purchasers of the iPad, says Wolf at Needham & Co. More than 30% of 178 health-care workers surveyed in January by Software Advice, an online software vendor, said they were "very likely" to buy a tablet. George Fox University in Newberg, Ore., says on its Web site that it will give each incoming freshman the choice of an iPad or a MacBook, also made by Apple, starting with the 2010-2011 academic year.

Some companies took time to warm to Apple's iPhone in part because of long-standing loyalty to Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry. Unlike the iPhone, the iPad may not be replacing an entrenched device or technology, Wolf says. The iPad "is not going to run into the kind of resistance in the business market because it's a new category," he says. With companies, "it could do better than the Mac or the iPhone. It could do surprisingly well."

Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.

Experts in Paging Infrastructure
Glenayre, Motorola, Unipage, etc.
Excellent Service Contracts
Full Service—Beyond Factory Support
Contracts for Glenayre and other Systems starting at $100
Making systems More Reliable and MORE PROFITABLE for over 28 years.

Please see our web site for exciting solutions designed specifically for the Wireless Industry. We also maintain a diagnostic lab and provide important repair and replacement parts services for Motorola and Glenayre equipment. Call or e-mail us for more information.

Easy Solutions
3220 San Simeon Way
Plano, Texas 75023
Vaughan Bowden
Telephone: 972-898-1119
Website: www.EasySolutions4You.com CLICK
E-mail: vaughan@easysolutions4you.com

Wireless Communication Solutions

USB Paging Encoder

• Single channel up to eight zones
• Connects to Linux computer via USB
• Programmable timeouts and batch sizes
• Supports 2-tone, 5/6-tone, POCSAG 512/1200/2400, GOLAY
• Supports Tone Only, Voice, Numeric, and Alphanumeric
• PURC or direct connect
• Pictured version mounts in 5.25" drive bay
• Other mounting options available
• Available as a daughter board for our embedded Internet Paging Terminal (IPT)

Paging Data Receiver (PDR)

• Frequency agile - only one receiver to stock
• USB or RS-232 interface
• Two contact closures
• End-user programmable w/o requiring special hardware
• 16 capcodes
• POCSAG
• Eight contact closure version also available
• Product customization available

Other products

• Please see our web site for other products including Internet Messaging Gateways, Unified Messaging Servers, test equipment, and Paging Terminals.

Contact

Hark Technologies 717 Old Trolley Rd Ste 6 #163 Summerville, SC 29485

Tel: 843-821-6888

Fax: 843-821-6894

E-mail: sales@harktech.com CLICK HERE

Web: http://www.harktech.com CLICK HERE

A cut fiber optic line leaves thousands without phone service for 7 hours

by Amanda Stanzilis, KENS 5

Posted on March 23, 2010 at 4:06 PM
Updated Tuesday, Mar 23 at 10:18 PM

It was a terrible Tuesday for some people living in the Texas hill country area.

AT&T has reported a third party contractor working on a drainage ditch in Waring cut a fiber optic line. It caused landlines, cell phones, and pager systems to go down throughout the Hill Country.

The problem was not isolated to AT&T carriers. Several other carriers experienced outage problems as well because of the cut line.

Staff at Peterson Regional Medical Center in Kerrville was called into a command center at the hospital. Plans were made for required communication. Satellite phones were put in the command center and at the police department. E-mail was still available, but only if was computer to computer. On-call doctors for the night were given special pagers and communication instructions.

Those who lived outside city limits experienced the most trouble calling 911. They were told their best option was to drive to their closet fire department to get help.

Seven hours later, AT&T said the line was repaired.

Evolutionary scientist wins controversial religious award

EMMA WOOLLACOTT | Fri 26th Mar 2010, 04:54 am

Francisco Ayala, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has been awarded a £1 million prize for work of a spiritual nature.

Ayala, an evolutionary geneticist and molecular biologist, is also a former Dominican priest who hails religious belief as a unique means of understanding the meaning of life.

He was awarded the Templeton Prize, which aims to reward "an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension" at the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Spanish-born Ayala is currently the Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California. He has spent more than 30 years defending the view - commonplace in Europe - that science and religion each have their place, and that both are damaged if one invades the territory of the other.

"If they are properly understood," he said, "they cannot be in contradiction because science and religion concern different matters, and each is essential to human understanding."

In 1981 he served as an expert witness in a pivotal federal court challenge that led to the overturning of an infamous Arkansas law mandating the teaching of creationism alongside evolution.

The award has caused some controversy amongst scientists, who are concerned that hosting the event at the NAS may give the John Templeton Foundation an undeserved scientific respectability.

Previous award winners cover quite a range, from physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson to television evangelist Billy Graham.

Ayala says he plans to give much of the prize to charity.