Tech Policy Summit blog

President Signs E-911 Bill Into Law

President Bush signed the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 yesterday, enacting into law several measures designed to ensure better Enhanced-911 services for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers and to work toward a national IP-enabled emergency network.

VON coalition founder Jeff Pulver, who's been a long-time backer of IP technologies for voice and video, celebrated it as "hugely important legislation" in a post on his blog. Below is an excerpt that explains the bill's impact on the VoIP industry and what Pulver believes it means for 911 services going forward:

This is the first major piece of telecommunications legislation signed into law this year -- and it happens to be a bill designed to help advance VoIP.

The bill provides tools that the FCC failed to provide 3 years ago when first adopting rules for VoIP 911. Even without these tools, VoIP providers have made extraordinary efforts and now provide E911 to a greater percentage of subscribers than any other kind of voice service. Its been the fastest and broadest onetime implementation of E-911 in the history of public safety. As a result of these unprecedented effort by VoIP providers, Americans who dial 911 using interconnected VoIP services can now rest assured they can reach help in an emergency. It is a particularly remarkable achievement considering that no underlying network connectivity provider can yet offer VoIP providers the ability to connect to all selective routers nationwide. This bill now gives VoIP providers a chance to expand their base, and VoIP consumers assurances that they can be safe and secure using a dependable VoIP service.

But more importantly, thanks to the work of the VON Coalition, the bill also recognizes that when we put VoIP at the heart of the 911 network itself, we can achieve breakthrough new advancements in emergency service for all Americans -- regardless of the type of service you use. It's no secret that America's 911 network is still providing 911 and E911 today using 1960s-era technology. The bill calls for a new national strategy for upgrading the nation's entire 911 network from 1960s era technology to 21st century IP and VoIP technologies at its core to help make Americans more safe and secure.

You can read more of his post here, and the text of the legislation is available here.

Public Interest Groups File Opposition to MPAA Petition

As we wrote about last month, members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are interested in making high definition movies available for in-home viewing ahead of the typical release dates for DVDs, and MPAA is seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use selectable output control (SOC) technology to prevent consumers from recording those films.

Despite MPAA's assertions that the arrangement would not only benefit its members by protecting their intellectual property but that it would also help consumers get access to high definition content and major theatrical releases earlier than usual, a number of public interest groups have banded together to voice their opposition to the FCC.

In a document filed with the Commission on Monday, seven organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, New America Foundation and Media Access Project urged the FCC to reject MPAA's petition on grounds that it's "unnecessary and contrary to the public interest." They argue that MPAA hasn't provided evidence that use of SOC technology would in fact curb copyright infringement; that it would frustrate consumers who wouldn't be able to use their electronics equipment as expected and that it would give "MPAA members unprecedented and undesirable control over consumer device design."

The full 25-page document is available for download.

MPAA Wants to Release Movies Earlier; Prevent Recording

According to Ars Technica, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) petition for "expedited special relief" last month that could result in new restrictions on home recording of movies.

At issue is the FCC's 2003 ruling that probited the use of selectable output control (SOC) technology. SOC enables content providers or distributors from remotely blocking digital video recorders, and MPAA is asking the Commission for a permanent waiver that would allow its member companies like Sony, Disney and Warner Brothers to use SOC as part of a new distribution scheme.

As MPAA explained in its petition, the film studios it represents are interested in partnering with multi-channel video programming distributors to release high definition movies for in-home viewing prior to the normal release date for DVDs. And they argue that SOC is a necessary safeguard to ensure that films aren't "exposed to unauthorized copying or redistribution" in advance of them becoming available on DVD. MPAA believes it's a win-win because consumers will receive access to major theatrical releases sooner, and the high definition content will offer an additional incentive for consumers to upgrade to HD televisions as part of the switch to digital TV.

Not everyone is buying that argument though. Ars points out that the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Home Recording Rights Coalition, led by Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, have been outspoken opponents of SOC restrictions.

The MPAA's petition is available here, and the FCC is seeking public comments through June 25th (the docket number for the proceeding is 08-82).

News From Who's Who

Below is a quick roundup of recent press releases from Tech Policy Central's Who's Who, which profiles nearly 100 think tanks, coalitions and trade associations.

• Net neutrality adovcate group Free Press published the testimony of its policy director Ben Scott, who was among the witnesses at this morning's net neutrality hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Mr. Scott joined NCTA chief Kyle McSlarrow, RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol, Christian Coalition vice president Michele Combs and others who appeared before the Subcommittee to discuss Chairman Ed Markey's (D-MA) proposed bill, H.R. 5353, The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008. We shared brief notes from the hearing via Twitter.

• In response to today's hearing on H.R. 5353, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a statement by its technology policy analyst Cord Blomquist opposing the proposed net neutrality bill. According to Mr. Blomquist, "this bill does more than prohibit bad actions that will never happen. It also prevents ISPs from employing sensible network management that is vital for addressing the growing demands of Internet users."

Transcript of Commissioner McDowell's TPS Keynote

The team at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has posted a copy of the speech that Commissioner Robert McDowell gave at Tech Policy Summit last Thursday morning. Those who can't wait for the podcast, which will be available in the Media Vault next week, can check out his remarks here.

We've also uploaded another batch of photos from the 2008 Summit, including several of Commissioner McDowell. We'll have the rest of the images on the site by end of day.

Viviane Reding's Video from Tech Policy Summit

We opened the second day of Tech Policy Summit '08 with a special videotaped message by Viviane Reding, the European Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media. In her remarks for Summit participants, Commissioner Reding discussed how the EU is dealing with the challenges of convergence in areas like telecom reform and content distribution.

In case you missed this year's Summit, the full video is available now in Who's Who.

EU Endorses DVB-H as Mobile TV Standard

As expected, the European Commission took the next step in promoting a single standard for mobile television in Europe when it added Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) to the EU List of Standards yesterday. In picking DVB-H as the mobile TV standard of choice, over competing standards Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) or MediaFLO, European Commissioner Viviane Reding hopes to spur adoption of the technology and create a single market for mobile TV in the EU.

In a statement yesterday, Information Society and Media commissioner Reding said:

"For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology. This is why I am glad that with today's decision, taken by the Commission in close coordination with the Member States and the European Parliament, the EU endorse DVB-H as the preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting."

Transforming P2P Into P4P

Verizon and file-sharing startup Pando Networks will be releasing data later today that could signal a sea change in how some Internet service providers (ISPs) approach peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services like Pando's.

According to the Associated Press, Verizon "has broken ranks with the [ISP] industry and...plans to help its users share files faster -- at least those who do it legally." Verizon and Pando have done recent testing that suggests that ISPs can boost download speeds by an average of 60 percent (and much higher in some circumstances) when they collaborate with P2P startups to optimize network resources.

Verizon and Pando are leading a voluntary industry working group to develop best practices for this type of cooperative, network-aware file sharing, known as P4P.

While it's not a panacea for critics of P2P, and won't be an option for wireless broadband operators (including Verizon), P4P is a step in a new direction.

On a side note, for those who plan to be at Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood later this month, two of the highlights should be Walt Mossberg's interview with Verizon CTO Richard Lynch and Declan McCullagh's interview with BitTorrent co-founder and president Ashwin Navin.

Update: Steve Wildstrom will be interviewing Richard Lynch; Walt Mossberg is unable to attend this year.

DTV Transition's "Mixed Signals"

With a little over one year left until the digital TV transition goes into effect in the U.S., federal agencies and consumer interest groups expressed concerns (again) this week about the plan to prepare the public for the end of analog broadcasting in February 2009.

During Wednesday's hearing of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) noted that consumers have requested almost 5 million coupons to purchase converter boxes for their existing televisions, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will start mailing those out as early as next week. Rep. Stearns also cited data from the Consumer Electronics Association that indicates consumer awareness of the DTV transition has increased by 80% since 2006.

The same day, consumer watchdog group U.S. PIRG released a report that claimed electronics retailers were providing misleading information to consumers (see this clip from the Media Vault ). The organization conducted a series of "secret shopper" investigations at stores around the country, concluding the following:

81% of sales staff provided inaccurate information about converter boxes

78% of sales staff provided inaccurate information about the coupon program

42% of sales staff provided inaccurate information about the transition date

20% of sales staff tried to up-sell surveyors to digital TVs or upscale converter boxes

In a statement in response to the U.S. PIRG report, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Jonathan Adelstein referred to sales associates as the "first line of defense" in educating consumers about the switch to DTV and renewed his call for the FCC to create a federal interagency task force to develop benchmarks and a timeline for educating consumers. He quipped, "Communication is the FCC's middle name, but we haven't lived up to it."

For more info on the Subcommittee hearing, check out this video archive. Witnesses included FCC chairman Kevin Martin and NTIA's acting assistant secretary Merideth Baker.

Dueling Press Releases

The rift between the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) over use of the so-called white spaces was all too apparent yesterday when the organizations issued conflicting accounts of recent FCC prototype testing.

The two groups have been at odds over WIA's desire to deliver wireless broadband via unused portions of television spectrum. NAB has insisted that using the white spaces would interfere with existing services offered by broadcasters, an assertion that WIA has repeatedly refuted.

NAB fired the first shot in this latest battle when it issued a news release stating that a prototype developed by Microsoft had failed FCC testing when the device lost power. The release quoted an NAB exec as saying, "By failing two out of two tests at the FCC, Microsoft and the Wireless Innovation Alliance have demonstrated that unlicensed devices are not ready for prime time."

WIA shot back with its own release that accused the NAB of using "scare tactics" and said, "to be clear, the Microsoft device successfully tested both digital TV signals and wireless microphones." The WIA characterized the power failure as an unrelated issue and stated that it "expects a successful conclusion of the testing process."

You can learn more about the FCC's ongoing testing here.