The FBI, Bell Atlantic Network Services and Lucent Technologies Inc. signed a set of agreements to help facilitate the deployment of the digital wiretap act. The FBI signed a similar agreement with Nortel Networks last year. “This latest agreement exemplifies the type of cooperative, productive efforts needed to ensure that we will be able to maintain our capability to conduct court-authorized electronic surveillance,” said Attorney General Janet Reno.
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration held its first federal government-industry meeting last week on the Wireless Innovations in Communications Initiative. At the gathering, the Pentagon gave a presentation on software-defined radio developments. The Federal Communications Commission also is conducting an inquiry on SDR. The next meeting of WICI will be held Wednesday. Under WICI, federal agencies will work with the industry to encourage governmental adoption of emerging wireless technologies.
The Federal Communications Commission plans to hold a public forum on the secondary market for radio spectrum May 31. The agency said it is interested in hearing views on whether spectrum constraints that appear to inhibit deployment of new services could be mitigated by the use of a secondary spectrum market; whether capacity can be made available on idle spectrum; whether there are financial, legal or economic factors that will impact a secondary market; and whether the FCC needs to implement new rules or modify existing rules to help facilitate a secondary market for radio spectrum.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, introduced legislation that would lift the cap on high-tech visas during the next three years. The wireless industry and other growing high-tech sectors are beset with a shortage of skilled workers. Smith’s bill, criticized by some because of certain requirements imposed on American businesses, is one of several pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the current limit of 115,000 H-1B visas annually.
