The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has asked about a dozen federal agencies to evaluate the relocation costs and other needs associated with returning spectrum for private use. The NTIA request was made as the government begins the study process following the recently completed World Radiocommunication Conference. Specifically, NTIA has asked the Pentagon to assess by Nov. 15 the cost and complexity of letting private industry use frequencies in the 1755-1850 MHz band. This is one of the bands that was recently allocated for third-generation wireless.
Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) sent letters to the chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission asking them to probe allegations that pagers are involved in illegal trading activities.
FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani gave the keynote address last week at the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials convention in Boston. During her address, Tristani noted that at the first APCO convention held 65 years ago, E.K. Jett, an FCC representative, led a discussion on improving inter-city communications, “which confirms that inter-agency coordination was a top priority even back then.”
Applied Research Laboratories: The University of Texas at Austin has begun comprehensive testing to determine whether ultra-wideband technologies interfere with the global positioning system. The testing is being underwritten by Time Domain Corp., one of three companies that has received an FCC waiver to market UWB technologies. Stanford University and NTIA are also conducting tests. The FCC will evaluate all of the test results before deciding whether to go forward with rules allowing for UWB.
NTIA will soon begin accepting comments on a draft statement of work on how the Department of Commerce plans to manage the .us domain name. The .us domain is the `national’ or `country code’ top level domain assigned to the United States for domain-name registration and is currently managed as a locality-based hierarchy in which second-level domain space is allocated to the states and territories.
