A hard nationwide date for the end of the transition to digital TV will reduce the value of the spectrum to be auctioned to the commercial wireless industry, complained John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, as he argued for a market-by-market DTV transition. Lawson believes the commercial wireless industry will benefit by a market-to-market approach rather than a nationwide approach by being able to test new products and services. Lawson testified at a hearing on the DTV transition held by the House telecommunications subcommittee. Estimates of how much revenue would be generated by spectrum auctions may not even cover the amount of a proposed subsidy for digital set-top boxes so that TVs currently receiving free analog broadcast signals could receive digital signals, said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that an upcoming government study will say hands-free headsets do not make driver use of cell phones safe and that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta last year was set to send letters to the nation’s governors to tell them hands-free legislation was ill advised. “Our position has not changed. Hands-free does not reduce risk,” said Rae Tyson, a NHTSA spokesman. Tyson confirmed the results of the NHTSA study, which will be presented at a meeting this fall and which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The NHTSA data is drawn from a driving simulator in Iowa. Another broader NHTSA study on driver distractions, conducted at Virginia Tech under natural driving conditions, is complete. But Tyson said huge amounts of data must be analyzed before results are released. Several years ago, NHTSA flagged cell phones as posing dangers to drivers.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) charged that the Bush White House was not playing by the rules by refusing to send the nomination of FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to the Senate for consideration. Adelstein’s term at the Federal Communications Commission expired June 30, 2003. The Democrat must leave the FCC when Congress adjourns this fall if he is not renominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate.
