Spectrum
Bush Orders Agencies To Craft Spectrum Strategies By 2006
     President Bush this week ordered federal agencies to produce a strategic spectrum plan by June 2006 and said the proposal should include incentives to nudge government users off certain electromagnetic spectrum frequencies. Bush said the plan seeks to "promote more efficient and effective use of the spectrum while protecting national and homeland security, critical infrastructure, and government services." The memo ordered the White House Office of Management and Budget to provide guidance on the costs of spectrum investments by June 1, 2005. The heads of all executive agencies must provide specific plans regarding current and future spectrum use by Dec. 1, 2005. The order follows the spectrum policy initiative released by the Commerce Department and its National Telecommunications and Information Administration in June.

Broadband
Verizon Defends Pennsylvania Bill On Wireless Web Access
     Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell signed into law a telecommunications bill that restricts the freedom of cities in the state to offer high-speed Internet services, but only after an agreement that would grant Philadelphia a waiver from the rule. The statute gives dominant local telephone companies in Pennsylvania the right to offer their own broadband access before any city can. But in return, Verizon Communications, which lobbied for the law, agreed to let Philadelphia pursue its plan for a broadband system via Wi-Fi technology. The measure also requires telecom companies to make broadband services available to 100 percent of commonwealth residents by 2015. It also calls for $40 million in services and discounts to schools and would establish other economic development programs for broadband.

Telecom
Boxing Language Might Hurt Chances For Telecom Bills
     A widely supported bill on the universal service fund (USF) is among the telecommunications measures that could go down for the count this year unless two political heavyweights end their standoff over a Senate-passed bill to establish a national boxing commission. In one corner is Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who plans to block passage of the USF measure and two other telecom bills unless the House agrees to include his boxing legislation in the package. He is up against House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, who sources said is unwilling to attach the boxing bill. USF was established to ensure that every American has access to affordable telephone service, but it has come under strain as Americans have migrated from traditional telephones to wireless and Internet-based phone calls. The USF bill would exempt the Universal Service Administrative Corp. from new accounting rules that critics say have disrupted payments to the e-rate program and could sharply increase consumers' monthly telephone surcharges.

Telecom
FCC's Powell Says 1996 Act Is Broken But Not Obsolete
     FCC Chairman Michael Powell warned against scrapping the 1996 Telecommunications Act and starting from scratch as policymakers debate telecom reform. While Powell characterized the law as "an amalgamation of different statutes" and said "it's time to have a dialogue" about how to improve it, he added that "it scares me to [just] open up and rewrite from scratch." For Powell, the debate over whether Internet telephony is an information or telecom service under FCC rules "is everything that's wrong with the Telecommunications Act." He said during a forum sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute instead that Internet protocol "ought to just be IP." If forced to choose between two current terms, he said, policymakers should designate Internet telephony as an information service, but "only because we get to work on a more blank slate."

Security
Ridge Praised; Cyber-Security Questions Seen For Successor
     Technology industry executives and homeland security experts roundly praised Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who has announced his resignation. But many industry and former government sources see a need for his successor to do more to improve the government's efforts on cyber security. "He's done a good job building a foundation for a focus on cyber security," said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America. "But his successor is going to have to put much more emphasis on cyber security." Miller said the tech industry would like to see an assistant secretary position for cyber security created. One industry source said on condition of anonymity that "there's nowhere to go but up when it comes to cyber security at Homeland Security." President Bush named former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik as his choice to replace Ridge. Also this week, President Bush nominated Carlos Gutierrez to be the next Commerce secretary.

E-Commerce
Internet Sites Abuse System Of 'Payday Loans,' Report Says
     Internet firms that offer "payday loans" have been able to fly under the regulatory radar by finding loopholes or operating in states with lax laws on small loans, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). The survey of 100 Internet sites that provide short-term, small loans found some operators make loans without meeting state licensing requirements, consumer protections in the states where borrowers are located, or truth-in-lending disclosure regulations. Eighteen sites had no privacy policies listed, 28 failed to provide secure transactions, and nearly one-quarter had no contact information listed, said Jean Ann Fox, CFA's director of consumer protection. "Consumers, when applying online, are working in the dark," she said.

Budget
Omnibus Bill Drops Spending Cap For FBI Computer
     The FBI computer upgrade known as Trilogy escaped a budgetary cap suggested by Senate appropriators when House and Senate lawmakers earlier this month finalized an omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2005. But the conference report to the measure recommends that the FBI commission another independent study of Trilogy to assess its progress. Negotiators also suggested that the study establish a timeline for completing the computer upgrade, estimate deployment costs again and outline the benefits of making the FBI's Virtual Case File available as soon as possible. "Trilogy has been plagued by cost growth, scheduling delays, management turnover and changes, and slow technical progress," the Senate Appropriations Committee concluded in a separate report, and it sought to cap the modernization process at $600 million. The omnibus bill would not allot a specific dollar amount for completing Trilogy.

Net Governance
ICANN Board Chairman Fears Heavy U.N. Internet Control
     Officials at the nonprofit corporation that oversees the Internet-addressing system continue to try to define their role in relation to work on Internet governance at the United Nations, and the corporation's chairman voiced concern about heavy-handed U.N. involvement. "There's a certain amount of stress" at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) over whether "a lightning bolt will strike from a body called the United Nations," ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf said in a press briefing from Cape Town, South Africa, where ICANN's board is meeting this week. Asked whether he sees ICANN being absorbed within the U.N. system in the future, Cerf said, "Basically only in my worst nightmare."