Telecom
Justice Dept. Approves SBC-AT&T, Verizon-MCI Mergers
     The Justice Department this week approved the mergers of AT&T with SBC Communications and MCI with Verizon Communications, paving the way for a consolidation that will reshape the telecommunications landscape. The FCC could consider the mergers as soon as Friday afternoon. The Justice Department's antitrust division conditioned the deals on a relatively modest requirement that the merged companies divest portions of their fiber-optic lines to competitors in 19 metropolitan areas. The department said the transactions, as originally proposed, would have resulted in higher prices for some business customers in eight metropolitan areas in Verizon's territory and 11 in SBC's region. The department's decision requires Verizon and SBC to each divest high-speed telecom connections to more than 350 buildings. The divested facilities would be sold to single buyers in each city using long-term leases that are common in the industry.

Digital Television
Panel Rejects Bid To Alter DTV Deadline, Subsidy
     The House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected several Democratic-favored modifications to a draft bill that would set Dec. 31, 2008, as the deadline for broadcasters to complete the transition from analog to digital television. Panel ranking Democrat John Dingell of Michigan and Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee ranking Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts offered a substitute bill calling for an April 7, 2009, deadline. That would have mirrored the date approved last week by the Senate Commerce Committee. The Dingell-Markey substitute, which failed on a 21-28 party-line vote, also would have created a $5.8 billion grant program to enable the communications systems of public-safety officials to work across jurisdictions. Another provision would have authorized unspecified sums -- estimated at $3.5 billion to $4 billion -- for a digital television subsidy.

Telecom
Stevens' 911 Bill Would Override FCC Net Telephony Rules
     An FCC requirement that Internet telephone companies provide emergency 911 services would be overruled by a new draft bill authored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. The committee draft revises a bill, S. 1063, introduced by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Nelson's measure would require providers of voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, to offer "enhanced 911" service that pinpoints callers based on their locations when they make the calls. Unlike the Nelson bill, the new Stevens language would relieve "nomadic" VoIP providers from the need to comply with a May order by the FCC. The agency had required all VoIP firms connecting to traditional telephone wires to provide E911 service. The bill had been scheduled for a vote Oct. 20. It is now expected to be considered next week. Both the Nelson and Stevens versions require the modernization of the public-safety 911 system.

Cyber Security
Experts: More Public, Private Coordination Needed
     Cyber security should be a White House priority, and the military ought to better coordinate with the private sector to protect the nation's infrastructure, experts told a House Armed Services subcommittee. "We need a national policy to secure cyberspace," said Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance. A presidential directive would address command-and-control issues by establishing roles and responsibilities related to a catastrophic event, he told the two committee members who were present, Reps. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. The role of the Defense Department in a national incident when it does not involve its own assets is unclear, and the department pays little attention to the private sector, he said. The deficiencies outlined by the witnesses include: inadequate funding for cyber-security research; a shortage of experts; the military's reliance on commercial software and hardware that are prone to attacks; and insufficient coordination of research with the private sector.

States
Va. Governor Taps Panel To Examine Licensing Law
     Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced the creation of a task force to study the impact of a law to standardize driver's licenses. States have said the law could cost between $700 million and $1 billion nationally to implement and will place a hefty financial burden on already cash-strapped regions. Task force members, who are charged with delivering a report to Warner by Dec. 31, must "take a close look at the new regulations and develop strategies to comply," he said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Congress passed the law without appropriate consultation with the states," said Warner, a possible 2008 Democratic presidential contender. "We will ... continue to urge congressional leaders to provide adequate funding for this federal mandate to prevent overburdening citizens and state governments with the additional costs."

E-Commerce
Report Reveals Consumers' Online Fears Alter Behavior
     An estimated 30 percent of U.S. Internet users have reduced their overall use of the Web as a result of security concerns, according to a national survey released by a consumer watchdog group. "Fear is changing what users are doing online," said Evans Witt, principal and CEO of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, which conducted the survey. The report was released by Consumer Reports WebWatch and based on a poll of 1,501 Web users in the United States older than 18. It found that nine out of 10 Internet users have changed their behavior because of concerns about identity theft. Twenty-five percent said they have stopped making purchases online. The survey found that 53 percent of Internet users said anxiety about ID theft has prompted them to stop knowingly providing personal information online. Respondents also said they have begun to pay closer attention to companies' online privacy policies.

Intellectual Property
Industrialized, Developing Nations Battle Over Treaty
     The deep chasm between industrialized and developing nations offers a difficult challenge for global intellectual property treaties, according to one expert. "We have a good deal of political stress in the system," said Francis Gurry, deputy director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization. He said about 85 percent of the patents in the world are held by entities in the United States, Europe and Japan. Additionally, in 2004, five corporations spent more on research and development than the individual gross domestic products of 53 nations. "There are many pre-intellectual property questions, issues and problems," he said at a conference sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. "In our area, that's got to do with the transmission of knowledge. Before you get to intellectual property, one needs to consider the whole question of education."