WEEK AHEAD: FCC to vote on setting aside airwaves for medical devices

{mosads}FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said this month that the technology would improve healthcare service and reduce costs.

“With in-home patient monitoring, premature babies could come home a little sooner, a father struggling with heart disease can be aware of his condition and still make his kids’ soccer game, and a grandmother living alone could stay in her home and keep her independence,” he said.

Genachowski estimated the devices could reduce health care spending by $1.2 billion per year. He also said the devices could lead to medical innovations “we can only imagine.”

The spectrum that the FCC is considering for the devices is now being used by commercial test pilots. The proposed rule would allow different users to share the spectrum band. 

Also at the meeting, the FCC will explore the possibility of launching flying cellphone transmitters after disasters to restore communication services.

In a report last year, the FCC’s public safety bureau noted that hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters can cause mass power outages and destroy landline and wireless phone networks.

Some emergency responders might have satellite phones, but other people would lack the ability to communicate or call for help.

The FCC will decide whether to explore regulations that would allow the government to launch aerial cell transmitters that could restore service in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The transmitters could be attached to unmanned drones or balloons.

One potential obstacle will be for the commission to find a way to avoid interfering with surviving communication networks.

In other tech news, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s subpanel on Federal Financial Management will hold a hearing on Thursday morning to examine the administration’s efforts to reduce information technology spending.

A Google-sponsored conference will explore Internet freedom issues on Wednesday and Thursday at the Newseum. On Wednesday morning, a panel will discuss whether laws and regulations affecting the Internet should favor individuals over the state. The panel will feature former assistant secretary for Homeland Security Stewart Baker and Noomane Fehri of the Tunisian National Constitutional Assembly.

Wednesday afternoon’s debate at the conference will focus on whether a more centralized system of governance is needed for the Internet. Representing the International Telecommunications Union office to the United Nations will be Gary Fowlie, while Ben Wagner will stand in for the European University Institute. 

The Thursday afternoon portion of the conference will feature a panel debate on the U.S. role in promoting Internet freedom with representatives from the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Centre for Internet and Society and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Fans of Internet freedom and broadband deployment will gather at Silver Spring’s AFI Silver theater on Monday and Tuesday for the annual Freedom to Connect conference. 

The conference, long a magnet for broadband-loving academic and government types, will be keynoted on Monday by former FCC acting chairman and longtime commissioner Michael Copps, who left the commission last year after a long tenure as a vigorous opponent of media consolidation and a proponent of net neutrality. Others speaking on Monday include former FCC broadband czar Blair Levin, ex-Obama technology advisor Susan Crawford and “father of the Internet” Vint Cerf.