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We held a workshop on channel sharing this week, to explore the practical business and operational challenges facing broadcasters who may want to try this innovative way to use spectrum more efficiently.  Over 200 people participated in person and over the web, making it a successful kickoff to a series of events through which we’ll invite input that will help us to implement our new incentive auction authority.

We proposed channel sharing as a way for broadcasters to contribute much-needed spectrum in connection with an incentive auction, enjoy the financial benefits of sharing in auction proceeds, and at the same time stay on the air to serve their viewers.  Our panel of broadcast professionals discussed the business models that might fit with channel sharing and the practicalities of putting together a channel sharing arrangement.

The panelists, a number of whom have clients actively considering channel sharing, shared with us their insights into wide-ranging issues, including –

• the types of stations for which channel sharing would be an appropriate business decision;
• how stations would go about choosing partners;
• what kinds of provisions channel sharing agreements should contain;
• how to handle the possible termination of a channel sharing arrangement; and
• potential collusive behavior that stations negotiating channel sharing agreements might need to avoid.

While it seems accepted that the technology exits to implement channel sharing, the discussion also covered a number of technical issues about how it might be implemented.

The FCC continues to make agency reform a top priority. A key focus of this reform has been carrying out our statutory mission in a way that recognizes changes in technology and the marketplace and reduces burdens on business and industry while promoting incentives for investment and promoting economic growth.

Last year, the President issued an Executive Order to the heads of all independent agencies, including the FCC. The new Executive Order builds on the President's January 2011 Executive Order on Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, and asks independent agencies to conduct both retrospective and prospective regulatory analyses, consistent with law. Chairman Genachowski has said the agency would act in accordance with the new Executive Order, and that he expects all FCC Bureaus and Offices will perform their responsibilities consistent with the order.

In November 2011, we developed a Preliminary Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules, which recognized the importance of retrospective analysis and identified numerous Commission proceedings that predated the Executive Order, as the FCC historically has incorporated retrospective review into its rulemaking process.  The Preliminary Plan also described the ongoing agency-wide process of identifying outmoded or counterproductive rules.

Today, the agency releases our Final Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules. The Final Plan represents the Commission’s strategy for incorporating retrospective analysis into the agency’s processes for reviewing its rules.

What if I told you that the world was running out of postal addresses or phone numbers, and that, in less than two months, many companies you regularly do business with will have a new system of contact information?  You’d want to learn more about this system and perhaps make a few preparations, right?  Such a big transition is not happening for postal addresses or phone numbers, but something close to that is happening for Internet addresses.

World IPv6 Launch Day is on June 6, 2012.  On that day, many Internet service providers (ISPs), manufacturers of networking equipment (such as routers) and web-based companies will permanently enable Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) for their products and services.  As part of this event, consumers, businesses, governments, charities and anyone else that relies on the Internet are encouraged to check their computers and network equipment for IPv6 readiness.

A little background: In order for devices to find each other and connect over the Internet, each device must have an Internet protocol (IP) address.  The current IP system is Version 4 (IPv4), which makes available over four billion IP addresses.  However, the huge increase in Internet users and devices worldwide means that IPv4 addresses are running out.  IPv6, the next-generation protocol, provides approximately 340 undecillion IP addresses (that’s 340 with 36 digits after it), ensuring availability of new IP addresses far into the future, as well as promoting the continued expansion and innovation of the Internet.