The 800 MHz rebanding is starting to see progress along the border with Mexico, the last area to be reconfigured and the “primary focus” of current retuning efforts, the 800 MHz Transition Administration (TA) said in its quarterly progress report to the FCC. The rebanding has been underway since 2004. As of March 31, 121 frequency reconfiguration agreements (FRAs) were submitted to the TA out of the 127 FRAs anticipated for Mexican border licensees, the TA said. As of March 31, “five licensees that had submitted cost estimates were negotiating their FRAs with Sprint,” the TA said. “In addition, Mexican border licensees and Sprint had entered into 38 Letter Agreements, which are short-form agreements that have been used in lieu of FRAs for certain reconfigurations with no costs or low costs.” In other areas, rebanding is nearly complete and there was relatively little activity, the TA said. For example, for Canadian border Stage 2 licensees retuned, reflashed or replaced about 250 radios in the first quarter, bringing the total retuned to 215,250 as of March 31.
​Several Democrats fought against legislation grandfathering in broadcaster joint sales agreements (JSAs) from before last year's FCC action that limited the agreements. Their opposition nearly prevented the measure from clearing the Commerce Committee during a Thursday markup. Lawmakers ultimately approved it 14-10, but some Democrats insist they want to change the bill as it advances to the Senate floor.
Verizon offered unions representing 38,000 wireline employees 2 percent wage increases the next two years and a $1,000 lump sum payment in the third year as part of a three-year contract offer, the company said in a news release Monday. Opening labor talks, Verizon made the comprehensive offer to the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at the outset "to encourage a substantive and productive dialogue," said Robert Mudge, wireline operations executive vice president. Verizon said the proposed pay increases were contingent on signing an agreement by Aug. 1, and would add to an average annual salary and benefit package of $130,000 for Verizon associates in the east. Pension-eligible associates could choose between continuing to earn benefits under a traditional pension plan with some limitations and forgoing a 401(k) company match, or opting for an enhanced 401(k) plan currently offered to management (including a bigger company match) with a frozen pension benefit, the release said. Verizon called the combined pension and 401(k) benefits for employees hired before Oct. 28, 2012, a structure "from another era." Noting Verizon associates' healthcare costs were above the national average and calling cost control "essential," the carrier proposed an increase of $8.10 per week for individual healthcare premiums and said "other reasonable cost controls" were needed to keep the wireline business competitive. Mudge said fiber deployment had positioned Verizon for growth, but the company's "cost structure has not changed nearly fast enough to align with today's market realities and consumer needs." Verizon said it seeks more flexibility to manage the workforce "consistent with customer demands." Tami Erwin, president of Verizon's Consumer and Mass Business unit, said, "We need contractual changes that position us to compete with new and emerging technologies." The last contract negotiations lasted 15 months in 2011-12, the release noted. IBEW representatives had no comment. CWA issued a statement Tuesday from Dennis Trainor, District 1 vice president, that said: “Verizon’s claims about the pay increases they put on the bargaining table yesterday are simply a smokescreen designed to hide the harsh reality of their concessionary demands: deep cuts to pension benefits, skyrocketing increases in medical costs, and the complete elimination of job security. Despite $9.6 billion in profits in 2014 and $44 million in compensation to their top five executives, Verizon wants to eliminate middle-class jobs and let customer service deteriorate. Their proposals would slash thousands of jobs and leave our remaining members with a diminished standard of living at the end of any new contract."
The House Appropriations Committee cleared an FCC FY 2016 funding package Wednesday in a partisan 30-20 vote. The package includes several measures Democrats say will stall the net neutrality order, plus a new media provision that would grandfather in existing broadcaster joint sales agreements (JSAs) formed before the FCC limited them last year. Financial Services Subcommittee ranking member Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., dismissed the measure, subject to many White House concerns, as "veto bait." The measure had come under fire for including three telecom policy riders that would prevent the funding of the FCC net neutrality order during pending court challenges; require commission posting of items 21 days before a vote; and prevent commission broadband rate regulation.
The FCC is proposing to reserve at least one blank TV channel in every market for white spaces devices and wireless mics after the incentive auction and repacking, said a rulemaking notice released Tuesday. The NPRM tentatively finds that this channel should be located in the UHF band, above Channel 21, though the commission seeks comment on that and other proposals. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O’Rielly dissented.
While app usage has transitioned from a novelty to an essential part of the mobile user experience, the number of apps used is staying the same, said a Nielsen study. Millions of apps are available, with more rolled out every day, but more than 70 percent of total app usage is coming from the top 200 apps, said Nielsen. App developers and marketers need to position apps effectively to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, it said. While there’s an app for “everyone, regardless of age, race or interest,” consumers have shown a threshold for the number of apps they use actively per month, it said. On average, smartphone users accessed 26.7 apps per month in Q4, roughly flat with Q4 2012. But the time they spend engaging with those apps has increased by 14 minutes per month, Nielsen said. Average time per month spent on apps per person has grown from 23:02 (hours and minutes) in Q4 2012 to 37:28 in Q4 2014, said Nielsen. The entertainment category -- covering a broad swath of content from weather forecasts to sports scores -- has contributed to the increase in app usage, driving a 13 percent year-on-year increase in Q4, as users spent nearly three hours more on apps during the period, Nielsen said. On smartphones, gaming is the biggest subcategory, with 76 percent of entertainment app users (115 million) reporting they played at least one game in Q4, followed by music and then movies/videos. Men’s monthly app usage averaged 27.2 versus 26.3 for women, but women spend more time per app at 38:02 minutes versus 36:51 for men, it said. African-Americans use the most apps per month (30.3) and spend nearly 43 hours per month on them, while Hispanics follow at 41:31 across an average 27.9 apps per month, it said. Asian-Americans average 37:14 per month on apps, while white non-Hispanic users spend 35:25 per month, it said.
The value of the global digital content market will reach $154 billion annually by 2019, an almost 60 percent increase over the market’s value in 2014, Juniper Research said Tuesday. The biggest driver of market revenue in 2019 will be mobile and online games, which should garner about 38 percent of annual revenue that year, Juniper said in a news release about a research report. The researcher forecasts strong growth from online dating services and related apps, including Match.com and Zoosk. The bulk of digital content revenue is now collected post-download, with pay-per-download now accounting for 10 percent of revenue, Juniper said. The firm said consumers are now more interested in having access to digital content across a variety of platforms than in downloading content to one device. Over-the-top providers like Amazon and Google are in a prime position to capitalize on consumer demand for multidevice access to content via new cloud-based storage and access services, Juniper said.
The FCC’s designated entity rules need to be revised before the TV incentive auction to ensure that small carriers at least have a shot at winning licenses, Panhandle Telephone Cooperative and Pine Belt Telephone Company said in a filing at the FCC. The small carriers told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel they are interested in buying 600 MHz licenses during the auction, but noted that the track record for small carriers was “dismal” in the recently completed AWS-3 auction. “Of the 70 qualified bidders in the auction, over half (38 or 54.3 percent) were rural telcos or rural telco affiliates, yet only 28.9 percent of the rural entities were successful in winning any licenses. Many rural bidders were completely shut out, and those that were successful won only 25 of 1,611 licenses (1.55 percent).” Despite some larger companies' use of “shell” companies as DEs to buy spectrum with bidding credits, fewer than half the successful rural telco bidders in the AWS-3 were able to qualify under DE rules as small businesses, the two carriers said. The filing was posted by the FCC Friday in docket 10-208.
Prospects remain good for two cybersecurity information sharing bills to pass the House later this week, but there’s still potential for a contentious debate over privacy and liability protection aspects of the bills, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. The House is expected to vote on the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) on Wednesday and the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) on Thursday, said the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. The House Intelligence Committee-passed HR-1560 focuses on private sector sharing with U.S. intelligence agencies, while the House Homeland Security Committee-passed HR-1731 would establish the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center as the main federal civilian hub for information sharing. Both bills contain liability protection for companies that participate in the sharing programs the bills would establish.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sought comment Wednesday in a request for information (RFI) published in the Federal Register on cell tower safety (see 1410140172). In October, OSHA and the FCC conducted a joint workshop on the subject. Comments are due on the RFI June 15.