The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a regulation plan for Verizon that will give the telco broad pricing flexibility for most retail services and allow the company its first basic exchange rate increases in 12 years. The agreement will allow Verizon’s residential basic service to rise from $18 monthly (including taxes and fees) to $27 the next three years, during which basic business service will rise from $26 (including taxes and fees) to $38. The BPU kept rate regulation of directory assistance and installation charges, but allowed DA rates to rise from 50 cents to $1.50 per call in steps the next three years. The monthly free-call allowance will fall to two calls from four. The BPU also will allow installation charges to rise to $50 from $42 over the three-year span. The changes will take effect with September bills. Verizon had sought full pricing flexibility for all its retail services but the state Office of Public Advocate urged keeping price caps for basic local services.
Mobile content services in Latin America accounted for 3.1 percent of the region’s total mobile revenue in 2007, said a Frost & Sullivan report. It said the market had sales of $1.15 billion in 2007, which it estimates will reach $8.93 billion in 2014. Brazil and Mexico had combined revenue of $1.11 billion in 2007, 49 percent more than 2006, the report said. In Brazil, mobile music represented 38 percent of the country’s mobile content services market revenue, generating $250.2 million in 2007, the report said.
Arianespace said it successfully launched ProtoStar I and Arabsat’s BADR 6 satellite Monday. ProtoStar I is the first satellite for ProtoStar. It was built by Loral’s space systems division to provide direct-to-home TV and satellite broadband service to Asia. After in-orbit testing, ProtoStar said, it expects to begin offering commercial service using ProtoStar I within two months. ProtoStar I has 22 Ku-band and 38 C-band transponders, the company said. ProtoStar I will orbit at 98.5 degrees east. BADR 6 was built by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. It will orbit at 26 degrees east.
Radio One said Monday that it bought the assets of WPRS(FM) Waldorf, Md., for $38 million. It had been running the radio station in the Washington, D.C., market under a local marketing agreement.
Beijing will have Wi-Fi service in its business and political districts during the Olympics as part of Beijing’s “wireless city” initiative, said Azalea Networks, an equipment vendor for the project. With support from Beijing’s municipal government, the project is a collaboration between Chinacomm Communications and Trussnet USA, Azalea said. It will provide wireless broadband access over 38 square miles in Beijing’s central business district, financial areas and Olympic venues, Azalea said. Chinacomm, the service provider, said it will carry out the plan in three phases. The first phase began trial operation June 25. The second phase is expected to be done in 2009 and the final phase will end in 2010 with the creation of a citywide Wi-Fi network. Azalea said it will provide 1,000 wireless routers and many video surveillance cameras.
“Legal challenges” will delay Bell Canada’s buyout, the company said, adding that it hopes to close the deal Q3. But the buyout may be held up until year-end, as the purchasers now see economic conditions as making the price as too high, the Globe and Mail reported. The paper said the buyers want to cut the price to $35 to $38 a share, compared with the $42.75 agreed to. They also seek stricter covenants, more favorable interest rates and other concessions, the story said. The company said earlier it would delay until June 30 a decision on whether to pay a $294 million quarterly dividend. Holding onto the dividend would leave more cash in the company for the buyers. Meanwhile, two senior executives are leaving Bell Canada. Patrick Pichette, president of operations, will become Google’s senior vice president and chief financial officer Aug. 1, the Internet company said in an SEC filing. Google will pay Pichette a yearly salary of $450,000, plus a signing bonus of $500,000 and $500,000 more after six months. Scott Thomson, executive vice president for corporate development and planning, is moving to Talisman Energy as executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer, BCE said.
Motorola may lose its No. 1 share position in the U.S. handset market, but expects to shift next year to better platforms with improved music, touch-screen and messaging features, Gimme Credit said. Revenue in the handset maker’s Mobile Devices segment fell 40 percent the first quarter, and in the past four quarters revenue has declined 38 percent, Gimme Credit said. Other segments are struggling as well, it said. Motorola management believes the handset segment will return to profitability by year-end but that cannot hide the fact that the unit will lose money for the full year, Gimme Credit said.
The FCC is lowering the hammer on three general- merchandise chains -- the first retailers to sign consent decrees for violating the commission’s year-old analog labeling order, said texts of the orders released Thursday. The devil isn’t in the modest fines that the chains have agreed to pay, as expected (CD May 27 p5), but in the terms they must abide by to have the investigations dropped.
Scripps said it expects 16 to 18 percent second-half sales increases at its TV stations from a year earlier. A projected $38 million in political ad sales will account for most of the increase, it said. Scripps will split into two separate companies July 1 -- E.W. Scripps keeping the TV stations and newspapers and Scripps Networks Interactive getting its cable programming networks and the Web sites uSwitch and Shopzilla. Revenue for Scripps Networks Interactive for the second half of the year should increase “by a mid- to high-single digit percentage” from a year earlier, the company said.
South Carolina and Tennessee have the highest percentage of cellphone users who text-message while driving, a survey found. The study, commissioned by voice-enabled cellphone date interface maker Vlingo, said 40 percent of South Carolina cellphone users text-message at the wheel, and 38 percent of those in Tennessee do it. Next were Georgia with 38 percent, and Maryland and Louisiana, tied at 36 percent. States with the fewest text-messaging drivers were Arizona, 17 percent, Maine, 19 percent, Vermont, 20 percent, and Delaware and New Hampshire, tied at 21 percent. Overall, 28 percent of U.S. cellphone users say they have text-messaged while driving. That jumps to 52 percent among drivers under 30. The survey of 4,800 cellphone users found that 55 percent of cellphone users send text messages at least occasionally. The percentage jumps to 85 percent of under- 30s.