CLECs served about 18 percent of the country’s local switched access lines as of June 2007, the FCC said in a local telephone competition report. Consumers got local telephone service using about 134.5 million incumbent LEC switched access lines, 28.7 million CLEC switched access lines and 238.2 million mobile phone subscriptions. CLECs had customers in 82 percent of U.S. ZIP codes, which include about 98 percent of U.S. households. CLECs had 12 percent of the 97.6 million residential lines and 25 percent of the 65.6 million lines serving business, institutional and government customers. CLECs provided 38 percent of their switched access lines over their own local loop facilities, 40 percent by using unbundled network elements leased from other carriers and 22 percent through resale arrangements with unaffiliated carriers. Incumbent local carriers provided about 12 percent fewer UNE loops with switching, known as UNE-P, to unaffiliated carriers than they had reported six months earlier, and about 3 percent fewer UNE loops without switching. The local incumbents provided long distance services for 59 percent of their local lines, and CLECs 78 percent of theirs.
The FCC’s 700 MHz auction closed Tuesday afternoon after 38 bidding days and 261 rounds, resulting in total provisional winnings bids of almost $19.6 billion. Attention now turns to the future of the FCC’s public safety D-block and to the release of the names of the winners. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters he already has circulated a brief item that “de-links” the D-block from the rest of the auction, allowing the FCC to release the names of successful bidders “almost immediately.” He said staff is working on proposals for the D-block and he remains committed to a national public safety broadband network.
Globalstar’s first-generation constellation will outlast expectations, with some craft working into next year, said Anthony Navarra, Globalstar president of global operations, during an earnings call late Wednesday. Globalstar said last year that radiation was causing its two-way service to fail more quickly than expected (CD Feb 7/07 p5). Engineering and marketing measures let Globalstar weather the storm, said CEO Jay Monroe. The company plans to begin launching its second- generation constellation next year, following up on the 2007 launch of eight satellites as a bridge, he said. Last year Globalstar added 21,000-plus customers, ending with about 81,500. Monthly retail churn averaged 1.8 percent in 2007, compared with 2006’s 1.1 percent, Globalstar said. Enthusiasm for introduction of the Spot personal location and messaging device “overwhelmed” the company, Monroe said. Globalstar revenue fell $38 million-plus in 2007, it said. - - HFW
More ads are appearing on mobile phones, Nielsen said. Nearly a quarter of U.S. mobile subscribers said they've seen an ad on their phones the last month, up 38 percent from the last time Nielsen checked six months ago. Half of those said they responded to the ad in some way, according to Nielsen. Among ethnic groups, Asian-Americans and African-Americans are the likeliest to recall seeing a mobile ad. “We see an increasing trend of consumers willing to trade off and receive advertising to gain more -- and better -- mobile content,” Nielsen Mobile Vice President of Mobile Media Jeff Herrmann said in a news release. Of those Nielsen surveyed, 13 percent said they would tolerate ads if it improves the media and content available on their phones, while 32 percent of data users said they wouldn’t mind ads if it lowered their overall bills.
Cable Q4 results: Charter Communications results were mixed. It lost 66,400 video customers during the quarter, more than some analysts forecast. But it added 155,300 VoIP customers, beating some estimates. Broadband additions of 50,500 also disappointed, Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce wrote. Total revenue increased 9.9 percent to $1.5 billion. Its net loss widened 23 percent to $386 million as it paid back some debt… Liberty Global added 214,000 broadband subscribers, 217,000 phone customers and 6,000 video subscriptions, for a total of 437,000 new lines. Wachovia analyst Jeff Wlodarczak expected the company to add 525,000, he said. Subscriber growth was slower than expected in Western Europe and Romania, he said. Revenue increased 38 percent from a year earlier to $2.4 billion. Liberty Global’s net loss widened to $197.2 million from $31.3 million on income tax expenses and investment losses. Liberty also said it will double its $500 million stock buyback program… Washington Post Co.’s Cable One added 9,119 basic video subscribers, 52,000 broadband accounts and 55,700 phone lines during the quarter. Sales increased 12 percent from a year ago to $165 million. Jan. 1, 2008, Cable One raised its basic video rates $3.50 per month. It added $3.05 to its monthly broadband fee in September. Operating income for the quarter increased 18 percent to $33.8 million.
Sirius and XM think “we have made the case” that merging the satellite radio networks “serves the public interest,” Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told analysts Tuesday in a quarterly earnings call. Sirius and XM weren’t able to achieve their goal of closing the merger in 2007, the companies still “look forward to a fast, positive ruling from the government,” he said. XM and Sirius hoped by now to be discussing implementing their merger, but haven’t gotten FCC or Justice Department approval, Karmazin said. “We are optimistic that we will hear favorable information from them in the near future.” Sirius won’t forecast its 2008 financials or beyond until there’s “regulatory clarity,” he said. In Q-and-A, Karmazin said he has nothing new to say of talks with the DoJ. “We wait by our telephone but we really have not heard anything from them,” he said. “It has been more radio silence than anything else.” Sirius ended 2007 with 8.32 million subscribers, up 38 percent from 2006, the company said. But retail subscribers grew only 15 percent to 4.64 million. In 2006, retail subscriptions jumped 64 percent.
Telecom and technology companies filed many international patents last year at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A record number of patent applications were filed under the international patent system, WIPO said. The largest proportion dealt with telecom (10.5 percent), followed by information technology (10.1 percent). Telecom filings rose the second fastest in the technology area, with 15.5 percent growth last year. Matsushita of Japan took first place, with 2,100 applications, beating Dutch multinational Philips Electronics, which had 2,041. Siemens was third with 1,644, and Huawei Technologies moved up 9 places to fourth with 1,365 applications. Microsoft jumped 38 places to eighth with 845 filings. Motorola had 824, Nokia 822. The number of patent filing rose 4.7 percent last year to 156,100.
Ohio regulators created a new class of telecom carrier to grant Intrado Communications statewide operating authority to provide 911 services in competition with incumbent telcos. In December Intrado sought a competitive carrier certificate. Incumbents objected that Intrado doesn’t qualify under state law because it wouldn’t be offering basic exchange service to the public (Case 07-1199-TP-ACE). They said Intrado didn’t fit the statutory standard qualifying it for interconnection, collocation or UNE access provided to legitimate competitive carriers. Intrado said that the incumbents were using specious arguments to create a barrier to competitive 911 providers, and that it has operating authority in 38 other states. To avoid a snarl of lawsuits, the Public Utilities Commission created a new competitive-carrier subclass -- competitive emergency services telecom carrier -- and granted the first certificate in this subclass to Intrado. The PUC concluded that while Intrado is a telecom carrier under Section 251, “its telephone exchange activities are restricted in scope and, thus, do not extend to the level of a CLEC.” The PUC said Intrado can’t discriminate within its restricted class of customers and must serve the entire area covered by a county 911 authority, not simply selected public safety answering points. The PUC directed 911 authorities in the state’s 88 counties to amend their 911 plans so they can use a 911 carrier other than the incumbent telco. The PUC also said Intrado must file its contracts with the state 911 coordinator within 30 days of signing. Intrado needs PUC approval before terminating service or exiting the market. The PUC said Intrado’s competitive authority doesn’t extend to “reverse 911” services that place outbound emergency notification calls. The PUC previously ruled reverse 911 noncompetitive. It said it will consider on a case-by-case basis Intrado requests to provide reverse 911 capability at cost-based rates.
Motorola shares plummeted 18.75 percent in regular trading Wednesday after the device maker said it expects demand for its handsets to keep slowing in 2008. Falling cellphone market share sank Motorola net earnings for Q4 $423 million year-over-year to $100 million, the handset maker said Wednesday. “2008 will be a challenging year and the recovery of mobile devices will take longer than previously expected,” said CEO Greg Brown in a Q4 results call. “We are taking on these challenges with both a sense of determination and urgency.”
Canada’s Shaw Communications added more than 8,100 basic cable subscribers in the three months ended Nov. 30, an increase of about 0.3 percent from the previous quarter. Its digital cable and broadband customers are growing faster than that. Shaw digital subscriber rolls increased 5 percent to nearly 803,000 and its broadband base grew 2.3 percent to 1.48 million subscribers. Quarterly sales increased 11 percent from a year earlier to about $729 million. Profit increased 38 percent to about $110 million.