The U.S. Navy gave Thales Components a contract worth nearly $27 million to make 250W traveling wave tubes for the AN USC 38 satellite communications system, the Navy said. The tubes, built in Velizy, France, are expected to be completed by February 2012. Thales didn’t have to compete for the contract, the Navy said.
EchoStar Communications’ spinoff of its set-top box manufacturing arm was to take effect Tuesday, the company said. EchoStar Holding Corp.’s Class A common stock will trade under the SATS ticker symbol on the Nasdaq, it said. Each EchoStar stockholder was to get 0.2 of a share of the same class of common stock of EchoStar Holding for each EchoStar share they owned as of Dec. 27, the company said. EchoStar, which moved to spin off EchoStar Holding in September, will change its name to DISH Network Corp. While there has been speculation that AT&T might be interested in DISH, federal law bars a stock deal from being executed until two years after a spin-off is complete, Philip Frank, president and portfolio manager of Insight Asset Management, wrote on seekingalpha.com. Insight will have investments in DISH and EchoStar Holding after the spin-off. “I think EchoStar’s spin-off is ultimately about an acquisition, either by AT&T or the new Liberty Entertainment and DirecTV,” Frank said. Liberty is expected to complete it acquisition of News Corp.’s 38 percent of DirecTV by early 2008. Under the proposed $11 billion asset swap, News Corp. will exchange its interest in DirecTV and three Fox regional sports networks for Liberty’s 17 percent of the company (CED Feb 6 p2).
The global CDMA subscriber base increased by 20 million to 421.4 million in the third quarter, said the CDMA Development Group. Asia Pacific and North America comprise the majority of CDMA subscribers with 49 percent and 32 percent of the worldwide total. Asia Pacific (32 percent) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (44 percent) saw the largest year-over-year percentage growth. 3G CDMA2000 technology has 400.4 million subscribers, representing about 70 percent of all 3G subscribers worldwide, it said. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribers increased 38 million year-over-year to 83 million.
GENEVA -- European national broadcasters and global satellite interests endorsed decisions made at last week’s World Radiocommunication Conference. WRC set protections for their services during talks to identify new frequencies for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) (CD Nov 16 p6). Mobile interests did “quite well,” a WRC participant from industry said. Spectrum issues are teed up for the next WRC in 2011.
The Ohio Commerce Department granted AT&T the first state video franchise issued under a 2007 law that shifted video franchising from municipalities to the state as of Sept. 24. The franchise covers all communities within AT&T’s local exchange service territory. AT&T already provides video service under local franchises with 38 cities and towns in northeastern Ohio. The new state franchise allows AT&T to extend its video services to eight more counties including Cuyahoga, Delaware, Franklin, Lake, Licking, Portage, Summit and Union Counties.
GENEVA - Countries in the Americas have united on frequencies for International Mobile Telecommunications, but significant obstacles remain before global consensus is reached. A new CITEL (Inter-American Telecommunication Commission) proposal groups the remaining proposed frequencies for IMT in a package, said Richard Russell, U.S. ambassador to the WRC. “There is no question that the final resolution … is going to be a package,” he said. IMT is the ITU global standard for advanced mobile wireless communications.
Time Warner may have to consider spinning off its cable unit, Chairman Richard Parsons told analysts during the company’s Q3 earnings teleconference Wednesday. Parsons will step down as Time Warner’s CEO at year-end. His successor, President Jeff Bewkes, will have to monitor how Time Warner Cable fits in with the company’s programming assets, Parsons said. “Cable is migrating in a direction to become a fully robust telecommunication platform,” Parsons said. “At some point in time the requirements of the balance sheet of that kind of business might require us to separate the two” because of potential conflicts with a telecom operator’s needs and a content company’s needs, he said: “This is obviously a dynamic world, and Jeff is going to have to figure out how to play the cards as the events unfold.”
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin got more grief for taking steps to finish a media ownership review begun June 2006. Critics focused on plans for a final public hearing Friday and his refusal to pause the proceeding for work by a task force on minority ownership. Some minority ownership proposals that Martin included in the ownership rulemaking were supported by a wide array of broadcasters. Meanwhile, Martin is holding firm for a Dec. 18 vote on a rewrite (CD Nov 5 p4).
AT&T asked North Carolina regulators to suspend action on its proposal to do away with residential white pages directories in Raleigh and Charlotte next year to test consumer reaction. AT&T acted Monday in the face of sharp questions from skeptical state officials. It said it would file a revised proposal at a future date, after further market research to refine its plan. It indicated to regulators that a future test might be scaled back to just one of the two proposed cities, probably Raleigh. The North Carolina Office of Public Staff, which represents consumer interests, told the Utilities Commission that the proposal is a reduction in service that’s particularly troublesome since AT&T this summer was allowed to increase its 411 directory assistance rate to $1.27 and cut the monthly free-call allowance to three calls. State officials also questioned AT&T’s plan to not include extended area business listings in the revised yellow pages books, forcing businesses in outlying areas to buy a yellow pages listing if they wanted to be in the new directories. AT&T (Case P-55, Sub 1718) last week told the Utilities Commission that white pages directories impose environmental and economic costs for a product that often sees little use. It said the test could keep nearly 4 million pounds of paper out of the solid waste stream if the Raleigh and Charlotte customers embraced the online and CD-ROM alternatives for residential listings as AT&T expected. Commissioner Robert Owens suggested that if AT&T really was acting for the good of the environment rather than just saving money on printing phone books, it should also consider putting the yellow pages online or on CD-ROM instead of continuing them in printed form. AT&T said the test was to assess both customer satisfaction and economic payoff. AT&T said if more than 30 percent of customers requested printed white pages listings, it would be cheaper to switch back to traditional mass directory deliveries to every subscriber. AT&T this year delivered over 900,000 copies of its white pages books in the two cities, with each book weighing about four pounds, but had proposed a pilot test next year where it wouldn’t provide print white pages in Raleigh and Charlotte unless customers specifically requested a free printed copy. AT&T’s 38 other directories in the state wouldn’t be affected. AT&T said most people use local white pages directories only to look up business and government numbers, and keep personal numbers stored in their phones, computers or other personal directories. It said business and government listings would be shifted to an expanded print yellow pages directory that would continue to be distributed to each subscriber. AT&T was the first major telecom carrier to propose ending automatic distribution of white pages phone books.
FairPoint has reached settlements with the 22 non- Verizon incumbent telcos in Maine and the eight in New Hampshire to provide the same network services they get from Verizon, it said. Last week FairPoint settled with eight incumbents in Vermont. With the new agreements, FairPoint has settled with all 38 non-Verizon incumbents in northern New England, it said. FairPoint’s latest agreement is part of an ongoing effort to persuade intervenors in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to back its acquisition of Verizon landline assets. Meanwhile, technical hearings New Hampshire regulators opened Monday are the last scheduled in the region. Elsewhere, the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s staff is to file its proposed order Nov. 21.