PALM SPRINGS, Cal. -- Broadband consumer protection and disaster recovery issues dominated telecom discussions at the NARUC meeting here. But NARUC panels on broadband- related policy resolutions either tabled or refocused resolutions when states sparred on how or whether to voice broadband concerns.
Cox, Comcast and Time Warner were named the best cable employers for women in a Women in Cable & Telecom (WICT) report on pay equality and promotion opportunities. The group noted that the cable industry has a smaller percentage of female employees than U.S. business overall, 38-49%.
About 12% of U.S. households had HDTV sets at the end of Sept., up from 7% a year ago, said Leichtman Research Group. Growth came mainly from price cuts of about 1/3 over the past year. Other key findings: (1) 89% of adults have heard of HDTV. (2) HDTV price averaged $1,600, down from $2,400 a year ago. (3) 18% of owners of HDTVs expect to buy another in the next year. (4) 11% of nonowners are likely to buy one in the next year if the price hits $1,000. Meanwhile, Kagan Research forecast that 82% of U.S. households will have HDTV by 2010, and 377 million HDTV sets will be sold by 2015. Kagan said there were 11 million HDTV households at the end of 2004, with an average of 1.2 HDTV sets. It predicted HDTV prices will drop 38% by 2010, to an average of $1,139. Other Kagan estimates: (1) 9.1 million HDTV sets will be sold in 2005, up from 5.6 million in 2004. (2) Cable HDTV subscribers will reach 3.8 million this year, and 30 million by 2010. (3) There will be 18 million DBS HDTV subscribers by 2010.
Media activists are trying to block license renewals at 20 TV stations, including all major stations in the Chicago and Milwaukee markets, because they carried little state and local political news. The first petition of its kind, filed by Media Access Project (MAP) on behalf of local groups, said less than 1% of news broadcasts in the 2 markets focused on local political issues such as candidates and referendums in the 4 weeks preceding last year’s general election. “The amount of programming on state and local races of programming we monitored amounted to a rounding error,” said MAP Exec. dir. Andrew Schwartzman: “This is the first time that anyone has filed a petition like this one.”
Public safety agencies in 10 of the 100 largest U.S. cities won’t have enough licensed radio spectrum for emergency communications under the FCC’s 800 MHz rebanding plan, said Concepts to Operations in a study submitted to the FCC. Those cities are Boston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Miami, as well as San Juan, P.R.; Santa Ana, Cal.; Anaheim; Anchorage; Hialeah, Fla.; and Greensboro, N.C. The study said in 24 of the 100 largest U.S. cities, public safety won’t get an extra 2.5 MHz in the 800 MHz band specified in the plan because Nextel and SouthernLINC aren’t vacating enough spectrum. In 10 of 100 cities most affected, public safety won’t get “required comparable facilities” -- or one-for-one exchange -- and actually could lose spectrum. For example, the study said, first responders and privately held non-cellular licensees in Boston face a spectrum shortage of 199 channels. Those in Mass., R.I. and N.H. cities near Boston face a spectrum shortage of 35-50%. Miami faces a shortage of 106 channels, and adjoining cities face a shortage of 38%. San Juan and nearby cities are 83-87 channels short. “The rebanding plan puts public safety at risk in high target areas,” Concepts to Operations’ Stanley Cohn said: “The entire plan is based upon a flawed assumption that Nextel and SouthernLINC owned sufficient 800 MHz spectrum to move first responders and other licensees into and provide them with ‘comparable facilities.’ Not so. There are issues of ownership duplication, which creates a spectrum shortage.” Under the FCC rebanding plan, public safety and non-cellular licensees will move to the 400 lowest channels in the 800 MHz band, while cellular-like licensees will move to 320 higher-frequency channels. As part of rebanding, Nextel will get 1.9 GHz spectrum and exclusive use of the upper 120 channels in the 800 MHz band.
British Telecom (BT) is doing enough in its effort to offer competitors wholesale line rental (WLR) that the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) last week proposed to lower the telco’s retail price control. In 2002, Ofcom made BT introduce WLR - in which alternative providers rent access lines at wholesale cost, resell the lines to customers and send a single bill covering both line rental and phone calls -- with the understanding that when its WLR product became fit for the purpose and was seeing active use by competitors, the retail charge control would be relaxed. BT has met 37 of 38 requirements, Ofcom said, failing only to comply completely with a requirement to ensure a process letting service providers transfer customers when they move. BT also still has to fulfill performance indicators related to availability of its WLR ordering and fault management services. Citing the number of new entries in the residential market and BT’s commitment to improve its WLR offering by next April, Ofcom proposed relaxing charge controls in Dec. Comments are due Nov. 8 -- ala.pridmore@ofcom.org.uk.
An appeals court threw out a lower court’s decision to set music rates that some cable, satellite and Internet service providers pay for songs used by Music Choice and licensed from Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). The U.S. Appeals Court, N.Y.C., remanded a decision in which the U.S. Dist. Court, N.Y., fixed a rate of 1.75% in 2001. That was less than the rate set in a deal between BMI and DMX, a Music Choice rival. “Because we believe that the District Court misinterpreted the scope of our previous opinion, we again remand to permit the District Court to exercise its unconstrained reconsideration,” the appeals court ruled Thurs.: “If the District Court again determines that the DMX Agreement is an appropriate benchmark, it may wish to consider the market conditions at the time the parties were negotiating and any particular features of the business models of Music Choice or DMX that make them more or less similar.” Music Choice, a partnership of Microsoft, Motorola and cable operators including Comcast, said its audio music channels reach 38 million homes with digital cable or DBS service.
Price caps dominate retail rate regulation for large incumbent telcos in the U.S., but states are edging toward deregulating the charges (see Communications Daily White Paper, this issue). Caps on the largest incumbents see use in 38 of the 50 states and D.C. For midsized incumbents, states split about evenly between price caps and rate-of-return. Small incumbents remain under rate- of-return in most states. But most of those states let the carriers petition for alternative regulation or pricing flexibility.
Rural youth are abandoning traditional wireline service for wireless, said NTCA and the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS). In a study, the groups found 67% of respondents had a cellphone. Of those, 72% said they use wireline phones only at home, usually to save wireless minutes, and 10% never use a wireline phone, it said. The study said rural young people use many cellphone features, including voice, text messaging, push-to-talk, picture taking and video gaming. It said 34% of respondents rated their cellphone service quality “excellent” or “extremely good,” 31% “good” and 35% “fair” or “poor.” More than 3/4 of survey respondents get wireless service from national carriers and 10% from local providers, the study said. It said 43% of respondents use 250 or fewer minutes a month, 29% 250-500 minutes, 13% 500-750 minutes, 8% 750-1,000 minutes and 7% more than 1,000 minutes. The study said 31% of respondents pay $31-$50 monthly for wireless service, 28% more than $50 and 18% less than $30. It said 67% of respondents’ parents/guardians pay their wireless bills, 28% pay themselves and the rest have somebody else pay. The study said 71% of respondents are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their wireless service choices; the remainder are “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied.” More than 40% of those using cellphones for voice calls only don’t need other services, the study said; 37% believe other services cost too much, 12% don’t know what other services are available and 8% can’t get other services in their areas. Cellphone service is considered “most essential” by survey responders, followed by landline phone, broadband Internet access, dial-up Internet and wireless Internet service, the study said. Keeping in touch with parents or guardians was the most commonly cited reason for having a cellphone, followed closely by personal safety, it said. More than 80% of rural young people have access to the Internet at home, the study said. Of those, 55% use a dial-up connection, 29% DSL, 5% cable modem, 3% wireless and 1% satellite, the study said. “These numbers reflect the dominant role DSL plays in rural broadband infrastructure,” the study said: “The 84% Internet connection rate at home for rural youth is slightly higher than the national rate of 68%.” The study said 43% of respondents use Internet up to an hour a day, 41% 1-3 hours, 11% 3-5 hours and 6% more than 5 hours. As in previous years, e-mail (69%) is the most commonly cited online activity, followed by homework/research (66%), instant messaging (62%), Web surfing (49%), downloading music (43%), online gaming (41%), shopping (38%), downloading video (15%) and blogging (4%). The study said 20% of respondents have wireless networks at home, while 24% use public access to wireless Internet. It said 43% of respondents use a local phone company as an ISP; 18% use a local ISP company, 8% a national ISP and 6% a local cable company.
The Cal. state govt. said it plans to award Verizon Wireless and Nextel 2-year statewide contracts worth some $26 million for wireless service and gear provided to state agencies. The General Services Dept. said the state expects to save about $20 million (38%) over 2 years. Verizon will provide wireless service and phones without a walkie-talkie feature. Nextel will provide service and phones where walkie-talkie capability is needed. But each will be a secondary provider in the other carrier’s category, meaning agencies can choose the secondary if the primary carrier services don’t meet their needs. Contracts provide for 3 annual extensions, so they could run 5 years. The state said the contract awards were based both on price and on service coverage.