The cable industry has changed as a result of a year- long initiative by Women In Cable & Telecom (WICT) to boost the role of women, according to WICT Pres. Benita Mosley. The PAR (Pay Equity, Advancement Opportunities and Resources) initiative involved 32 cable companies. “While the numbers show that we have taken significant steps, they also highlight areas where substantial improvement is still needed,” Mosley said. WICT said women make up 38% of cable employees and 38.4% of all managers; the number of women of color and women managers of color has remained stable, as has the percentage of female senior managers.
Rogers Communications posted a quarterly earnings turnaround, reporting 20 cents per share net 3rd-quarter income. However, the company still is in the red for 2004, with a $38 million net year-to-date loss (-16 cents per share). Rogers sees its video on demand business as a crucial basis for growth: “I believe passionately that [VoD] is a way of life,” CEO Ted Rogers told analysts.
BellSouth reported lower 3rd-quarter earnings because of hurricane-related wireline costs and expenses from the acquisition of AT&T Wireless by Cingular, in which BellSouth owns 40%. The company incurred $38 million hurricane-related costs and said it expected to recognize about $90 million more 4th quarter. BellSouth said its 3rd-quarter net income dropped 15% to $799 million, compared to a year earlier, and total operating revenue decreased 1% to $5.1 billion. It said its total access lines of 21.6 million declined 4% from a year earlier. The company said its UNE-P access lines decreased by 54,000 in the quarter, compared to an increase of 188,000 a year ago. BellSouth added 532,000 mass-market long distance customers during the quarter, for 5.7 million total, and said network data revenue 3rd quarter was $1.1 billion, a 4% increase year over year driven by DSL. It said it added 134,000 net DSL customers during the quarter for 1.9 million total. Given the improved access line trends and wireless outperformance, Legg Mason said in a report it increased its 4th quarter and 2005 revenue estimates for BellSouth to $6.7 billion -- to 1.3% year- to-year growth from 1%.
The FCC won’t require incumbent telephone companies to unbundle fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) loops, in which fiber is extended within 500 ft. of a customer’s premises, the Commission said in a preliminary decision Thurs. Comr. Copps dissented and Comr. Adelstein dissented in part. The action came in response to Oct. 2003 petitions by BellSouth and SureWest Communications asking the FCC to reconsider parts of its Triennial Review Order (TRO) governing the ILEC obligations to unbundle their networks. The FCC said the new rules would encourage deployment of fiber broadband networks in residential neighborhoods and would “free companies to choose between FTTH [fiber-to- the-home] or FTTC networks based on marketplace characteristics, rather than disparate regulatory treatment.” The final order is expected out within a week or 2, FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Jeffrey Carlisle said.
LAS VEGAS -- Whether VoIP’s success is due to “regulatory arbitrage” or “superior technology” remains a key question, according to state PUC commissioners speaking Tues. at the USTA convention here. Commissioners said improper regulation could increase regulatory arbitrage. Meanwhile, other speakers predicted state retail rate regulation would largely fade out by decade’s end.
The European Commission’s (EC) approach to development of digital rights management (DRM) technologies is too pro-industry, consumer and user groups said in comments. In July, the EC launched a consultation on a report -- by its High Level Group (HLG) on DRM -- on whether European Union (EU)-wide policies were needed to boost DRM deployment (WID July 19 p1).
At least one competitive carrier in Cal. had good words to say about last week’s Cal. PUC decision to set new SBC rates for unbundled network elements (UNE), a decision generally condemned by CLEC interests. Covad Communications said it was pleased by the PUC’s decision to cut rates for DS-1 broadband loops even as it raised SBC rates for narrowband loops. The PUC order cut SBC’s 1.5-Mbps DS-1 loop rate by 38% even though it increased SBC’s narrowband UNE loop and UNE platform rates by 20%. Covad said “although we do not believe that the record supported any increases in rates, we are pleased that the PUC dramatically reduced rates for the UNE-DS-1 loops that Covad uses to provide Voice over Internet Protocol and other business-class services which are the centerpiece of our business.” As a facilities-based provider, Covad said it faces little or no impact from the increases on UNE-L and UNE-P services.
The U.S. high-tech industry has lost 200,000 jobs since the recession was officially declared over in Nov. 2001 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, according to a study released by CWA Tues. The report -- conducted by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the U. of Ill. -- said despite recent growth in overall job numbers, there was “little evidence of significant job expansion in the IT industry,” which lost “a whopping 403,300 jobs” between March 2001 (when the recession began) and April 2004. “We are asking how can economic recovery be declared when there are no new jobs being created,” WashTech Pres. Marcus Courtney said in a call with reporters. He predicted the trend of IT job losses would continue. The report said national IT unemployment rates had been “steadily increasing” since 1998, peaking at 5.7% in 2002. Nik Theodore of the U. of Ill. said the IT industry lost 197,000 jobs during the 9-month recession - more than 9% of IT employment. The report, which analyzed key high-tech markets in the U.S., said the employment situation was “particularly bleak” in the San Francisco metropolitan area, which it said had a 49% IT job loss March 2001-April 2004 and 25% since Nov. 2001. It said between the recession’s official end in Nov. 2001 and April 2004, the IT industry nationwide lost 206,300 jobs (11%), with Boston losing 12,200 (21%), Chicago 10,200 (18%), Dallas 10,700 (21%), San Jose 14,000 (19%) and Seattle 1,700 (3%). It said since the recession’s official start in March 2001, the IT industry nationwide lost 403,400 (19%) jobs, with Boston losing 24,300 (34%), Chicago 16,400 (26%), Dallas 17,000 (30%), San Jose 30,600 (33%) and Seattle 6,400 (11%). The study said Washington, D.C., was the only metropolitan area examined, that -- after losing 8,300 (5%) during the recession -- added 4,100 jobs (2.5%) after the recession. CWA, which has donated 250,000 to a Media Fund organized to defeat President Bush, blamed the absence of a job recovery in the U.S. IT industry on wrong Bush Administration policies, especially on offshore outsourcing. Courtney said IT workers were “definitely beginning to organize and get active at the levels that historically we haven’t seen… Politically, they are starting to get engaged.” Courtney told us release timing wasn’t tied to the Presidential campaign but to “when the study was completed.” Courtney said H1B and L1 programs and offshore outsourcing were among major reasons for American IT job losses . He called for reforms, saying it was necessary to ensure that “employers are actually hiring employees domestically and are not using loopholes in those laws to directly replace best workers.” But a Va. immigrations attorney told us the visas made “an easy target for those looking for a scapegoat for high unemployment among U.S. tech workers.” He said H1B visas allocated for FY 2004 numbered 65,000, compared to 195,000 per year fiscal 2001, 2002 and 2003. According to a report by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, in 2002, about 38% of H1B approvals went to persons in computer-related fields, down from 58% in 2001.
Price caps remain the dominant form of retail rate regulation for large and mid-sized incumbent telcos in the U.S. They are employed by 38 states plus D.C., Communications Daily’s survey of state regulatory schemes showed. In the other states, regulation ranges from rate- of-return (ROR) to full retail rate deregulation. Regulators in 4 states and D.C. are considering new price regulation plans for their largest incumbents, while 2 other states are considering major modifications to existing regulatory regimes. Most small incumbents remain under rate of return regulation, while CLECs operate under minimal regulation across the country.
Most home Web surfers used broadband to go online in July, the first time high-speed connections have surpassed residential dial-up, according to a new report. Last month, 51% of home Internet surfers used broadband -- up from 38% a year earlier -- and 49% narrowband, said Nielsen/NetRatings. The Nielsen report doesn’t measure total broadband penetration; FCC and private figures show that remaining below 50%.