Ind. regulators approved a new 3-year price cap plan for SBC. The new program will freeze rates at present levels for residential and business customers with fewer than 5 lines. Vertical features associated with local service will be under caps that limit increases to 38 cents per feature per year. All other retail services will be market priced, meaning SBC will be free to respond to competition. In return, SBC must make high speed Internet access available to 77% of residential customers by July 2008, with 1/3 of that new service in rural areas. SBC offers high-speed access to 65% of its customers. SBC also must accept annual penalties up to $30 million if it fails to meet service quality standards and must spend $850,000 on telecom consumer education programs.
“I know a lot of you have been saying, ‘When is that old son-of-a-bitch going to leave?'” That’s how MPAA Pres. Jack Valenti chose to inform a roomful of reporters that he was formally resigning effective Sept. 1, to be replaced by former congressman and Clinton cabinet member Dan Glickman. The 18-year Democratic House member from Kansas and former Agriculture Secy. made it clear he would continue Valenti’s crusade in defense of intellectual property. “Piracy and protecting the intellectual property rights of creative works,” Glickman said, “has got to be the Number One issue, both here at home and overseas.”
Loral said its Telstar 18 satellite still has enough fuel to live beyond its expected 13 years. The bird was launched by a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket Mon. night but separated from the rocket at a lower transfer orbit than expected, although it’s unclear exactly how high the bird was when it separated. A Sea Launch spokeswoman said data from the launch is currently being assessed. The company said the satellite will be able to reach its destination at 138 degrees E. The bird is expected to be operational in Aug. with 16 Ku-band and 38 C-band transponders. APT Satellite Company will lease 68.5% of the capacity and will later reduce its capacity to 54%, Loral said. The company also has lease agreements with Smart Digital Communications in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and PSVN in Hawaii.
AT&T said it would immediately stop competing for local and long distance residential customers in 7 states. It said the decision was a result of a decision by the Administration and FCC earlier this month not to appeal the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., ruling overturning the Commissions UNE rules (CD June 10 p1). The 7 states -- O., Mo., Wash., Tenn., La., Ark. and N.H. -- have a population of 38 million. AT&T, which has 4.4 million UNE-P based customers, also said it would assess its presence in other states.
The joint State Assns. filed a motion to the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to ban the FCC from conducting EEO audits until several issues in the process are resolved, the group’s attorney Richard Zaragoza told us. Mon., the FCC denied the association’s petition to withdraw the EEO audit letters mailed to broadcasters and delay further mailings for 90 days, saying broadcasters have had more than a year to comply to the EEO rules (CD June 22 p7). But the group argues that there are outstanding issues that need to be resolved. In May, the FCC mailed audit letters to about 206 radio stations, 30 TV stations and 38 multi-channel, video program distributors. The FCC has been criticized for not conducting the audits sooner.
The FCC Media Bureau denied a request by the joint State Assns. to withdraw EEO audit letters mailed to broadcasters and to delay further mailings for 90 days. The FCC said the rules have been in effect and enforced for more than a year, and therefore, aren’t premature. “Given that the review is based on our current rules, there is no basis to delay audits pending possible revisions to those rules”, the Media Bureau said. The group had sought an extended deadline since the deadline for filing responses to the letters already sent is June 28. The FCC also claimed that the audits aren’t outside of its scope because the audits don’t request documents verifying compliance outside of the Commission EEO rules. In May, the FCC mailed audit letters to about 206 radio stations, 30 TV stations and 38 multi-channel, video program distributors (CD June 1 p12). The FCC has been criticized for not conducting the audits sooner.
The joint State Assns. asked the FCC to withdraw all EEO audit letters mailed to broadcasters and delay mailing additional letters until the Commission acts on several pending petitions for reconsideration of the EEO rules. The group urged the FCC to give radio and TV stations 90 days to incorporate the new EEO rules, and for prompt action, since the deadline for filing responses to the letters already sent is June 28. On May 28, the FCC mailed audit letters to about 206 radio stations, 30 TV stations and 38 multi-channel, video program distributors (CD June 1 p12). The FCC has been criticized for not conducting audits sooner.
SBC and Verizon have made millions of dollars of payments to the U.S. Treasury the past 4 years for not meeting performance conditions, according to notices issued by the FCC last week. The agency said SBC made $87.8 million in payments since Dec. 2000 for not meeting conditions of the FCC’s approval of the SBC-Ameritech merger. Verizon’s total was reported as $17.3 million since Aug. 2001 for not meeting conditions on the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger. The payments are made when SBC or Verizon miss targets for providing rivals with access to their networks -- for example, missing installation deadlines. The payments are triggered whenever the companies are behind in meeting a particular standard 3 consecutive months or 6 months in a calendar year. Both carriers have been making payments every month since their conditions went into effect -- Dec. 2000 for SBC, Aug. 2001 for Verizon. SBC’s payments, which amounted to more than $6 million in each of the first 3 months, have dropped measurably, to $38,700 in Feb., and have remained in the 5 digits since. Verizon paid more than $1.5 million each of the first 2 months but the payments have been below $1 million since. The company paid $309,126 in May, the last month reported. SBC has complained about the large number of performance measurements it must meet each month, while Verizon has complained that the payment calculation used by the agency isn’t consistent with the methodology outlined in its merger order. The FCC made its latest reports June 3 in CC Doc. 98-141 for SBC, 98-184 for Verizon.
Wireless displacement of wireline services is “an emerging reality” among rural youth, said a survey by NTCA and the Foundation for Rural Service. It said the number of rural teens that “rarely” used the landline phone at home jumped to 20% from 13% last year, and the number of those that “never” used it increased to 14% from 6%. “This trend shows the slow but steady progression of the youth market toward complete disassociation from landline phones,” the study said. It said wireless penetration rate among rural teens was “significantly higher” than estimates for the youth market nationally, with 86% of rural respondents saying they had their own wireless phones. While voice remained dominant in rural areas, the study said text messaging was catching on. It said frequency of wireless phone use among rural teens was on the rise, with 45% of respondents saying they “always” used their wireless phones, up from 38% last year. It said 98% of respondents used their wireless phones “most often” for voice calls, proving voice was “still the killer app, despite increasing industry hype surrounding wireless data services.” But it said text messaging had gained popularity, with 12% of respondents saying they “frequently” used that feature on their phones, compared to 6% last year. The number of respondents saying they “never” used text messaging dropped to 46% from 62%. The study said only 5% of the respondents with wireless service were using prepaid service, compared to 7% last year. Of those with prepaid service, 50% said they had it because their parents bought their phone and plan. “Parental decision makers are a major force behind prepaid wireless, a factor that rural carriers should consider when marketing such services,” the study said. The study also said parents mostly supported traditional contract wireless services, with 60% of respondents saying their parents bought their phones and paid for the service. Safety issues were the main motivation for parental purchases, it said. “The Youth market is vitally important to wireless service providers,” said NTCA Economist Rick Schadelbauer. Citing a Yankee Group report, he said by year-end, 11-24 year old consumers would generate $21 billion in revenue for wireless carriers and represent almost 1/4 of the total cellular market. He also said 56% of NTCA member companies were providing wireless service to their customers and another 23% were considering doing so in the near future.
The World Bank is funding a $14.7 million contract for GlobeComm to provide a hybrid broadband communications network to the Ministry of Communication Islamic Transitional State of Afghanistan. The network combines satellite, microwave, wireless and fiber connections for voice, data, Internet and videoconferencing services to 38 ministries in Kabul and 31 provincial capitals in Afghanistan. GlobeComm said it would also provide an international gateway to global Internet and public switched telephone networks. The contract is effective immediately and lasts through June 30, 2005.