The Telecom Industry Assn. (TIA), having been stymied for a year by the White House, Congress and a slow-moving FCC, said Wed. it had a new message for President Bush that it believed this time he would hear: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” In a meeting with reporters, TIA officials said that after a year with little deregulatory action, continued decline in telecom spending and more job losses, they would renew their push of their message supporting regulatory reform that they said would spark the ailing telecom sector. They want the White House to respond with a mention of broadband in the State of the Union address.
After more than a year, the FCC gave conditional approval Mon. to the merger of Univision and Hispanic Bcstg. Corp. (HBC), ending a long-running debate over whether Spanish-language media should be considered a market separate from their English language counterparts. The decision came in a 3-2 vote, with the 2 Democratic commissioners dissenting.
Intel told the FCC there were sufficient vacant channels available in some TV spectrum to permit the use of unlicensed devices on certain broadcast channels. Intel expanded on earlier comments in an FCC inquiry on making additional spectrum available for unlicensed devices, including TV broadcast bands. The FCC in Dec. sought feedback on whether unlicensed devices should be able to operate in bands beyond those allowed under Part 15 rules, including TV broadcast spectrum. Intel had recommended the Commission consider authorizing unlicensed operation at 76-216 MHz (Chs. 5-13), 512-608 (Chs. 21-36) and 614-698 MHz (Chs. 38-51) by devices whose operating parameters took into account the broadcast TV environment in which they were running. Intel said its analysis clearly showed that in bands such as Chs. 5-13 and Chs. 21-51, with the exception of Ch. 37, “sufficient vacant channels exist to make sharing of the TV spectrum attractive to alternative service providers.” It said further analysis indicated unlicensed devices could operate as close as 1 m to a TV receiver without causing interference. Intel submitted an evaluation by its engineers that it said backed up those conclusions: “Notwithstanding the contentions of the NAB, vacant channels are available in major metropolitan areas.” The actual number of channels isn’t fixed because of the transition to DTV and other changes, Intel said. Its analysis was based on a scenario in which unlicensed devices would have the capability to scan spectrum for vacant channels and monitor the spectrum environment, making decisions on which vacant channel to use at a particular location. It also described devices that could adjust their emissions relative to the signal strength in 2 adjacent channels to not cause interference. “By embedding this capability into unlicensed devices, vacant channel selection could be performed based on the actual coverage of TV stations in the area rather than specified nominal range calculations and criteria,” Intel said. It said its analysis demonstrated that when actual TV transmitter locations, power levels and elevations were used “there would still be a significant number of available channels throughout most metropolitan districts.” Intel examined the San Francisco Bay area and Washington, D.C.
All but one of Boston’s key broadcasters have signed contracts with Nielsen Media Research for expanded TV ratings, lending credibility to the company’s local people meter (LPM) service, which is to expand into 9 other major markets in the next 2 years. Nielsen shut down Boston’s meter diary ratings system in May, replacing them with LPM, which is capable of producing daily demographic information in half-hour blocks, unlike the former system, which provided monthly ratings information during sweeps periods. Boston is the first city to switch to local people meters. Nielsen’s LPM rollout continues early next year in L. A., followed by N.Y., Chicago and San Francisco later in the year, with Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit and Dallas switching in 2005 and Atlanta in 2006.
Verizon said its payphone use during the Aug. 14 blackout was 3.5 times higher than normal in Manhattan and almost 2.5 times higher in the rest of N.Y. Payphone use in other areas hit by the power failure was about 1.5 times greater than normal, it said. After the heavy usage Aug. 14- 15, the company said it dispatched more than 100 technicians over the weekend to service 20,000 payphones in the metropolitan N.Y. area to ensure uninterrupted service, as outbound calling was suspended once the payphones’ coin collection boxes were full. Verizon, which operates more than 350,000 payphones in 38 states, didn’t specify how much revenue the increase in payphone calling volume generated. “There will always be a market for payphones, no matter how successful wireless communications becomes,” said Paul Francischetti, vp-mktg. & business development for Verizon Public Communications Group: “It was clear last week that they provide convenient, reliable service during an emergency.”
MCI and Nextel scored highest in the way they treat their customers online, said the “Summer 2003 Online Customer Respect Study” of telecom and networking companies by the Customer Respect Group. It said while Nextel also scored highest in the winter study, MCI had significantly improved its score. MCI’s results are “encouraging,” said Terri McNulty, the Customer Respect Group CEO: “Given its troubled past, we believe its recently designed Web site sends a positive message to potential and current customers.” The study found the overall customer respect index (CRI) had dropped to 7.0 out of 10 from 7.3 last winter. “Surveyed firms should focus on key areas such as clarity of privacy principles and interaction with online customers if they wish to see… an increase in satisfied customers,” McNulty said. The study said surveyed firms received the best overall rating for ease of navigation of their Web sites and the worst for respecting customer data. It said 23% of the companies didn’t respond to online inquiries, and of those that did, 77% did so within 48 hours, 3% within 72 hours and 20% later than that. Only 38% used Autoresponder technology, it said. The study said 73% of the companies provided e-mail forms for online inquiries on their Web sites, 22% e-mail addresses and 5% only offline contact information. It said 71% provided a keyword search function on their sites, 83% had privacy policies and 73% used cookies.
MCI/WorldCom could lose $1.2 billion in revenue -- and $250 million in earnings -- over the next 3 years if it’s not permitted to engage in federal contracting until July 1, 2004, the company said in a filing with the SEC Mon. If the General Services Administration agrees to recertify the company by Nov. 1, 2003, it would lose only $95 million in revenue, $38 million in earnings, MCI/WorldCom said in the 8- K filing. The company said the loss of govt. contracts wasn’t expected to have any effect on the feasibility of WorldCom’s plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MCI/WorldCom made a similar filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.Y., last week. Meanwhile, the United Church of Christ said it had filed a petition with the FCC late Fri. to halt the transfer of licenses and authorizations to MCI from WorldCom as part of the company’s bankruptcy reorganization. UCC outside counsel Gregg Skall said the petition also sought a hearing on whether WorldCom was fit to be an FCC licensee.
Wall St. analyst Richard Greenfield of the Fulcrum Group told his clients to sell their stock in Mediacom after the cable MSO reported 2nd-quarter results “weaker” than expected and “extremely weak” guidance for the rest of the year. He said more aggressive DBS marketing of local-into-local market launches in Mediacom territory was to blame. Mediacom said 2nd-quarter loss widened to $38 million from a $37.4 million loss a year ago on revenue of $252 million, up from $230 million. Between March 31 and June 30, the company lost 24,000 basic subscribers but added 11,000 digital and 20,000 high-speed data subscribers.
Consumers are a captive audience primed for the improved sound quality and advanced data services of digital terrestrial and satellite radio, a new CEA survey found. Interest in each format was most pronounced among 18-34-year- olds, with women of all age groups more eager than men for satellite reception. But selling subscriptions for radio poses a challenge to the satellite industry, with more than half of respondents in all demographics saying they're unwilling to pay for a subscription, CEA said Tues.
Disney Co. reported 3rd-quarter (ended June 30) revenue increased to $6.2 billion from $5.8 billion for the same 2002 period, with net income of $400 million, up from $364 million. Broadcast revenue edged up 2% to $1.23 billion, with operating income of $183 million. Disney’s cable networks revenue of $1.27 billion was up 38%, but cable’s operating income was down 5% to $201 million.