Univision’s chief executive, who is pressing for a merger with Hispanic Bcstg. Corp. (HBC) at the Republican- dominated FCC, has emerged as one of President Bush’s top reelection campaign fund-raisers, records show. According to Bush 2004 campaign records, Univision CEO Jerrold Perenchio has earned the title “Pioneer” as a top fund-raiser. The designation means that the individual has raised at least $100,000 for the campaign by developing contributions from benefactors. Pioneers are an elite group: As of June 30, there were 35 in the country. There is only one designation higher than Pioneer -- the Rangers -- who have raised at least $200,000 and numbered 23 people as of June 30.
Portland General Electric (PGE) asked the Ore. PUC to require that Verizon pay $60 million in disputed pole attachment fees that had been the subject of pole attachment contract negotiations that had dragged on since 1996. PGE said Verizon was attaching to its poles without a contract and said it had made a good-faith effort to come to terms, but charged that Verizon was unwilling to incorporate terms and conditions that reflected PUC regulations or that other parties had agreed to. PGE sought compensation for 38,500 poles. If the PUC declined the plea for a $60 million payment, PGE asked for $1.3 million to cover 1,665 poles where Verizon allegedly attached its lines without a permit. PGE also wanted the PUC to order Verizon to correct alleged safety deficiencies on 268 poles.
Peter Pitsch of Intel met with FCC Comr. Martin last week to discuss the potential benefits of the High Tech Broadband Coalition (HTBS) proposal for reforming the MMDS and ITFS bands and how it might be improved by applying recommendations in FCC Office of Plans & Policy (POPP) Working Paper Number 38. Pitsch, in his oral ex parte presentation to Martin, also suggested that the Commission see wireline broadband as an information service and therefore be subject to only minimal regulation and that they should maintain the requirement of ILECs who provide affiliated ISPs with a broadband transmission service to make the same service available to unaffiliated ISPs on a nondiscriminatory basis. Pitsch also said the HTBS wanted the Commission to permit wireline broadband providers to negotiate privately the terms of new service agreements with ISPs, but that the ILECs should make any such arrangements with their affiliated ISPs available to unaffiliated ISPs on the same terms. The FCC should revisit these requirements in 2 years and any continuing regulation should be imposed in a competitively neutral manner, Pitsch said.
Support for media ownership limitations continues to mount in the wake of action by the Senate Commerce Committee on legislation that would undo many of the FCC’s June 2 rule changes. Since it was marked up June 19, the bill (S-1046) to restore several media ownership rules has picked up some influential co-sponsors, raising the total of co-sponsors to 38. Senate Minority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) is the most recent co-sponsor, signing onto the bill by Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) Fri.
Current UNE and UNE-P rules cost the average U.S. household more than $100 annually, and discourage industry investment, a study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the New Millennium Research Council said. The report said implementing rational wholesale prices would benefit consumers by encouraging investment, creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. Opponents, however, called the study “mythical.”
CenturyTel said it bought operating assets of Digital Teleport (DTI) for $38 million and said it would operate the business under the LightCore name. It said it expected the LightCore acquisitions to provide operational synergies and a new source of revenue for CenturyTel over the next 3 years. The company said it didn’t plan substantial changes in the operations of the business and said the transition would be “seamless” for LightCore’s existing customer base.
Despite another 35% drop in attendance at Supercomm in Atlanta last week, Telecom Industry Assn. (TIA) Pres. Matthew Flanigan remains upbeat about both the conference and the telecom industry, he said in an interview. He said he saw “a very positive mood” among Supercomm exhibitors because “the decision makers were on the floor” of the convention. Attendance was down about 30% last year.
After 15 rounds of bidding, Qualcomm was top bidder in FCC’s lower 700 MHz auction as of the end of the day Mon. with 5 high bids with a combined value of nearly $38 million. The auction of 256 licenses in the lower 700 MHz C- and D- block has generated $56.6 million in high bids so far. The licenses include 251 C- and D-block licenses that remained unsold in an auction that closed in Sept. 2002. Qualcomm is vying for licenses that for economic area groupings (EAGs) covering regional areas of the Southeast, Northeast, Central/Mountain areas, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic. The EAG licenses comprise the D-block spectrum of unpaired spectrum at 716-722 MHz. Qualcomm’s highest bid for the Southeast license was $8.5 million, followed by $8.2 million for the Northeast, $7.8 million for Central/Mountain, $6.6 million for the Great Lakes and $5.9 million for the Mid- Atlantic. Aloha Partners was a distant 2nd to Qualcomm with $6.5 million in bids for 89 licenses. The Commission’s Wireless Bureau recently granted Qualcomm an extra year to use the remainder of an auction discount voucher that had been set to expire June 8. Qualcomm had told the FCC it was considering using the $114 million voucher in the lower 700 MHz bidding. On Mon., bid rounds increased to 6 from 2 per day.
Digital penetration is reaching a critical mass, with 2/3 of consumers saying their home is now (38%) or is about to become (26%) digital, a study by Horowitz Assoc. said. The key driver has been the competition between cable and DBS, it said, with cable now having the lead with 21% penetration, vs. satellite’s 17%. The study, Transitioning to the Digital Home, found that 21% of cable operators were offering video-on-demand (VoD) from content packages, 11% server-based VoD and 6% PVR. “There is no doubt the consumer is going digital and the competition for digital customers is driving the launch of the most advanced services -- PVR, VoD and HDTV,” Pres. Howard Horowitz said.
U.S. long distance revenue dipped in 2001 to $99 billion from $110 billion in 2000, said an FCC report on “Statistics of the Long Distance Telecommunications Industry.” It said carriers providing long distance service, including wireless carriers, accounted for more than $90 billion of the total revenue in 2001, and local telephone companies for the remaining $9 billion, vs. $101 billion for long distance carriers and $9 billion for local telephone companies in 2000. The report said international revenue had grown more than fivefold to $19.5 billion in 2001, representing 20% of total toll revenue, from less than $4 billion in 1984. As of May 1, the Commission said it had approved applications filed by the Bell companies to offer interLATA service in 41 states and D.C., and one application for Minn. was pending. The average revenue per min. for interstate calls fell to 8 cents in 2001 from 9 cents in 2000, and revenue per min. for international calls to 35 cents from 52 cents, the report said. Adjusted for inflation, interstate and international toll rates dropped 60% in 1991-2001, it said. The report said in 2002, the average household spent $83 a month on telecom, including $12 on services provided by long distance carriers, $36 on services by LECs and $35 on service provided by wireless carriers. By 2001, the report said, AT&T’s market share had declined to less than 38%, compared with 90% of all toll revenue in 1984. It said MCI had a 24% market share in 2001, Sprint 9%, Bells 6%, and more than 1,000 other long distance carriers had almost 24% of the market. The report said the 3 largest interexchange carriers collectively held 84.7% of the market in 1999 and 60.1% by 2002. The Bells, which didn’t provide long distance to households in 1999, had captured 15.8% of them by 2002, and the remaining 24.1% were served by other carriers, it said. Market share of intraLATA minutes for residential users fell slightly for the major long distance carriers and Bells, the report said. It said after a peak of 35% in 2000, AT&T, MCI and Sprint collectively billed 30.6% of intraLATA min. in 2002, and the Bells’ share of that market fell to 38.8% in 2002 from 43.2% in 2000. The share of interLATA minutes billed by the 3 largest interexchange carriers to residential users fell to 58.3% in 2002 from 80.7% in 1999. The report said the Bells had acquired 10.6% of interLATA min. by the end of 2002, and the remaining 31% of interLATA min. were billed by other carriers.