Dish Network remains uncertain of how it will use its large holdings of 700 MHz spectrum, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen said Friday during the company’s Q3 conference call. Dish paid about $712 million for 168 E-block spectrum licenses in 2008, covering most of the U.S. The company also recently encouraged the FCC to update spectrum bidding rules before the next auction, a possible indicator it’s considering bidding on more 700 MHz spectrum (CD Aug 27 p8). Some believe Dish plans to use the spectrum for mobile video, though Ergen raised the possibility of a sale of the spectrum somewhere down the road. Dish’s revenue grew 10.9 percent to $3.2 billion compared to Q3 last year. Net income more than tripled from the previous year to $245 million. The revenue and income gains came despite the fact that the company lost 29,000 net subscribers in the quarter.
The FCC should tweak regulations so that communications companies can alert customers that their computers are infected with botnets and other malware, Neustar Senior Technologist Ronald Joffe said Friday. He spoke on a panel on cybersecurity at FCC headquarters. Neustar and other companies have been prevented from alerting customers about computer infections, and the FCC should consider changing those regulations, Joffe said. He cited Holland, where the government has recently been sending out pop-up ads to warn owners of infected consumers.
Federal review of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is intensifying and could lead to government approval with many conditions as soon as December, lobbyists and government officials said. They said the Department of Justice remains further along than the FCC in reviewing Comcast’s multibillion dollar agreement to buy control of NBC Universal. The DOJ may finish its work on the deal in December, while it’s less certain when FCC commissioners will get an order to vote on, said FCC, industry and nonprofit officials. Comcast executives have said they hope to get regulatory approval for the deal this year.
Time Warner Cable said it will soon introduce a low-cost, smaller package of TV channels. The “budget-oriented video offering” is “consistent with our belief that some customers would like a smaller package,” CEO Glenn Britt told analysts Thursday after the company reported Q3 financial results. Cablevision executives endorsed the idea but said it would be difficult to implement given the preferred regulatory treatment TV stations enjoy among all sources of cable content.
T-Mobile USA’s Q3 profit fell 23 percent year-over-year to $320 million. But its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, reported net income of $1.47 billion, up from $1.36 billion a year earlier.
The European Union’s first pan-European cyber exercise, which began Thursday, was meant to “test Europe’s preparedness against cyber threats [and] is an important first step towards working together to combat potential online threats to essential infrastructure and ensuring citizens and businesses feel safe and secure online,” said Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Digital Agenda Commissioner, who visited the U.K.’s cyberattack center during the simulation. The EC said the exercise “is due to be followed by more complex scenarios ultimately going from European to global level."
The elections may be over, but the race for House Commerce Committee chair next session is heating up. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., confirmed Thursday that he wants the job. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, made a public plea to incoming freshman Republicans to support him for the post. Due to GOP term limit rules, Ranking Member Barton must get a waiver from the House GOP Steering Committee to stay atop the committee. House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., who among those interested in the position has the most committee seniority, also want the job.
The congressional power shift from Tuesday’s elections is expected to have several effects on national satellite policies, said industry executives and lawyers. They pointed to export control overhaul, mobile satellite services spectrum and the role of satellite broadband as the most obvious and immediate areas where changes could take place.
The FCC’s reconstituted Technological Advisory Committee (TAC) must focus on how to keep the commission relevant in an era of enormous change, committee Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday, as the group held the first of what are expected to be quarterly meetings. Wheeler, managing director of Core Capital Partners and a former president of CTIA and NCTA, said the TAC’s focus should be on things that the FCC can do to spur investment in the high-tech sector and create jobs.
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cybersecurity officials from the National Security Agency and ICANN agreed Wednesday that infrastructure measures such as using the DNSSec specifications are the most efficient ways to protect government and other networks. But they disagreed sharply at the Military Communications Conference over the benefits of introducing strong authentication.