Network Affiliate Stations Alliance (NASA) -- long at odds with Big 4 TV networks on station ownership cap -- declared war on another front by asking FCC to open inquiry into what it charged were “unlawful network tactics and practices.” Immediately after personally delivering petition to commissioners Thurs. (11:30 a.m. appointment with Chmn. Powell), NASA leaders took their argument to members of Congress who, they hope, will pressure Commission to act. Members of NASA are affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, and they also asked FCC to look into Fox actions.
Comcast began offering Wink Communications’ enhanced TV service to 35,000 digital cable subscribers in northern Va. Wink debut is first by Comcast, which rolled out free service in Chesterfield and Prince William County markets.
Ericsson is selling its enterprise direct sales and service operations to Apax Partners Funds for $480 million. Operations, in which Ericsson is keeping 20% stake, have 2,400 employees in 18 countries. Ericsson said company would be its largest indirect sales channel, targeting medium to high end of corporate market with advanced systems and network integration offerings. Transaction is expected to close in April.
FCC postponed auctions for FM reserved band allotments until Dec. 5, from originally scheduled May 9, in notice issued late Wed. Commission also lifted FM minor change application freeze announced Jan. 19 that was to continue through March 19. FCC cited “reasons of administrative convenience” for delay. Form 175 for Dec. 5 auction now is due Sept. 24 -- 717-338-2888.
U.S., along with allies such as Canada and U.K., called on ITU policy forum in Geneva this week not to take prescriptive action on development of IP telephony networks to protect revenue from older, circuit-switched systems. At World Telecom Policy Forum on IP telephony Thurs., representatives of Arab states, some African countries and parts of Latin America and Asia continued to question costs and potentially lost revenue from shifting telephony traffic to IP networks. U.S. raised concerns about proposal circulated by Syria this week that would stipulate backward compatibility for new IP telephony networks and existing public switched telephone networks (PSTN), so neither would make other obsolete. At our deadline, drafting groups still were working on details of opinions that would be up for approval at closing session of forum today (Fri.). It was unclear whether or how Syrian proposal might change, U.S. officials said. “The meeting has conformed to what we expected, which is to say that there is a great deal of caution among many national delegations about the impact of this new kind of service… on their existing telephone systems,” said U.S. official in conference call from Geneva.
Moody’s assigned B2 rating to pending issue of senior subordinated notes by American Cellular, joint venture owned equally by AT&T Wireless and Dobson Communications. Moody’s said proceeds from proposed subordinated notes would be used, in part, to repay $200 million of bank debt. It said planned issue marked “sound financial management.” Moody’s said rating assumed that American Cellular would use financial flexibility of offering “with prudence” and that venture “does not become a vehicle for the launch of additional PCS properties, such as those Dobson recently won at auction from the FCC.”
NTL reported net loss of $1.2 billion in 4th quarter ended Dec. 31 despite big increases in revenue to $852.9 million and in operating cash flow to $93 million. NTL, which operates cable systems and broadcast stations in U.K., rest of Europe and Australia, said operating, interest, depreciation and amortization expenses all rose sharply last year as it bought properties in several countries, expanded operations and started new services. In U.K., its biggest market, NTL said it closed year with 530,700 digital, 531,300 telephone and 12,800 cable-modem subscribers.
Sirius Satellite Radio said it had drawn on $150 million Lehman Bros. credit facility after meeting all of its closing conditions, including testing of service. Analyst William Kidd of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin said announcement would “alleviate many investor concerns given that the delay in drawing on the facility had been caused by minor technical issues.” He said release of money was “proof” of system’s capability. Lehman hadn’t been fully satisfied with operation of system despite confidence of other partners, Kidd said. Among problems, he said in weekly report, was sound delay of 3/4 sec. that occurred occasionally when user passed under overpass. Kidd said Sirius had “passed rigorous” daily testing by Lehman that put it through “everyday scenarios” that included driving in locales with varying topography. Weather variables were added to test with snowy conditions present during some of testing, Kidd said.
Correction: Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) said he didn’t ask USTA to lobby against Judiciary Committee role in telecom issues (CD March 8 p1), but had urged USTA to lobby against proposal floated by ALTS in that committee that would require structural separation of ILECs’ network and wholesale units before offering interLATA data services. Rather, he said Judiciary Committee members could introduce important arguments against ALTS proposal to structurally separate Bell companies, such as: (1) It’s not necessary to assure competition. (2) It’s very costly, and phone users would bear cost. (3) Separate wholesale and retail entities might be economically unviable. Boucher said he didn’t know where Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hatch (R-Utah) stood on proposal, only that Hatch had said he would examine telecom issues this Congress.
FCC has “all the information it needs” to specify cost recovery mechanism for carriers’ number pooling costs, National Exchange Carrier Assn. told Commission in March 7 reply comments. NECA also urged FCC to let carriers recover those costs through “existing means” such as interstate access charges.