O3b Networks signed an agreement with Kymeta Corp. to develop flat-panel satellite antennas for the O3b network. The companies will jointly develop the satellite tracking antennas and terminals “to be optimized for the fast and affordable satellite services that O3b will be offering,” O3b said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/17BdiHe). The agreement will result in a prototype in 2014, “at which point a range of antenna and terminal products with various form factors will be announced by the two companies,” it said.

Regulatory fee payments for all communications services must be received by Sept. 20, said the FCC in fact sheets released Thursday. For commercial wireless services, Commercial Mobile Radio Service cellular radio and mobile services licensees owe 18 cents per phone number or unit, and CMRS messaging services licensees owe 8 cents per unit, the FCC said (http://bit.ly/1aSDIHD). Broadband Radio Service licensees owe $510 per license, it said. Local multipoint distribution service license holders also owe $510 per call sign. In media services, fees must be paid by licensees of commercial AM and FM stations, holders of construction permits for new stations, “and licensees who hold auxiliary broadcast service licenses for stations operated in conjunction with the main station,” it said (http://bit.ly/17AwGA1). Fees vary among station classes and population served. For Class A AM stations with no more than 25,000 listeners, the fee is $775, it said. FMs in classes A, B1 and C3, serving a population of 25,001-75,000, owe $1,500. For holders of construction permits for new satellite stations for which a license hadn’t been granted as of Oct. 1, 2012, $960 is due for each permit regardless of market size, it said (http://bit.ly/17SGony). The FCC also set a $410 fee per license for low-power TV stations, translators and boosters, and for low-power FM translators and boosters. Cable TV Relay Service licensees must pay $510 per license and cable system subscriber fees are $1.02 per subscriber, the commission said (http://bit.ly/1amqDqR). Fees for services under the International Bureau include fees for licensees of very small aperture terminals, mobile satellite earth stations and operators of geostationary orbit and DBS satellites, it said (http://bit.ly/17SGony). Fees for geostationary orbit and DBS licensees are set at $139,100 per operational station, it said.

Wyplay’s new initiative will free all actors in the TV ecosystem from being locked into proprietary solutions, said the software company in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/18G30Ti). The full source code for Wyplay’s set-top box middleware and backend add-ons is already being deployed to more than 10 million subscribers of pay-TV operators, said Wyplay. Frog by Wyplay includes development kits for TV client devices, reference hardware, optional backend add-ons and companion apps for smartphones or tablets for pay-TV products, said the company. “Wyplay has been addressing the issues that arise from black-box development models by offering two of its major customers access to its source code,” said Wyplay CEO Jacques Bourgninaud. “We have now decided to extend full access to our entire solution’s code and tools so that everyone who participates in the Frog by Wyplay community is free to innovate and succeed."

European policymakers must guarantee an open Internet in the upcoming single telecom market package, said the Computer and Communications Industry Association on Thursday. It published a survey (http://xrl.us/bpr5x5) showing that takeup of new high-speed broadband services is being driven by consumers’ need to be able to use their favorite online services effectively, and not just the “strength of the pipe providing the service.” Findings included: (1) For those who upgraded in the last year, the desire for better overall speed that enables a certain level and quality of Internet experience was a key factor in the decisionmaking process. (2) Consumers who like to watch movies or live TV online, use video VoIP and upload are more likely to upgrade their connections. (3) Many users said they would upgrade to keep the experience they wanted rather than experience a poorer service or lose the service altogether. (4) Brands involved in online gaming and VoIP are also highly important in driving broadband adoption -- it’s not just about video streaming. (5) New services and apps driving the upgrades also help ISPs retain customers and attract new ones. (6) About a third of those surveyed said they'd be willing to pay more for a faster connection. CCIA also released a study of consumer behavior toward switching broadband providers (http://xrl.us/bpr5y8). It found that Europeans face barriers to switching, such as costs, that result in 62 percent of EU27 consumers never having considered changing. Switching levels for broadband and DTV are “appreciably lower than many other consumer services, and have fallen appreciably over the last five years,” the report said. In France, Germany and the U.K., consumers now tend to stay with their ISPs for 10 years or more, it said, even though users face variable quality, different from what’s advertised, and many technical problems for which they “display striking tolerance.” National regulators have taken several steps to reduce broadband switching barriers, but the decline in churn and the stabilization of market share have taken place despite those regulatory measures, the report said. Authorities should quantify switching barriers to see if they are improving or worsening, it said. “Given that switching barriers are certainly substantial, it seems dangerous to rely on consumer choice as the key mechanism to police abuse of ISPs’ inbound monopolies.” The commercial market alone won’t preserve an open Internet and analysis shows that hundreds of millions of Europeans have their service blocked, CCIA said. The European Commission is expected to publish its proposals for a single telecom market Tuesday.

Inmarsat partnered with Italy’s Telespazio to develop joint mobile satellite services for energy and machine-to-machine (M2M) customers in Europe. The companies plan to collaborate on projects “to enhance their services and product offerings for the energy sector, particularly in the high growth area of M2M and remote applications,” said Inmarsat in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/19m0SlP). It said the products will use Inmarsat’s broadband global area network services, which will help “improve operational efficiency and bring fields on-stream quicker and at a lower cost."

The House Communications Subcommittee will hold its hearing on the video market Wednesday at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The hearing, as expected (CD Sept 4 p10), is “an extension of the ongoing work of the subcommittee to examine the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act,” said the subcommittee in an emailed hearing notice. “Previously the subcommittee has examined whether STELA still serves an important function or if it is out of step with today’s video marketplace and are discussing whether Congress should reauthorize the law as is, allow it to lapse, or revise it."

New rules governing accessibility for user interfaces on set-top boxes and video equipment should ensure that consumers with disabilities won’t have to pay extra to receive accessible devices, said the American Foundation for the Blind in an ex parte filing in docket 12-108 (http://bit.ly/15BUBWd). It’s in connection with the commission’s rulemaking on implementing sections 204 and 205 of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) (CD Aug 5 p9). Comments submitted in the proceeding have focused more on which rules should apply to which devices than on the needs of disabled consumers, AFB said. Disabled consumers expect that “in a few years” it will be “pervasive and routine” for TVs and TV-related equipment to be sold with readily available accessibility features, said AFB. The consumer group said accessible equipment from cable and satellite providers should be made available to disabled consumers after a “simple, straight forward request,” without the requirement that they verify their disability as has been requested by some trade associations (CD Aug 9 p3). “Consumers expect that their request for accessible equipment is sufficient proof in itself of eligibility for/entitlement to such,” said AFB. Accessible equipment provided by manufacturers shouldn’t require consumers to own third-party equipment such as smartphones to operate it correctly, said the filing. A fully implemented CVAA will mean that accessible devices “will saturate the consumer electronics marketplace,” said AFB, and lead to consumers without disabilities “regularly purchasing equipment that they may not even be aware is/can be accessible to people with disabilities."

The New Zealand government is slated to start an auction of 700 MHz spectrum for 4G services Oct. 29, said Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adams. The reserve price for each of the nine lots of 5 MHz paired spectrum blocks was set at NZ$22 million (US$17.4 million). “The use of mobile broadband services is growing at an enormous rate in New Zealand,” Adams said (http://bit.ly/17aXb2h). “Fast, reliable access to mobile broadband is enabling improvements in productivity and ease of business, and providing new applications for consumers. Indications are that by using the spectrum for 4G mobile networks, we can expect economic benefits for New Zealand of up to $2.4 billion over the next twenty years."

Belo endorsed TVB’s findings that Live-Plus-Same-Day ratings “most closely approximate today’s national C3 data and should be the minimum ratings standard for local television viewing,” said the broadcaster in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/14u6wyU). C3 data counts those who view a program live and viewers who time-shift the program and watch it within three days of its original telecast. These findings were demonstrated in the final 2012-2013 TV season data and most recently in the June and July data, it said. The Live-Plus-Same-Day measurement “begins to reflect how the modern television audience watches,” said the broadcaster that’s being acquired by Gannett (CD Aug 12 p9).

FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn is slated to circulate items Thursday for the FCC’s Sept. 26 meeting, which could be her last at the agency’s helm. Industry and agency officials said a followup order from the March derecho rulemaking could circulate (see related story). Also possible, sources said, is an order addressing 700 MHz interoperability, which Clyburn may circulate with the goal of forcing an agreement between large and small carriers before the meeting. Another possibility, officials said, is the Section 706 broadband competition report, which has been circulating for some time but has not collected the votes needed for approval.