Voip-Pal.com said Tuesday that its Lawful Intercept technology -- U.S. Patent No. 8,422,507 -- is the first patented method for intercepting VoIP communications. Voip-Pal said it applied for its Lawful Intercept patent in 2007, two years before Microsoft filed a patent for technology with the same name. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) rejected Microsoft’s patent application in 2011, and issued Voip-Pal a patent in April. There are forecast to be 410 million VoIP subscribers by 2015, meaning “traditional wiretapping by law enforcement agencies is being rendered obsolete in that it is not effective in VoIP communications interception,” Voip-Pal said in a news release. Since Lawful Intercept is the “first patented technology of its kind,” it “stands alone as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies around the world,” the company said (http://bit.ly/19qSiXj).

Viacom is selling $3 billion in bonds, and will use proceeds to repay other debt and buy back stock under a share repurchase program. The cable programmer agreed to sell senior notes due in 2018 and 2023 and senior debentures due in 2043 in a sale to be complete Aug. 19, it said in a news release Monday night. The board recently approved a plan to buy back twice as much Class B stock as planned, to $20 billion (CD Aug 5 p19).

Wilcon agreed to buy Freedom Dark Fiber Networks, a high-capacity dark fiber provider in Southern California, said the acquirer in a news release Tuesday. The West Coast fiber and data center infrastructure provider will be renamed Freedom Telecommunications when the deal is completed. The deal will give Wilcon an additional 3,000 route miles, and access in 1,000 additional buildings, towers and Internet hubs, making it one of the largest fiber optic networks in Southern California, said the acquirer (http://bit.ly/13Tx3Jc).

Suddenlink Q2 sales rose 5.6 percent to $544 million from the year-ago quarter as average monthly revenue per basic video customer rose 8.7 percent to $150.93. The number of such subscribers fell about 2 percent during Q2 to 1.19 million, reported the cable operator Tuesday (http://bit.ly/13y1iSx). Income from operations fell 53 percent to $45.9 million in Q2 from the year-ago period.

Raytheon signed a contract with NASA to develop a Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 satellite. JPSS is a program “that provides critical observations to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting,” Raytheon said in a press release (http://bit.ly/18ssnK8). This is the third VIIRS unit that Raytheon was contracted to build for the program, it said. VIIRS collects imagery in 22 spectral bands, “allowing scientists to understand global weather and climate patterns in greater detail than ever before,” it said.

The petition to deny Pandora’s purchase of a terrestrial radio station is a “blatant attempt to draw the FCC into a private dispute regarding music performance royalties,” said the company in an opposition filing to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’s petition to deny (http://bit.ly/1a1A2Tu). ASCAP filed the petition to deny Pandora’s purchase of KXMZ(FM) Rapid City, S.D., last month, calling the purchase a “theatrical media stunt” and saying the company failed to fully disclose its foreign ownership (CD July 30 p6). Pandora said ASCAP’s claim that it didn’t disclose its ownership is “meritless,” and “based on a superficial analysis of the structure of investment companies holding Pandora stock.” The interests involved fall below even the 5 percent attribution threshold that applies to shareholders, said the company last week. ASCAP’s demonstration that it has the standing to file the petition is “defective,” Pandora said, since ASCAP failed to prove the company wouldn’t be able to serve the public interest of the community surrounding the station. Pandora said it agreed to buy KXMZ to qualify for the same publishing royalty rates as one of its largest competitors, Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio (CD June 17 p16). ASCAP had no immediate comment.

Equinox Global Telecommunications is accepting dark fiber orders for its planned Charlotte route and is readying the route’s expansion into Georgia, said the carrier-grade telecom network service provider in a Tuesday news release. The company said its new network routes will reach in Georgia between Atlanta, Macon and Columbus. Equinox said it’s expanding into the state and North Carolina “in response to the need for higher bandwidth speeds in the business, education and government sectors.” The new routes will handle all of Equinox’s services, including broadband, network maintenance and monitoring, network operations center services, technical support and other professional services. The expansion into the three Georgia markets is expected to be completed in 2014 or 2015, Equinox said. As dark fiber becomes available for lease on the route, Equinox plans to expand the network into other markets in coastal and central Georgia.

The Sports Fans Coalition continued urging the FCC to prohibit the takedown of sporting events during retransmission consent disputes, like the current disagreement between Time Warner Cable and CBS. Given the public good nature of sports programming, “the leagues’ licensees should not be permitted to abuse the very market power created on the backs of the American taxpayer and voter,” SFC Chairman David Goodfriend said in an ex parte filing in docket 10-71 (http://bit.ly/14uk5NH). “Without sports fans, there would be no sports media economy.” The least sports fans should expect from their government “is a basic guarantee to get what they already have paid for,” he said.

The FCC is processing several dozen requests for low-power and translator TV station construction permits, which that don’t conflict with other applications, an agency public notice said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1a29ulh). Petitions to deny the applications are due in 30 days. Applicants include DTV America, Eastern New Mexico University, Nexstar and Venture Technologies Group.

BlackBerry’s board said it formed a special committee to explore selling the company, among other strategic alternatives meant to “enhance value.” The committee is also exploring possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, or other transactions, BlackBerry said (http://bit.ly/143kgAn). The company has said it had a net loss of $84 million during fiscal Q1 ended June 1, when it shipped 6.8 million smartphones, 2.7 million of which operate on the BlackBerry 10 operating system introduced earlier this year (CD July 1 p15). Although BlackBerry believes this is the right time to consider a possible sale, the company continues to “see compelling long-term opportunities for BlackBerry 10, we have exceptional technology that customers are embracing, we have a strong balance sheet and we are pleased with the progress that has been made in our transition,” said CEO Thorsten Heins in a news release.