The global software defined data center (SDDC) market is estimated to reach $396.1 million in revenue in 2013 and to grow to $5.41 billion in 2018, said a MarketsandMarkets report Wednesday (http://prn.to/16uzcte). That’s a 68.7 percent compound annual growth rate from 2013 to 2018, said MarketsandMarkets. Telecommunications service providers continue to be the largest users for SDDC solutions followed by cloud service providers in the current scenario, said the company. North America is expected to be the biggest market and Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a significantly faster pace in coming years, said the report. The driving forces in the SDDC market are the innovations in processing power and memory, high demand for resource polling and manual/custom networking configurations, said the report. Companies who provide virtualization and software-defined solutions are looking to gain a competitive advantage in this market to create new management platforms for SDDCs, the report found.

Dish Network urged the FCC to take a holistic approach to the upcoming auctions of the H block, 600 MHz spectrum and AWS-3 bands. Given the current regulatory requirements for H block and AWS-4, “we conveyed that it is unlikely Dish will choose to meaningfully participate in the upcoming auction of the H block,” it said in an ex parte filing in dockets 12-268, 12-357 and 13-185 (http://bit.ly/175HmIG). The filing recounted a meeting last week with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and her aide David Goldman. The commission’s proposal to designate the lower J block for uplink use “would make future J-block operations vulnerable to significant interference from adjacent federal government and broadcast auxiliary service users above 2025 MHz,” it said.

AOL will pay $405 million to buy Adap.tv, a global programmatic video advertising platform for brands, agencies and publishers, said the companies in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1esuBL8). Adap.tv supported more than 26,000 global ad campaigns last year, which ran on about 9,500 websites, said the companies. Adap.tv believes “most TV advertising will soon be traded programmatically on platforms like ours,” said CEO Amir Ashkenazi. The deal “accelerates our vision of efficient and effective TV and video advertising,” he said. Adap.tv will operate independently as a part of AOL’s video organization and will be included as part of the overall solution offered by AOL Networks to its publisher and ad partners. The purchase price for Adap.tv is $322 million in cash and about $83 million in AOL’s common stock, said the companies.

Adak Eagle and Windy City Cellular met with FCC officials to emphasize the struggles of their service territory and why a waiver of certain FCC USF rules is justified. Adak CEO Larry Mayes expressed “how frustrating it was to deal with the commission on our waiver and the waiver process,” with costs exceeding half a million dollars, said an ex parte filing posted online Wednesday (http://bit.ly/16uu0FT). It described the geographical struggles associated with Adak Island and the operations of the company to provide service, from barge deliveries to the cost of flights to the island. The two company representatives described small rural companies like themselves as the “backbone” of the country and in need of USF support. All the cuts required to deal with the waiver process and meet deadlines have created potential safety risks, the filing said. The Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on Adak’s waiver petition, it said Wednesday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/11MV9nz). Comments are due Aug. 19.

The lack of congressional action on the Internet Radio Fairness Act in 2013 is a credit to the work of MusicFirst coalition members, said the group representing labels and artist organizations, in a Tuesday blog post (http://bit.ly/14xnxhz). The group said a website that advocated for IRFA, sponsored by Internet radio company Pandora, was no longer active. “YOU have made your voices heard, and YOU have made a difference. Pandora preyed on its subscriber list with half truths and wanted this bill to steamroll through Congress last year,” it said. “Now they are regrouping -- at best.” Pandora remains focused, “benefiting and growing the entire music industry through a responsible and sustainable royalty structure for the future of music,” responded Assistant General Counsel Chris Harrison. “Fundamental to that is a system that ensures artists can distribute their music and continue to be fairly compensated for their work and creativity. Instead of trying to create a fake controversy over a website that addressed a bill from last year, we invite MusicFirst to join us in working to rectify the current system of ad hoc laws that prevent artists from earning full financial benefit for their work and prevents fair competition in the music market.” A spokeswoman told us Harrison was referring to “general copyright reform” proposed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

Cisco representatives urged the FCC Wireline Bureau Thursday to review the Universal Service Administrative Co.’s (USAC) finding that audio communication components of Cisco’s WebEx conferencing service are a telecommunications service under the 1996 Telecom Act (http://bit.ly/1cGPtju). Designating those components as a telecommunications service would make a portion of WebEx revenue eligible for assessment for USF contributions (CD May 20 p6). Jeff Campbell, Cisco vice president-government affairs, and Cisco counsel Walter Anderson told the bureau staff that USAC improperly applied FCC precedents and failed to “accept WebEx’s reasonable unbundling of its revenues -- positions that commenters broadly support,” Cisco said in an ex parte filing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision that The Conference Group lacked standing to challenge the FCC’s ruling that audio bridging software by InterCall must pay into the USF (CD July 3 p4) “has no bearing on the application of the InterCall Orders to WebEx’s service because the D.C. Circuit concluded only that The Conference Group and WebEx lacked standing to challenge the InterCall Orders, and the court did not reach the merits of the parties’ challenge to the InterCall Orders,” Cisco said.

Consumers should not be held hostage when retransmission disputes break down, said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee. Unfortunately, programming blackouts “have become far too common for consumers who simply want to enjoy the programming they pay for each month,” she said in a statement about the blackout of CBS stations for Time Warner Cable subscribers (CD Aug 6 p2). She urged the companies to reach a resolution. “I also intend to carefully examine whether changes to current law are needed to adequately protect consumers and prevent the reoccurrence of blackouts,” said Eshoo. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said TWC is “grandstanding” in handling the dispute. TWC’s proposal to purchase CBS programming a la carte is “nothing more than an attempt to muddy the water and confuse the public discussion,” he said in response to a letter from TWC CEO Glenn Britt. TWC is asking “either to gain the right to deliver content for free that others are paying for, or to inhibit CBS from licensing content to existing online competitors and new companies that are now emerging,” Moonves said. Britt urged Moonves to stop blocking CBS.com content from TWC’s Internet customers (http://bit.ly/13fBLgB).

U.S. Cellular urged the FCC Wireless Bureau to ensure that bidders of all sizes have a reasonable opportunity for success in Auction 96 for the H block. Without additional spectrum made available to small and regional carriers, “there will be a continued lack of competition in the wireless industry and reduced network deployments in currently underserved areas,” it said in comments in docket 13-178 (http://bit.ly/191p7pU). Comments on rules for the auction were due this week. The group also cautioned the bureau against adopting hierarchical package bidding (HPB) and anonymous bidding procedures. It agreed with other commenters, stating that adequate opportunities for small and regional carriers to bid on licenses “would not occur if the bureau adopts its HPB proposal.” T-Mobile asked the commission to ensure that licenses “are put in the hands of those entities that value them the most and that the goals of the Spectrum Act are met,” it said in its comments (http://bit.ly/156jhyw). The auction can be conducted using the bureau’s proposed simultaneous multiple-round format or its proposed alternative, the single round sealed-bid auction, it said. Regardless of the format, the bureau should adopt HPB, T-Mobile said: It will allow participants “to bid on and obtain complementary licenses in a manner that best suits their business needs.” AT&T also supports using HPB, it said (http://bit.ly/13Zw1H1). Package bidding “would be a fair and efficient way to accommodate bidders of all sizes,” it said. Sprint Nextel supports using the SMR format without package bidding. This approach “strikes a balance among the goals of flexibility, transparency ... and revenue generation, all towards the broader goal of serving the public interest,” it said (http://bit.ly/16svGQ8). The commission should adopt the proposal to use aggregated license reserve prices, Sprint said.

The FCC Wireline Bureau announced filing deadlines for eligible telecom carriers, in a public notice Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1985nEN). ETCs must file high-cost and low-income annual reports by Oct. 15, it said. States and ETCs must file annual use certifications by Dec. 16, it added. The annual reports must be filed with FCC Form 481, the bureau said.

A False Claims Act violation in connection with the FCC’s E-rate program was settled Tuesday when Larry Lehmann of Giddings, Texas, agreed to pay $400,000 to settle the allegations, said the Department of Justice in a press release (http://1.usa.gov/12YfKIy). The Houston Independent School District (HISD) was one of the applicants that received E-rate subsidies from 2004 to 2006, and Lehmann, CEO of Acclaim Professional Services, partnered with other companies to provide E-rate-funded equipment and services to HISD during this time period, said Justice. The U.S. alleged that Lehmann provided gifts and loans to HISD employees and helped to devise a scheme for HISD to outsource some of its employees to Acclaim, which allowed them to work for HISD while passing on the cost to the E-rate program. Lehmann’s settlement is part of a broader investigation by the U.S. of E-rate funding requests submitted by HISD and the Dallas Independent School District, said DOJ.