Telmate has “reconsidered” its position on contractual “fresh look,” the prison calling company told acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Friday, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/167TSY3). The FCC’s NPRM on prison calling asked whether the commission has the legal power to order a “fresh look” window in which providers and facility customers would have the legal option to walk away from current contractual arrangements if the commission mandated new rates. In its original comments, Telmate called a fresh look approach “imperative” if the FCC “hopes to have any serious short-term impact on the [inmate calling service] ICS market.” Telmate has since had a change of heart. “Given the imbalance of sales and human resources between legacy incumbent ICS providers and smaller entrants like Telmate, a fresh look window would more likely result in all existing long-term (three to five year) contracts being renewed almost simultaneously, with little or no opportunity for competitive bidding,” the company said. Telmate recommended staggering the fresh look window among the thousands of ICS contracts nationwide “as the only practical way to harmonize the existence of long-term contracts and the unreasonable burden on smaller ICS providers in competing for correctional facility business at thousands of locations at the same time nationwide in the aftermath of any new interstate rate rules implemented by the Commission."

A blend of state and federal grant and loan programs may be the key to spurring broadband deployment in New York state, stakeholders said during a Wednesday webinar. Funding is “at a crossroads” as communities and companies look at ways state and federal grants can complement one another, said New York State Broadband Office Director David Salway. He talked about the 18 Connect New York grant recipients announced earlier this year and the June first-ever broadband summit the state held. In New York state, 1.12 million people -- about 6 percent of the state population -- lack access to at least 6 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up, he said. New York Rural Development State Office Community Facilities Specialist Gail Giannotta emphasized the Community Facilities loan and grant program, which encompassed 21 grant projects and $7.33 million in 2012, she said. “There’s a lot of things we can fit into our CF program that we can’t fit into others.” The Rural Utilities Service has “really the most attractive rates you can get anywhere,” said RUS Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo, describing the many funding opportunities available. In New York state, funding has gone to more than 20 Distance Learning Telemedicine grant projects, six Broadband Initiatives Program grantees, one broadband Farm Bill loan and 16 Telephone Infrastructure Loans, she said.

AT&T was the only company to ultimately bid to buy Leap Wireless -- and still ended up paying 58 percent more than it initially offered, according to a Leap proxy filing with the SEC released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/167S7do). Leap said it sought bids from six other unnamed companies, which BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said in a blog post he believes are from Sprint and majority owner SoftBank, T-Mobile US and parent company Deutsche Telekom, MetroPCS and Dish Network (http://bit.ly/1bL5UgI). AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had previously told Leap in April 2012 the carrier wasn’t interested in buying Leap, according to the filing. Leap and AT&T restarted negotiations early this year, and AT&T initially indicated it was interested in buying Leap at $9.50 per share. AT&T ultimately agreed to pay $15 per share for a total of about $1.2 billion (CD July 16 p1). AT&T may have been willing to raise its bid by so much “given the lack of available spectrum and the early impacts of mobile video adoption from the high speeds delivered by LTE technology,” Piecyk said. “Many investors believe that AT&T is growing increasingly concerned about T-Mobile and wanted a way to attack them more aggressively on the pre-paid front as well as restricting T-Mobile’s access to spectrum while that company’s leverage is too high to launch a competitive and over-priced bid for Leap."

The U.S. Department of Commerce wants congressional or regulatory attention on cellphone unlocking and on rate-setting standards for public performance of sound recordings by digital music services, it said in a so-called green paper released Wednesday on Copyright Policy, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy (http://1.usa.gov/15vOJd3). It backed reform of music licensing, with particular focus on the mechanical license for musical compositions, and also reiterated the administration’s calls to extend public performance rights for sound recordings to cover broadcasting, and adopting the same penalties for criminal streaming of copyrighted works to the public, as now exists for criminal reproduction and distribution. The report was authored by the department’s Internet Policy Task Force with input from the Patent and Trademark Office and the NTIA. IPTF will also seek further comment on improving the notice and takedown system under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the relevance and scope of the first-sale doctrine, and remixes, said the paper. “Ensuring that our copyright policy provides incentives for creativity while promoting innovation on the Internet is a critical and challenging task,” said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in the report. The 120-page report addressed a host of copyright issues, including the balance between protecting creative works and maintaining a free flow of information and the meaningful enforcement of copyright provisions in a digital environment. Public Knowledge took issue with several aspects of the report, including its lack of focus on essential limitations and exceptions and the costs of copyright enforcements, particularly upon users. “While the green paper makes a good faith effort to recognize the need for balanced copyright policy, in several areas it fails to recognize fully the negative effects of certain copyright enforcement policies on the public,” said Sherwin Siy, PK vice president-legal affairs, in a statement. The Center for Democracy and Technology had a similarly mixed reaction to the report, and said in a blog post that “the report offers more positive than negative in moving the conversation about digital copyrights forward” (http://bit.ly/1685gDi). CDT is concerned about the report’s request for proposals on improving the operation of the DMCA’s notice and takedown system, it said. “Free expression advocates will need to engage actively to counterbalance a possible push towards (for example) more ongoing content monitoring."

The FCC Media Bureau denied an application for review requested by Stu-Comm in Charlottesville, Va., over grant of a construction permit to Columbia Union College Broadcasting. CUCB didn’t claim an exemption from the application filing fee in the application for WGTS(FM) Takoma Park, Md., the bureau said in a memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/14DW2f2). However, remittance records show that CUCB “instead timely paid the fee within fourteen days after filing,” it said. The staff’s engineering analysis determined that CUCB’s use of an antenna at variance with the one specified in the construction permit was permissible, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau set an Aug. 30 deadline for filing applications for FM translators. The window is limited to timely filed Auction 83 tech box proposals, “which the staff has identified as not mutually exclusive with any other tech box proposals that remain pending from the Auction 83 filing window,” it said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/11v6aK1). Form 349 applications failing to include a required preclusion showing will be dismissed, it said. Any Form 349, “to the extent it differs from the underlying tech box proposal ... is not protected from applications submitted during the October 2013 LPFM [low-power FM] filing window,” the bureau said. Educational Media Foundation, Edgewater Broadcasting and Arizona Lotus Corp. are among the applicants needing to submit Form 349 for each of its listed tech box proposals, it said (http://bit.ly/133iTRS).

The FCC has been too slow to provide regulatory relief and it would benefit by studying the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission’s example in Frontier Communications deregulation, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May in a blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/163gjgP). The Washington commission issued an order July 22 to deregulate Frontier’s legacy wireline services (http://bit.ly/16hVrV7), addressing a petition for regulatory relief filed by Frontier earlier this year. “Wireless, VoIP, and bundled service options to basic single-line service place competitive pressures on providers of such basic service,” said the Washington commission in its order. “Even if Frontier were the only provider of single line basic service, should Frontier seek to raise its rates for such service customers could opt for one of these other service options -- in fact, that is what has been happening.” The FCC does not account properly for competitive impact of wireless and VoIP services, said May. The FCC has been too slow to “substantially reduce historic regulation, particularly economic regulation, in favor of the disciplines of an effectively competitive marketplace,” said May in his blog post. The FCC is unlikely to consider in a timely fashion the competitive impact of over-the-top Internet services on traditional cable and satellite services “still shackled by outdated legacy regulations,” said May.

Cox’s new over-the-top TV service FlareWatch could point to a solution for pay-TV providers losing business to streaming services like Netflix, IHS said Wednesday. FlareWatch, currently in beta testing, is the first OTT subscription TV service provided by a pay-TV operator that isn’t tied to a cable TV subscription, IHS said. Instead, the service is open to customers of Cox’s high-speed data packages. It offers customers close to 100 “popular” channels and a DVR, and costs $39.99 a month, $30 cheaper than an average cable subscription, said IHS. It doesn’t include a “TV Everywhere” offering, it said. “FlareWatch represents Cox’s attempt to regain business lost to a new generation of ‘cord-cutters’ and ‘cord-nevers,'” said IHS analyst Erik Brannon in the release. He said it’s “likely to be the first of a new generation of products from other cable operators that will take a[n] ‘if-you-can’t beat ‘em-join-'em’ approach to tackling the OTT challenge.” However, FlareWatch generates profit at much lower margins than does cable-delivered video, Brannon said. “Any positive margin is better than no margin when customers purchase a video product,” he said. “There is likely enough headroom to be profitable, but not on par with typical cable margins.” The service also gives Cox an opportunity to get non-cable subscribers to buy a video package, said IHS, calling the service Cox’s way of “loss-leading its way back into cord-never homes."

GlobeCast unveiled an application allowing its MyGlobeTV service to be accessed on any Internet-connected device. The app supports all major mobile platforms, including iOS and Android, GlobeCast said in a press release (http://bit.ly/17TZ1nA). The app features an advanced electronic programming guide “that can be accessed while watching programs,” it said. Users can register up to eight devices and view content simultaneously on two devices, GlobeCast said. “Data usage can also be controlled using high-speed and low-speed modes."

LIN Media combined with LIN TV to “resolve the NBC” joint venture (CD July 25 p25) “guarantee and tax overhangs that have in recent years limited its strategic options,” said the broadcaster in a news release after regular U.S. markets closed Tuesday (http://bit.ly/18N0Bc1). LIN Media is “the surviving company in the merger” and now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “LIN,” said the company: “As a result of the capital losses generated from this transaction,” LIN will realize cash income tax savings of about $115 million. With the joint venture with NBC “completely dissolved,” LIN may become “fully engaged on either side of the M&A discussion,” wrote analyst Marci Ryvicker of Wells Fargo to investors about mergers and acquisitions. LIN stock closed up 8.4 percent to $16.15 on Wednesday.