The Treaty for the Visually Impaired discussions taking place in Morocco until Friday should produce a treaty that makes copyrighted works available -- including in an accessible e-book format -- to the visually impaired, said the National Federation of the Blind and the World Blind Union in a statement Monday (http://prn.to/11IW6tT). The groups said World Intellectual Property Organization negotiators should agree to a treaty that establishes “exceptions and limitations to copyright law that would permit the blind to reproduce books into accessible formats” and creates “a system where accessible formats of works could be shared across international borders.” Fredric Schroeder, vice president for both groups, said “there is a significant risk that this diplomatic conference could end without a treaty and that would be a travesty.” Groups of copyright holders have asked that the negotiations not consider restructuring the global copyright system, while advocates for visually impaired people have expressed concerns that the treaty will define copyright limitations and exceptions too narrowly (CD June 18 p14).

The U.S. TV app market will grow to $14 billion by 2017, from $4.5 billion in 2012, said a study from market research firm NextMarket Insights (http://bit.ly/16JzaPf). “One reason the market will see such strong growth is the rising tide of demand from consumers for connected devices and associated app and service frameworks,” said the study that was released Thursday. However, it also said the high number of TV software platforms could be a problem for the TV app market. “There are at least 8-10 major connected TV software platforms in the market today, each with their own respective SDKs [software development kits], marketplaces, supported advertising networks and commerce engines,” said NextMarket Insights. The lack of “dominant players” could hinder growth of the market, said the study. The market growth in TV apps will be accompanied by growth in ads for connected TVs, it said. “Just as the advertising market for mobile matured significantly as the smartphone and app revolution was ushered in from 2008-2012, NextMarket Insights expects the same for the connected TV advertising market over the next five years.”

Hughes won a contract with the National Weather Service to provide a satellite backup solution and services for a mission-critical operational network. Hughes will provide the solution for the Operational Systems Network, which is “the primary communications system for NWS to analyze and distribute meteorological, hydrological, satellite and radar data that is shared with Weather Forecast Offices nationwide,” Hughes said in a press release (http://bit.ly/19w1HJm). The company will offer an existing network of 63 broadband satellite terminals with service and support to include hosting services of equipment “associated with government-provided backhaul communications,” and Network Operations Center access, “including web or thin client access to network monitoring for the government,” it said.

The launch of O3b Networks’ first four satellites was postponed until Tuesday. The launch on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket was delayed “due to unfavorable winds over the Spaceport launch site in French Guiana,” Arianespace said Monday in a press release. The rocket and its payload of four satellites “remain in a safe mode on the Spaceport’s ELS launch pad, protected by the mobile service gantry,” it said. Arianespace said it will perform three Soyuz flights for O3b, each carrying a cluster of four satellites.

The Wi-Fi Alliance urged the FCC to expand Wi-Fi access to 5 GHz spectrum to allow products like its Wi-Fi Certified 802.11ac products to take full advantage of their capabilities. The introduction of such products in the 5 GHz band “will utilize spectrum already available to industry,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1a7R963). These devices are most effective “when they have access to 80 or 160 MHz wide channels,” it said in a letter to staff at the Office of Engineering and Technology and the NTIA.

A group of newspaper and radio cross-owners urged the FCC to repeal the ban on cross-ownership, said a letter filed with the commission last week (http://bit.ly/12lbDz3). “Competition from traditional media combined with intense Internet-based competition ... has significantly diminished the market power and influence of cross-owned daily newspapers,” said officials from West Virginia Radio Corp., LaSalle County Broadcasting, and WJAG -- all companies that own both radio stations and newspapers. In meetings with all three commissioners and FCC staff, the cross-owners cited high competition in media as evidence that the ban should be repealed, along with results from the recent Minority Media and Telecommunications Council study (CD May 31 p1) showing “that repeal will have no impact on minority or female ownership of radio,” the ex parte said. The group said the cross-ownership rule “has blocked upgrades of after-acquired radio stations, keeping them from reaching their full potential in terms of audience reach and revenue generation” and led to a “loss of quality” in local news reporting.

Some residents of Seattle will be able to buy 1 Gbps symmetrical broadband service for $80 a month next year, said Gigabit Squared (http://bit.ly/16uFQA5). It partnered with Seattle and the University of Washington to bring fiber broadband service to several neighborhoods there, and disclosed pricing information for the first time in a Monday news release. The installation fee is $350, with three service options for customers -- one for 5 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload, free for 60 months with an option to convert to 10 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload for $10 per month after; one for 100 Mbps download/100 Mbps upload for $45 a month; and one for 1 Gbps download/1 Gbps upload for $80 a month. The final two faster options waive the installation fee if customers sign a one-year contract. “We will be announcing a simple sign-up process next month that will make it easy for people to sign up for the service that best meets their individual needs,” said Gigabit Squared President Mark Ansboury in a statement. Initial neighborhoods will be in Seattle’s West Campus District, First Hill, Capitol Hill and Central Area when the service launches in 2014, it said.

Dish Network launched a flexible satellite TV platform for in-room entertainment at hotels and hospitality operations. The platform “improves the in-room entertainment experience for guests and reduces total cost of ownership for operators,” it said in a press release (http://bit.ly/10NJnLp). It offers up to 96 channels in high-definition and includes operator-friendly features like “lowered power consumption, remote management toolset” and a “reduced rack-space footprint,” it said. Dish plans to demonstrate the SMARTbox solution at the Hitec hospitality technology event in Minneapolis, it said.

Verizon representatives discussed in a meeting with FCC staff the benefits of an annual network resiliency certification program “centered on a core set of practices that would be developed by industry and other stakeholders,” according to an ex parte filing. Verizon earlier proposed that the FCC should require carriers to certify (CD May 30 p6) they meet “a core set of 911 resiliency practices.” Thaty came in comments responding to the March NPRM asking what requirements the FCC should propose in light of 911 outages during last year’s derecho. “We discussed why current best practices require updating and refining by stakeholders before they could form the basis for a certification,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/16uxrwH). Verizon also offered details on its review following the derecho wind storm of the carrier’s connections with the public safety answering points it serves. “Each review has required about 40 hours of engineering time, on average, which does not include the time for any remediation,” the carrier said. “In particular, these reviews require manual efforts to collate information from various different systems, and then automated assessments of diversity are performed."

A New Hampshire bill, HB 542, unrelated to telecom but recently amended to mention it, is intended by the amendment’s sponsor to hammer home the Legislature’s intentions related to VoIP and Internet Protocol-enabled services. The amendment addresses a source of contention in a rulemaking under way at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, which runs contrary to how a state legislator saw a deregulatory law passed last year. “While the title of House Bill 542 says it is ‘relative to electric renewable portfolio standards,’ the issue of disagreement is a floor amendment I sponsored that passed the Senate last week,” wrote State Sen. Bob Odell (R), sponsor of last year’s deregulatory Senate Bill 48, in an update last week (http://bit.ly/16mLIeO). “It would emphasize that the Public Utilities Commission is not to regulate Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VOIP) and reaffirms other deregulatory policies already in statute.” The two bodies of the New Hampshire Legislature are still working through the amendments to the bill.