The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee is poised to take up, before the group’s charter expires in January, a controversial proposal to force federal agencies to account for the spectrum they use, paying a “fee” to NTIA for spectrum use. That proposal was hotly debated at a CSMAC meeting Monday.
The NTIA needs more money to police its broadband stimulus program, but the agency also must do a better job of monitoring the billions it has given out, the Commerce Department’s inspector general said. After handing out almost $4 billion in broadband grants, NTIA finds itself “responsible for overseeing a diverse portfolio of awards that will present several new challenges,” including months-long environmental assessments and grantees in government, nonprofit and for-profit groups, co-ops and Native American tribes, the IG said.
African-Americans and Hispanics are still less likely to use broadband Internet in their homes even when they attain the same education and income levels as whites, a government report said. Nearly 87 percent of urban and nearly 76 percent of rural, college-educated white families used broadband in their homes in 2009. But for black families with the same education, the percentages were about 77 percent in cities and 56 percent in the countryside; for college-educated Hispanics, the percentages were almost 78 percent in cities and about 69 percent in the country, the Commerce Department said in a report released Monday.
The government failed consumers by not intervening in retransmission consent disputes, including the recent battle between Fox and Cablevision, Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso told investors Monday. The FCC is tasked by the Cable Act with protecting consumers against unnecessary cable rate hikes, and it hasn’t, he said. “Shame on those who have the responsibility and are not willing to do anything about it,” he said. “It’s amazing to me, that the FCC in particular, who has been entrusted with having the responsibility to protect the consumers, goes out to look for authority to address theoretical issues on net neutrality, but always seems to find no authority to take care of consumers when it comes to retransmission consent,” he said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- LightSquared’s satellite coverage will reach residents of remote areas that aren’t economical to serve with terrestrial networks, solving one of the main problems that gave rise to the National Broadband Plan, CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said Monday. And the company’s wholesale-only business will provide an alternative to the wireless industry’s “vertically integrated model” of carriers that, according to a presentation slide, has meant “inflated prices” and a “poor user experience,” he said at the Open Mobile Summit.
The Republican gains in Washington create both risk and opportunity for Intelsat as the government looks to cut back on spending, said Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade during the company’s Q3 conference call Monday. The Congressional focus on lowering costs in general could “adversely affect” government capacity sales for the short-term, he said. But the move toward more cost-effective solutions may be a positive for Intelsat General, Intelsat’s government contracting operation, which can offer better prices than many competitors, he said. Government customers made up 19 percent of the companies’ revenue, up about 20 percent from Q3 last year, the company said. Intelsat revenue grew 4.3 percent to $644.3 million. Intelsat reported a net loss of $106.4 million for Q3, compared to a net loss of $94 million in the same quarter last year.
Advanced metering and other smart grid technologies are continuing to be deployed on the strength of stimulus funding and numerous policy initiatives in some states, despite early-adopter difficulties, officials and researchers said. Privacy and security issues should be addressed before states move ahead with their deployment plans, they urged.
Expect an “activist” House Commerce Committee that does “aggressive oversight of the FCC,” if the GOP allows Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, to become chairman, he said Friday on C-SPAN’s The Communicators. The committee would also be bipartisan and transparent, he said. Due to GOP committee term limit rules, Barton must get a waiver from the House Steering Committee to become chairman next year. Barton has been very public about his desire to become chairman (CD Nov 5 p1).
Many analysts offered gloomy outlooks for Clearwire after the company disclosed that it has only enough liquidity to get through next year. Clearwire shares plunged as much as 16 percent Thursday after the company announced that it lost $139 million in Q3, versus $82.4 million a year earlier. That’s the company’s biggest intraday drop in a year. Shares rebounded later in the day and closed down 24 cents, 3.35 percent, at $6.93.
Nomadic VoIP providers will have to pay into state Universal Service funds as well as the federal USF, the FCC ruled Friday. In a 5-0 declaratory ruling published late Friday, the commission ruled in favor of a request by the Kansas and Nebraska utilities commissions. That would let states assess USF fees on nomadic VoIP.