BOSTON -- NCTA’s CEO on Monday took issue with his industry’s “naysayers,” who he said are objecting in Washington to cable operators’ changing prices and other practices to meet consumer demand for more services and content. “For all cable has proudly done so far,” including spending almost $200 billion of “private capital” on networks and increasing in the past decade broadband speeds more than 900 percent, “we owe the consumer more,” Michael Powell said at the NCTA convention. “The consumer experience should be simpler” with content easier to find, easier user interfaces “and less reliance on clunky set-top boxes,” he told the convention. “You should get greater value for what you pay."
Seeking interconnection agreements, state and local government funding and other revenue resources are top priorities for NTIA’s stimulus grantees as they work to sustain their projects post-BTOP, the grantees said. One of the most important measures of success for NTIA’s grantees is sustainability, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling told us. Sustainability was a key factor when NTIA made the awards and will remain a top priority after the grant ends, he said. Most BTOP projects are required to be completed by the end of 2013.
Verizon Wireless continued its defense of its proposed cable spectrum acquisition, in letters and meetings with FCC engineers and Wireless Bureau staff last week, arguing the transaction will serve the public interest by ensuring the carrier has enough quality spectrum to meet skyrocketing demand for high-speed mobile broadband. Verizon Wireless rejected MetroPCS arguments that plans to sell its A- and B-block licenses are an “admission” the company does not need the AWS cable spectrum, and Level 3’s assertion that the acquisition would reduce competition in the special access and wireless backhaul market. Comcast met with the Wireless Bureau chief to defend the deal, while T-Mobile met with several bureaus to emphasize a Yale professor’s finding that the transfer “forecloses competition."
Several comments to the FCC show overall support for the effort to expand wireless broadband by allowing terrestrial wireless use in the 2 GHz band, such as for Dish Network. Companies in the wireless, satellite and GPS industries agreed in their comments that technical rules and license conditions that apply to terrestrial services in the band should apply to the AWS-4 band, and a terrestrial license should be issued to the incumbent mobile satellite service licensee. Some wireless carriers and rural telecom entities urged the FCC to take further steps to ensure the eventual licensee serves all areas and to keep the market competitive. Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking were due Thursday in docket 12-70, and some were filed early that day (CD May 18 p6).
House lawmakers took a major step to change export regulations for commercial satellites Friday when it passed the $643 billion FY13 National Defense Authorization bill (HR-4310). The bill included a provision to reduce the cost and burdens for U.S. manufacturers to export domestic satellites and components, some satellite industry executives said. Lawmakers approved the bill by a 299-120 vote despite a veto threat from the White House.
Call failure rates to rural areas are better than they used to be, but still 13 times higher than for calls to lines in non-rural areas, said results of a call completion test done by the National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecommunications Alliance. That’s an “alarming and unacceptable level,” they said. Perhaps most striking, they said, was that for nearly a third of rural test lines, completion problems occurred on one out of every five calls. Other persistent problems included poor voice quality and “delayed setup,” where ring-back only began after 15 seconds or more of dead air following dialing. Nomadic VoIP calls -- calls that typically ride on top of a broadband connection -- fared particularly poorly, failing to complete over 28 percent of the time.
The U.S. could be the first country to consider dedicating spectrum to Medical Body Area Networks when the FCC looks at adopting new rules at next week’s open meeting that would permit more intensive use of the spectrum for wireless medical devices, Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday in comments delivered at George Washington University Hospital. The small wireless devices will enable continuous monitoring of patients even after they leave the hospital. “MBANs will improve patient care, increase patient mobility and encourage medical innovation,” Genachowski said. “It’s no exaggeration. By unleashing spectrum for MBAN we can save lives and lower healthcare costs.”
A handful of early comments mainly support the provision of terrestrial services in spectrum assigned to mobile satellite service in the 2 GHz band. If what the agency proposed in a notice of proposed rulemaking becomes a rule, Dish Network will be allowed to build a wireless network. Comments on the NPRM were due at the end of the day Thursday, and some were available by our deadline in docket 12-70.
Comcast said it will change the way it bills broadband customers who access excessive amounts of data each month. It will test at least two approaches later this year to handle such users, getting rid of the monthly 250 GB cap on data usage it set in 2008, Executive Vice President David Cohen and Cathy Avgiris, general manager of communications and data services, told reporters Thursday. The move placated critics of its broadband policy some, but concerns about how Comcast treats certain Internet Protocol video (CD May 15 p3) traffic remain.
Public broadcasting is continuing to thrive in the changing media landscape as leaders find ways to streamline station operations, create a new business model and maintain partnerships geared toward education and community outreach, said Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations. APTS also is working to revive momentum in Congress behind support for the federal appropriation for public broadcasting, he said Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon in Washington.