Cablevision lost a challenge to program access decisions against the company and its former regional sports network unit. Thursday’s loss was the second defeat in as many days. The full FCC upheld twin Media Bureau orders from September. The cable operator and Madison Square Garden LP, Cablevision’s former regional sports network unit, were required to provide two New York RSNs in HD to the biggest two telcos. The full commission orders had been expected (CD Nov 7 p7), though they weren’t voted on in time for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear oral argument Wednesday on Cablevision and MSG’s challenge of the bureau’s orders. Later that day, the 2nd Circuit denied the stay request (CD Nov 10 p15).
After three quarters of subscriber losses, T-Mobile USA gained 126,000 net new subscribers in Q3, helped by growth in prepaid. Net income was $332 million, up 4 percent year-over-year. Parent company Deutsche Telekom still expects to complete the T-Mobile transaction on time, CEO René Obermann said during a conference call Thursday.
FCC staffers are trying to finish an order that would establish pilot programs in which Lifeline and Link-Up customers would be allowed to buy broadband Internet at subsidized prices, telecom officials told us. Staff is hoping to have the order ready for the Dec. 13 FCC meeting, the officials said. The order would structure a pilot program that would convert Lifeline subsidies to some kinds of broadband vouchers, the officials said. Lobbyists have increased their presence at the commission in recent days as word of the proposed order trickled out, filings in docket 11-42 showed. AT&T, USTelecom, Verizon and a handful of state officials have either written to or met with FCC staff on Lifeline changes in recent days. A telecom official said agency staff are worried about finding legal justification for supporting broadband with Lifeline funds.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Thursday formally recommended that NTIA reallocate the 1755-1850 MHz band for commercial use in “stages,” making 1755-1780 MHz available first. That spectrum has been the top priority of industry for reallocation for wireless broadband. CSMAC approved a report on the band by a unanimous vote with one abstention. The report says NTIA should launch “an informal process ... to directly exchange data and have a dialogue between government and industry in order to facilitate and implement the spectrum recommendations in this Report.”
An NPR satellite feed caused a systemic audio glitch with Wednesday’s first-ever nationwide test (CD Nov 10 p2) of the emergency alert system (EAS). The Squawk Channel feed was used by some commercial radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming providers to carry the test alert from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, executives said. The feed also was used for some noncommercial stations, which got the channel directly from NPR and who then passed it onto the other types of EAS participants. Broadcasters and MVPDs that relied on the feed for the test had the audio test message disrupted. The exercise nonetheless worked as intended, because the EAS participants got the simulated warning and passed it on, even though the announcement couldn’t be clearly heard, said executives who participated in the test.
The first-ever national emergency alert system test saw glitches at cable operators, DBS providers and commercial and nonprofit radio and TV broadcasters, our survey of those EAS participants and our own research found. The exercise was shortened last week to 30 seconds from three minutes, after the NCTA unsuccessfully sought a delay because many cable encoder-decoder units that pass the alert on couldn’t show video saying it was a test (CD Nov 7 p6). That prompted worries among government and industry officials that viewers would think an actual emergency occurred, but broadcast executives said that didn’t appear to have happened, based on initial reports. All EAS participants have a month and a half to report to the FCC how things went.
A draft of the IEEE 1905 standard that would set up seamless home networking among Wi-Fi, Multimedia over Coax (MoCA), HomePlug and Ethernet is set to be considered in December by the IEEE working group in charge of it, executives said at the HomePlug Alliance technology conference outside San Francisco Wednesday. That would pave the way for 1905-compliant products to hit the market in time for the 2012 holidays, they said. But setting up a certification program could take longer, they said. The groups behind the 1905 standard are looking to set up a “consortium of consortiums” to handle certification, but that could take time, said Purva Rajkotia, director of product management, standard and regulation for Qualcomm Atheros, a HomePlug silicon vendor.
Sen. Olympia Snowe will ask the FCC commissioner nominees about their attitude to having more technical expertise at the agency, the Maine Republican’s telecom adviser told us Wednesday. Snowe isn’t opposed in principle to either Ajit Pai or Jessica Rosenworcel (CD Nov 2 p1), but she has long been concerned that the agency employs so few engineers and other technical experts, Matt Hussey said. The commission employs about 300 engineers, less than 15 percent of the payroll, and Pai and Rosenworcel are lawyers, Hussey said.
Verizon is doubling the amount of smartphone data to drive upgrades, save on costs and better compete, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said during the Wells Fargo investor conference Wednesday. The carrier may be interested in potential divested spectrum from AT&T’s planned buy of T-Mobile, he said.
SILICON VALLEY -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said Wednesday she wants to make sure that the zeal for raising federal revenue doesn’t prevent adding “open space for innovation” in the airwaves. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is looking to spectrum auctions “to raise money for the federal government,” she noted at the Silicon Valley Wireless Symposium, organized by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. But Lofgren said she wants to make sure that when it comes to adding spectrum for broadband “not everything gets auctioned,” so unlicensed capacity is available. “We need to think about how we can incent additional efficient use of spectrum,” she added.