Arbitron Q2 sales rose 6.6 percent from a year earlier to $79 million, as its new electronic radio audience measurement system continues to roll out. That helped push costs up 17 percent to $78.7 million, halving profits to $3.8 million.
The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference must move this fall to protect spectrum-dependent services valued at more than 200 billion euros, the European Commission said in a communication released Monday. The communique, which seeks European Council and EU Parliament endorsement, backs “promotion of competition between alternative infrastructure platforms” and “the development of innovation-friendly conditions for new technologies including via open standards.” The EC is keen to align future terrestrial mobile systems and future demands for spectrum “by upgrading the status of these services in the UHF band (470-862 MHz) and by identifying part of the C band (3.4 to 3.8 GHz) for these systems,” it said, adding that there clearly is demand for more spectrum for these mobile services. Other objectives include “ensuring the effective protection of the EU Earth Exploration” from interference, “satisfying the necessary spectrum requirements for digital radio broadcasting for maritime services in the 4-10 MHz high frequency (HF) band,” “providing enough spectrum for aviation applications” and preparing to support Community policies for the next WRC Conference in 2011. The EC backed removal of undue regulatory controls on use of radio spectrum, meanwhile claiming a larger role for itself. In theory, EU member states each negotiate within WRC or develop common technical positions via the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations, but, as the EC noted, EU member states are bound by the EC Treaty. The EC will “participate” in the WRC as a non-voting sector member, it said.
GENEVA -- Years-long research by corporate and government experts involved in ITU-R favors globally harmonizing broadcast frequencies for International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000). That was the message from a June 25-26 ITU-R study group (SG-8) meeting on mobile, radiodetermination, amateur and related satellite services. The group also gave preliminary approval to an international wideband and broadband communications standard for public protection and disaster relief, officials said.
The cable industry nearly doubled its lobbying outlay last year. Much of that went to fight the telecom franchising bill -- a cause it won indirectly when the bill withered due to lack of political interest. NCTA spent $14 million on lobbying in 2006, compared with just over $7 million in 2004, according to documents filed with the Secy. of the Senate. AT&T was the big communications industry spender in 2006.
Half of U.K. adults lived in homes with broadband connections Q4 2006, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) said. In its report on digital progress, Ofcom said penetration was up 39% from a year earlier, and was 7 times 2002 levels. Other key findings: (1) Revenue from broadband access services continued to grow, rising 18% over 2005’s to Pounds 1.8 billion ($3.6 billion) and was 15 times 2001 revenue. (2) At year-end, estimated connection speed averaged 3.8 Mbps, up from 1.6 Mbps a year earlier. About 31% of residential customers’ speeds exceeded 2 Mbps, compared with 2% a year with. Meanwhile, prices for high- speed connections plummeted. (3) By the end of 2006, residential and small-business broadband unbundled lines totalled 1.3 million, or 10% of connections, compared with 2% a year earlier. The U.K. had about 12,000 commercial Wi-Fi hotspots, up 32% in a year, the report said.
Cox Radio Q4 sales increased 3.8% from a year earlier to $113 million. It swung to a $88 million net loss on a “non- cash write-down of impaired intangible assets,” it said. Shares fell 4.5%.
CBS sales came in a bit better than expected last quarter, aided by record political ad outlays, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen wrote. The company announced a $1.5 billion stock buyback. That amounts to 6% of its current market capitalization, Cohen said. It also raised its quarterly dividend 10% to 22 cents. Q4 sales rose 2.4% from a year earlier to $3.8 billion. TV sales increased 3% to $2.56 billion. The company’s net swung to a $335 million profit from a $9.1 billion loss a year earlier, reflecting its split from Viacom, it said. CBS’s guidance that 2007 results will be similar to 2006’s is consistent with forecasts, said Bank of America analyst Jonathan Jacoby.
The U.K.’s Mobile Telecom & Health Research program soon will announce a $3.8 million grant to study radiation from cellphone and links to cancer and other diseases, The Times of London reported. The effort will track about 200,000 people for at least 5 years. “You find absolutely nothing for 10 years and then after that it starts to grow dramatically,” The Times quoted cellphone radiation expert Lawrie Challis, the program’s chmn., as saying: “It goes up 10 times. You look at what happened after the atomic bombs at Nagasaki, Hiroshima. You find again a long delay, nothing for 10 years. The same for asbestos.” Adults in the U.K. use 50 million mobile phones, and the number used by children 5-9 is 6 times as high as in 2000.
Verizon asked the Va. Corporation Commission for retail rate deregulation of all telecom services other than stand- alone basic exchange, E-911 and Lifeline, and for removal of floor rates that limit price reductions. Stand-alone basic exchange increases would be limited to $1 per year for the next 3 years. The proposal would affect only retail services. Wholesale rate regulation wouldn’t change. Under the current price cap plan, adopted in 2005, Verizon can increase basic exchange prices by the same rate as inflation, and increases for other rate-regulated services are limited to 10% a year. A handful of services have been rate- deregulated as fully competitive. Verizon said rate regulation hobbles its ability to respond to rivals in “a competitive, dynamic, technology-driven, ever-changing marketplace that regulation was never designed to manage.” Verizon said it needs pricing freedom to compete against the more than 50 rivals it faces statewide, including CLECs, cable, wireless and broadband providers. It said 92% of Va. consumers can choose from 5 or more providers for local service. Verizon said its landline business has shrunk to 3.8 million lines in 2005 from 4.85 million in 1999. But during those years phone connections by all technologies grew to 11.4 million from 7.3 million.
“High-cost” rural telecom companies got 58.7% of $6.5 billion disbursed by the Universal Service Fund in 2005, the FCC said. High cost support totaled $3.8 billion, compared with about $3.5 billion in 2004 -- a rise the report traced to growth in support for competitive carriers from $0.3 billion in 2004 to $0.6 billion in 2005. The E-rate program for schools and libraries accounted for 28.6% of the USF, about $2 billion. Support for low-income consumers accounted for 12.4% or about $804 million, up from 2004’s $763 million. The rural health care program drew about 0.4% or $25 million, the report said. In a snapshot of telecom industry revenue, the report showed the USF funded by charges levied on $234 billion, up from 2004’s $233 billion. Bell company access lines declined from about 136 million in 2004 to 127 million in 2005.