GENEVA -- Negotiations over C-band and UHF frequencies are increasingly linked in talks at the World Radiocommunication Conference to identify globally harmonized frequencies for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), officials said. Countries reiterated positions during the first two weeks, but are now starting to consider what they can accept, a WRC participant said.
GENEVA -- Supporters of identifying C-band spectrum for IMT disagree at the World Radiocommunication Conference on which frequencies to use. And opposition has been strong to identifying all or part of the 3.4 to 4.2 GHz band for International Mobile Telecommunications, said Kalpak Gude, deputy general counsel at Intelsat. Countries from all regions have serious concerns about identifying any portion for IMT, he said. Europe and a few countries are pressing for identification of frequencies for IMT, ITU’s global standard for mobile wireless communications.
EU telecommunications ministers backed European Commission policy goals for the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC07). Conclusions adopted Monday said that to meet the spectrum demands of mobile systems, the 3.4 to 3.8 GHz band should be used nonexclusively for mobile services, with harmful interference between mobile and fixed satellite services to be avoided. In addition, they said, governments should continue reviewing the regulatory status of UHF band mobile service and try to minimize the risk of interference to international mobile telecommunications networks operating in the EU in the 2.5 to 2.69 GHz band from satellite services. Ministers also supported: (1) Satisfying as much as possible the spectrum requirements for digital radio broadcasting and maritime mobile services in the high frequency band. (2) Adjusting spectrum rules to support satellite systems. (3) Providing enough spectrum for aeronautical telemetry and air-to-ground voice and data communications. WRC07 is Oct. 22 to Nov. 16 in Geneva.
Total U.S. ad spending during the first half of the year dropped 0.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, Nielsen said. Network radio spending dropped 8.5 percent, the most of any category Nielsen tracks. Spot TV ad sales in the top 100 markets fell 4.6 percent from a year ago. Network TV fell 3.8 percent, spot radio fell 1.8 percent, and cable ad sales slipped 0.3 percent. Internet ad sales increased 23 percent from last year, Nielsen said. Product placement is on the rise on broadcast and cable network programming, it said.
The communications industry spent about $122 million on federal lobbying the first half of 2007, about 30 percent less than its $174.5 million outlay a year earlier, according to reports filed with the Secretary of the Senate and CQ’s Political Moneyline. The 2007 numbers aren’t final. The secretary’s office still is compiling reports, which were due Aug. 14, a Senate staffer said Wed. The interim tally shows telecom companies falling to third place, behind finance and health care, in spending.
NextWave Broadband said Monday it had started shipping its NW1000 Series WiMAX chipset. It’s made up of the NW1100 baseband system-on-a-chip, matched NW1200 multi-band RFIC and associated system software. The chipset gives manufacturers a platform to develop WiMAX mobile terminal products on and is part of a family of WiMAX chipsets under development at NextWave, it said. The NW1000 Series supports 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.4 to 3.8 GHz spectrum. The chipset is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard, supports PCI and SPI host interfaces, has an RF-baseband interface and uses RFIC architecture.
WorldSpace lost more than 1,300 customers during the second quarter, ending the quarter with more than 190,000 subscribers, it said in an earnings release. WorldSpace has stopped selling its service in South Africa and Europe while it prepares to launch its service, complete with terrestrial repeaters, in Italy, it said. It recently signed an original equipment manufacturer agreement with Fiat for factory installation of WorldSpace satellite radios as optional equipment on Fiats beginning in late 2009, one year after its expected Italian launch. The agreement “provides us with the means to reach Italian consumers in their automobiles,” said WorldSpace CEO Noah Samara. WorldSpace has developed an “EU-compliant terrestrial repeater technology and a receiver reference design with Fraunhofer IIS,” Samara said. WorldSpace’s Q2 revenue was $3.6 million compared to $3.8 million last year. WorldSpace had a Q2 net loss of $51.2 million compared to $36.7 million last year, it said. It reduced its subscriber acquisition costs from $33 in Q1 to $21 in Q2, WorldSpace said.
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.