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.
Telecom regulation remains a problem in China, despite other reforms since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. Trade Representatives said Mon. in its annual report to Congress. Problems exist in intellectual property rights (IPR), price controls, opaque regulatory procedures, reclassification of some value-added telecom services as basic, new Chinese technology standards, which are becoming barriers to entry, and other areas, the USTR said.
Nurturing online revenue is a priority at TV companies for the rest of 2006 and for 2007, executives at TV stations and cable networks told investors last week. Though the percentage of total sales that online revenue represents today is still small at traditional TV companies, in some cases immeasurably so, executives said they expect to see more money coming from online efforts next year. “Digital revenue is somewhere between 1 and 2% of our total revenue,” LIN TV CEO Vincent Sadusky said: “Our goal over the next 2 yearss is to get that number up significantly.” LIN TV shares rose 4% Thurs. after the company said Q3 revenue increased 27% from a year earlier $115.8 million on some station acquisitions, and profit rose 1.7% to $3.8 million.
Canadian telemarketers must pay the FTC $7.5 million for fraudulent billing practices, under a U.S. Dist. Court, Seattle, ruling, the agency said. The defendants called U.S.-based businesses and organizations and conned employees into “verifying” information for directory listings, then sending invoices for directory-listing purchases and referring those that didn’t pay to an in-house collection company, the FTC alleged in a 2005 complaint. Under the ruling, the companies also can’t sell business directories or listings to U.S. residents. The defendants were Quebec Inc., doing business as Global Management Solutions; Quebec “Inc,” doing business as Commutel Mktg. and Mktg. USA; and principal Ty Nguyen. The FTC also settled with the other 3 defendants, all former presidents of the defendant companies. Byron Steczko and Cory Kornelson agreed to permanent bans on directory business activity in the U.S. and will pay $3.8 million and $2.1 million. Phong Vo will pay $1.6 million. All judgments are suspended based on defendants’ inability to pay, FTC said.