Hawaiian Telcom seeks a limited waiver of the call signaling rules adopted by the FCC in its Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, said a public notice released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmxh6z). The telco wants a waiver of the requirement to pass the signaling system 7 charge number if it’s different from the calling party number. “Due to older multi-frequency technology, it is not technically feasible to comply with the call signaling rules,” the notice cited the telco as saying. Comments are due April 9 in docket 10-90, replies April 24.
MCI Communications Services and Telecom*USA want to exit the pre-paid long distance card business, said an FCC public notice released Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmxh6n). The cards are sold at several retail channels including Costco and CVS. The companies now want to exit the business “given an increasingly competitive marketplace and new alternatives to customers,” the notice said. MCI/TelecomUSA plan to discontinue selling new prepaid long distance cards on April 17. Comments are due March 23 in docket 12-62.
The FCC had “multiple conversations” with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to discuss his concerns regarding LightSquared, commission spokeswoman Tammy Sun said Thursday. That was in response to Grassley’s statement (CD March 8 p10) that the commission denied access to ex-Office of Strategic Planning Chief Paul de Sa and Josh Gottheimer, a senior aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. On Grassley’s question about Gottheimer’s previous employment with the public relations firm that now serves LightSquared, Sun said Gottheimer joined the commission in July 2010, “months after” the FCC conditionally approved the LightSquared plan. “The Commission’s career ethics staff reviewed his potential recusal requirements, as it does those of other FCC officials,” she said. “The ethics team determined that LightSquared and its predecessors were not clients of Mr. Gottheimer while he was employed by Burson-Marsteller, and Mr. Gottheimer did not work on those matters. Also, the public relations firm is not a participant in any relevant FCC proceeding.” De Sa “was one of many Commission staff, across at least five bureaus and offices, who participated in the Commission’s deliberations on LightSquared’s applications,” Sun said in a written statement. “That role was part of his job at the Commission, which he performed with distinction.” In its dealings with Grassley about LightSquared, the FCC is “following long standing practice,” consistent with Congressional Research Service guidance on requests from individual members, Sun said. The FCC is cooperating with the House Commerce Committee request for documents, she said. Grassley responded Thursday afternoon: “It’s rare to see an agency go to such extremes to avoid a response to a simple request unless the agency has something to hide.”
Entravision Q4 sales fell 1 percent from a year earlier to $49.9 million, the company said. The net loss shrank 93 percent to $2 million on a one-time writedown the company took in Q4 2010.
Investor concern about the competitive threat of Verizon’s FiOS network to Cablevision is probably overblown, Citi analyst Jason Bazinet wrote investors. FiOS’s growth has slowed since it began competing with Cablevision in 2006, he said. Plus, Cablevision could be due or a windfall if it sells or closes Newsday or its VOOM lawsuit is successful, Bazinet wrote.
Comcast’s thePlatform said it introduced new TV Everywhere software to help pay-TV distributors offer more services. The software allows operators to introduce subscription packages or operator-defined content collections that could mirror their basic, extended or premium TV lineups, that can be viewed on more devices, it said. It also allows operators to parse customers along a variety of lines including their TV subscription, their location, device type and viewing preferences, thePlatform said. For instance, operators could offer a bundle of children’s programming for online viewing to customers of a premium TV package, it said. “These dynamic new … tools enable operators to create their own criteria for grouping content and subscribers,” said thePlatform’s CEO Ian Blaine.
Increases in Internet ad spending won’t come at the expense of TV ad sales, Sanford Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger wrote in a note to investors. “There is plenty of room for both TV And Internet ad spend to grow within the historical norms of marketing spend relative to” gross domestic product, he said. Plus, Internet usage is not causing a decline in TV viewership and TV advertising isn’t fungible with online advertising in terms of meeting marketers’ goals, he said.
Nexstar’s review of strategic alternatives remains in process, CEO Perry Sook said Thursday after the company reported Q4 earnings. Sook said he’s reluctant to put a time frame on the review, which began July 21. “I got burned on some timetable projections I made in conferences last year, so I don’t want to do that,” he said. Sook said he would be surprised if the one-year anniversary of the strategic review came and went without some sort of announcement. “There is a sense this can’t go on and on, and I'd be highly doubtful we'd pass the anniversary date,” without a disclosure concluding the review in one way or another, which could include the board taking no further action, he said. The board is discussing various alternatives, Sook said. “Things move slower than we all would like potentially, but pencils are not down on this.” Nexstar shares have gained about 38 percent since the company disclosed the strategic review last year, but still about 40 percent lower than when the company did its initial public offering in 2003. For 2012, Nexstar is poised to bring in a record amount of free cash flow, as boosts in political ad spending, core ad sales growth, digital ad sales and retransmission consent revenue are all set to help results, the company said. Sook said Nexstar is poised to collect about 50 percent more in retrans fees in 2012 than the $37.4 million in 2011. “Our 2012 retrans revenue will not only be a record, but it will grow at a percentage rate approximating twice that of our growth in 2011,” he said. Nexstar expects further retrans consent gains in 2014, as the broadcaster’s agreements with another two of its five largest pay-TV distributors expire at the end of 2013, Sook said. “The vast majority of that impact would be felt in 2014.” Total Q4 sales fell 11 percent from a year earlier to $86.2 million, reflecting a $20 million drop in political ad sales and a sharp reduction in network compensation. Excluding political ads, Nexstar’s national and political core revenue gained 6.4 percent to $67.3 million. Profit fell 71 percent to $3.3 million.
California’s July 2008 ban on handheld cellphone use by drivers is saving lives, concludes a study by the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at the University of California-Berkeley. Overall traffic deaths declined 22 percent since the ban, while handheld cellphone driver deaths decreased 47 percent, the center said (http://xrl.us/bmxhuz). The center said other research shows that after the ban 40 percent of California drivers reported they talk less, even using a hands-free device. “While we are thrilled to see that the hand-held ban in California has worked to reduce distracted driving crashes and overall cell phone use, there are still far too many drivers talking and texting while driving,” said Christopher Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “A good step for parents is to never call or text your kids if you think they might be driving.”
Signal boosters could play a role in improving communications, but only if the FCC gets the rules right, Sprint Nextel said in a filing, responding to questions from the agency. “It is essential ... that any Commission decision in this proceeding: 1) continue to permit signal boosters to be used only under the license authority granted to the wireless network licensee; 2) require the signal booster owner, installer or user to register or coordinate the signal booster with the licensee of the wireless network or networks it will be used with; 3) prohibit the marketing or use of signal boosters that do not comply with Commission technical regulations adopted in this proceeding; 4) prohibit the marketing or use by consumers of signal boosters designed for commercial use; 5) require that a signal booster be turned off upon request of the wireless network operator if it causes interference or is not properly coordinated; and, 6) adopt labeling and instruction manual requirements to ensure consumer and commercial entities understand they must coordinate use of the signal booster with the affected network, and that they are required to shut down its operation upon the request of the spectrum licensee if it causes harmful interference or network degradation,” Sprint said (http://xrl.us/bmxhn8).