Iridium profit fell to $8.4 million in Q4 from $10.1 million a year ago, despite revenue growth to $95 million from $87.9 million, it said. Lower profit was primarily due to higher income taxes. The company ended 2011 with 523,000 subscribers, versus 427,000 a year earlier. Iridium expects 20-25 percent subscriber growth in 2012, with revenue growth of 8-11 percent.
Judging by the Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order, originating access charges for all public switched telephone network-VoIP traffic is subject to interstate rates, not intrastate rates, Verizon executives told an aide to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Monday (http://xrl.us/bmw8ne). The meeting responded to a petition for clarification by Windstream and Frontier, which argued that originating charges had not been touched by the order (CD Feb 14 p13). “We do not dispute these carriers’ expectation leading up to the USF-ICC Transformation Order that potential reductions in originating access charges may be addressed but at a later date,” wrote Verizon Vice President Maggie McCready. Nonetheless, reading the order so that PSTN-VoIP traffic is subject to interstate origination rates “strikes the right balance and is consistent with the Commission’s objectives to avoid applying the legacy access charge regime to IP traffic, and also to treat all IP traffic in a symmetrical manner,” she said. Were the commission to “reverse course now” it would “perversely” disincent the migration of customers to IP platforms, “in order for carriers to continue charging higher intrastate originating access rates,” she said. Comcast executives told Wireline Bureau officials Thursday that the order “plainly mandates that the default rates applicable to such originating toll traffic are the originating carrier’s interstate access rates” (http://xrl.us/bmw8rn). Comcast urged the commission “not to reconsider” these provisions, even though the impact on Comcast “will amount to several million dollars annually.” Also last week, Windstream met with Wireline Bureau officials to discuss estimated reductions in annual originating access revenue it would see if the intrastate origination fees were “flash cut” to interstate levels, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmw8jh). It’s impossible to determine the exact impact of proposed rate reductions, “because intrastate originating access for PSTN-VoIP traffic has never been in dispute and incumbent LECs have no visibility into what percentage of traffic interexchange carriers will claim is PSTN-VoIP traffic,” the letter said. Because many of its estimated revenue reductions relate to payments to competitive LEC affiliates, a recovery mechanism permitting incumbent LECs to recover lost revenues would be “insufficient,” Windstream said.
Inmarsat said U.S. regulatory decisions mean “significant uncertainty” about future LightSquared-related revenue. The comment came as Inmarsat reported Q4 revenue rose 24 percent to $362 million, and operating profit rose 18 percent to $203 million, from the year-ago quarter.
The FCC proposed fining a Miami resident $15,000 for running an unlicensed radio transmitter from a rooftop on 88.7 MHz, $5,000 more than is typical, after AT&T Mobility complained of interference. The proposed fine is higher because Jeffrey Darius showed “deliberate disregard” for agency rules by not stopping the transmissions after Enforcement Bureau agents warned him, a bureau notice of liability said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmw756). A separate bureau forfeiture order cut a proposed fine of $15,000 to a penalty of $1,500 to a man in Puerto Rico who ran an unlicensed radio transmitter there and showed he can’t pay the full penalty (http://xrl.us/bmw75u).
Apple views parts of FCC Internet Protocol captioning rules as “challenging,” a lawyer for the company reported telling Media Bureau Deputy Chief Michelle Carey. “We discussed Apple’s commitment to accessibility and the challenging time period given to video programming distributors (VPDs) to implement the requirements of Section 79.4(c)(2)(i) of the FCC’s rules.” A Monday ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmw6re) in docket 11-154 came after other companies including DirecTV and Dish Network told the FCC of hurdles in the new IP captioning rules. There are “potential difficulties” if software provided by VPDs must “comply with certain obligations in as little as six months after the rules become effective, while software and hardware provided by manufacturers and other non-VPDs need not comply until January 1, 2014,” the two DBS companies said in a recent filing in the docket (http://xrl.us/bmw6q6).
DirecTV said it wants Verizon Wireless and cable operators to provide unredacted and complete documents on the carrier’s purchase of advanced wireless services spectrum from the four operators to “interested parties” under FCC protective orders. “Although the Commission may gain access to the redacted materials through submissions made to the Department of Justice, private parties would have no such opportunity,” the DBS company said. “The Commission would then be in a position of making determinations about the relevance and significance of materials not in the record, which could run afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act.” DirecTV asked FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick and Media Bureau Deputy Chief Sarah Whitesell to “consider the precedent that would be set” if the agency lets an applicant “make unilateral determinations that certain information is not relevant to a proceeding or that Commission-imposed protective orders are not sufficient to safeguard confidential information,” said a Monday ex parte filing in docket 12-4 (http://xrl.us/bmw6pk). SpectrumCo partners Bright House Networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable discussed with the commission last week the types of data they retain (CD March 5 p17). That came as part consideration of SpectrumCo and Cox selling AWS licenses to Verizon Wireless.
A DirecTV unit is selling $4 billion in senior notes, the company said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmw6ne). It’s issuing $1.25 billion of 2.4 percent bonds due in 2017, $1.5 billion at 3.8 percent due in 2022, and $1.25 billion of 5.15 percent due in 2042, it said. DirecTV may use the money to buy back stock, it said.
Lack of access to fiber networks may jeopardize the target set by European Commission Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes for half of households to have ultra-fast broadband by 2020, a report for the European Competitive Telecom Association found. The survey of 17 European countries found that rollout of “next generation” vDSL networks to allow higher speeds is relatively widespread in some areas but that take-up is poor, with fewer than one in five homes using the available services, ECTA said. The report suggested this could be due to a lack of effective enforcement of the EC recommendation on next-generation fiber access which requires dominant players to open their networks to rivals. The findings suggest competitors haven’t had equivalent access to those networks as they're upgraded, and that wholesale prices for fiber-based access have only been set in a few cases, the association said. This creates the potential for broadband markets to be foreclosed to alternative providers in a similar way to what occurred when broadband services first became available, it said. The study recommended that national regulators apply the EC access recommendation more rigorously; and that the EC provide clear guidance on pricing rules and non-discrimination in its upcoming statement on those issues. It also said national telecom regulators should be given more assistance on technical specifications for access to fiber networks; and that those authorities should ensure that access is provided at cost-based rates except where the EC recommendation allows otherwise. ECTA said its news release represents the views of alternative operators, not those of members with incumbent interests.
The FCC should not give any weight to a recently updated report by Travis Longcore of the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles and other scientists on bird deaths caused by wireless towers, said an industry coalition in an FCC ex parte letter. The Longcore report was filed as the FCC wraps work on a Final Programmatic Environmental Analysis (FPEA) of avian deaths and towers, which could lead to rule changes aimed at curbing deaths, noted the letter from CTIA, NAB, PCIA and the National Association of Tower Erectors (http://xrl.us/bmw28w). “It is our understanding that the Commission is in the final stages of preparing for the release of its FPEA,” the letter said. “It is also our understanding that the Commission will not be releasing for comment the revised Longcore et al. paper. It would, however, be inherently arbitrary and capricious for the Commission to place uncritical reliance on this filing, submitted long after the eleventh hour, in finalizing the FPEA.” The industry coalition said it submitted a report last year by Environmental Resources Management pointing to flaws in the earlier version of the Longcore report.
The FCC established a streamlined pleading cycle on the transfer of control of SureWest communications to Consolidated Communications Holdings, said a public notice Monday (http://xrl.us/bmw28j). Consolidated announced its acquisition of the California-based communications company last month. Comments are due March 19; replies March 26.