UBS raised its 12-month price target for tower company Crown Castle to $59 from $51, citing site rental revenue and earnings growth and 20 percent annual growth in U.S. wireless capital expenditures. “We continue to believe the U.S. tower companies are well positioned to benefit from industry trends, 4G deployment by new and existing carriers, increased data usage and potential spectrum auctions,” UBS said.
Public safety had no choice but to agree to give back T-band spectrum (470-512 MHz) to win approval for public safety provisions in recently enacted spectrum legislation, consultant Andrew Seybold said in his newsletter. The spectrum is used on a shared basis with TV broadcasters in 13 major metropolitan areas for first responder communications. Public safety officials now have nine years to move to other spectrum. “The Public Safety community fought hard not to have to give back any spectrum during the negotiations that have taken place over the past two-plus years,” Seybold wrote. “However, at the eleventh hour some members of Congress added the requirement that Public Safety give back some spectrum as a condition to receiving the D Block and funding. The Public Safety community had no choice but to agree to this spectrum giveback for the good of the entire Public Safety community and to ensure that the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband system would have sufficient spectrum and funding.” Seybold is active in public safety issues at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials.
The future of the 1755-1780 MHz band remains uncertain, almost half a year after NTIA wrapped up a report on the band. The band is carriers’ top priority for reallocation for wireless broadband. Congress left language out of recently enacted spectrum legislation that would have required reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band for auction, following pressure from the Defense Department (CD Feb 21 p4). NTIA remains evasive about the band in a document slated to be presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) Thursday. A spokesman said Wednesday the report is set to be released in coming weeks.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The chances that Congress will pass some sort of cybersecurity legislation have improved in recent months, Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president, said Tuesday. “Hopefully we'll see something before the summer break and it gets into the election season,” he said. If legislation can focus on consensus items and leave longer-term debates for another day, the prospects seem good, he said. “I think there are better chances now than we've ever had before,” he said. He spoke on a panel on international cybersecurity at the German American Business Association and Goethe Institut.
If Republicans gain control of the Senate, free-market hero Jim DeMint could lead the Senate Commerce Committee after the unexpected announcement Tuesday that Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will not seek re-election (CD Feb 29 p14). DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina and the ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee, is next in line by seniority to replace retiring Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. DeMint is a staunch conservative and tea party favorite who marks a sharp contrast to the moderate Snowe.
Entercom Q4 sales fell 7 percent to $95.1 million from a year earlier, the radio broadcaster said. Profit fell 39 percent to $10.5 million due to lower sales and one-time losses on early debt paybacks and derivative instruments. Part of the sales drop was due to revamping the formats at some of its main AM stations, CEO David Field said.
ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure underlined the role of private sector contributions to the review of the International Telecommunication Regulations, at a preparatory meeting for the World Conference on International Telecom (WCIT) in Geneva. A new edition of the ITRs that date from negotiations of the World Administrative Telegraph and Telephone Conference in Melbourne in 1988 await approval by ITU member countries in Dubai in December. The ITRs establish general principles and provisions governing international telecom services.
The FCC Media Bureau gave a three-year extension to a waiver of its CableCARD rules sought by Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico and San Juan Cable, an order released Wednesday said. Each cable operator must file annual reports detailing its support and provision of CableCARDs, the order said. Last year, the bureau granted the same extension to Puerto Rico Cable Acquisition Corp. (CD Sept. 20 p13).
Public Knowledge, which has informally asked the FCC’s Wireline and Wireless bureaus to investigate usage-based data caps, is considering formally asking for an investigation, Legal Director Harold Feld said in an interview Wednesday. “The longer this issue persists the more likely we are to do it,” Feld said of filing a formal complaint.
Intelsat began selling its New Dawn Ku-band multi-channel per carrier media platform in Africa, the company said Wednesday. The new platform allows regional and international programmers to expand distribution of cable and direct-to-home services in sub-Saharan Africa, said Intelsat. It said Globecast will provide the ground and uplink services for the platform, which is based on DVB-S2 modulation and MPEG-4 compression.