The House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee scheduled a cybersecurity hearing for Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will assess the security of the U.S. smart grid, a committee spokesman said. Witnesses haven’t been announced.
Gannett told investors Wednesday it plans to return $1.3 billion of its cash flow to shareholders by 2015. The company’s board authorized a 150 percent increase in its dividend to 20 cents a quarter, Gannett said. And the board approved an acceleration of its $300 million stock buyback program, now targeted to be completed within two years. Meanwhile, it said “the company will continue to evaluate bolt-on acquisitions similar to Fantasy Sports Ventures … but has no current plans to pursue sizeable acquisitions.” Gannett shares gained 4.2 percent Wednesday.
There’s no reason the FCC should believe the partnership between Verizon Wireless and four major cable companies would stop at those five companies, said DirecTV in comments on the proposed arrangement and related spectrum license transfer (http://xrl.us/bms78a). Just as Cox was allowed to join in on the deal after it was negotiated by the others, Cablevision or Charter Communications could join up and extend competition-related concerns, said DirecTV. The deal has already impacted the marketplace, with Verizon Wireless pulling back on plans to develop satellite TV and wireless broadband services for the home (CD Dec 8 p8), said DirecTV. The Joint Marketing Agreements those companies submitted were heavily redacted and hampered DirecTV’s ability to present concerns to the FCC, said the DBS company.
Q4 sales at Rogers Communications increased 1 percent from a year earlier to $3.18 billion. Sales at its wireless unit gained 2 percent to $1.8 billion, while sales at its cable division gained 3 percent to about $840 million. Revenue at its media networks gained 3 percent to about $430 million. The company’s net income fell 10 percent to about $372 million.
Disney’s WABC-TV New York asked the FCC for a waiver of interference rules so it can boost the power of its VHF signal to better cover the largest U.S. media market. WABC-TV operates on channel 7 and is seeking to boost its effective radiated power (ERP) from 26.9 kW to 34.0 kW, it said in a request for waiver filed with the FCC last week (http://xrl.us/bms68h). It also submitted a four-way interference acceptance agreement with the licensees of WBNG-TV Binghamton, N.Y., WWNY-TV Carthage, N.Y., and WXXA-TV Albany, N.Y., to address the expected interference to those stations that the power boost could cause. The application is the second time WABC-TV has sought to increase its power. In September 2011 the commission allowed the station to boost its power to 26.9 kW ERP after it reached interference agreements with the licensees of WNJB-TV New Brunswick, N.J., and WGAL-TV Lancaster, Pa. The new power boost application also complies with those agreements, the waiver request said.
Dish Network “discussed the possibility of a more accelerated buildout schedule than what it proposed in its applications.” The discussion came during phone calls with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan and aides, the company said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bms62o). The FCC is reviewing Dish’s application to use the 2 GHz S-band satellite spectrum for terrestrial services as part of the company’s purchases of DBSD and TerreStar. Dish’s application said it would commit to buildout schedules like those in the Sprint/Nextel and Sprint/Clearwire deals -- somewhere around 30 million Americans within 6 years. AT&T has filed in the proceeding saying the FCC should impose LightSquared-like conditions. LightSquared agreed to build out to 260 million Americans within 6 years of the transfer of control from SkyTerra to Harbinger Capital Partners, the transaction that created LightSquared. Dish also said it may accept conditions that would give other carriers access to its S-band spectrum.
The FCC’s proposal to pull LightSquared’s terrestrial authorization “removes the immediate threat of interference to GPS and to the productivity and efficiency of millions of GPS users,” said Deere during separate meetings with aides to FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn (http://xrl.us/bms567) and Robert McDowell (http://xrl.us/bms538) and officials from the Office of Engineering and Technology (http://xrl.us/bms56n). Deere also said LightSquared’s petition for declaratory ruling, which asked the FCC for clarification of the legal protections for GPS receivers, seeks to limit the rights of GPS users and would make broad changes not suitable in the context of a declaratory ruling.
The $115 million provided for next generation 911 in the payroll tax cut extension bill will be a big help for public safety (CD Feb 22 p1), Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen said. “I know the amounts of funding provided in the bill for all categories, including next generation 911 are less than we had expected or hoped for but believe they are still substantial and they will be very helpful in significantly improving public safety communications,” McEwen said. McEwen said he was at the White House Tuesday at an event where President Barack Obama said he would sign the legislation. McEwen also participated in a call later in the day between Vice President Joe Biden and public safety officials to discuss the spectrum provisions.
Due to failure of the T-Mobile purchase, AT&T’s board cut CEO Randall Stephenson’s 2011 pay by $2 million, an SEC filing said. The reduction includes a 25 percent cut in Stephenson’s short-term award, the filing said. That left Stephenson’s 2011 total pay at $18.7 million. AT&T continued its emphasis on pay-for-performance, with 92 percent of the CEO’s compensation and, on average, 86 percent of other executives’ compensation tied to performance, including stock price, the filing said.
The year 2012 will be good for the tower sector, said a Wells Fargo report Wednesday. Wells Fargo expected steady capital spending from the major carriers, led by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The industry is still in the early innings of wireless data consumption and 4G adoption, the report said. Towers play an “integral role” in supporting wireless data growth, the report said. Wells Fargo reiterated its “Outperform” ratings on American Tower and SBA Communications. Several analysts expected T-Mobile to sell its towers. The carrier declined to comment, a spokesman said. While T-Mobile doesn’t have 4G spectrum, it may begin to modernize its cell sites and get better efficiency out of its existing spectrum, the report said. That would be “a material change” from 2011 where T-Mobile spent limited capital following the March announcement of its plan to be acquired by AT&T, the report said. The “directional change” of T-Mobile is positive for the tower sector overall, it said.