A spectrum report by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors supports provisions included in the payroll tax bill passed by Congress last week. “I've been working on changing the way we allocate spectrum for a long time, because a smarter system is good for our economy, good for innovation, and vital to keeping our cops, firefighters and EMTs safe,” said Vice President Joe Biden, announcing the paper’s release Tuesday. “The measure that Congress just passed picks up on many aspects of the President’s Wireless Innovation Initiative and will enable new spectrum to be used for innovation, to speed wireless communication, and to fulfill a promise made to first responders after 9/11 that they would have the technology they need to stay safe and do their jobs.” The Council’s report concludes that voluntary incentive auctions will ensure spectrum is reassigned from the lowest-value uses to the highest. Unlicensed spectrum complements licensed spectrum allocating some spectrum for unlicensed promotes innovation, the Council said. Federal funding for wireless R&D benefits the public, especially as it supports new technology for public safety, the Council said. President Barack Obama plans to sign the payroll tax cut extension including spectrum legislation later this week, the White House said.
Comcast said it will introduce four new minority-owned pay-TV networks. The announcement came a week before Comcast plans to submit its first annual report to the FCC on its purchase of control of NBCUniversal. The Aspire network will be led by Magic Johnson, and will be introduced this summer. Revolt will be run by Diddy Combs and MTV veteran Andy Schuon. El Rey, a proposal from Robert Rodrigeuz, John Fogelman, Cristina Patway and FactoryMade Ventures, will target Latino and general audiences. BabyFirst Americas was proposed by Constantino Schwarz and is a network designed for infants, young children and their parents. “We're already ahead of schedule in fulfilling the independent programming commitments,” Comcast made in connection with the NBCU deal, Executive Vice President David Cohen wrote on the company’s blog Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bmsygx). “We've also gone above and beyond in our commitments to enhance diversity in various areas, including governance, workforce recruitment and development, procurement, programming and community investment and partnerships."
Comcast said it will introduce an online movie and TV streaming platform called Xfinity Streampix. The service will give Comcast’s cable subscribers online, out-of-home access to certain TV Shows and movies from Disney-ABC TV, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Cookie Jar Entertainment. “Streampix is another step moving TV Everywhere forward by giving customers access to an even greater library of popular choices to watch,” said Marcien Jenckes, senior vice president and general manager of video services for Comcast. This year, the Streampix service will be available on the Xbox 360 and Android devices. It will come included in “many Xfinity triple-play packages, Blast!+ and Blast! Extra video/broadband packages and for $5 a month to customers of other Comcast video packages, Comcast said.
A Nebraska bill would hand over control of digital accounts to a deceased person’s next of kin. LB-783 (http://xrl.us/bmsydw) would give a personal representative power to “take control of, conduct, continue, or terminate any account of a deceased person on any social networking web site, microblogging or short message service web site, or email service web site.” The bill was proposed by Senator John Wightman on behalf of the Nebraska Bar Association to clarify the rights of representatives of the deceased, and it’s modeled after Oklahoma’s 2010 digital property management after death law.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied a petition to modify merger conditions it adopted in the 2009 Embarq/CenturyTel order, saying Tuesday the petition was procedurally and substantively flawed (http://xrl.us/bmsybj). In the 2009 order, the commission granted the merger request subject to specific conditions, including the continued delivery of CLEC service performance reporting upon request. The petition, filed by the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, requested a modification to require that all reports regarding state-specific service performance levels also be provided to the petitioners, and to the respective public service commissions. This requirement would help ensure that “all commitments are met and customers receive the protections contemplated by the merger approval,” the petition said. Petitioners also wanted quarterly updates regarding implementation of its commitment to offer retail broadband service to 100 percent of its broadband-eligible access lines within three years. The Wireline Bureau said the petition was procedurally flawed because it relied on facts or arguments not previously presented to the commission, and flawed “on the merits” because public interest is “amply protected” by the merger conditions in place. “We find that the opportunity for the Commission to request competitive LEC wholesale service data and the ability of competitive LECs to determine whether they are being discriminated against in the wholesale market provides sufficient safeguards against service discrimination in this instance,” the bureau said. “We also find that existing state requirements to make wholesale service data reports available to competitive LECs demonstrates the opportunity and ability of competitive LECs to monitor their own service and raise questions in regulatory fora where appropriate."
The FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus told public safety licensees they should make sure waiver applications offer all the information the agency needs, before asking for more time to convert their systems to narrowband operations (http://xrl.us/bmsx94). Licensees face a Jan. 1 deadline for private land mobile radio systems in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz bands to migrate to 12.5 kHz or narrower technology. Numerous local and state agencies have already sought a waiver (CD Feb 3 p5). Those seeking waivers should ensure that their submissions include or are amended to include “a definitive list of the frequencies for which they are seeking a waiver, a list of frequencies that will be relinquished (if applicable, e.g., if the licensee intends to migrate to the 700 MHz or 800 MHz band and relinquish VHF/UHF spectrum), and representations from all licensees covered by the waiver request that they have committed to take any actions that form the basis for the waiver justification,” the bureaus said in a public notice.
LightSquared missed a $56.25 million payment to Inmarsat that was due as part of a spectrum agreement between the two companies, Inmarsat said Monday. While Inmarsat has issued a notice of default to LightSquared, LightSquared said Inmarsat has additional obligations to fulfill before it is due that money. And an investor in Harbinger Capital Partners, LightSquared’s biggest investor, separately sued the hedge fund Friday over the investment in LightSquared. Within the first phase of the spectrum agreement, LightSquared and Inmarsat agreed to clean and swap their intertwined L-band spectrum in the U.S. Once completed, LightSquared was to pay Inmarsat $56.25 million, which Inmarsat said was due as of Monday. The agreement was signed in 2007. The default notice gives LightSquared 60 days to pay “before Inmarsat is entitled to enforce its rights and remedies under the agreement for payment default, including pre-agreed spectrum arrangements and termination of certain LightSquared rights under the Cooperation Agreement,” Inmarsat said. “Inmarsat and LightSquared have entered into discussions regarding the future of the Cooperation Agreement, but Inmarsat cannot provide any assurance that these discussions will result in any further payments being received from LightSquared,” Inmarsat said in a statement. LightSquared had a different take than Inmarsat. LightSquared “has raised several matters that require resolution before the first phase comes to a close,” it said Monday. “The terms of the agreement allow for additional time to resolve pending questions before phase one is complete and the final payment is due.” The FCC proposed last week to pull LightSquared’s terrestrial service authorization, severely limiting the company’s ability to achieve its wholesale wireless business plan. The FCC action also seemed to increase the likelihood of an investor suit against Harbinger, which has a substantial amount of its holding in LightSquared (CD Feb 16 p1). On Friday, Lili Schad sued Harbinger, seeking class action status, for investing too heavily in LightSquared and deviating from Harbinger’s original investment goals. Harbinger failed to disclose the regulatory obstacles to LightSquared’s business, said the filing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Arris said WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone will use its whole home media system which consists of a Moxi video gateway, a Moxi player and a multi-services platform that provides integrated multimedia entertainment around a subscriber’s home. WOW! will market the service as WOW! Ultra TV.
BlueHighways TV said it signed a carriage agreement with the National Cable TV Cooperative that will let NCTC members carry the network.
Evolution Digital said it signed a multi-year deal with the National Cable TV Cooperative to supply its members with low-cost set-top boxes, digital tuning adapters and TiVo Premier DVRs. The deal will let NCTC’s member companies get access to Evolution’s hardware and TiVo Premiers. “The outcome is an agreement that allows the independent operator to quickly deploy the latest technology for bandwidth reclamation and advanced set-top boxes and launch additional services,” said Marc Cohen, executive vice president of sales for Evolution.