T-Mobile filed at the FCC a list of counties, or parts of counties, it serves in which it can’t use triangulation to locate callers to 911. All made the list “because of insufficient quantity, density, and/or geometry of cell sites in those areas to support network-based triangulation,” T-Mobile said. The nine-page list (http://bit.ly/1beRGhZ) adds 62 counties to the previous list from 2011. The FCC’s 911 location-accuracy rules require carriers to identify callers with a defined level of accuracy on a county-by-county basis, but provide exceptions where dense forestation or the lack of triangulation mean those levels can’t be reached.
The FCC International Bureau dismissed Gogo’s request for special temporary authority to communicate with the Eutelsat 172A satellite at 172 degrees east in the 14.0-14.5 GHz and 11.7-12.2 GHz bands. That satellite isn’t authorized to operate in the 11.7-12.2 GHz frequency, the bureau’s Satellite Division said in a letter to Gogo (http://bit.ly/1bSYLor).
Time Warner Cable customers can now access TWC’s on demand and TV Everywhere services on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets, Samsung Smart TVs, Roku players and Xbox 360s, TWC said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1bQ3lnA). The TWC TV service allows customers to watch 5,000 on demand channels, and 300 live TV channels, it said. The service was already offered on iPhones, iPads, Android mobile devices, and computers.
AT&T’s $2 billion sale of its Connecticut wireline operations to Frontier Communications (CD Dec 18 p9) shouldn’t have a “material impact” on AT&T’s free cash flow, Credit Suisse said in a research note Tuesday. The assets being sold generate roughly $1.2 billion of AT&T’s annual revenue, which is less than 1 percent of the telco’s total sales, the report said. “While the deal in itself has little impact on AT&T’s financials, we view the move to monetize these fixed line assets as a small positive, as we believe the capital could be used to ramp Project VIP.” Project Velocity IP is AT&T’s plan to invest $14 billion in upgrades to its wireless and fiber network (CD Nov 8/12 p11). The transaction is “attractive” for Frontier, said Andrew Spinola, analyst at Wells Fargo, in a research note Tuesday. “This is a significant transaction, but FTR has experience with these types of transactions and should be well-positioned to manage the process,” Spinola said. “The transaction is also financially attractive as it improves the payout ratio, creates $200MM in synergy opportunities, and increases the scale of the business,” he said. UBS expects Frontier to implement its “local engagement and simplified pricing plans” in Connecticut to drive penetration higher in residential and small and medium enterprises, said analysts Batya Levi and John Hodulik in a research note Tuesday. “We believe wireless backhaul will be a growth driver” of revenue and free cash flow, “as most of the towers had already been upgraded,” while regulatory revenue remains relatively stable, said the UBS analysts.
Reports that Sprint and T-Mobile could merge have added a new wrinkle to one of the most contested issues on rules for the TV incentive auction -- spectrum aggregation limits, said NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan on the group’s blog Wednesday. “Let’s assume that the FCC is contemplating rules that would ensure that each of the top four wireless carriers has a reasonable shot at acquiring spectrum in the incentive auction,” Kaplan said (http://bit.ly/1bQPfWl). “What happens, then, if those rules are enacted, and Sprint and T-Mobile subsequently reach a deal to merge, but prior to the auction itself? Or, what happens if the two companies participate in the auction independently, benefit from competitive rules designed for them, and then merge with spectrum assets they wouldn’t have had access to had they merged pre-auction?” Kaplan, former chief of the Wireless Bureau, said the association hasn’t staked out a position on spectrum aggregation. But, he said “the rumors of a Sprint/T-Mobile merger seriously raise the stakes for the wireless competition issue; one that has already had more airplay than any other."
Even after completion of the IP transition, the wholesale wireline provisions of the Communications Act will continue to be necessary and important, Comptel told an aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Regardless of the technology used, “access to consumers is required” to ensure competition isn’t stifled, Comptel said. “It is not economically viable for competitors to replicate the ILEC network in its entirety,” the association of competitive providers said. “Competitors must supplement their reach” by “purchasing from large ILECs wholesale last mile access,” it said. The commission could speed the IP transition by “confirming that IP interconnection for voice services falls under Sections 251 and 252 of the Act,” Comptel said.
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile agreed to a spectrum swap involving AWS-1 and PCS licenses. The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on the proposal Wednesday. The companies are set to exchange 5 to 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in 153 counties across 47 cellular market areas, the document states. In 11 counties in Texas, Verizon would assign 20 MHz of PCS spectrum to T-Mobile, and would receive 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in return. Verizon would also assign 5 to 10 MHz of PCS spectrum to T-Mobile in another 34 counties. “Preliminary review of the applications indicates that, post-transaction, Verizon Wireless would hold 67 to 149 megahertz of spectrum and T-Mobile would hold 30 to 100 megahertz of spectrum in the 518 counties covering parts or all of 133 Cellular Market Areas,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1bdMlHJ). Petitions to deny are due Jan. 6, oppositions Jan. 16, and replies Jan. 24. “There will be no loss of an existing service provider in any of the market areas subject to these transactions,” the companies explained in a public interest statement filed at the FCC. “The VZW Licensees are using some of their Exchange Licenses to provide service to customers. The VZW Licensees will continue to provide service on exchanged spectrum or other spectrum currently held by Cellco [a Verizon subsidiary]. Similarly, the T-Mobile Licensees are currently using some of their Exchange Licenses to provide service to customers. The T-Mobile Licensees will continue to provide service on exchanged spectrum or other spectrum currently held by the T-Mobile Licensees or their affiliates."
Requests for an FTC investigation into Disney and Sanrio for their alleged noncompliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) were filed by the Center for Digital Democracy Wednesday, said a CDD news release (http://bit.ly/1kiHcpR). Neither company “provides adequate notice or obtains verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information about its child users,” as required by the FTC’s revision of COPPA one year ago (CD Dec 20 p10), said the release. “These two complaints reveal a pattern of disturbing practices that threaten children’s privacy and undermine the ability of parents to control how information is collected and used,” said Executive Director Jeff Chester. The complaints (http://bit.ly/1gGGHG3, http://bit.ly/19yAfN6) are directed at Marvelkids.com, a Disney subsidiary, and the Hello Kitty Carnival mobile app, a joint venture between Typhoon Games and Sanrio, said the release. “CDD’s investigations should spur the FTC to investigate both these companies, and also closely review how many in the online marketing industry appear derelict in complying with the updated COPPA Rule,” said CDD Legal Director Hudson Kingston. The two companies had no comment.
Gray Television agreed to buy KEVN-TV (Fox) Rapid City, S.D., from Mission TV for $7.75 million, Gray said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1jiJxDj). The transaction also includes KEVN’s satellite station KIVV-TV Lead. KEVN is the No. 2-ranked TV station in the Rapid City market, and Gray’s first “stand-alone full-power Fox affiliate,” said the acquirer. Gray has recently announced deals to buy other stations in the region from Hoak Media: An ABC affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the NBC affiliates in Fargo and MinotBismarck, N.D. The KEVN deal needs regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q1 or Q2, said the acquirer.
Update the E-rate program now, 26 members of the House told all five FCC commissioners in a letter dated Wednesday. The House sponsors of the letter -- Reps. Jared Polis, D-Colo.; Chris Gibson, R-N.Y.; Jared Huffman, D-Calif.; Don Young, R-Alaska; and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. -- sought colleagues’ signatures for a draft of the letter earlier in December (CD Dec 10 p10). “We ask the Commission for swift action to bring high-speed broadband to our students on an expedited basis,” said the final copy of the letter, advocating for school broadband speeds of 100 Mbps now and 1 Gbps by 2017. The letter included several recommendations, such as that the FCC should create an “update fund within the E-rate program to connect every school and library, particularly those in rural areas, to high-speed broadband.” The FCC should up its transparency and accountability and simplify its paperwork, the letter said. The agency has been in the process of updating the E-rate program in recent months, and President Barack Obama has also voiced support for updates, calling the initiative ConnectEd. A spokeswoman for DelBene told us the letter would have been sent to the agency Wednesday.