Galaxy Broadband Communications deployed the Hughes HX System 4.0 to provide IP networks for resource, government and enterprise markets in North America. Galaxy, based in Canada, bought a Hughes HX gateway and HX90 and HX200 satellite terminals, Hughes said in a press release (http://bit.ly/18vaehK). With the addition of the HX System 4.0, Galaxy is expanding its existing Ku-band services in Canada and the U.S., “as well as adding a new Ka-band service covering the resource-rich areas of Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador,” Hughes said.
Sony is still working to get distribution for its coming portable wireless server (PWS) in the “mass retail” channel before the device ships next month, Viviano Cantu, director-consumer media, said Wednesday. But Sony’s usual accounts in the specialty photo/camera channel already agreed to carry the device, model WG-C10, he said. The mass retail channel includes retailers such as Best Buy and Target. The PWS was unveiled with little fanfare at CES early this year. At the time, Sony said it would ship a version of the device at $89.99. But the company will also field the device bundled with a 16-GB SD memory card at $99.99, Cantu said Wednesday. The device features no onboard memory, he said. The device gives consumers new options for storing and sharing content from mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and PCs, said Sony. The WG-C10 also serves as a battery charger and card reader/writer, giving users added control when managing data including photos, videos, music files and office documents, it said. The PWS can connect several devices at one time via Wi-Fi, allowing up to eight users to simultaneously share and play back different content on their mobile device, it said. One scenario where the device would come in handy is when a smartphone’s memory is full and the user can’t upload photos to Facebook from the camera, said Cantu. Via a wireless connection, users can transfer content to and from smartphones, tablets or PCs, and the PWS also lets users easily expand the storage capacity of their mobile device by using a memory card, said Sony. The PWS also functions as a back-up power source for mobile devices or cameras, said Sony. The device can be used for up to 10 hours of continuous operation on a full charge, said Cantu. It also becomes a Wi-Fi memory card reader/writer, which he said is a convenient option for smartphones or tablets that don’t have memory card slots, like iPhones and iPads. All controls are managed by a smartphone or tablet via the free PWS Manager app that’s available for download through Google Play or the Apple App Store, said Sony.
The media ownership study that prompted a pause in approving FCC rules may be done soon, said the head of the group paying for the research on cross-ownership’s impact on minority ownership. The research has been completed and is being peer-reviewed, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig told us Tuesday. “We're hoping to get it finished and published before the end of this week, but you never know,” he said. “It’s that close to done.” Then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in February paused a vote on ownership rules to give time for MMTC to do the study, and Friday the agency released a study design on barriers to entry, research that a public notice said relates to ownership rules (CD May 29 p2). MMTC had expected the research to be given to the agency Wednesday, said a May 2 filing in docket 09-182 (http://bit.ly/12iVzVE). It said the reviewers are professors Philip Napoli of Fordham University, Allen Hammond of the Santa Clara School of Law and Jannette Dates, ex-dean of Howard University’s School of Communications. NAB continues to think “modest reform of media ownership rules -- many of which stem from the 1970s -- are warranted,” an association spokesman told us. “As the events of Superstorm Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombing and the Oklahoma tornadoes have proven, local broadcasting still matters, and it’s time to adopt ownership rules that allow radio and TV stations to remain competitive with national pay media providers.”
SES and Intelsat urged the FCC not to expand the use of unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) devices in the 5.9 GHz band as proposed in the commission’s NPRM to amend Part 15 rules on operations of such devices. The FCC should “defer consideration of any such expansion until additional analysis of the impact on C-band FSS uplinks has been completed,” they said in joint comments in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/12OY391). The NPRM fails to take into account the need to ensure that conventional C-band fixed satellite service operations in spectrum immediately adjacent to the 5.9 GHz band “are not subject to harmful interference from U-NII devices,” they said: Protection of C-band satellite services is essential “given the importance of, and investment in, those services,” they said. “Conventional C-band FSS serves as the backbone for distribution of media content globally.” The FCC must ensure that FSS investment and services aren’t stranded “as a result of any actions taken to expand capacity for U-NII devices,” they said. Globalstar urged the commission to maintain its prohibition on outdoor operations in the U-NII-1 band at 5150-5250 MHz “and ensure that Globalstar’s feeder link operations at 5096-5250 MHz are protected from harmful interference,” it said in its comments (http://bit.ly/117XjKO). Globalstar said it supports most of the NPRM’s proposals, including the proposed revisions to the operating rules for U-NII-2A and U-NII-3 devices, “as well as the commission’s proposal to make available an additional 195 MHz of spectrum for use by U-NII devices,” it said.
Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter asked acting FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn in a letter sent Wednesday to keep wireless issues and spectrum clearly in her sights during her period heading the agency. “Nowhere in the FCC’s domain is the opportunity more vast, the need so urgent, and the right policy so vital to achieving demonstrable results for the U.S. economy, consumers and the continued global leadership of American innovators,” Spalter wrote. Topping Mobile Future’s wish list is advancing spectrum auctions. “The FCC must move aggressively in its efforts to advance timely, well-executed spectrum incentive auctions and rules for the 65 MHz of spectrum that the Spectrum Act requires be auctioned and licensed prior to February 2015,” the letter said. “These rules must maximize the amount of spectrum to be reallocated and guarantee that all qualified entities are able to participate. With spectrum exhaust already threatening cities around the country, delay is not an option.” Spalter also discussed the need to repurpose federal spectrum to commercial and to look for other vehicles for making more spectrum available for wireless broadband. “As President [Barack] Obama has made clear, it is essential that excess government spectrum be reallocated to help expand mobile broadband for American consumers,” he wrote. “The FCC serves a vital role in this process. The FCC, in conjunction with NTIA, should initiate proceedings to establish commercial operating rules for federal spectrum already specified, and to identify additional government spectrum for reallocation."
Acacia Research’s suit against Huawei and ZTE alleging infringement of Access Co.’s PalmSource patents is scheduled for trial in mid-2014 in U.S. District Court, Marshall, Texas, said Acacia President Matthew Vella at the Cowen and Co. investor conference Wednesday in New York. Acacia reached agreement with Access in 2010 to license PalmSource patents to cellphone suppliers and has since generated “in the nine digits” of gross revenue through settlements and licensing pacts, he said. Among the five patents at the heart of the Huawei-ZTE suit was one granted Palm in 2002 covering a method for displaying and manipulating multiple calendars on a personal digital assistant (PDA). Palm’s PalmPilot was among the first PDAs when it was introduced in the mid-1990s. A second patent issued in 2010 described a method for making a phone call from an electronic device with an address list. Acacia, which gets about 40 percent of a given settlement, has licensed PalmSource IP to Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung and others, Vella said. Access, best known for its NetFront Internet browser, paid $325 million in 2005 for PalmSource, which was spun off from Palm two years earlier. At the time, analysts questioned the value of PalmSource’s IP. Acacia is taking a similar approaching to licensing 4G LTE technology it acquired in buying Adaptix last year for $160 million. It has licensing pacts with Microsoft and Samsung so far, Vella said. Among Adaptix’s more than 130 issued patents are those covering broadband orthogonal frequency division multiple access technology dealing with channel allocation as well as multiple-input and multiple-output IP. Acacia bought Adaptix from Baker Capital. Acacia has 257 patents under license and typically approaches negotiations for 5-7 portfolios containing 10-20 patents each, Vella said. Acacia expects to typically generate a return on its investment in the patents within 18 months, he said.
Correction: NCTA corrected that it and CEA’s estimate of pay-TV companies’ voluntary set-top box energy conservation annual residential electricity savings is $1.5 billion (CD May 29 p13).
Nokia asked the International Trade Commission to block imports of several HTC smartphone models that allegedly infringe its patents. The May 23 complaint said the allegedly infringing models include the HTC One S, One V, One X, Evo 4G LTE, Droid Incredible 4G LTE, Droid DNA, One X+, One VX, First and One. Nokia requested cease-and-desist and limited exclusion orders barring imports of the cellphones. It also asked that the limited exclusion order block imports of components of the infringing cellphones, such as chipsets, to prevent evasion of any import ban. Nokia had no immediate response.
Pandora isn’t weighing an increase in the annual subscription price in the “short term,” but it’s “definitely a conversation we're having internally” as the company seeks balance with ad revenue, Chief Financial Officer Michael Herring said Wednesday at the Cowen and Co. investor conference in New York. Pandora is considering a fee for a “small segment” of content or live streaming, charging for something that “creates a customized user experience,” Herring said. Most of Pandora’s 70 million listeners use the free music service, with about 2.5 million paying a $36 annual subscription fee. In releasing earnings last week, Herring left the door open to increasing the fee as a hedge against rising content costs (CD May 28 p10). Pandora paid 64 percent of fiscal Q1 revenue for royalty fees to musicians and copyright holders, the CFO said Wednesday. Pandora’s user interface is or will be available in 90 vehicles, the bulk of which will go on sale in 2014-2015, he said. About 10-20 percent of Pandora’s listeners access the service through smartphones connected to a vehicle’s Bluetooth or auxiliary jack, he said. With the arrival of Wi-Fi-equipped vehicles expected from General Motors and other automakers in 2015, Pandora will be more easily accessible, Herring said. In the first year of availability, wireless will likely have a “single-digit” percentage install base in vehicles, Herring said Wednesday. Pandora expects the number of users bumping up against the company’s 40-hour monthly limit on listening will remain “steady” at 3-4 percent of the total base, or about 3 million users in fiscal Q1, Herring told us. Heavy users went past the cap in “a matter of days” after Pandora started imposing the limit earlier this year, Herring said. In the cases where there were multiple users on a single account, Pandora worked to set up separate registrations to lessen some listeners’ chances of surpassing the monthly limit, Herring said. Pandora also is relying on when the service times out due to inactivity to help with avoid having users go over the limit, he said. The subscription-based service times out after three hours, while streaming ends after 1.5 hours of inactivity, Herring said. Pandora is adding software this week that allows users to monitor timeout settings, he said. Pandora, in seeking to increase ad revenue, may eventually seek to double the amount of audio spots that air with the service to three minutes per hour, against the 13-15 minutes common with broadcast radio, Herring said at the conference. “In the right context, certainly that’s a possible outcome.” Pandora has fully integrated Triton Digital’s national and local audience measurements with Strata’s and Media Ocean’s ad media planning and buying software, the latter having come on line in April.
New Skies Satellites seeks modification of the terms of U.S. market access for its NSS-806 satellite. The Netherlands-based company plans to relocate the satellite to 47.5 degrees west “and authorize flexibility to repoint the satellite’s steerable Ku-band spot beam,” said its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/117GdN1). Production & Satellite Services separately requested commission authority to operate a transmit-receive temporary-fixed earth station for the purpose of transmitting video programming, including news and entertainment from various locations to its customers (http://bit.ly/13iIg2M).