As it facilitates the transition to IP networks, the FCC should take steps to preserve competition in the business market, Granite Telecommunications told an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday (http://bit.ly/10IPK1I). If ILECs remove copper without being required to give CLECs access to its replacement, “the type of competition provided by Granite would not be possible,” the CLEC said in a Friday filing recounting the meeting. Wireless and other forms of communications are “not an adequate substitute” for businesses, Granite said. Granite also expressed concern about AT&T’s proposed wire center trials, which “may interfere with the services Granite currently provides its customers in those locations.” Granite suggested that the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force focus on preserving competition in the business market. Granite has expressed concern that the trials would impact its existing business contracts (CD April 18 p3).
FCC rules permit CLECs working in conjunction with over-the-top VoIP providers to tariff and collect end-office switching charges, Inteliquent told FCC officials Wednesday (http://bit.ly/166K1FM). The Internet telephony company, formerly known as Neural Tandem, said it agreed with arguments by Level 3 and Bandwidth.com that AT&T has mischaracterized the core function of end-office switching in order to avoid paying end-office access charges. The commission must decide quickly, because “the lack of certainty hinders the ability of legitimate carriers like Inteliquent to compete, creates opportunities for other carriers to engage in arbitrage, and will lead to further litigation over access charges for VoIP traffic,” the company said.
Hughes signed Morsviazsputnik, the operator of Inmarsat’s mobile satellite services in Russia, as a distribution partner for Hughes broadband global area network (BGAN) mobile satellite products. The Russian operator will resell Hughes’ portfolio of BGAN products in Russia, Hughes said in a press release (http://bit.ly/YRpwKd). Hughes designs and manufactures a full line of mobile satellite terminals that operate over Inmarsat’s BGAN, “serving a wide range of mobile workers who need reliable, high-speed connectivity on the move,” it said.
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt is entering the cable business as a board member for NewWave Communications, Hundt said in an emailed press release Monday. Hundt is a strategic adviser at equity firm GCTR, which along with partner Rural Broadband Investments, bought NewWave last week. “Having been a regulator of cable and a consultant to cable, it’s great now to be an owner and part of a management team,” said Hundt. According to another release (http://bit.ly/14hOscl), GCTR and RBI’s acquisition of NewWave is part of a larger plan for the company to “acquire 300,000-400,000 cable subscribers in small-to-mid sized rural markets.” NewWave has about 90,000 subscribers in rural Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas, the release said.
Mobile payments provider Blaze Mobile said it recently won three near field communication (NFC) mobile payment-related patents. U.S. Patent No. 8,290,433 covers NFC mobile payments; No. 8,332,272 covers the combined use of NFC mobile payment and coupon redemption; and No. 8,275,312 covers Blaze Mobile’s “original NFC payment sticker,” the company said Monday. The patents will help Blaze Mobile “build great software and a compelling end user experience,” CEO Michelle Fisher said in a news release (http://bit.ly/YRgTiO).
AT&T distanced its 1-Gbps network plans for Austin, Texas (CD April 10 p10), from the announcement that Google Fiber will be building there. “That was not in response to Google’s announcement,” said Bill Smith, the telco’s president of network operations, at the Jefferies 2013 Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference last week. “We had a team suit up and had been, you know, developing that plan for some time. [Google] accelerated our need to go public with it a little bit. But we had been planning to do that.” AT&T issued a press release hours after Google Fiber’s Austin announcement, promising a gigabit network in Austin conditioned on receiving similar regulatory treatment as Google. Smith called Austin a “great market” with lots of high-tech businesses. AT&T doesn’t see gigabit speeds as “anything new” and has “had that tool in our toolkit,” he said. He doesn’t think people need gigabit speeds today or “in the near term,” he added. “I have yet to have a customer complain that our U-verse network didn’t give them the speed they needed.”
Satellite company representatives reiterated their opposition to the FCC’s proposed regulatory fees for the satellite industry. Representatives of SES, Inmarsat and Telesat endorsed objections previously made by the Satellite Industry Association to the proposals “that could substantially increase regulatory fees for satellite service providers,” the companies said in a joint ex parte filing in dockets 12-201 and 08-65 (http://bit.ly/15G6ZDQ). They cautioned against a suggestion that the FCC consider requiring non-U.S. licensed satellite operators serving the U.S. market to pay regulatory fees, it said. Such a change is beyond the scope of the FCC’s statutory authority and it could lead “to a proliferation of fees around the world that would have a serious impact on the economics of global satellite services,” it said. The filing recounted a meeting last week with staff from Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s office.
Clearwire shareholders should vote in favor of Sprint Nextel’s $2.2 billion buyout offer, Clearwire’s board said in a letter to shareholders Monday. Although Dish Network made a competing $5.15 billion bid, Clearwire said Sprint’s offer is the “best strategic alternative for all stockholders because it delivers fair, attractive and certain value.” If shareholders don’t approve the deal, Clearwire’s “options become increasingly limited and, day by day, the future value for stockholders becomes even more unclear,” the board said in the letter (http://bit.ly/17lYopt). Shareholders are set to vote on the Sprint offer May 21. Clearwire said proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) endorsed the deal last week. ISS had said the deal was fair and that Clearwire is becoming “increasingly unviable on a stand-alone basis” (CD May 13 p14).
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers has assembled a catalog of state mobile apps, it said Monday (http://bit.ly/13eI2YW). There are more than 160 apps for smartphones and tablets that “are searchable by state/territory, by category and through an overall browse function,” NASCIO said. It said topics include “public safety, health and wellness, public assistance, employee assistance, state portal, traffic/road conditions, parks and recreation."
The FCC International Bureau granted SES modification authorization for the AMC-2 satellite to specify operations at 80.85 degrees west, instead of 19.2 degrees east. SES may provide fixed satellite service, including direct-to-home services, to South America through AMC-2, the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/13eAF3H). SES also is authorized to do telemetry, tracking and command operations to maintain the satellite at 80.85 degrees west “with an east-west station-keeping tolerance of +/- .15 degrees using the following center frequencies: 3700.5 MHz and 4199 MHz, and 6423.5 MHz,” it said. EchoStar was granted a 60-day special temporary authority to do telemetry, tracking and command operations to drift EchoStar 15 from its authorized location at 61.5 degrees west to 45.1 degrees west, it said.