Boeing will build four additional 702MP satellites for Intelsat’s Epic fleet. The satellites will deliver “reliable, affordable and high-capacity data transmission that Intelsat customers can tailor to their needs,” Boeing said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/Yx4Jta). The first Epic satellite, Intelsat 29e, is in production and expected to launch in 2015 to serve the Americas and the north Atlantic region, Boeing said. Intelsat 33e will be launched in 2016, it said.
House Republicans are still worried about the EAGLE-Net Alliance. Three lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser urging an audit of the Colorado broadband stimulus grantee and posing additional questions to ask of the project leaders (http://1.usa.gov/15tx4Gi). The project, tasked with connecting schools, is controversial, they said in the Thursday letter, signed by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon and Reps. Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton of Colorado. They questioned its finances and buildout, repeating criticisms from a February House hearing (CD Feb 28 p2) that EAGLE-Net has defended itself against. NTIA told us in April it found EAGLE-Net’s spending reasonable, when lifting a five-month partial suspension for problems with its environmental review process (CD May 1 p5). In the letter, the representatives ask about how many funds remain and are uncommitted from the $100.6 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant that EAGLE-Net received and about its plans for future buildout. EAGLE-Net will need additional millions and is seeking providers to partner with in a public-private partnership, it said this month (CD May 8 p12).
Contrary to what the FCC said in its NPRM on prison phone calls (CD Dec 31 p6), debit calling from an inmate’s account does not typically incur a per-minute charge only, the Prison Policy Initiative told commissioners in a letter Thursday (http://bit.ly/15txlsI). “Prepaid and debit calling almost always incurs account-based fee charges,” it said. “Although this increase in cost may not be reflected in per-minute rates, these fees drive up the real cost of prison telephone service.” Any “meaningful” regulation of the prison phone industry “must stem from a comprehensive analysis of the customers’ whole bills, rather than limiting the decision to addressing the high per-minute calling rates alone,” the group said. An attached report detailed the “kickbacks, rates, and hidden fees in the jail and phone industry” (http://bit.ly/15txI6w).
Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR) released a draft of its first national broadband plan Thursday for public consultation (http://bit.ly/12hs1nt). The plan, developed by Analysys Mason and other global telecom and technology experts, provides guidelines for Qatar to take in order “realize the potential that broadband technology can bring,” Analysys Mason said in a news release. The plan will align with other national programs and events, including Qatar’s National ICT Plan 2015 and the FIFA World Cup, which Qatar will host in 2022. Analysys Mason said it has previously worked on national broadband plans in Australia, Brunei, Ireland, Malta, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and the U.K. The company has also worked with the European Commission on its Digital Agenda for Europe initiative.
Because the FCC has not clarified the proper usage of incremental Connect America Fund support, the Wiggins Telephone Association now faces “significant hurdles” in its project to use stimulus funds to build fiber to the premises to about 450 homes and 40 businesses, it told the FCC in a letter Thursday (http://bit.ly/15twaJC). WTA got a $2.1 million Broadband Initiatives Program award and $2.2 million loan from the Rural Utilities Service in 2009. It intended to bring broadband to unserved communities in northeast Colorado, serving 264 census blocks. “The viability of this project has been jeopardized,” WTA said. The FCC needs to clarify that incremental CAF support to price cap carriers “should not be used in areas to be served by Stimulus awardees,” it said. Otherwise, CenturyLink has indicated it would use CAF Phase I support to build out in 72 of the 264 census blocks, WTA said. “Even though the CAF Phase I requires price cap carriers to certify that funds are used in unserved areas, without excluding stimulus award areas, the rules do not account for areas that are in the process of being constructed,” it said.
NARUC has several concerns about the FCC’s recent decision to give VoIP providers direct access to numbers, it told Wireline Bureau officials Thursday (http://bit.ly/17OVxDj). Members of NARUC’s “State Call Group” said they were “surprised” and “concerned” by the decision to hold trials. It’s “imperative” that states be given access to the numbering databases in order to verify the accuracy of information submitted by any VoIP trial participants, NARUC said. NARUC also questioned the duration of the test -- “too short” given the amount of time needed to activate new local routing number codes; and the scope of the trial, which will “not allow most States to have any real world experience dealing with the VoIP carriers directly,” it said. During the trial, end users should not be allowed to select numbers from any exchange area without regard for where the end user is located, NARUC said. Finally, states need a “comprehensive list” of which LECs or other numbering partners from whom the VoIP providers are getting their numbers, NARUC said. NARUC also had several questions on the details of the trials, such as when a VoIP provider would be required to return numbering resources, how the geographic scope of the trial will be determined, and whether VoIP carriers will be responsible for intercarrier compensation on the same basis as LECs and others, it said.
Dish Network owned $592 million in “derivative financial instruments” connected to Sprint Nextel’s stock as of May 1, along with $75 million in Sprint shares as of March 31, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/12hmOvS). Dish made a preliminary bid to buy 68 percent ownership in Sprint for $25.5 billion (CD April 16 p1); Sprint is still considering that offer, but its shareholders are set to vote June 12 on an earlier $20.1 billion bid from SoftBank that would give it 70 percent ownership. Dish said it also owned $950 million in Clearwire debt at the end of Q1. Clearwire shareholders plan to vote May 21 on whether to accept Sprint’s bid to buy remaining ownership of the company for about $2.97 per share, for an estimated total of $2.2 billion; Dish later made a counteroffer of $3.30 per share for the Clearwire stock.
There are 10 billion connected devices in the market today, creating the “Internet of Everything,” and there will be 30 billion in the market by 2020, ABI Research said in a release Thursday (http://bit.ly/13kyX4i). The growth of connected devices is due to “bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, cellular, radio frequency identification, and many other wireless technologies,” and the growth of the market will depend “on wireless technology becoming invisible so that the consumer will be oblivious to which technology is used and only know that it works,” the release said.
The FCC Media Bureau granted a Time Warner Cable petition Tuesday to exempt it from municipal rate-setting for basic-video and some other prices in eight Kentucky communities, said filings posted in FCC docket 12-1 (http://bit.ly/175Gg31). TWC’s petition cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The deregulation will affect just under 27,000 households, including the communities of Camargo and Clay, along with unincorporated areas of Laurel County and Webster County.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday he will leave the FCC May 17, after which Commissioner Mignon Clyburn will take over as acting chair. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, meanwhile, is also expected to leave next week, in advance of the chairman. “I expect continuity at the commission, the staff is not slowing down,” Genachowski said after the commission’s monthly meeting. “The commissioners are engaged, continue to be engaged. Commissioner Clyburn and I and our teams are working together.” The FCC next meets June 27.