SES signed an agreement with BeyonDSL to distribute broadband in the U.K. and Ireland. The service offers download speeds up to 20 Mbps, SES said in a press release (http://bit.ly/11TsgVL). It uses Ka-band capacity on SES’s Astra 2F satellite at 28.2 degrees east, it said. The end-user terminals are provided by Gilat, SES added.
SoftBank will not raise its $20.1 billion bid for 70 percent ownership of Sprint Nextel despite a competing bid from Dish Network, said President Masayoshi Son Tuesday. There’s also no need for Sprint to increase its bid for Clearwire, he said. Dish’s $25.5 billion bid for 68 percent ownership of Sprint is “incomplete and illusory,” and its claims that its bid offers Sprint shareholders more value are wrong, Son said during a news conference. A Dish takeover of Sprint may not happen until mid-2014, while SoftBank is anticipating it could close its purchase July 1, Son said. U.S. regulators’ reviews of SoftBank’s bid are proceeding smoothly, he said, also confirming earlier reports that SoftBank had committed not to use telecom equipment manufactured by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE on the Sprint network. Dish’s bid, on the other hand, would be delayed because the FCC would need to “take a deep look” at the spectrum Dish holds and compare it with Sprint’s spectrum holdings, Son said. He said he plans to travel to the U.S. in May, in advance of a tentatively set June 12 shareholder vote on the deal, to win shareholders’ support (http://bit.ly/15Xe95J). Dish remains “confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that the DISH proposal is superior by offering Sprint shareholders greater value with a higher price and more cash,” a spokesman said. A combined Dish and Sprint would benefit from opportunities for growth that aren’t in SoftBank’s bid, and Dish will continue to work with the Sprint board’s special committee looking into its bid, the spokesman said. Despite what Son said during the news conference, there’s still a “decent prospect” that SoftBank will raise its bid for Sprint, and that Sprint will raise its bid for Clearwire, said New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin in an email to investors. Son’s presentation makes it easier for Sprint’s special committee to choose SoftBank’s bid over Dish’s, but it’s “by no means clear that they will,” Chaplin said. If Dish makes a firm bid for Sprint, it will be challenging to win shareholder approval for SoftBank’s current bid -- SoftBank may still need to improve its offer, he said. It’s “highly unlikely” that Dish will end up with Sprint, it’s “just a matter of how much Softbank has to pay in order to win,” Chaplin said.
Corrections: The name of Entravision’s chief operating officer is Jeffery Liberman (CD April 30 p1) … The name of the United Church of Christ’s policy adviser is Cheryl Leanza (CD April 30 p5) … Jeramie Scott, national security fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the cybersecurity executive order is a “one-way street” where the government provides cyber intelligence to the private sector, while the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is a “two-way street” where companies provide cyber intelligence to government as well as receiving it (CD April 29 p7).
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) said Tuesday it’s creating a Cybersecurity Subcommittee within its existing Packet Technologies and Systems Committee. The subcommittee will work to establish standards to facilitate expected levels of security in the “multi-party ecosystem,” ATIS said. It will also address emerging areas that may require network-based security capabilities such as cloud computing and machine-to-machine communications, ATIS said. The group’s Technology and Operations Council recently created a framework for cybersecurity design across multiple network technologies; the group also developed an “end-to-end” network topology separated with security zones. The new subcommittee will focus on further developing the topology, provide security requirements for functions in each scenario, and serve as a foundation for future efforts to validate network hardware and other areas, ATIS said. The subcommittee will also make its work available to assist the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s efforts to lead development of a voluntary national Cybersecurity Framework, ATIS said (http://bit.ly/ZxPkd1).
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission can have lower budgets in the fiscal years 2014 and 2015 because it’s losing authority over the state’s Wireless Enhanced 9-1-1 funds, PUC Chairman Todd Snitchler told the Ohio Senate Tuesday. “The FY14 proposed budget of $71,646,302 million is a 23% decrease from the FY13 budget of $92,978,316 million, and the FY15 proposed budget of $53,254,528 is a 43% decrease of the FY13 budget,” Snitchler said in his written testimony (http://1.usa.gov/100xRGD). The fund, which comes from a 25-cents-per-month wireless surcharge, was created in 2005, he said. Fiscal year 2015 shows an $18.4 million drop in the proposed PUC budget, he said. He noted that two state laws are transferring the supervision of the funds from the PUC to the Ohio departments of taxation and public safety. The PUC will stop administering these funds as of Jan. 1, 2014, where upon “Taxation will be in charge of the collection and distribution of funds at that time, currently an assigned responsibility of a Commission staff member,” he said.
Allied Fiber began building the second phase of its planned nationwide network of network-neutral, integrated dark fiber. The new phase-two stretch will ultimately encompass Miami to Atlanta, first by connecting the Florida section between Miami and Jacksonville to Valdosta, Ga., the company said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/12Xg3QW). There are 150 miles of fiber there, completed last year, that will connect the fiber to Atlanta. The overall segment of fiber from Miami to Atlanta will add up to 754 route miles, it said. The segment of the route will include 11 colocation facilities, it said. Allied Fiber hopes to complete the construction by the end of the year, it said.
CenturyLink connected two third-party data centers in the metro area of Jacksonville, Fla., with its fiber network, it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/12hcYqZ). Those customers “can now connect to primary or backup Internet service or long-haul data products using CenturyLink’s fiber optic network,” the telco said. The businesses now can use the company’s broader set of data products, it said.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism said it will hold a cybersecurity hearing May 8 at 9 a.m. in 226 Dirksen. Witnesses weren’t announced.
Cablevision agreed to sell “substantially all of the Clearview Cinemas theaters” to Bow Tie Cinemas, the companies said Monday. They said the acquirer, the oldest cinema company in the U.S., will be the largest such company in the New York market following the purchase of 41 theatres. Terms weren’t disclosed. Bow Tie will make a “substantial investment” on digital projection and 3D, point-of-sale technology and other outlays, the release said of the deal expected to be complete “in the coming months."
Version 3.1 of the Connect America Cost Model is available, the FCC Wireline Bureau said Monday (http://bit.ly/12dGcXS). Interested parties can use it to calculate costs based on a series of inputs and assumptions for Connect America Phase II implementation. Version 3.1 adjusts the default take rate from 90 to 80 percent for both residential and business locations, which results in lower cost estimates, the bureau said. It also makes minor adjustments to operating expenditure values, and revises the default assumptions for plant mix based on data submitted by the ABC Coalition. The model is at http://fcc.us/ZFpZwV.