New York City wired another 30 subway stations for cell service, according to the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) (http://bit.ly/Y7gPes). In a Thursday statement, Cuomo referred to the importance of riders’ ability to call 911. The expanded capabilities will allow Metropolitan Transportation Authority customers at these stations “to make and receive cell phone calls, send and receive texts and e-mail and access Wi-Fi underground,” his office said. AT&T and T-Mobile currently provide service in these areas, with Verizon and Sprint in talks to do so soon. New York City has wired 36 stations total, Cuomo’s office said. “Transit Wireless and the carriers are paying 100 percent of the cost of the project, estimated at up to $200 million, including the cost of NYC Transit forces that provide flagging, protection and other support services,” it said: “The MTA and Transit Wireless evenly split the revenues from occupancy fees paid by the wireless carriers and other sub-licensees of the network. Transit Wireless is paying MTA a minimum annual compensation that will grow to $3.3 million once the full build out of the network is complete.”
House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Pat Meehan, R-Pa., said Tuesday’s stock market flash crash was a good example of how cyberattacks can impact the U.S. economy, during a subcommittee hearing Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 140 points during midday trading Tuesday after hackers took control of the Associated Press’s Twitter account and posted a tweet that said: “Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” Meehan said: “While the Dow Jones Industrial Average recouped its losses, the lesson is clear: we are in an interconnected world, and a successful attack on one network will certainly impact others."
Comments are due May 24, replies June 10 on a March NPRM asking questions about initial rules to protect 700 MHz public safety spectrum and the adjacent D block from harmful interference as FirstNet moves forward (CD March 12 p11), the Public Safety Bureau said (http://bit.ly/ZwiYQQ). “First, we address technical service rules for the new public safety broadband network to be established pursuant to the Public Safety Spectrum Act,” the NPRM said (http://bit.ly/10DCPOK). “We next seek comment on the exercise of the Commission’s statutory responsibilities as they relate to oversight of FirstNet’s operations. Finally, we ask how to address different classes of incumbents now occupying portions of the spectrum licensed to FirstNet.”
Cox Communications, with a “satisfactory” business position, is among cable operators that are “mature,” said Standard & Poor’s. Data and commercial services growth will “only roughly offset mid-single-digit percent basic customer losses,” the ratings agency said Wednesday. S&P gave a BBB rating to $1.5 billion in notes from Cox.
TV station revenue rose 13 percent last year to $20.8 billion “mainly from over-the-air advertising and also from online properties,” a broadcast-industry research firm said Thursday. “Revenues accelerated quicker than we had anticipated and, overall, political advertising was the driving force,” said Chief Economist Mark Fratrik of BIA/Kelsey. “We expect the pace to normalize this year, but continue its upward trend to pre-recession numbers, in part, due to online revenues.” Stations have seen “growth of quality online video offerings that compete with other services,” said Fratrik in a news release. Last year, the value of stations sold rose 73 percent to $1.9 billion, as the number of outlets that changed hands rose 94 percent to 97, BIA said (http://bit.ly/11nIBQJ). It said that’s due to “strategic acquisitions of low revenue stations by broadcast companies anticipating the upcoming FCC reverse auctions,” and 2013 deal volume “is already ahead of last year and is expected to continue on this steady pace."
NASA extended its Facilities Development and Operations Contract with Lockheed Martin. Under the contract, Lockheed will continue to provide mission control systems services, development, maintenance and operations support, NASA said in a press release (http://1.usa.gov/17kzkg9). The company also will provide support for the hardware, data and display systems “used to train for and execute all human spaceflight missions supported by the Mission Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston,” it said. The period of performance is extended through Sept. 30, 2014, and the total contract value has been increased to $1 billion, NASA said.
A bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority bill should appear in the Senate by June, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a Wednesday hearing. Baucus, who announced his retirement Monday, also called for a renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance and serious work on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “I do intend to double down,” Baucus said, referring to the TPP, the topic of the hearing. “We're going to get this thing done.” Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Congress has yet to see any “real commitment” by the White House to secure TPA. Congress can craft legislation on its own, he said, but a formal response from the administration sends a “strong signal” that the president is serious about trade agreements. John Thune, R-S.D., questioned whether the Obama administration is “running the risk of holding up conclusion of TPP, if they continue to delay their request for TPA.” Karan Bhatia, General Electric vice president-global government affairs and policy, testified that while TPA isn’t necessary for trade negotiations to occur, “it gets harder to get closure on the very tough issues in the absence of assurance.” If “the goal is to close [TPP] this year, then we need to get TPA and we need to get it relatively soon,” said Bhatia, a former deputy U.S. Trade Representative. On TPP, committee members and witnesses stressed familiar concerns, including Japan’s potential entry. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., called it a “country that’s spent 80 years blocking our auto industry.” Senators also repeated calls for strong intellectual property protections in the TPP, especially in biologics. Hatch said TPP should include the 12-year protection rule, which is the standard in U.S. law. The Obama administration has not thus far agreed to push that standard in the TPP. “I'm concerned the administration is more preoccupied with placating various left wing interest groups than protecting innovators and content makers that create U.S. jobs,” Hatch said. David Hirschmann, president of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the Chamber of Commerce, testified that ensuring the 12-year standard in the TPP is necessary for the agreement to be approved in Congress. “U.S. negotiators should always start at the minimum in U.S. law,” he said. Strong intellectual property protections within the TPP are also important, since the agreement will likely influence the future of trade, he said. Countries like China and India are “watching to see what we do here,” he said. “So it’s good offense, but it’s also good defense.” TPP needs The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement strong intellectual protections without carveouts, Hirschmann also said (WID April 25 p8).
More consumers would use their smartphones as payment devices if there were increased financial incentives and mobile-based financial management tools, Accenture said Thursday in a report. The company said it based its report on the results of a Lightspeed Research survey of 4,000 smartphone users in the U.S. and Canada. More than half of those surveyed who do use their smartphones as a payment tool said they were also highly likely to pay by phone more often if companies offered them instant coupons for future purchases, reward points or preferential customer treatment, Accenture said. About 32 percent of those surveyed who didn’t use their smartphone as a mobile payment device said they would use their phone for that if they had the option to track receipts on the device or use it as proof of insurance. About 20 percent of non-users said they would use their phones to make mobile payments if they could receive preferential customer treatment, Accenture said. Consumer concerns about security and privacy remain a barrier to adoption; 60 percent of non-users said security was a concern, while 37 percent said they were concerned about privacy (http://bit.ly/XZddcr).
The FCC Media Bureau granted a Comcast petition Thursday to exempt the cable provider from municipal rate-setting for basic video and some other services in 14 Pennsylvania communities, said filings posted in docket 12-1 (http://fcc.us/15JY1o8). Comcast’s petition cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The deregulation will affect just under 8,000 households in communities including Berrysburg Borough, Elizabethville Borough, Hegins Township, Hubley and Lykens Borough.
MetroPCS said it will combine with T-Mobile USA April 30 after the close of business. The Wednesday announcement came soon after MetroPCS’s investors voted in favor of the deal with the No. 4 U.S. carrier. It got the approval from the owners of 80 percent of MetroPCS’s shares (http://bit.ly/14Sz5vc). The carriers have gotten deal approval from the FCC, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the Department of Justice. Shareholders agreed to T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom’s final offer, which will give them $1.5 billion in cash and 26 percent ownership in the combined carrier. DT’s final offer also included a lower amount of debt that will transfer to the combined carrier. Leading MetroPCS shareholders had been concerned the level of debt was too high (CD April 12 p11). The merger “is the best outcome for MetroPCS and our stockholders and will maximize stockholder value,” said MetroPCS CEO Roger Linquist in a statement. The transaction “adds valuable tailwind” to T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” strategy, said DT Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Höttges, to be chairman of the combined company, in a statement. “Together with MetroPCS, we will make considerable improvements to our competitive position with our combined state-of-the-art network” (http://bit.ly/XWVke4). MetroPCS had more than 3.5 million LTE subscribers at the end of Q1 -- 39 percent of its approximately 9 million subscribers, the carrier said (http://bit.ly/ZvSD5s). That’s an increase of 1.2 million subscribers on the carrier’s LTE network since the end of Q4. MetroPCS said it added a net 109,000 subscribers during Q1, slightly less than the 132,000 it added during the same period in 2012. The carrier said Q1 profit fell 7.6 percent to $19.4 million from the year-ago quarter, and sales rose 1 percent to $1.29 billion.