Comcast’s Xfinity TV will host the Outdoor Channel on VOD, online and through the service’s TV player app, Comcast said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/11eQ4kP). The multiyear distribution agreement, effective immediately, is the first “TV Everywhere agreement” for an outdoor programming channel, said Outdoor Channel CEO Tom Hornish.
ATK received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support a surveillance data program. DARPA’s Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements program seeks to develop enabling technologies “to provide reliable surveillance data to the warfighter in the field, using small, low-cost satellites that are launched quickly to support the speed of military operations,” ATK said in a press release (http://bit.ly/YFQNKg). The company plans to transition advanced, imagery-processing algorithms used on unmanned aerial vehicles “to space and take advantage of the resulting higher-power processing to save size, weight and power, as well as cost, on satellites,” it said.
Cisco Systems asked the FCC to defer a decision on approving Progeny’s E-911 locator service for commercial use on the 902-928 MHz Multilateration Location and Monitoring Service band, saying in a filing released Friday that the results of a Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) Working Group 3 test of Progeny’s services against several other 911 locator services were “underwhelming” (http://bit.ly/11yaOVo). Progeny has touted the results of the CSRIC tests as proof it has the best service currently available (CD April 15 p5). But Cisco said “the only conclusion to be drawn from the tests is that much more work needs to be done to find accurate indoor location technologies.” There’s no reason for the FCC to make a decision on Progeny’s service, “as Progeny has yet to demonstrate that it can deliver reliable indoor location data,” Cisco said. Google argued in a separate filing that the “limited” field test reports Progeny has provided to the FCC do not allow the commission to find the company’s proposed E-911 locator service does not cause unacceptable interference to unlicensed users on the 902-928 MHz band. Those tests instead show Progeny’s proposed service causes “unacceptable levels of interference” for some Part 15 users, and fails to address potential interference for other Part 15 services, Google said. Part 15 users on the band include wireless Internet service providers and the E-ZPass Group toll collection interoperation company. “At a minimum, Progeny has failed so far to meet its burden of showing that its service will not cause unacceptable interference,” Google said (http://bit.ly/11vxUNy). Progeny said in a filing released Monday that it was “surprised” by Cisco’s claim that the CSRIC test results were “underwhelming.” Progeny said it has deferred to the CSRIC test process to “verify independently the capabilities of its service.” The CSRIC test results show Progeny’s service “was consistently able to reduce the area of first responder search rings by 90% (effectively a tenfold improvement) when compared to other E911 location technologies,” Progeny said. “Progeny’s technology was further able to pinpoint within 2 meters the vertical height of the calling party, potentially revolutionizing the speed of emergency response in large multi-story urban environments.” The FCC should rely on the “ample technical and policy record that exists” as it makes its decision, Progeny said (http://bit.ly/17e04Pf). Progeny said in a separate filing, also released Monday, that Bruce Olcott, a Squire Sanders attorney who represents Progeny, spoke Wednesday with Renee Gregory, an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Olcott told Gregory that the FCC’s decision on Progeny’s service should rest with the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology, particularly given the burdens that will be caused by the pending departures of Genachowski and FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (http://bit.ly/11eKDCG).
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) submitted revised study area boundary data to the FCC Friday (http://bit.ly/14JzIqW). The data details ILECs by study area code for which the UTC will be submitting files, it said.
BT is concerned about AT&T’s petition to launch a proceeding to transition its network from TDM to IP, BT told the FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/17JdWQ1). When BT considered shutting down its legacy network in the U.K., “better processes than a Section 214 notice of discontinuance were necessary for a candid and comprehensive discussion to take place” about the impact on consumers, it said. Contrary to the Bells’ claims, there is “no rampant infrastructure competition” in the U.S., and any competition at the application layer won’t eliminate bottlenecks at the infrastructure layer, BT said. “Why would existence of Vonage or Skype cause Bells to lower monopoly pricing on Ethernet or TDM access services?” it asked in an accompanying presentation (http://bit.ly/YGiSBi). The “lesson from Europe” is that intramodal and intermodal competition stimulate investment, and “sensible regulation targeted at bottlenecks” does not disincentivize network investment, BT said. BT also expressed concerns over special access, which it called “unaddressed monopoly power over last and middle mile infrastructure” that is “skewing competition in the global managed enterprise services market."
SES, Inverto, Abilis and MaxLinear designed a prototype device aimed at delivering satellite broadcast content to TVs, tablets, smartphones and computers connected to the home IP network. The IP low noise block (LNB) downconverter “will deliver eight concurrent channels from any of the transponders of a satellite orbital position,” SES said in a press release. The LNB feature is a crucial element of a satellite system, “receiving signals collected by the satellite dish, amplifying and converting them to intermediate frequencies to be carried to the set-top box,” it said. It also allows satellite distribution to the home over a single Ethernet cable, SES added.
The currently effective Access Recovery Charge (ARC) rates are “just and reasonable, and therefore lawful,” the FCC Wireline Bureau said in an order Friday (http://bit.ly/ZCHrz6). The FCC had directed NECA to file compliance documents showing carriers had reasonably determined the amount of their base period revenue for eligible recovery purposes, and new tariff review plans that give enough justification for their annualized projected demand loss for intrastate switched access minutes of use. NECA “provided sufficient justification,” the bureau said.
Q1 lobbying disclosure filings showed a big increase from the year-ago period at T-Mobile, and slight decreases at Sprint Nextel, NCTA and NTCA, those forms available at our deadline Friday showed. T-Mobile spent $1.3 million on lobbying, up 24 percent from Q1 2012. Sprint Nextel’s spending fell 6 percent to $666,000. NCTA spent $4.17 million, a 3 percent decrease. The NTCA decreased 12 percent to $150,000. CompTel’s lobbying spending of $139,000 was a 1 percent drop. TIA spent $50,000 in lobbying in Q1, a 44 percent decrease from the year-ago period.
Broadband for America cited a new study by Analysys Mason economist Michael Kende as another argument for “sustaining the light-touch regulatory model.” Voice interconnection rules are “ripe for an update” that will steer them away from their legacy roots and into the “21st century,” Broadband for America said Friday in a blog post. “As Internet and wireless services have developed, they have done so with less regulation than the PSTN at all at the hands of the federal government,” the group said (http://bit.ly/15ogrdz). Kende said in the study, released Wednesday, that “as voice communications rapidly migrate to the Internet and IP platforms, it is not appropriate to apply legacy voice interconnection regulations to IP voice communications because they are not needed and competition could be distorted.” The Internet’s multistakeholder approach is a stark contrast to the regulatory approach of PSTN, as well as “an instructive example of how an unregulated network can thrive,” Kende said (http://bit.ly/ZxVRnh).
Wireless carriers’ decisions regarding FM chips in cellphones “should be driven by consumer preference and market forces,” CTIA President Steve Largent said in a letter sent last week to Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind. “Determinations regarding the features and components for manufacturers and carriers to include in each device involve challenging tradeoffs and decisions about how best to meet consumers’ needs and desires.” Largent said CTIA agreed with House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden’s, R-Ore., “recent suggestion that negotiation and ‘mutually beneficial’ commercial arrangements represent the best way for broadcasters to advance their business interests.” Young had asked Largent to encourage CTIA members to include the chips in mobile devices (CD April 19 p16).