The Montana Public Service Commission wants to figure out what parts of the state lack needed broadband access. On Monday, the PSC issued a short survey it wants state residents to complete about their Internet speeds and access, due back May 1 (http://1.usa.gov/XGKLx0). The PSC is focused not only on residential broadband access but also on community anchor institutions that lack sufficient Internet access, it added, saying schools have struggled with access. “Commissioners said they have a responsibility to provide direction for future broadband projects in the state and said the PSC survey is an opportunity for all Montanans to weigh in,” according to the commission. The PSC said it doesn’t regulate broadband in Montana but has “instructed staff to begin discussions with CenturyLink, and other carriers if necessary, about extending broadband to unserved areas as part of five-year build-out plans.”
The FCC Media Bureau will open a filing window from April 8 to April 17, to permit specified Auction 83 FM translator applicants to de-select their noncommercial educational (NCE) filing status. The bureau rejected the argument that commercial applicants will be substantially harmed if mutually exclusive NCE applicants are permitted to de-select their NCE status, it said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/16u3ehq). “We find immaterial the fact that an applicant’s clear intention to seek an NCE station can be independently established by its specification of an NCE primary station on the tech box component of its Auction 83 application.” Applicants allowed to amend their Auction 83 applications include American Family Association, Tupelo, Miss., Connecticut Public Broadcasting and Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J., the bureau said (http://bit.ly/Z4E3mc).
AM/FM radio represented the largest share of music listening among consumers aged 13-35, at 24 percent in Q4 2012, but it’s losing its lead in the segment, slipping 2 percentage points from the year-ago quarter, according to NPD Group. Internet radio -- including subscription-based and free services -- grew by 6 percentage points over Q4 2011, to 23 percent of total music listening time, NPD said. In the same age bracket, among listeners who stream music, Pandora’s free version led with 39 percent listener share, followed by iHeartRadio (11 percent), Spotify’s free version (9 percent), Grooveshark (3 percent), Slacker (2 percent), Pandora One (2 percent), TuneIn (2 percent), last.fm (2 percent) and Xbox Music (2 percent), NPD said. Sixty-two percent of 13-35s who used streaming services reported an uptick in their usage for the period, and 51 percent said most of their music listening took place in their vehicle. In the 36-and-older age group, Internet radio accounted for 13 percent of total music listening, while AM/FM dominated music listening time with 41 percent, NPD said. NPD’s “Music Acquisition Monitor” also reported a decline in consumers listening to CDs and digital music files. In overall share of music listening, CD listening dropped 2 percentage points to 9 percent in 2012, while satellite radio and on-demand held at 14 percent and 5 percent. Music files saw a 1 percentage point dip to 16 percent of listening share versus Q4 2011, NPD said. More than half of Pandora and iHeartRadio listeners used their mobile phone to access those services, NPD said, and roughly one in five Pandora or iHeartRadio users are also connecting to those services in their cars, NPD said. The results were based on 7,600 NPD consumer surveys, with data weighted to represent U.S. population of Internet users age 13 and older.
Texas House Bill 1900 would give a video-tax break to 5.5 million families, the Texas Cable Association asserted Monday (http://bit.ly/Xbl6eq). That bill would provide “direct, ongoing tax relief impacting 15.3 million Texans, who pay some of the highest telecommunications taxes in the nation,” the association said. Its tax consultant testified to the Texas Legislature that the bill may offer the “biggest consumer tax cut proposal” of any in the session, given these high telecom taxes. The bill was introduced Feb. 26 and referred to the Ways and Means Committee in early March.
The FCC overstepped its authority and was unclear in some sections of its Rural Health Care reform order, USTelecom said in a petition for reconsideration and clarification filed Monday (http://bit.ly/17bc0lV). The commission should prohibit, rather than encourage, the “speculative installation and resale of excess capacity,” USTelecom said. Although the commission says such cost-sharing don’t violate the statutory prohibition against resale, the relevant statute “could not be any clearer,” USTelecom said: Section 254(h)(3) of the Communications Act explicitly prohibits selling or reselling by the user of telecom services and network capacity provided to a public institutional telecom user. “The Commission cannot save its unlawful ‘cost-sharing’ rule by attempting to create some distinction between ‘cost-sharing’ and resale,” USTelecom said. The association also wants the commission to reconsider its decision letting healthcare providers get support for “dark fiber,” which is “not a ’service'” and thus not eligible for support under the rural healthcare program, it said. USTelecom also asked that the commission direct any enforcement actions seeking recovery for current and past healthcare program violations solely at the responsible party. The commission should also clarify whether its rural healthcare competitive bidding rules include restrictions on gifts, meals and entertainment; and it should clarify the rules regarding broadband metrics reporting, certification and invoicing, USTelecom said.
The National Cable Television Cooperative reached agreement with the eScapes network that will allow NCTC members to carry the channel’s programming, which combines visuals of global landscapes paired with soothing music, said an NCTC news release Monday.
Family Worship Center Church urged the FCC Media Bureau to reject the American Family Association’s request for a waiver of the FCC contour overlap provisions. AFA wants to increase the power and service area of KPAQ(FM), Plaquemine, La., and be protected from interference from FWCC’s WJFM(FM), Baton Rouge, La., it said in its application (http://bit.ly/10v3bhr). AFA claimed that a waiver will allow KPAQ “to increase its overall coverage area by 1,729 square kilometers.” While FWCC agrees that the overlap area is small, “that smallness in this instant case is very misleading,” FWCC said in its objection to the application (http://bit.ly/13OGhrR). The interference will not only impact the residents in Baton Rouge, “but that same overlap area covers the junction of two major interstates, I-10 and the I-12,” it said. WJFM listeners most certainly will be impacted, “especially those with older cars or home receivers,” FWCC said.
It’s not yet been decided whether information collected on harmful interference, including deliberate interference to satellite systems, will be public or restricted to those with ITU credentials, Yvon Henri, chief of the ITU Space Services Department told us. He spoke to us on the sidelines of a U.N. space security workshop being held through Wednesday. The Radio Regulations Board last year asked the secretariat to use an existing system to monitor frequencies from an ITU perspective and not from an administration’s, he told the workshop. He referred to interference that appeared to be emanating from Syrian and Iranian territory that was affecting a number of international broadcasters. Henri referred to a regulatory provision that says: “Administrations shall, as far as they consider practicable, conduct [international] monitoring as may be requested of them by other administrations or by the Bureau.”
Iridium requested special temporary authority for a spare satellite and a co-located satellite. Iridium seeks a 60-day STA “to continue to keep spare satellite SV023 positioned in a parking orbit,” it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/12aJn8d). It also requested an STA for an additional 60 days “to maintain operation of an additional, co-located satellite in its mission constellation,” it said in a separate application (http://bit.ly/11hrS3E).
Intelsat proposed an initial public offering of more than 21 million common shares and a concurrent public offering of 3 million Series A preferred shares. Intelsat granted the underwriters in the initial public offering of common shares a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 3,260,869 common shares, it said in a press release (http://bit.ly/16tKM8E). The company said it granted the underwriters in the public offering of Series A preferred shares a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 450,000 Series A preferred shares.