The FTC released a graphic to provide parents with information about mobile apps directed to kids (http://1.usa.gov/10UHCJF), using information from last year’s report on kids apps (CD Dec 10 p9). The graphic warns parents that apps might -- without notifying parents -- collect children’s information, allow children to make in-app purchases, show children advertising or link to social media accounts. It also suggests that parents interact with the app with their children or alter devices’ settings to prevent children from using certain apps.
The District of Columbia’s Office of Unified Communications stands to benefit from the city’s FY 2014 budget. The budget’s Capital Improvements Plan designates “more than $35 million for equipment upgrades at OUC to ensure that these resources remain state-of-the-art, which will include enhanced 9-1-1 service,” the budget notes. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray sent the budget to the City Council Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/11Ro6QP). The budget includes other upgrades slated to happen around the city and describes how “over $20 million will be invested in technology upgrades at schools and in information systems to track progress of over 100,000 students.”
The decision by Germany’s telecom regulator to raise the rent for unbundled local loops (ULL) from the main distribution frame to the street cabinet by $0.62 a month will cause investors to lose millions, the VATM (German Competitive Carriers Association) said Thursday. The incentives set by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) to encourage broadband rollout aren’t enough, the organization said in a translated statement. Deutsche Telekom will receive millions of euros for its own broadband expansion in the already well-supplied and competitive regions where access to the ULL is especially important, it said. For the average customer, and the federal government’s ambitious broadband targets, “this is a very black day,” said VATM President Peer Knauer. Monthly rental fees for DT rivals for access to the last mile will go from 10.08 to 10.19 euros (14 cents). The price increase for the more than nine million rented ULL connections at the main distribution frame isn’t balanced by the marginal price reduction for the 140,000 local loops leased at the street cabinet level, VATM said. BNetzA’s decision will hurt competition and infrastructure investors, and is an “inexplicable U-turn away” from giving investors planning security, Knauer said. The regulator’s reasoning is hard to understand, VATM said. Instead of using real costs as a basis, as VATM advocates, BNetzA based its order on “fictional replacement costs of old copper wires” that were written off long ago and other miscalculations, it said. An economically reasonable ULL price would fall at least 30 percent below the current charges, it said. The decision holds “dire consequences” for any further broadband investment, it said. DT has already announced that it will focus on buildout in cities, for which it receives additional millions in revenue, it said. Companies that only invest in fiber deployment into the home without renting a local loop only profit in theory, it said. In practice, cable operators set the lowest price, so artificially high resale products, as approved by BNetzA, no longer protect against imminent price collapse and trigger no new investment, it said. The VATM urged the regulator to create an investment-friendly environment, stop focusing on “individual showpieces, beacons and town centers,” and help citizens outside metropolitan areas. Customers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for higher loop prices through taxes that fund those projects and universal service obligations that will pass the higher charges on to them, VATM said. It urged the regulator to start a dialogue with market players on a modern investment scheme. This is the first ULL price rise in 14 years, a DT spokesman told us. “This is a good and important signal for further investment in high-speed infrastructure.”
The U.K. Office of Communications set out how it will deal with competition problems in the provision of leased lines. Such lines offer dedicated symmetric transmission capacity between fixed locations, and their overall value exceeds £2 billion ($3 billion) per year, it said in a statement Thursday (http://xrl.us/borjzt). They're important for business communications and support a range of applications in the public and private sector. They also play a significant role in delivering fixed and mobile broadband services to consumers because communications providers (CPs) use them extensively in their networks, Ofcom said. BT is still by far the largest wholesale supplier of leased lines, and most CPs rely on its network to provide services to their customers, it said. The demand for leased-lines bandwidth is increasing, driven by rises in the penetration and speed of business and consumer data services, it said. Cloud computing adoption, the growing consumption of video content, and the rapid growth of e-commerce and Internet applications have all added to businesses’ bandwidth demands. Simultaneously, providers of consumer broadband services need steadily increasing bandwidth to support the growth in traffic from their end-users, it said. This trend toward demand for leased-lines capacity is likely to continue as companies seek more bandwidth and super-fast and 4G services rollout, it said. New technologies are driving down the unit costs of leased-lines bandwidth, and the number of services that use legacy time-division duplex technologies is falling, although they still account for most installed leased lines, it said. Ethernet transmission equipment is now preferred in most new installations because it’s less expensive and supports higher bandwidth. The trend toward lower unit costs is evident in the growing adoption of wavelength-division multiplex (WDM) technology, which can multiply by several times the bandwidth transmissible in optical fiber, it said. WDM lets CPs aggregate traffic from different services and use fiber efficiently in their core networks as bandwidth demand rises, it said. Ofcom reviewed the retail and wholesale markets for leased lines, and found that BT has significant market power in retail and wholesale leased-line markets except for in Hull, where KCOM has significant market power. It considered, but rejected, making BT provide access to its ducts, poles or dark fiber, opting instead to set requirements such as providing network access on reasonable request, and not discriminating unduly against competitors. Some of the same conditions were imposed on KCOM. Ofcom also imposed new wholesale leased-line charge controls on BT services.
The ZigBee Alliance is presenting a public webinar to discuss the capabilities of the third ZigBee specification, ZigBee IP, which it calls the first open standard for an IPv6-based wireless mesh networking solution that provides Internet connectivity to control low-power, low-cost devices. According to the alliance, ZigBee IP expands the IEEE 802.15.4 standard by adding network and security layers along with an application framework. ZigBee IP offers a scalable architecture with end-to-end IPv6 networking that will lay the foundation for an Internet of Things without the need for intermediate gateways, the alliance said. The free webinar, “Introducing the new ZigBee IP specification for Direct Internet Connections,” will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. EDT and feature speakers from the industry, the alliance said. Advance registration is available at http://bit.ly/Xemxec.
Hedge fund Paulson & Co., MetroPCS’s largest shareholder, said Wednesday it “strenuously objects” to T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere’s criticism of opponents of the proposed Mobile/MetroPCS combination as “greedy hedge funds.” Paulson, which owns 9.9 percent of MetroPCS, said earlier this month that it will vote against the transaction based on the current terms of the deal (CD March 4 p8). Legere does not own MetroPCS stock and “wants the best deal” for T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, rather than MetroPCS, Paulson said in a news release. “If anyone is being greedy here, it is Deutsche Telekom by stripping out $15 billion of senior debt at above market rates and terms for themselves before the proforma shareholders get anything,” Paulson said. “MetroPCS shareholders are left with a subordinated minority stake in an over leveraged equity stub.” Paulson said it believes in carrier consolidation, but MetroPCS is worth more as a standalone carrier than combined with T-Mobile under the current deal terms. Deutsche Telekom should “significantly reduce the debt they are taking back and/or dramatically increase MetroPCS’s proforma share of the combined company” to win the support of MetroPCS shareholders,” Paulson said (http://prn.to/10agofI). Shareholders are set to vote on the proposed merger April 12. A spokesman for T-Mobile had no immediate comment.
Rules requiring closed captioning on live and near-live programming delivered through Internet Protocol take effect March 30 (CD March 26 p13), the FCC said. The captioning is a requirement of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, the FCC said in a news release (http://bit.ly/YEKxbo). The rule will apply to live or near-live programming that’s shown on TV with closed captions on or after March 30 and to programming that’s not in the IP programming distributor’s or provider’s inventory “before it is shown on television with captions,” it said.
The U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to enter its proposed final judgment in the Verizon Wireless-SpectrumCo AWS license transaction with no further hearings, a motion filed with the court shows (http://1.usa.gov/XcIL0d). “Entry of the proposed Final Judgment would terminate this action, except that the Court would retain jurisdiction to construe, modify or enforce the provisions of the Final Judgment and to punish violations thereof,” the motion said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau revised some inconsistent reporting deadlines, in an order Wednesday (http://bit.ly/XHy6We). It revised the deadlines for Connect America Fund intercarrier compensation support eligibility certification in Part 51 and 54 of the commission’s rules to coincide with the date when carriers must file their annual access tariffs. “Harmonizing the certification deadlines will remove unnecessary administrative burdens and will also remove potential conflicts within the rules caused by inconsistent reporting deadlines,” the bureau said. It also amended the Part 51 rules to “clarify the effects” of the USF/ICC order on National Exchange Carrier Association traffic-sensitive tariff pooling when carriers enter or exit the pool; clarified several NECA pooling requirements; and amended rules governing the transition of rate-of-return carriers’ intrastate switched access rates.
Radio industry revenue increased slightly to $14.3 billion in 2012, up 1.5 percent from 2011, BIA/Kelsey said. Online ad sales helped fuel some of the growth, said Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey vice president and chief economist. “Overall, the industry is still recognized as an important part of the media mix,” he said. “It continues to meander around, rising slightly with the rate of inflation but not keeping up with the economy,” he said.