Hispasat agreed to expand its broadband satellite-based network using Gilat’s SkyEdge II system. The system will support thousands of new broadband users “residing in under-serviced areas across Spain expected to join the network by the end of the year,” Gilat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/ZvRaJt). With the beam capabilities of Hispasat’s 1E satellite, “the network can boast speeds of up to 100 Mbps per 36 MHz transponder,” it said.
The FCC should follow “three precepts” in implementing the Connect America Fund, the American Cable Association and National Cable Television Cooperative told Wireline Bureau staff and an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday (http://bit.ly/10elt8S). The commission must: Ensure that no support is provided in areas where competitive providers offer broadband service; distribute support “efficiently” so that recipients only receive what’s necessary to ensure broadband service is provided; and enable competitive providers to have a “fair opportunity to participate in any reverse auctions,” they said. Smaller cable operators are upgrading to all-digital platforms and moving to DOCSIS 3.0 technologies, allowing them to offer new packages and higher speeds, the groups said.
The Maryland Legislature is considering tabling the state’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for a year and creating a task force to evaluate how to most effectively protect children from online advertising and tracking without harming Internet companies’ ability to innovate and offer services to children, said state Attorney General Doug Gansler during an Association of National Advertisers conference Tuesday. In addition to extending COPPA to Maryland -- allowing Gansler’s office to prosecute violations in the state court system -- the bill would also require websites directed to Maryland residents under the age of 13 to clearly label what content is advertisement. The ad labeling provision “got everybody worked up,” he said, speaking to a room of advertising industry professionals. Gansler told us tabling the bill and creating a task force is one of the options being considered by the legislature. Asked by an audience member what he thought about the Digital Advertising Alliance’s AdChoices icon program, which gives users more control over ads targeted to them, Gansler said he was not personally familiar with the program.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 797 Tuesday, making it Act 442. The bill proposes to “ensure continued broadband expansion” and 911 service to rural areas, also assisting 911 funding (http://bit.ly/WTXHQA). The law includes a provision exempting VoIP service and VoIP providers from Arkansas Public Service Commission regulation, which the American Legislative Exchange Council’s John Stephenson told us is a positive step embodying the “hands off” regulatory approach ALEC advocates. He directs ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force. The proposed legislation was filed March 5 and becomes effective Tuesday, the act notes in an emergency clause. “This act is necessary to expand the benefits of the 911 emergency system to all residents of the state for their immediate protection,” that clause reads. “Therefore, an emergency is declared to exist.” The clause lays out the scenarios of when the bill would become effective and what the Legislature should do depending on the governor’s decision -- if signed, it becomes effective that day, it said.
Companies should prepare themselves for a generic top-level domain “tsunami,” said Dan Jaffe, vice president-government relations of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), during an ANA conference Tuesday. Jaffe pointed to a number of “troublesome TLDs” -- such as .sucks and .wtf -- that are likely to have the “effect on forcing people to defensively register” their company names. “Unfortunately, ICANN, instead of making the situation better, seems to be taking steps that will make the situation far worse,” he said. It “is very, very far from clear” if ICANN will create a system of limited preventative registries, which would allow companies to register their names across all registries at once for lower fees, he said. Additionally, ICANN has failed to identify TLDs that are likely to be confusing to consumers, such as .car and .cars, he said; these are likely to confuse consumers, especially when they're being “dealt with by people who do not necessarily speak English. “ICANN’s self-imposed mid-April deadline for TLD rollout is “arbitrary and precipitous,” Jaffe said. “There is still time to avoid a major Internet derailment."
Liberty Media agreed to buy a 27 percent stake in Charter in a deal worth about $2.6 billion, the companies said. The deal will give Liberty Chairman John Malone and its president, Greg Maffei, a seat each on Charter’s board. Liberty reached the deal with existing Charter investors Apollo Management, Oaktree Capital Management and Crestview Partners, it said. Liberty may increase its stake in Charter up to 35 percent by 2016 and up to 40 percent after that, according to documents filed with the SEC (http://bit.ly/YmSEXc). The deal probably won’t trigger any FCC review because there are not license transfers involved, said a cable attorney not involved in the transaction. But local and state governments sometimes review transactions involving non-controlling interests and telecommunications operations, said the lawyer. A Charter spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to our query regarding whether any such review would be triggered. Missouri, one state where Charter operates, has no such statewide review for such deals, a spokesperson said. Stock analysts said they expect Charter to become a consolidator with Liberty’s financial backing. “Liberty has been looking for a use of its cash for some time and had previously not found any attractive assets at attractive prices,” Evercore Partners’ Bryan Kraft wrote investors. “John Malone has built the largest cable company in the world today” in Liberty Global, which operates entirely overseas, Kraft said. “Scale is important in the cable business, something that is clearly apparent to Liberty.”
Two more senators and 32 more U.S. representatives have sponsored bipartisan resolutions to oppose any proposals that would require terrestrial radio broadcasters to pay royalties to music performers, an NAB news release noted Tuesday. In total, four senators and 104 House members have signaled their support for the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 16) and (S. Con. Res. 6). NAB is “pleased so many lawmakers appreciate this partnership and stand opposed to any onerous new fees that would threaten the economic future” of U.S. radio stations, said a spokesman.
FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky implored public safety answering point operators to “step up” and “shape the change that’s coming, rather than try to put it off.” At a meeting of the National Emergency Number Association Tuesday, Turetsky touted the upcoming ability of carriers to send text messages to 911 centers, with the service available by May 2014 to all PSAPs that request it. PSAPs won’t be required to accept emergency texts, but “the ball is really in the PSAPs’ court,” he said. Turetsky understands there are concerns over costs, and new demands on 911 call takers, “but with all due respect, let me suggest that PSAPs that are hesitating need to ask another question: How can we afford not to move forward?” Turetsky also discussed the upcoming NPRM on improving the reliability of 911 services nationwide, based on several of the bureau’s recommendations, set for an FCC vote Wednesday. Those recommendations include requiring service providers to conduct periodic physical audits, maintain backup power and follow specific testing procedures, he said. “We must make our existing 911 infrastructure work well, even as we develop paths to migrate to NG 911,” which will improve system resilience and connections between 911 call centers, Turetsky said. The ability to receive texts, photos, videos and data will also give PSAPs improved analytic abilities, he said. Text messages have a better chance of getting through when voice networks are congested, and can be more easily prioritized, with several texts up on a screen at once, he said.
Broadcasters praised a Supreme Court decision not to take up ivi TV’s petition for certiorari. The court’ decision effectively ends Ivi’s challenge to a lower court order blocking it from streaming local TV station signals. “NAB is pleased the Supreme Court refused to review the finding that ivi’s unauthorized retransmission of TV programming over the Internet without permission of content owners is illegal,” an NAB spokesman said. Ivi CEO Todd Weaver said the company knew getting the Supreme Court to take the case was a “long shot.” Weaver said the company “needed to try so the Internet could compete with traditional cable and satellite delivery methods.” He said it will probably take an act of Congress now before that can happen.
Alabama’s largest county, Jefferson County, chose Emergency CallWorks for its advanced 911 call management and call mapping, the company said Tuesday (http://yhoo.it/15npRBU). “The new system, built to meet and exceed the latest Next Generation (NG) 9-1-1 standards, will help improve emergency response capabilities, consolidate operations and add efficiencies as well as lower technology and operational costs,” it added.