The FCC International Bureau accepted applications from Intelsat and Satelites Mexicanos regarding their satellites. Intelsat requested modification of its authorization for Intelsat 5 to extend the license term from Oct. 26, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2020, the bureau’s Satellite Division said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/WsKM5F). It also requested operating the satellite at 65.45 degrees east in inclined orbit, instead of at Intelsat 5’s currently authorized location of 169 degrees east, it said. Satmex petitioned the bureau to add its Satmex 5 satellite to the Permitted Space Station List at the 114.9 degrees west orbital location with a 0.1 degree station-keeping tolerance, it said.
Unlicensed use of the TV band is critical to “support Super Wi-Fi and to provide innovators the ability to leverage spectrum-sharing technologies to provide innovative new applications and offerings to consumers,” Microsoft representatives said in meetings with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman, Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and other FCC officials. “Consistent with the comments the company filed in the incentive auction proceeding, Microsoft noted its support of unlicensed designations in the duplex gap, the guard band, the two channels reserved for wireless microphone use, remaining TV white spaces and any ‘remainder’ spectrum,” said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/WLPRsi). The Microsoft officials also met with other agency staff to discuss the 3.5 GHz proceeding, the filing said: “Microsoft supports the Commission’s proposals to improve sharing in the band and establish a General Authorized Access tier while protecting incumbent users.” That “has the potential to avoid locking in technology and to enable the introduction of new and improved technologies and applications over time,” Microsoft said.
The cost of implementing interoperability in the lower 700 MHz band would be minimal, representatives of Vulcan Wireless said in meetings at the FCC. Vulcan said: “(1) greenfield operators such as Vulcan have no legacy 2G or 3G systems and can source devices to support either or both GSM and CDMA technologies, and (2) the advent of multi-technology chipsets, such as Qualcomm’s recently announced RF 360, will benefit all Lower A Block licensees, regardless of which air interface technology they employ (including CDMA operators),” said an ex parte filing on the meetings (http://bit.ly/10X9peC).
A call by governments to lower remaining barriers to a single European market in information and communications technology as soon as possible brought cheers from Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes and network operators. In conclusions published Thursday (http://bit.ly/15Qw7nL), the Council said it wants priority given to several areas that are key to economic growth and European competitiveness, including the digital agenda and other services. Ministers noted the European Commission’s intention to report before October on the state of play and remaining obstacles to tackle to ensure completion of a fully functioning digital single market by 2015 and concrete measures to establish the single ICT market “as early as possible.” The conclusions “contains a very significant message for the Digital Agenda,” Kroes wrote on her blog (http://bit.ly/ZF38xV). “For anyone who uses digital communications -- from mobile phones to the internet -- this is important and welcome news,” she said. Although the EU has worked hard to liberalize and improve its telecom market, it’s “still essentially a collection of 27 distinct national” markets, she said. That fragmentation means that customer choice is limited to local offers which vary widely because of different regulations or the patchwork of uncoordinated past spectrum assignments for wireless operators, she said. Businesses don’t get the advantages of organizing operations on an EU-wide scale, and can’t reach the size needed to invest, innovate and compete globally, she said. Completing the single market in digital communications could boost Europe’s economy by more than 110 billion euros ($144 billion) per year, she said. In response to the Council request, Kroes will present a package of measures for governments’ approval by their October meeting, she said. Network operators said the Council conclusions echo their call for a single telecom market. “Broad reform is needed” to boost the sector’s competitiveness and unlock its potential to drive growth and jobs, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. A key reason for the industry’s current revenue decline is that market balkanization is hampering the development of new services, said ETNO Executive Board Chair Luigi Gambardella. He asked the EC for “bold reform” that includes more deregulation to reflect changing market realities and encourage investment, and that also allows more consolidation to reach the necessary scale for sustainability and competition. Independent telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna said many voices are pushing for major integration of the European telecom market, but they're pursuing different interests and scopes. It’s not a misunderstanding, he wrote in his radiobruxelleslibera blog (http://bit.ly/Z3Fx9d). Everyone is aware that the consolidation projects are different and may serve varying needs but “is confident that the result will be diverted towards the preferred scenario.” Incumbent network operators want more national consolidation, believing there are too many telcos in Europe and their number should be reduced via national mergers, Genna said. European Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia, on the other hand, wants cross-border consolidation. There are two different philosophies at play. Incumbents want a fixed market of a few big players in different geographic areas who possibly won’t compete against each other, while the EC envisions consolidated operators competing against each other in all markets, as happens sometimes in the mobile sector, he said. Kroes’ position on national versus EU-wide consolidation isn’t yet clear, something she aims to correct in coming weeks, he said.
Four members of the House Judiciary Committee introduced legislation Thursday, aimed at permitting wireless users to unlock their phones to switch from one carrier to another. The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (HR-1123) is a companion bill to the recently introduced Senate bill with the same name (S-517) (CD March 13 p10). The bill offers a legislative fix that restores an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for cellphone firmware unlocking that permits consumers to use their phones with other carriers once their contract terms have expired. Under the DMCA, those who unlock their phones without permission from their carriers may be subject to civil lawsuits, criminal fines or imprisonment. The new bill also directs the Copyright Office to determine whether similar treatment should be given to other wireless devices, like tablets. The House bill was sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Ranking Member John Conyers, D-Mich.; Internet Subcommittee Chairman Howard Coble, R-N.C.; and Ranking Member Mel Watt, D-N.C.
Pandora’s 40-hour monthly cap on free mobile listening has received mixed reviews from its heaviest users, Chief Financial Officer Michael Herring told us at the Piper Jaffray investor conference in New York. About 4 percent of Pandora’s 67 million registered users listen more than 40 hours each month, with the average being 20 hours, the company said. “We have had many users who understood why we were doing it, Herring said. “And we had those that were very much opposed to it, but it is a handful.” Pandora imposed a similar limit on desktop PC service use in 2009 and added one for mobile as it achieved an audience size that is “meaningful” to national advertisers, the company has said. The limit also gives consumers a “great set of choices,” requiring them to pay 99 cents to continue listening to the service with ads or upgrade to the subscription-based Pandora One, which carries a $36 annual fee, CEO Joseph Kennedy has said. Pandora’s Q4 total listening hours leaped to 4 billion from 2.6 billion a year earlier and its share of the U.S. radio market improved to 8.03 percent as of Jan. 31 from 5.5 percent a year earlier, it has said. Listening on mobile and other connected devices represented 79 percent of listening hours in Q4, but total advertising revenue per 1,000 ad-supported listening hours, which includes the Internet, declined to $52.82 from $56.22. Pandora’s Q4 revenue rose 54 percent to $125.1 million with advertising sales rising 51 percent to $109 million. Pandora’s subscription revenue grew 74 percent to $16.1 million. In expanding its business, Pandora is available through 760 CE devices and 85 vehicle models. Meanwhile, Pandora is slowing building a comedy service, having established ties with 1,500 comedians so far, Herring said. “It’s fast growing, but we are focusing on the comedians themselves right now, trying to learn a little bit from the wrong foot we got off with musicians initially,” Herring said. Comedians are in Pandora offices “all the time” recording shows, he said. In building its ad business, Pandora has established local sales groups, each with one to six reps, in 27 U.S. markets.
The FCC Media Bureau came down against the Oregon Alliance to Media Reform in the alliance’s request to block the license renewals of Portland, Ore.-area TV stations. A bureau order denied the alliance application for review of a 2011 decision in which the bureau’s Video Division rejected an earlier petition by the alliance that it reconsider issuing the license renewals of eight Portland-area TV stations. The alliance failed to demonstrate that the Video Division erred,” the order said (http://bit.ly/Yc6goa).
Wireless microphone maker Shure urged the FCC to continue to reserve two TV channels for wireless mics following incentive auctions of broadcast spectrum and collateral band plan reorganization. Reply comments were due Tuesday on wireless mic rules as well as an NPRM on rules for an incentive auction of TV spectrum. (See separate report in this issue.) “Important content producers such as the NAB and the NFL [have] voiced strong opposition to the proposed elimination of the two wireless microphone reserve channels, the need for which is clearly demonstrated by the record in this proceeding as well as that developed in the White Spaces proceeding,” Shure said (http://bit.ly/Z7a5tW). “The Commission has already recognized that the two reserve channels are the only means by which wireless microphone users can be certain to have interference-free spectrum available for unlicensed wireless microphone use and itinerant operations.” Sennheiser Electronic said “TV-band wireless microphones are essential to large segments of the U.S. economy -- films, television, live and recorded music, live theater, even sports -- that are part of the ‘core copyright’ industries which account for more than $1 trillion in annual revenues, 6 percent of GDP, and 5 percent of private employment in the United States” (http://bit.ly/152dbQA): “They play an equally vital role in education, communal worship, and democratic functioning at all levels of government.” The FCC shouldn’t reserve channels for wireless mics, the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association said (http://bit.ly/13YIcJx). “In all cases, wireless microphones should reserve only the spectrum that they plan to use, not a full six megahertz,” WISPA said. “This hierarchy will preserve the same amount of spectrum for wireless microphones, but in a more spectrally efficient way that allows non-interfering opportunistic use by unlicensed devices.” The FCC shouldn’t alter its rules to make it easier to use a wireless mic in TV spectrum, Microsoft said. “Granting licenses to additional wireless microphone users under Part 74 would reward and incent inefficient use of scarce spectrum resources, undermining the Commission’s goal of encouraging more efficient wireless microphones,” the company said (http://bit.ly/13VGtnK). “In no fewer than three separate proceedings, the Commission has reiterated its concern that wireless microphones ‘generally have operated inefficiently.'” TV networks, sports leagues and broadcasters sought to protect wireless microphone use and other low power auxiliary station (LPAS) users in comments in the incentive spectrum auction and LPAS dockets filed this week. In jointly-filed reply comments, the offices of the Major League Baseball Commissioner, the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA and NASCAR urged the commission to reject proposals that would eliminate two dedicated wireless mic channels (http://bit.ly/10Tf2dO). “Eliminating these two channels would effectively make it impossible to operate reliable wireless microphones,” they said. Initial comments reflected a strong consensus that producers of large live events should be able to get Part 74 licenses and receive interference protection in the white spaces database, they said. The spectrum available for such services is already congested, NAB said (http://bit.ly/152s4m1). But if the FCC decides to reduce or eliminate the safe harbor channels for it could add protections such as real- or near real-time registration and frequent checking of the database by white space devices, such as every 20 minutes rather than every 24 hours, NAB said. Disney, CBS, Viacom, News Corp., Time Warner and Univision filed joint comments in the incentive auction docket seeking wireless mic protections (http://bit.ly/Z7qQFd). They also asked for the retention of two safe harbor channels, as did the broadcast engineering consulting firm Cohen Dippell (http://bit.ly/ZLi7rn). In separate comments, Disney said that any loss of bandwidth in the UHF band available for wireless mic operations will limit stations’ ability to “provide news and information to the public after a major disaster” (http://bit.ly/XAxGq8).
In discussing the newest voluntary short-form privacy code of conduct (http://1.usa.gov/15PbVTe) -- drafted by representatives from the Application Developers Alliance, World Privacy Forum, Consumer Action and ACLU -- mobile privacy stakeholders debated whether short-form notices need to inform users what data an app does not collect, during a Thursday meeting facilitated by NTIA. Apps don’t want to list data elements that they don’t collect, said Venable lawyer and Interactive Advertising Bureau Privacy Counsel Stu Ingis. “Even just listing it may put them in a light they don’t want to be put in.” ACLU Legislative Counsel Chris Calabrese, one of the code’s drafters, said listing all of the data elements and indicating whether an app collects each would allow consumers to more easily compare the data collection and sharing practices of each app. Rather than comparing apps to one another, a consumer can compare an app’s data collection and sharing practices to what he thinks the app should be collecting and sharing, said Rob Sherman, Facebook manager-privacy and public policy. Facebook has found, through its own short-form notice experiences, that users either skip over or become confused by large amounts of information in short-form notices, he said. “We spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to provide that notice,” he said. Stakeholders also debated when apps should present users with the short-form notices. The newest draft directs apps to “make a good faith effort to provide consumers with access to the short notice prior to download or purchase of the app.” This may be technically difficult, Ingis said. “I don’t know if the platforms would allow this right now.” Michelle De Mooy, Consumer Action senior associate-national priorities, said the good-faith effort requirement could be met by including a link to the short-form notices through the app platform. No stakeholders objected to the newest draft’s language on apps that offer their short-form notices in multiple languages. The new draft reads: “Some app developers may elect to offer short form notice in multiple languages."
Presentations on digital initiatives dominated a meeting of the nine-member California Broadband Council Wednesday. The council has met starting in 2011 and consists of high-level officials and legislators from the state and has posted these presentations on its website (http://bit.ly/XLPDzQ). The council heard an update on the California Telehealth Network, which works with AT&T but is now exploring options with Charter Communications, Comcast, CVIN, TelePacific, Verizon, Digital 395 and Time Warner Cable, according to one presentation. It’s working toward economic self-sustainability in its core operations and is in the midst of offering several cloud-based services, it said. California Acting Deputy State Librarian Jarrid Keller updated the council on a Google Chromebook Pilot Program, which has issued a thousand of these computers throughout 44 libraries starting in September, as well as project on making a library a community Wi-Fi hub. The Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium presented on broadband mapping efforts, distinguishing which work best for different purposes. The National Broadband Map provides a decent big picture but misses some providers, whereas the California Public Utilities Map is good at the city level and geographic information systems maps are a “gold mine,” according to the consortium’s presentation. The council heard from JobScout, designed to help people look online for work, as well as from the head of the California Center for Rural Policy and Redwood Coast Connect Regional Consortium Coordinator. The council also ratified a statement on digital education initiatives.