Comments on what areas should be eligible for Connect America Phase II are due Feb. 19 in WC docket 10-90, the FCC said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bobzw8). Commenters should also discuss what procedures should govern making a statewide commitment in Phase I, the commission said. Replies will be due March 4.
The FCC should “clarify” the proposed buildout obligations Verizon faces, the American Petroleum Institute said in response to a public notice on an application by Verizon Wireless to buy Small Ventures’ 700 MHz C block license in the Gulf of Mexico. The two asked the FCC for a waiver specifying that Verizon can meet the requirement by providing coverage and offering service to 40 percent of the oil and gas “drilling platforms” in the license area in active service as of June 13, and 75 percent as of the end of the license term, for both the shore-side and off-shore licenses, API said. “API believes that these conditions on the whole are reasonable to justify grant of the Applicants’ waiver request as long as the Commission more precisely defines the types of offshore structures that Verizon will be able to consider as a proxy for population to meet its build-out obligations,” API said (http://xrl.us/bobzxt). “The Applicants propose to use ‘drilling platforms’ as that proxy, however, drilling platforms are a very narrow subset of the total number of offshore platforms that have communications requirements. The term ‘drilling platform’ excludes offshore structures such as production, manifold, compression, pumping and valving platforms."
Cisco Systems said it plans to buy Israeli software company Intucell for $475 million cash. Intucell provides self-optimizing network (SON) software that helps mobile carriers plan, configure, manage, optimize and heal their networks automatically based on real-time demands, Cisco said. The company said its purchase of Intucell will enhance its “commitment to global service providers by adding a critical network intelligence layer to manage and optimize spectrum, coverage and capacity, and ultimately the quality of the mobile experience.” Under the current deal, Intucell employees will become part of Cisco’s Service Provider Mobility Group (http://xrl.us/bob236). Wednesday’s announcement is just the latest Cisco purchase -- the company completed its purchase of network planning and traffic management supplier Cariden Technologies in mid-December (CD Dec 18 p14).
Financial statements for the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency’s (UTOPIA) and the Utah Infrastructure Agency’s (UIA) 2012 fiscal year show a loss, but the agency argues the numbers show progress. The municipal telecom network, comprising several cities, has undergone refinancing and faces considerable and controversial debt (CD Aug 10 p7). Independent auditors Keddington & Christensen performed the audits, which tracked UTOPIA and UIA finances through June 30, 2012. UTOPIA’s operating budget was lower than expected and operating revenue higher, the auditors said. UTOPIA’s spokesman noted in a Wednesday blog post (http://xrl.us/bobzvr) that UIA’s net loss was $8,292, which was better than the budgeted amount by $3.3 million. Nine of UTOPIA’s member cities created UIA in 2010, and its total operating revenue was $2.35 million and expenses $1.67 million, according to its audit (http://xrl.us/bobzvx). “We certainly see this as progress, and as encouraging signs that our current business model is beginning to yield definitive results,” the spokesman said. “For the fiscal year, UIA added 2,030 residential subscribers and 164 business subscribers, and made its first bond payment a month early, and with 100% subscriber revenue. UIA is on track to make the next payment as well.” He pointed out that the debt commitment runs for 30 years. “As of June 30, 2012, UTOPIA’s outstanding debt amounted to $214.8 million,” the report said (http://xrl.us/bobztk). “The majority of this debt (revenue bonds payable) is secured by the 11 pledging members’ [cities, 11 of the 16 original UTOPIA communities] sales tax pledges.” UIA’s outstanding debt amounts to another $42.2 million, that audit showed. The UTOPIA network was running at an operating loss of $7.23 million as of June, its audit showed, with operating revenues at $5.19 million and expenses at $12.42 million. Federal stimulus money and financing from the bonds is largely what closed this gap. “We are not attempting to hide the UTOPIA situation,” the spokesman added, referring to the debt.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) advocated for his state’s Digital Materials initiative in his State of the State speech this week. “Within the next three years, we aim to provide each of our public school students with current curricular materials on a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop,” he said, according to the text (http://xrl.us/bobzsd) of the Tuesday speech. “This initiative takes advantage of new technology for learning and the state’s broadband infrastructure.” Problems involving too few textbooks or outdated materials disappear if the state turns digital, he argued. Introducing technology early on in children’s lives will help them later on in the workforce, he added.
The U.K.’s largest mobile spectrum auction got under way Wednesday, the Office of Communications said. Seven bidders are competing for spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands, it said. They are: Everything Everywhere Ltd.; HKT (UK) Co. Ltd. (a subsidiary of PCCW Ltd.); Hutchison 3G Ltd.; MLL Telecom Ltd; Niche Spectrum Ventures Ltd. (a subsidiary of BT Group plc); Telefonica UK Ltd.; and Vodafone Ltd. The new spectrum will almost double the amount available for mobile broadband services, Ofcom said. It will publish results at auction’s end.
President Barack Obama renominated David Medine as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Tuesday. Last year the Senate approved four of Obama’s five nominees for the board but GOP members blocked the confirmation of Medine, a partner with WilmerHale. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had previously opposed confirming Medine, citing “serious concerns” about the nominee’s views on profiling foreign nationals from high-risk countries (CD May 18 p11). Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., commended Obama’s renomination of Medine in a news release and said he looks forward to the Senate’s “prompt confirmation of this well qualified nominee so that the Board can carry out its important work on behalf of the American people.” The board was established in 2004, following a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission.
Lawmakers and federal regulators can increase Americans’ access to broadband services by freeing up more spectrum, eliminating unnecessary rules, and codifying a light-touch regulatory framework for fiber and IP-based technologies, said a report released Wednesday by the Internet Innovation Alliance (http://xrl.us/boby5w). The group’s 2013 congressional broadband guide said one of the fastest ways regulators can help get more spectrum to the commercial marketplace is by “quickly reviewing and approving secondary market transactions that occur when a willing seller of spectrum enters into a business deal with a willing buyer of spectrum who is then able to put it to use for consumers quickly.”
The Senate Republican conference selected Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to become ranking member of the Commerce Committee Tuesday. After the full Senate adopts his appointment Thune will replace Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, as the top Republican on the panel. GOP members also picked Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to become ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will remain ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The FCC should not review a Media Bureau order that clarified some of the rules covering how online video distributors can seek to license Comcast/NBCUniversal programming, Comcast and NBCU said. Time Warner, CBS, News Corp., Sony Pictures, Viacom and Disney together asked the FCC to review the bureau’s decision, which said Comcast’s outside counsel and experts are entitled to see copies of distribution agreements certain OVDs have with “peer” programmers. The rules cover how OVDs can use the Benchmark Condition the FCC order approving of Comcast’s purchase of control of NBCU. “Although NBCUniversal respects the Content Companies’ concerns about the confidentiality of their OVD contracts, the Bureau fully considered and addressed these legitimate interests by adopting stringent, well established confidentiality restrictions,” Comcast/NBCU said (http://xrl.us/bobv5g). The objections raised in their application for review ultimately go to the “wisdom of the Benchmark Condition itself,” Comcast/NBCU said. “This attempt to second guess the Commission’s and DOJ’s policy decisions is untimely and, in all events, provides no justification for reversing the mere procedural guidance” in the Bureau’s clarification order, it said. In a related matter, Comcast and Project Concord continued to respond to each other’s filings in the first Benchmark Condition dispute to reach the commission. In a redacted filing, Comcast opposed Project Concord’s application to review a Media Bureau decision reversing aspects of an arbitrator’s decision in the dispute (CD Jan 14 p10). Comcast/NBCU has said it can’t license certain programs to Project Concord without breaching other contracts it has. Furthermore, the commission should deny Project Concord’s request that Comcast/NBCUniversal share those contracts with Project Concord so the OVD can verify they would be breached, it said (http://xrl.us/bobv59). Comcast also said Project Concord’s outside counsel has disclosed highly-confidential information from NBCUniversal’s third-party contracts unauthorized individuals. “Even taking at face value that these disclosures were inadvertent, they further underscore the unreasonableness of turning scores of additional Highly Confidential contracts over to PCI’s outside counsel,” it said. Separately, Project Concord responded to Comcast’s application for review of aspects of the Bureau’s decision.