Disney and AT&T reached a new long-term distribution agreement for carriage of some 70 Disney-owned programming services on U-verse, they said. The deal includes retransmission consent for seven ABC TV stations, and authentication for Disney’s online video products. Among other services it includes ESPN 3D, and the news network ABC News and Univision are introducing, they said.
House Democrats re-elected Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., as ranking member of the House Communications Subcommittee Tuesday. Democrats added Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa, Jim Matheson of Utah, and Peter Welch of New Hampshire to the Communications Subcommittee. Minority members also elected Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., ranking member of the House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee. Ranking members are still subject to approval by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and the Democratic Caucus.
The FCC gave a cable operator another one-week extension to reply to a must-carry complaint by Western Pacific Broadcast, which itself sought two more weeks to answer the opposition of Armstrong Utilities to another of the broadcaster’s complaints seeking guaranteed distribution for WACP Atlantic City, N.J. Media Bureau Policy Division Deputy Chief Steven Broeckaert approved Atlantic Broadband’s request to have until Monday to reply to the must-carry complaint for WACP, as the operator and Western Pacific talk about a possible settlement (CD Jan 15 p12), he said in an email Monday to lawyers for both sides. Giving Western Pacific to Jan. 28 to reply to Armstrong Utilities’ separate opposition will give both companies’ engineers time to further discuss the strength of WACP’s signal at the cable operator’s principal headend, the broadcaster said. “To be fruitful, these discussions must involve an exchange of engineering information and an analysis of the information by both parties,” Western Pacific said in a consent motion for extension posted Monday in docket 12-364 (http://xrl.us/boax3w). The talks could yield a deal to “informally resolve this dispute without the need for the Bureau to dedicate its resources to the consideration of the pleadings and the development of an order,” Western Pacific wrote in the motion that said Armstrong stated it won’t oppose the extension.
AT&T is disadvantaging its competitors by exempting data sent by the AT&T 3G MicroCell from the data cap it imposes on its home wireless broadband users, said Public Knowledge Vice President Michael Weinberg Tuesday. “There is no reason why AT&T should treat AT&T Wireless MicroCell data different than any other data -- including data from a Verizon or Sprint MicroCell -- on a subscriber’s home connection,” Weinberg said in a news release. The AT&T 3G MicroCell functions as a miniature cell tower to supplement and improve wireless service for voice calls and data applications. Public Knowledge compared AT&T’s actions to Comcast’s decision last year to exempt its Xfinity online video service from its data cap. Public Knowledge took its objections to Comcast’s bandwidth practices to the FCC, claiming they hit on net neutrality concerns the regulator raised in Comcast’s takeover of NBCUniversal (CD Aug 2 p2) . ISPs should never be able to use data caps to reduce competition, Public Knowledge said Tuesday. “When providers give preferential treatment to data associated with their services, they undermine competition and inhibit innovation,” Weinberg said. “This is precisely the type of discrimination at the core of the net neutrality debate. The FCC and, if necessary, Congress must take steps to end data cap abuse” (http://bit.ly/XBohKo).
Verizon Communications said it collaborated with electric car manufacturer Via Motors to produce an “extended-range electric cargo van” for Verizon’s use. The telco said Tuesday it plans to test and deploy two of the vans -- one in New York and one in New Jersey. VIA said it designed the van based on Verizon’s fleet concepts, and expects it to run at the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon and produce “near zero” emissions. Verizon’s fleet typically travels a small number of miles per day, so the company expects the vans will operate under electric power on most days. Switching to the new electric vans would improve the Verizon fleet’s fuel economy by 300 percent and halve emissions, it said. The vehicles have enough battery life to run all-electric for 40 miles and can run additional miles through the vehicle’s “range extender” onboard electric generator, VIA said. The van can be recharged overnight on a standard 110-volt outlet. The van’s power system can also be used for emergency or job-site application, Verizon said. “We anticipate that the 15 kilowatts of clean mobile power generation provided by the vans will be of great value in emergencies like Hurricane Sandy, and in everyday use, to reduce stationary emissions and provide greater service capabilities,” said Ken Jack, Verizon vice president-fleet, in a news release. The dashboard in the new van includes a removable tablet, which Verizon said will help reduce distracted driving through voice prompts and easy-to-read route information. Verizon subsidiary Hughes Telematics also contributed technology to the vehicle that will assist with fuel and route optimization, vehicle maintenance, emergency assistance and voice and data services (http://vz.to/WI7nXE).
Verizon wants the FCC to clarify several aspects of its mandatory special access data collection, it told Wireline Bureau officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/boaxty). The telco asked for clarification on the definition of “connection,” and whether it includes those capable of providing a dedicated service, whether or not such a service is actually being sold. It wants a definition for “best efforts” service data to capture a “capacity of DS1 in each direction.” The telco also sought clarifications on the definition of “packet-based dedicated service,” “revenues” and “dedicated service.” Verizon also asked for clarification on several specific data request questions. The company noted that its ability to provide certain information related to government accounts “may be limited by national security restrictions” and “other sensitivity concerns."
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on petitions by West Kentucky and Tennessee Telecommunications Cooperative, and the Yukon-Waltz Telephone Co., seeking waivers of its intercarrier compensation revenue recovery rules for rate-of-return carriers (http://xrl.us/boaxtq). The waivers would let the companies correct for accounting and billing system errors the telcos say understated their baseline revenue. Comments in docket 03-109 are due Jan. 25.
Two Boston officials backed turning payphones into wireless hotspots. Councilors Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley filed a motion Monday calling for a hearing on the matter, slated for discussion Wednesday. It said representatives from the Department of Innovation & Technology and other interested parties will be invited to attend. The motion noted the declining use of payphones, the rise of cellphone usage and the looming digital divide. It cited a 2010 New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications trial “turning 10 payphones into WiFi hotspots by installing a router at each kiosk.”
The former Bresnan Communications management team and BHH Capital Partners agreed to buy Allegiance Communications, they said. Allegiance operates cable systems in Arkansas, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The deal is the first in an “aggressive growth plan” by the company, BCI Broadband. “The Bresnan management team remains largely intact within BCI and that makes us extraordinarily well-positioned to develop the Allegiance properties to their greatest potential,” said Jeff DeMond, BCI’s CEO. After the transaction closes and BCI upgrades the systems, the network will pass more than 150,000 homes and businesses in the region, BCI said.
The FCC should consider revising its Part 4 wireless outage reporting requirements associated with planned outages to provide a clearer picture of an outage’s customer impact, said the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) in a bulletin (http://xrl.us/boaxmv). An ATIS group studied the FCC’s wireless outage data collected between January 2010 and July 2012. The analysis indicated maintenance-related outages were the “number one” outage cause across the industry, and that 88 percent of those outages were planned in advance, ATIS said. As customer demand and technology upgrades increase, so will the need for planned outages, the group said. “One option would be to reduce the number of subscribers reported as affected by the outage,” ATIS said in the bulletin. “This could be accomplished by reducing the concentration ratio which would give a truer picture of the actual impact of the outage.” Providers already select a maintenance window based on measured traffic to reduce subscriber impact, ATIS said. Providers also need to take “all reasonable steps” to reduce the impact and duration of planned outages; 24 percent of the planned outages were associated with a procedural or human error, ATIS said. The second-largest outage cause was hardware failure, though ATIS noted that no one specific equipment type was the main problem in those cases. Providers can reduce that type of outage by reviewing and expanding their implementation of ATIS best practices, the group said Tuesday in a news release.