In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Verizon wants to replace some of its New York City copper with fiber cable, but some property owners don’t want to let Verizon in to do so. “Unfortunately, many building owners in lower Manhattan have refused to allow Verizon to install fiber facilities in their buildings, thereby preventing Verizon from restoring telephone service to the tenants of those buildings,” the telco told the New York State Public Service Commission Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn8253), asking for permission to enter six buildings to replace the copper. Verizon still has customers without service in some of these buildings, and this refusal, two months after the storm, “has prevented Verizon from restoring their telephone service,” the company said. Its attached documents show multiple owners objecting to the installation of FiOS (http://xrl.us/bn826d). In one letter to an owner (http://xrl.us/bn826q), Verizon defended its fiber-based FiOS system as “less vulnerable to weather-related damage” than copper and insisted on its installation: “If you do not provide Verizon with access to your Property, your residents will continue to remain without telephone service from Verizon.” Verizon won’t charge owners for installation of FiOS, it told them. Efforts to reach property owners to determine their reasoning for blocking Verizon were unsuccessful.
Florida’s relay service handled 1.4 million calls in fiscal year 2012, the Florida Public Service Commission said in a new report (http://xrl.us/bn823v). It “shows that 19,287 new deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and speech impaired individuals were served in Florida, and 38,477 pieces of specialized telecommunications equipment were distributed for FY 2012,” the PSC said, saying Florida has nearly three million residents who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or speech impaired. Florida established its relay system in 1991.
Consumers should be able to pull out of fixed-term phone contracts if operators raise prices mid-stream, the U.K. Office of Communications said Thursday in a consultation document (http://xrl.us/bn82pp). The regulator has been mulling whether consumers need more protection from price hikes for landline, broadband and mobile services, and has found problems with the current system, it said. Existing rules are intended to reflect the “clear and straightforward general principle” that prices agreed upon should generally be fixed (and variable, if at all, only in limited circumstances), and that if prices are raised, consumers should be able to avoid the higher fees, Ofcom said. But the rules aren’t working properly, it said. It reviewed more than 1,600 consumer complaints from September 2011 to May 2012 about changes to contract terms and conditions, finding that a quarter of those who complained said they weren’t made aware of the potential for price rises in what they believed to be fixed contracts. Another 16 percent griped specifically about the amount of price hikes and their adverse financial impact. This and other evidence suggested that existing rules don’t meet consumers’ legitimate expectations about contract rates, exposed them to unfair surprises, and didn’t give consumers the chance to end contracts without penalty. Ofcom considered four options: (1) Do nothing. (2) Make communications providers give customers more transparency of price variation terms. (3) Allow consumers to expressly opt into any variable price agreement. (4) Allow customers to withdraw from contracts without penalties when there are price increases for services applicable at the time the agreements are signed, including changes to the level of service provided. The first three alternatives wouldn’t resolve the problem, Ofcom said. Comments on its proposal are due March 14.
The Application Developers Alliance welcomed 12 new corporate members, it said Wednesday. The new members are Animoca, CoFoundersLab, Find Your Lobster, Grafighters, HugeFan, LearnStreet, PapayaMobile, PlacePlay, Ruckus Media Group, Uppidy, TechStars and Virtual Nerd. “The formation of the Application Developers Alliance is a critical step to ensuring best practices and representation for this rapidly accelerating industry. TechStars works with dozens of top-notch mobile-oriented startups, and I'm pleased to bring that insight to helping the Alliance,” said Nicole Glaros, managing director of TechStars, who will be on the alliance’s board in 2013.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., objected in a news release Wednesday to Senate Republicans’ refusal to confirm David Medine as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. “The obstruction of a few Republican Senators leaves the American people without a fully functioning Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board at a time when Americans face growing threats to their privacy rights and civil liberties,” Leahy said. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had previously opposed the confirmation of Medine, a partner with WilmerHale, citing “serious concerns” about the nominee’s views on profiling foreign nationals from high-risk countries (CD May 18 p11). The board was established in 2004, following a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission.
The FCC Media Bureau approved Cumulus’s acquisition of three southern FM stations, WMEX(FM) Pensacola, Fla., WXBM-FM Milton, Fla., and WABD(FM) Mobile, Ala. ADX Communications had petitioned the bureau to deny the license transfer applications. “ADX has failed to allege specific facts to indicate that, despite Cumulus’s facial compliance with the Commission’s [ownership limit] rules, the Applications pose a risk of harm to competition within the Pensacola or Mobile markets,” Audio Division Chief Peter Doyle wrote (http://xrl.us/bn8xcm).
Some or all of 10 pieces of evidence Apple submitted in its unsuccessful bid for a sales ban on a number of Samsung devices will be stricken as evidence in its ongoing U.S. patent litigation, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Wednesday in an order issued by her San Jose, Calif., court. Koh had told both Apple and Samsung in August that their lawyers were filing an excessive amount of paperwork during Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, which was ultimately successful (CD Aug 28 p6). The documents were related to the sales ban Apple sought in the aftermath of the trial; Koh denied Apple’s request last month (CD Dec 19 p14). Apple had ignored Koh’s warnings in 10 of its documents, Koh said in the order, which completely removed four documents and major portions of another six. Koh’s ruling followed an order Monday that Samsung must submit sales data on devices a federal jury had found violated Apple’s patents. Koh said in Monday’s order that she needs that data as she considers the final amount in damages Apple is entitled to receive. The jury had awarded Apple slightly more than $1 billion; Apple has since asked Koh to raise the damages by $500 million, while Samsung has said it wants damages reduced by $600 million.
Time Warner Cable said it stopped carrying the Ovation network. The network had asked its fans to petition the cable operator to reinstate the channel at www.bringbackovation.com. “For the price of just one season of the Lakers, Time Warner Cable could keep Ovation on the dial for 30 years,” it said on the site.
CMA Communications it is still working on getting broadband connections at 14 of its cable system headends in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana in order to comply with FCC Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) requirements for Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants. It already asked for a six-month extension to bring its systems into compliance. “CMA Communications had originally planned to shut down the systems, however decided to continue to operate the systems with standard EAS equipment installed, provided that the Commission grants the waiver,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn8xbr).
The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for another five-year term through July 1, 2017. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski commended the Senate action in a news release, saying she’s a “strong advocate in seeking to extend the benefits of broadband to all Americans.” There’s speculation that Clyburn could be in line to become acting FCC Chairman if Genachowski decides to leave the commission, as is expected by many (CD Nov 8 p1). Commissioner Robert McDowell separately hailed Clyburn’s reappointment and touted her willingness to seek bipartisan agreement on issues like USF reform. The Senate also confirmed the appointment of FTC nominee Joshua Wright, an economist and law professor at George Mason University and former FTC Scholar in Residence.