Charter Communications asked for a temporary waiver of new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) requirements for Emergency Alert System participants at 28 small systems. The company already got a waiver in June for 32 systems where it was still installing the Internet connection needed to be CAP-compliant. Those systems are now connected but the cable operator said it has since identified another 28 headend facilities where broadband is not available (http://xrl.us/bn8xbc). It expects it can use DSL connections at 12 facilities, but the rest are too far from the nearest DSLAM for that technology to be of use, it said. It’s still testing whether DSL will be viable at another six and installing satellite Internet service at the other 10, it said.
The FCC Media Bureau recommended the commission issue a notice of apparent liability to TV Max for carrying about half a dozen Houston-area TV stations without a negotiated retransmission consent agreement. “We expect TV Max to immediately stop retransmitting the Stations’ signals without consent and come into compliance with the Commission’s rules,” said a letter released Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn8xad). TV Max had been in the process of installing master antenna TV systems (MATV) in place at the buildings where it provides service, the letter said. But “we believe that TV Max’s unlawful retransmission of the Stations’ signals over its cable system ... is not cured by its installation of MATV systems on its MDU [multiple dwelling unit] buildings,” the letter said. “The record shows that TV Max is retransmitting the Stations’ signals from its off-site (central) headend that serves multiple MDUs ... rather than using the MATV antenna at the individual buildings for all of its customers."
Windows Phone users “get the short end of the app stick” compared to users of phones with the Android and iOS operating systems, said Scott Wallsten, the Technology Policy Institute’s vice president-research, in a blog post Wednesday. While some Windows Phone features are “wonderful,” including the home screen’s Live Tiles and the People Hub, the operating system is on the wrong side of the network effects, Wallsten said. “Because the vast majority of all potential customers are on iOS or Android devices, it makes sense for developers to build apps for those platforms,” he said. “If apps are successful there, then maybe it’s worth building apps for a small platform like Windows Phone.” The Windows Phone OS made up about 2 percent of the mobile device OS market in 2012. Even some Microsoft developers have been unwilling to fully commit to developing versions of their apps for Windows Phone, Wallsten said, saying Skype’s app remains only a “preview” app in the Windows Phone store. While there are plenty of apps available for the OS, they look like something that came out of a “dollar store in Chinatown,” rather than including hugely popular apps like Instagram and Pandora, he said. But there is still hope that a “third mobile platform” could succeed and compete one-on-one against Android and iOS, Wallsten said, noting that Microsoft could invest some of its $66 billion in cash to grow Windows Phone’s penetration into the marketplace (http://xrl.us/bn8w9z).
A defamation lawsuit from Cablevision last week (CD Dec 28 p6) isn’t stopping the Communications Workers of America from speaking out against the cable company this week. Several of the company’s Brooklyn, N.Y., employees unionized last January and have loudly slammed what they judge to be slower Internet speeds in Brooklyn and a botched response to Superstorm Sandy. Cablevision disputed the claims in a recent court document calling on CWA to stop spreading the information. CWA officials will join New York City Council Member Letitia James at the Brooklyn Bridge Plaza Thursday morning to unveil a new report called “Leaving Brooklyn Behind,” which allegedly “will expose how Cablevision shortchanges its workers, consumers, and even Hurricane Sandy victims,” the organizers said in a release. The report will spotlight “customer survey data and documents examples of dangerous conditions of Cablevision equipment and lines,” they said. Cablevision declined comment until after the report is released.
The petition for waiver filed by the Cimarron, Cross and Pottawatmomie telephone companies is a “me too” filing “nearly identical to the one filed by TDS Telecom” in August, and should be denied, NCTA said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn8w79). Like TDS, the rate-of-return ILECs seek to include in their 2011 base period revenue “unrecovered revenue that they billed to Halo Wireless,” thereby increasing the support they receive through the new Access Recovery Charge, NCTA said. The petition should be denied because it doesn’t meet the requirement that revenue must be recovered, not merely billed, to be included in the revenue base pursuant to a waiver, NCTA said. It would provide an unfair competitive advantage to ILECs while similarly situated competitive providers do not have access to this support, NCTA said. The commission must make clear that universal service and ARC support “are not meant to indemnify incumbent LECs against bankruptcy losses incurred in the normal course of business,” it said. The telcos said Halo diverted a “large amount of traffic” through their network, and then filed for bankruptcy protection, staying all collection actions (CD Dec 5 p14).
Cramming plagues wireless bills, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) told the FCC. “An analysis of nearly five million wireless lines by NASUCA member and Chicago-based Citizens Utility Board (CUB), in conjunction with Houston-based wireless industry research group Validas, showed a total potential cost to U.S. consumers due to wireless cramming of up to $59 million annually,” it said in a Wednesday ex parte comment (http://xrl.us/bn8w73). The analysis’s methods were “very conservative,” it said, focusing on companies subject to phone-fraud litigation. The average crammed charge was $5.10 monthly, the analysis showed. Delaware has also begun targeting the problem, the association added. NASUCA said the data supports its earlier recommendations to the FCC, which sought an explicit ban on the practice.
The FCC should grant LightSquared permission to modify its ancillary terrestrial component authorization, said Missouri Rep. Judy Morgan, a Democrat. The wholesale satellite company wants to relocate its terrestrial downlink operations and share spectrum with the government (CD Nov 6 p14). LightSquared is prepared to launch a new wireless broadband service “at a time when demand for mobile broadband is driving prices and congestion through the roof and holding back our economic recovery,” she said in reply comments in docket 12-340 (http://xrl.us/bn8w5g). Its proposal to combine its licensed spectrum with other spectrum used by the government “is a great solution to allow the company to move forward,” she said. The proposal “will enhance competition significantly by facilitating the ability of new providers to enter local, regional and nationwide markets and serve customers,” PNG Telecommunications said in its reply comments (http://xrl.us/bn8w5x). LightSquared’s wholesale-only model will allow its partners to overcome high barriers to entry, “including potentially prohibitive network deployment and roaming costs, as well as spectrum scarcity,” that could otherwise raise operating costs, PNG said. The World Meteorological Organization said it’s “extremely concerned about the potential precedence setting nature of this solution should it be implemented.” WMO, part of the United Nations, coordinates international activities in meteorology, climatology and other geophysical sciences, it said (http://xrl.us/bn8w7a). The organization urged the FCC to take a global view and avoid this precedent.
News Corp. extended the deadline for carriage negotiations with Suddenlink through midnight Central Time, Thursday, a Suddenlink spokesman said: “We continue to negotiate with them in good faith and mare making progress toward and agreement.” The initial deadline had been close of business Wednesday.
Comments on the FCC’s proposed modifications to Phase I of the Connect America Fund are due Jan. 28 in WC docket 10-90, a public notice said (http://xrl.us/bn8w48). The FCC seeks comment on how to use the remaining $185 million that was not accepted by ILECs, either by combining the money into a future Phase I round, revising the rules to expand the definition of eligible areas, or adding the funds to the budget for Phase II (CD Nov 21 p9). Reply comments are due Feb. 11.
The FCC received a continuing trickle of applications right up to its Tuesday deadline seeking more time to comply with rules requiring private land mobile radio licensees in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz bands to operate using channel bandwidth of no more than 12.5 kHz (CD Dec 28 p1). Among the late filers was the Prince George’s County Board of Education in Maryland, which on Monday asked for 90 additional days. “The County anticipated compliance with the Commission’s Order in the 2012 calendar year; however, the conversion from VHF to 700 and 800 MHz has been delayed as result of the weather and other events beyond the control of the County’s BOE,” the filing said (http://xrl.us/bn8w3k). “The County started the installation of equipment during the summer (2012) recess. As of this date we have installed approximately 70 percent of new 700 MHz mobile devices in vehicles. In addition, we have prepared for issuance 250 of the 750 portable radios to be used in the schools for staff security and related communications.” New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Saturday asked for an extra six months (http://xrl.us/bn8w3z). “The Hospital regrets that it is unable to achieve full compliance with the narrowbanding mandate by the deadline of January 1, 2013, and that it did not seek a waiver further in advance of that deadline,” it said. “However, in order to avoid a violation of the narrowbanding rule, the Hospital has no choice but to now seek a limited waiver of that requirement in order to allow it additional time in which to continue upgrading or replacing its equipment and seeking corresponding modifications of its licenses.” Hunt Oil Co. on Friday sought a three-month extension (http://xrl.us/bn8w37).