The FCC Public Safety Bureau again extended the deadline for calculating how much Sprint Nextel might have to pay the federal government beyond the rebanding costs it has paid as part of the 800 MHz rebanding. When the FCC approved the landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in July 2004, it set the value of the 10 MHz national license that Nextel was to receive for spectrum it was giving up at $4.8 billion. The commission set the value of spectrum that Nextel had agreed to contribute at $2 billion. That left $2.8 billion in costs for Nextel to cover, to be largely offset by its rebanding expenses. The 2004 order required Sprint to complete 800 MHz rebanding in non-border areas by June 2008, and provided that that the true-up payment would be due six months later. But rebanding has taken years longer than projected in the order. The 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) “has indicated that, despite additional progress in rebanding since the last true-up extension, Sprint has still not incurred sufficient rebanding expenditures to warrant moving forward with the true-up at this time,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bn73k5). “We agree with the TA’s analysis."
Manufacturers and retailers need to focus less on connected-TV innovation and more on “simplification of the user experience and messaging” to drive new behaviors in TV usage, said John Buffone, director of devices in NPD’s Connected Intelligence group, in a blog post. “Too much choice is creating a complex user experience,” Buffone said, citing the half dozen devices bringing the Internet to the TV including video game consoles, Blu-ray players, streaming media set-top boxes, digital video recorders, advanced AV receivers and the TV itself. Only 15 percent of flat-panel TVs are connected directly to the Internet, but the percentage nearly doubles to 29 percent as a result of connected devices, he said. Two connected eco-systems on the same TV screen is “leading to a confused user-experience as consumers have more than one way of accessing their favorite TV apps,” he said. “Content throwing” from a smartphone, tablet or an Xbox 360 is confusing the picture further for consumers, he said. “It’s no wonder that most connected consumers are currently stopping short of exploring options beyond video,” he said, noting that the connected TV has so far “failed to break beyond the bounds of its TV-centric heritage.” The TV is, however, being used to enable a variety of alternative sources for video content, he said, saying 60 percent of connected TV owners are accessing OTT video services via a TV.
The FCC International Bureau granted 30-day special temporary authority licenses to Universal Space Network, Gogo and Intelsat. USN was granted a 30-day STA to use its Naalehu, Hawaii, earth station “to provide launch and early orbit phase services for the Skynet-5D satellite” on 2074.177 MHz and 2080.623 MHz, and 2252.500 MHz and 2259.500 MHz, the bureau said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bn73kk). Gogo was granted an STA to do in-flight testing of a single aircraft earth station in the 14.0-14.5 GHz and 11.7-12.2 GHz bands “with SES-1 at the 101 degrees west orbital location and NSS-703 at the 47.05 degrees west orbital location,” the bureau said. Intelsat’s STA license will be used to test an antenna in Nuevo, Calif., “to communicate with the Galaxy 28 satellite at the 89 degrees west orbital location” using the 29.625 GHz and 29.791 GHz and 19.825 GHz and 19.991 GHz frequencies, it said.
Apple won a patent on the design of a “mini-SIM connector” that allows subscriber identification module (SIM) cards to be removed and prevents damage to the card. The connector uses a “plunger” system to eject the SIM card and contains “contacts that are not damaged by improper insertion of a SIM card,” according to a patent abstract the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Tuesday. Apple applied for the patent, No. 8,337,223, in September 2010 (http://xrl.us/bn73jd).
The FCC Wireline Bureau reversed several payment denial decisions made by the Universal Service Administrative Co., in orders released Wednesday. In five cases, USAC reduced funding because it found the applicant failed to submit Form 486 on time; the FCC said “rigid adherence” to the procedural deadline is “not in the public interest” (http://xrl.us/bn73jf). In four cases, USAC denied funding on the basis the petitioner violated the commission’s rule that required a signed contract in place when Form 471 is submitted; the commission ruled the petitioners did have legally binding agreements in place during the relevant funding year (http://xrl.us/bn73jm).
Of the 353 Lifeline customers Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone Co. contacted to verify their continued eligibility, 282 responded, the telco reported (http://xrl.us/bn73hj). Of those, four responded that they were no longer eligible. In total, 75 subscribers will be de-enrolled due to non-response or ineligibility, the telco said. Seventeen subscribers had already de-enrolled prior to the telco’s recertification attempt.
Puerto Rico Telephone Co. asked the FCC for a waiver of its new Lifeline recertification rules, to avoid de-enrolling “tens of thousands of Lifeline customers” that had not yet verified their continued eligibility (http://xrl.us/bn73g7). In an emergency waiver petition filed Monday, the telco asked for an extra 20 days to ensure customers knew they had to verify their eligibility. “It appears likely that at least some qualified customers may not be in a position to respond because they need assistance to understand and complete the recertification form.” Of its 134,000 Lifeline customers in Puerto Rico, the telco said it had only received responses to its recertification inquiry from 74,000 as of last week. The telco asked for leeway, arguing “strict compliance with the deadlines would be inconsistent with the public interest."
Given the enormous challenge of bringing robust broadband to rural, high-cost areas, USTelecom supports combining the remaining funding from the first round of the Connect America Fund into funding for a second round in 2013, representatives told aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn73dy). A “longer term solution” to the rural broadband challenge “depends on implementing Phase II” to distribute funding based on a cost model, USTelecom said. Funding should only be distributed in areas where there is no unsubsidized broadband service provider, it said. USTelecom also “stressed the importance of beginning a public dialogue on the benefits of reclassifying” ILECs as non-dominant.
Hamilton Relay supports an emergency order to address “impermissible marketing practices” by some Internet Protocol captioned telephone service (IP CTS) providers, it told aides to each FCC commissioner Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bn73dm). Hamilton is also “not opposed” to an emergency rule requiring captioned telephones to be distributed with the captions feature turned off, it said. The relay provider opposes emergency adoption of a -70 dB eligibility standard for new IP CTS users, arguing it would “disserve the public interest because it is not well grounded in science.” Hamilton suggested the FCC consider eligibility standards in a notice of proposed rulemaking accompanying the draft emergency order.
The FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau extended the deadline for comments and oppositions to petitions for exemption from closed captioning rules. Comments and oppositions are due Jan. 14, with replies due Feb. 4, the bureau said in an order (http://xrl.us/bn73ce). The deadlines were extended by two weeks. Consumer groups representing the hard of hearing and deaf communities requested the extension last week (CD Dec 26 p15). The bureau said it believes that granting the request is warranted “to provide commenters with sufficient time to prepare comments or oppositions” in response to the public notice in docket 06-181.