The Satmex 8 satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral for Satelites Mexicanos, arrived in Kazakhstan, to be launched Dec. 28. It’s a fixed satellite services satellite “that will provide video content and distribution, broadband services and cellular backhaul in North, South and Central America,” SS/L said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bn34fr). It also will help people in remote areas and provide service for telemedicine, distance learning and emergency services, it said. Satmex 8 will replace Satmex 5 at 116.8 degrees west, SS/L added.
Deutsche Telekom has quietly rolled out IPv6 for all of its new customers signing up to its Internet Protocol network access service, a DT executive said at the German IPv6 Summit in Potsdam on Wednesday. Several tens of thousands of customers are now IPv6 customers, said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, managing director of technology. Enterprise customers have been offered IPv6 since March 2012. The company hasn’t publicly promoted the new service, Jacobfeuerborn said, because it’s “no new product.” For customers, he said, there should no visible change. The migration to the new IP addresses was an infrastructure issue and necessary to prepare future products and service, said Jacobfeuerborn. He said next steps are already under way, with mobile IPv6 being launched next year. Over time, DT wants to eliminate the current dual-stack technology, but a standard to allow v4-addressing in the v6-only environment is still being finalized at the Internet Engineering Task Force. The portion of IPv6 traffic globally topped 1 percent last week, double that of six month ago, and experts expect it to reach 10 percent by 2015.
The San Juan County Emergency Telephone Service Authority wants to raise its E911 surcharge, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission said. Its Thursday public notice (http://bit.ly/YbgMOC) described the authority’s request to hike the charge from $1 a month to $3.50 a month. Comments are due within 30 days of the notice, the PUC said.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission wants to encourage subscription to high-speed Internet in the rural areas of the state. It’s in the midst of a campaign promoting the idea and is spotlighting four different “Internet All Stars” as a way to raise awareness, the PUC said Thursday (http://xrl.us/bn34br). The campaign advertising, branded “I Do More With High Speed Internet,” will appear in print in five Pennsylvania counties, according to the PUC. The commission cites a 2009 survey that said “56 percent of rural Pennsylvania households adopted high speed Internet compared to 68 percent of urban households.” The campaign’s goal is for state residents to “learn more about high speed Internet offerings” and close the gap, the PUC said.
The Computing Technology Industry Association said it wants a “robust” small-business exemption in e-commerce sales tax legislation. In letters to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees Thursday, CompTIA said small businesses are “less capable of bearing the costs of a new tax compliance requirement” for e-commerce sales. The group also said it’s wary of states seeking to tax transactions with an “economic nexus” to them, beyond the “physical nexus” -- such as an office or workers in the state -- that now governs tax obligations -- “because this places a particularly burdensome regime on the IT industry.” It asked for a “consistent rule” on which state or jurisdiction is allowed to impose sales taxes on digital purchases, and said it supports proposals that restrict tax collection to “the jurisdiction encompassing the consumer’s tax address, while also prohibiting multiple and discriminatory taxes.” CompTIA also said: Tax reform legislation shouldn’t “disproportionately” impact small business and “pass-through” entities, for example, by limiting or junking tax benefits they now get; startup companies should be able to offset a simplified “research and experimentation” tax credit against payroll tax liability; Congress should extend both “bonus depreciation at the 100 percent level” and a provision to deduct the cost of certain asset purchases, to aid small business growth; and raise the $1,000 liability threshold under which small businesses can file a single annual Form 944, rather than four quarterly Form 941 filings.
New ITU-T study group leadership was appointed during the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, a blog post said (http://bit.ly/RlFoB3). Sherif Guinena of Egypt will replace Marie-Therese Alajouanine of France as chair of the ITU-T study group on numbering. Alajouanine had been appointed to a second and final term four years ago. Vice chairmen come from South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Tanzania, Brazil, the U.K. and China. Seiichi Tsugawa of Japan will replace Kishik Park of South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute as chairman of the ITU-T study group on economic and policy issues. Park was also chairman for two four-year terms. The study groups are the two most involved in policy issues. Vice chairmen come from Argentina, Ivory Coast, South Korea, Tanzania, Egypt, France and Russia. Leslie Martinkovics of Verizon became vice-chairman, it said. Ahmed Zeddam of France was named chairman of the ITU-T study group on environment and climate change, it said. Arthur Webster with the NTIA was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the study group on broadcast cable and TV, the blog said. Wei Feng of China’s Huawei Technologies was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the study group on protocols and test specifications. Kwame Baah-Acheamfour of Ghana was appointed chairman of the study group on performance and quality of service and experience. Chae-Sub Lee was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the study group on future networks. Steve Trowbridge of Alcatel-Lucent in the U.S. was appointed chairman of the study group on transport and access. Yushi Naito was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the study group on multimedia. Arkadiy Kremer of the Russian Association of Networks and Services was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the study group on security. Bruce Gracie of Industry Canada was appointed to a second four-year term as chairman of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group. China won the most leadership posts with 10. South Korea had nine, Japan eight, followed by the U.S. with seven. Russia, France and the UAE each got five. Egypt, the U.K. and Germany each won four slots. Other countries won a lesser number of slots. Sudan won two leadership slots, including one in the ITU-T study group on security.
The Association of Public Television Stations asked the FCC to educate public TV stations “about the auction process, spectrum valuation and channel sharing and spectrum leasing,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-268 (http://xrl.us/bn339p). The filing recounted a meeting with APTS President Patrick Butler, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and his staff, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and staff from the Office of Strategic Planning. APTS reiterated “the unique situation of university and state licensees and certain state requirements for open bidding in license proceedings,” it said.
C Spire Wireless said it will start offering its own set of shared data plans Monday. The plans will allow sharing a single data allowance on up to 10 devices, the carrier said Thursday. Prices for data allowances would begin at $50 per month for 1 GB and up to $150 for 20 GB, though larger quantities of monthly shared data can also be purchased, C Spire said. The “top up” passes would start at $10 for an additional 500 MB and cap at $75 for 5 GB, the carrier said. Separate shared data plans for business customers would begin at $50 for 1 GB and cap at $600 for 70 GB, C Spire said. There are also additional monthly line access charges under the new plans -- $20 for USB modems, tablets and other connected devices, $30 for feature phones and $40 for smartphones, the carrier said. All plans would also include unlimited voice, text and picture messaging. C Spire’s announcement comes months after Verizon Wireless and AT&T began offering their own shared data plans (CD Aug 23 p5). Unlike the Verizon Wireless and AT&T plans, C Spire claimed its plans do not include “costly fees” to monitor data usage, which cost subscribers to the Verizon Wireless and AT&T plans $5 per line (http://xrl.us/bn3357).
The FCC International Bureau granted special temporary authority to EchoStar Holding Purchasing Corp. to conduct tracking, telemetry and command operations for the EchoStar 6, EchoStar 15 and EchoStar 16 satellites. The bureau granted an STA for 60 days to do tracking, telemetry and command operations for EchoStar 16 during in-orbit testing at 67.1 degrees west and during the drift of the satellite to its authorized location of 61.5 degrees west using frequencies, including 17.307 GHz and 17.7955 GHz, the bureau said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bn334j). It granted a 60-day STA to do feeder-link operations with EchoStar 15 at 44.9 degrees west on all frequencies now authorized under earth station call sign E080007, it said. Intelsat got an STA for 30 days to conduct certain operations while raising and maneuvering the EchoStar 16 to 67.1 degrees west using 17.307 GHz and 17.7955 GHz and other frequencies, the notice said.
ITU member countries have adopted a resolution inviting them to refrain from any unilateral or discriminatory actions that could impede another country from accessing public Internet sites and using resources, a blog post from the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly said (http://bit.ly/Wxfd74). A separate resolution adopted two years ago invited countries to report these kinds of discriminatory actions, it said. The Republic of Sudan has been the only country to submit official complaints under the resolution agreed to four years ago, we've learned. All of the nearly three dozen complaints have been directed at U.S. commercial action that appears to have resulted from economic sanctions started under the Clinton administration to stem that country’s influence in international terrorism. The Sudanese complaints focus on access to products, services or software from Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Oracle and others, we've learned. Some of the error messages have referred to U.S. sanctions, we've learned.