SES entered into an agreement with the European Space Agency to support innovation in satellite broadband communication. SES Broadband Services is offering a range of broadband services at special conditions to industrial players participating in the ESA Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems applications project, SES said in a news release. Companies participating in the ARTES project will benefit from preferential rates for SES Broadband Services on the pan-European, Middle East and sub-Saharan African beams of some of SES’s ASTRA satellites, it said (http://xrl.us/bn27s6). The agreement is valid until Sept. 15, 2014, SES said.
The Department of Homeland Security released an informational toolkit on FirstNet late last week. The variety of resources is intended for the Office of Emergency Communications’ stakeholders, DHS said, describing it as the product of a working group of federal, state and local stakeholders first established in the spring (http://xrl.us/bn27hs). The Broadband Outreach Toolkit consists of four documents: separate FAQs for policymakers, technical personnel, and operational personnel, as well as a two-page primer called “Realizing the Future of Public Safety Communications.” The National Association of Telecom Officers and Advisors spotlighted the toolkit Wednesday and directed questions to its Public Safety/Homeland Security Committee Chair Barry Fraser (http://xrl.us/bn27h2). The primer documents detail some debated elements of FirstNet, such as the difference between public safety and commercial networks: “Public safety networks require higher degrees of robustness, resiliency, redundancy, and security than commonly found in commercial networks,” the policymakers FAQ said. “While current commercial solutions are used to augment public safety networks by providing non-mission critical services, many commercial mobile data solutions are not interoperable with public safety data systems.” The FAQs acknowledge many unknowns to its questions, such as when the network will be deployed or what standards of hardening will apply.
The FCC Wireline Bureau seeks comment on several proposed revisions to Form 499-A and its instructions, said a public notice released Friday (http://xrl.us/bn27ho). Form 499-A is used to report projected collected revenue on a quarterly basis. Some changes would reflect new reforms adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, such as ILECs’ ability to charge an access recovery charge on wireline telephone service to partially offset ICC revenue declines as the commission reduces certain switched access rates, the notice said. The commission also made available a copy of the revisions to the form shown in “redline format” (http://xrl.us/bn27h4). Comments in docket 06-122 will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The FCC delayed the start of an auction of 112 FM construction permits by about a month to April 23, according to a public notice from the Media and Wireless bureaus. During the time it will take applications for Auction 94 -- Jan. 28-Feb. 6 -- it won’t consider minor-change requests from stations on that band, another agency notice said (http://xrl.us/bn27jd). Such “freezes are standard operating procedure” and avoid “the creation of any conflicts (unforeseeable or otherwise) with auction proposals that could muck up the auction process,” said the blog of the Fletcher Heald law firm, which has radio station clients (http://xrl.us/bn27jm). The delay in the auction’s start “will avoid conflicts with this widely-attended industry convention and widely-observed religious holidays,” said the bureaus’ notice Wednesday. That may “foster auction participation and an efficient auction process,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn27h8). NAB’s show in Las Vegas is April 6-11 (http://xrl.us/bn27i5), and Fletcher Heald sought more time because of other FCC deadlines and holidays like Passover (CD Oct 12 p15).
Utilities are the “missing link” in the FirstNet proceedings, argued iWire365 in a Wednesday blog post (http://xrl.us/bn27gn). The Texas consulting company details why utilities are “in a position to take a leadership role,” citing cybersecurity concerns pertaining to IP, the rise of smart grid infrastructure and the nature of emergency response today. It especially praised the possibilities of cooperatives and electric utilities. IWire365 has previously produced what it called a “road map” for how utilities can take advantage of FirstNet (http://xrl.us/bn27gt). This white paper encouraged utilities to become advocates and get involved early on.
Mobile app revenue will hit $30 billion this year, nearly double a year ago, ABI Research said in a study (http://xrl.us/bn27gc). Such revenue includes paid apps, purchases made within apps, subscriptions and in-app advertising. This year “will go down in history as the year when the economic side of the business finally took off,” said senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. As a result, the industry no longer will be thought of as “a short-term gold rush,” Markkanen said.
Media ownership deregulation was opposed by free newspapers, while nonprofit foes of broadcast and newspaper consolidation continued opposing a draft FCC order on the rules, filings in docket 09-182 show (http://xrl.us/bn27fs). “Our role in serving the information needs of our communities would appear to be a ‘you don’t know what you've got till it’s gone’ proposition before the Commission,” Association of Free Community Papers Government Relations Consultant Jim Haigh wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The group representing shopping circulars and community papers (http://xrl.us/bn27gx) cited news reports about the draft, which would allow common ownership of dailies and radio stations within an area and waivers of cross-ownership rules for dailies and TV stations in top-20 markets (CD Nov 23 p5). The FCC voluntary incentive auction of TV frequencies and prospect of net neutrality rules being overturned “could bring about a perfect storm for hometown media,” Haigh wrote. He fears “fewer firms, with artificially skewed valuations, competing at severe disadvantages with local cross-media juggernauts across traditional and digital channels, under pay-to-play bandwidth prioritization regimes.” Public-interest groups Tuesday lobbied commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel about concerns on minority ownership of media (CD Nov 21 p15). Representatives of the Asian American Justice Center, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Hispanic Media Coalition, National Organization for Women, National Urban League and United Church of Christ have “strong concern” with “the process,” a filing said (http://xrl.us/bn27gv). It said they also fear “the idea that the Commission would relax any of the media ownership rules and retreat from the connection between barriers to media concentration and promotion of diverse ownership.” A CWA official said the union wants the FCC to deem shared broadcast services as attributable under ownership rules.
North Carolina is struggling to figure out proper telecom relay service surcharges. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services asked the North Carolina Utilities Commission for permission to increase the relay surcharge from 11 cents to 14 cents earlier this month. The increase is necessary for “operational expenditures” and to “restore the required $6.5 million reserve,” the department argued. But the NCUC described “good cause” to solicit comments on this proposed increase and asks for them in a Wednesday order (http://xrl.us/bn27db). Comments are due Dec. 21 and reply comments Jan. 4. NCUC staff will issue recommendations before Jan. 28, the commission said.
About 40 percent of mobile phones sold in Q3 were smartphones, Ericsson said Wednesday in a mobility report. Mobile data traffic doubled year-over-year from 2011, and Ericsson forecasts the amount of traffic will grow twelvefold between 2012 and 2018. That growth will come mainly from increased video consumption, Ericsson said. Video is already the top contributor to mobile traffic, comprising 25 percent of total smartphone traffic and 40 percent of total tablet traffic, it said. “Expectations of mobile-network quality have been elevated by the availability of smartphones and tablets that have changed the way we use the Internet,” Douglas Gilstrap, Ericsson’s head of strategy, said in a news release. Total mobile subscriptions will reach 6.6 billion by the end of 2012 and are forecast to grow to 9.3 billion by the end of 2018, Ericsson said. LTE coverage was available to an estimated 455 million people globally as of the middle of this year, Ericsson said (http://xrl.us/bn27cz).
The company acquiring WTVF Nashville asked FCC Media Bureau officials to confirm the station will remain a UHF channel if its frequency changes in a repacking to clear TV frequencies after an incentive auction. Chairman Steven Smith of Journal Communications and a lawyer for Landmark Communications, which is selling WTVF, met with Chief Bill Lake and Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman, both of the bureau. Section 6403(b)(3) of the Spectrum Act bars the agency “from involuntarily reassigning a station from a UHF to” VHF during repacking, Journal said. The act “contains no temporal limitation,” so WTVF will be treated as a UHF channel in repacking, the company continued in a filing posted Wednesday to docket 12-268 (http://xrl.us/bn27ek). The FCC originally assigned Channel 5 for the station’s DTV operations, and a 2011 order changed that to 25, the filing said. Journal had agreed to pay $215 million for the CBS affiliate (CD Sept 5 p12).