A new gigabit broadband service is available to business customers in Russellville, Ky., said EPB SmartNet in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1g3a9D7). The city’s municipally owned fiber-to-the-premises network, EPB SmartNet operates a high-speed fiber network to more than 4,000 homes and businesses in the Russellville area.
Longmont Power & Communications released a request for proposals Thursday to find a firm to design and oversee the construction of its fiber-to-the-premises network following the Colorado passage of city’s ballot initiative (CD Nov 7 p5 ). The consultant selected will be required to complete equipment engineering for five optical line terminals located in city-owned facilities, said the RFP. The consultant’s outside plant design will include construction standards for overhead and underground facilities and equipment and material specifications, said the RFP. It will also include the capacity to serve undeveloped areas within the city planning area as well as LPC’s rural service territory, said the RFP. The contract for design and construction management of the FTTP network is estimated to last from Feb. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2016, said the RFP. Proposals are due to the Longmont by Dec. 19 at 2 p.m.
The FCC Media Bureau granted a Cablevision petition Friday to exempt the cable provider from municipal rate-setting for basic video and some other prices for 23 communities in New York, said a Media Bureau order (http://bit.ly/1g35Wzs). Cablevision’s petition cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The deregulation affects around 33,000 New York households, including the communities of East Fishkill, Clinton and Union Vale.
The FCC asked for general comment on a petition from The American Radio Relay League, which represents amateur radio operators, and which wants the commission to amend its rules to allow greater flexibility in digital data communications. ARRL asked the agency to eliminate the rate limit in Section 97.307(f) of its Amateur Service rules, replacing it instead with a maximum bandwidth of 2.8 kHz on amateur frequencies below 29.7 MHz. “The changes proposed would, in the aggregate, relieve the Amateur Service of outdated, 1980s-era restrictions that presently hamper or preclude Amateur Radio experimentation with modern high frequency (HF) and other data transmission protocols,” the petition said (http://bit.ly/1dp846Z). “The proposed rule changes would also permit greater flexibility in the choice of data emissions.” Fletcher Heald noted in a blog post the FCC imposed the limits in the 1980s because of concerns that higher-data speeds took up more spectrum (http://bit.ly/18urALo). “During the intervening 33 years, as data transmission by radio matured from a curiosity to a necessity (smartphones, digital TV, Wi-Fi, etc.), engineers got much better at packing higher data rates into lower bandwidths,” the blog post said. “Notwithstanding this progress, however, the increasingly anachronistic symbol-rate limits remained in the FCC’s amateur rules.” The firm does not represent amateur operators. Comments are due Dec. 23 in docket RM-11708.
The FCC incentive auction and subsequent TV station repacking don’t threaten rural TV viewers or the translators that deliver their signals, said the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in an informal comment (http://bit.ly/1g33rNp) filed Thursday. It responded to a letter signed by 23 senators concerned that the repacking will eliminate TV translator service (CD Nov 14 p21), since translators aren’t protected in the incentive auction process. Concerns that the FCC will reclaim more spectrum than it needs in rural areas or that the repacking won’t leave room for translators are contrary to the auction design and to “commitments made by Commission staff,” said EOBC. The FCC has said that while less spectrum may be cleared in “constrained markets,” it won’t compensate by clearing more in rural areas, said EOBC. “There is no rational basis to conclude that the FCC will recover more spectrum than it needs in rural areas.” An examination of markets with heavy translator use “reveals that there would be ample spectrum post-repack on which TV translators could continue to operate,” said EOBC.
Affiniti has acquired the assets of Trillion Partners, said Global Leveraged Capital, the investment firm that Affiniti owns, in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/17Hgcxm). Affiniti operates broadband networks in 21 states, including its network management agreement with EAGLE-Net in Colorado, and it provides managed services in the education, healthcare, government and wholesale markets, said GLC. Affiniti also entered into an agreement with the North Florida Broadband Authority (NFBA) to become a sub-recipient of its NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant to build out, manage and operate its broadband network, said GLC. Through one of its affiliates, GLC provided additional capital to Affiniti to support the company’s “expanding operations” and finance the transactions with EAGLE-Net and NFBA, said GLC. The acquisition of Trillion’s assets closed Oct. 18. GLC has been a lender to Trillion since 2008, and it has supported Trillion through its operational and financial restructuring, said GLC. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., submitted a letter to NTIA on Oct. 29 questioning EAGLE-Net’s choice of Affiniti as its operator (CD Nov. 1 p8). EAGLE-Net selected Affiniti as its network operator due to Affiniti’s focus on serving schools, hospitals and government organizations in rural communities; Affiniti’s approach of forming a public-private partnership structure with EAGLE-Net; and the strong financial commitment from GLC, said EAGLE-Net and Affiniti in a description of the partnership released last week (http://bit.ly/1aMRb1w). Both EAGLE-Net and Affiniti will continue to work with all service providers that wish to leverage EAGLE-Net to provide last-mile broadband services in markets served by EAGLE-Net’s middle-mile network, said the description.
Women-owned businesses in Iowa are less likely than other privately held businesses to use computers and broadband, said a Connect Iowa report released Thursday (http://bit.ly/1i0bcrQ). It said 65 percent of women-owned businesses in the state use broadband for business purposes compared to 75 percent of privately held businesses, and they are using the Internet to research ways to make their businesses more efficient more often than other privately held businesses. Median annual sales are $200,000 higher for women-owned Iowa businesses that subscribe to broadband and maintain a website than businesses that don’t use broadband at all, said Connect Iowa. It said 43 percent of women-owned businesses that don’t use broadband say they don’t subscribe because they feel their firms can do everything they need without it. 3:07:17 PM ESTConnect Iowa conducted a phone survey of 800 business establishments across the state, April 1-16, for the report.
Cox Communications customers can now use the Contour app on some Android devices, said the company in a news release Friday (http://yhoo.it/1bcD5t9). Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Tab 3 and Note users can now use the app to get content and personalized recommendations, said Cox. Introduced to the iPad in August, the Contour app provides access to live TV from more than 100 national cable channels and to more than 6,000 video-on-demand selections, said Cox.
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released Friday the full text of its report on immediate ways to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity (http://1.usa.gov/1aVVUL3). PCAST approved and released details on the report at a meeting Thursday, but didn’t then release the actual text. The report recommended, among other things, that the U.S. government more frequently follow accepted cybersecurity best practices. PCAST recommended the government phase out Windows XP and other operating systems it regards as insecure in favor of current versions of Windows, Linux and Macintosh OS, encourage universal adoption of the Trusted Platform Module microchip and require the use of proofed identities for data exchanges among federal users. The report recommended regulatory agencies require regulated industries to demonstrate improved adoption of cybersecurity best practices, but proposed a more limited government role in encouraging adoption of best practices in non-regulated industries. The report also called for further industry and academic research on more fully integrating cybersecurity into future systems infrastructures (CD Nov 22 p10).
The FTC said Friday that it is extending the comment deadline on its proposed study of the business practices of patent assertion entities (PAEs) to Dec. 16 to give interested parties more time to provide input. The original deadline was Dec. 2. The FTC voted in September to propose launching the PAE study using its authority under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act. Section 6(b) allows the FTC to investigate an industry’s business practices, including issuing subpoenas, and report their findings to Congress and the public. The FTC has proposed asking for information from 25 PAEs on their corporate legal structure, the types of patents they hold and how they assert their patents (CD Sept 30 p15).