The point of the FirstNet legislation is “to provide public safety with its own network resources, not a network that, as some incorrectly believe, would simply ‘ride’ on commercial networks,” said Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Chief Counsel Jeff Cohen on an official blog. Cohen helped draft the legislation before assuming his current role and addressed it again in a Wednesday blog post on Hurricane Sandy (http://xrl.us/bnyhfn). Some officials raised the question of commercial network reliability in the days after the hurricane (CD Nov 1 p1). The legislation would provide funds for the “additional level of hardening and coverage” in the leveraging of many different resources, commercial and otherwise, that are intended to save costs and speed deployment, he said. The performance of commercial networks during Sandy should give “no reason to draw conclusions” on FirstNet operations, according to the post. Cohen also pointed out the perils of locating backup generators at ground level and underground, then subject to storm surges, and the placement of cell sites on rooftops. Mobile apps are playing a bigger role, as is the importance of cell phone charging station access, he said, pointing out first responders may want to ensure station access during power outages. He said he offered “no opinion” on the performance of commercial networks during Sandy.
About 300 CE industry movers and shakers flocked to the “Drive 2 Digital” conference in London Monday seeking clarity on the U.K. government’s plans to switch the nation’s over-the-air radio service from analog to DAB digital. Many said they arrived at BBC hoping to hear U.K. Broadcast Minister Ed Vaizey set a date certain for the digital radio switchover. However, Vaizey, who was out of the country on government business, used a video presentation merely to restate his previous position -- that at the end of 2013, the government will announce a hard 2015 date for the analog switchoff, but only if half of all radio listening hours by late next year are digital. At the conference, John Mottram, head of radio at Vaizey’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, estimated that the proportion of digital listening hours now stands at an encouraging 31.5 percent. “We are absolutely certain switchover is going to happen,” Mottram declared. It’s in “cast iron,” he said, then added this disclaimer: “But we can’t guarantee 50 percent by the end of 2013.” It was then left up to a succession of speakers at the conference to highlight the practical problems of increasing digital listening hours from 31.5 to 50 percent. For example, 42 percent of all U.K. homes now own at least one digital radio, one presenter said. But 20 percent of all radio listening hours are clocked in cars and trucks, he said. There are 31 million vehicles on Britain’s roads, and only 5 percent have a digital radio, he said. Moreover, although a quarter of all new cars registered in the U.K. now come factory-fitted with a digital radio, they tend to be concentrated among the more expensive models, and in austere times people are keeping their old cars longer, he said.
The FCC is granting waiver requests from noncommercial educational stations to raise funds on the air for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The FCC generally prohibits NCE stations from devoting airtime to fundraising on behalf of other entities, but it has granted rule waivers for appeals “to support relief efforts following disasters of historic proportions or magnitude,” the Media Bureau said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bnygwy). Requests should provide basic details of the fundraising activity, like the nature of the fundraising effort and the proposed duration, it said. The public notice does not guarantee that requests will automatically be granted, “but it’s a very good bet that the Media Bureau will be strongly inclined to bless Sandy-related fundraising efforts,” Fletcher Heald law firm said on its blog (http://xrl.us/bnygzn).
The U.S. is at an inflection point in defense spending, said Kay Sears, Intelsat General president. The nation is “probably at the top end of another cycle in defense spending,” she said Tuesday at a Washington Space Business Roundtable event. In the early 2000s, the U.S. grew less comfortable with its space capabilities, she said. “The technological advances of others have forced the U.S. into a defensive posture.” The budgetary downturn is changing the Defense Department culture and “driving them to make some of the hard decisions that they have avoided in the years of plenty,” she said. Sears said the environment that the government and satellite industry are facing is “very unique as we enter this next cycle” of defense spending. The government’s reliance on space capabilities has never been greater, she said. “The U.S. space superiority is diminished by other nations’ space capabilities and the threat environment is increasing.” The nation has an economic and budgetary challenge “that could exceed any time in history,” Sears said. The DOD must consider affordability, portfolio optimization, resiliency, consolidation and other factors to address the needs of the next generation of space capabilities, she said.
DirecTV revenue increased 8 percent to $7.42 billion, driven by its Latin America market growth in the 2012 third quarter, DirecTV said Tuesday. DirecTV reported 19.9 million subscribers, up from 19.7 million in Q3 2011. The Viacom carriage dispute this year affected churn, CEO Mike White said during a webcast. Average monthly churn increased from 1.62 percent last year, to 1.74 percent in Q3 2012, DirecTV said in a press release. DirecTV’s push back with Viacom was critically necessary “to minimize increased cost to overall subscriber base and to ensure that we negotiated a fair deal,” White said. White said “rising costs is clearly the most significant issue facing distributors today.” He urged content providers and distributors to spend more time focusing on customers: “They bear the brunt of these exorbitant price increases,” he said. U.S. market revenue increased about 6 percent to nearly $5.8 billion, said Patrick Doyle, chief financial officer. That market achieved solid revenue growth and strong cash flow growth, he said. Net subscriber growth in that market decreased significantly from 327,000 subscribers to 67,000 subscribers, DirecTV said. The Latin America market “developed well-balanced growth and financial results,” said Bruce Churchill, president of DirecTV Latin America. The DBS company is the market leader in 14 of Brazil’s 26 states, he said. Revenue increased 16 percent, he added. The Latin America market added 543,000 net subscribers, which is down from 574,000 the same period last year, DirecTV said. White said the company doesn’t expect fourth quarter results to be impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
Initial sales of EchoStar’s Hughes Communications’ new high-speed satellite broadband service are “very encouraging” and it has gained “positive reaction” from subscribers, EchoStar CEO Michael Dugan said on a conference call. HughesNet Gen4 launched Oct. 1 delivering up to 15 Mbps/2 Mbps download/upload speeds with the top-end package carrying a $99 monthly fee. The entry-level 10 Mbps/1 Mbps download/upload is priced at $49. The service, delivered from the EchoStar-17 satellite at 107.1 degrees west, is being sold through Dish Network dealers. HughesNet ended Q3 with 616,000 subscribers, down from 626,000 a year earlier. “The initial rollout is very promising and we are pleased with the new orders” Hughes has received and “the number of sites that have been activated,” Hughes Communications President Pradman Kaul said. EchoStar is in discussions with “several” potential partners for a DTH service that would operate from a 45 degrees west orbital slot it secured with an $80 million bid approved by Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel. EchoStar also invested $32 million in equity in a Dish Digital Holding venture formed with Dish Network in July, the company said. EchoStar, which owns 33 percent of the venture, also contributed $37 million in assets including the video streaming service Move Networks, which it acquired in 2011. Move championed adaptive bit rate technology that seamlessly adjusted the quality of a video stream to match the bandwidth available on a network. EchoStar had a $22.5 million Q3 profit, vs. a $19.1 million loss a year earlier as revenue declined to $764.7 million from $863.1 million. The downturn was partly tied to a decrease in Dish-related revenue to $256.9 million from $339.2 million amid a slowdown in set-top box shipments in Q3, company officials said. EchoStar had increased set-top shipments in the first half, including those of Dish’s new Hopper DVR/satellite receiver, and this “resulted in high inventory at our customer,” said Dugan, presumably referring to Dish, which accounts for about 50 percent of EchoStar’s revenue. The Hopper also was built at lower hardware cost, contributing to the downturn in revenue, he said. EchoStar will gradually add features to Hopper to increase revenue, the first of which will appear in early 2013, President Mark Jackson said. EchoStar’s equipment revenue, which includes sales to Bell Canada and Dish Mexico -- a Dish-MDC Communications joint venture -- fell to $143.7 million from $151.6 million. Dish Mexico is said to have about 2.5 million subscribers in Mexico. Services and other revenue declined 5.3 percent to $234 million as Hughes sales decreased by $16 million, EchoStar said.
A new report outlines information on a group of information and communications technology (ICT) products under consideration for duty-free treatment under a proposed expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said. The report, released Monday, was originally submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative on Oct. 24, the commission said in a news release. The report outlines the ICT and non-ICT purposes of the products and identifies which products might be considered import-sensitive by U.S. industry players and other interested parties, the USITC said (http://xrl.us/bnyb3h).
T-Mobile said in its latest update more than 95 percent of its network in the Northeast is now operational. “The lack of commercial power and the need to deploy mobile generators always complicates recovery efforts, but that was only part of the challenge,” T-Mobile said. “Additional challenges include getting wireline (backhaul) connections and, of course, gaining access to areas that were severely damaged by storm surges that created devastating flooding.” T-Mobile said late Tuesday it’s preparing for the winter storm expected to hit New York and New Jersey starting Wednesday: “Additional engineers have arrived in the NY and NJ region, and have now joined our local rapid response teams to provide even more on-the-ground support. We are preparing our staging areas and equipment, and readying for this new storm.” AT&T said Tuesday more than 98 percent of its facilities in the Northeast are up and running. “AT&T is also taking steps to protect its network and recovery assets deployed in the region given potential weather changes in the coming days,” the carrier said. Among these steps is “fortifying fuel distribution to more than 3,000 generators deployed in the impacted area, including those positioned at cell sites and other key locations” and “shifting and staging resources and critical equipment … to less vulnerable locations,” AT&T said.
Pandora asked a federal court to set reasonable fees it should pay to license music from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for 2011 through 2015. It brought the claim because ASCAP has “flatly refused to offer Pandora” rates for online radio licenses similar to those it gave the Radio Music License Committee, said the complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Manhattan. “This Court and the Second Circuit have made clear that there is no basis for discriminating among licensees offering the same or substantially similar programming based on the manner by which such licensees distribute,” the complaint said. “Yet ASCAP in negotiations sought to charge Pandora … at substantially higher rates.” Rate negotiations between Pandora and ASCAP had been ongoing for more than a year, a spokeswoman for Pandora said. ASCAP representatives didn’t immediately respond to our query.
Crown Castle International and Huawei are among the 14 major operators and vendors to have joined the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) since June, the trade group said Tuesday. WBA, which works to “enhance the development of public Wi-Fi throughout the world,” now has 95 member companies that work on Wi-Fi, mobile and broadband network development. The association already included key industry players like Comcast and Time Warner Cable, as well as seven of the top 10 mobile operators by revenue. WBA said it has been conducting Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) trials that will allow SIM and non-SIM mobile devices to roam onto Wi-Fi hotspots without needing to provide log-in information (http://xrl.us/bnybzo).