More small TV programmers asked to be let out of FCC closed-captioning obligations last week, filings in docket 06-181 show (http://xrl.us/bnte6n). Companies said they can’t afford the cost of captioning.
One Boston broadband project is considering how to be sustainable beyond its federal stimulus grant cycle. Scores of broadband stimulus grantees will run out of grant money in the next year, raising sustainability questions. OpenAirBoston is intended to close the digital divide in Boston, Chairman Deb Socia said on a Gigabit Nation podcast Monday (http://xrl.us/bnx5xb). NTIA gave the Boston project, which encompasses three programs known as Technology Goes Home, Connected Living and Online Learning Readiness, $4.3 million in 2010 as part of its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (http://xrl.us/bnx5wc). The grantee works at providing hardware, training and assistance to underserved residents, Socia said. “We've really thought about [sustainability] on a wide range of issues.” She said she was referring to the “large” amount of annual funding required. “A more affluent district could actually sponsor the work that we do,” she said, an idea OpenAirBoston hasn’t “pulled off well” so far. She described working together with other BTOP grantees and stakeholders, such as Boston’s public computing centers and libraries, to write joint grants and find ways to generate revenue. OpenAirBoston is a cause on donation site LevelUp, partnered with an annual bike ride and reached out to universities’ business programs for assistance in developing a sustainable plan, she said. The key is diversifying how its programs operate, she said. Given the weaker economy, people aren’t “giving money quite so generously,” Socia said. There’s a challenge in explaining “the broader sense” of the broadband adoption work, she said. She described how to build a brand around the Boston programs and foster the success and trust necessary for this work as well as the importance of measuring the data. It’s important to be a “risk-taker,” she said. “I do wish we would come up with a system by which we had something to sell,” she said. “To be fully sustainable, you just need something as a service that brings back income.” But the work is also “not a money-making proposition,” she said.
Sprint Nextel told the FCC that technical standards it adopts in the Dish Network AWS-4 proceeding should be fair to future licensees of both the H block and AWS-4 spectrum. The standards also should provide incentives for licensees “to coordinate in good faith as part of a community of adjacent spectrum licensees and service providers,” Sprint said in an ex parte filing about meeting with Wireless Bureau staff and staff of the Office of Engineering and Technology. The filing is in docket 12-70 (http://xrl.us/bnx5wk). Sprint said it likely wouldn’t bid on the H block “if it were restricted to small cell use or air-to-ground communications.” The wireless provider doesn’t expect the proposed SoftBank transaction “to materially alter Sprint’s stated interest in bidding in a broadband-viable H block auction,” it said. Dish Network is awaiting an FCC decision that could allow it to use wireless spectrum for a terrestrial network (CD March 21 p1).
The Telecommunications Industry Association said the FAA should complete a congressionally mandated study on the impact of the use of cellphones on commercial flights. TIA said it’s specifically not commenting on the “social- or in-flight service-related aspects,” which it said are better left to the airlines. “Numerous TIA members are engaged [in] manufacturing and supplying handsets, along with the systems that, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, are used internationally to enable safe cellular telephone usage during flights,” TIA said in a filing Monday at the agency. “We consider the technologies that enable cellular telephone use on airplanes to be a nascent technology that, with a light-touch and encouraging regulatory environment, will see further growth for industry stakeholders and result in improved convenience and service to consumers on airplanes.” TIA said wireless devices face more restrictions in the U.S. than in much of the rest of the world: “As a result, we find that an outdated regulatory regime remains in our country, while the rest of the developed world is allowing for companies to innovatively provide enhanced voice and data service to in-flight consumers. … We urge the Federal government to take steps to rectify this trend."
Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much these days, but “share a love for technology,” according to CEA research released on the eve of Election Day. The data came from a holiday purchase study done in October and a CE household ownership study done in January, which determined that Democrats spent $779 on CE products over the previous 12 months compared with Republicans, who spent $747. Republicans showed higher ownership of smartphones, digital cameras, HDTVs and laptops over the previous 12 months, while ownership rates of cellphones and portable MP3 players were fairly even, CEA said. With household size and income taken into account, Democrats and Republicans show “no significant differences” in how much they spend on technology or the technology products they own, CEA said. Only TV ownership rates were statistically different between self-identifying Republicans and Democrats, with 99 percent of Republicans owning TVs versus 97 percent of Democrats, according to research. Regarding holiday shopping plans, Democrats and Republicans were “practically identical in their plans to give some of the hottest tech items this holiday,” CEA said, citing smartphones and tablets. Democrats and Republicans also are equally likely to shop for CE devices online and search for CE promotions using social networking sites, CEA said.
The Consumer Federation of America continues to hope set-top boxes will use power more efficiently, whether through Department of Energy rules or an accord among industry and energy efficiency advocates, a CFA official told us Monday. The DOE said last week it will issue a rulemaking notice on set-top energy efficiency, now that talks have ended for expanding a voluntary commitment by makers of consumer electronics and multichannel video programming distributors led by cable operators (CD Nov 5 p9) OR (CED Nov 5 p1). “It’s unfortunate” the talks, where the Natural Resources Defense Council but not the CFA was among the advocates at the table, broke down, said CFA Energy Projects Director Mel Hall-Crawford. “But we certainly support negotiated agreements and standards,” she said. “We are hopeful that we will see progress made, one way or the other” on set-tops, she added. “We certainly want to see these devices made more efficient."
Availability of the Wi-Fi only version of the iPad mini was spotty Monday afternoon, a few hours after Apple reported strong initial sales of the new tablet. The 16-, 32- and 64-GB SKUs of the Wi-Fi iPad mini won’t be available to ship from Apple for two weeks, according to its online store. The wait was much shorter at the site for the fourth-generation iPad, at only 3-5 business days, Apple said. It was also much easier to buy a fourth-gen iPad than an iPad mini at Best Buy’s website, where consumers couldn’t buy a mini for either shipment or in-store pickup Monday, but could get a fourth-gen iPad. Apple sold 3 million new iPads in the three days since the launch of the new models, it said in a news release Monday. That’s “double the previous first weekend milestone” of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models sold for the third-generation iPad in March, it said. The Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of the iPad mini and fourth-gen iPad will ship “in a few weeks” in the U.S. and in many more countries later this year, it said. Apple “practically sold out” of the iPad minis, said CEO Tim Cook. “We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand,” he said. It’s important for Apple to source more supply of new products like the iPad mini while demand is high in what appear to be increasingly compressed product cycles, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said in an email to subscribers. “As an example, we believe legacy iPhone sales have fallen more than 40% since the iPhone 4S launch quarter, something that has not occurred in prior years and which has contributed to disappointing quarterly reports,” he said. Sales of the iPad mini and iPad sales could increase into the holiday sales period if supplies improved, Piecyk said. “This might be necessary to reach street estimates that are as high as 25 million iPads sold this quarter."
An ITU-R study group on science services will begin defining the distinctive characteristics of nano- and pico-satellites and systems, and their use of radio spectrum as defined by data rates, transmission time and bandwidths, ITU Radiocommunication Bureau Director Francois Rancy wrote members. The work will also examine spectrum requirements for the systems, his letter said. The preliminary agenda for the 2018 World Radiocommunication Conference includes the consideration of appropriate regulatory procedures for notifying satellite networks to spur the deployment and operation of nano- and pico-satellites, the final acts of the 2012 conference said.
AT&T executives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell Thursday to stress the need for the planned special access data request to be “comprehensive” and to include network location information from all competitors, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnx5mz). It’s also important to consider “potential competition” in any analysis of the special access marketplace, it said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau waived various deadlines after some telcos missed the filing dates to submit paperwork to receive certain forms of high-cost universal service support, according to a public notice (http://xrl.us/bnx5j9). “There is good cause to grant the requested waivers because the missed deadlines were the result of minor ministerial, clerical, or procedural errors,” and both of the petitions were unopposed, the bureau said. The companies granted waivers were Hargray telco, Bluffton telco, and Cinergy MetroNet.