Arris said its board authorized another $150 million in share buybacks. The company still has almost $20 million left on its prior share repurchase plan, it said.
Q3 sales at Radio One increased 5.4 percent from a year earlier to $110 million, the company said. Its net loss increased 32 percent from a year earlier to $13.1 million on a larger provision for income taxes. Political ad sales at its radio stations of $2 million helped results, CEO Alfred Liggins said.
Over-the-top (OTT) revenue will quadruple to $32 billion by 2017, up from a forecast $8.2 billion in 2012, ABI Research said Thursday. Netflix and other subscription services have led the OTT market in recent years, but ABI said OTT rentals will surpass subscription revenue by 2014. “Connected CE and mobile devices continue to push consumer behavior towards newer forms of media distribution like OTT and multiscreen services,” said ABI Practice Director Sam Rosen in a news release. “Pay TV services will continue to thrive, by implementing multiscreen services and supporting OTT content. In the end we expect an amalgamation of services that complement each other for many consumers.” Mobile devices and consumer electronics allow OTT providers do be more creative about connecting with consumers, ABI said. “While many consumers today claim to use mobile and portable devices while watching TV, most of us are ... actuality poor at multitasking,” said ABI analyst Michael Inouye in the news release. “In many cases this means consumers are more acutely aware about the content on their portable device than the TV. While second screen advertising is not necessarily OTT content, it does speak to the importance of targeting these connected devices that extend the reach of content beyond the TV” (http://xrl.us/bnxf4u).
Iridium reported growth in net income and subscribership for the third quarter of 2012. Net income was $17.8 million, up from $12 million from the same period in 2011, Iridium said. In 2012, net income grew a little more slowly than in past years, CEO Matthew Desch said Thursday during a webcast. Subscribership reached about 595,000, up from 508,000 a year ago, the company reported. “We're confident that we'll add more subscribers in 2013.” Iridium is moving forward with Aireon, its global aviation monitoring project (CD June 20 p6), he said. The company expects to receive $200 million hosting fees between 2014 and 2017, he said. The FAA continues to be involved in the project from a systems specification standpoint, he said. Desch said he believes the FAA “will be a significant customer of Aireon.” Desch also said he expects stronger revenue growth next year, due to a new Department of Defense contract, a price change in handset business, and continued success of new products. “We expect to generate over $200 million in operating cash flow this year for the first time in our history.” Hurricane Sandy was a reminder of the fragility of ground-based communications systems, he said: Twenty-five percent of cell towers in 10 states “were knocked out by the storm.” Iridium has reached the halfway point of the 5-year buildout of its next-generation constellation, he added.
New York is moving forward with its state USF talks in the form of litigation. The New York State Public Service Commission adopted its $17 million fund in August and tried to move forward with Phase III talks in September, but ran into stumbling blocks in the weeks since (CD Oct 18 p11). Phase III issues include intrastate access charges and the New York Targeted Accessibility Fund, the PSC has said. Administrative Law Judge Howard Jack scheduled a Nov. 27 procedural conference for Phase III litigation, according to a Thursday ruling (http://xrl.us/bnxf3r). Several stakeholders had argued in a joint letter they could discuss and resolve pending issues but AT&T disagreed and demanded litigation in late October, the ruling said. There’s no consensus because AT&T and Sprint are “the two biggest proponents of access reform,” as the telco told Jack. “I believe the interests expressed by both the Signatories and AT&T can be accommodated,” he said. “It is not clear right now, in advance of the procedural conference, what specific issues and procedural steps Phase III litigation will entail, including the extent to which evidentiary hearings might be included.” All parties are free to negotiate toward a joint proposal on Phase III issues in the coming weeks, the ruling said.
U.S. Ethernet revenue will increase from $5.2 billion in 2012 to $9.2 billion in 2016, International Data Corporation (IDC) said Thursday. Ethernet adoption rates are soaring because of “superior cost effectiveness,” high-bandwidth scalability, ease of implementation and overall flexibility, IDC said. Data center connectivity, disaster recovery/business continuity and data storage replication have helped drive Ethernet adoption in the U.S., IDC said. “Enterprises are increasingly utilizing 100MB, gigabit, and even 10 GB Ethernet services for domestic and international [Wide Area Network] networking,” said Nav Chander, research manager-Enterprise Communication Services, in a news release. “We are seeing a lot more medium-size U.S. enterprises adopt Ethernet with more fiber availability, more service competition, and faster time-to-service compared to alternatives.” Demand has also increased because of Ethernet access growth as an alternative to leased lines for access to Internet or IP virtual private networks, IDC said. Ethernet services are frequently less expensive than private line or packet services; lower equipment costs also make it more cost effective, IDC said (http://xrl.us/bnxft7).
The FCC approved the purchase of Suddenlink Thursday, a day after executive-branch national security agencies including the Justice Department withdrew a request that the commission not act as they reviewed the transaction, as happens in most telecom deals (http://xrl.us/bnxftv). After the deal, the cable operator “would have a market share in the U.S. interstate interexchange market of less than 10 percent and would provide competitive telephone exchange services or exchange access services (if at all) exclusively in geographic areas served by” another “dominant local exchange carrier,” an FCC public notice said (http://xrl.us/bnxftt). Antitrust agencies had said they wouldn’t block the deal in which the operator agreed to be purchased for about $6.6 billion by leveraged buyout and pension-management firms (CD Sept 12 p18).
Device integrity, isolation and protected storage capabilities will help mobile devices address known security challenges, the National Institute of Standards and Technology said Wednesday in a set of draft guidelines. NIST hopes publishing of the guidelines will accelerate industry efforts to implement cybersecure technologies into smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Making those devices secure is becoming more important because companies and government agencies are increasingly allowing employees to use their personal mobile devices in the workplace, increasing security risks, NIST said. “Many current mobile devices lack a firm foundation from which to build security and trust,” said Andrew Regenscheid, head of hardware-rooted security for NIST, in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnxfer). “These guidelines are intended to help designers of next-generation mobile phones and tablets improve security through the use of highly trustworthy components, called roots of trust, that perform vital security functions.” NIST recommends every mobile device have three security components -- roots of trust, an application programming interface that allows operating systems and apps to use the roots of trust, and a policy enforcement engine that enables management of the mobile device. NIST requests comments to help improve the draft guidelines. Comments will be accepted until Dec. 14 (http://xrl.us/bnxfsf).
Clarification: The deadline NTIA delayed to Tuesday for Broadband Technology Opportunities Program recipient Q3 progress reports was only for those not due under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (CD Nov 1 p9).
Verizon critiqued the Colorado Public Utilities Commission proposal to deregulate telecom. The telco wants to say Internet Protocol-enabled and interconnected VoIP service is “exempt from regulation” rather than “deregulated telecommunications services,” a document exhibit submitted Wednesday said (http://bit.ly/Sf4gFO). It said Colorado customers who come to the PUC with complaints should be notified of FCC complaint procedures, not assisted by the PUC in “resolving complaints regarding service quality or billing disputes with the appropriate provider,” as the PUC deregulation proposal’s original language said. Various Colorado stakeholders submitted their statements of positions to the PUC in briefs in late October. These briefs, including from Comcast, AT&T, PUC staff, CenturyLink’s Qwest, the Colorado Office of the Consumer Counsel and the Colorado Telecom Association, discuss the broader move toward deregulation the PUC initiated earlier this fall (CD Sept 21 p10). These parties have been debating the best way to reduce Colorado’s high-cost USF support and the proper way to regulate IP services.