Wikipad delayed the launch of its Android tablet, also named Wikipad, from Oct. 31 until an unspecified date “to upgrade and refine” the device, it said late Wednesday. The company saw “a last minute opportunity to enhance the Wikipad bundle” it wants to offer and there’s also “a minor refinement needed to ensure our first customers are completely satisfied with” the tablet, it said, without elaborating. Retail partners were notified of the delay, it said. Consumers who pre-ordered the Wikipad at GameStop through the scrapped launch date will get “the refined and upgraded bundles as well as a special bonus gift with the pre-order,” Wikipad said. The company is “in the final stage” of device planning and “will be announcing the new date soon,” it said. The tablet will cost $499, including an attachable gamepad controller, Fraser Townley, president-sales, told us in August.
NTIA extended the deadline for submitting comments on FirstNet nine days to Nov. 9. NTIA bumped its notice of inquiry deadline back out of “recognition of the need for states and first responders impacted by Hurricane Sandy to focus their attention and resources on helping citizens recover from the devastating effects of that storm,” it said late Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnw9it).
States may opt out from the National Lifeline Accountability Database by Dec. 1 if they list the obligations on eligible telecom carriers to comply with the state system, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bntuys). The opt-out request will only be granted when a state demonstrates it has systems that cover all ETCs operating in the state, and all subscribers of those ETCs, the commission said. It said the opt-out request should “itemize with particularity the functionality of the state’s system that corresponds to the federal processes.” The request should list information such as whether the state can scrub duplicates from subscriber rolls, prevent ETCs from signing up people who already receive a Lifeline benefit, and verify a subscriber’s identity when a system query is made, the notice said.
Cablevision joined several other East Coast-based media companies in rescheduling financial releases because of Hurricane Sandy (CD Oct 30 p17). The cable operator now plans to release Q3 results Tuesday, it said Wednesday afternoon (http://xrl.us/bnw89f). Martha Stewart Living also said (http://xrl.us/bnw89w) it delayed its release, by a day to Friday, “due to extended transit and power outages in New York City, where the Company and its personnel are headquartered."
Q3 sales at HSN increased 7 percent from a year earlier to $778.8 million, the company said Wednesday. Net income fell 27 percent from a year earlier to $17.6 million due to higher expenses. Because it bought back 900,000 of its shares during the quarter, its earnings per share increased 32 percent from a year earlier to 66 cents, despite the drop in net income. HSN’s shares gained 5.5 percent Wednesday.
Verizon’s access recovery charge (ARC) computation and allocation in its July 2012 tariff filing “follows the Commission’s rules,” the California Public Utilities Commission told the FCC Monday (http://xrl.us/bnw87f). The CPUC argued that the FCC should deny the Pennsylvania PUC petition for a ruling that Verizon’s actions violate the commission’s rules against rate discrimination (CD Oct 1 p21). The rules are meant to “confer flexibility to carriers” by letting them allocate ARCs at the holding company level, and to “exercise their own business judgment” in order to ensure rates remain affordable, CPUC said. These allocation decisions let carriers “recover lost intercarrier compensation revenues from their own customers to the greatest extend possible, thus limiting the potential drain” on the USF, CPUC said. “The fact that these rules have caused frustration and a sense of unfairness is regrettable; however, the CPUC objects to the direction of this frustration towards the residential customers of California. The CPUC does not agree that the Commission should revise Verizon’s rates in California simply because Pennsylvania (or D.C., for that matter) is unhappy with its rates.”
Ten congressional Democrats from Massachusetts urged the FCC to ensure that the spectrum auctions undergo a transparent rule making process, in a letter made public Wednesday. The commission should provide stakeholders with “ample opportunity to evaluate and understand how any proposed changes will specifically impact them” before the process is finalized, they said. Massachusetts is unique in that its spectrum holdings are constrained by existing international agreements with Canada, they said, and the spectrum auction should take that into account. The letter was signed by Reps. Ed Markey, John Olver, James McGovern, John Tierney, Michael Capuano, Stephen Lynch, Niki Tsongas, William Keating, Richard Neal, and Barney Frank.
The prospects for making money from live mobile DTV broadcasts seem slim in 2013, Gray TV President Bob Prather said during the company’s Q3 earnings teleconference Wednesday. “I'm not overly confident anything is going to happen soon where we can actually show real dollars coming in 2013,” he said. “I hate to say it, because I had big hopes for it a few years ago.” Technologically, the service works great, he said. On the commercial side, it’s been bogged down “by the usual suspects” such as the broadcast networks and syndicated programming owners, who are asking “who’s going to get paid and when,” Prather said. “Everybody has their hand out … nobody has come up with the formula that seems to work yet.” Gray is unlikely to contribute any of its spectrum in the FCC voluntary broadcast incentive auction, Prather said. “I never say never, but I really can’t see that.” Gray is the “poster child” for making the most of its spectrum by operating so many digital multicasts of major broadcast networks, he said. It could be a long time before the auction occurs, he said. “I think this spectrum thing is still a good ways off,” he said. “If we get a new administration, all that stuff could change,” he said. “The FCC … they're about like Congress these days and can’t seem to make a decision.” Gray Q3 sales increased 34 percent from a year earlier to $102.8 million on higher political ad sales and retransmission consent revenue. Profit increased to $15.8 million from $1.9 million a year earlier on higher sales.
The deadline for comments on the FCC further notice of proposed rulemaking on program access rules is Nov. 30, a Media Bureau public notice released Wednesday said (http://xrl.us/bnw799). Replies are due Dec. 17 also in docket 12-68. And the FCC’s rule that let its ban on exclusive contracts between cable operators and the networks they own expire becomes effective Nov. 30, a notice in the Federal Register said (http://bitly.com/X1CiDq). The agency released both the further notice and the order on the exclusivity ban on Oct. 5 (CD Oct 9 p1).
The National Society of Professional Surveyors urged the FCC to avoid burdening the surveying and mapping community with the cost of upgrading GPS equipment, as the commission considers how to move forward in the LightSquared terrestrial network proceeding. NSPS Executive Director Curtis Sumner met with staff of the International Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology Monday, Sumner said in a an interview. NSPS is a community of users who collect and provide data to other people, he said. “To replace those networks would be hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide.” The commission hasn’t made a decision on LightSquared’s buildout of a terrestrial network, approval of which was stalled when the FCC proposed to revoke its ancillary terrestrial component authority (CD Feb 15 p1). The FCC hasn’t acted on taking away LightSquared’s conditional waiver, which creates uncertainty in the surveying community, he said. “We need certainty of what they're going to do, when they're going to do it, what the ramifications are, and what testing says the overall interference will be.” Sumner also informed the commission that the surveying community isn’t encompassed in the GPS industry groups.