TracFone Wireless is extending the service renewal deadline for more than 185,000 customers in 15 jurisdictions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions affected by “Hurricane Sandy’s devastating impact,” it said. The deadline extension, announced Wednesday, affects customers on the carrier’s Straight Talk Wireless, NET10, TracFone and Simple Mobile services, TracFone said. The jurisdictions covered are: Connecticut, Washington, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. NET10 and TracFone “pay as you go” customers whose service renewal was due between Tuesday and Friday will have until midnight Monday to renew. Customers on the Straight Talk Wireless, NET10, TracFone and Simple Mobile 30-day plans who had a service renewal deadline between Tuesday and Thursday will have until midnight Friday to renew, TracFone said (http://xrl.us/bnw7yb).
The Telecommunications Industry Association said the FAA should give deference to work by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) as it considers rules for the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) on commercial flights. TIA responded to an FAA request for comment on current policy, guidance and procedures aircraft operators use when determining if passenger use of PEDs should be allowed during any phase of flight on their aircraft. (http://xrl.us/bnw7ju). “From a technical standpoint, TIA members believe that guarantee of safety from PED emissions to the airline passenger should rest with the airline operator -- as it does today -- and that all aircrafts (sic) should be able to handle PED transmissions, including those originating from PEDs accidentally left powered on during a flight,” TIA said. “Adopting flexible regulations that allow for any technology that does not cause safety concerns to the aircraft ... will result in maximum market participation, with the consumer benefitting in the end from a heightened quality of products and services. In short, if no safety or health issues are clearly present, any particular technology should be allowed for in-flight use [of] PEDs, and the FAA should further promote all capable technologies as viable options.” Comments were due Tuesday and are still being posted by the FAA (http://xrl.us/bnw7kt). CTIA agreed in comments released Wednesday that the FAA’s inquiry should be a “data-driven agency initiative.” “The lack of compelling evidence here raises questions about the need for the ban on the use of PEDs during takeoffs and landings provided that they are not transmitting in CMRS spectrum,” CTIA said (http://xrl.us/bnw8yx). The FAA’s current rules are based on research conducted between 1958 and 1961, which “concluded that portable frequency modulation (FM) radio receivers caused interference to navigation systems,” the comments said. “PEDs have evolved dramatically since then and today range from smartphones, tablets and e-readers to laptops, DVD players and video games,” CTIA argued. “Despite this evolution, the FAA’s approach has remained essentially unchanged -- even though more recent studies by the FAA’s federal advisory committee, RTCA, Inc., have not found conclusive data showing that PEDs interfere with aircraft systems.”
Emery Telcom requested a waiver of FCC rules that determine the calculation of 2011 rate-of-return carrier base period revenue by limiting the transitional intrastate access service component of that calculation to intrastate revenues received by March 31. Emery wants to include in its base period revenue amounts received for intrastate access service after March 31. Due to a third-party billing system error, a “significant portion” of intrastate access service revenue billed for 2011 was not received until after March 31, the telco said. Emery sent invoices to interexchange carriers for the unbilled traffic as soon as it was discovered, believing it could justify the bills “through the normal process of invoice review and without litigation,” the telco said (http://xrl.us/bnwxra). “It would be contrary to the public interest to require Emery to engage in litigation when it was not necessary."
Disney will pay George Lucas $4.05 billion, half in cash, the rest in 40 million shares of Disney stock, to acquire his 100 percent of Lucasfilm, the companies said Tuesday. “For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” Lucas said in a written statement. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I've always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.” Lucas thinks Disney’s “reach and experience” will give Lucasfilm the opportunity “to blaze new trails in film, television, interactive media, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products,” he said. Under the deal, which awaits antitrust approvals, Lucasfilm Co-Chairman Kathleen Kennedy will become Lucasfilm president, reporting to Alan Horn, chairman of Disney’s studio operations, the companies said. Kennedy also will be the brand manager for Star Wars, and executive producer on new Star Wars movies, including Star Wars Episode 7, which is targeted for release in 2015, they said. Lucas himself, now 68, will be creative consultant on any new Star Wars movie projects, they said. “Lucasfilm fits perfectly with Disney’s strategic priorities,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said. “It is a sustainable source of branded, high-quality creative content with tremendous global appeal that will benefit all of Disney’s business units and is incredibly well suited for new business models, including digital platforms."
Sales at Concurrent for its fiscal Q1 increased 16 percent from a year earlier to $15 million, the company said. Profit was $325,000, up from a net loss of $2.6 million a year earlier. “We continue to benefit from the steps we took in the last fiscal year to improve our operating model,” CEO Dan Mondor said in a news release.
The FCC’s new access recovery charge (ARC) rule unfairly requires District of Columbia ratepayers to pay for intrastate and interstate access reform, even though the district has no intrastate access charges, the D.C. Public Service Commission told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnwxnn). Verizon misinterpreted the ARC rule when it exempted all Virginia, New York and California residential ratepayers form paying the ARC when only a few exchanges had reached the residential rate ceiling, the PSC said. When the telco exempted its Virginia ratepayers from the ARC, Verizon recovered its lost revenue by increasing the ARCs of ratepayers in D.C. and other mid-Atlantic states, the PSC said. “This inequity will only continue, as ARCs may be increased every year.” The D.C. PSC has filed a petition for reconsideration of the ARC rule, and an application for review of Verizon’s ARC tariff filing. The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission has also asked for an FCC ruling on whether Verizon’s actions violate its rules against rate discrimination (CD Oct 1 p21).
Pandora said its 4.0 update includes the first “uniform interface” across iOS and Android since the company offered mobile versions on those platforms. The company called 4.0 its “biggest redesign” since making iOS and Android versions. Changes include “prominent placement of controls to easily add variety, shuffle specific stations, rename stations and view station details,” and “simplified navigation” to browse “genre stations” on the mobile apps, making more than 400 music genres “more easily accessible,” Pandora said. Artist pages are now “robust,” offering more information on artists including biographies, lyrics and “genome traits” of the current track playing, it said. A “brand new music profile” gives users an individualized “timeline of Pandora listening,” including stations created and “thumb history,” that they can share with others. A new “music activity feed” helps users find and follow their friends and learn what users with similar tastes are listening to, and users can also now easily share links to favorite stations and tracks on Facebook and Twitter, the company said. In the past month one in three smartphone users in the U.S. has listened to Pandora, and more than 115 million of its 175 million registered users have accessed the service on a smartphone, CEO Joe Kennedy said (http://xrl.us/bnwxmq). The company also said it’s second only to Google in U.S. mobile ad revenue. McDonald’s, Nike, Sony Pictures and State Farm are “launch partners” for Pandora’s sponsored “tips and information” inside the redesigned mobile apps. The iOS update is available now in the Apple App Store, while the Android version will be available in Google Play “in the coming weeks,” the company said.
People have the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to thank if they lose wireless service this week because a telecom facility doesn’t have backup power, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said on his blog. Feld said the FCC imposed backup power requirements in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and carriers appealed to the D.C. Circuit, which issued a preliminary injunction. “Before the D.C. Circuit could issue one of its inventive results-oriented opinions, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stepped in an[d] disallowed the rules on the grounds that the FCC hadn’t looked carefully enough at the cost,” Feld wrote (http://xrl.us/bnwxgn). “Seizing the opportunity to get away from a potentially devastating precedent, the FCC withdrew the rule and had the case dismissed.” What happened has broader implications, Feld said. “So if your cell phone service fails this week because the local cell tower ran out of power and had insufficient back up, thank Chief Judge David Sentelle and his merry band of judicial activists. No matter what the subject matter, no matter the threat to public safety, these guys know that membership in the Federalist Society confers enough wisdom to cast aside the judgments of some dumb old ‘expert agency.’ Sure not being able to call 911 in the aftermath of a disaster is inconvenient, potentially even life-threatening. But if industry doesn’t like a rule, then the D.C. Circuit has their back.”
Verizon’s marketing is “trumping” AT&T’s, said Baskin Associates President Jonathan Salem Baskin in an Advertising Age opinion piece (http://xrl.us/bnwxfh). Baskin Associates is a marketing firm. “Brand narratives trump brand promises, especially in higher-touch product and services categories that give customers frequent opportunities to discover the truths of their experiences,” he wrote Tuesday. AT&T has spent millions of dollars on ads in recent years, yet with few “tangible benefits” to the branding efforts, whereas Verizon “works,” Baskin said. Verizon has focused on “communicating its operational performance,” he continued, describing the importance of such quality-based emphasis over “feel-good” promises. Verizon secured 10 times as many customers as AT&T last quarter, he said. “If this contrast isn’t a wake-up call to all brand marketers, I'm not sure what could shake us from our dreams of power and authority.” Baskin has never worked with Verizon or AT&T, he told us.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions was “temporarily experiencing system outages” Tuesday as a result of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, ATIS said. It said ATIS.org, contributions.atis.org, Part68.org and atisrepresents.com were all inaccessible. The organization’s Majordomo committee and forum communications tool was also offline as of our deadline Tuesday. ATIS said at midday Tuesday that it anticipated those sites and systems would remain offline an additional 24-36 hours. ATIS’s Washington offices were closed Tuesday, but the organization said it was likely they would be operating normally Wednesday.