The Digital Rating Service that the Entertainment Software Rating Board introduced Wednesday was designed to address the “explosion of game devices in the last couple of years” that brought with it a rise in digitally delivered games, ESRB President Patricia Vance told us. Many such games haven’t used ESRB’s existing rating system that covers all packaged videogames. “We want to ensure that ESRB ratings are available to consumers for the games that they download and purchase, regardless of the device,” said Vance. ESRB has “had a very strong presence in the console world, and now we're really trying to encourage all developers to get an ESRB rating regardless of the platform they're publishing on and also make it really easy for other platforms that want to” use ESRB ratings, she said. The Digital Rating Service uses a “brief but detailed online questionnaire to assess not only a product’s content and age-appropriateness, but also interactive elements,” including sharing of personal info or physical locations and “exposure to unfiltered user-generated content,” ESRB said in a news release. The new, “streamlined” service is initially being used for downloadable games available for Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, PS Vita, PlayStation Certified devices, Nintendo eShop and Windows 8, it said. Other digital content aggregators, online game networks, streaming and download services will follow at an unspecified time, it said. ESRB also eliminated the cost to developers for adding a rating to their games, it said. “The resulting ubiquity of ESRB ratings will ease a parent’s job by presenting a single ratings standard across the many platforms on which their children access games.” The Digital Rating Service complements the CTIA Mobile Application Rating System with ESRB, a program begun last year through which the board said it assigns ratings to mobile apps using a similar process (CD Nov 30 p17). The Digital Rating Service was “modeled after” that program, Vance told us.
Traditional subscriber identity module (SIM) cards aren’t reprogrammable but that’s likely to change as they evolve, a report published Wednesday by the U.K. Office of Communications predicted. As SIM card form factors get smaller, driven partly by handset and device vendors’ desires for SIM footprints to be minimized for slimmer devices, embedded SIMs, such as in machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, show that the cards can get even smaller, particularly if the SIM hardware is soldered onto the circuit board, it said. If SIMs can no longer be removed from a device, they must be made reprogrammable, it said. The GSM Association has developed a requirements document for a reprogrammable SIM, called an eUICC. It’s defined as a “small trusted hardware component, which may be soldered into mobile devices, to run the [SIM application] and enable the secure changing of subscription identity and other subscription data,” the report said. The eUICC promises benefits for stakeholders involved in M2M where SIMs may be non-removable or impractical to swap, it said. M2M vendors could manufacture devices with “blank” SIMs that could be provisioned in any country after being shipped and sold, a solution of interest to mobile operators because it enables them to take the lead in the emerging M2M market, it said. M2M customers could benefit from the flexibility of being able to easily change connectivity service providers. And SIM vendors benefit from taking a new central role in the reprogrammable SIM chain and from new revenue streams from managing and manufacturing such SIMs, it said. Unlike the current SIM system, eUICC systems need a subscription manager to handle secure routing and data preparation. When an eUICC is made, its issuer will load the master keys of the eUICC into the secure routing database, and the keys will allow the database to access the SIM and download a new operator profile. The secure routing database interconnects with a series of data preparation databases, so when a consumer requests a mobile network operator profile, the secure routing database associated with the reprogrammable SIM seeks the profile from the relevant data preparation database and downloads it to the eUICC, it said. Enabling eUICC functionality in an existing mobile network will require interfaces between the network systems and subscription manager, it said. The new ecosystem has important implications for switching, because, where a SIM is embedded, consumers may have to ask the subscription manager to handle the switch rather than doing it themselves, it said. There’s also a risk that the set-up could fragment the market, if a subscription manager doesn’t link to all operators, preventing consumers from switching to a particular provider, it said. One possible solution is to interlink secure routing subscription managers, though that will require industry cooperation and standardization, it said. The main focus of eUICC technology so far has been M2M, and standards are now under way in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, the report said. Going forward, the eUICC could either evolve to support non-M2M devices such as handsets, or increase its functionality to enable swapping rather than just switching. There’s no technical reason why the eUICC can’t support handsets, it said. EUICC swapping could expand coverage, lower costs and increase quality of service benefits to consumers, but because swapping isn’t commercially attractive to network operators it’s unlikely they will support such a functionality, the report said. Handset makers, however, have shown more interest in bringing eUICC to market, it said. EUICC would also let consumers download a “local profile” when roaming internationally, enabling them to take advantage of local tariffs, it said. The report noted several “consumer pain points” in addition to market fragmentation. Current switching processes might be unsuitable and result in poor consumer experience and possible “slamming” practices, it said. There is “ample scope for consumer confusion” if people are required to adapt to new provisioning and switching process; and users could lose the subsidies they now have on handsets if mobile operators can’t guarantee their return on subsidies, it said. At this point, eUICC stakeholder motivations are best aligned for M2M applications, it said. The report recommended that regulators follow eUICC development closely and, once the first industry-standardized solution hits the market, investigate further.
A Minnesota community is considering the feasibility and potential of crafting new fiber, deployment of which would cost $21 million-$30 million before operational costs, a new CTC Technology & Energy study estimates (http://xrl.us/bnvtpq). “It is unlikely that capital and operational costs could be matched by revenues generated, whether by the private sector or public sector, over any reasonable period of time,” said a brief presented this week at the St. Louis Park City Council study session. The council debated its agenda for Nov. 5 and 13 meetings and looked at the new fiber study authorized in September 2011 to determine next steps. St. Louis Park is a city of about 45,000 residents west of Minneapolis. The report finds St. Louis Park has “largely met its own broadband needs through its systematic and concerted efforts” but outlines several steps for expanded deployment and introduction of fiber. The city’s schools and most municipal buildings are served via fiber but the residential and business consumers lack state-of-the-art fiber, the report said. The city’s telecom and cable providers are focusing on wireless and DSL efforts rather than bringing a better wired fiber connection, it said. The report suggests incrementally expanding fiber to different parts of St. Louis Park as well as steps and strategies it should take if it wants to begin fiber-to-the-premises projects. The council’s telecom advisory commission unanimously approved CTC’s recommendations in the draft version of this report Oct. 10. The study cost about $50,000, according to the brief.
The Local Number Portability Administrator request for proposal (RFP) process should move forward as soon as possible, Neustar told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday (http://xrl.us/bnvtkw). The commission should utilize the process developed by the North American Portability Management’s “Future of Number Portability Administration Center” subcommittee, which has the strong support of “all aspects of the industry, state regulators, and consumers,” Neustar said. The commission should clarify the proposed process, however, to make clear that “any bidder that obtains an appropriate opinion of counsel would have its bid fully evaluated,” Neustar said. Neustar did not explain in the filing what counsel should give an opinion on. This would address concern about the breadth of participation in the RFP process, it said. The commission should “not heed calls” to mandate regional bids, Neustar said.
The FCC must issue its special access data request as soon as possible, and include a de minimis exemption for companies that lease a small number of circuits, Sprint Nextel told aides to Commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnvtkd). The request should also distinguish between owned-and-operated and resold circuits, require ILECs to disclose the locations of “all relevant facilities that they serve,” and seek data on the ILECs’ actual cost of providing special access services, Sprint said. Like other companies, Sprint was also asked Friday about the proper definition of an indefeasible right of use, and barriers to switching to ethernet service (CD Oct 23 p3).
Due to the economic constraints of deploying broadband in rural and high-cost areas, carriers that accept Connect America Fund Phase II support would generally build or maintain fiber-to-the-DSLAM (digital subscriber line access multiplier) rather than deploy a “new and more capital intensive technology like FTTP” (fiber to the premises), USTelecom told the FCC Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnvtiw). The commission should model fiber-to-the-DSLAM costs to ensure close alignment with carriers’ actual forward looking costs, USTelecom said. The ABC Coalition objects to the use of an FTTP model, USTelecom said.
Tw telecom “encounters problems” when seeking to buy ethernet services from ILECs as inputs to tw telecom’s downstream retail services, it told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday (http://xrl.us/bnvthz). Problems include slow provisioning and ILECs waiving special facilities construction charges for their own retail end users but not for tw telecom, the telco said. Tw telecom also discussed how a product team determines its prices with the input of the sales force, based on the level of competition it faces in a market. “TWTC and other non-incumbent LECs generally commit not to increase their prices during the life of a contract, whereas incumbent LECs’ prices are often subject to increases in base monthly prices,” it said.
Jacqueline ("Jackie") Biel, co-founder of the Community Broadcasters of America, died in Milwaukee Oct. 8, following a heart attack. She and her husband, John Kompas, published the LPTV Report from 1986 to 1992, and Community Television Business thereafter, before forming the Kompas Group consulting business. She wrote Low Power Television: Development and Current Status of the LPTV Industry, published in 1985 by the NAB. She also worked actively with CBA’s successor, the Community Broadcasters Association. Her husband survives.
Motorola Solutions reported slightly improved revenue and earnings for Q3, compared to the same period last year. Growth was driven by the company’s government segment. Net sales came in at $2.15 billion, compared to $2.08 billion last year. Operating earnings were $324 million, versus $254 million in the year-earlier quarter. The company noted that it secured “multimillion dollar contracts” with Alaska and Ohio; Maui County in Hawaii; Prince George’s County, Md.; York County, S.C.; the city of Phoenix; the city of Glendale, Calif.; the city of Fort Wayne, Ind.; Rheinbahn public transit in Germany; Wuxi Metro in China; and Codelco Chuquicamata Mining in Chile.
The FCC’s net neutrality rules are an example of President Barack Obama’s “continuous disregard for legislative authority” (http://xrl.us/bnvo5p), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in a report released Tuesday. Cantor’s report, which details a long list of executive actions that constitute what he called Obama’s “imperial presidency,” details how the FCC “sought to impose new network neutrality rules on the Internet.” “In 2010, a Federal court struck down the FCC’s first attempt to regulate the Internet; noting that the FCC lacked authority to issue such regulations,” the report said. “Then-Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to provide such authority. Despite the fact that the legislation was not enacted, the FCC proceeded anyway with new net neutrality rules. Businesses negatively impacted by these new regulations have been forced to go to court once again to defend against regulations that the agency has no authority to issue.” Neither the White House nor Waxman’s office would comment.