Comments are due Nov. 6 on ABC Telcom’s Section 214 petition to discontinue domestic telecom services in Louisiana, the FCC Wireline Bureau said in a public notice Monday (http://xrl.us/bnvh2q). ABC Telcom, which offers prepaid wireline service as “Homefone,” says that “in response to changing market conditions,” it is “no longer feasible” to offer the service.
VSAT Systems’ Datzap received a license to operate in Costa Rica, giving customers access to VSAT’s satellite uplink facility and infrastructure. That “will provide direct access to the U.S. Internet backbone, guaranteeing high performance and security not currently available from local Costa Rican resellers of their government’s satellite system,” VSAT said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnvigj). Datzap plans to provide services through resellers operating in rural areas of Costa Rica and to pursue as customers industries including cellular backhaul, agriculture, banking, disaster response and grocery stores and restaurants, VSAT said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., questioned in a letter Monday recent changes to the way Microsoft handles its user data (http://xrl.us/bnvidv). Markey, who co-chairs the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, asked Microsoft to provide details on its new Services Agreement (http://xrl.us/bnvid7), which took effect last week and allows the company to track users’ activities across its free, Web-based services, such as Hotmail and Bing. The changes to the Services Agreement do not alter the company’s privacy policy or paid software products, such as Microsoft Office or Internet explorer, according to The New York Times (http://xrl.us/bnvidt), which first reported on the changes. In the letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Markey wrote that he is “concerned about the privacy and security implications of Microsoft’s new policy of aggregating information about consumers across a suite of Microsoft services, stitching together detailed, in-depth consumer profiles.” Customers are wondering “whether and to what extent consumers will be able to opt-in to information sharing across Microsoft’s many Web-based products, whether they will have to opt out of such sharing, or whether they will have no choice at all in the matter,” he wrote. Markey asked Microsoft to provide information on the company’s previous user information sharing practices, which Microsoft products and services will be affected by the changes to the Services Agreement, how the changes affect children and teenage users, how the company notified users of the changes and the new information sharing policies, including what information will be collected, how it will be shared and for how long it will be retained. The changes to the Services Agreement did not change Microsoft’s privacy policy or the “fact that over the years we have consistently informed users that we may use their content to improve the services they receive,” Jack Evans, a Microsoft spokesman, told us. Additionally, he said, the changes did not affect Microsoft’s policy that it does not use “the content of our customers’ private communications and documents to target advertising.” Evans said the company “will be changing our services agreement to make it explicitly clear that we don’t target ads based on user content” as a result of feedback it’s received.
CTIA defended earlier reporting of data from its semi-annual survey, in a blog post Monday by Robert Roche, longtime head of the association’s Research Department. Tim Farrar, president of Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, questioned in a recent article on the “GigaOm” website CTIA’s use of numbers. Farrar contended that looking more closely at the data raises real questions about whether there is a spectrum crunch. “The CTIA press release only quotes total wireless data traffic within the US during the previous 12 months up to June 2012 for a total of 1.16 trillion megabytes, but doesn’t give statistics for data traffic in each individual six-month period,” Farrar wrote (http://xrl.us/bnvh4j). “That information, however, can be calculated from previous press releases (which show total traffic in the first six months of 2012 was 635 billion MB, compared to 525 billion MB in the final six months of 2011). Counter to the CTIA’s spin, this represents growth of just 21 percent, a dramatic slowdown from the 54 percent growth in total traffic seen between the first and second half of 2011.” Roche wrote that he was upset at implications CTIA had doctored data to clarify that a spectrum shortage remains a real concern. “Forgive me as this may be a heated blog post since some people have chosen to suggest that I am ‘hiding’ information, which is categorically false and disingenuous. It’s also offensive,” Roche said (http://xrl.us/bnvh4w). “In the press release and on our website, we did change how we reported the MB of data, but only to make it parallel to how we reported the other traffic measures, not as six-month but as twelve-month volumes. In that, we followed the model of our April 2012 press release, where we reported annual (twelve-month) figures on traffic. ... There was no intent to conceal anything."
The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a fine of $6,000 against the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) for “willfully and repeatedly” violating the hearing aid compatibility status report filing requirements in the commission’s 2003 Hearing Aid Compatibility Order between May 2004 and November 2007. ASTCA had asked that the fine be reduced or cancelled, the order said (http://xrl.us/bnvh7p). “Specifically, ASTCA argues that because of the physical distance between American Samoa and Washington D.C., ASTCA was unfamiliar with the 2003 Hearing Aid Compatibility Order and its subsequent amendments,” the bureau said. “Licensees, however, are expected to know and comply with the Rules, regardless of their geographic distance from the FCC’s headquarters.” ASTCA had also argued that it cooperated with the bureau’s investigation and should be credited with doing so, the bureau said. “While ASTCA states that it filed the information required in its November 19, 2007, report on May 9, 2008, it did so more than five months after the filing deadline and only in response to the initiation of our investigation,” the order said. “Although we have adjusted forfeitures downward when a licensee makes voluntary disclosures to Commission staff and takes corrective measures after discovering its violations and prior to any Commission inquiry or initiation of enforcement action, we have not reduced forfeitures based on a licensee’s remedial conduct after the initiation of an investigation."
The FCC and Justice Department are growing concerned about rising duopoly control of the U.S. wireless industry, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse told Wells Fargo analysts Friday. Hesse and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son met with the analysts to discuss Softbank’s proposed buy of 70 percent of Sprint Nextel, Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said Monday in an investor report. Hesse told analysts he does not believe the FCC and Justice think four is the “magic number” of national wireless players -- just that they “would like stronger players to compete” against a perceived Verizon Wireless-AT&T duopoly, Fritzsche said. Hesse sees T-Mobile’s move to go public, via its merger with MetroPCS, as positive on “many different levels,” Fritzsche said. Still, Son said Softbank will need to “wait and see” about making its own bid for MetroPCS, according to Fritzsche. Analysts left the meeting more confident of Sprint Nextel’s long-term business strategy and its place in wireless market, Fritzsche said, saying the SoftBank deal “will allow [Sprint] to capitalize on opportunities which it had to pass on or miss in the past.” Under the deal announced Oct. 15, SoftBank will buy the stake for $20.1 billion (CD Oct 16 p1).
Sprint Nextel rejected Dish Network’s claim that the FCC should not set new emission levels (CD Oct 19 p16) for Dish’s proposed terrestrial broadband network using mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum. The record is complete and it’s not at all premature for the commission to determine the out-of-band interference limits, power limits and other service rules “to enable the S band MSS spectrum to be reallocated for terrestrial use while protecting adjacent operations and maintaining a broadband-viable H block in accordance with Congressional directive,” Sprint said Monday in docket 12-70. Sprint urged the commission to take a holistic approach to reallocating the spectrum “by creating a framework to resolve potential G block, H block and AWS-4 interference concerns in conjunction with each other so that this spectrum is used as fully as possible to serve wireless consumers."
Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport said Sunday in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” the polling company has recently changed its methodology to make more use of data from calls to cellphones. “We tweak sampling, we tweak how we interview,” Newport said. “We just added actually more cellphones to try to take into account the growing number of people who don’t even talk on landlines.” Newport appeared on the program to defend Gallup’s most recent seven-day tracking poll, which showed Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama 51 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. Most other national polls say the race is dead even.
Indosat, Indonesia’s leading mobile service provider, chose Nokia Siemens Networks as its mobile broadband vendor. Nokia will help Indosat deploy its first commercial network to deliver 3G services in the 900 MHz band, Indosat said a press release. Nokia will be Indosat’s exclusive vendor “for radio access network modernization in Central and East Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra,” it said. Indosat will benefit from high scalability, enhanced capacity and complete software-defined configuration of the new generation of Nokia’s radio network controllers, Indosat added.
The existing model for Internet traffic exchange works well, and a “sender pays” approach isn’t needed, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said Monday in a report on market developments and policy challenges (http://xrl.us/bnvhkz). The findings counter claims by some European telcos and regulators that the current model doesn’t provide enough revenue for access networks to fund investments to build high-speed broadband networks, or give online service providers the right market incentives to make the best use of network resources, it said. The report said the existing model has boosted growth and competition and has lowered data prices to 100,000 times less than that for a voice minute. The authors surveyed 4,300 networks representing 140,000 direct exchanges of traffic online, finding that nearly 100 percent of peering arrangements are done by handshake, with no written contract and with data exchanges taking place without money changing hands, the OECD said. Another mechanism for cutting transaction costs is widespread use of multilateral peering in which many networks that meet at an Internet exchange join a single agreement, the report said. The average number of agreements reported was 32.8 for each of the entities surveyed, it said. In fact, 62 percent of respondents have 10 or fewer such agreements, it said. That has made it possible to ensure global connectivity among two billion users via a relatively small number of agreements, it said. That’s driving prices down, unlike in the voice traffic arena, which “has been contentious,” requires strong regulatory oversight, and involves complex inter-network contracts, it said. Large content providers and content distribution networks have expanded their networks and peering to all parts of the world, saving them, their customers and the ISPs they peer with millions of dollars annually and improving quality of service, it said. But this Internet traffic exchange model can only exist in an environment that encourages market entry and investment, it said. Regulators must let telecom and non-telecom operators enter the market to compete and interconnect, it said. Given the “enormous difference in performance” between the heavily regulated telephony sector and the Internet sector, the report said, “As incumbent networks adopt IP technology, there is a risk of conflict between legacy pricing and regulatory models and the more efficient Internet model of traffic exchange.” If regulators draw a “bright line” between the two, they can ensure that the inefficiencies of the voice market don’t take hold on the Internet, the OECD said.