CenturyLink gave an overview of its proposed economic cost model for Colorado’s telecom overhaul, in a presentation Tuesday to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. It’s “a collection of processes that take current demand and geographic data, overlaid with engineering and economic principles, to generate an efficient greenfield forward-looking network design,” the company said. The model would be “the basis of an estimate of the least-cost investment needed to establish the cost of today’s wireline voice network,” CenturyLink said. The presentation was offered as part of a multi-day set of hearings before the PUC on how best to reform the state’s high-cost fund and deregulate as deemed necessary. CenturyLink framed the model in terms of efficiency, geography, the types of technology utilized and various other factors at play in the state’s ongoing debate. The slides of the presentation showcased mapping as well as some of the formulas CenturyLink proposes.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission is forcing the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) to grant more numbers to Windstream Kentucky East, the PSC said in a Wednesday order (http://xrl.us/bnshkf). NANPA had denied Windstream’s earlier request, which sought a single block of one-thousand numbers, according to the order. NANPA had denied Windstream’s application based on its failure to match FCC guidelines, the commission said. But “NANPA is not a policy-making entity,” the PSC judged, overturning NANPA’s decision. Windstream had demonstrated a “verifiable need” for new numbers, it said. These new numbers should go to “the sole use of serving Windstream’s need for an LRN [location routing number] needed for deployment of a new switch and corresponding service in connection with a Broadband Stimulus project upgrade in the noted exchange,” the PSC said. If the numbers aren’t needed, they should be returned to NANPA, the commission added.
Dish Network cautioned that deploying high-power terrestrial mobile broadband services in the lower and upper H block could create significant interference to PCS and AWS-4. Dish executives met with staff for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Commissioner Ajit Pai and the Wireless Bureau in a series of meetings Tuesday, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnshco). For AWS-4 alone, such operations “would render at least 25 percent of the AWS-4 uplink band unusable,” it said in docket 12-70. The DBS company, which awaits approval to use some wireless spectrum to build a terrestrial network, recommended deploying small cell LTE broadband in both the H block uplink (1915-1920 MHz) and downlink (1995-2000 MHz) and other alternatives to moving its uplink 5 MHz. Sprint Nextel urged the FCC to preserve the H block for wireless broadband communications, in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnshem). The company urged the commission to ensure that “there be no diminution or weakening of the PCS G block interference protections” established in the commission’s rules and in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project technical specifications. Nothing should be inferred by Dish or any other party “from Sprint’s silence on potential interference between Dish’s operations and BAS and government space operations at 2025-2100 MHz,” the carrier said.
Sixteen Pennsylvania lawmakers urged the FCC to provide transparency and adequate notice to over-the-air television broadcasters who may be affected by the commission’s plans for a broadcast incentive auction. The request came in a letter Tuesday from Republican Reps. Joseph Pitts, Charles Dent, Glenn Thompson, Patrick Meehan, Tom Marino, Mike Kelly, Todd Platts, Lou Barletta, Bill Shuster, and Democratic Reps. Tim Holden, Mike Doyle, Robert Brady, Chaka Fattah, Jason Altmire, Mark Critz, and Allyson Schwartz.
Intel Capital invested a total of about $40 million in 10 technology companies, it said Tuesday at the Intel Capital Global Summit in Huntington Beach, Calif. The companies that the Intel division invested in were 3D game developer Transmension of China, social game developer LIFO Interactive, integrated circuit (IC) design company FocalTech of Taiwan, cloud services provider Tier 3, secure content sharing platform Box, Bollywood and South-Asian content distributor Hungama.com, social radio platform Jelli, mobile proximity platform NewAer, e-payment platform PagPop and mobile ad provider UUCun. Financial details of each investment weren’t disclosed. LIFO’s best-known game on Facebook, Train City, attracted more than 8 million users globally last year, Intel Capital said. The game maker is developing a mobile version of the same title, scheduled for release later this year, and has “several” mobile games in development for iOS, Android and Windows 8 app stores, said Intel Capital. Transmension specializes in providing and enabling the delivery of games to TV screens via IPTV, smart TVs and cable TV carriers, and has collaborated with various unspecified game studios to distribute titles to “millions of families,” said Intel Capital. FocalTech specializes in digital signal processing algorithm and mixed-signal circuit design for applications including touch-panel controller ICs, and it continues to expand into various new applications, said Intel Capital. FocalTech has shipped more than 100 million units of capacitive touch controller ICs, said Intel Capital. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than $10.7 billion in more than 1,257 companies in 53 countries, it said. Last year, it invested $526 million in 158 investments, with about 51 percent of funds invested outside the U.S. and Canada, it said.
An FCC requirement that TV shows, when put online, must be captioned took effect Sunday, the agency said four days later (http://xrl.us/bnshcf). Shows that were broadcast on TV or carried on a multichannel video programming distributor after Sept. 30, added to an online distributor’s inventory after that date and “not substantially edited for the Internet” must now be captioned, a commission news release said. “Closed captioning requirements for other kinds of video programming, such as programs that are shown on television live or near live, programs that are substantially edited for the Internet, and programs that are already part of a distributor’s inventory of Internet video programming (archival content), will be implemented at later dates.” CEA and other associations have asked the FCC to redo some other Internet Protocol captioning rules that the agency also implemented as part of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CD Sept 25 p16).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., threw his support behind the FTC’s work with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to develop do-not-track (DNT) standards for Web browsers. “I fully encourage all of these government entities to actively facilitate the promulgation of voluntary industry standards that serve to protect consumers,” he wrote FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz on Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnsg73). Industry efforts to offer consumer privacy protections have “failed,” and the current self-regulatory regime is “ineffective” and “riddled with exceptions,” Rockefeller said. “If the advertising industry cannot be coaxed into living up to its commitment and adopting robust voluntary DNT standards, I believe it will only highlight the need for Congress to act.” Last year, Rockefeller introduced the Do-Not-Track Online Act (S-913) that languished in committee without a vote. Nine House Republicans last month questioned the FTC’s authority to develop DNT standards and its participation in W3C activities (CD Sept 24 p24). The lawmakers accused the commission of restricting online ads “without any formal legal process or Congressional authorization, but rather through informal agency threats.” The FTC did not comment on Rockefeller’s letter but confirmed that the commission sent its former Chief Technologist, Ed Felton, to attend this week’s W3C meeting in Amsterdam as an adviser. The Software and Information Industry Association urged advertising groups to play a “lead role” in developing a DNT standard or websites could be “pushed back to the Internet dark ages,” said Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy. “If a reasonable consensus on Do Not Track is not reached during discussions underway at W3C, many forms of tracking that are non-invasive and vital to the future of the Internet could be collateral damage,” he said. The Digital Advertising Alliance “can help prevent this by stepping forward with a sensible strategy for implementing a Do Not Track standard.”
Charter Communications is moving its headquarters to Stamford, Conn., from St. Louis. The cable operator had recently opened an office for top executives in New York City (CD Aug 3 p8), and the 70,000 square feet it will lease in downtown Stamford provides “proximity to other media headquarters and financial markets,” said CEO Tom Rutledge. The company agreed to “invest more than $10 million and intends to bring 200 jobs to the area, which includes the majority of its executive officers,” the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development said in a news release Tuesday. The department said it’s giving the company a 10-year, $6.5 million loan at 2 percent interest, with principal payments deferred three years, that will be forgiven “if certain job milestones are met."
Intelsat received requisite consents to amend certain terms of the indenture governing its outstanding 11.25 percent senior notes of subsidiary Intelsat Jackson Holdings due 2016, Intelsat said in a news release Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnshab). The amendments “eliminate substantially all of the restrictive covenants, certain events of default and certain other provisions contained in that indenture,” Intelsat said. The withdrawal deadline for a tender offer of $603 million expired Tuesday, it said: Notes previously tendered and notes tendered after the withdrawal deadline “may not be withdrawn, except as required by law.”
NextWave Wireless stockholders approved the company’s merger with AT&T, NextWave said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnsgvx). AT&T announced in early August it had a deal to buy NextWave, a move meant to strengthen AT&T’s position on the Wireless Communications Service band. The deal may cost AT&T up to $600 million, including $550 million to retire NextWave’s debt (CD Aug 3 p1). Shareholders also approved compensation arrangements for NextWave’s current executive officers connected to the merger. Final closing on the merger remains subject to customary closing conditions, including FCC approval, NextWave said.