TeleSouth deployed the first XtremeSat Media satellite broadcast distribution platform from Clear Channel Satellite. TeleSouth plans to deliver 10 high-quality audio channels to its affiliate and company-owned radio stations from its uplink in Jackson, Miss., Clear Channel said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bnsg2o). The XtremeSat Media platform will operate on C or Ku band uplink systems “and is capable of a single stereo audio channel or can be easily expanded to deliver up to 64 stereo channels in an MCPC [multiple channels per carrier] configuration,” it said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged the FCC not to let the commission’s program access rules expire, in a letter sent Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnsgp7). A draft order that circulated last month indicated the FCC will allow its ban on exclusive contracts among vertically integrated cable programmers to sunset on Friday (CD Sept 17 p2). But Markey said letting the rules sunset could “lead to a new dawn of less choice and higher prices for consumers.” Markey said the rules “remain a foundation for competition, and conditions in today’s video marketplace necessitate their continuance. If we do not extend the program access rules, the largest cable companies could withhold popular sports and entertainment programming from their competitors, reducing the competition and choice that has benefited consumers.” Markey was an author of the 1992 Cable Act which first created the program access rules. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and DirecTV declined to comment on the letter. NCTA would not comment on Markey’s letter but said the commission should reject any proposals to renew the ban on exclusive contracts among vertically integrated cable programmers, in an FCC ex parte filing Wednesday. “The ban no longer remains necessary to preserve and protect competition and diversity in what has become a robustly competitive and diverse video marketplace -- especially where case by case adjudication of complaints under the general provisions of Section 628(b) remains available,” the filing said. The Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance echoed Markey’s concerns in a separate letter and urged the commission to extend the exclusive contract prohibition of the program access rules for an additional five years. A group of telecom companies called the Coalition for Competitive Access to Content (CA2C) said it agreed with Markey and urged the FCC to extend the program access rules, in a separate letter. “Absent the rule, cable operators could withhold essential must-have programming that they own from their competitors, including some of the most popular national programming networks, as well as crucial regional sports networks,” the letter said. CA2C members include: American Cable Association, AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, Dish Network, DirecTV, Eastern Rural Telecom Association, Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, USTelecom, Verizon, and Western Telecommunications Alliance.
Operators will generate annual mobile roaming revenue of more than $80 billion by 2017, up from more than $46 billion this year, said a Juniper Research report. The increase will be largely from growing data usage, coupled with reduced roaming charges, Juniper said Wednesday. Roaming charges have gone down because of roaming regulations in many markets, including the European Union. While those regulations have slowed revenue growth in some areas, revenue continues to grow overall, Juniper said. Operators may be able to enhance roaming revenue via Wi-Fi and M2M, said Nitin Bhas, the report’s author. “There is an increasing number of SIMs used not just within handsets but within an M2M capacity,” Bhas said in a news release. “Operators need to encourage M2M roaming, especially within the telematics segment, via partnerships with global operators” (http://xrl.us/bnsgrz).
AT&T and the trustee of the liquidated Halo Wireless submitted a joint motion to settle their dispute before the California Public Utilities Commission, according to a filing released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnsgrg). Halo’s July liquidation caused AT&T and the trustee to develop this joint settlement to avoid litigation costs and encourage administrative efficiency, said the document. AT&T is troubled because Halo was “(i) sending landline-originated traffic to AT&T, (ii) sending inaccurate call information to AT&T, and (iii) refusing to pay for interconnection facilities,” the proposal said. AT&T cites other state proceedings in which state utility commissions ruled against Halo for violating interconnection agreements and skirting access charges (CD Aug 2 p8). The settlement establishes that Halo “materially breached” the interconnection agreement and is liable for certain, unspecified charges. Halo Wireless proceedings also continue in Arkansas and Texas. The Arkansas Public Service Commission had called for both Halo Wireless and the PSC tax division to submit their cases by Tuesday to resolve a dispute Halo raised this summer about what it argued was a high tax assessment. Neither party filed arguments, as Halo has been liquidated and the tax division has repeatedly insisted Halo bears the burden of proof in regards to its claim, not the tax assessors. The tax division told the PSC Tuesday it won’t be filing any initial brief but reserves the right to file testimony by Oct. 9 (http://xrl.us/bnsgr9). Eastex Telephone Cooperative asked the Texas Public Utility Commission for compulsory arbitration regarding its concerns with Halo’s interconnection agreements in a Tuesday filing (http://xrl.us/bnsgtx).
The government of Albania will deploy Eutelsat’s satellite broadband service for free public Internet access for its citizens. The country’s postal service plans to connect 850 post offices, schools and local government offices in rural areas as part of the “Digital Age of Communications Agenda,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bnrdkk). The service uses the KA-SAT satellite and offers speeds of 8 Mbps “that enables users to benefit from the Internet for information and education and to access services that include video streaming,” Eutelsat said.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and several national business and political officials will lead discussion at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) November meeting, the association said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnsgjm). NARUC provided more detail this week on the meeting Nov. 11-14 in Baltimore. It will also feature U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Gina McCarthy, Verizon Executive Vice President-Public Affairs, Policy and Communications Tom Tauke and AT&T Senior Executive Vice President-External and Legislative Affairs James Cicconi, NARUC said.
USTelecom nominated Cesar Caballero of Windstream to be an ILEC representative on the Universal Service Administrative Co. board (http://xrl.us/bnsggg). Caballero is senior regulatory counsel at Windstream and has 20 years of experience in the telecom industry, USTelecom said.
Dell Telephone will go out of business by 2016 and default on its loans with the Rural Utilities Service unless it gets a waiver of some of the new universal service rules limiting reimbursement of capital and operating expenses, it told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday (http://xrl.us/bnsgfb). The telco faces “extremely high operational costs with little opportunity for revenue growth,” and ceasing operations would leave most of its 800 Texas and New Mexico customers without voice and broadband services, it said in a presentation (CD Aug 13 p7). Dell said it has met the standard for a waiver, arguing that despite “efforts to utilize cost-effective technology and prudently operate its network,” costs remain “extremely high."
Cox Communications “fully intends” to participate in the FCC’s special access data collection, but these types of requests require “significant manual effort,” the telco told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Friday (http://xrl.us/bnsgdy). Cox does not maintain a single centralized source for the information requested, nor does it keep the information in the same format as ILECs, it said. Reporting the distinction between circuits obtained through “indefeasible rights of use” and wholly-owned circuits will be a “highly manual, labor-intensive process involving review of several iterations of master agreements,” Cox said. Cox asked the commission to refrain from seeking this and other time-consuming reporting “unless it substantially contributes to the Commission’s analysis of the competitive environment."
The FCC Tuesday released the text of its notice of proposed rulemaking to set up its incentive spectrum auction (http://xrl.us/bnscum). In the notice, approved at Friday’s meeting (CD Oct 1 p1)), the commission asked a variety of questions on how it should conduct the reverse auction, TV band repacking and the forward spectrum auction it plans to undertake. The notice said the FCC plans to work with the State Department and telecommunications officials in Canada and Mexico on new bilateral “instruments” to allow the flexible use of spectrum in the TV bands in border regions. “Since wireless broadband operations are not currently allowed in the UHF band, new arrangements will have to be negotiated with Canada and Mexico to allow such operations” near their borders, the notice said. The notice also asked whether and how it should weight broadcasters bids in the reverse portion of the auction because each license is not valued the same. “For example, some stations have larger coverage areas and serve greater populations than others,” it said. It also identified two ways it might handle the broadcast band’s repacking -- an integer programming algorithm or a sequential algorithm, it said, calling the latter a “simpler mathematical recipe.” The notice also proposes a “dynamic auction design format” for the forward auction, which could involve a simultaneous multiple round ascending auction or an ascending clock auction. On auction eligibility, the notice proposes to bar full power and Class A licensees with expired, cancelled or revoked licenses from participating in the reverse auction. The notice asks how it should treat pending enforcement actions against stations who bid in the reverse auction. “Winning license termination bidders should, we think, have a reasonable degree of certainty about how pending enforcement actions will be handled,” it said. The notice also asks whether it should let stations bid on accepting additional interference from other stations or to reduce their service area some. “If we were to allow licensees to participate ... by bidding to accept more interference from which they would otherwise be entitled to protection, then we might be able to accommodate more broadcast stations in the same amount of spectrum during the repacking process,” it said. One option the notice considers for repacking the broadcast band “would not ensure preservation of service to all of the specific viewers that currently can receive a station’s signal,” but would preserve the approximate number of viewers who can, the notice said. The notice asked for comment on whether it should take all reasonable efforts to preserve a station’s service “to the same specific viewers.” For the forward auction, the notice contemplates a flexible band plan to account for its reliance on the reverse auction and repacking stages of the broader plan. “We propose a structure to keep the downlink spectrum band consistent nationwide while allowing variations in the amount of uplink spectrum available in a geographic area,” it said.