Cybera has become a “Vertical Solution Provider” of Verizon Wireless, the company said Thursday. Under this new partnership, Cybera and Verizon Wireless will provide network security services, combined with embedded wireless, through the Cybera ONE cloud-based network security solution. Cybera ONE’s recent deployments with embedded wireless help serve the retail, hospitality, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing industries. The addition of embedded Verizon Wireless LTE or 3G access eliminates the need for a business to deploy multiple devices at each of its locations to fulfill all networking, security and wireless needs, Cybera said. “With a high demand for solutions that provide wireless connectivity and security, Verizon sees great value in combining Cybera’s fully managed cloud security service with our wireless network,” Jerry Fountain, Verizon Wireless’s regional president for the Carolinas and Tennessee, said in a Cybera news release. “Our collective business objective is to provide businesses with solutions that can reduce their cost of operations, enhance customer service and increase security” (http://xrl.us/bnqocd).
The FCC Wireless Bureau will allow Diamond Towers to inspect its towers equipped with the Flash Technology Tower Monitoring System on an annual basis instead of quarterly. Diamond asked to be able to do annual inspections, saying quarterly inspections would cost it $105,000 per year and aren’t necessary. “The Commission and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau have previously granted waivers ... to antenna structure owners who demonstrated that they were operating safe and reliable monitoring systems that provide sufficiently robust monitoring of the control devices, indicators and alarm systems so as to render quarterly inspections unnecessary,” the bureau said (http://xrl.us/bnqob9). The bureau said it will grant, “in an expedited manner,” waiver petitions from other tower companies that deploy the system.
Sequestration’s proposed cuts to federal R&D spending would result in a reduction of GDP and job growth, said a report Thursday by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) (http://xrl.us/bnqn7v). The report estimates that the projected $95 billion in cuts to federal R&D projects could result in a GDP loss of up to $860 billion over the next nine years. “In the past, federally funded research provided the core technologies that enabled the creation of many of today’s top companies including Cisco, Genentech, and Google, among many others,” said ITIF economist Justin Hicks. But the steep cuts required by the sequester could result in job losses of 200,000 in 2013 alone, the report said. “Cutting federal support R&D, a key ‘fuel’ for the U.S. innovation economy engine, would not only lead to a relatively smaller U.S. economy and higher unemployment, it would reduce U.S. global competitiveness precisely at a time when the U.S. economy is struggling to stay in the race for global innovation advantage,” the report said. Congress can still act between now and Jan. 1 to avoid the cuts, but budget experts and industry observers aren’t optimistic (CD Sept 7 p3).
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell both issued statements applauding the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for approving a resolution in favor of Internet freedom. The committee was responding to ITU proposals giving the United Nations governance powers over the Internet (CD Sept 20 p16). The resolution was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “The proposals by some countries to restrict the free flow of information online would threaten one of the most powerful engines for global economic growth and the spread of democracy in human history,” Genachowski said. “I fully support today’s vote, which makes clear that the World Conference on International Telecommunications [WCIT] must embrace the success of the last two decades of liberalization in telecom regulation as well as the existing multi-stakeholder model in order to ensure continued investment and growth of the Internet around the globe.” McDowell, who has repeatedly called attention to the issue headed into WCIT this December, agreed with the chairman. “The Committee’s vote, coupled with the unanimous vote in the House of Representatives last month, should send a strong signal around the globe that our view is that the best way to spread freedom and prosperity is through an unfettered Internet,” McDowell said. “Efforts to inject regulation into this sphere should be turned back while the non-governmental multi-stakeholder model should be strengthened to resolve the challenges of the new digital age. I applaud Senator Rubio for his resolve and leadership on this important matter."
Italy and Switzerland were added to an annual online piracy watch list published by the Congressional International Anti-piracy Caucus Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnqn3v). The two countries join China, Russia and Ukraine on a list of nations whose policies and legal frameworks fail to protect the intellectual property rights of U.S. creators, the caucus said. “The lack of enforcement of intellectual property rights in these countries causes grave harm to American creators and to our economy as a whole,” said the report authored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah., and Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. “I wish it could be said that the 2012 International Anti-Piracy Watch List contained some promising news,” said Hatch in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, this year’s watch list confirms that copyright piracy continues to spread at an alarming pace.” The report did note improvements from the governments in Spain and Canada to modernize their legal frameworks and address the piracy of U.S. digital music, videos, software, games and books.
Disney is “very close” to releasing movies and other content with KeyChest digital rights locker technology, and will likely deploy it “broadly” across many titles, Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo told us at the Goldman Sachs conference. He wouldn’t say when the first KeyChest-enabled titles will hit the market and at what price. Disney unveiled KeyChest in October 2009, but postponed the launch of compatible titles as it sought to keep pace with changes in platform development, Rasulo said. KeyChest-compatible titles had been expected to have been ready by now. Disney is among the major holdouts from UltraViolet, which most major studios have deployed as security with streamed content. With KeyChest, purchasing content online or as a DVD or Blu-ray, creates a unique key stored in a digital rights locker that unlocks the ability to stream to any CE device capable of playing it. Since the actual content remains on the servers against being downloaded and played locally, the manufacturers keep control of access to the files. KeyChest has been marketed as part of the Disney Movie Rewards and Disney Studios All Access banners.
Entercom Communications will share terrestrial radio revenue with Nashville record label Big Machine, home of Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and other artists, the companies said Thursday. The agreement, first of its kind for Entercom will “align their business interests and accelerate growth and innovation in digital radio to the benefit of music fans and radio listeners everywhere,” the companies said. They said Big Machine’s artists would “directly participate” in the agreement, a nod to continuing rancor between artists and their labels over how new revenue streams get split. “While the deal comes with some significant costs and risks, we believe that by working with the labels and the artist community to establish a new business model, we will ultimately enhance the opportunities for all parties concerned,” said Entercom President David Field. Entercom is “seeing where listeners are going in regards to how radio is being used now and where and how it will be used in the very near future,” said Big Machine President Scott Borchetta. “Among the many choices in the audio entertainment landscape, radio is now portable again thanks to smartphones and soon-to-be ubiquitous Internet streaming in the car.” NAB President Gordon Smith also addressed such deals between labels and radio stations at the Radio Show in Dallas late Wednesday. “We must have the courage to face our future head on and ask ourselves, ‘What do we want to be?'” he said. “Is it terrestrial, or streaming or both? If both, how do we shape a strong future for both revenue streams?” Clear Channel “bet on the future of streaming” through its Big Machine terrestrial revenue-sharing deal earlier this summer (CD June 7 p11), which some called “risky” and others “bold and forward looking,” Smith said: “I believe each company must evaluate its future and make its own bold decisions. Indeed, the agreement between Clear Channel and Big Machine may ultimately answer many questions about whether the future is streaming.” What “we can all agree on” is that “radio’s future lies in being incorporated into every new device,” he said. “And uniting in our advocacy will ensure we achieve that goal,” just as broadcasters united against performance tax legislation in 2010, Smith said. “When government decisions threaten radio’s future and broadcasters’ ability to serve listeners, we must continue to speak with one voice and unite when the need arises."
EchoStar, Dish and Hughes urged the FCC to finish its work on the structure of the Connect America Fund before expanding the base of services contributing to the universal service fund. Until that work is complete, it’s difficult for satellite broadband providers “to evaluate whether the new contribution regime is equitable and non-discriminatory as required by statute,” they said in a joint filing in docket 06-122 (http://xrl.us/bnqnsw). The USF contribution mechanism “must be updated to better reflect the marketplace,” the filing said. The CAF, if not structured properly, “could subsidize less-efficient terrestrial technologies to provide service to the same customers that satellite broadband providers are investing their own funds to serve.” It wouldn’t be competitively neutral or equitable to mandate that satellite broadband providers contribute to USF “if they are arbitrarily excluded from receiving support in areas where they are the most-efficient provider, and high-cost funding instead is channeled to subsidize their less-efficient competitors to extend service to areas where satellite service would be more efficient,” the companies added.
Boomerang Wireless amended its application for designation as an eligible telecom carrier to add Florida to the list of states where it hopes to offer service under the Lifeline program, in a filing at the FCC. The carrier also defines its proposed service area by providing a list of study areas, revises Boomerang’s proposed Lifeline service offerings and “notes the approval of Boomerang’s Compliance Plan,” in the filing (http://xrl.us/bnqncc). “Boomerang seeks ETC designation in order to provide handsets and domestic voice services to low-income customers under the brand enTouch Wireless,” it said. “Boomerang also intends to provide Lifeline-only service to residents of Tribal lands. Boomerang has direct, network carrier contracts with Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and has a contract in place to resell service from GSM carriers. The multi-carrier wireless network platform provides robust wireless service coverage across the entire ETC footprint. Boomerang has direct, in-depth experience with building voice, data and broadband products directly with carriers.” Boomerang previously sought ETC designation in Washington, D.C., Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Backers of media ownership deregulation endorsed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s support of ending a cross-ownership ban on a company holding a radio or TV station and daily newspaper in the same market, and for letting on a case-by-case basis foreigners hold greater than 25 percent stakes in U.S. broadcasters (CD Sept 20 p6). Also the same day Pai spoke to the NAB Radio show about deregulation, executives from the Newspaper Association of America met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about cross-ownership deregulation. There’s a “need for greater flexibility for investments in newspaper companies by companies that also own television licensees,” the executives also told Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, Office of Strategic Planning Acting Chief Elizabeth Andrion and aides to Genachowski on Wednesday, a filing recounted. There’s also a “need for ownership relief in small as well as large markets,” Thursday’s filing in docket 09-182 said (http://xrl.us/bnqnce). The Coalition for Broadcast Investment that sought an end to the ban on foreign stakes above 25 percent is “gratified” Pai “embraced our view that broadcasters should have access to capital on the same terms as their cable, satellite and online counterparts,” said industry lawyer Mace Rosenstein of a Covington & Burling, representing the group. “We look forward to working with the commission as it considers our request asking the commission to exercise its existing statutory discretion to authorize broadcast foreign investment that is consistent with the public interest and our national security.” Bonneville International and Scranton Times LP, two owners of dailies and stations in the same market that have sought an end to cross-ownership restrictions, said they hope the full commission “will engage in a productive dialogue about this rule very soon."