The Colorado Public Utilities Commission outlined its October schedule of proceedings for telecom reform, in an order Wednesday. The state commission wants to overhaul its telecom rules, deregulating where the market is effectively competitive and likely reducing its high-cost support fund, and is holding community meetings throughout September (CD Sept 10 p5). The commission’s formal hearings will take place Oct. 1-4, it said. “We will organize the hearings based upon topics rather than a step-by-step process of the proposed rule changes,” the PUC said (http://bit.ly/OcJ4DV). “The topic areas are designed as a framework for the hearing and focus on the policy determinations underlying each proposed rule update. Legal arguments may necessarily be raised when relevant to a related topic; however, the Commission recognizes that, because the topics are intended to focus on policy concerns, depending on issues raised and inquiries by the Commission, additional discussion may be relevant to the proposed updates.” The commission described the sequence of topics to be covered, from effective competition rulings to high-cost support to how to treat VoIP providers. Reply comments on the proceeding were due Wednesday but none had not been posted online by our deadline with the exception of Sprint’s (http://bit.ly/UdUJU1). Colorado PUC Telecom Chief Lynn Notarianni won’t submit staff reply comments until Friday due to travel related to the public comment meetings, a Wednesday PUC filing said (http://bit.ly/QCtlKK).
FairSearch added new members in the U.S. and Europe, the anti-Google business coalition said Wednesday. The addition of Poland’s Allegro Group, with auction and e-commerce operations in 15 countries, Finland’s Nokia and California’s Oracle “is emblematic of the global scope of Google’s anti-competitive search and business practices, which harm consumers by curbing innovation and choice, not just in Web services, but also in mobile, and any platform where Google abuses its dominant position,” said Thomas Vinje, counsel to FairSearch on EU matters (http://xrl.us/bnqhb7). Any remedy to Google’s behavior “must be applied globally, be legally binding, and come with strong mechanisms for ongoing monitoring and enforcement to prevent the search giant from restoring its abusive practices,” he said. The coalition also released an open letter to U.S. and EU regulators as ads in Politico and the Washington Post Wednesday, telling the European Commission and U.S. FTC (http://xrl.us/bnqhcm): “Simply requiring Google to accurately label its products, paid search results and advertisements will not undo the harm to competition that Google already has inflicted.” The company “controls” nearly 80 percent of searches in the U.S. and more than 90 percent in Europe and “has the unique ability to manipulate the marketplace and illegally thwart competition,” the letter said. Regulators must consider a “placement” remedy that stops Google from “preferencing its own services or demoting the rankings of competitive sites,” the letter said. FairSearch last week held an event where Google’s search-ranking and Android mobile device operating system practices were criticized (CD Sept 18 p11). The company had responded that its practices benefit consumers, and a representative had no immediate comment Wednesday.
Intelsat is selling some bonds and buying back others, the satellite company said in news releases Wednesday. The company said its Intelsat Jackson Holdings will sell $640 million in face value of senior notes due 2022, and the unit’s offering to repurchase for cash any of the $603 million in principal of 11.25 percent senior notes due in 2016 that are outstanding. The money from the note sale will be used to buy back the shorter-dated notes, Intelsat said.
Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Mark Kirk, a Republican, asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to conduct a “meaningful dialog” with all stakeholders during the agency’s development of rules for the upcoming spectrum incentive auctions. Officials said this week that the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking on the auction rules suggests that a reverse auction, where broadcasters will offer to sell their spectrum or opt to share spectrum, and a forward auction, where the agency will offer the licenses for 4G and LTE, take place concurrently (CD Sept 17 p1). The NPRM was circulated by Genachowski Sept. 7 and is scheduled to get a vote at the FCC’s Sept. 28 meeting. Durbin and Kirk said it’s “imperative” that the auctions protect broadcasters that choose not to participate, in a letter sent to Genachowski that was made public on Wednesday. “Our constituents deserve a transparent rulemaking process that allows sufficient opportunity to understand and provide input on any proposal affecting their broadcast service,” they said.
GlobeCast and France 24 are expanding their exploratory hybrid broadband broadcast TV service to the Middle East this fall, working with a few other companies. GlobeCast said HbbTV will be sold to satellite viewers of France 24 in the Middle East, and is available in Europe through SES. “The project will add a layer of interactivity to satellite TV programming by harnessing the capability of connected TVs, allowing satellite TV viewers” in the Middle East “to use their connected televisions to interact with FRANCE 24’s linear and non-linear content,” GlobeCast said in a Wednesday news release. “This service will be a robust test of HbbTV’s ability to enhance the quality of DTH users’ viewing experience,” it said of direct-to-home satellite service. GlobeCast said it will provide ground services and an uplink from Paris, and the satellite feed will be delivered on Arabsat’s BADR-4 satellite, and Orange’s content delivery network will “drive the broadband delivery” of the product.
The FCC needs to act on the application of Adak Eagle Enterprises and Windy City Cellular for a waiver of USF rules, CEO Larry Mayes said in a meeting with Priscilla Argeris, aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. The companies serve remote Adak Island, Alaska. “WCC and AEE emphasized that it has been 163 days since the WCC Petition was filed and 114 days since the AEE Petition was filed,” the companies said in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnqbvm). “The companies have received no indication of when the Commission will move forward with a final decision on either Petition,” the filing said. “The companies have promptly responded to all requests for information, and have consistently offered to provide whatever additional information staff desires in order to expeditiously reach a decision.” Costs continue to mount, Mayes said. “The waiver process has been extremely expensive, onerous and frustrating for a small carrier that is now operating at a loss for both its wireless and wireline services while continuing to provide these services to remote Adak Island.” For WCC to continue providing wireless service to residents of Adak, it will need a two-year delay and five-year phased-in implementation of certain universal service rules, the filing said: “At a minimum,” WCC will need “funding sufficient to cover operations until Mobility Fund Phase II support is made available."
The FCC Public Safety Bureau granted Nextel Communications’ August petition for a temporary waiver of commission rules for radio operations in Genesee County, N.Y. Nextel had asked the FCC to allow the county “to operate its mobile and portable radios using 5 kilohertz frequency deviation in the NPSPAC [National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee] segment of the 800 MHz band.” That’s rather than “remaining on its original channels and reducing the frequency deviation of its base station and mobile and portable radios from 5 kilohertz to 4 kilohertz ... to comply with the emission mask specified in Section 90.210 of the Commission’s rules,” said the order (http://xrl.us/bnqb3q). “We find that Genesee has encountered unusual and, in our experience, unique factual circumstances with its FRED [Four-level Recovery for Extended Distance] system,” the bureau said. “Therefore, we find that requiring Genesee to comply with the NPSPAC emission mask for its mobile and portable radios would be contrary to the public’s interest in timely completion of 800 MHz rebanding. The requested waiver, by comparison, will provide Genesee with comparable facilities at minimum necessary cost.” The waiver will expire once Genesee decommissions its FRED encryption system, the bureau said.
Public Knowledge said Comcast’s new broadband usage plans in Tucson raise a series of unanswered questions about Comcast’s broadband billing plans. The company has been evaluating those plans since it suspended a 250 GB monthly cap earlier this year (CD May 18 p4). Beginning Oct., 1 Comcast broadband customers in Tucson will see new “data usage allowances” of 300 GB a month on most plans, 350 GB for Comcast’s Blast plan, 450 GB a month for its Extreme 50 plan and 600 GB a month for its Extreme 500 plan, said Comcast’s local Tucson website (http://xrl.us/bnqb3m). Customers who exceed the allowances will be charged $10 for an additional 50 GB, the site said. “While we commend Comcast for raising the caps it imposes on customers, Comcast has still avoided answering simple questions,” said Michael Weinberg, vice president of the Institute for Emerging Innovation, a project within Public Knowledge. “What exactly, is the purpose of the caps? Why are the new caps better at achieving that goal than the previous caps?” A Comcast spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond.
Nuance Communications said it plans to acquire Ditech Networks. Nuance is known for its Dragon speech-recognition products, while Ditech offers voice technology services like PhoneTag voicemail-to-text. The deal will allow Nuance to enhance its Dragon voice-to-text products with the addition of the Ditech PhoneTag service, Nuance said in a news release. The deal should be completed by the end of the year (http://xrl.us/bnqb4p).
Comcast’s Xfinity Wireless Gateway is the U.S.’s fastest in-home Wi-Fi router, the company said Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnqbkh). Comcast cited the results of speed tests by Allion Test Labs that found the Xfinity Wireless Gateway, manufactured by Technicolor, could deliver about 155 Mbps through Wi-Fi. Allion also measured speeds for AT&T and Verizon devices. They found two of Verizon’s wireless routers, made by Actiontec, could deliver about 84 Mbps. An AT&T router made by 2-Wire achieved 22 Mbps, Allion said in its results report (http://xrl.us/bnqbkq). It’s not typical for broadband speeds to be measured over Wi-Fi, Verizon spokesman Bob Elek said, saying the FCC has measured broadband speeds via hardwire connections for its “Measuring Broadband America” reports. The most recent report, released in July, found Verizon’s FiOS service was one of the top two Internet service providers in terms of ability to deliver above advertised speeds; it and Cablevision each achieved an average of 120 percent of advertised speeds. Comcast also did well, achieving an average of 103 percent of advertised speeds, according to the report (http://xrl.us/bnhgkk). Wireless routers, by their very nature, will diminish the connection’s speed capacity, Elek said. “There are a lot of different things that can impact the connection,” he said, including the distance from a router and the number of devices sharing the connection. Verizon’s own findings on the average speed of its FiOS connection over Wi-Fi fall in line with the Allion speed test -- Verizon finds FiOS has an average speed of 85 Mbps over Wi-Fi compared to up to 300 Mbps over hardwire, Elek said. “What we're seeing is that satisfies a majority of our customers,” he said. Verizon recently introduced a new GigE Wireless N router for FiOS customers that can achieve up to 130 Mbps, Elek said.