The FCC should lift a stay on a Bloomberg TV-Comcast neighborhooding order with respect to 59 markets where Comcast has a single standard-definition news neighborhood on its channel lineup, Bloomberg said in an application for review filed with the commission (http://xrl.us/bnpr43). Bloomberg asked the commission to review that aspect of the Media Bureau’s Aug. 14 order clarifying and staying (CD Aug 15 p15) some aspects of its earlier neighborhooding order in the proceeding. “After agreeing with Bloomberg that its complaint was explicitly limited to carriage of its SD signal, however, the Bureau nonetheless incorrectly stayed on its own motion such implementation,” Bloomberg said in its application for review. “The effect of the stay is to allow Comcast to flout the terms of the news neighborhooding conditions included in the Comcast-NBC Universal Merger Order.” A Comcast spokeswoman said the company “continues to believe the Media Bureau appropriately stayed aspects of its decision pending full Commission review in this case."
Globalstar and Thales Alenia signed a contract for the manufacture and delivery of six more satellites for Globalstar’s second-generation constellation. The satellites “will ensure long-term industry-leading mobile satellite voice and data services to Globalstar customers around the world through 2030,” Globalstar said in a press release (http://xrl.us/bnpr54). The new contract gives the company the option to order as many as 24 additional satellites “should consumer demand require additional capacity be added to the Globalstar System,” it said. The six satellites are scheduled to be delivered and launched in 2015, the company added. Globalstar and Thales settled an arbitration dispute this year over a manufacturing delay for an order of satellites (CD June 26 p18).
New York “might want to recommend wireless providers take GREATER advantage of the TSP [telecommunications service priority] designation for their backhaul facilities,” CenturyLink told the New York State Public Service Commission in a Friday filing (http://xrl.us/bnpr3q). It was responding to PSC questions about 2011’s devastating storm Irene and ways to maintain service. “Within CenturyLink’s network, wireless providers are already the largest ‘holders of TSP Circuit designations'” within the TSP program, the company explained. “It is through this designation that wireline providers know that those specific circuits need to be prioritized above other circuits during restoration.” CenturyLink also had recommendations for how regulators may want to coordinate information about outages during such disasters. There’s “spotty and incomplete reporting” and “given the extensive discussions that have already taken place at the Federal and Regional levels,” CenturyLink doesn’t see carriers as the solution, it said, deferring to state power regulators’ ability to request such information through utility outage and response reporting.
Regionalized availability dates for the same movie stands to “encourage piracy,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos warned at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday. Netflix is “navigating” all of the “complex” distribution deals that are in place for content globally, he said. He pointed to The Hunger Games, saying Netflix is “basically the pay TV home” for that movie in “every territory we operate in.” But he said “the difference from the first date of availability to the last date of availability is almost eight months” for that movie. Netflix launched the movie in Latin America Aug. 18, the same day it was available on DVD and video on demand, he said. “It was the first subscription exploitation of the movie anywhere in the world. The next time that becomes available will be in Canada three months later, in the U.K. four months later and then 90 days after that in the U.S.,” he said. That means the U.S. “will actually have the slowest access” to the movie “in a subscription model online, which I think is incredibly dangerous for distributors,” he said. There is still “plenty of room for growth” in the U.S. and “around the world” for Netflix, he also said. Netflix now has nearly 24 million subscribers, but he said “twice as many people” subscribe to a “premium pay TV service” and “four times” as many people have mobile phones. The company is “thrilled” with the first 1 million subscribers it now has in Latin America, he said. But Netflix is “growing faster” in the U.K., where it attracted more than 1 million subscribers in seven months despite strong competition there, he said. Netflix is “seeing great positive signs in Latin America, particularly in Mexico,” he said.
The worldwide market for green data centers will grow to $45.4 billion by 2016, up from $17.1 billion this year, Pike Research predicted in a report. The industry will grow due to a combination of rising energy costs, environmental concerns, increased demand for computing power and economic pressures, the firm said Friday. “There is no single technology or design model that makes a data center green,” Research Director Eric Woods said in a news release. “In fact, the green data center is connected to the broader transformation that data centers are undergoing -- a transformation that encompasses technical innovation, operational improvements, new design principles, changes to the relationship between IT and business, and changes in the data center supply chain” (http://xrl.us/bnprzm).
The Kentucky Public Service Commission authorized a rural telco to borrow upwards of $15.6 million to pay debt it owes the Rural Utilities Service and the Rural Telephone Bank, in an order Friday (http://xrl.us/bnpryt). The company, Foothills Rural Telephone Cooperative, has worked with its new lender, CoBank, to make the case that “the refinancing would result in a positive net present value cash flow of $802,336.07,” according to the commission. “The Commission has reviewed the proposed refinancing and finds Foothills’ proposal reasonable,” the PSC said.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a one-year extension request of the construction deadlines, until July 26, 2013, for four B-block cellular locations by Custer Telephone Co-op in Idaho. Custer has encountered some complications, the notice said (http://xrl.us/bnprr8). “In regard to the Windy Devil location, Custer states that the Salmon-Challis National Forest required Custer to explore collocation options before the consideration of a new ground lease,” the bureau said. “Custer states that after it was unable to collocate with Alltel, it has been diligently working to collocate on an AT&T site in the National Forest and that process is still continuing. In regard to the Stanley location, Custer states after approaching three separate structure owners, it has been diligently working with the City of Stanley to collocate next to the building of the Sawtooth Valley Rural Volunteer Fire Department, and that process is also continuing.” Comments are due Oct. 15, replies Oct. 30.
The FCC should make clear that Short Message Service revenue is exempt from the USF and “will remain so until all competing services (such as iMessage, Facebook messaging, and Google’s GChat, among others) are required to contribute, in order to prevent competitive imbalance,” MetroPCS officials said in a meeting with aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell. MetroPCS also made other suggestions (http://xrl.us/bnprp4). The FCC should also “create a system where carriers can seek informal guidance on USF contribution matters, perhaps in a manner similar to the Internal Revenue Services’ private letter ruling process” and “extend the time for carriers to seek refunds on USF contribution overpayments and eliminate the asymmetry between a carrier’s ability to file for a refund and the Commission’s ability to recoup past underpayments, as the current system artificially encourages carriers to be more aggressive in their revenue classification positions,” the carrier said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is seeking a vote on an order and notice of proposed rulemaking on broadband on aircraft, an agency official said Thursday. The order would provide technological and licensing rules for so-called earth stations on aircraft. Genachowski circulated the order, to be voted electronically by commissioners. The FCC has authorized in-flight broadband systems by companies including GoGo and Row 44 since 2001, but on an ad hoc basis, the official noted. “Americans increasingly expect access to broadband wherever they go, even when they are 30,000 feet in the air,” Genachowski said in a written statement. “To enable broadband providers to meet those demands, and promote the economic growth and job-creating impacts of ubiquitous broadband, we are circulating rules to help speed the deployment of Internet services on-board aircraft. These rules will provide regulatory certainty, allow us to process applications up to 50 percent faster, and ensure other radio service operations are protected from harmful interference.”
Cablevision is refinancing some debt. The company announced an offering of $500 million in senior secured notes due 2022. The cable operator plans to use the proceeds to buy back $400 million of its 8.5 percent senior notes due 2015 and repay $100 million of its term loan B-2.