KVH debuted an onboard terminal for mini very small aperture terminal (VSAT) broadband service. The TracPhone V7-IP represents a new generation of enterprise-grade onboard satellite communications equipment, KVH said. The service helps advance “the quality, speed and affordability of broadband data connectivity at sea,” it said. For a vessel’s information technology manager, it provides extensive functionality “to help manage onboard networks remotely.” Its mini-VSAT broadband service is delivered by an interlaced network of 14 modern Ku-band satellite transponders “providing seamless worldwide coverage north of the equator and around all major continents,” it added.
The National Labor Relations Board’s appeals office has “conclusively” dismissed an unfair labor practices charge against Hawaiian Telcom, the company said. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1357 filed the charge over Hawaiian Telcom’s implementation of Last, Best and Final Offer employment terms Jan. 1. The company had implemented the offer terms after the union rejected them in December and it was clear that bargaining had reached an impasse (CD Dec 23 p10). The NLRB’s regional director had dismissed the charge in May, but the union decided to appeal (http://xrl.us/bnnmw2). The NLRB said in a letter Aug. 17 that Hawaiian Telcom acted appropriately in imposing the terms after bargaining reached an impasse. The ruling means the offer terms will remain in effect, Hawaiian Telcom said. The union and Hawaiian Telcom continue to informally discuss working out a collective bargaining agreement in the future, the company said.
Verizon wants to kill aspects of its retail regulation in New Mexico, it told the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Tuesday. “Verizon requests that the Commission exempt the petitioning carriers [seven Verizon affiliates] from all tariff filing requirements, grant Verizon a variance of the Commission’s rules as necessary, and permit Verizon to withdraw its tariffs that apply to its provision of retail intrastate telecommunications services in New Mexico,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bnnmuq). Verizon portrayed such a waiver of requirements as a win for all, noting it would “eliminate unnecessary regulatory expenses associated with the tariff filing regime, and enable Verizon to devote its resources to better serving customer needs.” Instead of filing tariffs, Verizon “will post all of the rates, terms and conditions of its intrastate services on the companies’ public websites,” which is “in the public interest, is consistent with the pro-competitive and deregulatory goals of the New Mexico Telecommunications Act, and meets all of the applicable requirements of the Commission’s rules,” Verizon said.
KTRK-TV, an ABC affiliate in Houston, filed an application with the FCC International Bureau for a new C-band receive-only earth station. The station wants to register the dish at its main transmitter site in Missouri City, Texas, it said in its application (http://xrl.us/bnnmy4). The earth station will be used “to provide analog and digital video for broadcast and programming services to the KTRK-TV viewers,” KTRK said.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission demanded proof that Terracom is complying with 911 obligations. By Aug. 31, Terracom must prove that “its customers have access to Verizon’s 911 and E911 services,” the PRC said in a filing released Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnnmtx). The PRC hearing examiner first requested Terracom supply such proof after a November hearing, the filing said.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel met in Anchorage with the president of Alaska Communications Systems, according to an ex parte filing by ACS (http://xrl.us/bnnmpt). ACS discussed its recent acceptance of more than $4 million in Connect America Fund Phase I support, saying the cost of construction of the necessary facilities “will be far higher than can be economically justified,” and that it was told by commission staff that many of the locations ACS intended to built to “may not meet the Commission’s definition of ‘unserved,'” a requirement of accepting the funds. “This new information has increased the already prohibitive cost so dramatically that ACS doubts that there is a viable business case for utilizing all of the CAF I incremental funds given the rules set forth by the FCC” without a partial waiver, it said. ACS discussed “flaws in the current CQBAT model that cause it to substantially understate the cost of service, and therefore the level of support required, in Alaska.” Those flaws would “sharply curtail” support in Phase II, ACS said. ACS also urged expedited commission action on the ACS Wireless petition for waiver of the annual deadline to receive universal service support. “ACS Wireless missed the filing deadline for this new mandatory report by five business days and, as a result, faces a loss of some $5 million in universal service support for the period January-March 2013, it said. “This is an extremely harsh penalty for a minor violation."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order to increase the cybersecurity of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The request came in a recent letter (http://xrl.us/bnnmqd). “I believe the time has come for you to use your full authority to protect the U.S. economy and the networks we depend on from future cyber attack,” she said. Feinstein urged the president to issue an order to require cybersecurity standards, provide technical cybersecurity assistance to companies and direct the intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security to provide both classified and unclassified cyberthreat information to the private sector. Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, is a sponsor of the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414). She said opponents were able to defeat progress on the bill despite “good faith efforts to reach a compromise and major concessions on our part.”
Matanuska Telephone Association seeks a waiver of new USF rules limiting reimbursement for capital expenditures. The quantile regression model used to calculate costs “has the effect of penalizing MTA for its efforts to deploy an efficient network to serve a vast and challenging service area,” MTA wrote in its petition (http://xrl.us/bnnmnz). The model’s Alaskan coefficient of -0.6223 doesn’t account for the high costs of deploying infrastructure in MTA’s rural territory, and leads to the conclusion “that MTA’s infrastructure costs are currently too high when compared to carriers in the rest of the country by extrapolating costs from the operations of other Alaska carriers that simply do not apply to MTA’s operations,” the petition said. “This result simply does not jibe with the facts."
Governments must maintain European Commission-proposed funding levels for cross-border financing of communications infrastructure, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association said Wednesday. Ministers and state secretaries for European affairs meeting Thursday to discuss the EU 2014-2020 financial framework must safeguard the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) plan to allocate 9.2 billion euros ($11.6 billion) for the e-communications sector, ETNO said. More than two billion euros of that is intended to boost development of broadband-based, pan-European digital service infrastructure in the areas of e-health, cybersecurity, intelligent energy networks and a coordinated effort to stop online child pornography, it said. The remaining 7 billion euros should be used to facilitate further rollout of next-generation access networks in Europe, it said. The CEF will leverage infrastructure investment by lowering risks of public and private organizations, it said. Reduction of CEF funding could endanger its effectiveness and harm the overall European economy, it said.
Major League Baseball said ESPN agreed to double the annual fee the network pays to the league in a new license agreement that will keep baseball games on ESPN through 2021. The deal marks a “new all-time record for an MLB broadcasting deal,” the league said. ESPN will get a big increase in the amount of games it can carry each season and will begin in 2014 to carry one Wild Card playoff game each season, the league said. It will also get the right to any potential regular season tie-breaker games, the league said. Sports Business Daily reported ESPN will pay about $700 million a year under the deal. ESPN didn’t immediately comment.