The “United States has regained its role as a global leader in and around mobile broadband,” the FCC said in its third annual International Broadband Data Report, released Tuesday after being adopted Aug. 13 (http://xrl.us/bnmshp). “More than 80% of smartphones sold globally run on U.S. operating systems, up from less than 25% three years ago,” the report said. The U.S. has become “a global test bed for wireless technology and services” due to early adoption of 4G LTE tech, it said. The report details how American providers ramped up their efforts over the last two years, and outlines the creation of what the FCC calls “the apps economy,” which it notes has created 500,000 jobs as part of its $20 billion industry. The FCC touted its own efforts to this end and said the 2011 USF/Intercarrier Compensation Transformation Order “transforms the existing high-cost universal service program in order to speed delivery of broadband to all Americans.” In the area of wired broadband adoption, the U.S. “continues to lag behind such countries as South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Germany, but exceeds adoption rates in Israel, Australia, and the EU average,” the report said. This third report, “for the first time, takes a close look at the broadband prices for both fixed and mobile service plans around the world” and finds “U.S. prices for standalone fixed broadband are in the mid-level range in our 38 country survey, but are higher in higher speed tiers,” the FCC said. The agency also released Tuesday a report done annually under Section 706 of the Telecom Act that found for another year that broadband’s not being deployed to all in the U.S. (CD Aug 22 p1).
IDirect and IPSTAR partnered to give IPSTAR customers an alternative integrated solution for the Asia Pacific region. IPSTAR’s Thaicom 4 broadband satellite will “provide customers with flexibility in choosing the most appropriate solution for their specific requirements,” iDirect said. The partnership will allow Thaicom “to offer a complete turnkey solution based on the iDirect platform to specific markets across Asia Pacific,” it said.
The FCC should reject calls to make “Cellular Data Plans” ineligible for support under the E-rate program, Sprint Nextel said in reply comments on the draft 2013 Eligible Services List. “Sprint agrees that E-rate support for any eligible service ... should be provided on a cost-effective basis,” the carrier said (http://xrl.us/bnmsh3). “However, there is no basis to challenge the cost-effectiveness of wireless data plans or to change their status as an eligible service."
CTIA and USTelecom called on the FCC to act on their request for clarification and reconsider, or alternatively waive, broadband reporting requirements for eligible telecommunications carriers under the Commission’s USF/intercarrier comp transformation order. “Specifically, the Commission should limit the obligation to file relevant broadband performance data and to prepare five-year service quality improvement plans and associated progress reports to those ETCs receiving Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II support; ETCs whose universal service support is being eliminated or that receive CAF Phase I support or Phase II Mobility Fund support should not be subject to such obligations,” the groups said in reply comments to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnmsgs). “The Commission also should eliminate any requirement that an ETC certify that ‘frozen’ Interstate Access Support (IAS) was used, at least in part, for broadband deployment (or actually use IAS support for this purpose) -- a certification that cannot be reconciled with the Commission’s rules which require that IAS support be used for interstate access rate reductions.” CTIA and USTelecom noted that in the initial comment round, all agreed the reporting requirements are “ambiguous and confusing.” Also, “there is universal concurrence among commenters that extending broadband reporting requirements to ETCs whose universal service support is being eliminated would be ‘inappropriate,’ ‘unnecessary,’ and ‘unduly burdensome,'” they said.
Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter questioned why the FCC’s latest version of its Section 706 report doesn’t include wireless (CD Aug 22 p1). “American consumers increasingly are connecting on-the-go to the Internet and our country’s wireless companies are investing tens of billions of dollars to deploy ever more high speed mobile broadband to meet this growing demand,” Spalter said. “It’s therefore hard to understand in light of the number of markets where high speed wireless services are being deployed why the Commission chose not to more fully acknowledge mobile services as part of its annual broadband review.” “The FCC’s latest ‘706 Report’ on the progress of broadband deployment in the United States reaches the erroneous conclusion that we're not making reasonable progress toward bringing broadband networking to all Americans,” said Richard Bennett, senior research fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “The report’s conclusions are not supported by the evidence, do not conform to the statutory direction of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and overlook the non-adoption problem that actually dwarfs the deployment problem by an enormous degree.” The Internet Innovation Alliance also raised concerns. “The FCC’s 706 report discounts the significant efforts being made by the private sector - despite uncertainty for investment stemming from a persistently weak economy and repeated attempts by the Commission to exercise greater direction and control over this inherently unpredictable yet consistently innovative sector -- to continue building out broadband infrastructure, particularly next-generation wireless networks, to connect all Americans,” the group said. “Last year, wireless service providers invested nearly $26 billion in the creation and maintenance of the mobile infrastructure that puts better health care, education and job opportunities in reach for consumers. Of course there is more work to do."
The FCC changed how it classified parts of Verizon and SpectrumCo’s joint operating entity agreement filed at the FCC, marking the documents as confidential rather than highly confidential (http://xrl.us/bnmsas) after the classification was challenged by Public Knowledge. “We applaud the FCC for recognizing that Verizon and SpectrumCo have claimed highly confidential protection for parts of the agreements that did not deserve such protection,” said PK Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin. “While we believe the sections establishing the governance of the JOE do not deserve confidentiality protection at all and should be made public, we are glad that the new lower level of protection will allow parties that could be affected by the transaction to more comprehensively review the documents."
Verizon restored service 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday after a freight train derailment damaged network fiber in Ellicott City, Md., Verizon said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnmsad). The carrier said the resolution was “less than 24 hours after the derailment.” The fix also beat by one hour the estimated time of repair included in a private message a source told us Verizon had sent late afternoon Tuesday (CD Aug 22 p9).
Sirius XM will pay off $681.5 million in 13 percent senior notes on Sept. 20, appearing to satisfy one Liberty Media goal for landing majority control of the company, analysts said. In paying off notes due in 2013, Sirius XM will get more financial leverage, allowing it to issue new debt at lower rates for use in buying back shares, analysts said. The move means Sirius XM will have $2.44 billion in debt, but no payments due until December 2014. Sirius XM earlier this month issued $400 million in new 5.25 percent debt due in 2022, which it is using along with $281 million in cash to repay the 13 percent senior notes. Liberty, which owns 48 percent of Sirius XM, filed an application Friday seeking FCC approval for its buying additional shares to get de jour control of Sirius XM (CD Aug 21 p16). Liberty will not convert its preferred shares in quantities needed to own more than 50 percent of Sirius XM until the FCC grants the application, Liberty has said. There’s a low probability that Liberty Media will successfully execute a spin-merge of its Sirius XM stake over the next 12-18 months, Evercore Partners analyst Bryan Kraft said. The spin-merge appears to be on hold, given Liberty’s “stated intention to participate in the optimization of Siri’s capital structure and potentially sell pro rata into repurchases,” he said in a research note. Last week, Liberty stated its intent to increase its stake in Sirius above 50 percent to have de jure control of the satellite radio company (CD Aug 21 p16). “We estimate that it would take LMCA 25 months to recover the capital deployed to reach 50.1 percent,” Kraft said. The net asset value discount on Sirius XM “should eventually decrease to zero percent, unlocking value in LMCA,” he said. This could transpire either through Liberty achieving 100 percent ownership of Sirius XM “over a several year period or through a spin-merge transaction in 2014 or later,” he said.
The FCC’s online public file database appeared to be down for an unknown amount of time Tuesday. Multiple visitors in various geographic areas of the country to the both the public site and the TV station access site Tuesday morning encountered a 404 error and the text: “We can’t find the page you're looking for.” The problem appeared to be resolved by noon EDT. A spokesperson for the Media Bureau didn’t immediately respond to our query.
Gannett said it acquired BLiNQ Media, a social media marketing company. Terms weren’t disclosed. “With demand for social media marketing solutions continuing to grow at a rapid pace, this acquisition is part of our ongoing transformation at Gannett and positions us to be a leader in both local and global social media marketing,” Gannett CEO Gracia Martore said in a news release.