Verizon’s “performance for network reliability dropped below the 85 percent threshold of the companywide CTRR [Customer Trouble Report Rate] metric during the second quarter of 2012, although performance during the second quarter of this year is better than during the same period a year ago,” the telco said. It submitted the performance metrics to the New York State Public Service Commission on Thursday. “The company met the two timeliness of repair metrics for core customers in each of five geographic areas during each month in the second quarter of 2012. The performance of the EVRC [enhanced Verizon resolution center] met the 80 percent threshold of the answer time metric every month in the second quarter of 2012, while the FSC’s answer time performance was significantly better during the second quarter of 2012 than a year earlier. Consumer complaints to the Department were below the long-term trend.” Verizon New York’s performance has received criticism from the attorney general’s office and the Communications Workers of America (CD Aug 1 p6). In an Aug. 13 filing with the PSC, Massena, N.Y., blasted Verizon “out of complete and utter frustration,” wrote Town Supervisor Joseph Gray (http://xrl.us/bnkzay). The town was “thrown into chaos” at least three times in a two-and-a-half-year period due to a cut Verizon fiber cable, he said. “It is imperative that something be done to correct this perilous flaw before someone dies or is left with permanent disabilities because a call for emergency services did not get through our antiquated system. “Verizon New York’s service is “exceptional,” a spokesman said. The telco restored service within 24 hours after a trucking accident resulted in that cut fiber, he said.
The FTC is harming consumers and discouraging transparency by imposing a penalty against Google as part of a consent decree, Technology Policy Institute President Thomas Lenard wrote in a blog post Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bnkzcf). The search giant is paying $22.5 million for allegedly violating an earlier consent order and bypassing Safari privacy settings to collect information about users. The problem stems, Lenard wrote, from Google collecting information about users through the “+1” button that users can click to indicate that they like certain Web content. Lenard said users are inconvenienced and potentially more vulnerable now that Google disables the “+1” button by default. “Safari users who want to use +1 need to manually log in to their Google account, which equates to submitting a form, which then allows additional Google cookies to be installed anyway,” he wrote. “The pre-correction Google workaround meant that only additional cookies from Google’s Doubleclick network could be installed, while blocking cookies from any other third party.” The FTC, by accusing Google of acting contrary to the company’s policy laid out in a help center page from 2009, is encouraging other companies to be less transparent about their privacy practices, Lenard said. “The more transparent a company is about how it collects and uses data, the greater the risk of making a mistake and getting in trouble with the FTC,” he wrote. “So, companies will find it in their interest to give users less information about web site privacy practices."
Start-up online video distributors (OVDs) should not be subject to a different standard under the FCC order that allowed Comcast to buy control of NBCUniversal when determining who should cover the costs of a programming access arbitration, NBCU said in a redacted filing with the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnky9k). The filing was in response to a partial appeal of an arbitrator’s order involving Project Concord Inc. (PCI) and Comcast’s NBCU, in which Project Concord sought to have Comcast cover its arbitration costs. “PCI’s attempt to rewrite the Order is improper,” NBCU said. “The Commission considered concerns about the costs of litigation for OVDs (and others) in the Comcast-NBCUniversal proceeding and specifically adopted baseball-style arbitration rules to provide claimants with a streamlined, efficient process for seeking access to programming,” it said. “It would have been unwarranted and unfair for the Commission to have further obligated NBCUniversal to bear both its own costs and the costs of OVDs that invoke arbitration.” NBCU said it acted reasonably and in good faith throughout the arbitration.
Sprint Nextel representatives discussed Virgin Mobile USA’s application to take part in the broadband adoption Lifeline pilot program, in a call with FCC officials. Among topics discussed were a proposed partnership with Open Air Boston, “the customer experience once a customer hits the one gigabyte threshold” and “the $200,000 gap between the cost of the program to Virgin Mobile and the amount of subsidy sought,” said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnkzaf). Also discussed were whether Virgin would gather its own data and how it would guarantee “statistical randomization of pilot participants,” among other issues. Virgin Mobile is one of Sprint’s prepaid brands.
The FCC Wireline Bureau conditionally approved T-Mobile’s designation as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and NTCH’s designation in North Carolina and Tennessee. “T-Mobile and NTCH have provided the Commission with the information required for designation as an ETC in the service areas at issue,” the order said (http://xrl.us/bnky9p). “We find that the public interest supports such designations subject to the petitioners’ compliance with the representations and commitments made by the petitioners in their petitions, and the Commission’s rules."
Cablevision agreed to carry the NFL Network and NFL Redzone channel, the companies said Thursday. The NFL Network is set to carry 13 Thursday-night NFL games this season, they said.
North Carolina’s Communications Unit Leaders (COMLs) program and its Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders (VIPER) helped the state withstand Hurricane Irene when the storm made landfall, concludes a report by the Department of Homeland Security. “Without the COMLs in their roles, communications efforts would not have been as effective or as coordinated,” the report said (http://xrl.us/bnky4s). “During the storm, North Carolina was well served by its statewide emergency planning and the VIPER system, which weathered the storm with relatively few issues. The COML program has also made a significant impact in North Carolina, producing a team of skilled communications professionals, who have extensive experience coordinating regional July 2011 resources and developing and implementing communications plans.”
Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcasting agreed in principle on a deal to allow Dish customers to continue viewing Sinclair-owned stations in more than 40 markets. The retransmission consent agreement that expired Aug. 15 involved about 70 stations, including ABC, Fox and CBS affiliates (CD Aug 15 p16). Sinclair agreed to “a two-week extension of its existing agreement in order to allow the parties to work toward a final agreement,” Sinclair said.
CompTel supports the application of a “de minimis standard” to determine who must respond to the expected mandatory data request on special access services, the association told an FCC Wireline Bureau official, according to its ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnkyu6).
Intelsat General received a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as part of DARPA’s project to study how satellites can be serviced in orbit. DARPA’s Phoenix program is designed to develop and demonstrate technologies “to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, non-working satellites in geosynchronous orbit,” Intelsat said. The company said it plans to study the implications of using commercial satellites “to carry new technology hardware segments to assist in repurposing components … into space as hosted payloads.” The company will investigate safety, legal, regulatory and insurance issues, it said.