The municipal fiber network of the Lafayette Utilities System is “in a strong financial position,” officials told city council leaders Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnktsg). LUS Fiber has served Lafayette, La., for three years and offers residents and businesses fiber-based broadband transmission speeds. LUS Director Terry Huval emphasized the network’s reliability in the state and delivered news on the fiber’s finances in a budget meeting. “LUS Fiber remains cash positive and is projected to do so for the life of the project,” he said. “We've become cash positive since early February and have continued in that direction.” As of this fiscal year on Tuesday afternoon, it’s generated upwards of $340,000 in cash after paying all operating costs and all bond obligations. He also noted LUS Fiber is “adding new customers every day” and is projected to meet all obligations over the next three years.
Verizon urged the FCC to make clear that wholesale providers can’t be forced to make USF contributions on behalf of carrier-customers when they obtain a reseller certification from those customers, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bnkun3). In a meeting Tuesday with an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell, Verizon executives discussed the joint petition of AT&T, CenturyLink, SureWest, and Verizon for clarification or partial reconsideration of a 2010 order directing TelePacific to give the Universal Service Administrative Co. the names and contact information of its wholesale providers of transmission services. Verizon asked the commission to clarify that wholesale providers that complied with the directions in the Form 499 worksheet instructions can’t be made to restate their revenue and make additional contributions to the fund “if it later turns out that a reseller, for whatever reason, either should not have signed a certification or should have submitted a modified certification,” the ex parte said. Verizon also said no commission rule prohibits a customer from accurately certifying on an entity basis that it is a reseller; and that any requirement for resellers to apportion their wholesale purchases would require costly changes to ordering, billing and reporting systems, and would increase carriers’ burden of administering the contribution system.
The L2-3 Ethernet switch market will near $25 billion in 2016, a new Dell'Oro Group report predicted. That growth will come mainly from switches optimized for larger data center deployments, Dell'Oro Group said. While 10 gigabit Ethernet will comprise a majority of revenue by then, there will also be “robust” growth in 40 gigabit and 100 gigabit Ethernet, according to the report. “The Cloud is changing how networks are built and in who owns data center equipment,” said Alan Weckel, Dell'Oro Group senior director, in a news release. “We believe all data centers in the future will be similar to ‘Clouds,’ in which any server can connect to any resource within a data center” (http://xrl.us/bnkuob).
Global mobile payment transactions will reach $1.3 trillion annually by 2017, Juniper Research said in a new report released Wednesday. That would represent a fourfold rise over the next five years, driven primarily by sales of physical goods from remote and NFC transactions, the report said. Those transactions are already being stimulated by increased rollout of NFC support infrastructure and operator engagement with mobile commerce; by 2017, those transactions will comprise 54 percent of all mobile payments, Juniper Research said (http://xrl.us/bnkumq).
The Department of Defense is addressing knowledge gaps in its acquisition strategy for evolved expendable launch vehicles (EELV), GAO said. Although the department has many efforts in progress to address the knowledge gaps and data deficiencies in acquiring launch vehicles, “more action is needed to ensure that launch mission assurance activities are not excessive, to identify opportunities to leverage the government’s buying power through increased efficiencies in launch acquisitions, and to strategically address longer-term technology investments,” the office said Wednesday in a report (http://xrl.us/bnkui3). The GAO said it identified the DoD’s shortcomings in a report last year (http://xrl.us/bnkujy). Of the seven recommendations GAO then offered, two were completely addressed and one had no action taken, GAO said. More action is needed in ensuring launch mission assurance activities are sufficient and not excessive, and examining how broader launch issues “can be factored into future launch acquisitions to increase efficiencies and cost savings,” the new report said. “Investing in a longer-term perspective for launch acquisitions is important to fully leverage the government’s buying power and maintain a healthy industrial base.” Much of the value of the information obtained in the Defense Department’s efforts “will depend on its quality and the extent to which DoD makes use of the information it obtains,” GAO said.
It’s shaping up to be the best year for the cable industry’s broadband business since 2008, Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Anninger wrote investors Wednesday. The bank expects cable operators to add about 3 million broadband subscribers during the year, which would be its highest haul in four years. Much of the growth will probably come at the expense of phone companies’ DSL subscriber base, he said. “Cable will grab more flowshare in 2012 than in 2011, given (a) continued growth in customer demand for greater HSD [high speed data, and (b) the cable industry’s move to make standalone HSD far more affordable.” The cable industry added about 381,000 broadband subscribers in Q2, Anninger said of multiple systems operators. “Every major MSO posted greater HSD net adds in 2Q12 than in 2Q11, despite a maturing category.” Cable ISPs last quarter added most of the 260,000 net new wireline broadband subscribers that cable operators and telcos gained, another analyst said earlier this week (CD Aug 15 p13).
ValueVision Media Q2 sales increased 2.3 percent from a year earlier to $135.2 million, the company said Wednesday. Its net loss shrank 15 percent from a year earlier to $3.8 million.
Emergency managers need to make sure they involve people with disabilities when making emergency plans, said Marcie Roth, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination. Alerts should be as accessible as possible, she said Wednesday on a FEMA webinar about the Integrated Public Alert and Warnings System. As an example, she highlighted a demonstration from the county of San Diego that used audio, text and American Sign Language messages in the same clip (http://youtu.be/hoxcc0PFcq0). Getting people with disabilities involved in emergency planning is critical because they have expertise and experience using communications systems that will be critical during emergencies, she said. “We've historically thought about people with disabilities as perhaps liabilities in emergencies and disasters,” she said. “But people with disabilities encounter some of the challenges with accessibility and access to effective communication on a daily basis and can be some of our greatest assets as we plan our work.” Roth said the National Council on Disability is preparing a report for later this year or early next year that will lay out the current state of disaster communications accessibility and provide some recommendations.
The recently leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) provisions do “disappointingly little to protect users’ rights,” wrote Public Knowledge Director-Global Knowledge Rashmi Rangnath in a blog post (http://xrl.us/bnkumm). Rangnath criticized the leaked provisions, which provide a glimpse into the ways the U.S. Trade Representative has attempted to negotiate the free trade agreement with eight other countries. Specifically, Rangnath took issue with the provisions’ “three-step test,” which would determine which unlicensed uses of copyrighted material would be legal. According to the post, “one of the standard iterations of the test” designates exceptions to copyrights as “[1] certain special cases that [2] do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work, performance, or phonogram and [3] do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rights holder.” This test on its own leaves too much room for interpretation, Rangnath said: “The controversy over how to interpret the three-step test means that many countries may hesitate to protect users’ rights in their copyright laws, out of a fear that the provisions they adopt will be assailed as violating their international obligations. ... Given this environment, provisions in international agreements like the TPP need to spell out in more detail what copyright limitations and exceptions should look like.” While Rangnath commended the provisions for “enumerating purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, research, and scholarship,” she encouraged USTR to include provisions that would “promote uses of works by people with disabilities,” such as translating reading material into Braille, and “promote educational uses of works including by transmission over wired or wireless networks.” Concepts like these, Rangnath said, can be found in the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement of 2005, which, she said, “is technically the predecessor to the TPP. ... However, it is unclear whether those provisions will still be valid and applicable if the TPP comes to force.” A USTR spokeswoman declined to comment on the leaked provisions. Regarding the release of the official draft, the spokeswoman told us the “full draft of the negotiated TPP text will be made public at the completion of negotiations, so that Congress and the public can have ample time to review and discuss before Congress acts on any legislation to implement the TPP agreement."
The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association agreed to commit to hiring 4,000 qualified veterans and military spouses into the consumer satellite industry by 2014. The commitment is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes program, SBCA said. The association said it will strongly encourage its members, which include DirecTV and Dish Network, “to attend Hiring Our Heroes job fairs in hopes of hiring veterans and military spouses into the industry.”