The top 13 multichannel video programming distributors lost about 325,000 video subscribers during Q2, about 1,500 more than they lost a year earlier, Leichtman Research Group said. The top nine cable operators lost 54,000 subscribers, about 60,000 fewer than they did during the same period a year earlier. Phone companies added about 275,000 video subscribers -- about 112,000 fewer than they added last year -- and satellite providers added 62,000 subscribers during the quarter, about 57,000 fewer than a year earlier. “While reports of multi-channel video industry losses in the second quarter of 2012 have rekindled pronouncements of cord-cutting … the reality is that industry-wide losses in the traditionally weak quarter were nearly identical to losses in last year’s second quarter,” Leichtman President Bruce Leichtman said. Over the past 12 months, those same providers added about 375,000 video subscribers, compared to an addition of 210,000 a year earlier, he said.
Members of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association are active providers of both fixed and mobile wireless services, contrary to an assertion made by Sprint Nextel in its reply comments regarding USF contribution reform, NTCA said in a letter Monday (http://xrl.us/bnkk2v). Sprint had asserted that NTCA’s arguments regarding assessing text messaging services should be disregarded because “none [of those parties] provide wireless services,” NTCA said, quoting Sprint’s comments. “In fact, sixty-one percent of NTCA members responding to an association survey in 2011 indicated that they provide wireless service to consumers,” NTCA said. The association hoped its letter would correct the “factual misunderstanding."
Level 3 Communications signed a multi-year agreement with Time Warner Cable to expand the cable operator’s network infrastructure, improving its reliability, Level 3 said Monday. The companies have also agreed to exchange Internet Protocol traffic between their backbone networks, Level 3 said. “Through these agreements, Level 3 continues to be a valuable partner in the growth of our network’s capacity and strength,” Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable’s chief technology officer, said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnkkz6).
AT&T executives met with advisers to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel last week to discuss two universal service-related draft orders, its ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnkkzj). AT&T stated its understanding that the commission is considering a draft order upholding a 2004 Wireline Bureau order that established an asymmetrical deadline for filing revisions to a 499-A form. The commission should adopt the Internal Revenue Service’s three year deadline for all 499-A revisions, AT&T said. Regarding the pending draft order acting on a 2010 petition for clarification filed by AT&T and several other wholesale providers of interstate telecom services, the commission should pursue the reseller directly for amounts owed to the USF, AT&T said. AT&T is also concerned about “both the scope and the substance” of the guidance offered in the tribal engagement public notice released in July, the execs said. “The alleged ‘guidance’ provided little real world guidance and the concrete examples that were included in the notice are not realistic,” the filing said.
Journal Communications said it bought back all the outstanding shares of its Class C common stock for about $6.2 million. The class C shares were issued at the company’s initial public offering in 2003 and carried extra voting rights and the rights to approve or receive a premium in the event of a strategic transaction, it said. The transaction “simplifies our capital structure and allows us to remove a class of stock that had enhanced voting and other rights,” said Chairman Steven Smith.
High-speed fiber will make “a tremendous difference” for students, said Cynthia Lane, public schools superintendent of Kansas City, Kan., on the Google Fiber blog Monday (http://xrl.us/bnkkzm). Lane said Google Fiber’s arrival in Kansas City will accelerate her students’ learning. It will allow them to access fast videos at home, share the events of the school with the community at a faster, better pace and “bring the world” to the students, she said.
Prometheus Radio Project advocates pushed their proposals for new low-power FM (LPFM) rules with FCC officials from the Administrative Law Division and Office of General Counsel, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bnkkzd). They talked up proposals to require LPFM broadcasters to provide locally-originated programming for at least 20 hours a week. Prometheus representatives argued that “local origination is a technical rather than content based requirement and does not prioritize any viewpoint nor does it require programming be about local issues,” the notice said.
While most new Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) design wins for set-top boxes and gateways are for the 2.0 specification, most shipments will be 1.1 through 2013, Entropic Communications CEO Patrick Henry told us. MoCA 2.0, which was ratified in 2010, allows channel bonding and increases transfer speeds to 400 Mbps from 175 Mbps. It also adds two sleep and standby lower-power modes and an “enhanced” mode that increases throughput to 800 Mbps. The operating frequency also expands to the 500 MHz to 1,650 MHz range. Entropic’s MoCA 2.0 transceiver and baseband chip are in production at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Henry said. MoCA 2.0 is in its “very early stage” and will “experience an initial ramp this year where we will start getting more meaningful revenue,” Henry said. “But I think even throughout 2013, the majority of shipments will continue to be 1.1. The key thing is most of the new design win activity is really around MoCA 2.0. But even when they are in production at the box level, they have to go through an operator certification process, which can take nine months.” Entropic acquired PLX Technology’s digital channel stacking switch (DCSS) technology for $8 million in Q2, including about 10 PLX engineers, Henry said. Entropic also will pay a $4 million one-time licensing fee to PLX as part of the deal, he said. DCSS allows a channel stacking design in which multiple channels can be transmitted on a single cable based on the demands of multiple set-tops and tuners attached to the cable. Entropic supplies DCSS chips to DirecTV and EchoStar, among others. PLX acquired the DCSS technology when it bought Teranetics for $36 million in 2010. Teranetics had developed physical layer chips for 10 Gbps Ethernet over copper that were expected to be available this year. But Entropic hasn’t introduced any products yet based on the DCSS technology, Henry said.
The FCC lacks “clear authority” to require standalone fixed broadband providers to contribute to the USF, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association said in comments filed at the FCC, in response to a further rulemaking notice. “While commenters offer claims of dubious legal authority and purported policy benefits for such a proposal, what remains is that standalone providers are, at present, legally prohibited from receiving any USF subsidies and the proposal could require such providers to subsidize direct broadband competitors,” WISPA said (http://xrl.us/bnkku5).
Automated phone systems are often a turn-off for a business’s customers, according to a nationwide poll of 2,100 respondents commissioned by Interactions Corporation. If the automated phone systems are bad, 83 percent said they'd avoid the company responsible, Interactions Corporation said Monday upon release of the research (http://xrl.us/bnkks9). Of the 2,100 respondents, 67 percent said they prefer a live customer representative, compared to 16 percent who chose automated systems, also known as interactive voice response (IVR). More than 70 percent said they'd share negative automated phone system experiences with others in person and via social media, and three-fourths of respondents said companies need excellent IVR automated systems. The research showed more than half thought the quality of IVR declined over the last decade. Interactions Corporation has a financial interest in the automated phone systems and says it “delivers an unprecedented level of understanding that engages customers in a productive, natural conversation” in its technology patented to that end. New York University Assistant Professor of Communications Liel Leibovitz was responsible for the quota sampling research, Interactions said.