The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing updated and revamped its website (www.ctam.com) for “better access to strategic industry insights, connections and tools through a modernized look, feel and ease of site navigation,” CTAM said Wednesday.
Gilat agreed to provide Argentina-based Servicio Satelital with its advanced platform for Internet and data connectivity. Servicio Satelital will use Gilat’s SkyEdge II Hub and broadband satellite platform “to upgrade its existing network and provide additional support to hundreds of existing and new sites with broadband Internet and data connectivity,” Gilat said. The platform also will allow Servicio to provide communication services for telecom operators and ISPs that require satellite connectivity in Argentina, it said.
Spectrotel, Inc. is now authorized to “provide local exchange and interexchange services within the State of Idaho,” the state’s public utilities commission ruled in a Wednesday order (http://xrl.us/bnjvv3). The company has received permission to provide telecom services throughout the state.
Integrated Device Technology said it added a low-band radio frequency mixer to its lineup that “enhances the user’s mobile connectivity experience by reducing intermodulation distortion in the crowded frequency spectrum for 4G LTE, 3G, and 2G systems.” The IDT F1102 is designed to work in 400-1200 MHz spectrum.
By the end of the year, almost 20 percent of smartphones shipped every year will include facial recognition capabilities, ABI Research said in a report. ABI also predicted that in five years, shipments of smartphones and tablets with the technology will hit 665 million annually. “Currently, only Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean mobile operating systems support the technology in significant volumes,” ABI said. “The Samsung Galaxy SIII is one of the most notable smartphones to feature this technology. Over the next two to three years, many more operating systems and mobile OEMs will incorporate the technology.” “Facial recognition technology has improved drastically over the last 10 years and accuracy is almost always above 90 percent,” said ABI analyst Josh Flood. “That said, lighting conditions and facial expressions can sometimes cause problems with the recognition. However, the improvements in camera resolution and processing power utilized by mobile devices has helped greatly.”
Charter Communications’ increased 2012 capital expenditure forecast Tuesday may be “scary” to investors, but is “The Right Thing To Do,” said the headline of an analyst’s note to investors the next day. Charter said it will have as much as $1.7 billion this year in capex, 13 percent above the top end of the company’s previous forecast, Credit Suisse’s Stefan Anninger wrote. Converting the company’s systems to all-digital and developing cloud-based services “are not directly tied to tangible revenue growth for the moment, but they should improve Charter’s product portfolio (especially video). Such projects can make investors anxious,” he wrote. “The slowing growth of the telco industry’s video footprint, and Charter’s focus on improving the quality of overall video offerings (e.g., its HD channel offering via its all-digital project, its guide via its cloud-based initiatives), should help to stabilize its troubled video business.” Moving its systems to all-digital in two years (CD Aug 8 p9) is “more accelerated” than Anninger said he expected.
The EU will set its position on the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) after a September coordination conference in Copenhagen, Ryan Heath, spokesman for Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, told us Wednesday. The Dec. 3-4 meeting in Dubai will consider revisions to the 1988 amendments to the ITU’s treaty-level International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). The European Commission is actively involved in preparatory talks leading up to the WCIT to ensure a successful outcome for the EU, Heath said. The September meeting of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations will allow European participants to the ITU conference to work toward a common position, he said. At the same time, the EC is finalizing a proposal to the Council of Ministers for a common EU stance on issues where EU law is involved, as required by the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, he said. This should be completed in coming days, with a view to EU governments’ agreement sometime between now and Dubai, he said. Any common position must first ensure that ITR revisions don’t conflict with current EU legislation, he said. The EC also believes that “care needs to be taken to ensure that the outcome of Dubai does not limit the EU’s own policy and regulatory options in the future,” he said. Moreover, the EC isn’t convinced that any significant increase in the scope of the ITRs is justified, given the success of the current regulations in spurring the explosion of innovation, competition and investment in international telecom services seen in the intervening 24 years, he said. The U.S. proposed several revisions to the ITRs last week (CD Aug 6 p2).
AT&T Southeast worked out “tentative” contract deals with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the company said Tuesday. It also “reached handshakes on tentative agreements with the CWA on two other smaller Southeast regional agreements covering AT&T Billing Southeast and Southeast Utility Operations,” the company said. The three agreements, which cover more than 22,000 wireline workers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, will need to be ratified by the union’s membership in a vote, the telco said. AT&T said the three-year contracts offer “wage increases in each year and modest pension increases” and healthcare “among the best in the country.” CWA declined to comment.
Pre-paid mobile carrier Leap Wireless on Tuesday reported it lost a net 289,270 customers during the quarter. That’s nearly triple the number of net losses the company saw a year ago. The losses were higher than analyst estimates, with Credit Suisse saying its prediction of 90,000 net losses missed “by a mile.” Leap shares closed 19 percent lower Tuesday at $4.49. In response to an investor’s question about whether the company would consider putting itself up for sale -- or take other actions -- Chief Financial Officer Jerry Elliott said all options were on the table. “From the strategy perspective, I wouldn’t eliminate anything right now from what we're thinking about,” Elliot said during an investor call, saying he believes the company’s spectrum is worth $3 billion.
Sales at Disney for the three months ended June 30 increased 4 percent from a year earlier to $11.1 billion, the company said. Profit increased 24 percent to $1.8 billion. Fiscal Q3 results included a 3 percent gain in revenue at its media networks to $5.1 billion and a 9 percent increase to $3.44 billion at its parks and resorts division. Sales at its studio entertainment division of $1.6 billion were about the same as a year earlier. Low network ad sales at its broadcast division were offset by higher affiliate fees and royalty revenue as well as lower production costs, leading to a 17 percent segment profit increase to $268 million.