SES said it will provide live transmission of international sporting events, including the London 2012 Paralympic Games. SES signed a deal with Eurovision to provide the capacity, SES said. For broadcast of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Eurovision “is increasing capacity to 54 MHz and using the SES teleport and the NSS-806 satellite” to deliver the broadcast to audiences in Latin America. The capacity also will be used for contribution and distribution of video of the Tour de France, the 2014 FIFA World Cup and other events, it said.
Sprint Nextel will use Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio Metro Cells to improve 4G LTE broadband capacity in high-traffic areas. The mini base stations, which can be used indoors or outdoors, are often used to enhance capacity or fill in coverage gaps created by tall buildings in urban areas. Sprint said it will initially use the stations, also known as small cells, at transit hubs and other indoor locations. The cells will complement Sprint’s Network Vision plan by providing a lower-cost way of expanding capacity in high-traffic areas, the carrier said. “With Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio Metro Cells we will be able to increase our coverage and capacity where it’s needed,” Sprint said Monday in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnjnbh). The Network Vision plan is expected to be complete by the end of 2013 (CD July 17 p13).
Aug. 11 (or 8/11) will be 811 Day and mark “the first nationwide media outreach encouraging residents to call 811 before they dig,” the Florida Public Service Commission said (http://xrl.us/bnjmew). Just under 50 pipeline companies will formally promote 811 by advertising on ABC, NBC and NBC cable affiliates, Spanish radio on Univision and ESPN during the 2012 Olympics Aug. 11, the PSC said.
Comments are due Oct. 1, replies Oct. 30, on a fifth further rulemaking notice on the future of the 4.9 GHz public safety band, approved by the FCC at its June 13 meeting (CD June 14 p2). The notice asks how the band can be used to complement a national public safety network in the 700 MHz band, which was partly funded by the February spectrum law. The band, once set aside for federal operations, was reallocated to public safety a decade ago, but has seen little use.
Executives from USTelecom, CenturyLink, AT&T and Verizon met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell Wednesday to urge the commission to quickly issue a mandatory data request to assess the level of competition in the market for special access services, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnjbf9). “The Commission must avoid making substantive findings concerning competition for these services until after a comprehensive data request is issued and complied with by the competitive industry."
SpectrumCo and Cox countered Sprint Nextel warnings that the Verizon Wireless cable deals could have negative impacts for cable Wi-Fi and backhaul (CD July 11 p15). The transactions involve both a sale of AWS licenses to Verizon and commercial agreements between Verizon and the cable operators, the focus of Sprint’s concerns. “There is no provision in the Commercial Agreements that prohibits the MSOs from providing backhaul services to any other party, or that prohibits Verizon Wireless from purchasing backhaul services from any provider other than one of the MSOs,” the cable companies said in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnjbfc). “The Commercial Agreements do give the MSOs opportunities to grow their backhaul businesses, but do not restrict the provision of backhaul as Sprint, et al. assert.” SpectrumCo and Cox also said “there is no credible theory of harm to backhaul competition.” There is “no current Wi-Fi offload market and thus no market to regulate. Wi-Fi ‘offload’ services -- that is, if wireless carriers purchase Wi-Fi services to divert traffic that would otherwise be carried over their networks in order to help reduce network congestion -- are not currently sold and are not being provided by the MSOs directly to any wireless provider, including Verizon Wireless."
The FCC Wireline Bureau sought comment on Chillicothe Telephone Co.’s petition for waiver of the filing deadline for rate-of-return carriers seeking Connect America Fund intercarrier compensation support to file data with the Universal Service Administrator, the commission, and relevant state commissions (http://xrl.us/bnjbfx). The data would establish the carrier’s projected eligibility for funding during the upcoming funding period, including any true-ups associated with an earlier funding period. Comments in docket 10-90 are due Aug. 17, replies Aug. 24.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials sought comment on a Candidate American National Standard that identifies core competencies and minimum training standards for a public safety communications training officer. The draft standard (http://xrl.us/bnjbfp) focuses on establishing core competencies and minimum training requirements. Comments are due Sept. 3 to standards@apcointl.org.
MCI Communications denied wrongdoings alleged by the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate [OCA]. The consumer advocate had petitioned “the [Iowa Utilities] Board to commence a proceeding to consider a civil penalty for cramming violation” against MCI on July 9 (http://bit.ly/OwGTpB). The petition centered on a man’s complaint that MCI had “for years placed unauthorized charges for a long distance service on his local phone bill,” the petition said. On Friday MCI declared “OCA misses the forest for the trees,” in a filing with the board (http://bit.ly/RrrSGa). “[OCA] urges the Board to pursue additional investigation of events that date back more than a decade, but fails to acknowledge that regardless of whether ultimate ‘fault’ for an inadvertent error might be assigned to one of the carriers as a result, no civil penalties are warranted here.” The instances cited by the consumer represent “an inadvertent system processing error by one of the involved carriers” at most and the office’s petition should be denied, MCI said. The petition amounts to “demand for a wild goose chase” and is “irrational,” it added.
AT&T’s willingness to move forward with spectrum acquisitions “is a reflection of their need for spectrum and lends credence to the arguments they made during the T-Mobile deal,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said in a blog post (http://xrl.us/bnjbdg). Piecyk said AT&T’s offer of about 40 cents per MHz/POP for the usable portion of NextWave’s WCS spectrum “is a reflection of the limited spectrum available in the market.” It also reflects a healthy premium to the 25 cents per MHz/POP that Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen spent in the company’s pending acquisitions of 2 GHz spectrum “and the implied value of Clearwire’s spectrum based on its stock price,” he said. The price AT&T paid for NextWave also could draw more focus to Verizon’s proposed agreement to buy Spectrum, he said: If the cable companies have to give up some of the benefits of the marketing agreement “it will be interesting to see whether they ask Verizon for a higher price on the spectrum which would be an effective admission that the deals are, in fact, linked.”