In light of Halo Wireless’s July 19 liquidation, AT&T North Carolina hopes to resolve the pending case before the North Carolina Utilities Commission by paper record. AT&T has pursued Halo Wireless in several state commissions for allegedly violating interconnection agreements and failing to pay access charges (CD July 30 p5). “Halo has ceased doing business” due to liquidation and consequently, planned evidentiary hearings are cancelled and “AT&T has petitioned the Commission, consistent with the [Halo] Trustee’s request, for an order authorizing disconnection of all trunks to Halo,” which the commission granted Wednesday, AT&T North Carolina told the commission Thursday (http://xrl.us/bnja3z). AT&T North Carolina recommends that it and the trustee submit orders to the commission by Aug. 10 and the commission decide the complaint based on the “existing record.” A commission ruling is “a necessary prerequisite to perfecting any subsequent claim AT&T (and/or RLECs) may have for the amounts due in the bankruptcy court” and is “procedurally sound,” AT&T said.
The FCC and its Public Safety Bureau “got the balance right” in its 700 MHz waiver order released late Monday (CD Bulletin July 30), FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during a press conference following Friday’s FCC meeting. “I'm pleased that we were … able to work together, get the order out,” he said. “It’s a priority of the commission to do what we need to do to move forward on the new legislation that finally funds a national interoperable broadband public safety network. The statute very clearly lays out a vision for a single FirstNet. We also have the obligation to look at concrete, potential exceptions to that."
The Senate approved four out of the five nominees for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Thursday evening by a voice vote. Approved were: James Dempsey, vice president at the Center for Democracy and Technology; Elisebeth Cook, partner with Freeborn & Peters and former Senate Judiciary Committee GOP chief counsel for Supreme Court nominations; Rachel Brand, chief counsel for regulatory litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Patricia Wald, former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Senate did not consider the nomination for the chairman of the board, David Medine, an attorney fellow at the SEC and previously White House National Economic Council senior adviser, and a vote to consider his confirmation remains on the Senate calendar. Medine previously faced scrutiny from Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, over his views on profiling foreign nationals from high-risk countries (CD April 19 p14) . Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., urged Congress to “promptly act” on Medine’s nomination “so that the board can be restored to its full strength,” in a statement emailed late Thursday. “Protecting national security and protecting Americans’ fundamental rights are not mutually exclusive goals,” Leahy said. “We can -- and must -- do both. A fully reconstituted PCLOB will help ensure that we do.” A Grassley spokeswoman said he did not place a hold to prevent consideration of Medine’s nomination.
Electronic payment programs can save governments as much as 75 percent in administrative costs, the World Bank said in a report released Thursday. Only 25 percent of developing countries process government cash transfers and social benefits electronically, while a slightly higher percentage use e-payments for public sector salaries and pensions, according to the World Bank. “This means that many governments are stretching limited resources, and spending more than they should on paying benefits and salaries,” the World Bank’s Gaiv Tata said in a news release. The report highlighted Brazil as an example of cost saving through e-payments. Brazil’s “Bolsa Familia” social safety net program reduced its administrative costs by 75 percent by going electronic, the World Bank said. “More efficient electronic payment systems not only save the government money, they can also potentially benefit taxpayers and all other users of electronic payments,” the World Bank’s Massimo Cirasino said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnjavz).
Inmarsat’s revenue for the second quarter reached $684 million, up from $683 million in the same period last year. Its mobile satellite service revenue increased 1.4 percent from $363 million last year and maritime revenue reached more than $200 million, an increase of nearly 13 percent, it said. MSS business growth was “fueled by continuing strong subscriber take up and the benefits of pricing initiatives,” Inmarsat said. Overall growth in maritime data revenue resulted primarily from the impact of pricing initiatives, “in particular as a result of the elimination of volume discounts” that were available for older services and the implementation of price changes in FleetBroadband service. Maritime voice was down 11.7 percent from about $47 million last year. This is largely due “to the impact of voice price reductions implemented in April 2011 and the ongoing effect of voice to email substitution that we record as data revenues,” Inmarsat said. Land mobile services were affected by the ongoing decline in revenue from government users and reduced military activity in Afghanistan, the company said. Inmarsat also said it installed more than 30,000 FleetBroadband terminals and more than 65,000 active IsatPhone Pro terminals.
The Office of Management and Budget approved for three years FCC information collection requirements on captioning Internet Protocol-delivered video programming from broadcast-TV and subscription-video networks and rules for apparatus. Those rules take effect with publication of the commission’s notice on OMB approval, scheduled to appear in Monday’s Federal Register, the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bnjaqq). The agency said OMB approval came July 24. The CEA is among those that have asked the commission to revisit the IP captioning order (CD June 11 p6).
Ion Media got FCC okay to move WEPX-TV Greenville, N.C., to Channel 26 from 51 (CD July 12 p9), the agency said in a notice to appear in Monday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnjapx). “While the Commission instituted a freeze on the acceptance of full power television rulemaking petitions requesting channel substitutions in May 2011, it subsequently announced that it would lift the freeze to accept such petitions for rulemaking seeking to relocate from channel 51 pursuant to a voluntary relocation agreement with Lower 700 MHz A Block licensees. In addition, according to ION, this channel substitution serves the public interest as it will increase the station’s service area by almost 100,000 persons.”
Intelsat 20 was successfully launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 V208 launch vehicle, Intelsat said. The satellite “will provide C-band and Ku-band for DTH [direct-to-home] television, cellular backhaul and VSAT [very small aperture terminal] services.” With Intelsat 20, video, voice and broadband services will be distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Russia, Intelsat said. The company said the satellite is expected to have a service life of more than 18 years.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) joined with the World Wide Web Consortium and IEEE to develop a Modern Global Standard Design Paradigm. In the document presented to the IETF developer community at that group’s meeting in Vancouver, the three organizations explicitly commit to the basic principles for the development of open standards. The high-level principles included are due process, consensus, transparency, openness and access for everybody and also balance and appeals processes. IETF Chair Russ Housley said the document will be presented at this year’s World Telecom Standards Assembly gathered by the ITU. But the final text is still being worked on, Housley acknowledged. In the current version, the standardization bodies are to commit to a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license model, but IETF currently has no obligation to license IETF standards under FRAND.
A report from the NASA Inspector General determined that a Trimble Navigation board member improperly participated in a matter concerning LightSquared’s stalled terrestrial buildout service. This year, LightSquared alleged that Brad Parkinson, also known as the “father of GPS,” violated conflict of interest laws when he signed a letter to the FCC urging the agency to deny LightSquared’s application to expand its wireless broadband network, the report said (http://xrl.us/bni6pr). The IG said Parkinson improperly participated “in a matter that had a direct and predictable effect on Trimble’s financial interests.” However, the office also said his actions “appeared to be motivated not out of a pecuniary interest but rather from a desire to safeguard the GPS network he had helped create.” Moving LightSquared to alternate spectrum could be a solution to making broadband available for all and ensuring that GPS systems remain reliable and safe from interference, LightSquared said Thursday in response to the report.