Verizon has determined that the failure of one of two backup generators at its central offices in Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia caused the 911 failures during the June 20 derecho storm (CD July 3 p1), a Verizon official said in a letter to The Washington Post. “But these issues should not, in and of themselves, have caused the 911 problems. We're inspecting other damaged equipment that may have contributed to the disruptions,” said Anthony Lewis, Verizon Communications region vice president (http://xrl.us/bniwh8). “We have had productive meetings with several entities investigating the storm’s effects on 911 services. In the next week, we will begin to meet with public safety officials to share our findings about their specific 911 centers. We also will report our findings and corrective action plans to the investigating groups."
IEEE published two new amendments to its IEEE 802.11 standards Tuesday. One amendment supports more robust audio and video streaming for 802.11 applications, while the other prioritizes management frames sent via 802.11 wireless links. “Both of these amendments specify timely enhancements to the base standard that continue to expand IEEE 802.11’s use in more and more business and residential applications around the globe,” Bruce Kraemer, head of the IEEE 802.11 working group, said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bniwhu).
Verizon and AT&T’s Q2 broadband results could mean cable can prolong its recent success, UBS said in a report. The Bells, as UBS referred to the two companies, lost a net 94,000 broadband subscribers during the quarter. They added a net 50,000 a year ago. UBS estimated that cable companies gained a net 240,000 broadband subscribers. “We expect DSL losses to increase at Verizon as the company recently stopped selling stand-alone DSL service throughout its territory and stopped taking orders for DSL at all within the FiOS footprint,” UBS said. AT&T and Verizon also fared worse year-over-year in video, with net gains down to 275,000 for the quarter, according to the report. “Verizon announced on its call that it expected to add fewer subscribers each quarter going forward, largely as a result of price increases given the company’s focus on the profitability of the service,” UBS said. “This reinforces our continued belief that telco TV net adds peaked in 2009 and will continue to decline going forward.” Verizon and AT&T slowed voice line losses to a net 720,000, vs. a 839,000 loss this time last year. Cable’s voice growth slowed, with 181,000 net adds -- down from 253,000 a year ago, according to the report. “We expect cable voice adds to continue to decline over time due to higher penetration rates, wireless substitution and the slow housing recovery."
Discovery Communications Q2 sales increased 7 percent from a year earlier to $1.14 billion, while profit increased 15 percent to $293 million, the company said. A 10 percent increase in revenue at its international networks helped results. Domestic revenue increased 6 percent from a year earlier to $700 million on higher ad and distribution revenue.
The FCC has saved nearly $43 million in 2012 due to reforms of the Lifeline program, and is on track to save at least $200 million this year, the commission said (http://xrl.us/bniwc5). Twenty-six million dollars was saved from elimination of most of the “Link Up” programs that provided subsidies for initial phone connections; $16.5 million from eliminating duplicative subscriptions; and $250,000 from phasing out “toll limitation” service, which the commission found to be unnecessary and subject to abuse. Additional changes, such as tougher proof-of-eligibility requirements and certification of continued eligibility, became effective June 1 and are expected to lead to additional savings, the agency said.
LIN TV Q2 sales increased 20 percent from a year earlier to $121 million, the company said. Political ad sales of $7.6 million helped results, as did an increase in other local ad sales, retransmission consent revenue and online ad sales, it said. Quarterly profit jumped to $27 million from $1 million a year earlier on lower expenses and a one-time gain from discontinued operations. Shares gained 9.8 percent Tuesday.
The CEA weighed in at the FCC on the basic tier encryption proceeding, saying it agreed with Boxee about the shortcomings inherent to the commitments made by the top six cable operators in docket 11-169 (CD July 31 p3). “If the NCTA proposal is to be given serious consideration for adoption by the Commission as a rule, it needs to be clearer and far more detailed,” the CEA said in an ex parte letter. Device terms need to be defined, technology standards need to be identified, and they should be expected to be interoperable with retail products, the letter said. Technology licensing should be based on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and licensing, testing and certification conditions should be subject to public comment before FCC approval, it said. If the agency is to proceed, it should terminate the exemption from home-networking requirements that digital transport adapters (DTAs) enjoy, the letter said. “Now that NCTA is open to equipping DTAs with an IP interface, a much simpler, far fairer, more transparent and standards-based solution is to simply revoke the blanket waiver for the inclusion, in DTAs, of the standard interface that will now be required in all other operator-provided devices.” Separately, NCTA General Counsel Rick Chessen discussed the cable operators’ commitments during a phone call with Deputy Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bniwck).
Telcos that offer local phone service for less than $10 per month will see their high-cost loop and high-cost model support reduced by the difference between $10 and what they charge, the FCC said Tuesday. A report by the Universal Service Administrative Co. showed 123 study areas with rate floor reductions, with a total annualized reduction at about $1.4 million. The commission adopted the rule to reduce high-cost support for incumbent eligible telecom carriers where end-user rates aren’t high enough in its 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order. The commission said at the time that the purpose of the USF is to help make rural rates reasonably comparable to urban rates, not to subsidize artificially low rates. “Our reforms make universal service fair for all consumers, protecting the consumers and small businesses who pay into the fund while ensuring that rural areas have access to affordable voice and broadband service,” an FCC spokesman said.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will process the applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in one batch, but now is asking interested parties how to deal with the issue of who should get to the root zone first and thereby be able to operate. After heavy criticism at its recent meeting in Prague the private governance body stopped its so-called “digital archery” program, which aimed to create up to four batches of nearly 2,000 new TLDs. With only one batch to be sent through the evaluation steps at the same time, final publication of the results would only be possible next year in June, which would put back the start of the first new gTLDs to late 2013, six month later than expected. The ICANN request for comments now is exploring how people would like to see the “timing of the release of the evaluation results to the applicants” and also “the timing of the release of applications into the pre-delegation steps of contract execution and pre-delegation testing” (http://xrl.us/bniwb2). By now applicants and ICANN have realized that some steps in between might complicate the processing. Jim Galvin, director of strategic relationships and technical standards at gTLD registry Afilias, noted that applicants for new TLDs were being asked by ICANN to set up their systems to be tested in order to get their contract, but the IP address registries only delegate new IP address resources when need can be demonstrated by a contract. Galvin said he expected that an alternative would be found to releasing all applications at the same time next year. A lot of conversations were happening on the issue and the request now would allow all parties to make proposals. A solution also has to be found, according to ICANN’s request for comments, for a metering of new gTLDs going to the root, as it is clear that the root cannot be flooded with all at once. While many observers point to a natural smoothing out because applications will face very different evaluation processes, with some also getting objections either by competitors or requests from the Governmental Advisory Committee, a solid process map still has to be established. The GAC said it will issue early warning notices on the new TLDs shortly after the Toronto ICANN meeting in October, and potential GAC advice -- for which there now has been established a new dedicated registry on the ICANN website -- in April.
Comments are due to the Copyright Office Sept. 25 on a proposal to change some compulsory license reporting rules for music, to reflect the most recent and pending rates determined by the Copyright Royalty Judges, a notice in the Federal Register said. Beyond the new rates for downloads, interactive streaming and “incidental phonorecord deliveries,” the changes would align the digital reporting requirements with existing rules for physical sound recordings, permanent downloads and ringtones, the notice said. Replies are due Oct. 25.