Nearly two-thirds of the more than 900 U.S. adults Verizon and Engadget recently polled had high interest in watching streaming video on a game console, Chris Melissinos, Verizon director-corporate strategy, OTT and Media, said Friday at the Engadget Expand conference Media Preview in New York. Meanwhile, 58 percent of the respondents preferred to play games in the cloud and not worry about storage requirements on their consoles, he said. Fifty-three percent of the respondents believed buffering while watching streaming video was more painful than a root canal, he said. Thirty-four percent of hardcore gamers polled were willing to sacrifice a car for six months to be one of the first consumers to get the PS4 or Xbox One, he said. The survey was the third gaming survey in a series, he said. More findings of the survey were to have been released Monday.
The Wi-Fi Alliance asked the FCC to permit unlicensed use of 5 GHz spectrum using a “sequenced approach,” in comments filed at the agency (http://bit.ly/1iSw7Za). The FCC should act first “where there is agreement among the parties” while “leaving for another phase of this proceeding” a decision on more controversial policy calls, it said. In January, former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski floated a proposal to use 5 GHz spectrum, including the 5850-5925 MHz band already dedicated to automotive anti-collision systems, to help alleviate Wi-Fi congestion. His proposal on that chunk of the spectrum has been controversial.
Twenty-six percent of consumers identified keeping kids entertained as the top benefit of the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to allow use of portable electronic devices during all aspects of flight, a Dish Network survey found. The FAA announced the rule change recently (CD Nov 1 p1). More than 10 percent of the respondents claimed to have separation anxiety when forced to turn off their devices, Dish said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1gx56xs). Fifty-six percent of respondents said that the rule change will affect airline choice, Dish said. The survey also revealed that passengers are eager for more time to catch up on email and read books, it said. It said about 14 percent “admitted that they usually forgot to turn off their device, even before the ruling.” The survey was done by Research+Data Insights and it was taken by 744 adult air travelers, Dish said.
The FCC is receiving fewer complaints about loud commercials, acting Enforcement Bureau Chief Robert Ratcliffe wrote the authors of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, which targeted such loud commercials. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., released the letter Friday (http://1.usa.gov/HNqcs9). The CALM Act rules took effect in December, and Ratcliffe listed the complaints from June through September -- 3,501, about 53 percent fewer complaints than in the four months before that. Since December 13,606 of the 19,194 of the complaints have been referred to the Enforcement Bureau, the FCC said. “The Enforcement Bureau’s efforts in this area have been hampered by incomplete or insufficiently specific data,” it said. Eshoo said in a statement” fewer complaints suggest that fewer TV commercials are airing at volume levels inconsistent with the programming around them.” Whitehouse praised how complaints have “steadily declined.”
The FTC Friday released the agenda for its Internet of Things workshop Nov. 19 (http://1.usa.gov/1c5XP28). The lineup includes technologists, academics, technology company representatives, advocacy group representatives and a number of top FTC officials. Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf will keynote. Microsoft Director-Technology Policy Group Carolyn Nguyen will speak on “contextual privacy.” The all-day event will include panels on topics ranging from “the smart home” to “connected cars” to healthcare and privacy issues. Panelists from General Electric, the Energy Department and Electronic Frontier Foundation will discuss “the smart home” on the first panel. The second panel on health and fitness will include Indiana University Center for Law, Ethics and Applied Research Director Stanley Crosley and Center for Democracy and Technology Chief Technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall. Representatives from the auto industry, academia and privacy advocates will discuss “connected cars” in the third panel. And academics, attorneys and Lookout Principal Security Researcher Marc Rogers will cover privacy concerns in the day’s last panel. FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will give opening remarks, Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen will make a midday speech and Consumer Protection Bureau Director Jessica Rich will close out the event.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans an executive session Tuesday off the floor of the Senate chamber to vote on Terrell McSweeny’s nomination to become an FTC commissioner, he said Thursday. Rockefeller has tried to move on McSweeny’s nomination before, holding a Sept. 18 hearing on her confirmation (CD Sept 12 p1) and scheduling an Oct. 3 vote that was delayed due to the government shutdown (CD Oct 3 p9). President Barack Obama nominated McSweeny in June (CD June 24 p12), but her nomination has languished with that of two long-delayed FCC nominees due to Republican holds. Both FCC nominees were finally approved and were sworn in Nov. 4 (CD Nov 5 p1). A Commerce Committee spokesman did not comment.
FCC commissioners will hear a report at Thursday’s meeting on a speed-test app for Android smartphones, the agency said this past Thursday in an agenda for the gathering (http://bit.ly/19LpjLG). “This crowdsourcing app will expand the Measuring Broadband America program from fixed to mobile broadband services in order to empower consumers, industry, and policymakers with open, transparent, and accurate information about mobile broadband services across the United States."
SES had revenue of about $6.2 billion for the third quarter, flat compared with the same period last year, SES said in a news release (http://bit.ly/17Sq8lv). Revenue on a constant exchange rate grew 2.9 percent, up from $6 billion in Q3 2012, it said. The growth was due primarily to the 12.9 percent increase to $1.8 billion in the international segment, “as existing capacity was commercialized and the first revenue from [wireless carrier] Oi in Brazil on SES-6 was recognized,” it said. SES and Oi partnered to provide direct-to-home services on the satellite (CD June 5 p21). Revenue for the North American region dropped to about $1.3 billion, an 18.8 percent decrease from Q3 2012, SES said. The change was mainly due to the one-time year-ago Q3 revenue for services rendered on the SES-3 Ka-band payload, it said. In the African market, SES’s recent substantial increase in capacity supply “is expected to result in some pressure on pricing and volume growth, mainly in the data/enterprise segment,” it said. The company said it continues to see good growth in video as new direct-to-home neighborhoods are built.
The FCC does not need to impose spectrum aggregation limits in order to shore up competition, Mobile Future said in a white paper released Friday. “There is no evidence that continuing to allow all wireless companies the opportunity to fully participate in spectrum auctions has prevented smaller carriers from acquiring the spectrum they need to compete,” the group said (http://bit.ly/HLzF4r). “There is an abundance of evidence from prior auctions and secondary market transactions that the FCC’s current approach of conducting case-by-case reviews of spectrum holdings has successfully balanced the public interest in encouraging a vibrant, innovative mobile marketplace and promoting a broad distribution of spectrum licenses."
AT&T and T-Mobile have long been at odds over spectrum aggregation limits in the incentive auction of TV spectrum, but both companies found something to agree on this week: that the FCC should at least examine caps in the 700 MHz auction in New Zealand. T-Mobile initially cited the auction as evidence in support of its arguments for limits in the incentive auction (http://bit.ly/1d52UJ4). AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said there are stark differences between the New Zealand rules and limits sought by T-Mobile. “T-Mobile seeks a limit on all low band spectrum holdings, not just the spectrum newly available at auction,” Marsh wrote in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1biQQma). “New Zealand crafted generally applicable limits that apply only to the spectrum being sold.” T-Mobile’s proposal would also “skew the auction in its favor by limiting only those bidders that exceed its newly-proposed low band cap -- namely AT&T and Verizon Wireless,” Marsh said. “By contrast, New Zealand’s approach treats all bidders equally by imposing a limit on the amount of spectrum any one bidder can acquire.” On Friday, T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham responded on her company’s blog. “AT&T this week acknowledged for the first time that, indeed, it is comfortable with upfront spectrum caps for auctions,” she said (http://bit.ly/1c5Y2lR). “That represents huge progress for AT&T, which has been arguing for months against any limits for the upcoming 600 MHz low-band auction. Although AT&T takes a shot at the filing that pointed out that New Zealand has joined most of the industrialized world in using aggregation limits in spectrum auctions to promote competition, spur innovation and stimulate economic growth, the key take-way from Joan Marsh’s blog is that upfront auction caps, if applied in a fair, nondiscriminatory manner, would be acceptable.”