SES signed a long-term renewal with Channel 5, a U.K.-based public broadcasting service, for a transponder on the ASTRA Satellite System at 28.2 degrees east. The channel is available on the satellite on both the pay-TV platform Sky and Freesat, the free-TV service, SES said.
The World Bank Group released its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) strategy designed to help developing countries utilize ICT, the World Bank said (http://xrl.us/bnh99a). The Bank Group will focus on improving development accountability and service delivery, increasing affordable broadband access for groups like women and the disabled, and developing IT-based service industries and innovation, the World Bank said.
SkyStream will use capacity on two satellites operated by Eutelsat “to respond to connectivity demands from customers engaged in the marine and oil and gas sectors,” Eutelsat said. It said SkyStream contracted for 70 MHz of bandwidth, to be progressively deployed on Eutelsat 3C and Eutelsat 10A. Eutelsat said its 3C satellite will be used “to extend its current Middle East Ku-band coverage to the Mediterranean for the luxury yacht market.” The company said the C-band footprint of Eutelsat 10A “stretches SkyStream’s existing C band coverage to almost two thirds of the globe, from Australia and East Asia across to the coast of the Americas."
A new European Data Access Service will make GPS data available via the Internet as well as through the existing satellite system, the European Commission said Thursday. EDAS is a new commercial service of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, which is intended to make satellite navigation in Europe more reliable and hence more effective for use in commercial applications, it said. Users can also access GPS data over handheld devices using wireless communication services. The EC said EDAS will ensure that users can access EGNOS information even if the satellite signal is unavailable.
Meredith Corp. and Time Warner Cable averted a potential blackout of the broadcaster’s TV stations on the operator’s systems. They signed a retransmission consent agreement lasting for the rest of this month, after a longer-term one was to have expired Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., spokespeople for the companies said. The operator hopes “to finalize an agreement before” the short-term deal expires July 31, a Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said. The sides “continue to negotiate in good faith,” a Meredith spokesman said. “We're confident that we can have an agreement in place prior to the end of the extension.” A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said it would have been affected by a blackout of Meredith stations, in Kansas City, Mo., KCTV (CBS) and KSMO (MyTV), WSMV (NBC) Nashville, Tenn., and WSHM (CBS) Springfield, Mass.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked the State Department Wednesday whether the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) would authorize the executive branch to enter into binding agreements with foreign governments for cybersecurity purposes. “S-3414 is replete with provisions directly calling for international cooperation on cybersecurity,” said Wyden’s letter to State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh. Wyden said he was concerned that the legislation would allow the administration to avoid the “robust consultations Congress requires for trade negotiations,” much in the same way as the administration’s interpretation of the PRO-IP Act of 2008 has allowed it to negotiate ACTA without congressional input. “If S-3414 does not authorize the Executive Branch to enter into binding agreements over cybersecurity without Congress’ consideration of such an agreement, how do you square this view with your interpretation of the Pro IP Act of 2008?” he asked. State had no comment.
The FCC has received a modest number waiver requests from carriers of its November USF/intercarrier compensation order, agency officials said at NARUC’s midyear meeting. Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey told telecom subcommittee members Sunday that the commission has eight requests, one request was withdrawn in mid-July and two requests involving boundary conflicts were quickly resolved. Tuesday, Bureau Chief Julie Veach told NARUC the FCC has received about 10 waiver requests so far.
The U.S. may not be applying enough forethought in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, said Commissioner Mark Sievers of the Kansas Corporation Commission at a Tuesday NARUC discussion in Portland, Ore. He compared the 2010 plan’s implementation to planning in military technology. “We are building facilities and developing for the last war rather than the one that’s going to happen five years from now,” said Sievers. He criticized the current broadband plan’s reliance on and assumptions about landline communications and pointed to the growing use of wireless and how usage is likely to change in years to come.
California’s pending VoIP deregulation bill “doesn’t say anything about the quality of VoIP service” for 911 calls, despite the FCC’s ruling that VoIP has 911 obligations, said Commissioner Catherine Sandoval of the California Public Utilities Commission at a NARUC panel Tuesday. SB-1161 would prohibit the state PUC from regulating VoIP unless the state legislature specifically allows it to do so. The bill has passed the California Senate and will face the state Assembly once the legislature resumes in August. Sandoval pointed out the PUC commissioners’ important role of ensuring “any dereg does not compromise safety."
Sprint Nextel supports the near-term introduction of additional spectrum into the wireless ecosystem, it said in an FCC filing in dockets including 12-70 and 10-142. The filing recounts a series of meetings between Sprint executives and Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai and FCC staffers (http://xrl.us/bnh7ap). Although Sprint supports Dish Network’s request for additional flexibility to introduce terrestrial mobile services in its mobile-satellite service spectrum, “Sprint opposes needlessly sacrificing the valuable H block spectrum to achieve this goal,” it said. Only the PCS H block is entirely cleared of incumbents, “paired as expansion spectrum with the core PCS band, and available for immediate wireless broadband use,” the carrier said. Concerning the H-block service-rules proceeding, Sprint explained that in the uplink band at 1915-1920 MHz, “full-power operations across the entire 5 MHz uplink could result in harmful intermodulation interference to PCS B block receivers that use the CDMA [code division multiple access] air interface."