In response to FCC Wireline Bureau questions about proposed rates that would equate to pre-July 1 National Exchange Carrier Association settlement levels, Frontier emailed responses to bureau officials Thursday, detailing switched access and special access settlement figures based on the NECA AS3000L report (http://xrl.us/bng6pz). Executives from Frontier, Windstream and Consolidated Communications had met with the bureau July 3 to discuss interim and long-term actions associated with converting the companies to price cap regulation (http://xrl.us/bng6pv).
Verizon’s discontinuance of standalone DSL services will lead to increased costs for broadband services, Vonage told an adviser to FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Thursday (http://xrl.us/bng6nn). The VoIP provider said most consumers within the Verizon regions have only two choices for wireline broadband services, that telco or a cable company. With the elimination of Verizon’s standalone DSL and no more future deployment of FiOS service, most consumers “will be left with a single choice for wireline broadband services not tied to a voice telephony service, to the extent it is provided at all: their cable provider,” Vonage said. It said that if not for Verizon Wireless’s cable spectrum purchase agreements, Verizon would have continued to offer standalone DSL service. The cable deals could lead to wireless/wireline integrated products that “discriminate against over-the-top apps and services” with discriminatory routing practices that could “increase latency and result in a qualitative degradation of its voice and text messaging services,” the VoIP provider said. “Given the nexus of those agreements and Verizon Communications’ decision, Vonage respectfully suggests the Commission carefully examine the competitive effects of those actions."
NTIA proposed regulations governing the technical panel and dispute resolution boards that will “facilitate the relocation of, and spectrum sharing with U.S. Government stations in spectrum bands reallocated from Federal use to non-Federal use or to shared use.” The step meets a requirement of February’s spectrum law, the agency said (http://xrl.us/bng3r8). Comments are due 15 days after publication in the Federal Register. “These proposed regulations would govern the operation of the Technical Panel established by the Tax Relief Act and the workings of any dispute resolution boards,” the notice said. “NTIA’s implementation of the relevant stipulations of the [Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act], as amended by the Tax Relief Act, is aimed at ensuring that (1) NTIA can reliably and accurately compile and report estimated relocation costs and timelines; (2) agencies are adequately compensated for all qualified costs and incentivized to plan accordingly; and (3) to provide as much clarity as possible in the transition plans so prospective and winning bidders can depend on the available information to reduce risk and uncertainty at FCC auctions and when licensees are deploying new systems or leasing the spectrum while ensuring that Federal agencies are given the necessary time to transition as not to compromise their critical operations."
The ITU isn’t the right venue for dealing with Internet issues, Cynthia Wong, director of the Project on Global Freedom at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told reporters Monday. The ITU announcement Friday that it would publish the latest version of the main conference preparatory document and create an online platform for public comment encompass “extremely modest first steps and don’t go nearly far enough,” she said. CDT and Public Knowledge are concerned about the ITU’s expertise in Internet issues, which makes various proposals “concerning,” said Sherwin Siy, the latter group’s vice president-legal affairs. The groups are also concerned about an ITU proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association to require sending networks to pay interconnection fees to deliver content to end users (CD June 28 p1). The proposal adds technical and administrative burdens to an Internet that has mostly been open and free, and imposes a “burdensome and heavyweight structure on carriers, and the way they hand off traffic to one another,” said David Sohn, CDT general counsel. Termination fees modeled on the phone system will make it “expensive and possibly exorbitant” to serve developing countries, which would otherwise have the most to gain from Internet development, he said. “You really go down the road to a balkanized, less global Internet."
Gannett Q2 broadcasting sales gained 11 percent from a year earlier to $205.4 million, the company said. Retransmission consent revenue at its TV stations gained 17 percent to $22.7 million. The company expects a big jump in Q3 TV sales over a year earlier with the addition of significant political ad sales and sales tied to the Summer Olympics, it said.
Tablets and smartphones are generating strong ad engagement, according to the findings of a survey conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. There’s an especially “strong degree of ad interaction among tablet users,” with 47 percent of respondents saying they engaged with ads on that device more than once a week, IAB said. Twenty-five percent of smartphone users said they interacted with ads at that same frequency, it said. Once the mobile device users engaged with an ad, they were very likely to take action -- 80 percent of smartphone users and 89 percent of tablet users, it said. “The key for marketers is looking at how consumers use these devices in different ways, and tailoring brand messages and strategies accordingly,” said Anna Bager, vice president and general manager at IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. Seventy percent of smartphone users said they “never leave home without it,” while 70 percent of those surveyed said their tablets served as their entertainment and media hubs, IAB said. Sixty percent of those with both devices said they preferred a smartphone to “look up info on-the-go,” in contrast to 22 percent who would choose a tablet for that activity, it said. But when asked how they preferred to consume traditional media including print and video on mobile devices, consumers overwhelmingly choose tablets (69 percent print and 68 percent video) over a smartphone (9 percent print, 8 percent video), it said. Thirty percent of smartphone users and 32 percent of tablet users said they were likely to respond to ads that related to their current location. Forty-eight percent of smartphone users and 59 percent of tablet users said they regularly conducted local searches on their mobile devices while at home in front of a TV, it said. ABI Research surveyed 552 U.S. consumers who used a smartphone at least once a week and used data service and 563 U.S. tablet users who used their devices at least once a week and used data service, it said. IAB is made up of “more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising” in the U.S., it said. Its members include Amazon, Rovi and Samsung Electronics.
CSG Systems said it acquired for $19 million Ascade, an independent Swedish software company that sells trading and routing software to telecom companies.
Comcast and Scripps Networks Interactive said they reached a long-term carriage agreement that expands Comcast’s rights to distribute Scripps programming to more devices. The networks include HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country. The terms weren’t disclosed.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau said it is soliciting feedback on five mobile ad units it has developed with marketing partners -- the IAB Mobile Adhesion Banner, the IAB Mobile Filmstrip, the IAB Mobile Full Page Flex, the IAB Mobile Pull and the IAB Mobile Slider. “After incorporating feedback, the final formats will provide the creative canvasses marketers need to deliver new and exciting experiences across all mobile platforms,” said Peter Minnium, head of brand initiatives at IAB. The specs for the ad units are available on IAB’s website (http://xrl.us/bng3p4).
A federal circuit court opinion affirming an FCC order on the use of high-cost universal service money supports the FCC’s argument in a case over its new quantile regression analysis to limit USF support for high-cost infrastructure, the commission argued in a letter to the court Friday in case number 11-9900. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled for the agency Friday in a challenge from competitive carriers, who sued when the FCC set aside USF money to be used later for broadband (CD July 16 p1). In its letter to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC said the court decision was a “pertinent authority” that supports the commission’s argument that it would not be in the public interest to stay implementation of the new methodology for imposing limits on expenses that rate-of-return regulated LECs can recover through USF. The FCC also noted that the D.C. Circuit “discussed, with approval,” an FCC waiver process used to provide additional subsidies to telecom carriers. “The Court’s holding is entirely consistent with the FCC’s position … that a waiver for an individual carrier -- rather than a stay of the benchmarks -- is the appropriate remedy where the impact of the benchmarking methodology could undercut consumer access to voice and broadband services,” the FCC wrote.