Sprint Nextel became the first wireless carrier to plunge into the Ultrabook market, bundling Lenovo’s IdeaPad U310 with either Novatel’s MiFi 3G/4G mobile hot spot or Sierra Wireless’ Overdrive Pro in a $799 package. The offer is available through Sprint Telesales, Web sales, Sprint Business Sales and Sprint Business Solutions Partners, the carrier said. Data plans available start at a $34.99 monthly fee for 3 GB of combined 3G/4G and range to $49.99 for 6 GB. The Lenovo U310 features a 13.3 inch LCD, 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and 3000 HD graphic chip and stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theatre V4 audio enhancement.
Comcast petitioned the FCC to let it out of local basic rate regulation in four Pennsylvania communities near Pittsburgh: Bethel Park, Mount Lebanon, Peters and Upper St. Clair. In those communities, competing providers such as DBS operators are available to more than half the households and serve far more than the threshold 15 percent of households that merit a finding of effective competition, the petition said (http://xrl.us/bng3oi).
AT&T plans to tell the FCC it should reject a 700 MHz interoperability mandate, Senior Vice President Robert Quinn wrote Monday on the company’s blog. Comments were due Monday on a rulemaking notice. “The proposed interoperability mandate sought by some commentators would be pointless,” Quinn wrote (http://xrl.us/bng3nj). “The A Block licensees’ central claim is that they cannot obtain Band 12 devices without a mandate. This claim has now been soundly rebutted. Although the first A Block LTE service was only recently launched, A Block licensees already have access to Band 12 handset, tablet, and hotspot variants of devices first produced for other LTE bands, most significantly, Verizon’s Band 13 LTE devices that fall back to CDMA technologies.” Advocates of a mandate argue that without a mandate they won’t be able to buy “the latest, greatest LTE devices, or might not do so at a reasonable price,” Quinn said. “That concern too has now been debunked. U.S. Cellular, the only provider currently operating in Band 12, just announced that it is offering a Band 12 variant of Samsung’s newest flagship LTE smartphone -- widely considered this summer’s ‘blockbuster Android smartphone’ -- at the same time and at the same retail price as AT&T and Verizon.” Rural Cellular Association President Steve Berry said in a statement that discussions at Monday’s FCC workshop on band planning (see related story in this issue) show why 700 MHz interoperability is critical. “For consumers to have the device of their choice at an affordable price, spectrum contiguity and flexibility must be in place, and the FCC can make this happen today by requiring interoperability,” Berry said. “In recent years, AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been allowed to build their own private band plans, essentially preventing every other operator from competing. The balkanization of the 700 MHz spectrum should not be allowed to continue."
Tribune’s latest revised plan to exit bankruptcy still complies with the Communications Act and FCC ownership rules and doesn’t require any change in the requests for waiver of the agency’s multiple ownership rule the company has already filed, an attorney for the firm wrote the commission Friday (http://xrl.us/bng3m3). “Tribune intends to provide further updates to the Commission and supplements to its pending applications and waiver requests at the appropriate time and upon receipt of the confirmation order of the Bankruptcy Court.” The judge in charge of Tribune’s bankruptcy proceedings issued an order Friday overruling the remaining objections to the fourth amended plan of reorganization that’s set to finally end the company’s restructuring.
President Kyle McSlarrow of Comcast/NBCUniversal Washington attacked a May FCC administrative law judge (ALJ) decision that would force the cable operator to carry the Tennis Channel more broadly on its cable systems. Writing on the cable operator’s blog, McSlarrow called the ALJ’s decision, which the commission has since stayed (CD May 16 p9), “a breathtaking regulatory overreach” (http://xrl.us/bng3kf). “We're hopeful that the newly reconstituted FCC will reject that decision,” he wrote. The FCC is expected to vote on implementing the ALJ’s recommended decision soon (CD July 10 p3). The arguments raised in the blog post are not new, a Tennis Channel spokesman said. “Besides including numerous factual inaccuracies (e.g., DirecTV and DISH provide Tennis Channel with distribution many times larger than does Comcast), there is nothing new in this blog post that Comcast hasn’t already argued in front of the FCC, and that hasn’t already been rejected by the ALJ, the FCC Enforcement Bureau and the FCC Media Bureau."
The Wireless Bureau denied two requests that the FCC rule that various automated maritime telecom system (AMTS) licenses have terminated automatically for failure to meet applicable coverage requirements (http://xrl.us/bng27p). The first was filed by Environmentel LLC and Skybridge Spectrum Foundation, which sought a determination for various licenses held by Paging Systems. The second request was filed by Warren Havens, Environmentel, Skybridge and Intelligent Transportation & Monitoring Wireless. They sought a finding that a license of Maritime Communications/Land Mobile had terminated. At question was whether once the AMTS facilities were built, they had to operate continuously. “Petitioners argue that because the subject licenses could not have met the continuity of service requirements, their authorizations terminated automatically,” the order said. “The argument is based on the premise that continuity was a ‘coverage ... obligation’ for purposes of Section 1.946(c)” of the Communications Act. “This premise is flawed,” the order stated. “For purposes of Section 1.946(c), the relevant requirement with respect to automatic termination is the two-year construction period for each facility, rather than continuity of service.”
House Judiciary Committee members are making changes to the proposed Intellectual Property Attaché bill, a committee aide said Monday via email. If members reach a consensus on the language of the bill “we will then circulate a new draft based on those changes to ensure that the development of this bill continues to be an open and transparent process.” The committee last week released a discussion draft of the proposed bill, which would task the Commerce Secretary with placing attachés in countries where they are likely to reduce infringement “in the U.S. market and globally,” advance IP rights of U.S. owners and those “who may be otherwise harmed” by IP violations, and further market access to U.S. interests. Public Knowledge had criticized the “secretly drafted” bill for containing language that was previously written in the ill-fated Stop Online Piracy Act (HR-3261). But the committee aide said this is not the case: “The bill that the committee currently is working on is a narrow piece of legislation to ensure better use of Patent and Trademark Office [PTO] funds. The current draft increases organizational efficiency at the PTO and moves the IP attaché program squarely within the PTO to ensure direct accountability of the IP attachés.”
GlobeCast got a deal with Traffic Sports International to provide satellite contribution services for delivery of Latin American soccer championships to viewers in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Through the end of the year, GlobeCast said it will support distribution of more than 150 soccer matches, representing hundreds of hours of programming. The company will provide troubleshooting, backup and standards conversion, it said.
Globalstar plans to put four satellites into service next month. The satellites were previously launched, Globalstar said. Placing them into service will “further improve the call connection rate in our major markets to a level of performance many of our voice and duplex data customers demand,” it said. Globalstar said it’s working with Thales Alenia and Arianespace to conduct its fourth and final launch of six new second-generation satellites by year-end.
The regression analysis-based caps on USF support appear to have been implemented without any publicly available testing to confirm or falsify them, the NTCA told FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and advisers Friday (http://xrl.us/bng3ej). If such testing has been conducted, the commission should produce the results; if not, the commission should suspend the caps, conduct testing and ultimately provide much clearer rules to enable company managers in the field to understand which investments will be recoverable through USF support, NTCA said. Otherwise, the association cautioned, “rural broadband investment by small rural carriers may grind to a halt."