Consumers trust traditional media more than digital media, said a Triton Digital survey conducted by Immediate Insights (http://xrl.us/bngm6o). Forty-five percent of the respondents trusted television, 20 percent trusted newspapers and 18 percent trusted radio while 13 percent trusted digital media and 4 percent trusted social media. The survey also revealed that consumer trust impacts advertising success: 64 percent of respondents purchased an item after it was advertised through TV, radio, or a newspaper, Triton said. However, more customers trust their own research on a product above trust in TV, radio, or newspaper ads. The survey included more than 24,000 people in North America. The online survey was conducted in June and has a 0.4 percentage point margin of error. Triton Digital is a radio digital service provider.
Kansas will be launching a general investigation into intrastate switched access charges for rural phone companies and assess the costs of investigation to the rural companies, according to an order issued by the Kansas Corporation Commission on Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bngmuj). The order said the state can assess these expenses “against public utilities if the expenses reasonably attributable to such investigation exceed the sum of $100” and notes the order “constitutes notice of the assessment of costs and the assessment will begin three days after the date this order is mailed.” The rural telcos will have 15 days to petition the commission for reconsideration, the KCC said.
Zipit Wireless, a platform solutions provider, released a new smartphone app and updated its Enterprise Critical Messaging Solution by adding VoIP capabilities, said Verizon Wireless, the exclusive carrier providing the messaging solution (http://xrl.us/bngm3i) to its customers. The interoperable app and update allow healthcare professionals to quickly communicate and meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act privacy standards, Verizon said.
Sprint Nextel representatives discussed the company’s concerns with proposed commercial agreements between Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox and the implications for Wi-Fi, during a meeting with Louis Peraertz, adviser to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Parts of the public version of an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://xrl.us/bngm2s) were redacted. “Mr. Peraertz had asked whether Sprint knows of any other discussion or transactions involving WiFi between cable companies and any other wireless carrier,” the filing said. “Mr. Peraertz had asked about the recent agreement among cable operators to offer WiFi services to each others’ customers and how it might affect Sprint customers.” Access to cable Wi-Fi is critical to Sprint, the company said. “Sprint has focused on what happens if Sprint does not have an opportunity to access the cable companies’ combined WiFi platform,” the filing said. “WiFi offload benefits Sprint and other wireless carriers because of the extremely large installed base of phones that already incorporate WiFi chipsets into their circuitry. Numerous business and technical initiatives are underway at Sprint to incorporate WiFi offload into Sprint’s market strategy. The cable companies have the ability to make the WiFi experience inequitable for certain classes of users; for example, by lowering quality or making access more difficult."
The Rural Cellular Association is pleased that T-Mobile, “an RCA member, has reached a deal with Verizon to acquire much-needed AWS spectrum,” RCA President Steve Berry and others from the group said in a meeting with FCC officials. At the same time, RCA remains concerned about Verizon’s proposed deals with SpectrumCo and Cox, and continues to believe the transactions should be approved only with conditions, RCA said (http://xrl.us/bngmys). “While the Divestiture Transaction addresses concerns with respect to T-Mobile’s access to useable, 4G-ready spectrum, it does not address: (i) continuing spectrum aggregation concerns and issues with access to spectrum for other rural and regional carriers; (ii) the lack of interoperability in the 700 MHz band, which limits competitive carriers’ access to useable 4G spectrum, and future interoperability concerns in the AWS band; and (iii) serious issues relating to the availability of voice and data roaming. As such, the Commission must stringently condition any grant of the Cable Company Transactions to ensure a competitive future for the wireless industry."
The American PrePaid Phonecall Association (APPPA) is finalizing a standard for providers of prepaid calling cards or overseas calls, APPPA said. APPPA is creating the standard to protect consumers in light of the lawsuit the FTC filed against DR Phone Communications (http://xrl.us/bngmwq). APPPA Chairman Gustavo de la Garza said that it is working with the FTC and other agencies to ensure good consumer service and disclosure of fees and terms, the first time prepaid phone call providers are believed to have joined together for this purpose. Consumer advocates, government regulators and others will review the standard with APPPA, it said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., asked the Justice Department to explain the growth in wireless record requests from law enforcement agencies, in a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. Markey’s inquiry said the practices of law enforcement agencies, “along with the enormous amount of requests, range of information provided, and large numbers of consumers involved, raise a number of important privacy concerns,” (http://xrl.us/bngis5). The letter came after nine wireless carriers, in responses made public Monday, said they had received more than 1.3 million federal, state and local law enforcement requests for cellphone records in 2011 (CD July 10 p1). Markey asked Holder to disclose how many times Justice has requested mobile phone records in the past five years, how much money DOJ spent to compensate wireless carriers for the data requests, whether individuals were notified when their information was transmitted to the Justice Department and what legal standards the department used to justify the requests. Markey asked Holder to respond by Aug. 1. A DOJ spokeswoman did not comment.
Level 3’s practice of allowing 5,000 carrier port-ins per day, and 5,000 port-outs per day, are fully consistent with North American Numbering Council Best Practice #67, the company told the FCC (http://xrl.us/bngir4). Bandwidth.com alleged last month that, for large porting projects, Level 3’s 5,000-per-day limit causes the company to run afoul of rule 67, which suggests a 15-day limit on porting (CD June 13 p10). “Having been an active participant in the development of Best Practice #67, Level 3 respectfully reminds Bandwidth that for port-outs of 51 or more telephone numbers, Best Practice #67 dictates no rigid port-out timeframe, and in two separate places, states specifically that the Old Service Provider is allowed to negotiate the total port-out interval,” Level 3 said. Bandwidth’s suggestion - that regardless of the size or complexity of a project, it be completed within 15 days - “is entirely inconsistent with what those in the industry” supported when negotiating that best practice, Level 3 said.
"Thousands of app developers” represented by the Association for Competitive Technology supported Verizon’s proposed buy of spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox, and a Verizon swap with T-Mobile. For app developers, spectrum is key, ACT said in a filing at the FCC (http://xrl.us/bngirq). “Improved mobile device resolution and increased wireless speeds will pose new challenges for app developers rooted in scarce spectrum,” they said. “For example, Apple’s iPad3 has what it calls its ‘Retina’ display with a greatly improved graphics resolution capable of delivering high definition entertainment and gaming content to consumers.” The problem is, ACT said, high-resolution apps require bigger files, many above the 50 MB threshold, after which Apple requires a file to be transferred over Wi-Fi rather than a 3G or 4G network. “The increased resolution will make it more difficult for developers of feature -- rich or graphic -- intensive apps to stay under the ... threshold,” ACT said. “Studies have shown that eliminating consumers’ ability to buy apps over 3G or LTE networks depresses sales by 40 percent. The need for this limitation could be obviated by increasing the spectrum deployed by wireless carriers.”
A blackout of about a dozen Hearst TV stations on Time Warner Cable continued (CD July 11 p18) for a second full day Wednesday. The broadcaster called the operator’s “characterization of the percentage increase in carriage fees” as a 300 percent rate hike “inaccurate.” Instead, Hearst “sought a reasonable increase consistent with the increased costs we have to pay for our highly valued programming and the carriage fees now paid to us by Time Warner’s competitors,” President David Barrett said Tuesday night. Time Warner Cable “is seeking a significant discount of market-based fees that is neither fair nor reasonable,” he said. “The fees we are asking are based on the fees we are being paid (with no disruption of service) by other cable companies in over 150 other recently concluded agreements -- this fact is the real measure, not Time Warner’s exaggerated and distorted claims, of the fairness of our proposal.” A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said in response to Barrett’s comments that a near tripling of retrans rates “is not reasonable."