Comcast said it will start rolling out its X1 user-interface within a month. The cloud-based system will help the company deliver a more personalized experience to cable subscribers, it said. “X1 is a giant leap forward, essentially transforming our video product from a hardware experience to a software experience,” said Marcien Jenckes, senior vice president and general manager of Comcast’s video services. It also allows subscribers to control their TV through a remote control app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Comcast said. The system is on display this week at the Cable Show in Boston. The system, under the name Xcalibur, has been in trials in Augusta, Ga., since last year, the company said. Separately, Comcast said it is developing an advanced user-interface that will have a consistent look-and-feel across TV sets, laptops, tablets and smartphones that integrate the services it offers. Dubbed Project Dayview, the system will let subscribers check weather and news information as well as social media on those devices, Comcast said.
Comments from public interest groups in docket 12-70 include some requests that are “predicated in part on conditions the FCC imposed on Harbinger/LightSquared,” Wells Fargo analysts said in a research note. Comments were due last week on proposals that would allow Dish Network to build a wireless network in the 2 GHz band (CD May 18 p6). The filing from New America Foundation, Public Knowledge and Consumers Union imposes the same “if not more stringent conditions on Dish given its ‘more valuable’ spectrum,” analysts said. Dish’s stock may initially come under pressure “given the uncertainty posed by these comments.” However, “the likelihood of the FCC granting all of these conditions as posed is small,” Wells Fargo said. The condition that the commission should approve any deal making more than 25 percent of the data-traffic capacity available to any single carrier is “subject to court appeal by Verizon and AT&T and therefore unlikely to go very far.” Recommending that the FCC impose penalties if Dish sells spectrum to Verizon or AT&T within five years doesn’t materially change anything, Wells Fargo said. The analysts said they don’t think that Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen even had any intention of “flipping” the spectrum.
The $12.5 billion Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility is expected to be completed Wednesday, according to an SEC filing from Motorola Mobility Monday (http://xrl.us/bm8sxr). The filing came after approval from Chinese regulators Saturday, the last regulatory approval needed. However, as part of the Chinese approval, Google had to keep its Android operating system free in China and can’t discriminate against any handset maker seeking to use Android, reports said. A Google spokesman couldn’t be reached Monday for comments.
Epix said it streamed more than 200,000 hours of video to viewers of its app on various devices such as the Xbox 360, Roku, Android and iOS products during a free preview April 27-29. The lesson learned? Free previews on TV help drive usage of the app during the same free, promotional period, it said. “Through freeviews on EPIX apps in addition to the linear channel and On Demand, EPIX has reached an extended audience to both increase awareness of the network and drive potential new subscribers for distribution partners,” it said.
Carlos Slim’s America Movil is asking the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to withdraw the group’s earlier report on the Mexican telecom market, calling the report’s proposed regulations unnecessary and unsubstantiated, Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia-Moreno said during a conference call Monday. The report said high telecom prices in Mexico cost consumers there $26 billion a year in opportunity cost. OECD couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. The report used hypothetical data, according to Jerry Hausman, economics professor at MIT, who was on the call. It’s not just an America Movil issue, said Gregory Sidak with Criterion Economics, stressing that countries and governments count on accuracy of data to guide policymaking. An America Movil-commissioned report by Sidak claimed the OECD’s “harsh criticisms” of Mexico’s government and legal system are equally “baseless” and demonstrate “a clear bias for regulation over competition.” The OECD criticized Mexico’s amparo process and the filing of such appeals by Telmex and Telcel regarding various rulings by Mexican telecom regulator Cofetel, even though the courts more often than not found Telmex and Telcel were correct and Cofetel had acted unlawfully, Sidak’s report said. Carlos Slim, listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man in 2012, is the chairman and chief executive of Telmex and America Movil. America Movil’s wireless unit, Telcel, was fighting a nearly $1 billion fine by Cofetel over anti-competitive practices The fine was recently lifted.
Device-toting residents of some major metro areas will start seeing a new Wi-Fi network in range in coming months called “CableWiFi.” Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable said they'll begin letting each other’s broadband customers access their local Wi-Fi networks under that name. “We believe WiFi is a superior approach to mobile data, and that cable providers are best positioned to build the highest-capacity national network,” said Kristin Dolan, senior executive vice president-product management and marketing at Cablevision. “WiFi technology, coupled with our agreements with Verizon Wireless, are two significant ways we are executing our strategy to deliver the best in- and out-of-home communications experience for our customers,” said Dave Watson, Comcast Cable’s chief operating officer. Already those five cable operators have more than 50,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in and around New York, Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando and Philadelphia, they said. They plan to add to that number in those markets and in new cities, they said. The announcement was not a surprise, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a note to investors. In fact, many investors thought these cable operators had already agreed to take these steps, he said. But “the strategic implications are profound,” he said. “The unique usage characteristics of wireless networks leave the door firmly open for a potentially very-disruptive Wi-Fi-first service,” he said. Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said the announcement was disappointing. “Wi-Fi offers the opportunity to compete with wireless providers such as Verizon Wireless, using Wi-Fi roaming to build a rival footprint that could offer a cheaper alternative to consumers,” he said. “But rather than compete, the cable companies want to include Verizon as part of the footprint,” he said, pointing to the marketing agreements the companies reached as part of their proposed AWS license transfer.
Sirius XM shareholders will gather Tuesday for the company’s annual meeting in New York as Liberty Media continues to battle for control of the company. Liberty has a 46 percent stake in Sirius, and purchased 60 million shares last week. It also signed a contract to buy another 302 million shares for $650 million, presumably bringing Liberty closer to the FCC requirement that it own 51 percent of Sirius to take control of Sirius XM’s licenses. It remains to be seen whether Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin addresses the issue of Liberty’s ownership at the annual meeting. But Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei is expected to discuss the topic Wednesday at a Barclays investor conference in New York. Meanwhile, Karmazin continues to unload Sirius XM shares, having sold 13.7 million between May 14 and 16, SEC filings show. Karmazin exercised his stock option on the shares at 43 cents and then sold the same shares at $1.99, for a $21.31 million net profit, the filings show. Karmazin still holds 8.5 million shares worth about $15 million. In a separate development, Sirius XM on Monday announced a deal giving customers who buy a 2013-model Audi a free four-year subscription to the Sirius XM Traffic service. The promotion is in addition to a separate offer in which Audi buyers get a free three-month trial subscription to Sirius XM’s basic service. Sirius’ stock closed Monday up 3.98 percent at $1.96, but down from a 52-week high of $2.44 in April and short of the $2.15 Liberty paid for its additional shares.
Representatives of Wilson Electronics discussed in a meeting last week with Wireless Bureau officials progress of talks with T-Mobile over “consumer signal booster specifications ... necessary to protect wireless networks from harmful interference.” A proposal for signal booster rules by Wilson and Verizon Wireless has been before the commission since last summer (CD July 27 p5). “Wilson expressed the view that wireless carriers should not be able to prohibit the use of wideband consumer signal boosters that meet whatever technical safe harbor that the Commission establishes,” said a filing by the company (http://xrl.us/bm8sqs). “Under the rules proposed by Wilson and Verizon Wireless, consumer boosters operated by subscribers in good standing of a CMRS system would be considered as operating under the authorization of that CMRS system.”
Eutelsat expanded use of its IP Easy broadband platform to extend high-speed Internet access to residential and enterprise users across sub-Saharan Africa. The product uses Ku-band capacity on the Eutelsat 16A satellite and Newtec’s Sat3Play technology, Eutelsat said. It delivers downlink speeds of up to 4 Mbps and can be configured “to support VoIP and satellite reception of TV channels in triple play mode.”
Newtec will use Clean Channel Technology (CCT) for communications over Intelsat satellites. The technology “further improves satellite transmission efficiency by up to 15 percent compared to the current DVB-S2 standard for IP trunking, backhauling, government networks and broadcast contribution,” Newtec said. CCT will be available to Newtec’s customers “as it is available as a software field upgrade for existing Newtec equipment."