The Colorado Senate Appropriations Committee indefinitely postponed a landline subsidy overhaul bill, SB-157 (CD March 26 p12), eliminating its chance of passage before the session ends May 9. The bill would have phased out the state universal service fund by 2025. It proposed to shift some landline subsidies to a new state program that would fund rural broadband. Companies like CenturyLink opposed the bill.
U.S. Cellular posted $62.5 million in Q1 profit vs. $35.2 million in the year-ago quarter, helped by higher average revenue per user, the company said Friday. The carrier lost 34,000 retail customers on a net basis in Q1 from Q4, including a loss of 38,000 postpaid customers and gain of 4,000 prepaid customers. The carrier had 5.84 million total customers at the end of Q1. The initial LTE rollout in Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin is on track, CEO Mary Dillon said during an earnings call. About half of the carrier’s customers will be covered by LTE by the end of the year, she said. Smartphones accounted for 54.1 percent of all devices sold in the quarter, up from 42.5 percent in Q1 2011. Some 34 percent of postpaid customers are using smartphones, the company said. Total average revenue per user climbed to $58.21 monthly from $54.29 in the year-ago period.
T-Mobile USA’s prepaid business has doubled over the past year with the launch of its monthly 4G plans and the fact that nearly 60 percent of new monthly 4G customers are using smartphones, vice president of marketing and head of prepaid Mike Katz said in a company blog post (http://xrl.us/bm59gc). He touted the carrier’s prepaid device selection, service plans and its HSPA+ network but didn’t report specific subscriber numbers. The carrier is scheduled to report Q1 earnings May 10.
The FCC reminded some TV captioning waiver seekers to update their applications by July 5 if they don’t want the requests dismissed. A commission notice in Friday’s Federal Register noted that an April Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice, which is effective Friday, gave those applicants the choice of saying their petition remains current, updating it or withdrawing it (http://xrl.us/bm59ff). The bureau has been writing waiver seekers to update requests after the agency didn’t act on some of them for years (CD April 13 p10).
Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton signed a bill that relaxes a licensing burden on satellite system installers. The bill, Chapter 262, eliminates a requirement of having a low-voltage technician license for satellite system installation, “and in its place will be a more appropriate license specific to residential satellite installation,” legislation backer Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association said. It said obtaining a low voltage license “far exceeds what is necessary for satellite installation, such as knowledge of swimming pools, fire alarms, outdoor lighting or refrigeration.” The new law states that no individual can install, repair or supervise altering or installation of satellite broadcasting equipment unless “the electrical work is for a licensed contractor and the individual is an employee, partner or officer of” the contractor. Installers also must certify with the National Standards and Testing Program for satellite system installers, the bill said (http://xrl.us/bm59ip). The law will be effective Oct. 1. The association worked on the bill with the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, SBCA said.
Technical impediments make it “difficult and prohibitively expensive” for FairPoint to comply with new call signaling rules adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, USTelecom said Friday in comments supporting FairPoint’s petition for waiver (http://xrl.us/bm59ds). USTelecom said FairPoint’s petition was “fully consistent” with its own proposal in support of the commission’s efforts to eliminate phantom traffic. FairPoint’s petition “will not create obstacles to the elimination of phantom traffic,” USTelecom said.
FCC Wireline Bureau officials are reluctant to amend a pricing certification requirement adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order, they told the Wyoming Telecommunications Association Thursday, a WYTA ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bm59az). WYTA told bureau officials that the state was an “early adopter” of intrastate access reform, but its rebalancing of local service rates and state universal service support created a situation “wherein many Wyoming incumbent local exchange carriers will be unable to comply both with Wyoming rate and universal service support requirements and with the Commission’s Section 54.313(a)(10) pricing certification requirement.” WYTA filed a petition for reconsideration of the requirement in December. The bureau officials recommended Thursday that WYTA file a Section 1.3 petition for waiver of the certification requirement on behalf of its members, the filing said.
The FCC likely has legal authority to authorize digital literacy funding from the Lifeline program using its ancillary authority under Title I, representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation told commission officials Wednesday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bm59ag). The FCC has authority “in light of, among other things, sections 201, 254 and 706,” the filing said.
Cobham reached an agreement with Thrane & Thrane on the terms of a revised voluntary tender offer for shares and warrants. Shareholders will be offered about $77 for each share in Thrane & Thrane, Cobham said. The offer is an increase of $2.65 per share over Cobham’s offer announced April 10. Cobham now owns or has received undertakings for a total of 2.8 million shares, “representing 47.4 percent of the fully diluted share capital of Thrane & Thrane,” Cobham said.
A diverse array of public interest organizations, content creators, and telecom providers asked the FCC to work with Verizon to “explore its planned discontinuance of standalone DSL and, if possible, to delay the implementation of a policy that would further reduce the affordability and availability of broadband services to consumers,” according to a letter sent Thursday to Chairman Julius Genachowski by Public Knowledge, NASUCA and 15 others (http://xrl.us/bm58v4). Verizon announced last month it would stop selling DSL services in areas where its FiOS service is available (CD Apr 20 p11), and according to a Verizon letter sent to current standalone DSL users, as of May 6, Verizon said it would no longer offer high-speed Internet without local voice service on the same account. The letter by Public Knowledge and others expressed concern over what the groups called “forced” bundling, arguing the “tying scheme” would “act as a drag on the adoption of broadband and new IP technologies as well as alternative, competitive voice options by making other standalone services economically unattractive.” The groups said the FCC should use this development “as a reason to finish its examination of tying voice and broadband services,” which it started with a 2005 notice of inquiry. Verizon claimed it has proactively provided existing customers a 30-day advance notice, a spokesman said in an email. The vast majority of Verizon DSL customers like DSL as part of a bundle with home voice and TV service, he said. Bundling offers a better overall experience and value, he claimed. The decision reflects the broadband customer base at Verizon, he said. The move would allow Verizon to control its cost structure more effectively, he said. There won’t be changes to service for all existing DSL customers, he said.