The FCC should redo January’s Internet Protocol captioning order (CD Jan 17 p3) so clips from programs on broadcast TV or multichannel video programming distributors must be captioned when put online, said six groups and a university for those with hearing disabilities. The petition for reconsideration from the Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization, National Association of the Deaf, Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and others also sought a requirement for makers of video apparatuses to synchronize caption display with programming. “Absent a timing obligation on device manufacturers, efforts to encode captions with proper timing and synchronization at the programming source and efforts by” video programming distributors “to maintain that timing and synchronization throughout the caption interchange and delivery system may be for naught,” said Friday’s filing. “Unless timing requirements are imposed upon all entities involved in the creation, transmission, and rendering of captions, the Commission’s current timing requirements will be ineffective.” The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, the 2010 law the order implemented, “confirms that the Commission cannot exclude programming from the IP captioning rules solely on the basis of length or completeness,” the groups said of clips. It was the second petition for recon (CD April 18 p14) that’s been filed in docket 11-154 (http://xrl.us/bm5sq3).
The FCC delayed the comment cycle by 11 days for feedback on an advisory committee’s recommendations (CD April 27 p5) for how the disabled can get emergency alerts and access devices. The NCTA’s Cable Show in Boston May 21-23 is before what was the May 24 comment deadline, an order Monday from the Media and Consumer & Governmental Affairs bureaus said (http://xrl.us/bm5sn4). Comments now are due June 4, replies June 19, in docket 12-107 for emergency information and 12-108 for user interfaces.
The FCC released more information related to low-power FM spectrum. The Media Bureau said it released Monday a spectrum availability analysis program and data files so those who filed applications in 2003 for FM translators can tell when they may face dismissal under a March commission order meant to reserve some spectrum for future low-power stations. The new information will “help translator applicants identify within-the-grid protected channel/point combinations,” said a commission public notice (http://xrl.us/bm5skq). “To minimize burdens on applicants and facilitate the efficient processing of translator applications and amendments, protected channel/point combinations shall consist of all but only those combinations identified by this program and” FCC consolidated database system records “used to generate the final versions of Appendices A and B” in the recent order, the notice said. The new documents are at http://xrl.us/bm5smz and follow April release of a tool from the bureau meant to help low-power FM seekers know where stations might be available in the future (CD April 13 p9).
The U.K. High Court Monday ordered five U.K. ISPs to block access to file-sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB). Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media, must start blocking during the next few weeks, the British Phonographic Industry said. The orders by Mr. Justice Arnold followed his ruling in February that TPB operators and users are infringing the copyright of music companies, it said. BPI said it wrote to TPB in July to ask it to stop infringing, but got no reply. In November, the music industry organization wrote to Britain’s six largest ISPs asking them to block the site voluntarily, BPI said. When ISPs “made clear they were unwilling” to do so, BPI turned to the court. The sixth ISP, British Telecom, asked for a few more weeks to consider its position, a request to which the BPI agreed, it said. Sites like TPB destroy U.K. jobs and undermine investment in new British artists, said BPI CE) Geoff Taylor, urging anyone using the website to switch to the country’s many legal and ethical music services. The ruling also won cheers from PRS for Music, the Publishers Association, the Motion Picture Association and the Musicians’ Union. Internet Services Providers’ Association Secretary General Nicholas Lansman said it’s right that a judge, rather than ISPs, made the call to block TPB, and that the judgment shows that existing law contains the necessary powers for rights holders to protect their copyright online, but “the blocking of websites should not be viewed as a silver bullet.” ISPA hopes the litigation will be followed by the “continued development of innovative fully-licensed online services,” which is the best way to tackle digital infringement, he said.
China successfully launched two satellites Monday, the 12th and 13th for its Beidou global navigation and positioning network, according to the official Chinese government website. The Beidou-2 satellites were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The website said they have entered the scheduled orbit. It also said this is the first time China has launched two navigation satellites with one rocket.
The FCC will ask the May meeting of the ITU Radio Regulations Board to reinstate frequency assignments associated with four Intelsat networks at 157 degrees East, we've learned. The Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) last year had cancelled the entries in the Master International Frequency Register even though it hadn’t previously indicated that a minimum number of days a working satellite had to be on location would be used to assess whether it was in regular operation, a source said. The BR had said the number of days had been insufficient to consider the Intelsat networks were in regular operation, the source said. The 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference said 90 days was the minimum number of days a working satellite would have to be at a notified location for an associated frequency assignment to be brought back into use.
Clearwire’s Q1 net loss came in at $182 million, vs. $227 million in the year-ago period, it said late Thursday. Meanwhile, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle will be among the 31 cities it plans to roll out its LTE services during the first half of 2013, the company said. Clearwire added 49,000 new retail customers on a net basis last quarter from Q4 2011 and 537,000 new wholesale customers, mainly from Sprint Nextel. Clearwire ended the quarter with 11 million subscribers, of which 9.7 million are coming through its wholesale partners. The operator’s LTE rollout remains on track, with equipment testing and site preparation under way, CEO Erik Prusch said on an earnings conference call. The company has also made progress with its equipment vendors on coming up with devices for the network, he said.
LightSquared urged the FCC to include the mobile satellite service portions of the L band in a proceeding on a notice of inquiry that proposes to enable terrestrial use of the 2 GHz MSS band (http://xrl.us/bm5d3d). By expanding the scope beyond what’s already in the NOI, the FCC “can further ensure that it is maximizing the use of spectrum and can realize synergies in the policymaking process,” LightSquared said in a letter in docket 12-70 (http://xrl.us/bm5d23). It said omitting the L-band from consideration in the NOI “would yield less-than-optimal results by precluding cross-band solutions.” It also could delay the rapid deployment of competitive, nationwide wholesale-based 4G LTE wireless services by entities like LightSquared, the company said.
The top five cable operators have deployed more than 585,000 CableCARDs for use in retail set-top boxes, the NCTA said. Add in the number of CableCARDs deployed by the next five largest operators and the total climbs to more than 615,000, the NCTA said. Meanwhile, the industry has distributed more than 34 million CableCARD-enabled devices since the July 2007 ban on leasing set-top boxes with integrated security, it said.
More than 20 percent of U.S. households have connected their TV to a home network either through a game console, an Internet-ready TV, Blu-ray player or other set-top box, ABI Research said. Game consoles are the most common way the Internet reaches TV sets, ABI said. Many more households have Internet-ready sets or devices that remain unconnected, it said. “As CE manufacturers increase the value proposition by adding new services and features to these connected devices, the connection rate will certainly climb,” said analyst Michael Inouye. “This in turn will lead to an increased amount of time spent on these devices, but ABI Research does not anticipate a significant shift away from traditional pay-TV services."