Ericsson reached $325 million agreement with Taiwan’s FarEasTone to upgrade carrier’s GSM/General Packet Radio Service network this year. Carrier said its subscribers would be first in Taiwan to use high-speed data services based on GPRS.
PanAmSat PAS-1R satellite is on station and ready to deliver advanced video and data broadcasting services later this month, company said. Start of service will signal retirement of PAS-1, which was launched in June 1988. PAS IR, launched in Nov., is model 702 spacecraft with 36 C-band and 36 Ku-band transponders.
Orbimage will miss debt payment scheduled for March 1 in effort to keep company operating until it can get first high- resolution imaging satellite launched and generating revenue, company said. Pres. Gil Rye said company remained “bullish and optimistic” about business prospects: “We have a market waiting for a satellite.” Cash flow and satellite delays have forced company to restructure its financing, but it hopes to have new financing package in place within 60 days, official said. He said “slips” in Orbital schedule for “constructing and delivering” OrbView 4 satellite had caused “temporary cash shortfall.” Rye said Orbimage had had to “juggle some financial obligations to minimize the impact” of problems. One satellite analyst estimated company needed $20 million to keep operating until satellites were launched. Orbimage announced Feb. 15 it would miss payment.
Neb. bill addressing involvement of local govts. in fiber leasing cleared unicameral legislature’s committee process. Bill sent to floor (LB-827) still would allow local govts. to lease dark fiber to retail telecom carriers, but amendments would require that PSC: (1) Review all fiber leases to ensure rates are market-based. (2) Ban municipalities from using their own dark fiber for providing retail telecom service. (3) Direct that locality’s profits from dark fiber leasing be paid into new Neb. Internet Enhancement Fund to support high-speed Internet access for local govt. agencies statewide. Legislative committees also cleared amended version of universal service bill (LB-389), originally intended to make wireless carriers eligible for state universal service support. As sent to floor, bill now would leave it to PSC to determine which local service providers were eligible to receive state universal service subsidies, but all telecom carriers, including wireless, would be required to contribute to Neb. universal service fund.
Canada’s Norsat streamlined operations by reducing sites to Burnaby and Winnipeg and cutting 30% or 50 positions from work force. Company hopes restructuring will save $2 million. Plans call for global sales and marketing units under Vp Lindsay Ryerson also to resume responsibility for broadband components and systems business. Company said Vp-Norsat Broadband Networks Gordon Deans and Pres. Norsat Atlanta Percy Rivera would be leaving company to pursue other opportunities. Norsat also said it still was looking for buyer of Norsat America distribution business and, in effort to further reduce costs, was finalizing sale of Norsat America assets. Transaction is expected to be completed by end of Feb., generating $5.5 million in cash.
Ind. House passed bill (HB-1181) to give Ind. Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) power to directly fine utilities for violating IURC regulations. Impetus for bill grew out of Ameritech’s service quality crisis of 2000. Bill passed House with amendment allowing IURC to levy fines equal to lesser of 3% of an offending utility’s revenues or $2.5 million monthly. Bill originally had set fining cap at 15% of revenue. Utilities have vowed to lobby Senate heavily to further weaken or kill measure, saying they'll face punishment because of Ameritech’s problems. Under current law, IURC must file state court lawsuit through county prosecutor for utility fines.
FCC report said satellite TV has attracted most of its viewers from rural, rather than urban, areas. Report said 18% of TV households in rural areas received services from DirecTV or EchoStar. In urban areas where cable offers more channels, average satellite penetration is 11%, FCC said.
Women in Cable & Telecom named Olympic gold medal winner Benita Mosley, ex-U.S. Olympics Committee, to new position of pres… Metricom Chmn.-CEO Timothy Dreisbach resigns to become adviser; board member Ralph Derrickson appointed interim CEO… Hispanic TV Network names Emilio Gorriti CEO, promotes Michael Fletcher to COO… Broadwing Chief Administrative Officer Jeffrey Smith adds corp. secy. title… Chris Hardy of Comsearch appointed pres., National Spectrum Mgrs. Assn… Appointments at Lifetime: Trevor Walton, ex-independent producer, senior vp-original movies; Meredith Wagner promoted to exec. vp-public affairs & corp. communications… Adriana Chanos appointed to Nev. PUC to serve 7 months remaining in term of former Comr. Judy Sheldrew and to full 4-year term ending in 2005… Matt Danilowicz, ex-iNews, appointed to head new Avid bcst. group as vp… Clement Chen, ex-Saga Software, named vp-business development, Lockheed Martin Global Telecom.
ORLANDO -- Investment bankers and analysts had more bad news for CLECs Wed. in panel discussion at CompTel’s annual convention here. Along with continued tight money for a year at least, they warned that regulatory environment for those companies could get worse with change in White House. “It’s going to be a hard road,” said Todd Scott, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst. “It will be a year before the market opens broadly, even though some companies are still getting capital, he said.
DBS and other alternate delivery system (ADS) providers continue to make inroads against cable in local markets, according to latest TV Bureau of Advertising (TVB) analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. TVB said data showed that number of TV households receiving cable programming via ADS surged to 12.1% in Nov., up from 11.5% in July. DBS accounted for most of total as its penetration climbed to 9.8% in Nov., from 9% in July. TVB said 118 TV markets now had ADS penetration rates of 15% or more, led by such markets as Jackson, Miss., Shreveport, La., Springfield, Mo..