Ore. PUC, citing “sustained improvements” in Qwest service quality last year, decided to end requirement for quarterly service quality reviews of carrier. PUC hasn’t let Qwest entirely off hook. Agency said Fri. that Qwest still faced potential $725,000 fine for switching and capacity problems in certain rural exchanges in first half of 2000. PUC said it would decide later this year how much of fine to levy and where money would go. PUC said it terminated quarterly reviews because of results of “aggressive” program Qwest embarked upon last year to improve service quality. PUC said one result of program was that Qwest in 4th quarter met all service quality standards in all its exchanges, and another result will be scheduled retirement in March of last analog switch in Qwest territory.
Revenue from sale of DTV equipment will grow to $32.5 billion annually in 2006, from $1.6 billion in 2000, Allied Business Intelligence study predicted. Despite problems in U.S., rollout worldwide has met “far fewer problems,” report said, allowing cost of DTV tuners to drop significantly. It said DVB-based networks already are operating in Australia, Spain, Sweden, U.K. -- www.alliedworld.com.
Telesat said Anik F1 satellite began commercial service across U.S. and S. America Mon. as well as increasing communication service across Canada.
Thailand’s Total Access Communications will buy $150 million of GSM network gear from Nokia under contract that covers General Packet Radio Service solution and intelligent network platforms. Agreement also includes high-capacity mobile switching equipment and base station controllers.
VNU of Netherlands completed its $2.3 billion acquisition of ACNielsen Fri., companies said. VNU properties include Nielsen Media Research.
Gemstar-TV Guide International signed deal with Charter Communications to offer Gemstar’s interactive program guide (IPG) to Charter’s digital cable subscribers. Under 10-year pact, Charter will offer Gemstar’s advanced program guide to most of MSO’s digital customers in return for share of guide’s national ad and TV commerce revenue and “certain considerations of value.” In conference call with reporters and analysts, Gemstar Co-Pres. Peter Boylan said Charter would receive “significant financial incentives” to deploy guide as widely as possible. Charter, which ended last year with slightly more than one million digital subscribers and planned to more than double that this year, was first of 5 biggest MSOs to sign deal with Gemstar. Despite his must-carry battle with AOL Time Warner and patent infringement suits against cable set-top makers and others, Gemstar Chmn. Henry Yuen said he was committed to negotiating carriage deals with MSOs and aimed to conclude other deals soon. Meanwhile, responding to Gemstar’s recent patent infringement complaints against EchoStar, Pioneer and Scientific-Atlanta, Pioneer said its companies “will vigorously defend themselves” and press their claims against Gemstar for alleged antitrust violations.
FCC Common Carrier Bureau granted SBC extension of time to develop business rules plan of record under SBC-Ameritech merger conditions. Under merger conditions, SBC must develop jointly with CLECs uniform business rules for completing local service requests of competitors. First phase of requirement is making business rules publicly available by Feb. 19. Bureau granted extension until March 15 as requested by SBC, which said it needed time to complete certain collaborative sessions in connection with plan to implement uniform operations support systems.
Comcast began technical trial of video-on-demand (VoD) service in Alexandria and Arlington, Va., late last week. Comcast, which has pledged to make VoD its next big product push, said it planned to roll out service commercially in Washington suburbs this spring.
Cox Communications announced deal with Emperative Inc. to offer self-install software to new high-speed data subscribers in Cox markets. Cox said pact, which will allow cable subscribers to buy cable modem at retail and activate service themselves, will boost its modem sales sharply in 6 southern and midwestern states, including Ark., Ida., La., Mo., Tex. Emperative said agreement potentially was worth more than $1 million over 12-18 months.
Global Naps (GN) squared off with FCC on reciprocal compensation in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Tues. over Bell Atlantic’s charge that Internet service provider (ISP) traffic provisions of GN’s tariff were illegal. Judges David Sentelle, Stephen Williams and Judith Rogers seemed to question why they were hearing case, asking in early Global Naps argument, “What can we do about it?” In oral argument, GN Counsel Christopher Savage said appeal was appropriate because FCC had acted inappropriately when it invalidated company’s tariff with no notice.