Bills are expected shortly in both chambers of N.Y. legislature that would impose statewide ban on use of handheld mobile phones by drivers of moving vehicles. State Rep. Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) and state Sen. Michael Balboni (R-Nassau County), said they were drafting legislation for their respective chambers and planned to introduce parallel bills soon. They said their measures would supersede all local ordinances, such as one adopted late last year in Suffolk County and under consideration in New York City and 5 other counties. Draft statewide measure would impose $150 fine per violation. Drivers would be allowed to use hands-free phones. Two lawmakers said they expected majority- party support for mobile phone restriction in both chambers. Gov. George Pataki said Mon. he would be willing to consider car-phone curbs. In related matter, Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef vetoed county ordinance that would have included 10-day jail sentence among penalties for drivers caught using handheld mobile phones. He said Mon. that jail term was excessive punishment and called on state legislature to take lead on issue.
Helgi Walker, aide to FCC Comr. Furchtgott-Roth, will move to White House as assoc. White House counsel and special asst., his office said. Walker, who specialized in mass media and cable issues, will be replaced by Ben Golant of FCC Cable Bureau.
German govt. awarded 8 major regional spectrum licenses to provide fixed wireless and broadband services to ArcTel, joint venture of Teligent and Mannesmann Arcor. Licenses in 26 MHz band cover Berlin and Hamburg, increasing total population coverage of ArcTel in Germany to 31 million, companies said. Mannesmann Arcor is fixed-line telecom arm of Vodafone Group. Companies said ArcTel now holds more than 200 licenses in Germany.
Responding to patent infringement suit filed against it by nCube Corp. earlier this week (CD Jan 9 p12), SeaChange International called charges “without merit” and said it would “vigorously defend its technology, products and customers.” SeaChange complained that it received “no notice” of nCube’s infringement claim before suit was filed. Interactive TV provider also said Del. jury had rejected similar nCube suit in late Sept., reaffirming validity of SeaChange’s MediaCluster technology patent.
Promotions at Time Warner: John Fogarty to vp, Gary Matz to vp, Trish McCausland to senior counsel… Sallie Fraenkel advanced to senior vp-mktg. & operations, program enterprises and distribution, Showtime… Jonathan Shair, ex-Bravo/Independent Film Channel, appointed vp-program scheduling and planning, Starz Encore Group… Richard Sulpizio, Qualcomm pres.-COO, elected to board… Ralph Haiek promoted to COO, Claxson Interactive Group… Michael Kennedy advanced to corporate vp and dir.-global govt. relations, Motorola… Berry Smith, senior vp, Schurz Communications, retires Jan. 31… Clifford Rees promoted to pres.- N. America, World Access… Changes at Broadbeam: Sri Sridharan, ex-ServiceNet, named pres.-COO; William Lenahan, CEO, KMC Telecom, joins board… Hewlett Packard Chmn. Carly Fiorina appointed to Cisco Systems board… Geoffrey Crowley promoted to regional vp-sales for the north, Net2000 Communications… Michael Kuehn, ex-Desert Island Resource Group, named vp-quality assurance & process development, Pathnet… Gordon McKenna, chmn., American Teleservices Assn., resigns.
RateXchange Corp. and London Satellite Exchange announced first global alliance that gives bandwidth users ability to fulfill satellite and fiber requirements at same time. RateXchange operates trading system for fiber bandwidth and London Satellite Exchange is online exchange for satellite industry.
Salt Lake Organizing Committee will be broadcast frequency coordinator for 2002 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City, FCC said in notice Wed. Group will coordinate frequency use in 150 km radius from city during games, FCC said.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center gave Swales Aerospace 5- year contract worth potential $350 million to provide engineering service for Goddard’s Applied Engineering, Technology, Suborbital and Special Orbital Projects Directorates, including studying, designing, developing, testing, verifying and operating spacecraft and ground system hardware and software. Swales also will coordinate work of Orbital Sciences, Jackson & Tull, Hammers and Curtis Management in deal that consolidates services of 2 prior engineering service contracts.
Delayed launch of XM Satellite will have “no material financial impact” on firm, XM said, but delay came during week in which XM had hoped to create major splash for new satellite radio service. Sea Launch halted countdown of XM satellite Mon. when minor out-of-specification condition was detected. Condition was resolved within minutes, but short launch window didn’t allow adequate time to recycle rocket, officials said. Sea Launch rescheduled flight from Pacific Ocean platform for first of 2 geostationary satellites for Feb. 28, with launch of 2nd satellite pushed back to mid-April. Satellite analyst William Kidd of C.E. Unterberg Towbin said delay isn’t “ material” because company still had time to test system and meet its commercial launch objective. However, launch failure “could be disastrous” to XM in its effort to keep up with Sirius, one satellite analyst said.
Ameritech told Ind. Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) it wouldn’t agree to agency’s request that Ameritech give bigger credits to customers that suffered lengthy service outages during last summer’s service quality crisis. Ameritech last fall voluntarily offered residential customers flat $12 credit and small-business customers flat $40 credit. But IURC last month said compensation was insufficient and strongly suggested company should pay up to $20 per outage day to residential customers and up to $40 per outage day to businesses, similar to outage compensation plan Ameritech agreed to in Wis. But in meeting Tues. with IURC Executive Dir. Michael Leppert, Ameritech Ind. Pres. George Fleetwood said his company wouldn’t be able to honor IURC’s request and further negotiation would be pointless. Ameritech spokesman said carrier believed best use of its resources was investing in network improvements, not issuing additional credits. He said different conditions in Wis. prompted Ameritech to issue larger outage credits there, but he didn’t elaborate. IURC’s Leppert said IURC up to now had hoped informal prodding of Ameritech through requests would have been enough to improve service and get adequate compensation for customers. He said next step would be formal investigation into Ameritech’s network operations and service management. But IURC has no legal power to fine utilities except as part of negotiated regulatory agreements. Pending proposal for renewal of Ameritech price cap regulation, which comes up for hearing Jan. 16, includes up to $30 million in annual penalties for service quality failures, $746 million in network investments and $180 million in rate cuts.