Adelphia Communications said it plans to offer about $485 million in class A common stock and $400 million in convertible subordinated notes to investors, following successful offering by Charter Communications late last week. Separately, Adelphia said it began rolling out Wink Communications’ interactive TV service in upstate N.Y., offering service as free feature for digital cable subscribers in Buffalo area. MSO said it plans to introduce in another 2 undisclosed markets by early Feb.
FCC is holding first meeting of World Radio Conference (WRC) Advisory Committee Jan. 30, 10 a.m.-noon in Commission meeting room. International Bureau’s Planning & Negotiations Div. will take lead on FCC’s WRC efforts, with Julie Garcia directing preparations and serving as designated federal official to advisory panel. Brian Fontes, Cingular Wireless vp-federal regulation, and Jennifer Warren, Lockheed Martin senior dir.- telecom trade and regulatory affairs, are chmn. and vice-chmn. of committee. FCC said particular emphasis at next WRC in June 2003 will be on International Mobile Telecommunications-2000, terrestrial wireless interactive multimedia services, sharing in 40 GHz with aeronautical mobile-satellite services. FCC also expects focus on public protection and disaster relief, broadcasting-satellite interregional sharing, amateur and amateur satellite services, high frequency broadcasting, regulatory procedures for satellite networks. “Our priority during this WRC cycle is to successfully complete the domestic preparatory process in a time frame that allows the U.S. to be a leader at regional and international meetings,” International Bureau Chief Donald Abelson said. FCC also has created new Web site: http://fcc.gov/wrc-03.
Level 3 plans to build western link to previously announced pan-Asian undersea cable system it’s constructing with Flag Telecom to connect Hong Kong and Japan. Total cost of system is $900 million, with Hong Kong-Japan segment expected to be in service by June. New western segment will include connections to Korea and Taiwan and is expected to begin operating in early 2002. Taiwan segment is to start late this year. “Our partnership with Flag enables us to mitigate the cost of this expansion, as well as our initial cost of building the Hong Kong-to-Japan segment,” Level 3 Asia CEO Steven Liddel said. Companies said that Asian undersea cable system would connect to N. America and Europe through Level 3’s ownership in Japan-U.S. cable and company’s own transatlantic cable. Level 3 is overseeing construction of eastern link of pan-Asia system and Flag has purview over western link and management of entire system when it’s completed. Each company will own 3 fiber pairs in new system, which will have capacity of 320 Gbps. Carriers said upgrades could provide maximum capacity of 2.5 terabits per sec (tbps) on eastern link and 3.8 tbps on western segment.
Cal. Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights filed state lawsuit on behalf of people of Cal. seeking removal of PUC Comr. Henry Duque from office. Group alleged Duque violated state’s conflict-of-interest law that bars PUC members from holding financial interest in any PUC-regulated company. Suit in Cal. Superior Court, San Francisco County, alleges Duque violated law when he held stock in wireless firm Nextel Communications for several months last year. Although PUC doesn’t regulate wireless rates and entry, suit claimed Nextel holding violated law because company’s fortunes were directly affected by PUC decisions in matters such as numbering, interconnection, universal service. Suit said law without exception required that PUC members with financial interests in companies they regulate must vacate office. Cal. Attorney Gen. William Lockyer last month removed potential obstacle to group when he said he had no legal objection to group’s lawsuit plan.
Bills introduced in Neb. and Wyo. would make wireless carriers eligible for state universal service support. Neb. bill (LB-389) would give Neb. PSC limited jurisdiction over wireless phone carriers for universal service purposes. It would authorize PSC to require that wireless carriers contribute to state universal service fund and adopt rules under which wireless carriers could receive subsidies from state fund for local service to high-cost areas. Wyo. measure (HB-52) would make flat-rate wireless local service eligible for state universal service support. Bill would authorize Wyo. PSC to determine amount of money available for wireless universal service subsidies and adopt disbursement rules for payments to wireless carriers. Present law in both states denies commissions any authority over wireless services. Another new Neb. bill relating to universal service (LB-89) would annually earmark 1% of money in state universal service fund to subsidize broadband telecom services for county and municipal govt. agencies, starting in 2002.
Verizon formally asked Pa. PUC to support Sec. 271 application to FCC for interLATA long distance authority and informed PUC it planned FCC filing in 100 days (around April 20). Verizon’s filing with PUC Tues. said carrier had met all 14 market-opening requirements of Sec. 271 checklist, its Pa. local markets were “fully and irreversibly open” to local competition and CLECs “can compete effectively using our systems.” Verizon said final report by KPMG Consulting on operation support systems test proved its claims: “Our systems scored an ‘A’ on this rigorous test. The results validate the real-world experience of more than 85 competitors who rely on our systems to provide local phone service” in Pa. Verizon said CLECs were serving 670,000 customers using 220,000 resold Verizon lines and 450,000 of their own lines. Verizon said it had implemented 164 interconnection agreements and 1,700 colocation agreements with competitors, had installed 310,000 trunks between its network and those of competitors, and exchanged more than 15 billion traffic min. with CLECs in 2000 -- 32% more than in 1999. Verizon said 85% of its residential lines and 91% of business lines were accessible to CLECs. Local rival AT&T disputed Verizon’s claim of 271 compliance, saying KPMG test failed to provide conclusive proof Verizon could handle commercial volumes of CLEC orders for voice loops and digital subscriber lines on day-to-day basis without glitches. AT&T said CLECs “continue to be hamstrung by Verizon’s wholesale unit” in Pa. local marketplace.
Arbitron Co. said it has placed Portable People meters (PPM) with first 50 consumers for its upcoming Philadelphia market trial. Arbitron plans to install meters in another 250 homes over next 6 to 8 weeks. Company said 54 radio, broadcasting and cable outlets are now encoding their signals in preparation for trial, with at least another 16 expected to be added to list.
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is seeking comments for annual review on operation and effectiveness of U.S. trade pacts on telecom services and products. USTR is soliciting feedback on: (1) Whether any World Trade Organization (WTO) member is acting inconsistently on its commitments under WTO Basic Telecom Agreement. (2) Steps that should be taken on reviews in 2000 on telecom trade compliance by Germany, Mexico, S. Africa, U.K. (3) Whether Canada or Mexico has failed to comply with telecom commitments under NAFTA. (4) Whether Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation members, Inter-American Telecom Commission, European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico or Taiwan have failed to comply with commitments under additional telecom agreements with U.S. USTR also is seeking comment on whether Germany “continues to address” competition issues such as excessive license fees and nontransparent cost data filed by Deutsche Telekom with German regulator. As for other U.S. reviews, USTR seeks comments on whether U.K. is “properly implementing” WTO reference paper obligations to ensure interconnection on terms and cost-oriented rates that are unbundled. Comments are due by noon, Jan. 26 at USTR office.
Percentage of minorities working in PTV stations dropped slightly in 1999 with minority employment growing marginally less than overall total, CPB said in annual report to Congress on Public Bcstg. Services to Minorities and Diverse Audiences. However, minority employment in public radio grew 4.7% as against 2.8% overall increase, resulting in 0.4% gain overall. Public broadcasting stations blamed situation on tight job market combined with fewer resources to spend on recruitment and salaries than larger for-profit corporations, making hiring and retention of all qualified employees, including minorities, difficult.
Ericsson said Time Warner had selected it as one of its top suppliers for cable modems this year. TW will deploy Ericsson PipeRider HM200c cable modems nationwide, it said.