Residents in Thousand Oaks, Calif., can expect an added area code later this year, Verizon said Friday. For residents and businesses in the 408 area code region, a 669 area code will be added. Starting April 21, people dialing within the 408 area code should dial 1 plus area code plus seven-digit phone number. After Oct. 20, callers will have to only dial a 1 before dialing the seven-digit number. New lines will start being assigned 669 area codes starting on Nov. 20. Verizon said customers should know: their telephone number, including current area code, will not change; what’s a local call now will remain a local call; the price of a call, the coverage area or other rates and services will not change due to the overlay; and consumers and businesses can still dial just three digits to reach 911 and 411.
FCC Internet Protocol captioning rules take effect April 30, except for information collection requirements from January’s order needing Office of Management and Budget approval, the commission said in Friday’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bmzwny). It said comments on the Paperwork Reduction Act implications of the rules, which cover subscription-video and TV station programming that goes online (CD Jan 17 p3), are due May 29.
The 5th U.S. Appeals Court denied a request by various cities for a rehearing en banc of a January decision by the New Orleans-based court upholding the FCC’s 2009 wireless zoning shot-clock order. The decision was a big win for wireless carriers who had sought the shot clock, over the opposition of many local government groups (CD Jan 24 p4). None of the 5th Circuit judges had asked the court be polled on whether to hold a rehearing, the order said. It was signed by Judge Priscilla Owen, who wrote the original opinion for the three-judge panel deciding the case.
The ballots of union TV and movie actors will be counted Friday on a proposal to merge the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), SAG said. That statement followed a federal judge’s decision to block a preliminary injunction against the referendum. “Voting in favor of merger may or may not be in the best interest of the majority of Union members,” U.S. District Court Judge James Otero of California’s Central District wrote. “But the decision, for better or worse, belongs to the Members -- not to plaintiffs and certainly not to the Court.” It’s been the SAG’s “position all along that these complaints were completely without merit and that the members will ultimately decide the future of their unions,” said Deputy National Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. The unions said they'll disclose the referendum results Friday at 4 p.m. EDT.
AT&T called for a mandatory data request in the FCC’s long-running special access proceeding, claiming in a letter to the commission that its voluntary data requests failed to elicit responses from many important competitors, and the little information that was received is already outdated (http://xrl.us/bmztzr). “It is now clearer than ever that competitive provider responses to the Commission’s voluntary data requests in this proceeding have been wholly inadequate to allow the Commission to assess the availability of alternatives to incumbent local exchange carrier ('ILEC') special access facilities,” wrote AT&T attorney David Lawson. The new data request should be “mandatory” for CLECs and “other competitors, to ensure that it has at least a somewhat more complete picture of marketplace conditions and to end the regulation [of] proponents’ established practice of asking for draconian and self-serving rate reductions while refusing to provide the information in their possession that would be necessary to assess the veracity of their claims,” AT&T said. It asked the FCC to require all non-ILEC competitors “provide detailed data[,] mapping the location of their facilities and infrastructure that put them in a position to bid and compete for business.” In a separate letter (http://xrl.us/bmztzk), AT&T rebutted criticisms of term and volume discounts offered by ILECs, arguing that “the submissions and actions of non-incumbents ... confirm that the terms and conditions under which ILECs provide TDM-based services have not materially affected their ability to migrate to other providers or to other types of services, including Ethernet services."
SeaChange Q4 sales fell 10 percent from a year earlier to $51.7 million, the company said Thursday. It swung to a $4.8 million net loss from an $11 million gain a year earlier on lower sales and higher restructuring costs. The company said it’s actively engaged in selling its remaining non-core assets after shedding the broadcast server and storage business. “Our focus in fiscal 2013 is on the execution of our strategy to transform the company into a pure-play software provider, lowering our overall cost structure,” CEO Raghu Rau said.
Grant Broadcasting’s WZDX-TV Huntsville, Ala., and KGCW-Davenport, Ill., will begin carrying Me-TV programming on their multicast channels April 17, the companies said. Additionally, Grant’s KLJB-TV Davenport will simulcast the network on one of its multicast channels. Grant’s WLAX LaCrosse, Wis., has been carrying the network since January. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Encouraging and facilitating state collaboration will accelerate the benefits of the FCC’s Lifeline Reform Order, said the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in a filing at the FCC (http://goo.gl/sN9qf). While a federal database may be desirable and may be as robust as any state system, most qualifying low-income programs are administered at the state level, the state commission said. A federal database may preclude states from including other income-based state programs in the eligibility requirements, or make it more difficult for providers to verify eligibility, it said. States are in a better position to use these databases to administer the program, monitor eligibility and eligible telecommunications carrier compliance, as well as prevent waste, fraud and abuse, it said. Meanwhile, Lifeline privacy issues on a state or federal level should be directly addressed with the hosts of the data, it said. Those are the entities that are responsible for meeting state and federal privacy laws, it said.
If history’s a guide, Disney shares could be due for a good run, following a year of heavier-than-usual capital spending by the media company, Sanford Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger wrote investors Thursday. He said there were five instances of one-year spikes in capital spending since 1992. Three of those years preceded a year of outperformance of Disney’s stock relative to the S&P 500, he said. “Capital spending has likely reached near-term peak."
DirecTV’s Latin America business issued positive long- and short-term guidance, a Sanford Bernstein analyst said in a note. “Both were in line with our above-market projections,” said analyst Craig Moffett. “We are converted DirecTV bulls, largely on the strength of our conviction that the Latin American business is markedly undervalued.” Even with a cautious view of the U.S. business, “we believe DirecTV’s shares are too cheap,” he said.