The Intelsat 22 satellite was launched Monday from Kazakhstan by an ILS Proton M vehicle, Intelsat announced. The satellite will provide C- and Ku- band capacity “for media, government and network services customers in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East,” it said. Intelsat 22 also will host a specialized UHF communications payload for the Australian Defence Force. It was built by Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems.
Hawaii still wants better data from Time Warner Cable on the company’s request for the FCC to let it out of rate regulation on the Big Island, which the state has opposed (CD Feb 27 p13). The state said the cable operator isn’t using correct data on DBS subscribership to show its penetration rate is above 15 percent for the West Hawaii franchise area. The company “double counted the DBS subscribers in a zip code that overlaps” there and in East Hawaii, yielding “overstated DBS penetration rates,” the state said in a Friday filing in docket 12-8 (http://xrl.us/bmzhmp). “The new DBS penetration data in Time Warner Cable’s Reply is flawed in a number of respects."
The FCC won’t renew the license of what was WLMA(AM), Greenwood, S.C., even though the owner has a deal to sell it for $75,000, because the license has expired, a Media Bureau letter (http://xrl.us/bmzhi6) to Morradio said. It reminded the licensee that painting and lighting its tower must be done until dismantled, since it’s “imperative to the safety of air navigation.” Another bureau letter (http://xrl.us/bmzhjc) denied a request from CWH Broadcasting to reinstate the license of the former WHNY(AM) McComb, Miss., finding the expiration is final.
T-Mobile filed an amended application asking to be designated as an eligible telecom carrier under the FCC Lifeline program, serving Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee and Virginia. “The requested ETC designation will promote the public interest by providing eligible low-income consumers a choice of a significant new facilities-based competitor in the marketplace for Lifeline services,” T-Mobile said (http://xrl.us/bmzg8s). “T-Mobile’s entry into the Lifeline market will create competitive pressure on all Lifeline providers, resulting in a higher level of service quality and more competitive pricing and advantageous service options for Lifeline service for eligible consumers in the FCC States.” T-Mobile has been designated as an ETC in 10 other states. “As a major national licensed carrier with a well-established track record of providing quality mobile voice and data services to non-Lifeline customers, T-Mobile has made the requisite showing of financial and technical capability,” the company said.
FCC, NTIA and Homeland Security Department officials are scheduled to testify Wednesday about threats to communications networks and public-sector responses, the House Commerce Committee said Monday. The House Communications Subcommittee hearing is at 10 a.m. in Room 2322, Rayburn Building. Scheduled witnesses are FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, NTIA Associate Administrator Fiona Alexander, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Robert Stempfley, Sandia National Laboratories Senior Manager Bob Hutchinson and Greg Shannon, Carnegie Mellon University chief scientist for the Software Engineering Institute’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team program. In previous hearings and meetings with the Communications Subcommittee’s cybersecurity working group, private sector officials urged the federal government to focus on “education, information sharing advancing voluntary best practices, and eliminating regulatory obstacles to collaboration between and among the private and public sectors,” the subcommittee said in a memo released Monday. The cybersecurity working group aims to at minimum issue recommendations this month or in early April (CD March 21 p6).
Correction: The U.S. Export-Import Bank’s charter expired Sept. 30 (CD March 26 p8).
The FTC launched a technology blog called “Tech@FTC” aimed at fostering communication about the agency’s focus on technology issues. The blog is at http://techatftc.wordpress.com and will be monitored by FTC Chief Technologist, Ed Felton. The blog’s goal “is to talk about technology in a way that is sophisticated enough to be interesting to hard-core techies, but straightforward enough to be accessible to the broad public that knows something about technology but doesn’t qualify as expert,” Felton wrote in his initial post.
The FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order “expressly provided” that VoIP traffic would be subject to, at most, only interstate access charges, a Verizon white paper said. “The Commission had good reason for reaching this result,” the paper said, arguing it was critical to avoid a new “tax” on emerging VoIP services, and to avoid artificially subsidizing VoIP. The result was also “consistent with the industry reform plan that informed some aspects of the Order,” which proposed the commission classify all VoIP services as jurisdictionally interstate, the paper said (http://xrl.us/bmy98z). If the agency were to agree with the Frontier/Windstream position that the order didn’t touch originating access charges for VoIP calls, it would impose “artificially high intrastate originating access charges” about four times higher than interstate charges, Verizon said. Whatever the commission does, it “must not” make the “utterly irrational” decision to expand intrastate access charges to include traffic that starts in IP and ends in TDM, the paper said. Verizon was the latest to add its voice to the interexchange carriers and cable providers who oppose the Frontier/Windstream petition. At a meeting with several FCC officials Wednesday, Verizon executives said this result “strikes the right balance and is consistent with the Commission’s objectives in the Order.”
The FCC Wireless Bureau said VentureTel is entitled to a refund of $487,250 after it had winning bids for seven B-block licenses in the original 700 MHz auction, but defaulted on payment obligations for them (http://xrl.us/bmy983). The bureau already assessed an initial default payment of $218,250 against the company.
Hawaiian Telcom is on pace to be able to sell video services to half the homes on Oahu by the end of 2013 and to the remaining homes by 2016, Time Warner Cable said in a letter supporting its petition to be let out of local rate regulation there. “The extent and growth of Hawaiian Telcom’s video deployment is more than sufficient to deem Time Warner Cable’s franchise area subject to effective competition.” Hawaiian Telcom’s annual financial report “lays to rest claims that it is somehow not financially strong enough to vigorously compete or to complete its video service deployment in a timely manner,” Time Warner Cable said.