Bidding in FCC’s C- and F-block PCS auction rose to $14.57 billion Wed., vs. $14.2 billion Tues. Salmon PCS, designated entity with Cingular Wireless investment bid $3.06 billion, followed by AT&T Wireless-backed Alaska Native Wireless with $2.42 billion. Competition remains strong for 3 N.Y.C. licenses, all of which now have surpassed $1 billion mark. In 43rd round, Verizon Wireless bid $1.42 billion for one license there, Salmon PCS $1.13 billion for another and Alaska Native Wireless $1.04 billion for 3rd. Other high bidders in auction of 422 licenses that began Dec. 12 include DCC PCS with $966.4 million, Cook Inlet with $486.8 million, VoiceStream with $385.9 million, Leap Wireless with $336.8 million. Of top 15 bidders, 13 are designated entities, with Verizon Wireless and VoiceStream representing exceptions. Next highest bid for single license after N.Y.C. is $519.7 million for L.A. license by DCC PCS, subsidiary of Dobson Communications.

StreamAudio will provide audio streaming and revenue-sharing ad insertion technology for all 83 Cox Radio stations under new agreement with Cox Radio Interactive. Cox is 4th largest radio owner in U.S., based on revenue.

Research firm pulver.com forecast that wireless revenue would top local wireline revenue by 2003, based on recent price reductions by mobile providers. “The wireless industry has erased the twentyfold wireline price advantage that existed in 1984, completely changing the business case for who represents a potential wireless customer,” pulver.com CEO Jeff Pulver said. Report said if 25% of residential wireline customers convert to wireless, industry would gain 26 million subscribers, representing $14 billion potential revenue increase. That would give wireless industry revenue of $91 billion in 2003, compared with $90 million for local wireline industry, pulver.com projected.

Moody’s assigned B3 rating to XO Communications’ proposed $450 million convertible subordinated notes to “reflect the relatively early development stage of the company with positive cash flow generation… still likely to be approximately 1 to 2 years away.”

PASADENA -- CBS TV Pres. Leslie Moonves said network had ordered new Survivor series 3 and 4 -- to follow Survivor 2, which begins its run immediately following Jan. 28 Super Bowl. Third in series will air in fall as hedge against possible strike by writers and actors. “That’s all part of the game plan,” along with extended new or expanded editions of news programming, he said at TV critics session here. Reality shows are “not union dependent,” Moonves said. “We hope the strike can be avoided, but we are ready… Obviously, everybody is going to be doing the same thing” in stockpiling reality programming in case of strike (CD Jan 9 p7). He joked that if Super Bowl were “a blowout, we may eliminate the 4th quarter and go right to Survivor… and hopefully in the near future we'll be announcing Survivor 19 and 20.” He refused to discuss prices being paid by advertisers for Survivor 2, but “obviously it’s a great deal more than they paid” for original series last summer.

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.

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.

U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., remanded low-power FM (LPFM) rules to FCC to give Commission time to implement latest legislation, responding to NAB petition (CD Dec 28 p4). Court said parties should report to court within 21 days after FCC action, to allow court to decide whether more action was needed. Court also said FCC must implement character qualification provisions of Radio Bcstg. Preservation Act.

Veil Interactive Technologies said it received patent for inserting data into visible portion of broadcast signal. It said technology would allow broadcast signal to become “universal platform” to allow interacting with TV through broadcast signal. Technology uses full-video-image data stream, rather than just vertical blanking interval, allowing up to 6 Mbps to be transmitted, Veil said.

As FCC continued to weigh AOL’s pending purchase of Time Warner (TW) Wed., consumer groups and smaller ISPs pressed Commission to impose instant messaging (IM) service interoperability and tighter cable open access conditions on merged company. Moves came as one-year anniversary of AOL-TW deal announcement passed without expected merger approval by Commission, which has been grappling with possible additional conditions since FTC okayed deal Dec. 14. While Republican Comrs. Powell and Furchtgott-Roth reportedly have voted to approve merger without additional conditions, outgoing Chmn. Kennard and Democrat Comrs. Ness and Tristani still were trying to craft compromise on IM issue that would set some requirements. In ex parte presentations earlier this week, Consumers Union and Media Access Project urged agency staffers to back interoperability standards for IM services. They argued that reported Cable Bureau staff proposal to force AOL-TW to open its high-speed cable lines to 2nd, unaffiliated IM service was “of limited utility.” On open access issue, consumer groups called on FCC to mandate that AOL-TW provide access to smaller local and regional ISPs as well as such larger national ones as EarthLink. They said proposed requirement would advance “Commission’s public interest objectives of diversity and localism.” Group of smaller ISPs submitted proposed merger condition to FCC Tues. that would require AOL-TW to “enter into a contract with at least one local and one regional ISP in each franchise area in which cable modem service is made available.” ISP group also called on Commission to make AOL-TW open its cable lines to business-oriented services provided by independent ISPs.