The many millions of dollars in higher expenses from carrying the Tennis Channel more widely on Comcast systems far outweighed any benefit the cable operator would get from striking the deal the independent programmer sought, a Comcast executive testified late Thursday afternoon. It appears that few or no cable subscribers would cancel their service if they couldn’t get the sports channel on popular programming packages, said Greg Rigdon, hired by Comcast to begin overseeing cable programming starting in February 2011. Likewise few customers would sign up if the channel were available more widely than on the sports tier, where it costs $5 a month, he said.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s staff has concluded that the nation’s broadband gap may be widening, with up to 26 million Americans lacking access to high-speed Internet, FCC officials told us. But critics are already lining up to condemn the report’s methodology and implications. The report, which began circulating earlier this month, said broadband is still not reaching Americans “reasonably” or “timely” (CD April 26 p11). Like last year’s report, the so-called section 706 report relies on subscribership data from form 477 to set the lowest end of the broadband gap range. Unlike last year’s report, Genachowski’s staff uses data from NTIA’s broadband map to determine the high end of the range -- 26 million Americans, FCC officials told us. Last year, the commission used data from models in the National Broadband Plan to determine that up to 24 million Americans were without high-speed broadband.
Telco companies and agencies are working to restore services in Alabama and other states impacted by the tornadoes and severe storms that struck the Southeast this week. Companies’ natural disaster response teams are ready for the hurricane season, they said.
Wireless carriers can’t completely control how third parties use location and other personal data of consumers, top carriers said. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, on Thursday released the carriers’ responses to the lawmakers’ inquiry on customer location tracking (CD March 31 p15). Also Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee announced a hearing next month on mobile privacy and consumer protection, becoming the second Senate panel to do so. The developments on Capitol Hill came one day after Apple said it would fix an iPhone “bug” that stores users’ location logs (CD April 28 p5).
The risks faced by 700 MHz lower A-block licensees unless the FCC acts to clear TV Channel 51 were stressed by CTIA, the Rural Cellular Association and wireless carriers large and small, in filings at the commission. In a March petition, CTIA and RCA jointly asked the FCC to prohibit the future licensing of TV stations on Channel 51, freeze all applications for new or modified broadcast facilities on the channel and accelerate channel clearing. Comments were due Wednesday.
Delivering IP video to tablet devices is just the first step in Time Warner Cable’s adoption of IP video technology, which it will eventually expand to smart-TVs and other video display devices, said CEO Glenn Britt. “Although the initial application was for the iPad … not everybody has an iPad,” he said. “The bigger story here is about the TVs, which are all going to be receiving our video service in this way,” he said.
Sprint Nextel posted a Q1 loss of $439 million, cutting its losses nearly in half from the same period of last year. During an earnings call Thursday, CEO Dan Hesse continued his sharp criticism of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, claiming a strong third competitor is necessary.
GENEVA -- Questions about the suspended use of assignments in the Zohreh-2 satellite network may fuel pressure on the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference to tighten a regulatory provision with a deadline and other limits for notification, Francois Rancy, the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) bureau’s director, told us in an interview. The BR will meet May 18 to 20 with officials from Iran, France and Saudi Arabia so two satellites worth several hundred million dollars can coexist, he said.
The Supreme Court Wednesday ruled in favor of AT&T in a case examining whether a state can prohibit wireless contracts that allow only arbitration, not class-action lawsuits. A divided court, split along ideological lines, confirmed that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) places sharp limits on these lawsuits. Justices heard arguments on AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion in November (CD Nov 10 p1).
Using reverse auctions to speed up broadband deployment is contrary to the 1996 Telecom Act and could “blow up” the FCC’s ambitious Universal Service Fund reforms, U.S. Cellular Senior Director Grant Spellmeyer said during an FCC workshop Wednesday. Section 214 of the act gives states the power to designate eligible telecommunication carriers and USF is otherwise under Title II, Spellmeyer said. Reverse auctions fail both tests by reducing ETCs to a single carrier and opening up universal service cash to non-Title II carriers. “We think the FCC needs to stop, go to the Joint Board, and get a recommendation for broadband support,” he said. “Sections 214 and 254 are very clear. You can’t ignore all that. This is going to blow up if we skip all that stuff."