EchoStar’s proposed $380 million purchase of Sling Media could bolster its plans to spin off its technologies business with a goal of securing design wins in international markets, industry officials and analysts said. Since its founding, EchoStar has operated the DISH satellite service and EchoStar Technologies Corp. (ETC) under the same ownership, a structure that hampered ETC’s ability to win design contracts outside the company, industry officials said.
Exports to China
Standards-setting bodies worldwide are expected to adopt an Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) air interface specification published Monday by the CDMA Development Group (CDG) and Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), CDG and 3GPP2 said. The specification, 2GPP2 C.S0084-0 v2.0 is the first IP-based mobile broadband standard enabling peak download data rates of 288 Mbps in a 20 MHz bandwidth, the groups said. In North America, 3GPP2 partner Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) will designate the standard TIA-1121, the groups said. TIA usually completes 3GPP2-based standards within two weeks of a specification’s publication. Standards also should come soon from 3GPP2 partners globally: In Japan, Association of Radio Industries & Businesses and Telecommunications Technology Committee; in China, China Communications Standards Association; in Korea, Telecommunications Technology Association.
Testimony at the second of three Maine hearings on the proposed Verizon-FairPoint landline asset transfer split about evenly on whether the deal is good for the state. About 60 people spoke at the Public Utilities Commission hearing Thursday in Bangor. FairPoint bused in several dozen employees for the session. Businesses and residents endorsing the deal said FairPoint has served them well. They believe FairPoint will keep promises to invest $16 million and add 280 jobs in Maine, they said. The Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce and the towns of Skowhegan and China joined area businesses in voicing an expectation that FairPoint will improve broadband connectivity, spurring economic development. State Senator Doug Smith, R-Foxcroft, said Verizon has wanted to exit northern New England. The FairPoint deal offers a real chance at getting a replacement, he said. Some Verizon workers said they oppose the deal as likely to leave them with lower pay, reduced benefits and less job security. Other residents and businesses opposing FairPoint cited fears about the company’s stability, ability to maintain quality and chances it will cut jobs. The day before the hearing, FairPoint said it would spend $17 million on top of its existing DSL commitments to build a fiber backbone network across northern New England, responding to larger businesses’ concerns that DSL is inadequate for their telecom needs. The last hearing is Sept. 25 in Portland. Speakers at the first session overwhelmingly opposed the deal (CD Sept 21 p9).
SAN FRANCISCO -- Everyone from technology architects to journalists must cooperate to make the merger of TV and the Internet work, Intel researchers said. Long- frustrated hopes for the meld can be realized, but “bringing personalization in” can “mess up television” if players don’t give serious study to and take to heart the many uses of TV and how they mix and change during the day and from room to room, said Brian Johnson, a consumer experience architect.
Global business and government leaders will press for liberalized policies next month during ITU’s Connect Africa conference to spur competition and investment, officials said Wednesday at the United Nations in New York. Aid packages aim to help reduce broadband prices up to 90%. The main challenge for Africa is data communications, said Craig Barrett of Intel, chairman of the U.N. Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Development. A 256 kbps connection costs $250 to $350 a month, said Mohsen Khalil, director of Global ICT at the World Bank Group.
Internet Protocol TV users in China totaled 550,000 at the end of 2006, and more trials are underway in 21 cities, Research and Markets said. China Netcom and China Telecom consider IPTV their prime focus for broadband development; IPTV users will reach 14.5 million in China by 2010, the report said. Meanwhile, telecom development in Malaysia and the Philippines has slowed, a separate Research and Markets report said. Among Malaysians, 84% have mobile phones, but fixed line growth has stagnated. Internet growth in Malaysia has been “surprisingly restrained,” the report said, calling broadband growth “disappointing.” Though marked by rapid percentage growth, broadband Internet penetration was only about 3% at the end of 2006. The Philippines is “struggling to extend its basic fixed-line telephone network to reach the wider population,” the report said; only slightly more than half of Philippine towns have fixed phone service. But mobile telephony has grown “remarkably,” it said. By mid-2007, there were an estimated 500,000 broadband Internet subscribers in the country, it said, up from 340,000 at the end of 2006.
GENEVA -- Global telephony subscription keeps rising, but developing countries need regulatory reform to give IP-based networks solid footing, the ITU said Tuesday. The U.S. has the most broadband subscribers, but China is gaining fast, the report said.
Motorola must cut costs and be “boringly consistent” to fix business problems and gain on competitors, Motorola Chief Financial Officer Tom Meredith said Wednesday at the Citigroup Global Technology Conference in New York City. “Our inconsistency highlights that we were foolish,” he said. “We were accident-prone and need to fix that.”
China is the world’s largest cell phone market, with 500 million connections expected by the third quarter of 2007, Wireless Intelligence said. The Chinese government is racing to have at least a TD-CDMA network launched in time for the Beijing Olympics next July, analysts said. China adds about 19 million cellular connections a quarter. Penetration was 35 percent second quarter. China Mobile has about 70 percent of the market, a “strong grip” on prepaid sales and growth averaging more than 20 percent yearly. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Netcom -- working with the Ministry of Information Industry -- are preparing commercial TD-CDMA trials in the largest cities and local authorities to issue high-speed network licenses soon, they said. Wireless Intelligence is a joint venture of the GSM Association and Ovum.
Audio-visual and information technology were among the areas with the fastest growth in patent filings internationally, said the World Intellectual Property Organization in its 2007 Patent report. Audio-visual patent applications grew 28.3 percent and information technology 27.7 percent from 2003 to 2004. Telecommunications and information technology also scored high on the list of 2006 Patent Cooperation Treaty filings, WIPO said. The patent filings in electronics were heavily concentrated in the patent offices in Japan, the U.S., South Korea and China and the European Patent Office.