LONG BEACH, Cal. -- A merger may not be on the horizon for XM and Sirius, despite persistent rumors, but an interoperable radio might remove the need for a combination, industry lawyers and financiers said at the International Satellite & Communications Expo here.
Exports to China
A revised U.S. negotiations proposal in the services sector sent to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Tues. includes new commitments in computer, telecom and related fields, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said. The amended overture responds to requests from trading partners for the U.S. to update commitments to reflect market access in key service sectors and improve commitments in others. The USTR offer opens up the computer and related services sector and management consulting sector by adopting the broadest level of commitment in the U.N. Provisional Central Product Classification (UNCPC) code. The provision is expected to please both U.S. industry and many key trading partners. Meanwhile, USTR anticipates some countries will keep complaining about U.S. treatment of packet-switched data services. The initial USTR submission included significant offers in telecom and audiovisual services, elements of which the revised document clarifies, officials said. The proposal doesn’t affect govt. monopoly service suppliers -- like public utilities -- govt. programs targeting U.S. or minority citizens, or U.S. educational institutions’ autonomy, USTR said. Despite concerns that the UNCPC doesn’t reflect modern business practices, the U.S. adopts the UNCPC for almost all sectors in the revised offer. The U.S. was one of several WTO members initially not adopting the code, which defines the types of services provided under a particular sector heading, during the Uruguay Round of negotiations. The U.S. also is offering new commitments on higher education and adult education services that will enable foreign schools to open campuses in the U.S. or offer courses online. The U.S. will keep curbs in areas such as subsidies, equal opportunity, and state-level requirements, officials said. China, the EU, and Korea have identified this sector as a priority. In consultations with USTR, lawmakers, trade advisory groups and industry urged negotiators to improve U.S. commitments under the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS) in targeted sectors, USTR said. “The services negotiations are an integral part of the market opening results needed to make the Doha Round successful and expand economic prosperity and growth,” newly anointed USTR Rob Portman said. WTO members set an end of May deadline for the submission. The initial U.S. offer came in March 2003. Of 148 WTO member countries, only 56 have submitted initial offers. Portman said the U.S. govt.’s existing temporary entry commitments are among the most generous among all WTO members in terms of entry categories covered. Only a handful of developed countries have comparable commitments, he said. In crafting its offer, the U.S. responded to requests for more transparency regarding temporary entry and stay of foreign service suppliers. He said the U.S. now is offering to construct a single Internet-based information resource to get domestic and foreign service suppliers materials about the U.S. temporary entry system. Portman noted that the negotiations are a 2-way street. The revised U.S. offer is conditioned on trading partners producing revised offers with meaningful commitments in areas of key interest to the U.S. Those areas include financial and energy services, telecom, computer, distribution, express delivery and audio-visual services. The negotiations are important because in the U.S., services account for about 3/4 of GDP and 8 of 10 jobs, Portman said. American service firms derive their strength in large part from successful expansion into foreign markets, Portman said. U.S. services exports have risen 69% under global trade rules; U.S. service firms that have established offices abroad generate an additional $400 billion in sales annually -- doubling the total volume of U.S. services trade, officials said.
Satellite executives at the Intelsat Global Telecom Meeting discussed and direction of the industry and debated the future of satellite broadband with a senior adviser to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) at a Mon. CEO Roundtable. Moderating the panel, the UNDP’s Denis Gilhooly said the UN’s development goals are to see a 50% reduction in people living in poverty by 2015 and he asked satellite executives if 50% connectivity in the developing world could be reached by then. “This has really become a focus of all. We're seeing much more interest in the UN in how technology can be used to meet human needs,” Gilhooly said. Referring to Africa in particular, he said his job is to “design these development strategies in the toughest markets we can find -- where government leads but the private sector does have a major impact.”
The Global Broadband Satellite Initiative (GBSI) will call at Nov.’s 2nd World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) for a common open standard for satellite broadband and for relaxation of satellite landing rights worldwide, among other measures. WSIS, a United Nations-endorsed and ITU-coordinated summit, is convened in 2 phases as an international effort to bridge the digital divide. As part of the WSIS agenda, GBSI wants to encourage development of an international market for satellite broadband services, officials said.
Weida Communications, a U.S.-managed company that provides data services via satellite to businesses and govt. agencies in China, is under investigation by the SEC. The case involves suspected illegal activities by Joseph Zumwalt, Weida CFO, and Anthony Giordano, one of Weida’s largest stockholders. The suspected activities occurred in connection with an independent investment entity that’s also a Weida stockholder, Weida officials said. The SEC suspended trading of Weida securities until May 6 and froze the company’s bank accounts. Weida said the SEC hasn’t provided specifics on the charges against Zumwalt or Giordano, but Ronald Bernard and Paul Cervellero have resigned from Weida’s board. Zumwalt has been suspended from all CFO duties pending the investigation, officials said.
Intelsat wrote to the DoD voicing concern over allegations against Eutelsat in an April 13 Wall Street Journal article. The article reported Eutelsat’s dealings with New Tang Dynasty TV of China, a Eutelsat customer. The article alleged that in the context of Eutelsat’s decision-making regarding a possible termination of its contract with NTDTV, Eutelsat told Pentagon officials that Eutelsat would continue to carry NTDTV’s programming “only if Washington buys more capacity on [Eutelsat] satellites.” The article said officials at the Pentagon were concerned about “impeding the ability of war fighters to get the bandwidth they need” if Eutelsat were to cut off critical U.S. govt. communications. Intelsat said it has no knowledge of the facts alleged in the Eutelsat- NTDTV situation but is “disturbed about the article’s implication that a satellite operator might seek to use with the Pentagon leverage relating to an unrelated commercial customer issue.” Intelsat said “any threat by a communications satellite operator to cut off U.S. govt. networks, or any effort by such an operator to use unrelated leverage to increase its business from U.S. govt. sources, is deeply disturbing.”
The European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) ratified the next-generation standard for satellite distribution, DVB-S2, Thurs. The announcement followed a European Space Agency (ESA) decision earlier in the week to create a research consortium to develop a DVB-S2 modem for 2-way broadband-over-satellite communications, and to verify that DVB-S2 can be used in DVB-RCS networks. Industry analysts called the ETSI ratification essentially a formality, as satellite broadcaster already embrace the standard. They said the step bodes well for international HDTV rollout and competition with cable, and probably will be followed by an equivalent ITU recommendation.
A Chinese consortium that was top-secret until a week ago came to the NAB convention in Las Vegas this week intent on knocking out Microsoft-backed IPTV, which it called “a limited, regional broadcasting technology that… is a costly, problematic and ’transitional’ solution with many limitations.”
The Washington-based WorldSpace satellite radio company, an early partner of XM, filed with the SEC last week for a $100 million IPO. The company said it intends to use the capital to add terrestrial repeaters to improve urban signals in its target markets -- India, China and Western Europe -- to develop automobile services there.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Congress is the place to address indecency rules, FCC Comrs. Copps, Abernathy and Adelstein said Tues. at the NCTA convention here, backing Chmn. Martin’s comments earlier in the day (CD April 6 p1). The commissioners also urged cable to keep publicizing parental control technologies and educate parents about what they can do to protect children from inappropriate content.