T-Mobile USA Q2 profit fell 4.9 percent to $404 million from a year earlier, the carrier reported Thursday as an executive said it’s premature to talk about a turnaround. Parent company Deutsche Telekom profit fell 8.8 percent as it deconsolidated its British unit T-Mobile U.K. with France Telecom’s British operations.
News that online companies often track and collect data about the online patterns of users raised the ire of two prominent members of Congress, who sent a letter Thursday demanding answers from more than a dozen companies. Congress probably lacks the time to pass major privacy legislation this year, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who considering a bill and didn’t co-sign the letter. A series of Wall Street Journal articles starting Saturday said online companies often install consumer-tracking technologies on personal computers when users visit their sites. That spurred Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, to write 15 companies identified in the series, demanding they answer a slew of questions on their data collection practices. http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=4079&Itemid=125
The FCC approved 5-0 Thursday a notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of inquiry aimed at spurring investments in wireless backhaul, a recommendation of the National Broadband Plan. Neither was particularly controversial. The FCC also unanimously approved an order aimed at increasing the number of wireless handsets available to the deaf and hard of hearing. The monthly meeting was over in less than an hour, and most of the questions in a press conference afterwards by Chairman Julius Genachowski focused on negotiations over net neutrality and broadband reclassification (see related story this issue).
Cable operators are working on plans to provide more IPTV services to new devices such as laptops and iPads when they're used in a subscriber’s home, executives told investors Thursday on earnings calls. Time Warner Cable and Cablevision are both at work on new products along those lines. Eventually, that could drive down the need for traditional set-top boxes in the home, TWC CEO Glenn Britt said. “Over the next few years we will gradually have fewer set tops,” as new devices with Wi-Fi and home networking standards such as Multimedia over Coax are introduced, he said.
Talks over performance royalties for broadcasters have intensified recently, with a deal between radio and music labels on both terrestrial and streaming payments seeming more likely, industry officials said Wednesday. Such a deal has been expected by some (CD July 23 p15). The sides have held on-again, off-again conversations at the behest of members of Congress who want industry to come to an agreement about the performance royalties. Although an agreement seems closer, it’s far from certain that individual labels and owners of radio stations, which would need to approve any agreement, will sign on, industry officials said.
The Department of Agriculture awarded 126 broadband grants worth $1.2 billion Wednesday as a part of its second round of broadband funding through last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Despite the ambitious nature of the initiative, Secretary Tom Vilsack said it wouldn’t ensure the full deployment of universal broadband in the U.S.. “It’s a down payment, but not a balloon payment approach … to make broadband available in all corners of the country,” he told a media briefing. “There is a lot of work to be done but this certainly puts people to work.”
HOUSTON -- The FCC is showing more willingness to consider the reallocation of the 700 MHz D-block as an alternative to the commission’s proposed plan for a national wireless broadband network for public safety, APCO President Richard Mirgon told us as the group’s national meeting neared its end. Public safety’s focus has shifted from the FCC to Capitol Hill, where legislation that would give public safety the D-block appears to be gaining support, he said. Mirgon noted that legislation by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., in the House and Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., would reallocate the key band. Plus, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce Committee, appears committed to offering legislation.
Broadcast ad sales continued to rebound in Q2 from lows during the recession and the resurgence seems to be holding through Q3, executives told investors on quarterly earnings teleconferences this week. But stations need to be careful how they manage their inventory in coming months, because an influx of political revenue could limit stations’ ability to benefit from the rebound, they said. “We're in a pure supply-and-demand business and we raise the rates as the pressure dictates on the inventory,” said Steve Marks, chief operating officer of Sinclair’s TV division. “The political is going to be big, and that will cause pressure on the inventory. We're on top of it, we're managing it, our pace is terrific and we have plenty of great spots left to sell."
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes continues to endorse broadcasters’ view on retransmission consent, he told investors Wednesday. That keeps him at odds with the company’s former Time Warner Cable unit, the lead petitioner for reforms in how the FCC handles contractual disputes between TV stations and subscription-video providers. “We think on the whole it’s desirable” for broadcast networks to build up a second revenue stream, Bewkes said on a conference call to discuss earnings.
Universal Service Fund revamp legislation recently introduced by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. (CD July 23 p1) doesn’t offer much for satellite broadband providers, said industry executives. The legislation, which would create a fund to help extend Internet to the most rural regions, leaves out the technology that could expand broadband the furthest at the lowest cost, they contend.