The perceived industry impact on proposed FCC reclassification of broadband transport as a common carrier service subject to six sections of the Communications Act may fall most heavily on cable operators, investor interviews and stock prices Thursday show. Cable operators largely aren’t regulated under Title II and putting their broadband services under it means the companies will be more heavily regulated, some investors and analysts said. Telcos have always had wireline operations subject to Title II, though their financial outlook is also affected by regulatory uncertainty, analysts and industry officials said.
Subscription contributions for telecom companies that sell DirecTV services are slowing as TV competition intensifies and reliance on land lines declines, the company said in its Q1 earnings call. Generally sold as part of a bundle with telephone services and/or Internet, contributions have fallen to under 20 percent from about 25 percent, said DirecTV Chief Financial Officer Patrick Doyle. The continued roll out of Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse have contributed to the slide, he said.
The FCC restarted its 180-day clock on review of Comcast’s agreement to buy control of NBC Universal after the companies on Tuesday submitted economic studies requested by commission staff. In pausing the clock at 29 days elapsed last month (CD April 19 p1), the Media Bureau said it would restart after the studies, on the stated benefits of the deal and its impact on online video competition, were filed. A bureau public notice Wednesday afternoon set new deadlines for opposition to the deal and other comments.
National ad sales at TV stations rebounded from the deep lows of the recent recession during the first quarter and seem to be continuing this quarter, TV executives told investors this week. “It’s a broad, healthy market with people feeling there’s going to be more competition for market share and awareness that if you want to try to be in the game and build a brand, you've got to market it,” Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey of News Corp. said late Tuesday.
Qwest’s Q1 profit fell 81 percent year-over-year to $38 million, but CenturyTel, which has agreed to buy that company for $22.4 billion, said quarterly earnings tripled to $252.6 million. The companies continued to lose landline customers.
Conservation and industry groups filed an agreement at the FCC Wednesday calling for the development of interim standards for the Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) program. The agreement came after six months of negotiations and offers recommendations on the types of towers for which an ASR is required, based on the height of a proposed tower or the specifications of a replacement tower, the groups said in a news release. The memorandum of understanding also asks the FCC to adopt a preferred lighting scheme for changes to existing towers.
SES said it’s considering several different in-orbit maneuvers to mitigate interference on subsidiary SES World Skies’ AMC-11 satellite from the nearby Intelsat Galaxy 15 satellite that’s unresponsive and continuing to transmit while slowly drifting outside its slot (CD April 9 p10). The amount of interference created by the proximity of the two C-band payloads is hard to estimate, but the company is considering a number of movements that should keep interference at a minimum as Galaxy 15 passes through AMC-11’s orbital spot at 129 degrees west, said a company spokesman.
Similarities between WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) would make migration from WiMAX to LTE or even convergence of the 4G technologies possible, Clearwire Chief Technology Officer John Saw said in an interview. The WiMAX operator is set to launch in many new markets this year.
Internet technologies will take center stage as a U.S.-led program to tie together international military communications in Asia and the Pacific is extended to enabling data-sharing and to cooperation with technology companies and private, U.N. and relief organizations, organizers said. Military organizations of 22 foreign countries are scheduled to take part Aug. 16-27 in the fourth edition of an exercise called Pacific Endeavor, to be held at Singapore’s Changi Command and Control Centre.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski knows how to cement the commission’s authority over broadband without reclassifying it under Title II of the Communications Act, a senior commission official said late Wednesday in an e-mail sent to reporters by an agency spokeswoman. He won’t say what it is until Thursday, the spokeswoman told us. The e-mail came a few hours after Democratic Commerce Committee leaders urged the FCC to consider “all viable options,” including reclassifying broadband, in the wake of the Comcast decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.