The Communication Workers of America union’s support for AT&T’s purchase of T-Mobile may prove pivotal to approval of the deal, industry lobbyists said at CTIA’s annual meeting, which ended Thursday. The union’s support offers cover for Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the administration to support the purchase, industry officials said. CWA praised the merger Sunday, right after it was announced, calling it “a victory for broadband proponents in both the U.S. and Germany.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wants to know why FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski met with White House officials more times over a 23-month period than the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, Treasury and Homeland Security combined. In a letter Thursday to Genachowski, the House Oversight Committee chairman said the meetings may show improper White House influence over the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking. “The FCC has done little to demonstrate its independence from the White House,” Issa said.
Eliminating U.S. funding for public broadcasting could cripple smaller radio and TV stations that depend on grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, industry officials said. For some public stations, the amount they get from CPB is very significant, they said. Larger networks said they generally rely less on CPB for their annual budget, though any cuts still would affect them. CPB’s $400 million annual budget was zeroed out by a continuing resolution (HR-1076) that passed the House earlier this month.
An Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) “planning team” published a request for information on new 3D TV technologies that could be available to terrestrial broadcasters within five years, the organization said Wednesday. The team published an “interim report” on the “benefits and limitations” of known 3D TV transmission technologies and wants information by April 20 about technologies not mentioned in the report, including those under development, so its final report will be as complete as possible, ATSC said.
ORLANDO -- CTIA President Steve Largent called voluntary incentive auctions a critical component of making more spectrum available for wireless broadband, speaking at his association’s convention. LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja argued that the 59 MHz of capacity his company is making available on a wholesale basis could prove critical in avoiding a spectrum “traffic jam.” Ahuja didn’t address interference concerns raised about his company’s service, which, under FCC conditions, must be addressed before LightSquared can deploy.
Two similar Texas bills would define VoIP and prohibit state regulation for IP-enabled services and VoIP. SB-980 also seeks to exempt telecom companies from reporting requirements. It and SB-985 are sponsored by Republican Sen. John Carona.
The FCC is considering a new approach to AllVid, potentially setting aside a plan that would have required pay-TV distributors to make available a video home gateway device capable of interacting with a wide array of consumer electronics products, industry officials said. They said the new approach being weighed by the Media Bureau would give pay-TV operators more flexibility in meeting the requirements of any AllVid rules, potentially allowing operators that deliver video in Internet Protocol to be compliant. Bureau staffers have been meeting with representatives from all sides of the issue to gather input on the new approach, industry officials said.
Google and the New America Foundation took the wraps off a broadband map that displays median download and upload speeds around the world, making use of open, publicly available M-Lab data. “There’s a lot of assertions” about global broadband rankings, “but those are often not very quantitative, so we're very interested in making those more crisp and understandable,” said Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, demonstrating the tool at a New America Foundation event Wednesday. Speakers also discussed broadband usage caps and bandwidth-intensive video apps such as Netflix.
A South African company may end up with the ICO Global’s international satellite and spectrum assests under a February agreement between the companies, ICO said in an SEC filing. The deal gives the South African company, Jay & Jayendra, an option to take over ICO’s medium earth orbit assets, the filing says. The agreement doesn’t include the North American satellite and spectrum rights, which are being sold to Dish Network by ICO’s bankrupt subsidiary DBSD. The spectrum rights are probably the most valuable piece of the purchase by Jay & Jayendra, said an analyst. The filing is at http://xrl.us/bitkwa.
LONDON -- Net neutrality can be considered a “First Amendment of the Internet,” on which limitations of free expression should be allowed only under very restricted circumstances, media and communications Professor Bart Cammaerts of the London School of Economics Media & Communications said Wednesday at the IIR Telecoms Regulation Forum. Operators shouldn’t be allowed to favor some kinds of content over others for commercial reasons, he said. Speakers generally supported allowing some traffic prioritization, but charging for it remains controversial.