Dish Network’s Q4 lobbying expenses dropped in 2015 compared with what it spent in Q4 of 2014, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed this week. The Q4 reports are due Wednesday, and several organizations had begun filing by our deadline Tuesday. Dish spent $310,000 the most recent quarter, vs. $350,000 a year earlier. Dish lobbying priorities included satellite broadband, wireless competition and spectrum management, including spectrum auctions, it said, plus retransmission consent reform, video market competition and merger and acquisition activity in the pay-TV industry for the three company lobbyists named. Dish spent $380,000 in 2015's Q3, $440,000 in Q2 and $400,000 in Q1, making the latest quarter spending the lowest in more than a year of reports. The Competitive Carriers Association, meanwhile, spent more on lobbying -- $150,000 this Q4 vs. $135,000 reported a year ago. CCA named more than a dozen issues and many pieces of legislation in its recent lobbying report. Focuses included the FCC broadcast TV incentive auction and other issues such as special access, FirstNet and federal lands siting. U.S. Cellular reported spending $110,000 in its lobbying report. ITTA spent more on lobbying: $43,748 up from $20,000. So did TDS Telecom, which spent $40,214.64 compared with $29,936 in Q4 the year before.
Dish Network’s Q4 lobbying expenses dropped in 2015 compared with what it spent in Q4 of 2014, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed this week. The Q4 reports are due Wednesday, and several organizations had begun filing by our deadline Tuesday. Dish spent $310,000 the most recent quarter, vs. $350,000 a year earlier. Dish lobbying priorities included satellite broadband, wireless competition and spectrum management, including spectrum auctions, it said, plus retransmission consent reform, video market competition and merger and acquisition activity in the pay-TV industry for the three company lobbyists named. Dish spent $380,000 in 2015's Q3, $440,000 in Q2 and $400,000 in Q1, making the latest quarter spending the lowest in more than a year of reports. The Competitive Carriers Association, meanwhile, spent more on lobbying -- $150,000 this Q4 vs. $135,000 reported a year ago. CCA named more than a dozen issues and many pieces of legislation in its recent lobbying report. Focuses included the FCC broadcast TV incentive auction and other issues such as special access, FirstNet and federal lands siting. U.S. Cellular reported spending $110,000 in its lobbying report. ITTA spent more on lobbying: $43,748 up from $20,000. So did TDS Telecom, which spent $40,214.64 compared with $29,936 in Q4 the year before.
Sprint is planning to overhaul its cellular network by moving radio equipment off towers it currently leases from Crown Castle and American Tower and onto towers located on government-owned property, an article published Friday by Re/code said. Sprint had previously said it would cut nearly $2 billion in operating costs and $500 million in equipment spending (see 1510090027). The article said the tower equipment relocations process could begin as early as June or July.
CTA faces a June 9 deadline for responding to Patent and Trademark Office pushback on its Aug. 25 application (see 1511110002) to register the CTA initials as a stand-alone trademark, PTO records show. PTO examiners appear from the records to have no problems with the application to register the full Consumer Technology Association name. But a “prior-filed pending application may present a bar” to landing CTA as a stand-alone registration (serial number 86736073) or even in conjunction with the full Consumer Technology Association name (serial number 86736040), the agency emailed Wiley Rein partner Christopher Kelly, CTA’s lead outside trademark attorney. CTA had no comment Thursday.
CTA faces a June 9 deadline for responding to Patent and Trademark Office pushback on its Aug. 25 application (see 1511110002) to register the CTA initials as a stand-alone trademark, PTO records show.
CTA faces a June 9 deadline for responding to Patent and Trademark Office pushback on its Aug. 25 application (see 1511110002) to register the CTA initials as a stand-alone trademark, PTO records show.
Since the FCC’s narrowbanding requirement took effect Jan. 1, 2013, all VHF/UHF industrial/business and public safety radio pool licensees in the 150-174 MHz and 421-470 MHz bands are required to operate on channels with a maximum bandwidth of 12.5 kilohertz "or equivalent efficiency," the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said in a Wednesday public notice. Wideband-only operation “absent a waiver is no longer permitted,” the bureaus said. Because wideband operation is no longer permitted, “the Bureaus now dismiss applications to renew 150-174 MHz and 421-470 MHz band licenses that list only wideband emission designators unless (a) the application also proposes to modify the license by replacing the wideband emission designator(s) with narrowband emission designator(s), (b) the applicant certifies that the station equipment meets the narrowband efficiency standard, or (c) the licensee has been granted a waiver of the January 1, 2013 deadline for that station,” the PN said. Starting Feb. 16, the bureaus said, they're extending the policy to cover all private land mobile radio license applications in the 150-174 MHz and 421-470 MHz bands that list only wideband emission designators.
U.S. undersea cable capacity grew by about 36 percent per year between 2007 and 2014 and is expected "to grow around 29 percent for 2014-2016," the FCC said Tuesday announcing the release of its first report on U.S. international circuit capacity. The top foreign landing points for U.S. undersea cables are Colombia, Japan, U.K., Panama, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Australia, said the FCC, which added the Atlantic region had a larger fraction of non-activated capacity than the Americas or Pacific regions did. The International Bureau report found new reporting requirements improved the commission's data collection. "Importantly, 94.6 percent of the total available capacity on all U.S. international submarine cables is now captured, compared to 7.1 percent collected under the previous reporting requirements," the commission said.
A Republican presidential contender raised the issue of reallocation of government spectrum without prompting. “The federal government also owns an extensive amount of wireless broadband,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told The Des Moines Register editorial board Wednesday, changing the topic from federal control of U.S. land. “The entire world is moving to wireless. Everything is now wireless. Wireless communication happens across the spectrum of broadband -- it’s like a road, and we control far too many lanes in the federal government.” The newspaper posted video showing the full hourlong conversation. Rubio, a member of the Commerce Committee, has introduced multiple pieces of legislation involving spectrum and pressed for more reallocation of government-held spectrum for the private sector. His Senate office has stayed engaged on the spectrum overhaul effort within Commerce and wants stronger language in the draft Mobile Now bill from Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. (see 1511130036). Rubio made a high-profile promise during a summer campaign event in Chicago to reallocate spectrum if elected president (see 1507070034). “We should keep those lanes that are critical for emergency or national security use and the rest should be auctioned off to the private sector so that more broadband capability is available in the United States for investment in broadband technology,” Rubio said Wednesday. “Otherwise we are going to have higher prices and slower connection times that will in the long term put us at a competitive global disadvantage in a 21st century economy that will extensively be driven by increasing wireless technology.” No member of the newspaper’s board had asked about technology issues or spectrum, and members initially responded to his comments with silence. “I was just looking for a chance to drop that in -- it’s an important issue,” Rubio said of the lack of immediate response from the editorial board. “It just doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker.”
A Republican presidential contender raised the issue of reallocation of government spectrum without prompting. “The federal government also owns an extensive amount of wireless broadband,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told The Des Moines Register editorial board Wednesday, changing the topic from federal control of U.S. land. “The entire world is moving to wireless. Everything is now wireless. Wireless communication happens across the spectrum of broadband -- it’s like a road, and we control far too many lanes in the federal government.” The newspaper posted video showing the full hourlong conversation. Rubio, a member of the Commerce Committee, has introduced multiple pieces of legislation involving spectrum and pressed for more reallocation of government-held spectrum for the private sector. His Senate office has stayed engaged on the spectrum overhaul effort within Commerce and wants stronger language in the draft Mobile Now bill from Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. (see 1511130036). Rubio made a high-profile promise during a summer campaign event in Chicago to reallocate spectrum if elected president (see 1507070034). “We should keep those lanes that are critical for emergency or national security use and the rest should be auctioned off to the private sector so that more broadband capability is available in the United States for investment in broadband technology,” Rubio said Wednesday. “Otherwise we are going to have higher prices and slower connection times that will in the long term put us at a competitive global disadvantage in a 21st century economy that will extensively be driven by increasing wireless technology.” No member of the newspaper’s board had asked about technology issues or spectrum, and members initially responded to his comments with silence. “I was just looking for a chance to drop that in -- it’s an important issue,” Rubio said of the lack of immediate response from the editorial board. “It just doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker.”