Inmarsat is so focused on BGAN’s imminent introduction that officials hated to look back long enough to report 3rd quarter earnings, CEO Andrew Sukawaty told analysts tuning in Wed. for a 3Q report. Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service will start in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in early Dec., he said, with BGAN over the Americas via the just-launched Inmarsat 4 soon to follow. Payload testing of the latest Inmarsat 4 satellite begins next week, Sukawaty said. He pegged Inmarsat financial results as being in line with expectations, reporting 3rd-quarter revenue of $120 million, attributed to maritime and aeronautical sector performance. Revenue from maritime voice services rose over the quarter, offset by discounts, he said. Inmarsat’s aeronautical sector saw traffic rise, too, and on Tues. the firm debuted a new aeronautical venture, SwiftBroadband -- a 432-kbps upgrade of its Swift64 in- flight voice and data service. Inmarsat’s distributors will try to sell the service to private plane owners and airlines, a spokesman said. Land-based MSS traffic was flat in the 2nd quarter, but not the 3rd, officials said, citing the impact of hurricane relief. Land voice revenue still is affected by MSS operators with hand-held offerings, but officials said Inmarsat expects BGAN voice services to address the competition. Inmarsat net operating costs were up 8% from the same period last year to $42.4 million, partially offset by termination of Inmarsat’s Thuraya capacity lease. After taxes, Inmarsat had a 3rd quarter loss of $2.3 million, compared to a loss of $10.4 million for the 3rd quarter of last year, officials said.
Consumer groups hailed talks on copyright limitations and exceptions (L&E) begun this week by a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel. The Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) talks run through today (Wed.). Consumers International (CI), representing 234 groups in 113 countries, said Tues. L&E issues matter not only for education, libraries and the disabled, but for the whole economy. Developing nations face special problems because developed nations want more copyright enforcement, but also safeguards for knowledge. In trade, cross-border L&E affects transactions involving distance education, the archiving of works, fair use sharing on noncommercial lists, search engines and among the disabled. Technical protection measures (TPM) and digital rights management (DRM) “present enormous challenges,” CI said. They “can override the practical ability of persons to exercise traditional L&E and, when fully effective, essentially give the publishers the ability to determine a private system of copyright, and that has no requirement for balance found in public copyright regimes.” WIPO should be discussing this topic and “acknowledge that a global regime of obligations to implement TPM/DRM measures must be accompanied by oversight and regulation of the… systems, in order to ensure the public is protected from well known abuses.” CI urged SCCR to back: (1) More sharing of information on specific topics. (2) Empirical studies of L&E practices and their impacts. (3) Identification of areas where global harmonization on minimal L&E might be appropriate. (4) Consideration of new agreements to provide minimal L&E in specific areas. IPJustice also backed the proposal, from Chile, to update L&E. Since WIPO has been working hard to grant new rights to copyright owners for years, it’s “imperative” that L&E also be updated, the organization said. In particular, reverse engineering technology and space-shifting of media should be permitted, and consumers’ private copying rights should be protected against rights owners’s abuse. However, IPJustice warned, the discussion of L&E “must be viewed as setting a minimum standard, not a ceiling.”
CenturyTel agreed to pay $75,000 to the U.S. Treasury to settle an FCC investigation into whether it was adequately publicizing Lifeline and Link-Up programs to low-income residents on tribal lands. CenturyTel also agreed to implement an outreach plan to low-income residents on tribal lands within its operating area.
As many retailers open their doors as early as 5 a.m. Black Fri., bargain-hungry consumers will be greeted with new low prices as the holiday selling season kicks off in dramatic style, our survey has found. The tumbling prices are expected to range far and wide from LCD, plasma and projection TVs, to front projectors and DVD recorders to batteries and electronic toys of all stripes.
Reporters Without Borders said 15 countries are “enemies of the Internet,” citing another 10 with worrisome outlooks on the Web. The enemy countries censor independent news sites and opposition outlets, monitor the Web to stifle dissidence and harass and sometimes imprison Web users and bloggers who deviate from the official line, the group said Thurs. At the top of the list: Belarus, alleged to use a telecom monopoly to block access to opposition sites, especially at election time; Burma, where PCs and home Internet connections cost dearly Internet cafes come under military regime scrutiny; and China, one the first repressive countries to grasp the importance of the Internet and of controlling it, the group said. Other “enemies": Cuba, Iran, Libya, Syria, N. Korea, The Maldives, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. On the watch list: Bahrain, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Singapore, S. Korea, Thailand, Zimbabwe. The U.S. and the European Union also made the list. The report was presented last week at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) despite Secy. Gen. Robert Menard’s inability to enter the country to attend the conference, the group said. Tunisian police kept Menard from leaving an Air France plane after it landed in Tunis. One officer reportedly told Menard he had no right to get off the plane since he did not have accreditation for WSIS.
Cisco Systems announced plans Fri. to buy cable TV equipment maker Scientific-Atlanta (S-A) for $6.9 billion, setting the stage for a mammoth battle with cable set-top box king Motorola for control of the growing home video technology market.
NBC Universal movies will be available via Wurld Media’s Peer Impact service, the firms said Thurs. The deal marks the first licensing of major studio content to a legitimate peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Customers will be able to view titles during the 24 hours after renting. On-demand movies include Ray, The Motorcycle Diaries, Meet the Fockers and The Bourne Supremacy. TV shows include Jerry Springer: Uncensored, 5th Wheel and Blind Date plus family-friendly programming like Kicking & Screaming, the Balto series and The Land Before Time. The deal is a “significant step forward in our goal to capitalize on the myriad possibilities of new digital media services, in a way that allows us to safeguard our content from illegal distribution,” said NBC CEO Bob Wright. The content should be added to the P2P service by the first quarter 2006 with more on-demand movies and shows available over time, a Wurld Media spokeswoman told us.
NBC Universal movies will be available via Wurld Media’s Peer Impact service, the firms said Thurs. The deal marks the first licensing of major studio content to a legitimate peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Customers will be able to view titles during the 24 hours after renting. On-demand movies include Ray, The Motorcycle Diaries, Meet the Fockers and The Bourne Supremacy. TV shows include Jerry Springer: Uncensored, 5th Wheel and Blind Date plus family-friendly programming like Kicking & Screaming, the Balto series and The Land Before Time. The deal is a “significant step forward in our goal to capitalize on the myriad possibilities of new digital media services, in a way that allows us to safeguard our content from illegal distribution,” said NBC CEO Bob Wright. The content should be added to the P2P service by the first quarter 2006 with more on-demand movies and shows available over time, a Wurld Media spokeswoman told us.
Zoran will have a version of the SupraHD DTV multimedia processor integrated with a demodulator by 2nd quarter 2006 priced at $10-$15 in volume, CFO Karl Schneider told us Tues. at a Pacific Growth Equities investor conference in N.Y.C. The chip is expected to be among those that will allow entry-level DTV prices to dip below $300 in 2006. Meanwhile, Genesis Microchip also will ship a single-chip solution for HDTV by late 2006, CFO Michael Healy said.
The FCC asked for comments by Nov. 24 on transferring control of WilTel and Vyvx to Level 3. WilTel and subsidiary Vyvx are owned by Leucadia, a holding company. Replies are due Dec. 1. The FCC has streamlined treatment of the transfer of control application. In a separate proceeding, the FCC International Bureau set a Dec. 14 deadline for comments on international aspects of the control transfer. These include transfer to Level 3 of WilTel’s interest in the cable landing license for the China-U.S. Cable Network, removal of WilTel as a joint licensee for the cable landing license for the Japan-U.S. Cable Network and transfer of satellite earth station authorizations.