While cable's video subscriber numbers continue their downward slide, cable operators and watchers see video still having a long tail, with major providers not reaching a tipping point anytime soon.
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
While cable's video subscriber numbers continue their downward slide, cable operators and watchers see video still having a long tail, with major providers not reaching a tipping point anytime soon.
Satellite communications companies see a big opportunity in tying into terrestrial telecom networks but face big hurdles like ground network equipment that may not be up to the task, industry executives and watchers said Thursday in a Northern Sky Research webinar.
Congressional discussions about regulating or breaking up Big Tech are focused heavily around antitrust issues and wrongly ignore national security implications, former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Wednesday in a CCIA/Foreign Policy webinar Wednesday. Any such legislation needs a robust review of national security implications before it's adopted, said Klon Kitchen, American Enterprise Institute resident fellow. Those Big Tech discussions suffer from "a problem of process," with the Senate Judiciary Committee taking the lead with national security input being omitted from the discussion, said Negroponte, now vice chairman of international trade consultancy McLarty Associates. He was among former national security officials signatories last fall to a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., warning about national security implications of some antitrust bills aimed at Big Tech. Negroponte said talk of breaking up Big Tech ignores the utility of scale, with tech giants more able to put billions into research into developing capabilities like quantum computing, AI and robotics. Big Tech being big "is not ... ipso facto bad," and breaking up Big Tech would disadvantage U.S. companies versus their foreign company rivals, he said. Legislation that would bar self-preferencing by Big Tech could end up hurting consumers, Kitchen said, pointing to Google using user-base insights to help preempt phishing attacks on Gmail uses, Kitchen said. "That's precisely the type of unintended consequences that need to be considered," he said. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S-2992/HR-3816) would curb self-preferencing. The tech that drives both national economies and military capabilities is coming largely out of the private sector for commercial purposes, with the private sector disrupting the national security burden born by governments, Kitchen said. While the U.S. response is for government to work collaboratively with industry, nations like China have fused their private sector and government together, directing both at state aims, he said. He said breaking up companies puts limits on their ability to innovate. He said it's not coincidental the companies operating at the greatest scale are driving emerging tech like AI. He said startups are able to be agile because of underlying capabilities and datasets that come from big incumbents and pointed to Google's TensorFlow machine learning platform.
Dynamic spectrum sharing is a slow, expensive process, and though it has a role to play in meeting growing needs for mobile spectrum, it's not the silver bullet, Peter Rysavy, president of wireless tech consultancy Rysavy Research, said Wednesday in a Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy presentation. Beyond more spectrum, the U.S. also needs denser networks and better antenna technology to increase capacity, he said.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project's Release 17 earlier this spring opens the door to commercial satellite communications' role in 5G, but industry experts and insiders say rollout of 5G-type satcom services remains at least a couple years off, mainly due to the current lack of devices supporting both satellite and terrestrial 5G service.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project's Release 17 earlier this spring opens the door to commercial satellite communications' role in 5G, but industry experts and insiders say rollout of 5G-type satcom services remains at least a couple years off, mainly due to the current lack of devices supporting both satellite and terrestrial 5G service.
Vermont National Telephone claims of fraud by big winners in the 2015 AWS-3 auction are heading back to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday reversed the lower court's dismissal of VTEL's Fair Claims Act suit. The FCC doesn't have the authority to assess financial civil penalties during licensing proceedings, so its evaluation of Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless long-form applications and of petitions to deny them doesn't count as an "administrative civil money penalty proceeding" under the federal False Claims Act, the D.C. Circuit said (docket 21-7039). The act doesn't allow actions based on allegations or transactions subject to a civil suit or an administrative civil money penalty proceeding where the government is a party. The Circuit Court said it disagreed with the lower court finding that VTEL hadn't plausibly alleged any false claims that could influence Northstar and SNR eligibility for bidding credits in the auction. They said there are perhaps other reasonable justifications for SNR and Northstar actions in the auction, but VTEL allegations of undisclosed agreements to act on behalf of Dish Network and transfer AWS-3 spectrum rights to Dish are plausible. "We are pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s decision, and Vermont National Telephone Company looks forward to pursuing its claims against DISH and other defendants in federal district court," VTEL outside counsel emailed. Northstar, SNR and Dish outside counsel didn't comment. Deciding the appeal were D.C. Circuit Judges David Tatel, Judith Rogers and Cornelia PIllard, with Tatel penning the decision. Oral argument was March 3. The Dish designated entities are separately challenging the FCC's 2020 rejection of the AWS-3 bidding credits -- the second time the agency did so (see 2011230062).
The heads of the biggest publicly traded U.S. telecom, media and tech (TMT) companies averaged 44% increases in their compensation packages between 2020 and 2021, per our analysis of their FY 2022 proxy filings with the SEC. The average compensation package for those CEOs totaled $7.1 million; the median employee at those companies in FY 2021 had a compensation package averaging $102,838, according to our calculations.
Multistate broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers are facing challenges navigating the federal and state grant processes for the growing array of digital divide grant and subsidy programs, though some foresee that forest getting easier to navigate. We were told the complexity of applications could put a chill on the number of providers applying. Sizable attention will be paid to how detailed the NTIA guidance is on the broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program established by the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), they said.
Citing guidance from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, multiple states told us they won't widely promote use of 988 as a way to access the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline even after the July 16 deadline for 988 to go live nationwide. At least some anticipate widespread campaigns in the second half of 2023. Lifeline administrator Vibrant Emotional Health didn't comment.