EchoStar said it would raise rates for 2 of its top packages. Monthly fee for America’s Top 50 increased 10% to $21.99 and America’s Top 100 package $1 to $30.99. Rate for premium America’s Top 150 package will be unchanged. Company said it had to raise rates because some channels had increased prices up to 40%. New rates become effective Feb. 1.
Convergence of technologies is spurring “surprisingly” strong push by govt. agencies into telecom market, but phenomenon won’t help achieve desired goal of lower costs and more rapid deployment of services, Progress & Freedom Foundation said in study released Jan. 10. More than 200 state and local govts. are providing telecom services, with 100 offering cable service and others everything from Internet to local telephony, said study titled Does Government Belong in the Telecom Business? Argument that govt. involvement can provide benchmark of real costs of providing service, thereby helping regulators set prices at appropriate levels, is myth, study said, because municipal utilities, like other govt. entities, benefit from “plethora of tax and regulatory advantages not available to the private sector": (1) Municipalities are able to issue tax-free debt. (2) They have access to public rights-of-way on terms not available to private companies. (3) They “avoid” franchise fees and other “taxes” that private companies must pay. (4) They aren’t subject to generally accepted accounting practices. (5) They often receive interest- free loans or outright public subsidies. As result of subsidies and advantages, public utilities never provide accurate gauge of true costs of providing service but distort marketplace, study said. Because subsidies allow public utilities to “undercut” prices charged by private companies, they deter entry by real competitors and thus prevent marketplace from setting cost-based prices, it said. Study said govt. agencies that had entered telecom business had been saddled with financial losses and obsolete, legacy technologies. It said such entry distorted marketplace incentives and slowed development of private sector competition. Study said govt. role in telecom marketplace must be confined to removal of regulatory barriers to private deployment of services and reduction of telecom taxes that “account for over 18% of the typical telephone bill.” Recent study by foundation found that high telecom taxes cause one million fewer households to have 2nd telephone line.
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) counsel David Sobel said location technology for wireless phones has “issues that need to be addressed soon.” Sobel said there “is very spotty legislation” in this area. Most important is question of legal standards required for law enforcement to gain access to location information, he said.
FCC denied Small Business in Telecom (SBT) petitions to deny applications of Radiofone Nationwide and Harbor Wireless, winners of 700 MHz guard band auctions. Action Thurs. also held that SBT had no standing as petitioner and that petitions, which asserted that applicants should have disclosed personal income of controlling interest holders for purposes of determining qualification for bidding credit as very small business, lacked merit.
Mercedes Walton, ex-AT&T, appointed pres.-COO, Applied Digital Solutions… James Toupin, ex-U.S. International Trade Commission, named gen. counsel, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office… Larry Beerman, ex-Tellabs, named vp-business development, NexTone Communications… Timothy Kelly, ex-tickets.com, appointed pres., National Consumer Organization, Sprint…Kathy Jia promoted to gen. mgr., MediaWave Advertising… Appointed to e.spire Communications board: Dennis Freely, Telecom Group; Stanton Williams, NTL… Reed Hundt, ex-FCC chmn., elected to Brience board… Andrew Rosen, regional vp-sales, Clear Channel, adds exec. vp-mktg., replacing John Fullam… Robert Gerrard promoted to exec. vp-gen. counsel, Scripps Networks… Promotions at ACT Teleconferencing: Robert Aubry, to regional managing dir.-N. America, replacing Eugene Warren, who was promoted to COO; Mark Kelly to chief technology officer, replacing Iain McKeracher, retired.
“Robust discussion” of results of latest DTV testing followed presentation of results to more than 150 broadcasters in Washington Thurs., we're told. Closed-door meeting reportedly was told that VSB standard out-performed COFDM on 30-ft. outdoor antennas, COFDM did better on 6-ft. outdoor antennas and neither did very well on indoor antennas, as expected (CD Jan 11 p2, Jan 10 p2). Broadcasters also were told that COFDM would make DTV available to about 6% fewer households and same power level would give stations 14% smaller viewing area. Officials of COFDM supporter Sinclair Bcst. reportedly repeatedly made their claim that testing was flawed because it used COFDM receiver without needed filter. Broadcasters also were said to have repeatedly criticized cable and set-makers for not accelerating DTV rollout. Boards of NAB and MSTV are to meet Jan. 14-16 to decide what to recommend to FCC based on test results.
If competition is subsidized it can become artificial, said White Paper released Thurs. by National Telecom Coop Assn. (NTCA). “The Cost of Competition” argues that competition doesn’t necessarily work in rural areas and it shouldn’t be forced. Bottom line is “permit competition to develop in rural areas but don’t subsidize it,” NTCA said in news release. Authored by economist Dale Lehman, White Paper questioned wisdom of making universal service funds available to competitive entrants, saying that might undermine viability of broadband deployment by incumbent rural LEC. There isn’t real strong business case for broadband deployment in rural areas in first place, report said. Solution might be to increase universal service fund so more money would be available to all carriers, Lehman concluded -- www.ntca.org.
ALTS submitted proposal to FCC to curb high CLEC access charges without more drastic measure of mandatory detariffing. ALTS plan proposed Thurs. would: (1) Set ceiling of 2.5 cents per min. for CLECs serving large markets. Different formula would be used for rural CLECs. (2) Make CLECs subject to mandatory detariffing if they exceeded ceiling. (3) Protect CLECs from “harassing” tactics by large interexchange carriers (IXCs). For example, FCC would “affirm” that IXCs couldn’t refuse to pay filed tariff rates. Agency also would define terms under which IXCs could refuse to terminate service to end users served by CLECs that charged higher-than-permissible access rates. Proposal, called Guaranteed Reduced Exchange Access Tariffs (GREAT), was presented in comments to FCC on whether mandatory detariffing should be used to discourage excessive rates (CC Doc. 97-146). Agency had expressed concern that under “filed rate doctrine” of tariff law, CLECs could set unreasonably high rates and enforce payment through federal tariffs. ALTS said plan would “ensure reasonable CLEC access charge levels while at the same time promoting regulatory certainty.”
NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft will begin low-altitude passes over 433 Eros asteroid Jan. 24, getting as close as one to 2 miles Jan. 28 before Feb. 12 crash landing on asteroid’s surface. Spacecraft’s descent will allow its digital camera to take close-ups of asteroid’s landscape until it reaches 1,650 ft. above surface. NEAR Shoemaker isn’t expected to survive maneuver since it wasn’t designed to land.
Small Business in Telecommunications (SBT) told 3-judge panel of U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Thurs., that many small businesses chose not to participate in 1997 800 MHz specialized radio auctions because of financial uncertainty and because FCC definition of small business was unclear at time of auction. However, when questioned by judges, SBT counsel Robert Schwaninger was unable to name single entity that claimed to have suffered from what SBT termed “uncertainty.” SBT was defending petition for review it filed on 2 FCC orders rejecting company’s petitions for reconsideration of its 800 MHz lower channel report and order and its upper channel report and order. Court said it had no jurisdiction on upper channel appeal since it wasn’t mentioned in SBT’s petition for review. Lower channel appeal dealt chiefly with issue of Small Business Administration approval of small business definition. Judge David Tatel questioned SBT attorney repeatedly, trying to establish, among other things, where in SBT pleadings certain claims made in its petition for review could to be found. All 3 judges said they were unable to find several assertions in SBT’s petition in proceeding’s earlier record.