Satellite digital radio rivals used Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to flex their promotional muscle in advance of commercial debuts later this year. Sirius Satellite Radio told news conference it had signed “multifaceted” marketing and programming partnership with House of Blues that “will introduce service to millions of music fans” attending House of Blues events throughout U.S. Sirius also announced programming carriage agreements with A&E TV Networks, Discovery Channel, Weather Channel. Mktg. Vp Doug Wilsterman said first Sirius receivers should arrive for sale by midyear at $300-$400. Sirius also plans to market FM modulator for adapting existing car audio equipment for use with Sirius satellite receiver. It demonstrated what Wilsterman called “absolutely true” satellite reception in Las Vegas Convention Center. He said that for demonstration purposes, Sirius had turned off its Las Vegas terrestrial repeater. Responding to questioner, Wilsterman said Sirius and rival XM Satellite Radio were committed to “honoring” FCC mandate that receivers marketed by both services be made interoperable. He said Sirius and XM were working very hard to achieve interoperability under “unified standard” agreement they signed last year. But he estimated that first interoperable receivers wouldn’t be available in marketplace for 4 years. Meanwhile, at Fri. Las Vegas news conference set for past our deadline, XM planned to demonstrate first-time live broadcasts to Convention Center from company’s Washington studio. On eve of CES, XM said it scored big promotional coup, announcing it had signed 2,200- store Sears to promote XM radio products and services at retail nationally.
European Commission (EC) updated its Internet telephony policy with few changes, concluding this technology “in general continues to fall outside the definition of voice telephony.” EC supplement to 1998 communication cited cases in which Internet telephony could be treated as voice telephony. Conditions that must be met include cases when service is offered commercially, provided to public, provided to and from public switched network termination points and involved direct speech transport and switching in real time and at same level of reliability and quality as public switched telecom network. Unless those caveats are met, EC said European Union members “should normally continue to allow Internet access/service providers to offer voice on Internet under data transmission general authorizations, and no mandatory requirement for an individual license is justified.” But if Internet telephony offerings meet 4 conditions, they should be regulated as substitutes for voice telephony under principle of technology neutrality, EC said. It sought comment last summer on status of voice communications on Internet. Several carriers urged Commission to make distinction between voice over Internet, which can be provided over public Internet facilities, and voice over IP, which is offered over dedicated IP networks and can guarantee quality of service (CD Sept 19 p1). EC policy update stipulated that voice over Internet covered “all kinds of conveyance of voice” using IP for routing and transmission. But voice over Internet is subset of voice over IP and “covers only such voice services that are provided over the public Internet, defined as a network of networks,” document said. While technology has improved since EC’s 1998 voice over IP directive, policy update makes clear that “public Internet” still is vulnerable to congestion that could affect voice signal quality. When service operators market bundled data and voice offering, EC would view this combination “as comprising 2 commercial offers,” policy said. In cases such as video telephony, when voice element can’t be separated from other components, “provision of voice services cannot be considered as the subject of a commercial offer,” EC said. It said supplement provided “general guidelines” and didn’t bar national authorities from making “specific assessments when justified by specific circumstances.”
Hungarian Telephone & Cable finalized purchases of shares of its Hungarian subsidiaries from minority stockholders, terms not disclosed. Company said transactions were all-cash except for purchase of International Finance Corp.’s (IFC) 20% stake in Papatel. For Papatel transaction, Hungarian Telephone issued 72,000 shares of common stock to IFC, which is part of World Bank Group. Hungarian Telephone Pres. Ole Bertram said it planned to consolidate its 4 subsidiaries into single company.
American Tower said Fri. its operating income before depreciation and amortization plus interest would fall below expectations for 4th quarter. Company said lower than anticipated levels were due mainly to one-time $7 million reserve for bad debt on component sales to Anicom. Operating income before depreciation and amortization is now expected to be $56-$60 million in quarter. Company also said it expected revenue for quarter to be $226-$233 million, resulting from stronger than forecast sales in services and Internet, voice, data and video segments. American Tower estimated that towers newly constructed in quarter would top 500, also beating forecasts and raising year- end total to more than 1,650. Company’s shares fell 8.37% Fri. to $36.25 at close.
BEI Technologies said it had acquired digital quartz inertial measurement and miniature integrated GPS/INS tactical systems (MIGITS) units from Boeing Co., terms not disclosed. BEI said acquisition of subsystems lines would give it access to developed Microelectromechanical Systems and Global Positioning Systems for aerospace, defense and commercial applications.
As it continues to weigh imposing additional regulatory conditions on AOL’s pending purchase of Time Warner (TW), FCC is seeking help from group of small and midsized ISPs. Commission has asked coalition of smaller ISPs and state associations to draft definitions of local and regional ISPs that agency might use in setting tougher open access requirement on AOL-TW combination. Proposed requirement reportedly would force AOL-TW to carry at least one local and one regional ISP on every TW cable system, in addition to national EarthLink service that MSO already has committed to carry. That would go beyond open access provision stipulated by FTC, which would require AOL-TW to open its high- speed cable lines to at least 3 unaffiliated ISPS, including EarthLink, when it added AOL as offering. Speaking for ISP coalition, NorthNet Mktg. Dir. Stephen Heins said group also was pressing FCC to set open access mandates for business users in smaller and rural areas. He said group planned to submit its proposal to Commission by today (Jan. 8) at latest.
Titan Corp. announced installment of 30 satellite gateways in Africa, Middle East and Latin America. Company said it had been attempting to capitalize on opportunity to provide telecom services to underserved markets by installing satellite gateways that use geosynchronous orbit satellites to offer voice and data capacity to global long distance carriers.
Corning Precision Lens will unveil HDTV optical platform for new model RCA TV it produced with Thomson Multimedia. Set, to be showcased at current CES in Las Vegas, creates images using liquid crystal light valves and high-intensity discharge lamp instead of CR tube.
Effectiveness of U.S.-Europe safe harbor agreement on Internet privacy is in question for telecom carriers because FCC hasn’t agreed to enforce U.S.-Europe privacy agreement, source in Commerce Dept. (DoC) told us. DoC is in talks with Commission in effort to bring it aboard safe harbor agreement, although some sources said European Union (EU) wouldn’t recognize FCC as legitimate enforcement agency. Telecom and common carriers can join safe harbor agreement, but only as it relates to functions outside realm of common carriers, sources said. Agreement reconciles strong European privacy rules with U.S.’s self- regulatory stance, guaranteeing that U.S. companies can do business in Europe.