Lenbrook announced a collaboration with OraStream, giving the streaming platform company's music content customers access to BluOS-enabled NAD, Bluesound and Dali branded-products. OraStream has an adaptive streaming platform, based on the MPEG 4 SLS codec, and back office infrastructure. Music files are encoded in their native resolution; a decoder at the listening point delivers the audio file, adjusting and buffering data to fit bandwidth limits, while eliminating skipping and pauses, it said Thursday.

Lenbrook announced a collaboration with OraStream, giving the streaming platform company's music content customers access to BluOS-enabled NAD, Bluesound and Dali branded-products. OraStream has an adaptive streaming platform, based on the MPEG 4 SLS codec, and back office infrastructure. Music files are encoded in their native resolution; a decoder at the listening point delivers the audio file, adjusting and buffering data to fit bandwidth limits, while eliminating skipping and pauses, it said Thursday.

On the cusp of an expected boom, commercial space sector worries range from a space business "bubble" to outdated rules regimes that require replacing and the need to show investors regulatory burdens are waning, said corporate and government space executives Tuesday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency is committed to matching the tempo of the commercial satellite industry and avoiding a "Byzantine approval system" that could be a regulatory bottleneck. He remains concerned about prospects for orbital debris. His prepared remarks were later posted.

Refocus FCC efforts on shoring up Lifeline affordability and reaching out to all eligible consumers instead of setting up new barriers, stakeholders recommended in interviews this week and last. The FCC last week 3-2 denied a pause on a $2 monthly decrease in support for voice-only, while raising by 50 percent a monthly minimum for broadband to 3 GB (see 1911200015). The previous week, the agency issued a 3-2 order that would curb fraud and abuse, and a Further NPRM asks whether to ban free handsets with new signups (see 1911140064).

Refocus FCC efforts on shoring up Lifeline affordability and reaching out to all eligible consumers instead of setting up new barriers, stakeholders recommended in interviews this week and last. The FCC last week 3-2 denied a pause on a $2 monthly decrease in support for voice-only, while raising by 50 percent a monthly minimum for broadband to 3 GB (see 1911200015). The previous week, the agency issued a 3-2 order that would curb fraud and abuse, and a Further NPRM asks whether to ban free handsets with new signups (see 1911140064).

Don’t release state USF support to Frontier Communications until oral argument over last month's 24-day outage, the South Carolina Public Service Commission directed the Office of Regulatory Staff. Commissioners voted 5-1 Monday for the directive. The PSC clerk and parties should coordinate to schedule argument, it said. Frontier has used state USF money “for the purpose intended by law -- making affordable telephone service available to our South Carolina customers," and the company will cooperate with any audit, a spokesperson emailed Tuesday.

Potential cost impacts on Lifeline providers and subscribers played into an FCC decision to increase the program's broadband usage standards from 2 GB per month to only 3 GB on Dec. 1, instead of the 8.75 GB that had been outlined in a 2016 Lifeline order, said an order released Wednesday in docket 11-42. In deciding to waive, in part, the new broadband minimum service standards in answer to an industry petition, the FCC found it "reasonable to anticipate that a more than four-fold increase in the minimum usage allowance would require substantially greater network resources, and, in turn, the associated costs would be passed along to resellers and/or end-users," the agency said.

Potential cost impacts on Lifeline providers and subscribers played into an FCC decision to increase the program's broadband usage standards from 2 GB per month to only 3 GB on Dec. 1, instead of the 8.75 GB that had been outlined in a 2016 Lifeline order, said an order released Wednesday in docket 11-42. In deciding to waive, in part, the new broadband minimum service standards in answer to an industry petition, the FCC found it "reasonable to anticipate that a more than four-fold increase in the minimum usage allowance would require substantially greater network resources, and, in turn, the associated costs would be passed along to resellers and/or end-users," the agency said.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in an order released Tuesday (and adopted last Friday) that updates rules for the USF Lifeline program's minimum mobile broadband service standards. The FCC said it would waive the increase in minimum standards, but only in part, to require mobile broadband Lifeline carriers to offer more than 3 GB per month Dec. 1-Nov. 30, 2020, and the agency denied industry petitions to pause a phase-down in voice-only support from $9.25 to $7.25 per month, as expected (see 1911150062).

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in an order released Tuesday (and adopted last Friday) that updates rules for the USF Lifeline program's minimum mobile broadband service standards. The FCC said it would waive the increase in minimum standards, but only in part, to require mobile broadband Lifeline carriers to offer more than 3 GB per month Dec. 1-Nov. 30, 2020, and the agency denied industry petitions to pause a phase-down in voice-only support from $9.25 to $7.25 per month, as expected (see 1911150062).