The World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum (WTPF) will be a “chance to pause, reflect and debate the emerging issues” involving the Internet, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said Tuesday during the conference’s opening ceremony in Geneva. Tuesday’s proceedings were dominated by ceremony and discussion of the conference’s governance and structure. Ivo Ivanovski, Macedonia’s minister of information society and administration, is WTPF’s chair; representatives from Costa Rica, Gabon, India, Poland, Russia and Saudi Arabia are vice chairs. Plenary Working Group 1 began presenting the Informal Experts Group’s (IEG) draft opinions on promotion of Internet exchange points as a long-term connectivity solution and fostering broadband connectivity growth, as well as member states’ contributions on those opinions. Debate on those two opinions is set to continue when the conference reconvenes Wednesday morning. Working Group 2, which is handling the IEG’s draft opinions on the adoption and deployment of IPv6, are set to present those opinions Wednesday. Working Group 3, which is handling the IEG’s draft opinions supporting “multistakeholderism” in Internet governance and the Enhanced Cooperation Process, is also set to begin presenting those opinions Wednesday. The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute endorsed a statement on the “Best Bits” network submitted to the ITU ahead of the conference that urged adoption of the IEG’s opinions and supported instituting “inclusive and transparent ITU processes and uphold[ing] and protect[ing] the public interest and fundamental human rights.” Thirty-two groups in the U.S. and elsewhere have endorsed the statement, which Best Bits originally submitted prior to the controversial World Conference on International Telecommunications (http://bit.ly/196issz). While the tone of WTPF shows the ITU has “taken some positive steps to open up these important discussions, the ITU must create legitimate mechanisms for open and participatory policymaking with all stakeholders,” said Benjamin Lennett, OTI’s policy director (http://bit.ly/13Zw5cy).
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council media ownership study will be submitted to the FCC on or around May 29, said an ex parte letter filed Thursday (http://bit.ly/16uVK0k). The letter said MMTC officials had four separate meetings Wednesday on issues related to the 2010 quadrennial ownership review with commissioners Ajit Pai, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, and staff from the Media Bureau and Office of Communications Business Opportunities. According to the letter, interviews for the MMTC study will be completed May 17, and it will then be reviewed by three academics before being presented to the commission. The letter said that along with the media ownership study update, MMTC officials also endorsed proposals to relax foreign ownership restrictions (CD May 2 p5), which it said “would enhance access to capital for minority broadcasters.” The letter said the MMTC also discussed “reviving AM radio” with the FCC officials, and the council’s Radio Rescue Taskforce will meet with commissioners and staff on May 16. Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski paused a vote on a draft bureau media ownership order so that MMTC could study the effect of cross ownership on minority-owned broadcasters (CD Feb 27 p1).
Zynga shares closed 6.5 percent lower Thursday at $3.13, after the company reported mixed results for Q1 ended March 31 and gave a weaker-than-expected Q2 forecast. Revenue fell 18 percent year-over-year to $263.6 million. But it swung to a $4.1 million profit from a loss of $85.4 million in Q1 last year. Zynga was “encouraged by” the “progress” in Q1, CEO Mark Pincus said on an earnings call Wednesday.
Zynga shares closed 6.5 percent lower Thursday at $3.13, after the company reported mixed results for Q1 ended March 31 and gave a weaker-than-expected Q2 forecast. Revenue fell 18 percent year-over-year to $263.6 million. But it swung to a $4.1 million profit from a loss of $85.4 million in Q1 last year. Zynga was “encouraged by” the “progress” in Q1, CEO Mark Pincus said on an earnings call Wednesday.
Efforts to head off an FCC vote in favor of giving Vonage direct access to numbers in a few pilot markets appear to have fallen flat despite a big push last week by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, consumer and public interest groups. FCC and industry officials said Monday that Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to have lined up at least three votes for the Vonage trials, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel ready to vote yes. The NARUC-led coalition came in too late in the game, bringing with it public interest and consumer groups that had never lobbied on the issue to change votes on an order set for Thursday’s meeting, agency officials said. Supporters of the letter hoped they would raise enough questions to give Clyburn and Commissioner Ajit Pai pause, organizers said last week. “It seems to me the trial gives the bureau a chance to get real world data on porting and routing and number exhaust and intercarrier comp,” an agency official said. A second official said it’s hard to make a case against a pilot. Vonage lawyer Brita Strandberg of Wiltshire Grannis reported on recent calls with aides to Genachowski and Clyburn to address lingering concerns about the trials. “I explained that Vonage is committed, and has been committed throughout this proceeding, to working with the states to address their concerns about direct access to numbers,” said an ex parte filing posted Monday (http://bit.ly/XCJDsP). “Vonage does not seek access to any numbers other than those it can access indirectly today. Vonage has thus agreed to conditions suggested by states to address number and area code exhaust concerns. Vonage also believes any participant in a trial should work closely with relevant states to address those concerns.” The company also agreed to “a very high level of number utilization -- 65 percent,” as a condition of the waiver, Strandberg said. “In contrast, the CLECs from whom Vonage currently buys numbers are among the most inefficient users of numbers, with utilization averaging less than 35 percent.” The letter said the pilots will “test the feasibility of direct access and provide information about routing, porting, and intercarrier compensation that is critical to informed decisionmaking; it will not prejudge the rulemaking.” Prior to the release of a sunshine notice on the FCC meeting, Vonage CEO Marc Lefar also left a voicemail for Zach Katz, the commission’s chief of staff, on “the importance of the trial to provide real-world data to support the NRPM [sic], and noted that recently raised concerns about the Commission’s consideration of direct access have been addressed extensively in the record,” said a second ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/XNtqDs). Also posted by the FCC Monday was an ex parte filing on a meeting between Level 3 and Bandwidth.com officials and officials in the Office of General Counsel. The two companies have been leading opponents of the pilots. “CLEC Participants articulated that Vonage and other Petitioners have failed to meet the legal standard for a waiver of Section 52.15(g)(2)(i) and that due process demands that the Commission act only after issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, including the question of whether changes to the Commission’s numbering rules are warranted,” said the filing (http://bit.ly/Zt0zj4). Matt Wood and Derek Turner of Free Press said they had received a call from Genachowski adviser Michael Steffen on Free Press’s support for the NARUC letter. “Together we questioned the reported decision to grant Vonage a waiver for direct access to numbering resources prior to the conclusion -- or even initiation -- of a notice and comment rulemaking on the same topic,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/ZsWF9L).
Dish Network’s $25.5 billion bid to buy Sprint Nextel, proposed Monday, offers $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The FCC would seemingly have no more reason to reject that than a Softbank bid, agency and industry officials said Monday. However, they said that unlike SoftBank, Dish holds spectrum in U.S. markets, so that will require a competitive analysis not triggered by the SoftBank deal. FCC officials said they had expected an order approving the SoftBank/Sprint transaction to circulate as early as this week.
Dish Network’s $25.5 billion bid to buy Sprint Nextel, proposed Monday, offers $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The FCC would seemingly have no more reason to reject that than a Softbank bid, agency and industry officials said Monday. However, they said that unlike SoftBank, Dish holds spectrum in U.S. markets, so that will require a competitive analysis not triggered by the SoftBank deal. FCC officials said they had expected an order approving the SoftBank/Sprint transaction to circulate as early as this week.
Efforts to head off an FCC vote in favor of giving Vonage direct access to numbers in a few pilot markets appear to have fallen flat despite a big push last week by NARUC, consumer and public interest groups (CD April 15 p1). FCC and industry officials said Monday that Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to have lined up at least three votes for the Vonage trials, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel ready to vote yes.
As interim chair of the FCC, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn would likely take on a number of issues, starting with her big issue of late, prison calling, FCC and industry officials said last week. Another big issue for Clyburn has been 700 MHz interoperability, but how much she would be able to do on that with a 2-1 commission is unclear. A former top FCC official said Clyburn’s staff should already be looking around for a few issues on which she can make her mark as the first woman to head the agency.
EchoStar’s Sling Media filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and is suing Belkin, claiming its Belkin @TV set-top products infringe patents at the heart of its video placeshifting technology.