U.S. Dist Court, Roanoke, Va., will hear motion for preliminary injunction on Dec. 9 in suit filed by Charter challenging City of Bristol’s right to provide cable service. In preliminary hearing on Charter motion for temporary restraining order last month, court said city could continue to sign up cable TV customers until Dec. 9, said attorney James Baller, who represents city. Last May, Roanoke court had rejected FCC interpretation of Telecom Act in invalidating state statute that barred localities from competing with commercial providers of telecom services and equipment. Charter’s suit contended that Bristol didn’t have authority to provide cable TV service, Baller said. Charter also charged that city had violated company’s rights by issuing itself franchise without giving it hearing and that city’s franchise was more favorable than Charter’s, Baller said.
Pioneer factories in Japan could exceed annual production capacity of 500,000 plasma display panels (PDPs) by spring 2005 when 4th production line starts operations, Pres. Kaneo Ito told reporters in Tokyo news briefing last week.
After 2 years of work behind scenes, ad hoc committees of DVD Forum are nearing completion of preliminary specifications on Web connectivity and interactivity for DVD players and discs, sources close to those developments told Consumer Electronics Daily.
RIAA last week asked federal court to hold online file swapper Aimster (now Madster) in contempt for failure to comply with preliminary injunction entered Sept. 4. In its motion, RIAA charged that despite being ordered by U.S. Dist. Court, Chicago, to stop infringing on copyrighted music and to shut its system down until it could do so, infringement “continues unabated.” Moreover, RIAA said: “Defendants admit in their compliance report that they have done neither, and have not even attempted to do anything.” RIAA is seeking order requiring Aimster to show cause: (1) Why it shouldn’t be held in contempt on preliminary injunction. (2) Why compliance officer shouldn’t be appointed. (3) Why defendants shouldn’t be ordered to pay daily fines and attorney fees.
Israeli Dist. Court will allow bondholders and bank lenders for Gilat Satellite Networks to meet to approve arrangement designed to rid company of debt, it said. To allow meetings, current court proceedings were delayed until Jan. 26. Primary lenders and bondholders already had approved plan, but finalized agreements must be approved by majority. Preliminary arrangement would convert majority of $490 million debt to shares. Bondholders and lenders are expected to meet mid-Jan.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began testing ultra-wideband (UWB) devices last week in effort to make initial assessment by year-end on potential impact of new technology on avionics systems. FAA, along with Depts. of Transportation, Defense and NASA, is among agencies that expressed concerns about potential interference of UWB in safety-of-life frequencies. “We do anticipate that there will be some problems based on what we know about UWB types of devices,” FAA Program Mgr. George Sakai said: “To what degree, we don’t know. This is why we needed to do some actual testing.”
Complete vote count in razor-close contest for one of 2 new seats on Ariz. Corporation Commission produced reversal of preliminary election night results. Final results, including hand-counted early and absentee ballots, showed former state Rep. and retired agricultural consultant Mike Gleason (R) defeating former state Sen. George Cunningham (D) 50.9% to 49.1% for 2-year term on agency. Election night results had indicated Cunningham won. Gleason’s victory margin exceeded half-percent figure that would have triggered recount. Some 300,000 ballots had to be hand-counted, producing delay in final results. Meanwhile, defeated Ga. PSC Comr. Lauren McDonald (D) demanded recount after complete election tally narrowed his margin of defeat to less than 1%. Winner was Duluth (Ga.) employment recruiter Angela Speir (R). Recount could be completed next week.
Israeli Dist. Court will allow bondholders and bank lenders for Gilat Satellite Networks to meet to approve arrangement designed to rid company of debt, it said. To allow meetings, current court proceedings were delayed until Jan. 26. Primary lenders and bondholders already had approved plan, but finalized agreements must be approved by majority. Preliminary arrangement would convert majority of $490 million debt to shares. Bondholders and lenders are expected to meet mid-Jan.
CHICAGO -- Policy committees advanced only one telecom resolution, addressing broadband content neutrality, as state regulators met here Mon. for National Assn. of Regulatory Utility Comrs. (NARUC) Annual Meeting. Resolutions addressing universal service portability and wireless consumer disclosures failed, but for widely different reasons.
BellSouth said it won preliminary injunction Mon. in U.S. Dist. Court, Atlanta, against Momentum Business Solutions, which BellSouth accused of misrepresenting itself, either as affiliated with BellSouth or providing products and services endorsed by BellSouth. “We received hundreds of complaints from customers that detail occurrences of Momentum sales representatives falsely claiming to have an affiliation or billing relationship with BellSouth,” said David Scobey, pres., BellSouth Small Business Services. Momentum called suit “another unsuccessful move by BellSouth to stifle competition” and said it was “genuinely pleased with the court’s order, which basically enjoins Momentum from activities we have not done and will not do.”