FCC

Dish Network can't match DirecTV growth

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:20 -0400

It is still too early to tell how AT&T's new commitment to re-sell Dish Network satellite TV services across all of its markets will affect Dish's business, but as the sales effort gears up, it will come none too soon. Dish Network reported as part of its first quarter financial results this week that it added only 35,000 new subscribers during the quarter, almost 89 percent less than the 310,000 it added for the same quarter last year. The figure also is far less than DirecTV's Q1 subscriber additions of about 275,000, posted last week.

AT&T had been re-selling both Dish Network and DirecTV service, the latter in the former BellSouth region, but recently committed to go forward with Dish alone. Did it bet on the wrong horse, and by the way, how much is AT&T's own IPTV success affecting its satellite TV partner?

For more:
- read this Associated Press story at Yahoo! Finance

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- EchoStar wins slice of spectrum in FCC auction. EchoStar report

Comcast and BitTorrent make nice

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:50 -0400

Comcast and BitTorrent Inc. last week agreed to bury the hatchet and work together to try and make BitTorrent software run more smoothly on Comcast's network. The deal ends a contentious battle between the two companies that saw users and the FCC lambaste the company after it admitted delaying the transmission of data among BitTorrent users at peak times.

When legislators and some advocacy groups began to play hardball and suggest Comcast was intentionally blocking BitTorrent's P2P file sharing for its own gain, the issue earned some serious cred and the two foes began to play nice. Comcast has agreed to reconfigure its network management systems, creating a traffic management technique "more appropriate for today's emerging Internet trends." For its part, BitTorrent tacitly acknowledged Comcast's need to allocate bandwidth, with the understanding it no longer would be targeted by the company.

Comcast said it's deploying wideband Internet services using the DOCSIS 3.0 standard in about 20 percent of its households by the end of this year. It also plans to more than double the upstream capacity of its residential Internet service in several key markets by year end 2008. "We plan to take advantage of multi-carrier technology to further increase upstream capacity for all of our broadband customers in advance of the full DOCSIS 3.0 roll out," Comcast said.

For more:
- Read the Philadelphia Business Journal story
- And Comcast's release

Related articles:
Comcast defends P2P management to FCC
Vuse complains about Comcast throttling

Court approves new MDU rules

Tom Burton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:40 -0400

An appeals court has rejected an attempt by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association to stop new rules that abolish exclusive service contracts between cable operators and owners of multiple-dwelling units (MDUs). After much lobbying from the telco industry, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the new MDU rules last fall, declaring it hoped to open the MDU sector up for competition.

By a 2-1 margin the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the NCTA's attempt to have the new rules postponed. The rules now apply for new agreements but questions still remain over the legitimacy of the many MDU agreements in place before the new rules took force last week. The court has yet to give its opinion on these existing agreements. The NCTA says the FCC in 2003 unanimously approved exclusive contracts between cable operators and MDUs.

A decision to void these contracts would be a major fillip to Verizon and AT&T as they aggressively rollout their IPTV networks. Verizon has been due to announce the deployment of its FiOS network into New York city shortly. The FCC MDU ruling has been part of a concerted campaign by FCC chief Kevin Martin to challenge the dominance of the major cable companies, in particular Comcast. Martin claims the lack of competition has seen cable subscriptions rise by an average of 10 percent per annum over the last decade.

For more:
- Cable fights the FCC in the courts Article

Related articles:
Martin targets transparency Article
Comcast defends network management Article

Cable critical to next gen digital services

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:55 -0500

It is hard to overstate the importance of the Federal Communication Commission's investigation into Comcast's traffic management practices. As FCC chief Kevin Martin yesterday said: "I think if Comcast did not also provide video services, we would not be here having this debate." The TIA's new market report dramatically observed bundling is fast becoming the norm for all players. In six years from 2005 to 2011 the number of users bundling is predicted to go from 14 percent to 82 percent. In other words if you can't offer a bundle you are not going to have a business. Marry that with the 50 times increase in bandwidth demand predicted by 2015 and you clearly see the picture.

For the moment this is a cable problem; its network architecture is a legacy of its TV past and simply shares the bandwidth with houses in a given node.
For an FCC genuinely interested in competition, it has to find a definition of reasonable traffic management that ensures cable can offer a quality of service consistently across all three plays--voice, video and data. No doubt users should be told what they pay for and on what basis an ISP will manage the traffic. But a conclusion that in practice damages service quality will be hugely destructive to consumer choices and, in the longer run, to prices and innovation. Take the cable guys out and you quickly find in practice it is friends AT&T and Verizon who will gate-keep the next generation of digital services. Tom

Comcast says tru2way is the only way

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:10 -0500

Comcast boss Ralph Roberts used his historic keynote at CES2008 to relaunch the industry's new open development platform, tru2way. Formerly known as the OpenCable platform, it is designed to enable two way interactivity in all cable enabled devices.

"Now, a software developer can write an application once--a gaming application, an entertainment application, even a service like TiVo and it will work on a tru2way-enabled device, regardless of manufacturer, and across virtually every cable system," Roberts told CES attendees. He did not mention it will also save the industry a lot of development expense.

The vigorously independent CE industry lobby has opposed the platform, in particular the signing of what it says are onerous licensing agreements and have been pushing their own protocol called DCR+. Pointedly, Roberts also showed off several set top boxes from Motorola, Panasonic, LG and Samsung which are using the tru2way platform, suggesting the CE industry may be divided. The whole issue has gone off to the Federal Communications Commission where chairman, Kevin Martin is being asked to adjudicate. Which should be more than interesting given the brawl over Comcast's dominance last year.

For more:
- Comcast launches tru2way Article
- Two way battle reaches FCC Article
- FCC opens net neutrality inquiry Article

Related Article:
- FCC to step into two way spat Article

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500

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FCC's Martin looking lonely

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:59:40 -0500

Just two weeks after FCC chief Kevin Martin floated his re-regulation of big cable idea, he looks decidedly isolated with fellow commissioners and congressional members of both flavors seriously questioning the move. In Washington, the Cable lobby wasted little time pulling in favors owed and in the days ahead of Tuesday's meeting there has been report after report suggesting Martin is not going to be able to deliver his proposal.

An editorial Monday in the conservative Wall Street Journal featured a long piece denouncing both the methodology and intent of Martin's re-regulation proposal. It began: "With all due respect to Kevin Martin, we're beginning to wonder if the head of the Federal Communications Commission knows the first thing about the cable industry he regulates."

Even the broadcasters--traditionally not a close friend of the cable industry--offered their protest. Ahead of the meeting Martin was trying to salvage something of his plan and how it impacts on both current and new players in the broader video market place was unknown. But having fired both barrels and being forced to back off, Martin now risks joining his president in what could be a long and not productive run up to next year's election.

More Reports:
- FCC plays monopoly Wall Street Journal editorial
- FCC plan at Risk Wall Street Journal Report
- New York Times reports Martin is struggling to get the votes

Related articles:
- Kremlin media regulation Report
- FCC, cable TV debate '70/70' Report

FCC cable numbers disputed

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:59:40 -0500

Federal Communications Commission chair Kevin Martin has a habit of detailing how the FCC will vote ahead of its actual meetings. But his plan to hit big cable with new regulations seems to have his fellow Republican Commissioners offside. Martin claimed cable now had a market share in excess of the 70 percent needed to invoke regulations--a figure hotly disputed by the cable lobby, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. The NCTA let lose at Martin accusing him of trying to "hurt the cable industry" and declaring the FCC "broken."

What exactly Martin wants to do was unclear as by week's end he seemed to be walking away from any plan to break up bundled content offerings and force the cable companies to allow customers to pick whatever programming they wanted.

Meanwhile over at the FCC, commissioners Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell expressed reservations about the data Martin was using. They released a letter asking the Warren Communications News--which compiles the data for the FCC-- to send them "all information" regarding the market data, including any "caveats" or "footnotes" to the statistics.

Tate and McDowell wrote: "As you are aware, over the past three years, our Report has found cable subscribership hovers around 60 percent. With the increase in competition from satellite and phone companies, most large cable operators report a decline in subscribership. Thus, it was surprising to learn that Warren Communications reported a 71.4 percent subscribership rate this year, especially considering the two other major independent research outlets found rates at 61.1 percent (Nielsen) and 58.1 percent (Kagan)."

So much for the consensus Martin was trying to create; it also leaves his cross media deregulation plans vulnerable as opponents seek to exploit Martin's apparent lack of support.

More Reports:
- FCC Chair Martin looking lonely on anti-cable crusade Report
- MSNBC Report

Related articles:
- Kremlin rules Report
- FCC, cable TV dispute "70/70" Report

Vuse complains about Comcast throttling

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:59:30 -0500

Some believe that rather than peering being the evil that Hollywood claims, P2P will be the savior of the internet as video continues to block up bandwidth. Which is what is so significant about Vuse's complaint last week to the FCC alleging Comcast was limiting applications using the peer-to-peer bit torrent protocol. Vuse is a start up and offers near HD video based on peering technology.

The suit alleges Comcast's limits on peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent violates federal computer fraud laws and is in breach of contract well as anti-fraud advertising statutes.

Comcast says it was only managing its network -- one of the biggest domestic systems in the world. Maybe. But the Vuse action is a quick reminder that the argument about net neutrality is not about to go away.

More Reports:
- Vuse takes Comcast to FCC Report
- Wired Report

Related articles:
- Comcast delays P2P traffic Report
- Comcast draws throttling criticism Report

FCC opens up apartments for telcos

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:59:40 -0400

Nearly 30 million US households--many African-American and Hispanics--are set to be opened to competition for television services with the Federal Communication Commission expected to end cable's exclusive rights to apartment buildings and multiple dwelling units.

Reacting to the 93 percent increase in cable prices over the last 10 years, FCC chairman Kevin Martin is expected to win approval for the proposal tomorrow. He told the New York Times: "Exclusive contracts have been one of the most significant barriers to competition. … This is a way to introduce additional completion which will result on in lower prices and greater innovation."

The change has been strongly lobbied by the two telco giants, Verizon and AT&T, but has been vociferously opposed by Comcast and Time Warner and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Any change is almost certain to be litigated and won't happen quickly. Witness this extract from a NCTA letter to the FCC: "Abrogating existing commercial agreements between cable operators and (apartment building and condo) owners is unwarranted and unfair as a policy matter, inconsistent with commission precedent, and well beyond the scope of the Commission's legal authority," the association wrote in a letter to the FCC.

For More:
- New York Times Report
- Broadbandreports details some of the background

Related Article:
MDUs provide huge marketing opportunity for urban DSL Release