CWA Seeks Conditions on Verizon Spectrum Purchase US labor is weighing in on the concentration of spectrum within the telecom industry. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is calling on the FCC to impose specific conditions on Verizon Wireless as a condition of the carrier’s plan to purchase wireless spectrum from a consortium of four cable companies. The CWA isn’t opposed to...

Four CableCos Turn to IP Streaming Austin, Tex. — February 21, 2012 (NCTC Winter Educational Conference)—Clearleap today announced four members of the National Cable Television Cooperative have selected Clearleap’s ClearPlay streaming services to provide on demand content via IP for their subscribers. The new operators using ClearPlay are enTouch Systems, Greenlight Cable (owned by the city of...

Report: Want to Hold on to Subscribers? Show Them ‘More Love’ Some 2/3 of mobile telecoms service customers “feel neglected” by their service providers and more than 2-in-5 are likely to switch within the next two years as a result, according to the results of a research survey commissioned by Finnish dynamic Operations Support System software provider Comptel Corp. Vanson...

Avail-TVN, Comcast Media Center Escalate Battle for Tier 2/3 Business The hundreds of tier 2 and 3 cable and IPTV service providers that dot the video service provider landscape are of great interest to Avail-TVN and Comcast Media Center, a subsidiary of Comcast. Recent deals illustrate the growing turf battle between the two. Comcast Media Center has long coveted the business of the smaller,...

Zayo Expands Ethernet and Wavelength Services in Northeast LOUISVILLE, Colo.– February 21, 2012 – Zayo Group announces today it will expand its Northeast route to include a high-capacity, regional network for Ethernet and Wavelengths transport. Zayo’s Northeast expansion will provide transport services at speeds of 1Gigabit, 2.5Gigabit and 10Gigabit per second with a total network capacity of...

Who Needs Netflix, Asks Comcast With the launch of Xfinity Streampix, Comcast is addressing the threat from OTT providers like Netflix head on. Streampix offers movie and TV content to multiple devices, in and out of the home, to existing Comcast video subscribers. The message is clear – you don’t need Netflix (or Hulu Plus or other premium OTT offers) [...] Telecompetitor

USTA Asks FCC To End Outdated Telecom Rules The US Telecom Association late last week filed a petition asking the FCC to eliminate certain requirements for incumbent telecom carriers, which the USTA says are outdated and no longer relevant. “These regulations apply solely to incumbent telecommunications carriers, even though incumbents now provide voice service to less than half of American...

TDS Opens Bid Process for Broadband Stimulus Work in Washington SALKUM, Wash. (Feb. 21, 2012) — Contractors from 22 telecom construction companies received details earlier today to bid on the broadband Internet expansion project in Washington. TDS Telecommunications Corp. (TDS®) hosted the pre-bid meeting to outline the project which will expand the company’s broadband network in part of Wash....

Healthcare Communications Offerings Gain Momentum Secure high-speed communications are critical for a range of new healthcare applications—and as a recent spate of announcements illustrates, there is a lot of momentum in this area. The North Carolina Telehealth Network (NCTN) announced the connection of the first of at least 24 non-profit hospitals to the network; and Verizon garnered an...

U.S. Cellular Announces Additional 4G LTE Markets CHICAGO (February 16, 2012) – U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM), in conjunction with its partner, King Street Wireless, announced the next markets that will experience high-speed 4G LTE services. In the second half of 2012, customers in more than 3,600 additional cities and towns in urban and rural areas will have access to 4G LTE speeds...

Congress Poised to Approve Voluntary Incentive Auction Plans Lawmakers soon are expected to approve legislation enabling the FCC to conduct a broadcast spectrum incentive auction—and President Obama could sign the legislation as early as this week. According to news reports, the legislation calls for television broadcasters to voluntarily relinquish $22 billion worth of unused spectrum and share...

Rural Telco Groups Urge Gradual Approach to Universal Service Reforms In comments filed with the FCC on Friday, rural telco associations asked the commission to minimize changes to today’s Universal Service program as that program transitions from voice to broadband. The filing was made as part of the reply comments process for the notice of proposed rulemaking that accompanied the Connect...

Rural Wireless Operator Plateau Wireless Sells to Verizon Verizon Wireless announced today that they have entered into an agreement to buy some wireless assets of Plateau Wireless, including parts of its existing customer base. Plateau is a subsidiary of ENMR-Plateau, a Clovis, New Mexico based telephone cooperative. Financial terms were not disclosed. Verizon will gain Plateau’s PCS and AWS...

Wisconsin Telco Tries Femtocells, Again February 17, 2012 — SWINDON, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mosaic Telecom, the regional US operator serving rural Wisconsin, is now providing its customers with femtocells based on the 3GPP Release 9 open standard. The Mosaic Home Cell is provided by Ubiquisys, the developer of 3G and LTE small cells, as part of a Nokia Siemens Networks...

FCC Plans New Broadband Speed Tests The FCC today said it will re-launch its voluntary nationwide broadband speed tests beginning in March. This time around, the FCC said it is expanding the study to include “more technologies, extending the study into new regions of the country and planning to publish more kinds of data.” The commission said it plans to issue [...] Telecompetitor

Report: Apple iPad No Longer Dominates Tablet Market Lower priced competition helped trim the Apple iPad’s media tablet market share lead in 4Q, but it was the introduction of Apple’s iPhone 4S that provided the stiffest competition. Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads and iPad 2s in 4Q 2011, a 39% increase, but Apple’s overall market share lead slipped to 57% from 64% on...

Cablevision Sees Strong Video Game Use on iO TV Making inroads into the lucrative online video games market, Cablevision yesterday announced that its iO TV digital TV service subscribers are playing more than 10 million free, casual interactive games on iO TV channel 610 per month. Cablevision’s iO TV carries more than 20 ActiveVideo TAG Games titles appropriate for both adults and...

Report: Customer Relationships Key to Pay-TV Providers’ Ability to Meet the iVOD Challenge The window of opportunity for pay-TV service providers to secure control of the market for video-on-demand (VOD) rentals is closing, according to an NPD report. Pay-TV providers already effectively control the VOD market, but competition for a-la-carte, over-the-top (OTT) providers’ market share...

Start Up Aereo Delivers Local TV Stations From The Cloud Aereo has come up with an interesting concept. By using very small antennas to build a local channel antenna farm, their technology delivers local broadcast TV stations to Internet connected devices via the cloud within a certain geographic region – New York City for now. It’s an interesting twist on OTT video and the video...

Windstream Targets E-Rate LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Feb 16, 2012 — With E-Rate filing deadlines just days away, Windstream Corp. (Nasdaq: WIN) is encouraging K-12 schools and libraries to act now to take advantage of discounts on telecommunications, Internet, and internal connections. he E-Rate program, administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), provides discounts...