June 2011

As mobile devices continue to gain in popularity, California has taken a step to limit their use by state employees. Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) announced June 8 that 29,398 cell phones have been eliminated from state use — a 44 percent reduction in state agencies and departments.

This is just the first round of cuts. Brown’s target goal is to remove a total of 33,559 cell phones from state service, which would equal a 50 percent reduction statewide. The cutbacks are expected to save approximately $13 million. Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said that Brown’s own office has achieved a 75 percent cutback of its cell phones to set an example for the rest of the state.

A Q&A with American Cable Association CEO Matthew Polka about the group's proposed 16/4 Universal Service Fund speed target, retransmission consent and why he says USF funding shouldn't be used for cable network overbuilds.

Like rural telcos, rural cable operators have different concerns than their metro area counterparts. Since 1993, many rural cable companies have turned to the American Cable Association to help represent their concerns on public policy issues. Connected Planet talked recently with ACA President and CEO Matthew Polka to get the ACA’s take on issues such as retransmission consent and Universal Service reform. About forty percent of ACA’s 900 members are owned by incumbent or competitive rural telcos, and that reality also helps shape the organization’s unique point of view.

T-Mobile USA, hoping to stem the loss of its most-valuable customers, began offering a $200 credit to business customers looking to switch to its service. New customers who sign up will get a $10 credit for 20 months after the line has been active for 90 days.

The credit was quietly offered starting last week. The move is a response to Sprint's own efforts to poach customers away from its rival carriers. Last month, it began offering a $125 credit to new smartphone customers and $175 to business customers. Sprint specifically targeted T-Mobile with its incentive, and a T-Mobile spokesman said its new offer is designed to win customers back. T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, is attempting to keep a business-as-usual outlook as it looks to be snapped up by AT&T in a proposed deal that is making its way through the approval process. In the meantime, the carrier has suffered from heavy customers losses--particularly from lucrative consumers who are dropping their long-term service contracts.

The feds have scheduled the first ever national test of the Emergency Alert System. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission will conduct the test Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. EST. The duration may last up to three-and-a-half minutes.

A national alert enables the president to break into regular broadcasts and address the American public during emergencies. One has never been issued in the history of the system, established in 1951 by then President Harry Truman during the Cold War. It was then known as CONELRAD and included the capability to jam aircraft homing devices. It was replaced in the 1960s by the Emergency Broadcast System, which in turn was supplanted with the current Emergency Alert System in 1997. “It is important to remember that this is not a pass or fail test, but a chance to establish a baseline for making incremental improvements to the Emergency Alert System with ongoing and future testing,” said Damon Penn, FEMA’s assistant administrator of National Continuity Programs. “It is also important to remember that the Emergency Alert System is one of many tools in our communications toolbox, and we will continue to work on additional channels that can be a lifeline of information for people during an emergency.” The November test is a culmination of more than two years of planning and development. A limited-area test was done in Alaska in January of 2010, with 104 radio stations and 26 TV stations participating. There were points of failure involving audio levels and improperly functioning encoders and decoders. That the hardware is not configured to a single standard complicates matters.