January 2012

Three organizations representing small rural telcos filed a petition for reconsideration and clarification with the Federal Communications Commission on various aspects of the Universal Service and inter-carrier compensation reform order adopted late last year. Signing the petition were the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO), the Western Telecommunications Alliance (WTA) and the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA).

Notably, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA), which often joins the other rural telco associations on joint filings, did not participate in the petition—perhaps because the NTCA is pursuing a legal challenge to the USF reform order instead.

OPASTCO, the WTA and NECA are asking the FCC to reconsider three key areas:

1. The order does not address how broadband Universal Service funding to rate-of-return carriers would be allocated, yet it imposes new service mandates (i.e., the deployment of broadband services). “The commission should make sure sufficient and predictable funding is in place before imposing new service mandates,” the announcement about the filing states.
2. The FCC should reconsider or modify plans to cap high-cost support, to establish a “reasonably comparable” rate floor and to phase out safety net additive support.
3. The FCC should reconsider its approach to examining petitions for waiver of new rules and support limitations and reduce the burdens on small companies associated with new reporting requirements. “Changes are needed to the commission’s method for prescribing a new interstate authorized rate of return, as well as several of the ICC provisions of the order.”

The new year will bring plenty of splashy stories about iPads and IPOs. There is a more important theme gathering around us: How analytics harvested from massive databases will begin to inform our day-to-day business decisions. Call it Big Data, analytics, or decision science. Over time, this will change your world more than the iPad 3.

Computer systems are now becoming powerful enough, and subtle enough, to help us reduce human biases from our decision-making. And this is a key: They can do it in real-time. Inevitably, that "objective observer" will be a kind of organic, evolving database. These systems can now chew through billions of bits of data, analyze them via self-learning algorithms, and package the insights for immediate use. Neither we nor the computers are perfect, but in tandem, we might neutralize our biased, intuitive failings when we price a car, prescribe a medicine, or deploy a sales force. This is playing "Moneyball" at life. It means fewer hunches and more facts.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) dismissed an alternate online piracy bill from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), arguing it is not a "meaningful solution" to the problem of online piracy.

The recording industry is among the strongest supporters of another online piracy bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). That legislation would enable the government to force Web firms to delete links to foreign websites dedicated to copyright infringement. Rep Issa and Sen Wyden have offered the OPEN Act as an alternative to SOPA; the bill would send online patent claims against foreign sites to the International Trade Commission. But RIAA senior executive vice president Mitch Glazier argued the ITC moves far too slowly to solve the urgent problem of online piracy. "Every day that these sites operate without recourse can mean millions of dollars lost to American companies, employees, and economy, and an ongoing threat to the security and safety of our citizens," Glazier said. "Why in the world would we shift enforcement against these sites from the Department of Justice and others who are well-versed in these issues to the ITC, which focuses on patents and clearly does not operate on the short time frame necessary to be effective?"

The number of high definition, digital television (HDTV) sets in U.S. households continues to rise, hitting 69% according to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG), up from 17% in 2006. That means 52% of U.S. homes have adopted it in the last five years.

The survey also found that a growing number homes have multiple HD sets, with 48% of HDTV households having more than one HDTV. Overall, about one-third of all U.S. households now have multiple HDTV sets -- up from about one-sixth of all households two years ago, and 4% five years ago. Yet about 45% of TV sets in HD households, and close to 60% of all TV sets in the US, are not HDTVs, which means a great deal of viewing still occurs in standard definition. The survey also found relatively robust demand for new HD sets, despite poor economic conditions. About 21% of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months, and 19% of all households plan to purchase a new TV set in the next 12 months.