Time Warner Cable subscribers in Texas may miss Super Bowl

Steve Donohue — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:59:02 -0500

With a retransmission-consent dispute with a Texas broadcaster leaving it unable to carry Sunday's Super Bowl 46 on NBC, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) has handed out more than 7,000 over-the-air antennas to subscribers on its Corpus Christi system.

The MSO, which counts about 80,000 customers in Corpus Christi, lost the feeds of NBC affiliate KRIS-TV and three other local stations after its retransmission-consent agreement with parent Cordillera Communications expired on Dec. 13.

"The broadcaster is making outrageous demands," Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff said regarding the increases in fees that Cordillera is pushing for. With NBC and the NFL distributing the Super Bowl online for the first time, subscribers who don't pick up an antenna will be able to watch the game on the Web. And Huff noted that Time Warner Cable has an agreement with NBC that lets its subscribers watch primetime programming through its video-on-demand platform.

The dispute also prompted Corpus Christi attorney and Time Warner Cable subscriber David Burkett to sue the company, complaining that he's not getting all of the channels in his $140 monthly bill. Burkett has suggested that he be allowed to make partial payments of $50 monthly until Time Warner Cable reaches an agreement with the broadcasters.

Cordillera isn't the only NBC affiliate to attempt to use the Super Bowl to squeeze increased retransmission-consent fees from a distributor. Sunbeam Television had threatened to block DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) subscribers from watching the championship game on Boston station WHDH-TV, but reached a deal after Massachusetts U.S. Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown intervened.

While only 80,000 homes may be impacted, the Time Warner Cable-Cordillera dispute will mark a significant addition to the annals of retransmission battles if subscribers are unable to access the biggest TV event of the year. It could also be cited by pay TV distributors as an example of why the FCC and Congress should reform retransmission-consent rules.

For more:
- The Corpus Christi Caller-Times has this story
- KZTV has this story

Cablevision develops technology for WiFi-based mobile phone service

Steve Donohue — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:55:33 -0500

Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) has developed technology that could allow it to offer its Optimum subscribers access to a WiFi-based mobile phone service, according to a patent obtained by FierceCable.

The company, which has also obtained a trademark for the brand Optimum Mobile, could rely on its extensive WiFi network in the New York metropolitan area to carry mobile phone traffic, and roaming agreements with other carriers in areas that aren't covered by WiFi, according to the patent filed by its CSC Holdings subsidiary.

"In an embodiment, the subscriber is a customer of a service provider and accesses a communications network through a WiFi access point using a mobile handset. The subscriber may access the WiFi network through any WiFi network access point operated by the service provider or by a subscriber of the service provider," Cablevision writes in the patent, titled "efficient use of a communications network."

"If there is no available WiFi network access point for the mobile handset, the mobile handset may then attempt to initiate a handover to a visited network (such as a GSM network) operated by a third party with whom the service provider has a roaming agreement. However, because usage of the visited network is more expensive than usage of the service provider network, the mobile handset may continually search for an available WiFi network," Cablevision adds in the patent, which lists VP of digital voice product development Nicholas Damenti as the inventor.

A Cablevision spokesman declined to comment about the company's mobile plans.

The company has said that it is experimenting with ways to offer mobile phone service through a hybrid network of WiFi access points and cellular towers. "We've been working with devices that switch back and forth between cellular and WiFi, and there's clearly an opportunity to build products there," former Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge said on an earnings call in May 2010.

Cablevision executives have said little since then about its WiFi phone strategy, but the company continues to invest in building its WiFi network, using gear from Canadian supplier BelAir Networks.

Much of the Cablevision patent discusses ways that it could use WiFi to reduce the costs of offering service through other networks, and methods for handing off calls from WiFi to cellular networks.

Source: US PTO and Cablevision

"Today, the logic that governs the handover from a mobile network to WiFi is triggered by WiFi signal strength and/or network connection quality. In most cases, this logic alone is sufficient to manage handovers from a mobile network to WiFi. In some cases a subscriber may frequently drift in and out of WiFi coverage. Each time a subscriber drifts out of WiFi, a handover to a mobile network is triggered. Frequent handovers between WiFi and a mobile network can result in extra mobile network usage costs because, for example, a mobile network voice usage is rounded up to the nearest minute," Cablevision states in the patent.

"What is needed therefore are systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products to enable handover logic that is cost efficient. The logic should enable handover from a first network to a second network, such that the handover logic makes the most economical use of the first network before the handover is initiated," the company added.

While Cablevision has developed technology that it could use to offer a WiFi-based phone service, the company faces the challenge of obtaining handsets that it could offer to subscribers, and striking roaming deals with carriers. But it already does have one relationship in place with a mobile phone carrier. Last year, it reached an agreement with Sprint to offer discounts to its Optimum Business customers. Adding mobile phone service to its product portfolio could also help Cablevision compete with top rival Verizon (NYSE: VZ), which already offers a quadruple play of video, high-speed Internet and landline and mobile phone service to its FiOS customers.

Commentary: How WiFi can hook triple-play subscribers

Frontier insists it won't drop FiOS; rural telco offers bundled discounts

Steve Donohue — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:01:12 -0500

While Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) previously said that it isn't focused on offering customers FiOS TV through systems it acquired from Verizon (NYSE: VZ) in 2010, the company is beginning to run radio ads in local markets that tout FiOS.

"The future is bright. We're not going to disconnect or stop serving FiOS," Frontier spokesman Matt Kelley told Fort Wayne, Indiana, station WANE-TV earlier this week.

Frontier lost 10,000 FiOS TV subscribers during the third quarter. The telco bought assets from Verizon in 14 states, including systems that offer FiOS TV, for $8.6 billion in 2010. But CEO Maggie Wilderotter has said that the company wants to focus on selling telephone and high-speed Internet service.

"Our focus is not on FiOS video deployment. The costs to install, set up and market new FiOS video customers are very expensive and, in our view, uneconomical," Wilderotter, the former chief of interactive TV firm Wink Communications, said on an earnings call last May.

For more:
- FierceTelecom has this story

Comcast hires former Cisco executive Singh for strategic planning post

Steve Donohue — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:36:58 -0500

Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) named former Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) executive Inder Singh senior VP of finance and strategic planning, making him responsible for its forecasting, strategy, business trends, and long-range plan preparation.

Singh

Singh, who reports to EVP and CFO Dave Scott, had been VP of corporate portfolio management and long range planning and a member of the CEO's operating committee and video board at Cisco. He's also worked previously at AT&T (NYSE: T), Lehman Brothers, American Express and Prudential securities.

"Inder's extensive knowledge and more than 20 years of financial planning experience will be instrumental in helping to identify new growth opportunities that are focused on our core businesses," Scott said in Thursday's announcement.

For more:
- see the news release

European Union takes data privacy more seriously than the U.S.

Steve Donohue — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:35:06 -0500

In today's spotlight, managing editor Samantha Bookman takes a look at how Europeans and Canadians marked Data Privacy Day last week compared to the efforts of the U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance. While EU lawmakers are drawing attention to privacy and data protection through meetings and roundtables that address privacy and security from the consumer, business and legislative level, Data Privacy Day drew little attention in the U.S. Read more...