Today's Top Stories Industry executives and association leaders including Windstream's (Nasdaq: WIN) Jeff Gardner, COMPTEL's Jerry James, and NCTA's Shirley Bloomfield joined analyst Larry Downes and Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn to testify Thursday in front of the Senate Commerce Committee in a hearing--the fourth in a series--on the impending transition off the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) to IP technologies.  | | (Left to right) Gardner, Bloomfield, James, Downes, and Sohn. (Screencap: U.S. Senate) | It was in every way a discussion about what's next for telecommunications. But the biggest issue lay in how much regulation, if any, should be created or revised as providers shift away from the PSTN. While several topics were on the table--technology transition, FCC governance, rural access to voice and Internet services, the cord-cutting trend, and call completion problems--the question of maintaining competitiveness while continuing to both innovate and provide reliable services stayed at the forefront. "We must create a pro competition industry for the IP era," said Gardner--also president of broadband advocacy organization US Telecom--who pointed out that wireless relies upon wireline technologies like backhaul. "The wireline network remains the linchpin. LTE (and other wireless technologies) all rely on robust wireline networks. Last year wireline networks handled 98 percent of total data traffic." COMPTEL's Jerry James saw it as a simple technology transition. "This is not about the Internet, but just a different signaling protocol," he told the committee. The biggest issues from his organization's point of view are last-mile access and interconnection, but he felt that the current regulations, formulated in the 1996 Telecom Act, should continue to apply. Analyst Downes said that regulating IP communications would stifle 15 years of rapid innovation and growth that have brought the industry to where it is. He said the FCC's proposed IP transition trials will answer many of the questions regulators and providers have about the migration. "Many of those commenting (to the FCC) raise dramatic doomsday scenarios. But conducting the trials will make abundantly clear which (issues) are real and which aren't," he said. "Technology entrepreneurs believe the best solution to a technology problem is more technology. Not more regulation." But Bloomfield and Sohn were deeply worried about the effect that nonregulated, competition-dependent IP services will have in rural areas that are typically underrepresented in these types of discussions. "Some believe the transition should be a glidepath to eliminating FCC oversight," Sohn told the panel. Both she and Bloomfield pointed out that one of the worst problems for rural customers is dropped or incomplete phone calls. On an IP-based network, latency or other issues sometimes trap calls and don't let them go through. "In a world ruled by competition, this doesn't get fixed," said Sohn, who said the FCC needs to enforce regulations on call completion while it still can. Bloomfield said the "call completion epidemic" was part of several problems faced by rural carriers trying to navigate the Universal Service Fund, which is plagued by cuts, caps, and other restraints. She felt the FCC needs to review what is already in place for USF, and wait for an expected GAO report to be published, before making any more changes to the fund. Sohn used the controversy raging around Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Voice Link rollout on Fire Island, N.Y., as a prime example of the way critical services could be lost when transitioning to a new technology without thinking about its impact. She cited comments to the New York Public Service Commission from full-time island residents that outlined gaps in basic service on the Voice Link system, such as not being able to make emergency calls or get remote monitoring of pacemakers. "These are not luxuries, they are necessities, and in many cases a matter of life or death," she said. For more:
- watch the archived Senate hearing
- The Hill has this post Related articles:
Voice Link isn't the magic bridge off the PSTN; broadband is
Frontier, FairPoint, others find new wholesale life with wireless backhaul
IP technology transition trials proposed by FCC met with mixed response Read more about: IP Migration
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Arctic Fibre will begin physical landing site surveys to bring its 40G broadband submarine cable into eight sites in northern Canada starting in mid-August. And the company is seeking help and guidance from parties as diverse as town elders and local hunters to determine the best places to bring ashore its cable.  | | Arctic Fibre's planned subsea cable route across northern Canada. | The site selection process will involve representatives from the company and leaders in 14 communities where the lines could potentially come ashore. Landing site locations must be finalized so Arctic Fibre can refine its undersea routes and begin detailed marine studies later this year as part of a $620 million submarine backbone network between London and Tokyo that the company plans to light in December 2015. Designed for financial institutions on the two continents, the northern Canada landings would be a branch of the backbone designed for both commercial and residential service. The company has "undertaken extensive desktop marine and terrestrial surveys which reflect the normal cable landing factors such as tides, currents, seabed conditions and proximity to terrestrial telecom facilities," Arctic Fibre CEO Douglas Cunningham said in a press release. Now the company wants to resolve details of how the landings will affect the local communities. "We want the benefit of the local communities' expertise with regard to ice conditions and the most suitable location away from anchorages and any environmentally sensitive areas and habitat," Cunningham explained. "That's why we will be holding consultative meetings in each community as well as physically examining the various landing site options and alternative routings across the Boothia Peninsula from Taloyoak to Lord Mayor Bay." The community meetings will include elders, hamlet mayors and council members along with community and land resource committee members, local hunters and the general public. "Potential subcontractors for civil works will also have an opportunity to present their credential to the Arctic Fibre team who are committed to creating as much local participation as possible," said Madeleine Redfern, president of Ajungi Arctic Consulting. The land surveys are part of a plan to provide "virtually unlimited bandwidth" to the combined Nunavut and Nunvik population in northern Canada, starting with building an Arctic broadband network off the transcontinental link between Asian and European financial centers. It's not all submarine or even terrestrial. In February, Artic Fibre proposed using nine microwave hops to extend broadband service to 23 additional communities. For more:
- Arctic Fibre issued this press release Special Report: Submarine cable operators hunt new routes; counter congestion political turmoil Related articles:
Bell Aliant to bring FTTH service to 20,000 users in North Bay, Ontario
Alcatel-Lucent delivers 31 Tbps in submarine cable experiment
NEC to upgrade APCN2 submarine cable capacity Read more about: Submarine Cable
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French media and telecom giant Vivendi, already in the process of trimming businesses that are not core to its entertainment media business, could eventually trim the telecom part of its portfolio, an executive with the firm suggested during a conference call with analysts, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a busy week, Vivendi announced talks to sell its 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom and a deal to sell most of its 61 percent stake in video game firm Activision Blizzard. Both deals are expected to bring in a total of $13.7 billion, which the company will use to pay down debt. Those deals, however, may not be the end of things, said CFO Philippe Capron. "One possibility, among others, is that we engineer a split of the company with (French telecom) SFR being taken out of the perimeter," Capron said. This, the publication suggested, could be done via an IPO, reigniting an idea that sprang up a couple months ago when Jean-Yves Charlier was appointed SFR's CEO. The second possibility that would pretty much seal up Vivendi as a media company sans telecom would be if it finally sold off Brazilian firm GVT, as has been suggested in the past. GVT was on and off the sales table in the past when bids didn't meet the company's expectations. "The GVT process could be started again," Capron admitted. "That would leave us to start re-growing the group around (media plays) Universal Music and Canal (Plus.)" Capron said that the firm does not "have any significant acquisitions" in the works right now and that, despite seemingly being related to the media business, Activision needed to be sold. "We decided … we didn't have enough potential synergies with the rest of the group," Capron said that games divisions are not generally part of other company's media and entertainment businesses. For more:
- The Hollywood Reporter carried this story Related articles:
Vivendi pushes ahead with plan to offload Maroc Telecom
Vivendi picks telecoms chief Charlier to head France's SFR
Vivendi delays GVT sale after getting lowball offers Read more about: media and entertainment, IPO
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Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) credited increased acceptance of the DTN-X platform for boosting revenues from the first quarter's $124.6 million to $138.4 million in the second quarter. Revenues were also up from $93.5 million a year ago. During the quarter the intelligent transport networks (ITN) provider brought in seven new purchase commitments, including three from customers that are new to Infinera, said CEO Tom Fallon. "Our success reflects the static commitment of our customers to a new architecture as they face massive traffic growth, operational complexity and increasing demand for instant delivery of services," Fallon said in the press release. For the quarter, GAAP gross margin was 37 percent, a 3 percent increase over the first quarter and 2 percent more than the second quarter of 2012, the company said. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $10 million, or about 9 cents a share, compared to $15.3 million (13 cents a share) in the first quarter and $29.5 million (27 cents a share) in the year-ago period. The results portend a bright future, Fallon continued, in prepared comments to analysts during an earnings conference call. "When we started this company we foresaw an unrelenting demand for bandwidth and crafted a vision that has stood the test of time, delivering an infinite pool of intelligent bandwidth," he said. "Service providers are facing massive traffic growth, new business dynamics, operations complexity and customer demands for instant delivery and increased visibility and control (and) our architecture is designed to allow service providers to squarely address these new challenges and gain significant business value from the transport networks through massive scale, layered convergence and intelligent automation." For more:
- Infinera issued this earnings press release
- and Seeking Alpha had this earnings call transcript Special Report: Wireline telecom earnings in the second quarter of 2013 Related articles:
Infinera: Submarine cable equipment suppliers
Infinera Q1 revenues rise to $124.6 million on DTN-X sales
Infinera's DTN-X, DTN add OSMINE certification to gain appeal with Tier 1 users Read more about: Infinera
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The approach of a tougher copper theft law in Washington state has apparently encouraged thieves to dig deeper--literally--to steal the semi-precious metal. The law, which takes effect next week, will supposedly make it easier to track thieves trying to sell the copper. So, for now, there's some urgency to get and sell the material. In Washington, some thieves are so desperate they've even started cutting and stripping cheaper cable TV lines that hand between poles. Still, the most money is to be made from digging or cutting exposed thick-gauge phone wire. According to Seattle's KOMO News, Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) has been hard hit--and that's become a problem for its subscribers. A Frontier rep, John Daly, told the station that thieves targeted a rural road near Snohomish, Wash., probably because it was remote. "It comes down and they can pull it back into the woods and wherever and roll it up," he said. Frontier's lines have been snipped in Snohomish, Skykomish and Granite Falls, causing temporary outages for voice and data customers and even affecting 911 services. "The cable becomes their (consumers') lifeline for all sorts of things, in particular 911," Ken Baldwin, another Frontier representative told the station. "How do you respond to those emergencies." Frontier has also reported problems with copper thieves in its Ohio and West Virginia territories. For more:
- KOMO ran this story Related articles:
Verizon takes on copper theft in Pa., offering $50,000 reward
AT&T's Internet, wireless service disrupted from fiber cut in Gilroy, Calif.
West Virginia copper theft law seems to be working--for some Read more about: stealing copper
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