FCC ordered GE Americom Thurs. to disclose information to Pegasus Development on its contract with Harris Corp. involving construction of GE Star Ka-band satellite system. Pegasus requested information Oct. 13. GE Americom received license to launch and operate 5 satellites in fixed-satellite service (FSS) in Ka-band. It was required to begin construction of first bird by May 1998, but had asked that contract be exempt from Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements and withheld from public inspection. Pegasus, which wants to launch its own Ka-band satellites, objected.

WRAL-TV Raleigh will start newscasts in HDTV Jan. 28, with sponsorship by Panasonic, companies said. They said they were believed to be first regularly-scheduled newscasts in HDTV.

Wi-LAN signed 3-year agreement to supply T-Speed Broadband Communications with equipment for latter’s nationwide fixed wireless broadband network. T-Speed said it would offer symmetrical Internet connections at speeds of up to 8.5 Mbps.

AT&T is seeking FCC permission to discuss sale of MSO’s minority stakes in several cable networks, including E! Entertainment, Digital Cable Radio, Sunshine Network, New England Cable News, In Demand, Fox Sports New England, National Cable Communications, Food Network. Spokeswoman for AT&T said move was part of company’s drive to cut its debt load and improve its prospects on Wall St. In Jan. 10 ex parte filing with Commission, AT&T, which inherited those programming interests from MediaOne, said it sought govt. approval to shed stakes because it “could be required to advise, or obtain permission from, its current partners in these services.” In addition, company said, “a potential purchaser could be AT&T’s current partners in these services.” AT&T promised it “would not be involved in discussions directly relating to the video programming activities of these entities,” as FCC stipulated in approving MSO’s purchase of MediaOne last year. AT&T previously gained Commission approval to sell its inherited stakes in Speedvision and Outdoor Life networks.

Without broad audience guaranteed by cable carriage of digital signals, PTV stations will face additional difficulty raising money from local, state and national sources for digital transition, heads of 3 public broadcasting organizations said in response to FCC’s decision to require cable operators to carry only one multicast digital channel in rulemaking on digital must- carry (CD Jan 24 p3). In joint statement, CPB Pres. Robert Coonrod, PBS Pres. Pat Mitchell and APTS Vp-Policy & Legal Affairs Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis said carriage of only one digital channel, if allowed, would undermine PTV stations’ plans to provide wide range of multicast educational services to their communities. Millions of school children and 70% of nation’s TV viewers get PTV through their local cable system, they said, and for entire public to benefit from “our comprehensive array of digital education and local public affairs content, these cable systems must deliver all the educational noncommercial services that each station provides.” Thanking Chmn. Powell and Comrs. Ness and Tritani for “recognizing the potential impact of this decision on PTV,” they said they would work with them for “ a resolution of this issue that is faithful to the statute as well as to the public interest.” They said they would use opportunity in further notice to provide information to Commission to demonstrate that dual analog and digital carriage requirements during digital transition won’t burden cable operators’ First Amendment interests.

Broward County, Fla., regulators are in talks with AT&T and Comcast on settlement of open access dispute, giving rise to possibility that county would drop its appeal against U.S. Dist. Court, Miami, ruling overturning its open access ordinance (CD Nov 14 p1). “A draft agreement is in circulation,” Asst. County Attorney Anitra Lanczi told us. Declining to provide details or terms of talks, she said county would go forward with appeal in 11th U.S. Appeals Court, Atlanta, if settlement weren’t reached. Asked why county now favored settlement, she said: “Nobody wants to litigate. It’s expensive and time-consuming.” AT&T spokeswoman wouldn’t provide terms of talks, either, but confirmed that company was negotiating with county: “We are continuing to talk with them and hope to reach an amicable settlement.”

Set-top box (STB) equipped with hard drive and capable of receiving DirecTV and at least 3 other services could be available by late 2002, DirecTV Global Digital Media Pres. Lawrence Chapman said. Device would combine services that are or will be available in separate standalone DirecTV receivers this year including Wink Communications, AOLTV and UltimateTV. Latter 2 are built around TiVo and WebTV personal video recorder (PVR) technologies, respectively. All-in-one device could have 3 or 4 tuners, enabling it to receive several channels at same time, Chapman said. Current DirecTV-TiVo product has 2 tuners, only one of which is operational, with 2nd due to come online in midyear via software download, he said. STB also probably would have DSL connection option given DirecTV parent Hughes Electronics’ proposed acquisition of Telocity. “In the future we'll be able to consolidate on a platform that can run all these various services and let the consumers choose,” Chapman said. Gateway device also could play into DirecTV’s strategy for offering video-on-demand (VoD), first part of which is expected to revealed in first half of this year in conjunction with TiVo. “We could load those titles on a server overnight and have them ready for the viewer when they want to view them in VoD,” Chapman said.

Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) “adamantly” objected to request by Verizon Wireless to postpone start of 700 MHz auction scheduled for March 6. RTG argued carrier hadn’t provided FCC with “extraordinary or unforeseen reason to postpone” auction by at least 2 months, or ideally until Sept. 6. “The Commission should not establish auction deadlines that comport with the business plans of any private company; and, stripped to its essence, Verizon urges the Commission to delay the 700 MHz auction merely for Verizon’s business convenience,” RTG told agency.

Verizon Senior Vp Thomas Tauke told reporters Thurs. that company was seeking lobbying support from cable industry for new deregulated form of broadband policy that both telcos and cable could live with. He emphasized that no formal coalition had been formed, although 2 sides have had “discussions.” Tauke said he envisioned 3rd “basket” of regulations, separate from traditional cable and telephony models, that would apply only to broadband services. Under that scenario, broadband networks would be lightly regulated, along wireless telephony model, he said.

FCC’s latest report on long distance industry -- Statistics of the Long Distance Telecommunications Industry -- includes variety of data for 1999: (1) Long distance industry had $108 billion in revenue in 1999, up from $105 billion in 1998. (2) International revenue has grown fivefold since 1984 to more than $20 billion in 1999. (3) AT&T’s share of long distance market had fallen to 40% in 1999 from 90% in 1984. WorldCom’s share in 1999 was 25%, Sprint’s 10% and more than 700 other long distance carriers had remaining 25%. (4) Average household spent $64 per month on telecom services, $21 for services provided by long distance carriers, $34 for local exchange, rest for wireless carriers. (5) Residential phone bills showed 38% of toll calls in 1999 were interstate and accounted for 50% of toll min.; 33% of residential long distance min. were accrued on weekdays, 30% on weekday evenings, 37% on weekends.