Howard Buskirk

Bucking trends in an arena that has done little in recent years but grow, Canada’s Rogers Communications said Mon. its wireless customer growth rate plummeted. In the last 3 months of 2005, Rogers added 216,300 wireless subscribers, down from the 262,900 the same period in 2004. Prepaid wireless subscriber net additions fell to 13,700 from 54,800. John Gossling, vp-financial operations, told the CitiGroup conference in Phoenix Rogers expected a decline, acknowledging it failed to compete aggressively on price against Bell Mobility and Telus. “We didn’t play in the free-phone space, we didn’t do the gift with purchase -- free DVD player, free hairdryer, whatever,” Gossling said. He said his company’s 54% share of the 3rd quarter postpaid market wasn’t “sustainable… against 2 big national players.” Rogers seems to have slipped thanks only to an earlier acquisition of Microcell and its Fido wireless service, Seaboard analyst Brian Sharwood told us. “If you take the numbers apart from the aberration of buying Fido, they look quite strong,” he said. “The churn numbers also look pretty good… They want to get churn under control and they're down at 1.5%.” Rogers’ cable results were more disappointing, he said. Rogers said cable TV subscriber net adds rose 35.6% to 8,000 from 5,900 a year earlier. Internet subscriber additions were 62,200, up from 57,100. Sharwood said he had expected more adds, based on very positive late 2005 data cited last week by Videotron. “The disappointing numbers are the numbers on both the IP phone and corresponding high-speed Internet and mostly basic cable,” Sharwood said: “Videotron had quite strong high-speed Internet and quite strong basic cable growth and that hadn’t happened in the industry for quite some time.” UBS analyst Jeffrey Fan dubbed Rogers’ net wireless subscriber additions “light.” But, he said in a research report, “overall, we believe the subscriber results were in line to better than consensus expectations… We believe underlying fundamentals remain strong.”

Cellphone power will get ever more attention as handset makers push to satisfy demand for multi-media phones, said ABI Research. “All eyes are again on handset power consumption and battery life,” said ABI. “The power management section, which is responsible for converting battery energy into voltages to power all parts of the handset, will see renewed focus and innovation.” Power management must become more sophisticated, analyst Alan Varghese said. “As time went on the mobile phone became more of a multimedia device,” he told us: “Phone technology hasn’t progressed at the same rate.” Varghese said one answer is “dividing the phone into parts” with tools to shut down elements not in use while other parts are active. Varghese said technology developed for wireless phones easily can translate to other devices. “It’s not really a destination as much as a process,” he said.

Cellphone power will get ever more attention as handset makers push to satisfy demand for multi-media phones, said ABI Research. “All eyes are again on handset power consumption and battery life,” said ABI. “The power management section, which is responsible for converting battery energy into voltages to power all parts of the handset, will see renewed focus and innovation.” Power management must become more sophisticated, analyst Alan Varghese said. “As time went on the mobile phone became more of a multimedia device,” he told us: “Phone technology hasn’t progressed at the same rate.” Varghese said one answer is “dividing the phone into parts” with tools to shut down elements not in use while other parts are active. Varghese said technology developed for wireless phones easily can translate to other devices. “It’s not really a destination as much as a process,” he said.

Municipalities and other govt. bodies should be able to roll out broadband networks, but are unlikely to perform as well as major cable and telecom firms, Media Access Project Senior Vp Harold Feld said Fri. at an FCBA Wireless Practice Committee lunch. Feld squared off against Tom Lenard, senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, who argued that muni broadband efforts drive out private investment.

Municipalities and other govt. bodies should be able to roll out broadband networks, but are unlikely to perform as well as major cable and telecom firms, Media Access Project Senior Vp Harold Feld said Fri. at an FCBA Wireless Practice Committee lunch. Feld squared off against Tom Lenard, senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, who argued that muni broadband efforts drive out private investment.

D.C.-based independent telecom analyst firm Precursor is getting out of the research brokerage business after 6 years, CEO Scott Cleland confirmed Thurs. Cleland said Precursor, which has gotten high marks in Institutional Investor rankings as an independent analysis firm, is downsizing and will concentrate in the future on advising a smaller group of customers in targeted areas.

Wireless tower operator Crown Castle said Wed. it will offer mobile TV to cellphones in the top 30 U.S. markets. The $500 million investment will use a national license for 1.670 GHz spectrum it bought during a 2003 FCC auction. Crown Castle also said it will rename its Mobile Media unit Modeo. The first markets, N.Y.C. and Pittsburgh, are slated to come online this year.

Industry sources expressed concern last week that the lack of a proceeding yet on the relationship between designated entities (DEs) and large spectrum holders could slow the long anticipated advanced wireless services auction (AWS), which is expected to occur as early as June. Chmn. Martin has yet to begin circulating an item on DE ties with large wireless carriers. A front page story in the Wall Street Journal last week focused additional attention on the DE issue.

The FCC indicated in an order released Fri. that even claims of damage from natural disasters don’t negate requirements that wireless carriers meet E-911 requirements. The FCC gave small wireless carrier Cellular South an additional 15 months to comply with requirements that 95% of its subscribers use location-capable handsets, with extra time added specifically tied to damage its network sustained in Hurricane Katrina. The Tier 3 carrier, in part citing Katrina damage, had asked for an 18 month extension. But the FCC took a tough line, raising concerns that the carrier hasn’t shown a clear path to compliance. The FCC warned that Cellular South shouldn’t assume it will get more time. “Although Cellular South has offered generalities concerning the impact of Hurricane Katrina on its operations, it has not disclosed what specific areas were affected and the extent of damage to its facilities, or presented an anticipated timetable for restoration of services and resumption of the marketing efforts necessary to achieve higher location-capable handset penetration levels,” the Commission said. “It also has failed to explain why it apparently cannot proceed with efforts to increase penetration levels in those areas of its service territory unaffected by Hurricane Katrina.” The FCC said that if the carrier wants more time, it must document “the particularized nature and extent of the impact of Hurricane Katrina” on its systems.

The full FCC has yet to start considering an order addressing the concerns raised by CTIA and the Rural Cellular Assn. last summer that wireless carriers won’t meet a Dec. 31 deadline that 95% of the handsets on their networks be location-capable, sources said. As a result, the FCC is expected to let the deadline pass without action. Carriers told the FCC in a July filing that due to the wireless market’s evolution and lack of consumer “churn” they could not meet the deadline. Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, U.S. Cellular and Alltel -- carriers that have embraced a handset-based E-911 solution -- are affected. David Nace, counsel to RCA, said the lack of Commission action creates uncertainty for RCA members. “We're disappointed that the Commission has not viewed [action on the carriers’ joint petition] as a reasonable way to deal with the deadline that could not be met by carriers for various reasons,” Nace said: “The Commission has chosen instead to act on individual requests. We thought that they could have dealt with a large number of common problems by acting in the way we suggested. It would have given carriers the time needed to meet the performance threshold.”