At last min., FCC once again delayed votes on 3 digital TV items scheduled for consideration at its open meeting Thurs. Commission, which first postponed action on DTV issues last month, didn’t indicate reason for latest delay. But, in his swan song meeting at Commission, FCC Chmn. Kennard pledged that agency would act on all 3 items no later than Jan. 17, just before he’s expected to step down from his post in favor of Republican successor (see separate story, this issue).

Arianespace Chmn. Jean-Marie Luton said company lost more than $190 million in 2000, citing operation of Ariane 4 and Ariane 5, training employees to operate both rockets, raising newer rocket’s payload. Production costs for 2nd series of Ariane 5 rocket will be 35% less than first series, InfoWest spokesman said. Company’s losses were “not a surprise,” he said, adding that it expected to break even in 2001. Arianespace also committed money to building S5 preparation building to allow company to perform all maintenance at launch facility in Kourou and expected building to come into service in April, which spokesman said would save company more money this year.

VisionStar’s proposed transfer of Ka-band satellite license to holding company jointly owned with EchoStar is part of long- range goal to provide high-speed Internet service to rural and remote areas of U.S., CEO Shant Houvnanian told us. “We want to bring 2-way high-speed Internet service to the dark side of the digital divide.” Role of EchoStar also will increase if FCC approves, Houvnanian said. “They will get a larger ownership stake, but I will still be the significant shareholder.” VisionStar/EchoStar partnership filed application with FCC Dec. 15 to transfer control of orbital slot at 113 degrees W over Continental U.S. from VisionStar control (CD Jan 9 p8). Houvnanian said he owns 51%, EchoStar 49% of VisionStar/EchoStar. “I've personally invested a lot of money in this project to keep it going,” he said. “This is a complete start-up” company. VisionStar is one of several companies allocated Ka-band slots in May 1997 by Commission (CD May 23 p5) that have yet to launch satellite or service. Houvnanian said since contracting with Orbital to build satellites, VisionStar had exercised option in contract that allowed it to contract with Lockheed Martin to expand scope of service by building larger satellites.

Internet streaming video surged 215% to more than 900 million streams accessed in 2000, study by DFC Intelligence reported. It said broadband Internet access carried nearly 29% of video streams, and 15% of streams carried ads -- www.dbpwebcasttrack.com.

NTIA announced that $42.5 million was available this year for grants to govts., educational institutions and nonprofit groups for programs to expand advanced services to underserved areas. Funding for Technology Opportunities Program is up from $12.5 million available in 2000. NTIA will hold regional workshops to explain how to apply for funding: Feb. 2 in Washington, Feb. 6 in Denver, Feb. 8 in St. Louis -- www.ntia.doc.gov or 202-482-2048.

Convergence of technologies is spurring “surprisingly” strong push by govt. agencies into telecom market, but phenomenon won’t help achieve desired goal of lower costs and more rapid deployment of services, Progress & Freedom Foundation said in study released Jan. 10. More than 200 state and local govts. are providing telecom services, with 100 offering cable service and others everything from Internet to local telephony, said study titled Does Government Belong in the Telecom Business? Argument that govt. involvement can provide benchmark of real costs of providing service, thereby helping regulators set prices at appropriate levels, is myth, study said, because municipal utilities, like other govt. entities, benefit from “plethora of tax and regulatory advantages not available to the private sector": (1) Municipalities are able to issue tax-free debt. (2) They have access to public rights-of-way on terms not available to private companies. (3) They “avoid” franchise fees and other “taxes” that private companies must pay. (4) They aren’t subject to generally accepted accounting practices. (5) They often receive interest- free loans or outright public subsidies. As result of subsidies and advantages, public utilities never provide accurate gauge of true costs of providing service but distort marketplace, study said. Because subsidies allow public utilities to “undercut” prices charged by private companies, they deter entry by real competitors and thus prevent marketplace from setting cost-based prices, it said. Study said govt. agencies that had entered telecom business had been saddled with financial losses and obsolete, legacy technologies. It said such entry distorted marketplace incentives and slowed development of private sector competition. Study said govt. role in telecom marketplace must be confined to removal of regulatory barriers to private deployment of services and reduction of telecom taxes that “account for over 18% of the typical telephone bill.” Recent study by foundation found that high telecom taxes cause one million fewer households to have 2nd telephone line.

FCC denied Small Business in Telecom (SBT) petitions to deny applications of Radiofone Nationwide and Harbor Wireless, winners of 700 MHz guard band auctions. Action Thurs. also held that SBT had no standing as petitioner and that petitions, which asserted that applicants should have disclosed personal income of controlling interest holders for purposes of determining qualification for bidding credit as very small business, lacked merit.

ALTS submitted proposal to FCC to curb high CLEC access charges without more drastic measure of mandatory detariffing. ALTS plan proposed Thurs. would: (1) Set ceiling of 2.5 cents per min. for CLECs serving large markets. Different formula would be used for rural CLECs. (2) Make CLECs subject to mandatory detariffing if they exceeded ceiling. (3) Protect CLECs from “harassing” tactics by large interexchange carriers (IXCs). For example, FCC would “affirm” that IXCs couldn’t refuse to pay filed tariff rates. Agency also would define terms under which IXCs could refuse to terminate service to end users served by CLECs that charged higher-than-permissible access rates. Proposal, called Guaranteed Reduced Exchange Access Tariffs (GREAT), was presented in comments to FCC on whether mandatory detariffing should be used to discourage excessive rates (CC Doc. 97-146). Agency had expressed concern that under “filed rate doctrine” of tariff law, CLECs could set unreasonably high rates and enforce payment through federal tariffs. ALTS said plan would “ensure reasonable CLEC access charge levels while at the same time promoting regulatory certainty.”

Seven states have requested more delegated authority from FCC to allow them to implement number conservation measures. FCC is seeking comments on requests of Ind., Minn., Mo., Okla., Tenn., Vt., W.Va. Comments are due Feb. 12, replies Feb. 28 (CC 96-98, 99-200).

NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft will begin low-altitude passes over 433 Eros asteroid Jan. 24, getting as close as one to 2 miles Jan. 28 before Feb. 12 crash landing on asteroid’s surface. Spacecraft’s descent will allow its digital camera to take close-ups of asteroid’s landscape until it reaches 1,650 ft. above surface. NEAR Shoemaker isn’t expected to survive maneuver since it wasn’t designed to land.