WikiLeaks released more documents that it said came from the ongoing negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This marks the second time it’s released documents related to the negotiations (CD Nov 14 p21). The “secret TPP documents” show “the state of negotiations as the twelve TPP countries began supposedly final negotiations at a trade ministers’ meeting in Singapore this week,” it said. WikiLeaks said one of the documents describes work by the U.S. to get other countries to adopt U.S. stances, while the other document lists, “country-by-country, the many areas of disagreement remaining.” The U.S. Trade Representative’s office had no comment.

Cablevision and the Game Show Network want to continue delaying their program carriage case until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision on a cert petition submitted by Tennis Channel (CD Nov 29 p19) asking the justices to overturn the Comcast v. FCC decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “The meaning and reach of the evidentiary standards set forth in the Comcast Cable decision are thus potentially subject to further review,” said GSN in a joint status report submitted to FCC Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel Friday (http://bit.ly/1jEYIV3). Both GSN and Cablevision said they needed the Comcast verdict and its effect on program carriage law to be finalized, either by a denial of cert or a Supreme Court decision, to proceed with their case. The Cablevision/GSN case has been on hold since June, while the parties waited for other carriage disputes to resolve, with Tennis Channel’s complaint against Comcast (CD May 29 p1) the last remaining question mark. In the joint status report, the companies suggest that they be allowed to wait for the Supreme Court process to finish, and to submit another joint report either within 60 days of the Dec. 6 filing or 10 days after the Supreme Court resolves the Tennis Channel matter, whichever is earlier.

EU lawmakers and governments should make it easier for telecom companies to operate across borders, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Monday. She’s pushing for action on key proposals in the European Commission’s “connected continent” telecom overhaul package, one of which is the creation of a one-stop shop for authorizing e-communications services. The proposed regulation eases telecom service expansion in several ways, the EC said. It replaces 28 different registration requirements with one single point of authorization and notification in the EU, lowering entry barriers for new companies and costs for service provision. The rule also ensures that multi-territory telecom companies get more consistent treatment from regulators, and makes it easier for smaller players to cross borders by ensuring that operators below a certain size don’t have to pay regulatory administrative costs or pay into universal service funds, it said. The European Parliament is about to begin discussion on possible amendments to the draft package.

More than 1.7 billion devices that can access over-the-top (OTT) content such as Netflix or Hulu will ship by the end of 2013, a 20 percent increase over 2012, said IHS in a press release Monday (http://bit.ly/1bSbjCz). The 1.7 billion OTT devices is “enough OTT systems to accommodate almost one out of every four people on the planet,” said IHS. But the market is projected to grow another 20 percent next year, reaching 2.67 billion by 2017, it said. Most OTT devices are either PCs or smartphones, accounting together for 836 million of 2012’s 1.43 billion OTT boxes, IHS said. Around 480 million non-PC, non-smartphone devices will ship in 2013, a 30 percent increase over 2012, the release said. Handheld game platforms are the only OTT device not growing in sales, IHS said. “Like other single-tasking systems, the space is under attack from more broadly based general-purpose equipment, primarily smartphones and tablets,” said IHS. Digital media adapters are suffering from the same affliction, it said, and make up less than 1 percent of the total OTT market in 2013. However, as the market grows, OTT devices might face technical challenges, IHS said. New media coding standards have stiffer computational requirements than previous ones, and strain mobile devices’ battery power. “Such challenges present rich opportunities for semiconductor suppliers as new standards and technologies continue to expand the market,” it said.

Economist papers on retransmission consent filed by NAB have “assorted deficiencies, flaws and problems,” Mediacom said in comments in docket 10-71. The notion that there are 565 separate and distinct national networks “that could serve as substitutes for the popular programs of a Big-Four network carried by a station that is shut off during a negotiating impasse is ridiculous on its face,” it said in reference to a 2010 study by Navigant Economics for NAB. Many of the networks are unavailable on most cable systems and describe themselves as “national” only because they would like to be nationally, rather than locally or regionally, distributed, “but that dream has not been realized and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable (or even unforeseeable) future,” it said. Many of the channels offer highly specialized programming “that would not be considered by the typical viewer as a substitute for popular broadcast network shows,” it said. The Navigant paper’s conclusion “that market conditions preclude broadcast station owners from charging supra-competitive retrans fees is intellectual snake oil,” it said. Mediacom also referred to NAB’s letter last week as “just another instance of spin-doctoring.” Cable interests have distorted NAB’s arguments “and largely reiterated discredited claims and calls for government intervention into the retransmission consent market, even where the commission has no authority to act,” NAB said in that letter (http://bit.ly/J7XXX0).

The Inmarsat-5 satellite sent initial signals from orbit, Boeing said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1breLhh). “After reaching final orbit, it will complete several additional maneuvers and tests before officially beginning service for Inmarsat.” The Boeing-built satellite launched Sunday from Kazakhstan on an International Launch Services rocket, it said. The satellite is the first to launch for Inmarsat’s forthcoming Ka-band network (CD Dec 4 p16).

Dish Network urged the FCC to prohibit coordinated negotiations among non-commonly owned stations, adopt a carriage dispute resolution mechanism and permit interim carriage to avoid blackouts during impasses. The commission has “broad statutory authority to implement such reforms to protect consumers and better reflect market conditions,” it said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-225, 13-185 and 10-71 (http://bit.ly/1bSaLMU). Dish also supported auctions of 600 MHz spectrum and AWS-3 spectrum, it said. Consumers benefit from a competitive wireless landscape, and in order to preserve those benefits, “the commission must ensure that the two dominant wireless incumbents are not permitted to lock competitive carriers out of acquiring low-band spectrum,” it said.

A satellite jointly owned by China and Brazil was lost after it was launched Monday on a Chinese rocket. CBERS-3 was intended to help generate images in Brazil of agricultural zoning, natural disaster monitoring and other applications, said Brazil’s space agency in a news release (http://bit.ly/1d5t6T9). The launch vehicle, Long March 4B, malfunctioned, and the satellite wasn’t placed into orbit, it said. “Preliminary evaluations suggest that the CBERS-3 has returned to the planet.” The causes of the problem are being evaluated by Chinese engineers, the agency said.

Smartphones, tablets and e-readers can now be switched on in “flight mode” throughout an entire airline journey without a risk to safety, said the European Commission Monday. Updated guidance from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) allows, for the first time, the use of personal electronic devices in flight mode from gate to gate, the EC said. This is the first step toward safe expansion of the use of in-flight electronics during taxiing, take-off and landing, said Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas. The next step will be to look at how to connect to the network on-board, he said. He asked EASA to speed up its review of the safe use of transmitting devices on planes, with new guidance expected within the next year. It’s up to each airline to update its operating rules, the EC said. In the U.S., the FCC is to vote Thursday on an rulemaking that would allow airlines to authorize cellphones to be used during flights (CD Nov 22 p6).

Verizon FiOS, Bright House Networks and Verizon DSL had slight increases in Netflix speeds in November, said the online video distributor’s monthly speed index (http://nflx.it/1fdy6Ya). The OVD said Google Fiber, Cablevision Optimum, Cox Communications, Suddenlink and Charter Communications remained at the top of the list, followed by Verizon FiOS at 2.2 Mbps. Time Warner Cable and Comcast had slight decreases at 2.07 Mbps and 1.82 Mbps respectively, it said. Bright House had an increases to 1.91 Mbps and Verizon DSL to 1.23 Mbps, said Netflix. AT&T DSL slipped to 1.2 Mbps, said the speed index. It’s based on data from more than 40 million Netflix subscribers who watch more than 1 billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from the OVD each month.