Inmarsat plans a Sunday launch of the first satellite in its forthcoming Ka-band network. Inmarsat-5 F1 is to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket, Inmarsat said in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/IElVIz). The Ka-band network fleet, Global Xpress, is on schedule to achieve full global coverage by the end of 2014, it said. The Inmarsat-5 FI launch can be viewed at 7:12 a.m. EST at http://bit.ly/1bdQwGw.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers began projects on three new standards and recommended practices to improve cable operators’ energy efficiency and “business continuity,” said SCTE in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cSkLCy). “Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for Network Operators” will study best preparation and response methods to “disasters that may result in widespread network outages,” said the standards group. “Recommended Practices for Carbon Data Collection and Management” will help cable operators measure carbon footprints to find ways to boost energy efficiency and cut costs, said SCTE. That work is being led by Adrian Shulock of Coppervale Enterprises, while the disaster project’s chairman is Joseph Viens of Time Warner Cable. Operators and makers of consumer electronics have in recent years stepped up work on saving electricity in CE devices and at cable systems’ headends and other backend equipment (CD July 24/12 p12).

Online digital video store M-Go is testing gift card sales through Kroger, Ralphs and Safeway’s Vons supermarket chains, while Hulu, flush with new financing, is expanding rapidly into original content, said representatives of M-Go and Hulu in interviews. Over-the-top providers are scrambling to establish position within the market amid reports that many them are seeking alliances with cable operators. M-Go’s owners include cable set-top supplier Technicolor, while Hulu, which has Fox, Disney and Comcast among investors, is pursuing deals with cable operators to offer Hulu as a means for watching current shows online, said industry officials. A Hulu spokeswoman declined to comment, but said it “would be nice” if a cable agreement were reached. Hulu’s discussions with cable operators follow the hiring of former News Corp. executive Mike Hopkins as CEO and the infusion of $750 million into the company by Comcast, Disney and Fox earlier this year. Hulu, with more than 4 million subscribers, is expected to increase revenue this year from the $695 million it posted in 2012, said the spokeswoman. Hulu also has started production in New York of the 10-episode original comedy series Deadbeat that will be released next fall, the spokeswoman said. Hulu also ordered a second season of Occupant Entertainment’s Behind the Mask documentary series that focuses on the world of high school, college and pro sports mascots and the people behind them, it has said. “A percentage of the money we received” from investors in July “is going to original content because we know that is among the things that people want,” the Hulu spokeswoman said. M-Go will have kiosks in 287 Kroger, Ralphs and Vons stores to display $14.95 gift cards redeemable for about a dozen movies with a goal of further expanding the strategy in 2014, said an M-Go spokeswoman. Among the studios providing titles are 21st Century Fox, DreamWorks Animation, Sony and Warner Brothers, she said. M-Go sought out “the biggest national retailers” to deploy the kiosks as a “proof of concept,” said the spokeswoman. The store locations were chosen within “high-performing home entertainment” markets so M-Go could test the “correlation between historical home entertainment performance and a digital offer,” she said. The kiosks are being installed near each store’s gift card section placing movie studio titles in a “high traffic store locations where consumers go on a weekly basis,” the M-Go spokeswoman said. “This offers the convenience and security of a gift card with the tangible gratification of DVD impulse” purchases, she said. M-Go has signed a distribution agreement for Disney titles, more than a dozen of which were available Tuesday. With Disney’s involvement, M-Go has expanded its library to 19,000 titles, from 14,000 in September, with a goal of reaching 24,000 by year-end, the spokeswoman said. M-Go also developed iPad and Android apps, both of which are expected to be available “very shortly,” she said. The iPad app will be for viewing and not for transactions, she said.

Nearly half of all calls received by 911 emergency centers in North Carolina from wireless phones in June didn’t include accurate location information, said the Find Me 911 Coalition in a news release Tuesday (http://yhoo.it/1bdJ67e). Statewide data released by the FCC and analyzed by the Find Me 911 Coalition showed 211,241 of the 447,918 wireless calls received by 911 emergency centers in June lacked accurate “Phase II” location information that displays the location of the caller, said the coalition. It said the problem has worsened over the past year, as the percentage of calls lacking such information has risen from 36 percent in June 2012 to 47 percent this June. Carriers have been locked in a fight with the coalition, which they say is funded by technology provider TruePosition and has been spreading bad information to the states (CD Nov 19 p1). AT&T, T-Mobile and the Carolinas Wireless Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Data traffic on metropolitan access and aggregation networks will increase by 560 percent between now and 2017, said Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs Tuesday in a study. Metro networks’ data traffic will grow primarily due to demand for video and continued proliferation of data centers, Bell Labs said. Traffic from video services alone will grow 720 percent by 2017, while data center traffic will rise 440 percent, the study said. Video services are increasing their local delivery of content over metro networks, meaning that by 2017 about 75 percent of traffic originating on metro networks will completely stay on those networks rather than access content through a backbone network. About 57 of metro network traffic remains on the network now, Bell Labs said (http://bit.ly/18flqhF).

The text of Rural Spectrum Accessibility Act makes clear two senators’ goal to ensure rural and small carriers have access to spectrum. The subhead of the bill said this is “to expand wireless coverage.” Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, introduced S-1776 before Thanksgiving recess (CD Nov 25 p11) with Deb Fischer, R-Neb., as its one co-sponsor. Its text and title were posted online this week. The bill would amend Section 307 of the Communications Act of 1934. Within 90 days of the bill’s enactment, the FCC “shall establish a program under which a carrier that receives a license under this section may partition or disaggregate the license in order to make unused spectrum available to small carriers or carriers serving a rural area,” the bill proposed. “Any carrier that receives a license under this section and participates in the program … shall receive a 3-year extension of the license granted under this section.” Small carriers are ones with no more than 1,500 employees, according to S-1776. Both senators are members of the Commerce Committee, where the bill resides. The bill is substantially similar to S-3516, from former Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, that failed in the 112th Congress. Klobuchar was the Snowe bill’s one co-sponsor.

Iowa’s Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Advisory Council’s Broadband Committee submitted six recommendations to Gov. Terry Branstad (R) Monday designed as part of the Connect Every Iowan initiative to make Iowa the top broadband-connected Midwestern state (http://bit.ly/18YLz4S). The committee recommended the state use broadband adoption rates, network speeds and a statewide broadband economic analysis as criteria to evaluate the state’s efforts, said the report. The state should allocate resources to “maintain within Iowa the capacity” to collect and analyze data for these criteria on a continuing basis, it said. The state’s broadband program should be streamlined by focusing responsibility in the Office of the Chief Information Officer or another existing agency in the state to coordinate a public-private partnership for its broadband initiative, said the report. The parts of Iowa Communications Network (ICN), now used to connect schools, hospitals and government agencies to a fiber backbone, should be repurposed to make bandwidth available to the state’s industry partners, it recommended. Tax code-based incentives and digital literacy training should also be used to bring in infrastructure and encourage broadband adoption, said the report. The committee also recommended the state establish the capacity for Iowa schools to act early on the FCC’s E-rate program by giving them increased latitude of school infrastructure funding for network expansion or upgrades, it said. All of the recommendations are focused on making broadband availability and adoption universal in the state, Iowa Communications Alliance CEO Dave Duncan told us. Duncan is a former president of the Iowa Telecommunications Association and became the CEO of the Iowa Communications Alliance when his organization merged with the Rural Iowa Independent Telephone Association last month. “We want to bring broadband to all Iowans, and I have been pushing for state policy to look at all angles of this including financial incentives,” said Duncan, who is on the committee. But he said the buildout of the ICN concerned him: “As the representatives of the private industry, we are concerned with government subsidized excess capacity being dumped.” Buildout of the ICN wouldn’t solve the broadband availability problem in the state because the endpoints of the network are limited, said Duncan: “This network would not be able to connect everyone.” While Iowa Utilities Code Chapter 8D would have to be revised to open the network, he said he’s not sure what form the network would take. “It would not be completely open access, and there would be some restrictions on who could use it,” said Duncan.

Reply comments on the NPRM for licensing models and technical requirements in the 3.5 GHz band are due March 20, the FCC said in a Federal Register notice to be published Wednesday. Replies were initially due Dec. 20 (http://bit.ly/IFj6H0). Initial comments are still due Thursday. The FCC launched the NPRM last year (CD Dec 13 p6).

The U.S. Trade Representative is supporting the ability of third parties in Trans-Pacific Partnership countries to formally object to a patent at the initial application phase, said the office in a news release Friday. A leaked U.S. chapter on intellectual property rights showed the Obama administration was pushing stringent intellectual property language that promotes big business over consumer access to products and information, said WikiLeaks and other advocate groups that had criticized what they called the secretive nature of TPP talks. Meanwhile, a medicine intellectual property rights (IPR) policy change the USTR seeks (http://1.usa.gov/1k2YPXK) shows that office is amenable to negotiating data exclusivity time frames, said Sean Flynn, associate director of American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, in a blog post (http://infojustice.org/archives/31498). “This is consistent with reports of various groups talking to the White House and Members of Congress that they are being told that although the USTR has offered a 12 year data exclusivity provision in the TPP, it does not expect to get that provision in the final agreement.” Vice President Joe Biden started Sunday on a six-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region that includes a Tuesday summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, where the two leaders are expected to discuss TPP negotiations, said the White House. Biden is also scheduled to meet with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Friday. South Korea formally expressed Friday its intent to join TPP negotiations (CD Dec 2 p12).

FCC inaction and broadcast consolidation are exacerbating “skyrocketing” retransmission rates, said Mediacom in an ex parte letter addressed to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s chief of staff, Ruth Milkman. “Neither the consolidation that is occurring in local television markets nor the increasing demands for retransmission consent compensation are benefitting the public,” said Mediacom. “Rather, they are benefitting the bottom line of the stations’ corporate parents,” said the filing. Rising retransmission consent fees are driving the increased consolidation by giving broadcasters an incentive to acquire stations they can then leverage against cable companies in retrans negotiations, said Mediacom. Broadcasters can finance station acquisitions through the increased retransmission consent revenue such transactions generate, said Mediacom: “The result is an ongoing cycle of station acquisitions, increased retransmission consent fees, and reductions in local content -- all to the detriment of consumers.” Broadcast consolidation is also a threat to the incentive auction, because it concentrates the available spectrum in the hands of just a few owners, the filing said. The FCC should require the parties in broadcast transactions to produce hard data showing that “the proposed transaction will provide measurable benefits to the public, not just to the parties’ bottom lines,” said the filing. “If the Commission under Chairman Wheeler does nothing else, it should stop accepting at face value the broadcasters’ claims that increased concentration of station ownership and/or control, both at the local level and nationally, is good for consumers and society as a whole,” said the filing.