Minority ownership of commercial TV and radio stations increased 0.9% overall over last 2 years, but minorities’ share of TV market actually declined in 2000, NTIA said in report released by Commerce Secy. Norman Mineta Tues. “Unfortunately,” this was increase “that we must attribute mostly to an industrywide economic boom and an improved reporting methodology,” Mineta said, and “clearly there is reason for concern.” NTIA survey showed that consolidation in industry threatened survival of minority and single-station owners, he said.

PanAmSat asked FCC to defer deadline for filing comments on supplemental information provided by Intelsat in application to construct, launch and operate C-band and Ku-band satellites. PanAmSat wants comment period delayed until Commission has: (1) Acted upon Intelsat request, which PanAmSat opposes, for confidential treatment of documents filed along with supplemental information. (2) Determined whether Intelsat should be required to furnish additional relevant and material information.

Motorola plans to stop cellphone manufacturing operations at its Harvard, Ill., plant, resulting in loss of 2,500 jobs from company’s total work force of 130,000. Motorola, which issued series of earnings warnings late last year, said move was part of its strategy to consolidate manufacturing and bolster financial performance. Harvard campus, which will continue to have 2,500 employees, will focus on order fulfillment and new product sourcing. “We cannot competitively manufacture products when there is surplus global capacity at Motorola’s lower cost sites,” Motorola PCS Pres. Mike Zafirovski said. Company said it planned to halt manufacturing at Ill. site by June 30.

AT&T said it would buy out Comcast and Cox minority stakes in Excite@Home, trading $2.9 billion of its own stock for its cable partners’ highly priced shares in Excite@Home. AT&T, which agreed last March to buy 60 million Excite@Home shares held by Cox and Comcast to consolidate its control of Excite@Home, reportedly sought to avoid large stock payout by offering some of its cable systems to 2 MSOs. But Comcast and Cox showed little interest in those properties, preferring to get AT&T stock at its currently deflated price. With transaction, AT&T said it would boost its economic interest in Excite@Home to 38% from current 23% and its voting interest to 79% from 74%. In return, Comcast and Cox will receive new, attractively priced stock warrants in Excite@Home and will continue to offer its high-speed data service through June 2006, including exclusively until June 2002. But 2 MSOs will retain right to end exclusive deals as well as entire distribution arrangement starting in Dec., as long as they're willing to forfeit warrants.

AOL Time Warner, having completed its merger late Thurs. night following FCC’s approval, announced its new 16-member board. Company said new board -- 8 members each from AOL’s and Time Warner’s old 11- member boards -- would meet for first time later this week. New board consists of: (1) XO Communications Chmn.-CEO Daniel Akerson. (2) Barksdale Group partner James Barksdale. (3) Hilton Hotels Pres.-CEO Stephen Bollenbach. (4) AOL Time Warner Chmn. Steve Case. (5) Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers partner Frank Caufield. (6) CGLS Fund partner Miles Gilburne. (7) Hills & Co. Chmn.-CEO Carla Hills. (8) AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin. (9) Colgate-Palmolive Chmn.-CEO Reuben Mark. (10) Former Philip Morris Chmn.-CEO Michael Miles. (11) AOL Time Warner Vice Chmn. Kenneth Novack. (12) AOL Time Warner Co-COO Richard Parsons. (13) AOL Time Warner Co-COO Robert Pittman. (14) Fannie Mae Chmn.-CEO Franklin Raines. (15) AOL Time Warner Vice Chmn. Ted Turner. (16) Vincent Enterprises Chmn. Francis Vincent. In one interesting footnote to FCC’s approval of takeover, consumer groups that had fought for strong regulatory conditions on deal ended up urging Commission to okay it even though they and other critics didn’t gain interoperability of AOL’s current instant messaging (IM) services. New ex parte filing from last week reveals that Media Access Project’s Andrew Schwartzman and Consumers Union’s Gene Kimmelman pressed Comr. Tristani, last holdout in IM fight, to vote for approval because agency had won as much as it could. Despite their strong support for “full interoperability of instant messaging services,” Schwartzman and Kimmelman said, “the net value of the relief the Commission could provide to consumers and the public from a properly crafted decision justified acceptance of an order which did not provide full interoperability.” Sources said consumer advocates also probably feared what might happen if merger review lingered beyond Democratic Chmn. Kennard’s tenure, which will end Fri.

Qwest said its customer service improved in 2000 with 98% of its installation commitments met when promised, representing best results in last 5 years, and 95% of its repair commitments met on time, best since 1996. In addition, more than 80% of service outages were repaired in less than 24 hours, up from 63% year ago, company said. It also announced line-sharing agreements with 4 competitors -- Contact Communications, Multiband Communications, New Edge Networks, NorthPoint Communications. Qwest said agreements would broaden availability of high-speed Internet and broadband services in its territory.

Sirius Radio said it conducted first test of satellite radio system from orbiting satellite to mobile car radios. Ford Telematics Dir. Russ Minick said “difference between Sirius and regular radio is really impressive.” Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Buyer Marc Spatz said listening to service live “exciting.” Testing includes end-to-end testing and integration of Sirius receiver, studio, broadcast, transaction management and customer service systems, as well as feedback from listeners on programming, company said.

GSM Assn. reached agreement with TDMA wireless group Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) to include TDMA interoperability with GSM as component of GSM Global Roaming Forum. Point of forum is to foster interoperability of GSM and non-GSM technologies with goal of intrastandard roaming among carriers. Groups said GSM and TDMA interoperability, through GSM/ANSI-136 Interoperability, has been under discussion since 1999. Agreement between 2 wireless groups brought development work under purview of roaming forum. Forum develops technical requirements for terminals, networking and commercial standards for services, billing and financial settlements.

Now that FCC finally has approved AOL’s takeover of Time Warner (TW) with additional regulatory conditions, cable operators, consumer groups, phone companies, state and local regulators, ISPs, broadcasters, DBS providers, cable overbuilders and others already are girding for next big fights over extending those regulations to rest of cable industry. Likely new battle fronts include 2 separate FCC proceedings on cable open access issue and interactive TV (ITV) rules, each of which covers part of leading conditions imposed on AOL-TW by FTC and FCC. Another new battle front could be expected bill in new Congress that would create comprehensive regulatory scheme for all broadband services, whether delivered by cable, telephone, satellite or wireless technologies. “It’s going to be more diffuse,” said Precursor Group CEO Scott Cleland. “The progress will still be made but it will be more difficult to track.”

Crown Castle International announced IPO of 12 million shares of common stock at $26.25 per share to raise $315 million. Company said offering was expected to close Jan. 17. Crown Castle said it planned to use proceeds for “general corporate purposes” such as capital spending and for acquiring shared communications infrastructure.