January 25, 2008 - First-day spectrum bids reach $2.8 billion

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January 25, 2008 Sign up Forward Archive Advertise Read more at SmartBrief.com News for telecom industry leaders Search recent stories:       News of the Day  First-day spectrum bids reach $2.8 billion The FCC on Thursday received a total of almost $2.8 billion in offers from undisclosed bidders during the opening day of the auction of reclaimed broadcast analog band. The amount represents the highest bids obtained for five separate blocks of frequencies at the start of the auction, which is expected to raise at least $10 billion for the government. Bloomberg/ClipSyndicate (1/24) , The New York Times/Reuters (1/25) , The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (subscription required) (1/24) Publish Press Releases in USTelecom dailyLead USTelecom dailyLead has joined with Business Wire to allow customers to post press releases. Push your release directly to your audience and afterwards you'll receive a click report to measure ROI. Releases will reach the audience you're looking for -- that industry's movers and shakers. Visit www.dailylead.com/businesswiread/ for more information!   Business & Industry Watch  FairPoint-Verizon deal takes step forward The staff of New Hampshire's Public Utilities Commission has given its thumbs-up for FairPoint Communications to buy Verizon Communications' land lines in northern New England. FairPoint said the New Hampshire deal was similar to the one Maine regulators had already assented to, although FairPoint did agree to several conditions and Verizon lowered its sales price an additional $62 million. Houston Chronicle/Associated Press (1/24) Sprint Nextel expands web of VoIP patent suits Sprint Nextel has filed patent-infringement suits in federal court against four additional companies over their use of VoIP technology, the company said Thursday. The carrier, which recently won a $69 million patent judgment against Vonage Holdings, is seeking monetary damages and a cease-and-desist order against the smaller telecom companies. American City Business Journals/Kansas City, Mo. (1/24) CFO, two others leaving Sprint Nextel: In a continuation of the management shakeout at Sprint Nextel, Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh and two other senior executives will leave the No. 3 wireless carrier, the company announced Thursday. Newly installed CEO Dan Hesse said he would consider internal and external candidates to fill the vacancies. The Washington Post/Reuters (1/24) AT&T sets "late 2008" date for network upgrade AT&T will, later this year, begin "pair-bonding" its advanced DSL lines, a move that the company has said would significantly increase its bandwidth capacity through the addition of a second pair of copper lines at customers' homes. CEO Randall Stephenson, who issued the new guidelines during AT&T's quarterly earnings call on Thursday, promised the introduction of "whole-home" DVR service in 2008 as well as a second stream of HDTV. Telephony Online (1/24) Fixed-line unit sells stake in Taiwan Mobile Taiwan Fixed Network is selling a 6% stake -- about one-fifth of its total share -- in parent Taiwan Mobile, the company said today. In a statement, Taiwan Mobile said the block-trade sale to "specific investors" should be completed within a month. cellular-news (U.K.)/Dow Jones Newswires (1/25)   Video Upload  Orange may challenge Canal Plus for France pay-TV Orange, a unit of France Telecom, is in talks to acquire satellite space to transmit television channels in the country, a newspaper reported. The company also submitted bids this week for rights to all 12 French Soccer League TV packages through 2012. The satellite talks have fueled speculation as to whether Orange wants to mount a challenge to Canal Plus, which dominates the country's pay-TV market. Variety (1/24) VOD service Vudu responds to AppleTV with price cut Vudu has slashed the price of its set-top box by 25% to $295 as the video-on-demand provider faces competition from AppleTV, which recently announced a service upgrade and its own price cut. TWICE (1/24) Nielsen to roll out NORA The Nielsen Company is preparing to launch a new measurement tool, dubbed Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics, that gathers video-on-demand usage data from set-top boxes. Cable operator Comcast has signed up for the service. Mediaweek (1/24)   Technology Trends  Magnolia and Connexion team up Magnolia Audio Video and Connexion Technologies are partnering to build a unified broadband and entertainment system aimed at helping builders, developers and homeowners by providing them with both technology and customer support, the companies said. Connexion is the nation's second-largest provider of fiber to the home. CE Pro (1/23) NTT DoCoMo may make phone for Android platform Japan's top mobile operator said Thursday that it was in talks to put Google's Android operating system on handsets. Critical to the open platform's acceptance will be support for I-mode, NTT DoCoMo's wildly popular Internet service, which enjoys 90% penetration among the carrier's customer base. The Washington Post/PC World (1/24)   IP Download  U.K.'s BT Business pursues small businesses with IP system BT Business has introduced an IP-based unified communications package for small businesses in the U.K. in conjunction with Cisco Systems, whose UC500 router platform underpins the service. "The UC500 is the starting point, and then we built products and services around that," said Nick Malyon, marketing manager at BT Business. Techworld (1/25) Travelers have mixed feelings on necessity of in-flight Internet Just 8% of business travelers would pay more for an in-flight Internet connection, according to an Orbitz survey. More than half of the travelers polled said they did not consider Internet connections a necessity. However, 36% say they would try to get a flight offering Internet connections. Travel Weekly (free registration) (1/24) , Internet Travel News (1/25) , Computerworld (1/25)   LeadQuote  Drama is life with the dull bits cut out." --Alfred Hitchcock, film director and producer       This dailyLead was created for webmaster@freeraovat.com Subscriber Tools       Update account information |  Change e-mail address |  Unsubscribe |  Print friendly format |  Web version |  Search past news |  Privacy policy Advertise Sales Account Director:  Amy Abbey (202) 737-5500 x250 Download Media Kit   Read more at dailyLead.com A powerful Web site for dailyLead readers including: Breaking News Industry Home Competitor News Readers' Choice Press Releases Search Archive       Recent USTelecom dailyLead Issues: Thursday, January 24, 2008 Wednesday, January 23, 2008 Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Monday, January 21, 2008 Friday, January 18, 2008     Lead Editor:  Susan Rush       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20005     © 1999-2007 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information