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Weekly Update August 10, 2012

Legislative and Political

Poll: Thompson leads other GOP candidates for Senate seat

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson holds an edge in the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, according to the results of a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday. Thompson leads the four-candidate race for the Republican nomination among likely voters, 28 percent to Hovde's 20 percent, a lead that falls just within the poll's 4.4 percent margin of error. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann came in third with 18 percent of respondents selecting him. State Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, came in last with 13 percent. The results differ from a pair of polls last week that showed the race becoming a dead heat with Thompson, Hovde and Neumann all essentially tied. But like those earlier polls, the Marquette survey shows the race tightening and confirms that Neumann has made up a lot of ground in the closing days.

Obama leads Romney in two new Wisconsin polls

President Obama leads Mitt Romney in two new Wisconsin polls. Obama leads 51% to 45% in a new statewide poll by Quinnipiac University, the New York Times and CBS News. And he leads by an almost identical margin, 50% to 45%, in a new survey by Marquette Law School. Both surveys are also roughly consistent with polls take earlier this summer. Obama enjoyed an 8-point lead in Marquette’s previous poll, taken July 5-8. Obama’s lead was six points in a survey taken July 5-8 by Public Policy Polling. It was three points in a poll by taken July 25. In the new Marquette survey, 50% approved of the job Obama is doing as president, while 46% disapproved. In the poll by Quinnipiac University, the New York Times and CBS News, 51% approved of the President’s performance, while 46% disapproved.

GOP Senate candidates begin last push

With a week to go before the Republican U.S. Senate primary, the GOP candidates fanned out across the state Tuesday to tout endorsements, declare their conservatism and rail against attack ads. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson won the endorsement of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann traveled with a tea party group; and businessman Eric Hovde traded accusations with an independent group running ads against him. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald continued his low-key approach to the campaign, doing broadcast interviews and preparing for an evening campaign event in West Bend. The activity came as the four vie for the party's nomination Tuesday, which will give one of them the right to take on U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the only Democrat in the Senate race.

Walker will be featured speaker at upcoming Republican National Convention

Gov. Scott Walker has landed a speaking role at the upcoming Republican National Convention, cementing his status as a full-fledged conservative star. The news was broken Tuesday night by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus during an episode of "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" on the Channel. The former Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman proudly announced that Walker would have a "very prominent" role during the four-day GOP gathering in Tampa, Fla., later this month. Walker’s selection as a featured speaker has been a rumor ever since the governor decisively won his recall election in June. The surprisingly easy victory was seen by many as an affirmation of his leadership and proof that most people backed his efforts to rein in government spending. Walker’s widespread support outside of the state helped him raise more than $30 million alone. He did this, at least in part, by traveling the country and meeting supporters, which only built his national reputation.

Walker ponders making U.S. Senate endorsement

Gov. Scott Walker says he hasn't ruled out making an endorsement in Wisconsin's acrimonious GOP primary for U.S. Senate, even though he has stayed neutral for months. "We've got about a week and half left. We still might come out and do something. I've never said I won't," Walker said in an interview Friday in Washington, D.C., where he was speaking at a pair of events. Given the governor's immense popularity with Republican voters in Wisconsin, a Walker endorsement could easily influence the outcome of a contest that polls show is still wide open.

Fit for Senate? Thompson drops and gives us 50

The Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate has become a bit physical. Mark Neumann won a contest for how long he could hold a full beer stein, arm outstretched. Eric Hovde prides himself on his martial arts training. And Jeff Fitzgerald, well, he seems to flex his muscles mostly at the Capitol. But what about former Gov. Tommy Thompson, the oldest guy in the race? Thompson, who served as U.S. health and human services secretary, recently boasted that he does 100 push-ups a day - 50 in the morning and another 50 later in the day. That would be awfully good for a 70-year-old, or just about anyone for that matter.

Regulatory and Industry

FTTH Council: Don’t Collect Universal Service Funding from Broadband

I was a bit surprised to see the comments that the Fiber-to-the-Home Council filed with the FCC about proposed reforms to how the Universal Service program should be funded. The group aims to boost the deployment of FTTH nationwide and has quite a few rural carrier members, so I would have expected its recommendations to be similar to those of rural telco organizations such as the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, and the Western Telecommunications Alliance.

The death of POTS is greatly exaggerated

It seems popular today to speak of the impending death of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). But if "Phantastic" is substituted for "Plain," POTS is much alive and booming. The question is, what does POTS mean? Certainly the technology of telecommunication has progressed significantly over the decades. Strowger switching was made obsolete by crossbar, and then came electronic switching, and then digital, and today packet. Transmission technology progressed too from twisted pair through coax to optical fiber. But the signals carried and switched remained pretty much the same: voice, audio, video, and data.

FCC Relaxes Microwave Backhaul Rules to Spur Rural Wireless

Wireless carriers operating in rural areas are expected to see their deployment costs decline as the result of an order adopted today at the monthly Federal Communications Commission meeting. The order aims to reduce the costs of deploying microwave backhaul, particularly for rural carriers. In addition the FCC adopted new rules for signal quality and signal leakage for cable operators. FCC actions to reduce the cost of deploying microwave backhaul adopted today include: enabling the use of smaller antennas in the 6, 18 and 23 GHz band, allowing wider channels in two microwave bands to support higher data throughput, and offering network operators in rural areas the ability to build longer microwave links.

Broadband and Internet

Comcast, Mediacom Impose Data Usage Caps

The trend toward cable operators imposing data caps on their broadband services continues to gain momentum, as a couple of recent developments remind us. As of the beginning of this month, Comcast introduced new caps on its service in Nashville and Mediacom also imposed new caps – apparently throughout its service area. As Comcast explains in a Q&A posted on its site, the new pricing in Nashville raises the current 250 gigabytes of data allotted to each customer per month to 300 GB but imposes a $10 charge for every 50 GB of data above the 300 GB limit used by the consumer. The company added, though, that customers will only be billed for overages if they exceed the limit more than three times during a one-year period.

FTC hits Google with $22.5 million fine for Safari tracking

The Federal Trade Commission has jabbed Google with a hefty fine over its alleged Safari tracking practices. The government agency today announced that Google has agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle the FTC's charges that Google "placed an advertising tracking cookie on the computers of Safari users who visited sites within Google's DoubleClick advertising network." The issue, the FTC said, is that Google had assured those users that they would be automatically opted out of the tracking because of Safari's handling of third-party cookies. The FTC's fine is the largest ever for violation of the agency's order.

U.S. fights with Russia, China over Internet control

The is apparently embroiled in another behind-the-scenes cold war with Russia and China. This time the issue is who controls the Internet—the existing U.S.-backed International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which, to some degree, says it wants to be left out of the tiff. "The United States believes that the existing multi-stakeholder institutions, incorporating industry and civil society, have functioned effectively and will continue to ensure the health and growth of the Internet and all of its benefits," U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer said, according to a story in The Register.

Cellular and Wireless

AT&T Quietly Launches Wireless-Based Landline Replacement Service

AT&T has quietly launched a home phone service that uses wireless communications. The offering, dubbed A&T Wireless Home Phone, became available in late July in “select domestic markets where we do not offer traditional landline service,” an AT&T spokesman told Telecompetitor today. The company joins a growing list of carriers that have launched landline replacement services based on wireless, including Verizon Wireless, C Spire, and Sprint.

Smartphone users report more phone problems, survey says

Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. adults have a cell phone -- and they're having a lot of problems with them. New research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that almost three-fourths of phone users experience dropped calls at least occasionally. Also, nearly 70% of U.S. cell users receive unwanted sales or marketing ("spam") calls or text messages on their cell phone -- and for a quarter of cell users, that happens at least once a week. This occurs despite such marketing practices being restricted by federal and state law.

IPTV and Video

TDS Telecom sees Q2 gains in triple play adoption and managedIP

TDS Telecom, the wireline ILEC division of Telephone & Data Systems, reported on Friday that wireline revenue rose on strong gains in managedIP for businesses and residential triple play bundle services. During the quarter, TDS Telecom reported $208.5 million in revenues, up from $198.9 million in Q1 2012. Residential triple play penetration increased to 30 percent, up from 27 percent in the previous quarter. A key piece of its growing triple play bundle is IPTV. With plans to offer IPTV service 19 markets in 2012, TDS launched the service in La Vergne, Tenn.