-
Ideas for More Efficient Regulation
“Do our rules help or hurt innovation,” said FCC Commissioner, Ajit Pai at the 2013 ACA Summit. Pai was talking about the dynamic nature of the telecommunications and video industry and how it is important that regulations stay current. He has a number of ideas the FCC can implement without Congressional action, including setting and…
-
Rethinking Regulation With a Telecom Thought Leader
“It ain’t 1992 and it ain’t 1996,” said Paul Maxwell of MediaBiz at the America Cable Association’s 20th Anniversary Summit in Washington D.C. Maxwell was referring to a telecom environment that has changed from one of silos to one of a converged network with converged services. He suggests a two-tier regulatory environment, with different rules for…
-
North to Alaska – Broadband Around the 49th State
Alaska is a state like no other in terms of geographic size, topography, climate and low population density. Many of its communities are isolated and air or sea travel are sometimes the only ways to get to those locales. In this context of physical isolation, the communications infrastructure is especially critical. As pointed out by…
-
Looking North for Ideas to Solve Programming Woes
Ensuring the voices of the smaller independent television distributors (e.g. cable, telco, municipal operators) and the voices of their customers are heard among policy makers and vendors is what the CCSA (Canadian Independent Communications) does. In this release, the voice of the CCSA voice is heard in its firm opposition against the proposed merger of…
-
Multiscreen Authentication for the Small Operator
Obtaining rights to stream programming to multiple screens is one of the major issues that cable and IPTV operators face these days, as shown by the latest dust-up between DirecTV and Viacom. In this interview, filmed at the 2012 ACA Summit, NCTC president, Rich Fickle explains how his purchasing cooperative is working to include multiscreen…
-
Partnering for Scale & New Opportunities
“On the video side, we have some challenges,” said Rich Fickle, president of NCTC. Speaking at the ACA 2012 Summit, Fickle spoke of the need to work together with the American Cable Association and its members to control programming costs. He suggested closer ties between NCTC and ACA to overcome these challenges. He also spoke…
