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NBC’s Election Night coverage was the most-watched, according to preliminary numbers. NBC currently holds a commanding first place in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic with a 4.6 rating/10 share -- a 2 percent dip from the 2008 election -- and in total viewers with 12.6 million. ABC took second place followed by CBS and Fox.
Ratings: NBC Elected Victor of Election-Night Coverage Race
[Commentary] One of the most fascinating parts of the aftermath of an election is the construction of post-hoc narratives to “explain” the results. There’s plenty of Web traffic to be gained by meeting the public’s demand for these sorts of tidy explanations, but there’s peril too. Reporters should be wary of telling stories about why President Obama won re-election that are not supported by the available evidence.
The most important fact for understanding what happened in the election is that the fundamentals mattered. As in 2004 and 2008, the results in the presidential race corresponded closely to the forecasting models, which are largely driven by economic variables and presidential approval. In this case, a model-averaged composite forecast published before the election predicted that President Obama would receive 50.3 percent of the two-party vote—quite close to his current total of 51.1 percent. In short, the state of the economy predicted a very close race that narrowly favored President Obama. That’s exactly what we observed. The fact that the result was consistent with the forecasting models does not mean that campaigns don’t matter. Indeed, exposure to campaigns helps move voters toward the outcomes predicted by the fundamentals. However, as John Sides correctly emphasized on The Monkey Cage after both the 2008 election and Nov 6, it is more difficult to show that President Obama (or any other candidate) won due to his campaign’s superior message or organization.
How to cover the presidential results
Sprint Nextel agreed to acquire spectrum and business operations in parts of five states from U.S. Cellular for about $480 million, in a deal that will significantly increase the company's network capacity.
Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said the deal includes several important Midwest markets such as Chicago and St. Louis. The deal will also give Sprint 30MHz of spectrum in the 1900MHz band — that's one of the bands Sprint is using for its fledgling LTE network, which just expanded to the Chicago suburbs. The transaction involves 585,000 U.S. Cellular customers in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio. U.S. Cellular said the deal will allow it to focus on markets where it has strong positions and to streamline its operations in an effort to improve efficiency and effectiveness. U.S. Cellular has been steadily losing postpaid subscribers amid fierce competition in a wireless industry nearly saturated with cellphones.
Sprint Buys Spectrum From U.S. Cellular Sprint buys US Cellular spectrum and half a million Midwest customers for $480 million (The Verge) Sprint buying some US Cellular markets for $480M (AP) Sprint pays $480 million for US Cellular spectrum, half a million customers (GigaOm) Sprint buys Chicago, St. Louis markets from US Cellular in spectrum grab (ars technica)
U.S. Cellular Corp. CEO Mary Dillon may have dodged a bullet by selling off Chicago and St. Louis markets to Sprint for $480 million and avoiding the expense of upgrading its wireless network to next-generation technology needed to handle the demands of smartphones and tablets.
She rolled back the clock a decade — before the Chicago-based company began offering wireless service in its hometown with the purchase of PrimeCo – returning U.S. Cellular to its roots as a rural carrier that made much of its money providing roaming access to other carriers' customers in out-of-the-way places. “This is a clear strategy about accelerating profitable growth,” Ms. Dillon told Crain's after the company reported third-quarter results. “We're selling underperforming markets and focusing on our remaining 5.2 million customers. We see this as setting us up for stronger future growth.” While it will help Ms. Dillon boost the bottom line, the move leaves hanging the investors who were angling for a payday, betting that the Carlson family that controls U.S. Cellular ultimately would decide to sell the nation's No. 5 carrier to a larger rival. U.S. Cellular plans to keep its Far Northwest Side headquarters.
Overall, it will cut 980 jobs, including 640 in the Chicago area, according to a spokeswoman. That's slightly less than 12 percent of the approximately 8,400 total employees U.S. Cellular had at the end of the third quarter. U.S. Cellular also will abandon 170 stores, 116 of them in Chicago. “Sprint may or may not choose to take them over,” Dillon said. In addition, the company is unloading about 585,000 customers, or about 10 percent of its customer base. U.S. Cellular will continue to operate the piece of the network it's selling for up to two years. It will retain its towers, however. The deal isn't expected to close until next year.
The strategy behind U.S. Cellular's Sprint deal
AT&T announced plans to invest $14 billion over the next three years to significantly expand and enhance its wireless and wireline IP broadband networks to support growing customer demand for high-speed Internet access and new mobile, app and cloud services. The investment plan – Project Velocity IP (VIP) – expands AT&T's high-potential growth platforms, helping drive continued increases in revenues from existing and new products and services, and earnings per share.
- 4G LTE Expansion. AT&T plans to expand its 4G LTE network to cover 300 million people in the United States by year-end 2014, up from its current plans to deploy 4G LTE to about 250 million people by year-end 2013. In AT&T's 22-state wireline service area, the company expects its 4G LTE network will cover 99 percent of all customer locations.
- Spectrum. AT&T has acquired spectrum through more than 40 spectrum deals this year (some pending regulatory review) and has plans to buy additional wireless spectrum to support its 4G LTE network. Much of the additional spectrum came from an innovative solution in which AT&T gained FCC approval to use WCS spectrum for mobile broadband. Between what the company already owns and transactions pending regulatory approval, AT&T expects to have about 118Mhz of spectrum nationwide. The company will continue to advocate with the FCC for release of additional spectrum for the industry's long-term needs.
- Densification & Small Cell Technology. As part of Project VIP, AT&T expects to deploy small cell technology, macro cells and additional distributed antenna systems to increase the density of its wireless network, which is expected to further improve network quality and increase spectrum efficiency.
AT&T plans to expand and enhance its wireline IP network to 57 million customer locations (consumer and small business) or 75 percent of all customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2015. This network expansion will consist of:
- U-verse. AT&T plans to expand U-verse (TV, Internet, Voice over IP) by more than one-third or about 8.5 million additional customer locations, for a total potential U-verse market of 33 million customer locations¹. The expansion is expected to be essentially complete by year-end 2015.
- U-verse IPDSLAM. The company plans to offer U-verse IPDSLAM service (high-speed IP Internet access and VoIP) to 24 million customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2013.
- Speed Upgrades. The Project VIP plan includes an upgrade for U-verse to speeds of up to 75Mbps and for U-verse IPDSLAM to speeds of up to 45Mbps, with a path to deliver even higher speeds in the future.
- In the 25 percent of AT&T's wireline customer locations where it's currently not economically feasible to build a competitive IP wireline network, the company said it will utilize its expanding 4G LTE wireless network -- as it becomes available -- to offer voice and high-speed IP Internet services. The company's 4G LTE network will cover 99 percent of all in-region customer locations. AT&T's 4G LTE network offers speeds competitive with, if not higher than, what is available on wired broadband networks today. And in many places, AT&T's 4G LTE service will be the first high speed IP broadband service available to many customers.
- Fiber to Multi-Tenant Business Buildings. AT&T plans to proactively expand its fiber network to reach an additional one million business customer locations – 50 percent of the multi-tenant business buildings² in its wireline service area. AT&T expects the proactive fiber deployment to increase business revenue growth, accelerate provisioning and facilitate the installation of distributed antennas systems and small cell technology to help offload wireless network traffic.
AT&T to Invest $14 Billion to Significantly Expand Wireless and Wireline Broadband Networks, Support Future IP Data Growth and New Services Building a Network for the 21st century (AT&T blog) AT&T will spend $14B to pump up wireless, wireline networks (C|Net) AT&T Unveils $14B Network Spending Plan (WSJ) AT&T to expand wireless, wired broadband reach (AP) AT&T to invest $14 billion to expand networks (The Hill)
AT&T’s use small cells to build out density is important because it will allow more subscribers to take advantage of the limited airwaves, and is yet another carrier commitment to the HetNet concept. This idea combines the use of multiple radio technologies –from LTE to Wi-Fi — as well as a variety of different base stations and antennas to maximize the capacity of the airwaves, and is the next generation of cellular infrastructure. AT&T will use more than 40,000 small cells to build out a highly dense network that can reuse spectrum and hopefully move traffic off the airwaves and on to AT&T’s fiber networks. The initial deployments of these dense networks will begin in the first quarter of next year and will work with the 3G UMTS and HSPA+ networks that AT&T has deployed. By 2014 AT&T will support LTE on these small cells as well. Both Verizon and Sprint are already exploring similar plans to make their networks more dense using small cells as well.
AT&T’s LTE investments will go big by using small cells
[Commentary] AT&T is done with its copper telephone network and copper DSL business, according to its CEO and chairman Randall Stephenson.
The company believes that an all-IP network is the path to more profitable future. Given the millions of subscribers that are dependent on the copper telephone lines and copper DSL products, AT&T has offered a $14 billion fringe benefit for those customers and the regulators who will likely balk at the idea of AT&T stopping its investment in copper. For those worried about losing their access to communications, AT&T said with the new investment, its LTE network will reach 300 million people or 99 percent of the U.S. , while its wireline U-Verse network will expand to cover 75 percent of the current customer locations — or 57 million people.
The premise being that the remaining 25 percent of its customer territory will subscribe to LTE broadband, which comes at a much higher cost and has onerous caps that DSL access and AT&T phone lines do not have. Essentially those living in rural areas are screwed when it comes to broadband, with Stephenson saying that he believes that in an IP age, wireline broadband will still be profitable in markets of “reasonable density.” He further went on to say that “The best service is delivered through an IP-only service with a streamlined product set,” which clearly doesn’t include copper telephone lines and DSL. This news will have huge ramifications for Americans in rural areas as well as those who still rely on their wireline copper-based telephones for burglar alarms, emergencies and fire alarm systems. Competitive local exchange carriers in many regions will be wondering how they will continue to offer their products over AT&T’s copper pipes.
But it’s clear that AT&T is running from copper like I’d run from a PR person waving a social media pitch, so now it’s up to the Federal Communications Commission to take a hard look at what the loss of copper means for consumers and for the marketplace. As AT&T moves forward we need to look at who is left behind.
Here’s AT&T’s $14 billion plan to kill its copper network and leave rural America behind
AT&T announced a plan to cover 96% of the U.S. population with 4G-LTE service by the end of 2014. That's great news for customers -- but it reveals that AT&T told regulators a pretty big whopper last year while fighting for its doomed T-Mobile merger.
One of the deal's fiercest battle points was 4G access outside major cities. Without T-Mobile, AT&T said it was "very unlikely" that it would expand 4G-LTE service beyond the 80% coverage threshold it already planned to reach by 2013. The Federal Communications Commission called AT&T's bluff. It released a damning report on the scuttled merger saying it believed AT&T would expand its 4G deployment with or without T-Mobile. AT&T hit the roof, complaining that the FCC's analysis directly contradicted AT&T's "documents and sworn declarations." It got particularly irate about the FCC's prediction -- "based purely on speculation" -- that AT&T would eventually expand its LTE deployment to 97% of the population even if it didn't get T-Mobile. Fast-forward 11 months. AT&T says that its $14 billion network investment will allow its 4G service to cover 300 million Americans, the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population. The FCC held off on taking a victory lap. It released a statement on praising AT&T's expansion plans, calling them "proof positive that the climate for investment and innovation in the U.S. communications sector is healthy. "
AT&T caught in a brazen 4G lie Statement (FCC) Public Knowledge Lauds AT&T's Network Investment and The Importance of Pro-Competitive Policies (Public Knowledge)
[Commentary] AT&T is going all-in on IP – the Internet Protocol, and cutting the cord with its past. Instead, it will push newer, faster broadband via a hybrid of fiber-and-copper technologies. And what that means is end of the line for classic DSL. Nothing wrong with it.
Hey, DSL, it is time for good bye
China's increasingly advanced capabilities to cripple military and civilian computer networks has emerged as the biggest threat facing the United States in the cyber realm, according to a new report from the U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Cyber warriors with Chinese military and intelligence agencies have made great strides in their ability to attack "specialized targets" such as American military surveillance and reconnaissance systems, the report says. These cyber operatives are Chinese civilians working for the military, according to the report, with many of the hackers holding day jobs in China as computer and information technology specialists.
Report: China is biggest cyber threat to US, says congressional panel