(Recoe.net) FCC to Open Valuable Airwaves for Tech, Telecom Companies

FCC to Open Valuable Airwaves for Tech, Telecom Companies

U.S. regulators on Friday voted to open a swath of government-controlled airwaves for commercial use by tech and telecom companies such as Verizon and Google as they seek to meet growing data demands from new wireless devices.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to chalk out a process to allow companies free access to the frequencies in the 3.5 gigahertz band.

Those airwaves’ ability to carry heavy data across short distances makes them particularly attractive to companies.

The plan to open up the frequencies can, for instance, help boost the capacity of companies’ existing wireless networks, especially in densely populated locations or indoors. It could even help wirelessly connect specific devices like thermostats or washing machines to facilitate the Internet of Things.

Friday’s vote will kick-start the process of setting up a system for companies to begin using frequencies now dedicated to military radars and other government operations, by sharing them in places where commercial users would not interfere with incumbent users.

The opening up of 3.5 GHz airwaves “is setting a new paradigm for how spectrum sharing should work,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in remarks in Washington.

The plan would allow wireless providers and others to use the airwaves without charge, similarly to Wi-Fi, or to buy licenses for short-term exclusive use in some areas if the airwaves get crowded.

The FCC has been developing the system, known as the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, since 2012 and has drawn interest from various wireless Internet service and device companies, including Verizon, Google, Qualcomm and Ericsson.

Trade groups such as the Telecommunications Industry Association praised the move.

“The spectrum crunch remains very real, and the FCC’s action represents significant progress toward opening more spectrum for broadband,” the TIA’s chief executive, Scott Belcher, said in a statement.

On Friday, the FCC also said it had voted to propose a notice seeking public comment on competitive bidding practices and rules in auctions of airwaves.

U.S. regulators have been working on plans to reform government airwaves auction rules to prevent big companies from tapping a discount program intended for small businesses.

The FCC is gearing up to hold an auction early next year of another set of airwaves belonging to broadcasters and repackaging them to sell them to the wireless industry.

NY Post : Older investors ‘don’t trust’ the market

The ghosts of 2008-09 hang over older investors, many of whom saw large stakes of their wealth wiped out in very little time.
With that distaste still lingering, many Americans continue to shunning stocks despite the bull-market recovery and the growing wealth such investing is bringing to millions of American households.
A little over half of those recently surveyed said they don’t invest in the market, according to a new Bankrate report, which polled 1,001 people around the nation.
“Of those who responded that they do not in invest in the market, 53 percent say the reason is due to lack of money,” according to the survey.
Others factors keeping people from investing include not knowing enough (21 percent), a lack of trust in brokers and advisers ( 9 percent) and viewing stock market as too risky (7 percent), along with the fear of high fees (2 percent).
“The numbers are surprising,” says Claes Bell, a banking analyst with Bankrate. “The survey shows there’s a great need for education.”
Older Americans were the most likely to be wary of stocks. Those ages 50 to 64 said “they don’t invest because they don’t trust stock brokers or advisers,” the survey said.
Seniors over 65 said they don’t invest “because stocks are too risky.”
Some of the elderly who lived through multiple crashes may still be spooked by stocks, Bell explains. But even elderly investors, who will probably live longer than their parents, will likely need some growth component such as stocks in their retirement funds, he says.
Lewis Altfest, a Manhattan adviser, says ignoring stocks is a mistake.
“As Warren Buffett would say, stocks are most logical choice over the long term.”
Altfest also says investing is critical over the long term in retaining buying power. That, he adds, means money grows at a faster pace than inflation and taxes.
For that, Atlfest recommends “stocks and real estate.”

FT : Brussels plans to shake up telecoms market


Brussels will call for a “level playing field” between telecoms groups and online rivals such as WhatsApp and Skype next month, putting Europe’s regulators on a collision course with US companies once again.
The European Commission is set to launch reforms of everything from telecoms to media to online shopping as part of plans for a “digital single market” within the EU on May 6.

Companies that provide over-the-top content — which let people have free voice calls and messages over the internet — are “not subject to the same rules” as traditional telecoms company, argues the commission in a draft document seen by the FT.
The move will be welcomed by large European telecoms groups which have long claimed these services benefit from less stringent regulation. But it will also add fuel to accusations that the EU favours European operators over their US peers.
Technology regulation in Brussels came under the spotlight last week after the commission launched an antitrust case against Google, following nearly five years of back-and-forth negotiations between the company, its rivals and the regulator. This year, Barack Obama accused European regulators of protectionism — charges that the commission denied.

Alongside “ambitious” telecoms reforms, the commission has also promised a “comprehensive investigation” into platforms such as Amazon and Google, to look at how they display search results and use customer data. In the document, the commission writes that the “growing market power of some online platforms” is “potentially raising concerns”.
Other measures discussed include simplifying the removal of illegal content from the internet and wide-ranging copyright reforms.
Andrus Ansip, the commissioner overseeing the plan, last month outlined ways to eliminate tactics such as geoblocking, which stops customers in one country using websites or watching media or buying goods online in another.
The commission’s plan to reform telecoms regulation comes as its long-running attempt to get rid of roaming charges and introduce some form of “net neutrality” — whereby all internet traffic must be treated equally — enters its final stages.
In the document, the commission acknowledges the shortcomings of the last attempt to create a digital single market. It says that attempt became too focused on net neutrality and roaming in spite of the wider ambitions to drive investment and innovation by Neelie Kroes, the former digital commissioner.
The commission wants to help develop a pan-European telecoms industry through reforms of regulations and investment incentives for high speed broadband networks.
Steven Tas, chairman of Etno, which represents Europe’s leading telecom operators, said: “Boardrooms feel an urgent need for in-depth reforms that stimulate investments in high speed broadband networks. Investment is crucial for the competitiveness of Europe in the global economy.”
The EU’s executive arm plans to better co-ordinate the regional auctions of mobile spectrum, which is crucial to supporting the next generation of mobile internet services. The commission is clear that the proceeds from the sale of the spectrum to mobile groups should remain with the member states.

(BFW) Sika Board Offers to Buy Burkard Family Shares for CHF2.25b: SZ

Sika Board Offers to Buy Burkard Family Shares for CHF2.25b: SZ
2015-04-19 11:43:07.961 GMT


By Roxana Zega and Jan-Henrik Förster
(Bloomberg) -- Sika offers to buy all shares held by
Burkard family, helping chemicals co. to avoid takeover by
Saint-Gobain, SonntagsZeitung reports without saying where it
got the information.
* Co. would then introduce single registered share class and
sell shares on the stock exchange or sell in blocks to
investors
* NOTE: Burkard family holds majority of voting rights
* NOTE: Representatives from Sika, Burkard family’s Schenker-
Winkler vehicle couldn’t immediately be reached for comment
when contacted Sunday
* NOTE: April 14, Sika Shackles Founding Family to Hinder
Saint-Gobain Offer here


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Rachel Graham, Pawel Kozlowski

(BFW) China Cuts Banks’ Reserve Ratio by 1 Percentage Point


BN 04/19 09:11 China Cuts Reserve Ratio by 1 Percentage Point
BFW 04/19 09:09 *CHINA NEW RESERVE RATIO EFFECTIVE AS OF APRIL 20
BFW 04/19 09:09 *CHINA CUTS RESERVE RATIO BY 1 PERCENTAGE POINT
BFW 04/19 09:07 *CHINA CUTS BANKS' RESERVE REQUIREMENT RATIO
China Cuts Banks’ Reserve Ratio by 1 Percentage Point
2015-04-19 09:17:18.55 GMT


By Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Reserve ratio cut will be effective April
20, PBOC says.

Link to Company News:{PBCZ CH <Equity> CN <GO>}

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WSJ : ECB’s Draghi Rejects Talk of Greek Exit From Euro

ECB’s Draghi Rejects Talk of Greek Exit From Euro

At IMF meetings in Washington, bank chief reiterates 2012 comment it “cannot be reversed.”



WASHINGTON—European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Saturday rejected speculation that Greece may be forced to abandon the euro, reiterating that Europe’s single currency is irrevocable.

At a news conference during meetings here of the world’s top finance officials Mr. Draghi said he stood by a comment he made in August 2012 that the euro “cannot be reversed.”

The risk of a Greek exit appears to be rising, as a stalemate between Greece and its creditors over emergency financing drags on, with some big bills falling due for cash-strapped Athens in coming weeks.

Despite the urgent circumstances, the International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Saturday said she had learned little new in talks with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis this week and instead urged him promptly to submit a detailed proposal for a fresh bailout.

“What we very much hope…is not only speeding, but deepening the work,” she said. “It’s not a question of racing to the end, it’s a question of doing all the work that needs to be done.”

After a series of meetings in recent days between Mr. Varoufakis, the IMF and his counterparts from the U.S. and Europe, senior officials sounded increasingly frustrated that Athens hasn’t put forward a detailed plan to overhaul its government finances and restore Greek economic growth in a way that would encourage bailout lenders to unlock financing the debt-ridden country needs to avoid default.

The recently installed left-wing government continues to resist overhauls in a number of areas, including further changes to Greece’s pension system and labor market to which its predecessors had agreed in 2012.

“The job of the finance minister…is to go deep in the analysis, pull out the numbers, assessing the efforts undertaken, making a few hypotheticals about what it will deliver in terms of growth, in terms of fiscal revenues, or spending, and then move on,” Ms. Lagarde said.

Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble damped hopes for a breakthrough in the Greek situation at a closely watched meeting of eurozone finance chiefs in Riga, Latvia, next week. “It doesn’t look like there will be a solution in Riga,” the German minister said. “It is clear of course that things have got worse and it’s difficult for Greece.”

Mr. Schäuble said the onus remains on Greece to commit to overhauls in return for sustained aid, based on the Feb. 20 agreement to extend Greece’s bailout by four months. “The debate isn’t getting better by repetition,” he said. “The time lapse means Greece can’t access the outstanding funds.”

A senior IMF official on Friday said negotiations over fresh emergency financing for Greece are likely to take several more weeks, even though the cash-needy government in Athens requires a deal to help it meet a big increase in debt payments due in June.

The ECB’s Mr. Draghi said in 2012“there is no going back to the lira or the drachma or to any other currency. It is pointless to bet against the euro. It is pointless to go short on the euro.”

On Saturday, he said he would “say exactly the same words today.”

A Greek default on its debts would in turn threaten the country’s banks and make it harder for the ECB to approve emergency lending via the Greek central bank.

Mr. Draghi declined to say how the ECB would react to any Greek default, saying: “I don’t want even to contemplate” such a scenario. “We all want Greece to succeed,” Mr. Draghi said, adding, “the answer is in the hands of the Greek government.”

But not all finance officials sounded so confident. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said earlier in the week that Greece’s cash crisis could push the country into an unintentional exit from the eurozone.

Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF’s European Department and chief architect of Greece’s bailout programs, said the risk of a Greek exit shouldn’t be underestimated.

And U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Friday said it was wrong to think that European and global markets are insulated from a wider Greek crisis. “I do not think that anyone can predict how markets will respond to dramatic changes in circumstances,” he said.

Aside from the Greek situation, Mr. Draghi said the eurozone economy is on more solid footing than it has been in many years, as the region feels the twin effects of lower oil prices and the ECB’s stimulus that includes record-low interest rates and a recently launched bond-purchase program. “The basis for this recovery is broad and stronger than in the past,” Mr. Draghi said.

The ECB and IMF have both raised their forecasts for economic growth in the eurozone, which is the world’s second-largest economy after the U.S.

Still, despite more favorable trends from Europe, the global economy isn’t yet in a phase of robust expansion, he signaled. “I think it’s premature to talk about vibrant growth,” Mr. Draghi said.

–Harriet Torry contributed to this article

Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com

WSJ : Moore’s Law Will Bring Emotional Machines — SoftBank CEO

Moore’s Law Will Bring Emotional Machines — SoftBank CEO

Humans will face their biggest test when computers surpass human intellectual capabilities, according to Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder and CEO of SoftBank Corp., the Japanese telecommunications and Internet giant. But virtual emotions may keep them under control, he said.

Mr. Son, known for his interest in robots as well as his aggressive corporate acquisitions, bases his predictions partly on Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s forecast 50 years ago on Sunday that the number of transistors on a chip would double approximately every two years.

The Japanese telecom heavyweight reiterated his view that computers would surpass human intellectual capabilities in a speech earlier this month. But he gave a fuller portrait of the future in a 2010 speech in which he said transistors on a chip would exceed the number of human brain cells by 2018.

At that time he suggested that computers should acquire feelings provided they were given “hearts” that would enable them to love and show kindness.

“That, I believe, is the correct evolution of the computer brain,” he said, suggesting that the virtual consciences would prevent supercomputers from running out of control.

Among other developments he forecast for the 24th century, Mr. Son said DNA treatments and artificial organs would have increased average human life expectancy to 200 years. He also said automated translation would have removed language barriers and–in what could be a bad sign for his own business–people would communicate by telepathy.

While some of Mr. Son’s predictions sound far-fetched, he said SoftBank was committed to making them happen.

“We aren’t sci-fi movie directors or novelists. We want to make this all reality,” he said.

Mr. Son, 57, still appears committed to this vision. He plans to sell thousands of humanoid robots to consumers starting this summer. The robots, named Pepper, have been billed as the first that can sense human feelings.

WSJ : comcast and Time Warner Cable to Meet With DOJ to Negotiate Merger

comcast and Time Warner Cable to Meet With DOJ to Negotiate Merger
Regulators examining whether Comcast lived up to NBCUniversal deal concessions, sources say


Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are preparing to meet with officials from the U.S. Department of Justice Wednesday in a session aimed at negotiating possible concessions to address concerns that the merger of the two cable giants will hurt competition, according to people familiar with the matter.

The meeting would mark the first time the cable behemoths have sat down with regulators to try to hash out potential remedies in the more than 14 months since the $45.2 billion deal was announced, these people said. Staffers at both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission remain concerned the combined firm would wield too much power in the Internet broadband market and give it unfair competitive leverage against TV channel owners and new market entrants who offer video programming online, said people with knowledge of the review.


The Justice Department, which evaluates antitrust concerns, and the FCC, which must decide if the deal is in the public interest, are nearing the final, crucial stages of scrutinizing the acquisition. Discussions on potential remedies would be an indication that the agencies haven’t yet made a firm or final decision on the merger.

But this meeting could be the first of many, and it’s also not clear whether the companies can offer concessions that will satisfy regulators.

Staff attorneys at the Justice Department’s antitrust division were leaning toward a recommendation to block the acquisition, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people close to the matter. The attorneys could submit their recommendation as soon as this week, according to the report. Such input by department staffers marks an initial milepost in the final decision-making process. Senior Justice Department officials will be the ones to decide whether to challenge the transaction.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

One potential concession that could be up for discussion is the divestiture of more of the roughly 30 million customers the combined company will serve if the deal closes. The companies have already agreed to deals with Charter Communications Inc. to sell or spin off systems serving 3.9 million customers if the Time Warner Cable purchase is completed.

Another factor is the FCC’s decision to impose stringent, utility-style regulations on Internet service earlier this year to make sure broadband providers treat all Web traffic equally. If regulators require Comcast to live under the new “net neutrality” regime regardless of whether they are held up in court in order to win deal approval, Comcast may walk away from the acquisition, people familiar with the matter said. Comcast wouldn’t owe Time Warner Cable any breakup fee if it were to abandon the deal.

Looming over any discussion about merger remedies will be the concessions Comcast made in 2011 to win approval to acquire NBCUniversal. People familiar with the current review process say the Justice Department has been examining whether Comcast has fully complied with those earlier commitments.

Specifically, the Justice Department is looking closely at Comcast’s role in Hulu, the streaming service it became a part owner of through the NBCUniversal purchase, people familiar with the matter said. In return for approval of the NBCUniversal takeover, Comcast agreed to have no management role in Hulu and be a silent partner.

The department is said to be asking questions about that arrangement, specifically with regards to the aborted effort by co-owners Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox Inc. to sell Hulu in 2013. Comcast rivals DirecTV and AT&T were among the bidders at the time. Hulu ended up being taken off the sale block.

Comcast has argued that the Time Warner Cable deal isn’t anticompetitive and is necessary for the company to compete against an array of emerging threats to the traditional pay-TV model, including tech competitors like Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc. On Friday, in response to the Bloomberg report, Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said “there is no basis for a lawsuit to block the transaction.”

The deal will result in “significant consumer benefits,” she said, including “faster broadband speeds, access to a superior video experience and more competition in business services resulting in billions of dollars of cost savings. These benefits have been essentially unchallenged in the record—and all can be achieved without any reduction of competition.”

Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner Cable has been dogged by regulatory delays, and the most recent expected closing date was bumped to the middle of the year. Meanwhile, Wall Street has remained cautious about the potential for the deal to be approved. After Bloomberg’s report, Time Warner Cable shares fell 5.4% to $149.61 on Friday, and Comcast slipped 2.1%. The stock drop left Time Warner Cable trading 11% below the value of Comcast’s all-stock bid, signaling skepticism among traders that the deal will close.

(BFW) Draghi Says Fed Preparing Very Carefully for Possible Rate Rise


Draghi Says Fed Preparing Very Carefully for Possible Rate Rise
2015-04-18 17:03:38.145 GMT


By Rebecca Christie and Stefan Riecher
(Bloomberg) -- Raising rates is an experience that’s being
prepared for very carefully, European Central Bank President
Mario Draghi says at press briefing in Washington, when asked
about potential Federal Reserve interest-rate increases.
* U.S. recovery is key for global recovery
* Draghi speaks at IMF/World Bank spring meetings

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(BFW) ECB’s Draghi Says It’s Pointless to Go Short on the Euro


ECB’s Draghi Says It’s Pointless to Go Short on the Euro
2015-04-18 16:55:00.239 GMT


By Rebecca Christie and Stefan Riecher
(Bloomberg) -- It’s premature to speculate about a Greek
exit from the euro, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi
says at press briefing in Washington.
* Draghi speaks at IMF/World Bank spring meetings

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Scott Lanman, Brendan Murray