Communications Crossroads - Fall 2008 - (Page 21)

people MILESTONES USTelecom member Richard Ruhl of Pioneer Telephone Cooperative has been elected chairman of the Oklahoma Telephone Association for the coming year D&E Communications announced that Bert Kramer, senior vice president of operations, has received the prestigious Good Scout Award. The Hawk Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America in Reading, PA, presented the award. Kramer has been active in the Hawk Mountain Council for many years and has also been an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 84 in Neffsville, Penn. since 2000 AT&T has announced that Connie Browning, president of AT&T Ohio, will be leaving her position effective immediately to work with two charities in the Columbus area: the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Foundation and The James Cancer Center at the Ohio State University. Thomas C. Pelto, a veteran AT&T executive, has been appointed her successor Google, Inc. named Bell Canada executive Patrick Pichette as its new chief ﬁnancial ofﬁcer … Kevin Sheehan, Hatteras Networks’ CEO, won the Stevie Award for Best Executive in Telecommunications at the 2008 American Business Awards Iowa Telecommunications Services has appointed Kenneth Cole to its board of directors. Cole has worked in telecommunications previously in various senior positions at CenturyTel and as a founding member of Valor Telecom … The Hill newspaper named USTelecom’s Walter B. McCormick Jr. as one of its “best in the business for America’s business sectors” for his work on behalf of broadband providers … John Donovan of Verisign has joined AT&T as its new chief technology ofﬁcer … FTC Commissioner William Kovacic took over as the new FTC chairman, replacing Deborah Majoras NARUC has nominated the following state commissioners to the FCC’s newly reformed Joint Conference on Advanced Services: Rachelle Chong, CA; Mark Johnson, AK; Betty Kane, DC; Randy Mitchell, SC; Krista Tanner, IA; and Vendean Vaﬁades, ME. NEWS & NOTES The FCC approved the application for transfer control of Western Telephone Company, Inc. to Venture Communications Cooperative, Inc., both small ILECs operating out of South Dakota BEVCOMM has ﬁnalized an agreement to acquire Charter Communications’ cable assets in Blue Earth and Elmore, MN. After the deal closes, Charter will maintain the system until August 1 Bemidji, a Minnesota-based Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative, announced it will acquire Blackduck Telephone Co. in Blackduck, MN … The FCC has approved the transfer of control application for TDS Telecom’s acquisition of Mosinee Telephone Company of Mosinee, WI Fairpoint Communications ﬁnalized its acquisition of Verizon’s landline assets in New England AT&T donated 10,000 prepaid phone cards to U.S. troops overseas over the Independence Day holiday. This is the second installment of more than 30,000 prepaid phone cards that AT&T will give to U.S. servicemen and women in 2008 … SureWest will partner with Cloudmark to provide outbound SPAM ﬁltering on SureWest’s Apache SpamAssassin software to reduce spam and overall load on the network Glen F. Post, III, chairman and CEO of CenturyTel, said that the company’s 700 MHz spectrum should “enable us to utilize our existing operations, including our current distribution and technical support infrastructure, to cost-effectively deploy wireless services, both in our existing markets and in selective contiguous markets.”… Alcatel-Lucent announced that Embarq has selected the company’s industry-leading IP routing solution for the service provider’s ongoing network upgrade; Embarq will also be deploying ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform into its network Windstream Corp. has announced that it has doubled Internet speeds available in its 16-state network; in addition to offering 12-Mbps service in some areas, the company has announced offerings of 3 and 6-Mbps service to nearly all of its broadband subscribers … CNET has announced a three-year partnership with search-engine giant Yahoo to provide technology news and reviews … Microsoft announced that its Mediaroom IPTV software—used by AT&T for delivery of U-verse IPTV service—now serves more than two million set-top boxes, more than double the number from six months ago … MetaSwitch announced that Frontier Communications will begin deploying MetaSwitch’s uniﬁed messaging solution to deliver voicemail and fax services to business and residential subscribers. In Memoriam Former USTelecom Board member Royster Milton Tucker, Jr., passed away on Friday, May 30, 2008, at the age of 76. This year, Tucker retired from North State Communications after 53 years of service; at the time of his retirement, he was chairman of the board and president. Tucker also served as president of the North Carolina Telecommunications Industry Association in 1960 and was on its Board of Directors for 48 years. Jack H. Rhyner, 55, chairman and CEO of TelAlaska, passed away on April 19 at home with his family after a long battle with cancer. In addition to running the TelAlaska companies—which serve rural and urban Alaska, Rhyner also served as a member of the FCC’s Rural Task Force. Fall 2008 COMMUNICATIONS CROSSROADS 21

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Fall 2008

Communications Crossroads - Fall 2008 Up Front Contents TeleBites The Urge to Merge The 700 MHZ Auction: Results and Speculation Industry Calendar Advertisers DotCom Index to Advertisers People Straight Talk

Communications Crossroads - Fall 2008

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