Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, September 5, 1997

Hawaii TV station
gets first digital permit

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators granted a Hawaii broadcaster the first permit to build a commercial digital TV station promising viewers crystal-clear pictures and sound.

The Federal Communications Commission this week issued the construction permit, governing technical specifications for transmission equipment, to KHVO, the ABC affiliate in Hilo. The FCC's Mass Media Bureau also awarded the station, owned by KITV Argyle Television Inc., a free second channel needed for the switch to digital.

During the conversion to digital, broadcasters will transmit programs the existing analog channel as well as the digital channel. This way, existing analog TV sets will not be rendered useless immediately.

The FCC has given permission to stations to experiment with digital broadcasting, but this week's action marks the first commercial construction permit since the agency adopted digital TV rules in April.

Cargo flier shuts down
ahead of FAA action

MIAMI -- Fine Air Services Inc., the operator of a cargo plane that crashed and killed five people last month, has shut down operations until it can clean up its procedures.

Fine Air decided to voluntarily cancel all flights rather than be suspended by the Federal Aviation Administration, whose inspectors found "significant violations," the FAA said yesterday.

The FAA said it was negotiating with the Miami-based cargo airline on what steps it would have to take before it would be allowed to resume flying.

A Fine Air DC-8 bound for the Dominican Republic crashed shortly after takeoff Aug. 7. Four crew members and one person on the ground were killed. Following the accident, current and former Fine Air pilots expressed concern about overloaded planes. No official cause for the crash has been determined.

FCC rejects requests
to regulate 'Net calls

WASHINGTON -- The government has resisted pleas by small long-distance companies to regulate Internet telephone calls.

"Washington at this point has no need to regulate," said Commerce Department Assistant Secretary Larry Irving, whose National Telecommunications and Information Administration held a conference yesterday on Internet phone technology.

Worried that the new communications may hurt profits, a group of small long-distance companies, the America's Carriers Telecommunications Association, asked the Federal Communications Commission to order makers of Internet phone software to stop selling it.

International or long-distance calling over the Internet is much cheaper than conventional phone service. Because the call travels over data networks rather than public telephone networks, the caller doesn't have to pay long-distance or international charges, just the price of the Internet service.