Content protection firm Nagra-Kudelski will provide conditional access technology to the Mobile Content Venture, a joint venture of Fox, NBC Universal, Ion and nine top TV station groups, the MCV said Wednesday. MobiTV will manage the operational aspects of the service for MCV and build a single client that blends broadcast and unicast content, MobiTV said. The planned service includes both live and VOD content, delivered over different paths to mobile devices Salil Dalvi, senior vice president of NBC Universal and co-general manager of MCV, said in an interview. The inclusion of conditional access means the service won’t be viewable on devices that aren’t updated with Nagra’s software.

TORONTO -- With four new providers starting service in the past year and two more to come in early 2011, pricing and marketing wars have broken out in the Canadian wireless market as the three major incumbents try to protect their $13 billion turf. Slightly more than a year after Orascom Telecom’s Wind Mobile unit, Canada’s first new national wireless provider in more than a decade, started service in this market and Calgary, three other new mobile entrants -- Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Videotron -- have introduced service in several major cities. All four offer discount pricing and simpler, unlimited service plans designed to lure consumers from the incumbent providers and widen the wireless market. Many Canadian consumers can now choose among four, five, six or even more wireless providers for the first time.

The FCC should require a merged CenturyLink-Qwest to preserve and extend previously signed special access and Internet peering agreements, TW Telecom said in an ex parte notice filed with the commission Wednesday. The operator asked the commission to extend special access promises that CenturyLink and Integra made in a settlement with Integra (CD Nov 9 p12). They should be “at least equal” to “comparable commitments applicable to unbundled network elements, require detailed special access performance reports for at least 36 months after the acquisition is complete and extend current special access agreements for at least 36 months after the acquisition, the filing said.

Chipmaker Qualcomm agreed to buy Wi-Fi chip manufacturer Atheros for $3.1 billion to accelerate expansion to businesses beyond cellular, the companies’ executives said in a conference call Wednesday. The deal, expected to close in the first half, would create a communications platform that spans wireless, home, smart grid and sensor networks, analysts said.

LAS VEGAS -- Recent tax law incentives and other policy developments allowed AT&T to accelerate its 4G rollout beginning this year, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets CEO Ralph de la Vega told about 2,000 developers meeting here prior to the start of the CES convention. He said LTE deployment will be largely complete in 2013, and the company will deploy 20 new 4G devices this year.

MetroPCS’s changes to its 4G service plans make clear why all FCC net neutrality rules should apply to wireless, Free Press said Tuesday. MetroPCS’s $40 per month service, unveiled Monday, allows Web browsing and use of YouTube, but appears to create a “walled garden,” excluding such popular services as Skype and Netflix, the group said.

Some at the FCC hewed to its recent stance of mainly watching retransmission consent talks and not actively encouraging broadcasters and cable, DBS and telco-TV companies to reach new deals as a slew of contracts expired New Year’s Day, commission officials said Tuesday. Unlike in some previous disputes, including those expiring Jan. 1, 2010, commissioners’ offices weren’t in constant communication with broadcasters and pay-TV providers whose retrans deals were expiring, they said. Career FCC staffers, including at the Media Bureau, also don’t seem to have been involved in many deals, a commission official said.

LAS VEGAS -- On the eve of CES, which opens Thursday, broadcasters and TV makers began to lay out their plans for mobile DTV in 2011. The Open Mobile Video Coalition, which has been helping coordinate broadcasters’ technology efforts around mobile DTV admitted four manufacturer members, marking the first time it opened its doors formally to anyone other than TV broadcasters. Dell, Harris, LG Electronics and Samsung Mobile are the charter members of OMVC’s new Mobile DTV Forum, OMVC said. The move will allow broadcasters and device and equipment makers to work together more easily, said Anne Schelle, executive director of OMVC.

A $1.2 million indecency fine against 44 ABC affiliates was vacated Tuesday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The decision cited a Supreme Court ruling sending back to the FCC its policy that fleetingly indecent content could be found indecent. The 2nd Circuit also revealed that it recently turned down a U.S. government request that the court rehear en banc its affirmance of its earlier Fox ruling (CD July 14 p1). That puts all eyes back on the Supreme Court, which the government is expected to ask to hear Fox, said advocates on both sides of the issue.

The California Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that police may search an arrested suspect’s cellphone without a search warrant. The Ohio Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion last year.