Through the Wire
By Leslie Ellis and Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/8/2007 8:00:00 PM
Hayashi Gets Head Shaved for SkiTAM
Ever since U.S. Disabled Ski Team athlete Joe Tompkins took the No. 1 clipper to Mike Hayashi’s head, people of all stripes seem to want to touch his shorn noggin.
“My wife says I look like a little monk,” Time Warner Cable’s senior VP of advanced engineering and technology told The Wire after the event. “And people keep coming up to me with advice about products, like, 'Have you been to HeadBlade.com?’ ” That’s a head-shaving product, but it’s unknown whether Hayashi plans to maintain the new look, which he embraced to help raise funds for the above-mentioned USDST.
At this year’s annual SkiTAM event in Vail, a $5,000 opening bid to witness Hayashi’s ritual haircut during the awards dinner escalated to $9,600. He threw in the last $400 himself, rounding the donation up to $10,000.
The next day, he flew to corporate headquarters, in Stamford, Conn., for an all-hands senior executive meeting. “The first thing [CEO] Glenn [Britt] says is, 'Can I touch your head?’ ”
It’s always polite to ask first.
Sprint-Cable Venture: Can They Keep a Secret?
Not like the Sprint Nextel/cable guys needed another headache. But last week, news of what appeared to be a major roadblock surfaced: A report on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site saying a new FCC rule would prevent cablers from sharing customer data with Sprint. The article cited an unnamed telecommunications lawyer, who warned that the ruling presented “a serious challenge to the cable companies’ relationship with Sprint.”
Well — no, said Sprint. First, some background: The new FCC order, issued April 2, restricts access to individual customer data by brokers and other third parties. The rule, an extension to existing telecommunications privacy regulations, is intended to block pretexting, an attempt by an impersonator to obtain an individual’s phone records.
As it relates to joint ventures, the FCC’s data-sharing prohibition is limited to information used for marketing activities: A phone provider must now obtain “opt-in consent” from a customer before disclosing that customer’s personally identifying data to a “joint venture partner or independent contractor for the purpose of marketing communications-related services to that customer.” FCC rules will continue to allow exchange of consumers’ personal data among joint-venture partners in the course of regular operations (for billing and the like).
Sprint, through the joint venture with Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Advance/Newhouse Communications, provides wireless phone service under the brand name Pivot to the cablers’ customers. But Sprint said the FCC’s anti-pretexting rule will not require any changes to the way it works with the cable guys, because the members of the JV do not exchange private customer data for the purposes of direct-marketing campaigns.
“The FCC order does not jeopardize the cable partnership in any way,” Sprint spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer said. “We have developed sound practices that ensure privacy, will comply with the law and will ensure the success of the cable partnership.”
Representatives for the cable operators in the JV declined to comment. Guess they just wanted to keep their thoughts private.
Time Warner Cable Drops FearNet
04/07/2009Sprint-Cable JV: Privacy Rule Not an Issue
04/05/2007Sprint Freezes Pivot
11/04/2007
