VoIP-Pal is suing its former CEO and chief financial officer for allegedly defrauding the company of millions of shares of stock, according to documents filed in the Nevada circuit of the U.S. District Court. The suit claims Richard Kipping, former VoIP-Pal CEO and current president of Locksmith Financial, and Terry Kwan, former CFO and current owner of TK Investments -- a shareholder of VoIP-Pal -- entered into a $1.5 million loan agreement between VoIP-Pal and Locksmith Financial but "did not authorize defendants to unilaterally issue stock to Locksmith in exchange for debt." The lawsuit also alleges both Kipping and Kwan issued several million shares of VoIP-Pal stock at a reduced price as payment for the loan, which VoIP-Pal claims in the suit had not been communicated to the company's board and was in violation of the loan agreement. According to the court filings of VoIP-Pal, the total value of the stock transactions as repayment for the loan totaled nearly $1.55 million. VoIP-Pal also accused Kipping and Kwan of initiating a $360,000 debt-to-stock conversion in which the company bought back 9,000,000 shares of stock, and then "caused that VoIP-Pal ... issue 36,000,000 shares of VoIP-Pal stock" -- which the company claims was worth $4.8 million at the time -- in exchange for the settlement of the $360,000 loan. VoIP-Pal, Locksmith Financial and TK Investments could not be reached for comment Friday.

Assigning TV stations to the duplex gap is unnecessary and will prevent wireless microphone or unlicensed uses there in some markets, NAB President Gordon Smith told FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn and aides to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in meetings Monday, according to an ex parte filing. Smith also opposed the post-incentive auction band plan and market variability, the filing said. “The FCC should have learned its lesson from the fallout of the 700 MHz A block’s challenges due to its close proximity to TV channel 51. Instead, the Commission proposes to recreate those challenges, but on a much larger scale,” the filing said. The current draft procedures public notice also diminishes the effect of FCC negotiations with Canada and Mexico, the filing said. “In the event the Commission is able to conclude agreements with Canada and/or Mexico prior to the auction to reduce or eliminate foreign impairments, the Procedures PN would allow the Commission to replace these foreign impairments with new domestic impairments -- an unnecessary and unreasonable outcome,” NAB said.

The U.S. ranked No. 1 globally in 24 indices of leadership in the Internet ecosystem, according to more-detailed information that the Media Institute released Wednesday about its Net Vitality Index. The original report published in April and written by Stuart Brotman of Harvard Law School, lists the U.S. as one of the top five nations in the Internet ecosystem and provides extensive global rankings by country across 52 indices -- including the amount of top digital startups and highest-valued digital startups, access to information, top web browsers and investment in telecommunications. It ranked no lower than 13th in any measurement. South Korea, France, Japan and the United Kingdom were identified as the other four countries in the Internet ecosystem's leadership tier.

Retransmission consent costs have increased by $3 billion per year since FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler took office, said pay-TV company Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso in a letter to Wheeler filed with the FCC Tuesday. That is a larger increase “than in any similar period since retransmission consent was created in 1992,” Commisso said. Mediacom also filed a petition Tuesday asking the FCC to adopt rules preventing local broadcasters from imposing blackouts unless the stations' signal is available for free over-the-air or via Internet streaming to 90 percent of the homes in the relevant market. “The reality is that millions of Americans cannot receive a quality off-air signal,” Commisso said in a news release. “Our new petition does nothing more than ask the FCC to ensure that broadcasters keep their part of the bargain and further the congressional goal of promoting universal availability of free broadcast television.” The American Television Alliance applauded the Mediacom filings in an emailed statement. “Mediacom's letter and FCC petition make a very strong case for the FCC to act to prevent consumers from being harmed by the broadcast industry's brass-knuckle tactics,” ATVA said. “It takes a lot of nerve on Mediacom's part to file such a self-serving petition to 'fix' retransmission consent without acknowledging its own legacy of abusive treatment of consumers.” said broadcaster advocates TV Freedom in an email. “Mediacom tied for dead last with ATVA member Time Warner Cable as the worst pay-TV company. So maybe Mediacom and ATVA should look in the mirror if they are truly concerned with the plight of consumers,” TV Freedom said.

Pandora completed an acquisition of analytics provider Next Big Sound to "augment" its Artist Marketing Platform, it said in a news release Wednesday. The deal, terms of which weren't disclosed, was announced in May (see 1505190034).

Comments and data on the 17th FCC video competition report are due Aug. 21, replies Sept. 21, the Media Bureau said Thursday in a public notice in docket 15-158. The 17th report will focus on 2014, and as with past reports will look at how the industry is aligned with such FCC goals as increased competition and diversity in multichannel video programming distribution, increased availability of satellite delivered programming and more development of communications technologies.

CBS-owned TV stations, CBS Network, the Smithsonian Channel and Showtime will remain on AT&T U-verse, which signed a new carriage agreement with the broadcaster, CBS said in a Wednesday news release. CBS' rebranded TV Guide Network, Pop, also will be carried on U-verse, CBS said.

Amazon Web Services will house infrastructure for its cloud computing platform in India beginning in 2016, a company news release said Tuesday. Its cloud services are used by businesses in India, but a lack of infrastructure presence there had clients asking for the company to create one in the region, said AWS. India will become the company's 12th global infrastructure region, it said.

People will watch an estimated 136 billion adult videos in 2015, expected to grow to 193 billion by 2020, said Juniper Research Tuesday. Net growth is expected to be fastest in the U.S., and more modest in other mature markets such as Western Europe, while increased availability of 4G and Wi-Fi and more ownership of tablets and smartphones is expected to drive growth in developing regions, Juniper said. Such offerings as webcams and video chats are expected to outperform the industry overall in revenue generation, because they often charge a subscription rather than operate on a pay-per-view basis, though overall revenue is expected to begin declining in 2020 due to the plethora of free content, Juniper said.

Degrees and jobs attained by students and employees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) continued to increase since 2000, but gender and racial gaps are still prevalent, if not more so, said a joint study released Monday by U.S. News and Raytheon. The number of STEM jobs, especially in computer technology, grew significantly from 2000 to 2014, and computer jobs accounted for the top seven spots on the list of highest number of STEM employees, said the report. It said that the overall number of STEM bachelor's degrees is on the rise, but men received far more diplomas in 2014 than women, and whites were given about 200,000 more degrees last year than either Latinos or African-Americans. While African-Americans' share of STEM degrees declined, said the research, the overall amount of those degrees earned by black students rose 60 percent from 2000 to 2014.