Oct 28, 2009 (Delay in Broadband Stimulus Grants)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28, 2009
3 events today: 1) the Health IT Policy Committee continues its deliberations, 2) the FCC holds a Workshop on Ex Parte Rules, and 3) Combating Distracted Driving is the topic for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. http://bit.ly/2EysXi
THE STIMULUS
NTIA, RUS To Delay Announcement Of Broadband Bid Winners
Lawmakers Want Stimulus Funds Getting To Rural America; 'Remoteness' Definition Raises Concerns
GAO's Preliminary Observations on the Implementation of Broadband Stimulus Programs
Grants for Broadband Mapping and Planning in Arkansas, DC, and New York
Atlanta seeks to add 500 surveillance cameras with BTOP funding
President Obama Announces $3.4 Billion Investment to Spur Transition to Smart Energy Grid; Could be Boost for Broadband
Also see: Debate heats up over cybersecurity regulations for electric utilities
ONC panel wrestles with meaningful use by specialists
Tech projects to get big splash from second wave of stimulus spending
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Internet networks unable to handle H1N1 telework traffic: GAO
Comcast: FCC's BitTorrent Decision Violated "Fair Notice"
AT&T and Astroturf: is "following the money" enough?
The quest for a truly open smartphone: can it be done?
Blackburn Introduces House Bill To Block Network Neutrality
Net neutrality at the crossroads
Recap of FCC Broadband Accessibility Workshop II
Real-time video surpasses P2P, creating new broadband 'prime-time'
FCC Considers Shifting TV Airwaves to Net
EU Plans pan-European Mobile Broadband Network
Netherlands, France, Singapore cheapest for mobile broadband
Telstra: will oppose reforms if assets undervalued
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Obama Is Right About Fox News
See also: Fox Newsman to Speak at Events of Group Opposed to Health Care Plan
FBI Slow to Review Intercepted Communications
Media executives should let local news lead the way
Government breaks new ground in Web site satisfaction
FCC Expands Use of Web 2.0 Tools
Russian Professors Chafe at Scholarly Screening
OWNERSHIP
Microchips and Monopolies
FTC's Chief Economist Says Tech Competition Is a Focus
Liberty Media gets IRS approval for split-off
Cisco to buy ScanSafe for $183 million
MORE ONLINE
Price promises of backers of Wisconsin cable bill fall flat
Amendment makes pharmacists eligible for IT loans
Tech Firms Make Bet With Ad Blitz
Economy Drives News Coverage
Catholic Bishops did not join FCC petition on hate speech
Internet Innovation Alliance Names David Sutphen New Co-Chair
Broadcasters Seek Cable-TV Fees
Operator of 'Private' Web Sales Is Acquired
California Would Lose Seats Under Census Change
Recent Comments on:
Keeping access open to all
Net Neutrality, Slippery Slopes & High-Tech Mutually Assured Destruction
THE STIMULUS
NTIA, RUS TO DELAY 1ST ROUND BROADBAND STIMULUS GRANTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Services' (RUS) broadband stimulus grant and loan programs under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program will delay by at least a month announcements of winners of broadband stimulus grants. "We're going to take a few more weeks here to get this right," said NTIA head Larry Strickling. "I will not fund a bad application." NTIA had been preparing in the next couple of weeks to announce the first winners in what will now be a two-step process of handing out billions in stimulus money for broadband mapping, adoption and service to unserved and underserved areas. That will now be pushed to early December. At a Senate oversight hearing, Sen John Kerry (D-MA) asked what NTIA's approach would be to anchor institutions. The NTIA's Strickling said that those institutions may be where the government should be concentrating much of its money, particularly in the initial round of funding. Strickling said he expected NTIA to be awarding grants for speeds substantially higher than 768 kbps, which he said was just a floor for applying (it is also the FCC's definition of high speed). He pointed out that applicants got extra points for higher speeds.
http://bit.ly/4kfHMn
LAWMAKERS WANT STIMULUS FUNDS GETTING TO RURAL AMERICA
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Winter Casey]
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee raised concerns Tuesday about getting broadband stimulus funds out to remote areas and how these areas should be defined. Committee Chairman John "Jay" Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen John Kerry (D-MA) both raised concerns about defining remote areas and making sure the funding is getting to the underserved areas in need. Jonathan Adelstein, administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the Department of Agriculture, outlined the problem in his prepared testimony. "[W]e have seen applicants struggle to comply with the requirements of the "remote" definition for last-mile rural remote programs," Adelstein said."We are contemplating major revisions that will continue to target highly-rural areas that are difficult to serve while making it easier for applicants to comply with any new definition we may establish." He added that they have seen "some applicants encounter challenges with our program's rural definition" and "some applicants have found it difficult to comply with the loan requirement for middle mile and last mile non-remote projects." Adelstein said "It continues to be our belief that we should move to compress the planned-for second and third [funding] rounds [to applicants] into a single round in order to give applicants additional time to create strong proposals and to ensure that we are able to meet the goal of obligating all funds by Sept. 20, 2010." RUS and the National Telecommunications and Information administration plan to seek formal written comments on ways to better meet the requirements of the Recovery Act and will be releasing a request for information soon, he added. "We will make necessary changes based on these suggestions and our experience."
http://bit.ly/4kfHMn
GAO'S PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF BROADBAND PROGRAMS
[SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: Mark Goldstein]
In testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, the Government Accountability Office's Mark Goldstein provided preliminary information on the challenges Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) face in distributing broadband stimulus grants and loans; the steps taken to address challenges; and the remaining risks in 1) evaluating applications and awarding funds and 2) overseeing funded projects. The testimony is based on related ongoing work that GAO expects to complete in November. To conduct this work, GAO is reviewing relevant laws and program documents and interviewing agency officials and industry stakeholders. While this testimony does not include recommendations, GAO expects to make recommendations in its November report.
http://bit.ly/4kfHMn
BROADBAND MAPPING GRANTS FOR ARKANSAS, DC, NEW YORK
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded grants to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, and New York under NTIA's State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. NTIA has awarded Connect Arkansas approximately $1.6 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities over a two-year period and almost $500,000 for broadband planning activities over a five-year period for the state of Arkansas, bringing the total grant award to nearly $2.1 million. Connect Arkansas, the designated entity for the state of Arkansas, is a private nonprofit organization based in that state. NTIA has awarded the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer (DC OCTO) approximately $993,000 for broadband data collection and mapping activities over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning activities over a five-year period for the District of Columbia, bringing the total grant award to nearly $1.5 million. DC OCTO is the designated entity for the District of Columbia. In addition, NTIA has awarded the New York State Office of Cyber Security & Critical Infrastructure (OCSCI) approximately $2 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning activities over a five-year period for New York, bringing the total grant award to approximately $2.5 million. OCSCI is the designated entity for the state of New York.
benton.org/node/29213 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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OBAMA ANNOUNCED SMART GRID INVESTMENTS
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, funding a broad range of technologies that will spur the nation's transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system. The end result will promote energy-saving choices for consumers, increase efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar. The $3.4 billion in Smart Grid Investment Grant awards are part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and will be matched by industry funding for a total public-private investment worth over $8 billion. Applicants state that the projects will create tens of thousands of jobs, and consumers in 49 states will benefit from these investments in a stronger, more reliable grid. An analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that the implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030. That would mean a savings of $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers around the country. The grants include $1 billion create the infrastructure and expand access to smart meters and customer systems so that consumers will be able to access dynamic pricing information and have the ability to save money by programming smart appliances and equipment to run when rates are lowest. Two billion dollars will be invested in "smart" components such as smart meters, smart thermostats and appliances, syncrophasors, automated substations, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy sources, etc. The benefits could reach to the broadband sector as well, said Craig Settles, a broadband analyst and president of consulting firm Successful.com. The backbone of the smart grid, which uses digital technology to deliver electricity and control use, will be an Internet Protocol-based network, and the result could mean new broadband deployment in some areas. "The interdependencies and mutual influences of smart grid and broadband technologies should enable both grant programs to have a greater payback for their respective awardees," Settles said in an e-mail. "All of the things people are talking about doing with smart grid, such as moving "green" energy from windmill farms and proactively managing energy usage, require at some point a fast data connection. That means fiber (the ideal) or possibly super-fast fixed wireless."
benton.org/node/29198 | White House, The | Awards by category | Awards by state | Awards map | White House blog | National Public Radio | President Obama | IDG News Service
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ONC PANEL WRESTLES WITH MEANINGFUL USE BY SPECIALISTS
[SOURCE: GovernmentHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
On Tuesday, the Health IT Policy Committee confronted the problem of how to craft a manageable set of requirements for the "meaningful use" of health information technology across an industry where specialties and new practice variations are common and where one policy may not fit all. The advisory panel for the Office of the National Coordinator has recommended to the Health and Human Services Department 25 clinical and quality measures that physicians and hospitals must meet in 2011 to be eligible for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments under the stimulus law. Those measures were geared for what is normally a patient's first encounter with the health system: the primary care physician. But many specialists who do not treat a wide range of diseases and conditions may not be able to comply with all the current 2011 requirements. "Not all objectives and measures are appropriate for all eligible professionals," said Paul Tang, vice chairman of the Committee and chief medical information officer at Palo Alto Foundation. As a result, the committee must decide which of the 25 meaningful use measures should apply to specialists so they still can qualify for 2011 incentive payments and which requirements to delay introducing til 2013 and 2015.
benton.org/node/29211 | GovernmentHealthIT
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TECH PROJECTS TO SEE NEW WAVE OF STIMULUS SPENDING
[SOURCE: FederalComputerWeek, AUTHOR: Doug Beizer]
A new wave of spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will happen over the next year, and information technology projects will get a lot of the green, said Edward DeSeve, special advisor to the Office of Management Budget and director for implementation of the Recovery Act. "Without innovation, the American economy has no where to go," DeSeve said. "We can't do the things that we've been doing, we have to do new things, and technology will be an extraordinarily important force in implementing the long term aspects of the Recovery Act." Health IT, for example, will receive significant funding over the next year, DeSeve said. About $20 billion will be applied to health-related projects, he said.
benton.org/node/29197 | FederalComputerWeek
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
INTERNET NETWORKS UNABLE TO HANDLE TELEWORK DURING PANDEMIC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
As concerns rage over the spread of the H1N1 flu, a federal report showed that a pandemic that would keep millions of Americans at home could also overload Internet networks. Adults working from home, children accessing video files and playing games online and families logging on for information about the illness would overwhelm residential Internet networks that were never built to have a majority of users on the Web at the same time, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The federal government is in disarray when it comes to dealing with such a scenario, the GAO reported. The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of communications networks during times of national emergency. But it says it doesn't have a plan to deal with overloaded Internet networks -- an essential resource to keep the economy humming and residents informed and connected during a pandemic. And the DHS hasn't coordinated with agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to create clear guidelines for how telecom, cable and satellite providers can minimize congestion. Such confusion "would increase the risk that the federal government will not be able to respond rapidly or effectively if a pandemic quickly emerges," the GAO reported. Network operators like Comcast, AT&T, Cox and Verizon are limited in their options. They could add more bandwidth capacity and lay down private lines for essential workers, for example, but that is expensive and would take too long. Shutting down certain Web sites or prioritizing traffic could run into technical regulatory hurdles, the report said.
benton.org/node/29195 | Washington Post | GAO report | GAO report highlights
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COMCAST CHALLENGES BITTORRENT DECISION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a filing at the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington (DC) Comcast says the Federal Communications Commission's BitTorrent decision was hardly modest (as the FCC claims), was done without the requisite notice, and was unenforceable. Comcast was responding to the FCC's argument in its brief to the court last month that it had the authority to take action against Comcast for "covertly interfering" with BitTorrent peer-to-peer traffic in violation of Internet openness principles -- and doing so in an adjudicatory proceeding rather than a rulemaking. Comcast argues that the FCC violated "basic rules of fair notice" because the conduct it targeted--reducing peer-to-peer traffic on the network--did not violate any FCC rules. "[T]he unenforceability of the Policy Statement has now been confirmed by the initiation of a rulemaking to establish the Policy Statement (and two new principles, including non-discrimination) as enforceable regulations," said Comcast in its brief. Comcast also argues that the FCC's invocation of "virtually the entire Communications Act" for its authority is a regulatory theory that "would free the agency of any meaningful statutory limits on its power, restrict Congress' role to prohibiting agency action rather than, as present law establishes, authorizing such action."
benton.org/node/29201 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AT&T AND ASTROTURF
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
To appreciate the vast influence that AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon enjoy, check out the AT&T Foundation's 2007 tax returns as an example: it has pages and pages of non-profits, charities, support groups, and community centers that receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in telco largesse. Thumbing through the return, it's easy to come to simple, "follow-the-money" conclusions about some of the filings which the Federal Communications Commission is now receiving. Take the go-slow on network neutrality commentary filed in late September by the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP) and 19 other civil rights groups. Their statement warns that net neutrality policies could inhibit investment and "leave disenfranchised communities further behind." The coalition describes themselves as having a common purpose, serving communities "that are among the most severely impacted by a lack of access to technology." And indeed the list includes signers from venerable organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). But the groups signing the letter have something else in common: financial support from AT&T (and sometimes Verizon and Comcast). These advocates don't hide this. HTTP's Sylvia Aguilera initiated the action out of HTTP's concerns that net neutrality could slow down investment in ISP rollout, she explained, an area where many Latinos are finding jobs. We also asked AT&T whether they had a hand in the statement, but received no reply. Ironically, while pro-neutrality activists see Astroturf in all this, Aguilera sees something similar in the net neutrality movement. An HTTP analysis calls it "dominated by mainstream consumer advocates and the technology and telecommunications policy elite, groups that are least familiar and least equipped to discuss the perspectives of communities on the wrong side of the digital divide." And so net neutrality activists face a big challenge: convincing a wider range of stakeholders that uncertain new reforms will not jeopardize their stake in the present system. It is in those anxieties that AT&T and company find allies.
benton.org/node/29193 | Ars Technica
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THE QUEST FOR AN OPEN SMARTPHONE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Ryan Paul]
The recent release of the Symbian kernel source code under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) has generated some discussion in the open source software community about the challenges of building a truly open smartphone platform. Software freedom advocates are concerned because none of the existing open source mobile platforms with mainstream viability are entirely open. Smartphones are playing an increasingly important role in our daily computing activities, a trend that's only going to grow as the technology becomes more pervasive. If smartphone devices can't be opened up, then those computing activities will forever be restricted by network operators, handset makers, and platform vendors. The implications are clear, but the real questions are: to what extent is it necessary to open up a phone and to what extent is it possible?
benton.org/node/29192 | Ars Technica
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BLACKBURN INTRODUCES HOUSE BILL TO BLOCK NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has introduced a House version of the bill introduced last week by Sen John McCain (R-AZ) that would block the Federal Communications Commission from passing any regulations "regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services." She argues the FCC would be making the Internet less neutral by regulating it "in the same way it regulates radio and television broadcasts." Rep Blackburn said the FCC has plenty to keep it busy regulating those media. "[L]et's not add to their workload by giving them authority over the Internet," she said in announcing the bill. "As conceived by the FCC, network neutrality is counterproductive," said Blackburn spokesman Claude Chafin. "It hurts the Internet and specifically for us, our constituent interest, is that it enables piracy by not allowing service providers to discriminate between sites that are transferring files illegally and those that are not."
benton.org/node/29191 | Broadcasting&Cable | Sen John McCain
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NET NEUTRALITY AT THE CROSSROADS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Epstein]
[Commentary] Few issues in recent years have generated as much passion—and confusion—as the debate over net neutrality for broadband transmissions. To be sure, the idea of "neutrality" exudes positive vibrations in many contexts. To combat arbitrary power, governments, for example, must apply neutral principles in drafting legislation and in resolving judicial disputes. The harder question is whether private parties, who don't exercise state power, should be subject to similar neutrality constraints. The presumptive answer is no. The basic idea of private property is bottomed on the view that any owner has the right to exclude everyone else in the world, which in turn gives him the right to selectively admit whomever he pleases on terms to their mutual likely. The existence of multiple owners with different agendas spurs innovation and creativity, so long as the neutral state backs the owners right to exclude and to enforce, both ways, the contracts with the owner's contracting partners. All in all, the presumption against state interference holds up. The explosive growth in broadband in the absence of net neutrality has continued to confound the doomsayers. But the old maxim, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, surely applies with special force to an FCC whose toolkit is filled with expensive, blunt, and broken instruments.
benton.org/node/29227 | Financial Times
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RECAP OF FCC BROADBAND ACCESSIBILITY WORKSHOP II
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Lyle]
On October 20, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop focused accessibility issues for people with disabilities. In the first panel, Leveraging Federal and State Resources to make Broadband Accessible and Affordable, we heard about the efforts of Department of Commerce/NTIA, Department of Agriculture/RUS, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, the Government Services Administration, and the State of Missouri (from Danny Weitzner, Gary Boles, Jennifer Sheehy, Richard Horne, Terry Weaver, and Marty Exline, respectively) to support broadband access for people with disabilities. While each agency is clearly making an important contribution, the daunting task before us is to figure out how we can better coordinate our efforts at the tribal, local, state, federal, and international levels. In the second panel, we heard consumers discuss very movingly the specific barriers and opportunities that broadband presents to those who have speech, hearing, vision, hearing and vision, mobility, and intellectual disabilities. A consultant gave a "big picture" analysis of these barriers and opportunities. The panel did a superb job of clearly articulating the problems that we have to solve. "Advancing National Purposes for People with Disabilities" was the theme of the third panel. Jim Fruchterman of Benetech discussed how Bookshare allows people with vision, learning, and mobility disabilities to have online access to over 50,000 books and periodicals. Peggy Hathaway of Spinal Cord Advocates discussed how broadband provides new job and civic participation opportunities for people with mobility disabilities, and Claude Stout of Telecommunications for the Deaf discussed the urgent need for people in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to be able to contact E-911 services directly using pagers, e-mail, and real-time text and video. Kate Seelman of the University of Pittsburgh discussed how broadband-enabled telerehabilitation can help people with disabilities better manage their health and employment, and Ishak Kang of DOT UI discussed how the Smart Grid could benefit people with disabilities. The fourth panel was a fascinating exploration of the technological barriers and opportunities relating to broadband accessibility. Among other things, the panelists addressed E-911 issues; the importance of interoperability and open architecture; the potential to address accessibility challenges through cloud computing; and the challenges related to captioning on the Internet.
benton.org/node/29209 | Federal Communications Commission
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REAL-TIME VIDEO SURPASSES P2P
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Rich Karpinski]
A new report from deep packet inspection vendor Sandvine finds that the heaviest use of broadband networks has shifted to viewing streaming video and primarily between the traditional prime-time hours of 7-10 pm. That finding, along with a concurrent shift away from heavy peer-to-peer (P2P) users being the biggest consumers of broadband bandwidth, represents a major shift in bandwidth consumption. It also has major implications for network service providers and how they manage their traffic, made even more complex thanks to the heavy interest in net neutrality these days in Washington (DC). It also comes as similar surveys from Cisco and Arbor Networks in recent days have been released with similar conclusions: overall bandwidth consumption is increasing, with streaming slowly overtaking P2P.
benton.org/node/29208 | TelephonyOnline
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FCC CONSIDERS SHIFTING TV AIRWAVES TO NET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
The Federal Communications Commission is considering taking back some airwaves from television broadcasters and auctioning them off to wireless companies to increase the availability of wireless broadband services. Friday, the Consumer Electronics Association released a study it commissioned on the value of the chunk of airwaves set aside for TV broadcasters. If the FCC took back all those airwaves and auctioned them, the government could make up to $62 billion, the study found. Such an approach would cost about $12 billion in payments to broadcasters and about $9 billion to "migrate all households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts to subscription services," the study found. The political will to take such an approach could be weak, however, because the federal government just spent $2.15 billion over the past two years to help consumers move to digital-only broadcast television. Consumers who rely on free TV now might also take a dim view of being asked to subscribe to cable or satellite television,. Many of them just had to go through the trouble of either buying new digital TVs or hooking up digital converter boxes to their old TVs to keep them working. The FCC isn't looking at taking away all of the broadcasters' airwaves. Instead, FCC officials are focusing on the benefits of taking back a portion of the airwaves set aside for digital TV broadcasts and auctioning those off to wireless companies that want to offer more wireless Internet services.
benton.org/node/29224 | Wall Street Journal
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EU PLANS PAN-EUROPEAN MOBILE BROADBAND NETWORK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O'Brein]
The European Commission will urge the 27 European Union countries Wednesday to reserve a uniform slice of broadcast spectrum for a pan-European mobile broadband network, one that could enable flat-rate, international voice and data calling plans. Apparently, the proposal sets out technical guidelines for E.U. countries that choose to redeploy part of their low-frequency spectrum, a bandwidth that has been used exclusively by television broadcasters since the inception of the industry more than 50 years ago. Whether E.U. countries heed the advice of its executive body and lay the groundwork for a blocwide wireless market remains to be seen. But an architect of the plan and an analyst who follows the industry said they expected most E.U. countries to embrace the recommendation.
benton.org/node/29223 | New York Times
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COMPARING MOBILE BROADBAND PLANS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Lexton Snol]
ABI Research finds that the Netherlands, France and Singapore have among the lowest prices for mobile broadband plans. In France, an unlimited download plan costs just over $15 per month. Some countries have already seen the introduction of innovative pricing plans, including pricing by time rather than data downloaded. Vendors must also ensure that their price plans remain transparent and fair. Consumers and watchdogs have complained about excessive and uncapped data costs for users who unknowingly exceed their allotted maximum download limit. This can be mitigated by the use of data caps above which users cannot continue downloading, or through informative advertising detailing the number of web pages or online videos represented by a given data package.
benton.org/node/29207 | InfoWorld
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TELSTRA THREATENS REFORMS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Adrian Bathgate]
Telstra, Australia's dominant phone provider, threatened on Wednesday to oppose government reforms to the telecoms sector if these plans ended up undervaluing the company's huge asset base. Telstra is in talks with the government over the reforms, which would involve hiving off the company's fixed-line phone assets from the rest of the business and injecting them into a A$43 billion ($39.45 billion) national broadband network.
benton.org/node/29205 | Reuters
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OBAMA IS RIGHT ABOUT FOX NEWS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Frank]
[Commentary] Persecution fantasy is Fox News's lifeblood; give it the faintest whiff of the real thing and look out for a gale-force hissy fit. But faced with one of the biggest First Amendment cases of our own time—the New York Times's 2005 story on the George W. Bush administration's domestic wiretapping program—how did Fox News react? By impugning the motives of the Times, of course, with different Fox personalities speculating that the Times deliberately published the story when it did in order to dissuade the U. S. Senate from reauthorizing the Patriot Act. To point out that this network is different, that it is intensely politicized, that it inhabits an alternate reality defined by an imaginary conflict between noble heartland patriots and devious liberals—to be aware of these things is not the act of a scheming dictatorial personality. It is the obvious conclusion drawn by anybody with eyes and ears. Still, one wishes that the Obama administration had taken on Fox News with a little more skill. As cultural criticism goes, this was clumsy, plodding stuff. What the situation required was sarcasm, irony, a little humor. Simply feeding Fox a slice of raw denunciation was like dumping gasoline into a fire. It did nothing but furnish the network with a real-world validation of its long-running conspiracy theories—and a nice bump in its ratings.
benton.org/node/29222 | Wall Street Journal
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FBI SLOW TO REVIEW INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
The FBI's collection of wiretapped phone calls and intercepted e-mail has been soaring in recent years, but the bureau is failing to review "significant amounts" of such material partly for lack of translators, according to a Justice Department report released Monday. "Not reviewing such material increases the risk that the F.B.I. will not detect information in its possession that may be important to its counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts," said the report, which was issued by the office of the department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine. In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that it was working to reduce its backlog of unreviewed audio recordings and electronic documents, and that it continued seeking to hire or contract with more linguists.
benton.org/node/29196 | New York Times | DoJ Inspector General
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MEDIA EXECUTIVES SHOULD LET LOCAL NEWS LEAD THE WAY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Don Campbell]
[Commentary] Thomas Jefferson famously said that if he had to choose between having a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter. Jefferson was right, but I'd rather have a government without newspapers than newspapers that depend on government for economic survival. Publishers and news executives face perilous challenges, but they don't need, nor should they accept, help from government at any level. They have to save themselves. They should start with this premise: Their future lies in local news and analysis that have monetary value, no matter how they're delivered. Some newspapers have accepted the first part of that premise by shrinking their circulation areas and ending or curbing coverage of Washington and state capitols. But they are more reluctant to accept the second.
benton.org/node/29219 | USAToday
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GOVERNMENT WEB SITE SATISFACTION
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
Public satisfaction with federal Web sites has reached a record high, according to Tuesday's release of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index for e-government. Overall e-government satisfaction, which the university has measured quarterly since 2003, increased 2.2 percent between the second and third quarters of 2009, from 73.6 points to 75.2 points on a scale of 100. Researchers attributed the all-time high mostly to long-term investments in site maintenance and to measuring satisfaction. Efforts by the tech-savvy president were less of a factor, according to the study.
benton.org/node/29200 | nextgov
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FCC EXPANDS USE OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS FOR OPEN INTERNET INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Easy-to-use, interactive, collaborative web tools -- known as Web 2.0 applications -- will be a key part of the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to involve the public in the Open Internet inquiry. The FCC has already established the OpenInternet.gov web site as a portal for public participation in the discussion about preserving the free and open Internet. Among the links included on the site is one to Idealscale at http://openinternet.ideascale.com/, which allows the public to evaluate, rank and discuss the ideas regarding the open Internet. The page breaks the discussion down into ten open Internet topics that have generated widespread interest, including freedom of speech, innovation, transparency/disclosure, and others. Also available at OpenInternet.gov is a blog, which provides an additional forum for public comment and debate. Comments from the blog and the Ideascale page (other than anonymous comments) will be included in the official public record of the Open Internet inquiry, along with comments filed through traditional channels at the FCC.
benton.org/node/29194 | Federal Communications Commission
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RUSSIAN PROFESSORS CHAFE AT SCHOLARLY SCREENING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ellen Barry]
Word spread this month among the faculty members of St. Petersburg State University: According to a document signed on Oct. 1, they have to submit their work to administrators for permission before publishing it abroad or presenting it at overseas conferences. The order, which was circulated internally and made its way onto a popular Internet forum, says professors must provide their academic department with copies of texts to be made public outside Russia, so that they can be reviewed for violation of intellectual property laws or potential danger to national security. Administrators say they are simply bringing the university into line with Russia's 1999 law on export control, passed after a decade in which some impoverished scientists sold strategic technology to foreign customers. But some professors are protesting, saying such a system is unheard of in Russian universities — and could be a step toward broader academic censorship.
benton.org/node/29217 | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP
MICROCHIPS AND MONOPOLIES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Following a 16-month-long formal investigation, and years of dithering during the Bush administration, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly within weeks of filing an antitrust complaint against Intel for abusing its dominant position in the microchip market to shut out a smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices. The rest of the world has not waited. Four out of five PCs in the world run on Intel's microchips. If Intel is abusing its outsize clout to marginalize rivals and hinder the development of competitive products, it should be made to stop.
benton.org/node/29226 | New York Times
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FTC'S CHIEF ECONOMIST SAYS TECH COMPETITION IS A FOCUS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John McKinnon]
Joseph Farrell, the chief economist for the Federal Trade Commission, says maintaining competitiveness in the technology sector is important to assuring economic innovation. The remarks come amid signs that the Obama administration is stepping up policing of practices in the high-tech arena. "I think openness to new ideas—better ideas—wherever they may come from is key to innovation policies," Farrell said Tuesday at an appearance before a high-tech association. "Especially in innovative industries, we want to make sure the market stays open to better offers," he added.
benton.org/node/29225 | Wall Street Journal
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