February 2010

South Carolina and Rhode Island Win Broadband Stimulus Grants

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a $5.9 million Recovery Act grant that will expand broadband Internet access at the South Carolina Technical College System's 16 member colleges across the state. The investment will help bridge the technological divide, improve education, and help more South Carolinians gain the skills needed to compete in the 21st century workforce.

The grant was awarded to the South Carolina State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education. Its S.C. "Reach for Success" project proposes to expand the capacity of 51 public computer centers and create 19 new computer labs at the South Carolina Technical College System's 16 member colleges. The college system is the state's largest higher education system, with 114,000 degree-seeking students and 128,000 continuing education students. Of these students, almost half receive federal Pell Grant assistance and 37 percent are minorities. This project will open these community college computer centers to the general public for the first time and plans to nearly double the number of workstations available by purchasing 2,028 new computers, 596 of which will replace outdated models. The expanded capacity will accommodate an increase in users per week from 17,000 to 38,000.

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration also announced a $1.2 million Recovery Act that will expand broadband Internet access at Rhode Island's 71 public libraries across the state. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, enhance and expand public computer centers, and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. These investments will help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth and create jobs.

The grant will go to OSHEAN Inc., a consortium of not-for-profit organizations, which will use the funding to replace 327 existing computers and add more than 403 new workstations in Rhode Island libraries. The expanded capacity is expected to allow the libraries to serve more than 6,900 additional users per week.

TCC Offers Broadband Plan Goals

Technology CEO Council, a lobbying group for the information technology industry, is making the rounds at the Federal Communications Commission, trying to impact the National Broadband Plan. TCC suggests the FCC establish metrics and clear goals; increase broadband adoption and investment; make more spectrum available for broadband; and use broadband to achieve national policy priorities in the areas of health IT, education and public safety. The TCC also highlighted the importance of tax, trade and research policies to complement infrastructure efforts and maximize investment, jobs and growth in the U.S.

TCC suggests the following goals:

Year 5: increase household adoption rate from 65% to 85% by 2015.
Year 10: increase household adoption rate from 85% to 90% by 2020.

Fiber Broadband Subscribers to Total 106 Million Worldwide in 2014

The number of fixed broadband subscribers will rise to 501 million at the end of 2014, according to new market data released by ABI Research.

Of those, about 106 million will subscribe to services delivered via fiber. Fiber broadband subscribers totaled 44 million at the end of 2009. The number of fixed broadband subscribers totaled more than 422 million at the end of 2009, a 9% increase from 2008.

ABI Research industry analyst Serene Fong notes that, "Broadband penetration continues to increase since more service providers are offering triple-play services and driving down access prices."

Among the three broadband technologies, 65% of worldwide fixed broadband consumers subscribe to DSL, 25% to cable and 11% to fiber broadband services. The number of fiber broadband subscribers is increasing fastest, showing a compound annual growth rate of 20% from 2008 to 2014.

The Asia-Pacific region has the highest fiber broadband penetration, followed by North America. Asia-Pacific represents nearly 84% of worldwide fiber broadband subscribers. South Korea and Japan have the highest fiber broadband penetration. NTT is the largest fiber broadband operator with approximately 12 million subscribers. In 2009, Western Europe had only about two million fiber broadband subscribers — a very low penetration compared to North America and Asia Pacific, although Western European countries are planning to accelerate fiber broadband penetration.

FCC Collecting VoIP Info

The New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 (NET 911 Act) became law on July 23, 2008, requiring Internet Protocol (IP) enabled voice service providers to provide 911 and enhanced 911 (E911) services, and requiring various regulatory undertakings by the Federal Communications Commission. Pursuant to Section 101 of the NET 911 Act, the Federal Communications Commission must collect information regarding any fees collected by the states or other jurisdictions in connection with 911/E911 services, specifically, information "detailing the status in each State of the collection and distribution of such fees or charges, and including findings on the amount of revenues obligated or expended by each State or political subdivision thereof for any purpose other than the purpose for which any such fees or charges are specified." Section 101 of the NET 911 Act further requires the FCC to file "within 1 year after the date of enactment of the [NET 911 Act], and annually thereafter" a report with the Congress "detailing the status in each State of the collection and distribution of such fees or charges, and including findings on the amount of revenues obligated or expended by each State or political subdivision thereof for any purpose other than the purpose for which any such fees or charges are specified."

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau seeks the following specific information in order to prepare the next annual report and fulfill its continuing obligations under Section 101 of the NET 911 Act:

A statement as to whether or not the state or other entity as defined by Section 6(f)(1) of the NET 911 Act has established a funding mechanism designated for or imposed for the purposes of 911 or E911 support or implementation (including a citation to the legal authority for such mechanism).
The amount of the fees or charges imposed for the implementation and support of 911 and E911 services, and the total amount collected pursuant to the assessed fees or charges, for the annual period ending December 31, 2009.
A statement describing how the funds collected are made available to localities, and whether the state has established written criteria regarding the allowable uses of the collected funds, including the legal citation to such criteria.
A statement identifying any entity in the state that has the authority to approve the expenditure of funds collected for 911 or E911 purposes, and a description of any oversight procedures established to determine that collected funds have been made available or used for the purposes designated by the funding mechanism, or otherwise used to implement or support 911 or E911.
A statement whether all the funds collected for 911 or E911 purposes have been made available or used for the purposes designated by the funding mechanism, or otherwise used for the implementation or support of 911 or E911.
A statement identifying what amount of funds collected for 911 or E911 purposes were made available or used for any purposes other than the ones designated by the funding mechanism or used for purposes otherwise unrelated to 911 or E911 implementation or support, including a statement identifying the unrelated purposes for which the funds collected for 911 or E911 purposes were made available or used.
Any other comments the respondent may wish to provide regarding the applicable funding mechanism for 911 and E911.

Apple tells developers that location-based advertising is a no-no

In a recent post to its iPhone Developers news site, Apple warned developers not to use location data to serve location-specific ads in their apps. The move comes shortly after Apple acquired its own mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless. Apple wants developers to use CoreLocation, the API that allows developers to find your location based on GPS coordinates and other data, to give users "beneficial information." This concept is at work when Yelp shows you nearby restaurants, or when RunKeeper tracks your jogging progress on a map. However, the company warns, "[i]f your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store."

PTC Is Bleeping Happy With CBS Grammy Coverage

The Parents Television Council has fired off a letter to CBS to thank it for its coverage of the Grammys.

PTC said CBS had "struck an excellent balance" that both "honored the artists and their creativity" and "demonstrated respect for the large number of families in the audience." With rap numbers and the unpredictable Lady GaGa in the lineup, CBS bleepers were kept busy during some portions of the Jan. 31 show (post-Jackson/Golden Globes, "live" awards shows are routinely on a several-second delay for just that purpose). "The network's effort to ensure a safe broadcast for families was an excellent demonstration of corporate responsibility," PTC said.

CBS was criticized by Fordham Media Professor Paul Levinson, who told the Los Angeles Times that history would look "with ridicule upon CBS' ham-handed handling of the Grammys."

If Comcast and NBC CEOs Will Fib to Congress, How Do You Trust Them About Broadband's Future?

[Commentary] Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC CEO Jeff Zucker went in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust and Competition and the House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications to defend their proposed merger. And while "Say Anything" was actually produced by competitor 20th Century Fox, that seemed to be the mantra of both CEO, as both got caught out in some creative truth stretching -- if not outright lies.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) pressed Jeff Zucker on the possibility that the combined Comcast/NBC would try to crush broadband-based competitors and slow down the trend of people "cutting the cord" and dropping their cable subscriptions, Zucker told what can only charitably be called a major fib. Rep Boucher asked Zucker about online video provider Hulu.com (of which NBC owns a chunk and provides a bunch of the content), which last year blocked users of the application Boxee from using Hulu -- a move apparently designed to keep users from streaming Internet content to the TV screen. Zucker promptly responded that "Hulu's management" had made the decision because Boxee was "illegally taking the content that was on Hulu." Oddly, when asked about this very same incident last May, Zucker said something entirely different. Back then, Zucker claimed that he (not Hulu's management) wanted Hulu to remain "an online experience" rather than something people watched on their television. This version -- rather than what Zucker told Rep Boucher -- is far more consistent with what Hulu CEO Jason Kilar wrote on his blog at the time Hulu blocked Boxee. And while claiming that an online innovator encourages piracy is always a safe bet, no one appears to have previously made the claim that Boxee was "illegally taking" Hulu's content before -- probably because Hulu gives its content away for free to anyone with an Internet browser.

Why would Zucker have said in an interview in May that Hulu blocked Boxee because they wanted it to remain an "online experience" (rather than an "over the top" cable competitor) when he could have said in May that Boxee were "illegally taking" Hulu's content, if that really were the reason?

Frankly, it seems far more likely that Zucker knew that his quote from May 2009 would undercut everything he and Roberts keep saying now in February 2010 about how they won't try to squash Internet competition with their cable service. So he decided to tell Rep Boucher something more politically acceptable, apparently on the assumption that no one would notice the conflict between Zucker's May 2009 interview and Zucker's February 2010 testimony.

Members of Congress like Obama's tech proposals to track health quality, fraud

Former House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) praised a proposal in President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request that would make it possible to cull data from claims in systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to measure quality of health care and to link payments to performance.

The fiscal 2011 budget released on Monday recommends $110 million go toward transforming the CMS data collection system from an infrastructure that merely processes claims to one that can analyze and share health care performance data. The goal is to use the resulting assessments, in part, to promote value-based purchasing, a contracting approach that ties provider and plan payments to the quality of care provided. At Thursday's hearing on the president's budget, Rep Dingell pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make sure the department commits to sustaining the project and holds contractors accountable to avoid the numerous system modernization failures he has witnessed during his five decades-long career.

A telecom veteran, Baker stands firm on network neutrality, spectrum plan

Meredith Attwell Baker was a familiar fixture in the telecommunications policy world long before she arrived at the Federal Communications Commission last year.

Now the junior Republican at the agency, she's well-connected on Capitol Hill and understands the inner workings of bureaucratic life. She also has something the other four Commissioners rely on her for—an engineer-like knowledge of the airwaves now at the center of a high-stakes tug-of-war between wireless carriers and broadcasters. And she hasn't wavered in her belief that controversial network neutrality rules could have adverse effects on broadband deployment. Her top goal is to help the FCC come up with a strategic plan to outline the nation's needs for airwaves over the next decade. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says the country will soon face a dire shortage of airwaves. Commissioner Baker, with her deep knowledge of spectrum policy, has a seat at the table in those discussions.

Site Gives Examples of Health IT Successes

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the American Society for Quality, a professional association, have launched Stories of Success, a Web page with 16 peer-reviewed case studies of organizations using information technology to improve safety, quality, effectiveness and efficiency.

The case studies demonstrate real-world successes in applying change management and process improvement tools as a prelude to health I.T. implementation, says Joseph Fortuna, M.D., chair-elect of the health care division of the American Society for Quality. The studies serve as "real-world examples for those endeavoring to become 'meaningful users,'" he adds.

Benton

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