March 2010

Facebook helps movements ignite

A growing number of people are discovering that Facebook, with its 350 million members, "is about way more than simply connecting with friends," said Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications for Facebook. Facebook is becoming a core component for social movements, from constituent outreach for political campaigns to building support and for causes. The use of Facebook to rally political support got a huge boost when President Obama relied on it during his candidacy to get his message out, Noyes said. Newly elected Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., embraced Facebook during his campaign, Noyes said, an illustration of how the GOP is waking up to the power of social media.

Murdoch to launch UK web paywall in June

Rupert Murdoch's closely watched experiment in charging for online news will begin in June, when The Times and the Sunday Times erect their paywalls. Readers will be charged £1 for a day's access the same price as the weekday newspaper or £2 for a week's subscription to two new sites. Print subscribers will be able to read the sites, which replace the existing Times Online, for free.

Cellphone providers look for opportunities in wireless Net

Wireless phone providers are about to broaden the reach of their broadband services and give them a big bump in speed as they salivate over opportunities to connect everything from multimedia smartphones to dog collars.

"You'll see new categories of (mobile Internet) entertainment and multimedia devices that aren't (conventional) phones," Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said at the CTIA Wireless convention here. "It will change the way we think of wireless." The industry is hungry for opportunities: Now that just about anyone who wants a cellphone has one, wireless service providers are "facing very difficult times due to slowing growth," says Dan Hays, director of telecom at management consulting firm PRTM. "That's putting a pressure on profits." But executives are on a high after watching consumers spend $41 billion last year on wireless Internet, up 28% from 2008. To keep that going, this week many of the industry's giants announced plans for next-generation networks or phones. Although they're using several different technologies, nearly all of the upgrades are being marketed as fourth-generation, or 4G, improvements.

FCC broadband plan threatens 'golden age of broadcasting,' Goodmon says

The National Broadband Plan raises a serious, unanswered question in the mind of Jim Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting: Why target the broadcast industry for spectrum?

The plan, presented to Congress March 16, calls for recouping 120MHz of spectrum currently used for DTV transmission, which can be auctioned and repurposed to support projected future demand for wireless broadband Internet service. Doing so will prevent broadcasters, who have toiled through a lengthy digital television transition, from fulfilling their highest potential, he said.

"I think we are right now at our best," Goodmon said. "We've never before been able to do so much, and I have no idea why [the FCC] have abandoned us. Of all the spectrum out there, you want to pick the spectrum that provides free local news to people?"

"I would say that the FCC — the chairman [Julius Genachowski] and his advisors — no longer support the idea of free over-the-air television," Goodmon said. "They can obviously expand broadband and take care of their whole broadband plan and never touch broadcast spectrum."

National broadband plan cost $20 million

The Federal Communications Commission spent $20 million on the year-long process of creating the national broadband plan.

Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL) revealed that price tag in a House hearing Thursday. The FCC told him in a letter that they spent $600,000 on printing and production, $4 million on 78 temporary full-time and part-time employees, and $340,000 on workshops and travel. But the agency also explained that large chunks of those expenses will "go on to live beyond the plan." It spent $8 million for a database and software that the FCC will continue to use to implement the broadband plan. And $2.4 million went to the salaries of employees who worked on the plan.

"The investment in the IT infrastructure, software and the significant amount of data will prove invaluable to the commission on an ongoing basis," said Colin Crowell, a senior adviser to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. He said that because the data and information technology capabilities of the agency were so poor, the FCC purchased data sets "to get the best information at hand."

The FCC's Republican commissioners said they felt they were well informed by the agency's broadband team of its work.

The FCC paid for the creation of the national broadband plan through $13.28 million in stimulus funds and $7.34 million out of the FCC's regular budget. The agency's annual budget is $350 million.

Cheat Sheet: Sticking Points In Broadband Plan

Every American should have broadband access -- that's an idea every faction in the telecom world seems to endorse. Making it so is another thing altogether. While not everyone has shown their cards yet, major telecom players are sure to air grievances soon over Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's decade-long plan to get more Americans online. In fact, with its aims to spark action from Congress and in the agencies, including heavy lifting at the FCC, the blueprint may also inadvertently pay many telecom lobbyists' salaries over the next few years in a sector that already spends exorbitantly on sway. Here's a brief overview of a few parts of the plan that will provide fertile ground for disagreement as stakeholders speak up.

The National Broadband Plan: Unanswered Questions and Next Steps

While the National Broadband Plan takes several critical first steps toward solving the nation's broadband deficiencies, the Federal Communications Commission must act decisively and quickly in several key areas in order to reach its goals.

The FCC should take immediate action on:
1) Competition: The Commission must investigate all policy options that would infuse meaningful competition in the broadband marketplace in areas where there are abuses of market power.

2) Universal Service Reform: The system needs substantial reforms in order to rid it of inefficiencies.

3) Adoption rates: The subsidies proposed in the Plan are a good first step. And Free Press and New America support using Lifeline and Link-Up for broadband. But these scarce resources must not be used to pad exorbitant ISP profit margins.

4) Spectrum: Now is the time to better use unlicensed spectrum as well as white spaces.

5) Transparency: The National Broadband Plan has creative ideas for promoting transparency. The nutrition label would provide consumers with simple, clear data. Free Press and New America encourage the disclosure of monitoring, blocking and delaying of content.

6) Data: The Plan's recommendations that the FCC collect census block availability and pricing data are long overdue steps that the Commission should move to immediately implement. Solid data is vital to the Plan's successful implementation.

7) Jurisdiction: The authors urge the FCC to clarify its jurisdiction over broadband networks without delay. Congress plainly intended that the FCC have the authority to promote competition and protect consumers in this area. Decisive action will mean faster implementation of the needed elements of the National Broadband Plan.

The National Broadband Plan: Where do we go from here?

[Commentary] The Internet Innovation Alliance believes the plan could have a positive and powerful impact, provided it is not accompanied by heavy new regulations that depress investment. But much work remains to be done, with many details to be ironed out. It certainly raises several questions to be answered as we go forward:

Who's Driving Now? Blair Levin brilliantly quarterbacked the FCC-led effort to devise the planning, drawing on a career in politics, policy and Wall Street. Does he still have gas in the tank? And if not him, then who can oversee such a complex and politically challenging endeavor, and can it be done from the Commission?
Omnibus or Piecemeal Legislation? Historically telecom moves via big legislative vehicles (think Telecom Act of 1996), with all sectors realizing some gain and some pain. Can Congress handle another massive bill this session?

Budget Neutral or Free to Spend?

Restructure Markets or Maximize Investment? Imposing aggressive regulations on the folks investing over $60 billion each year in broadband infrastructure seems an unlikely way to accelerate investment -- much more likely to depress private spending (especially in the near term as the uncertainty of rule-making chills cap-ex).

Whence Universal Service Funding? Rural Senators have long proven forceful advocates for their constituents, exempting rural carriers from competition rules and diverting major subsidies to more remote areas, raising questions about the adequacy and source of a "new and improved" Universal Service Fund.

Are Spectrum Wars Inevitable? The plan attempts a combined carrot-and-stick approach to driving spectrum use towards maximum market efficiency. Will it work?

Are the Targets (100 squared) Aspirational or Mandatory? It is great to aim high, but what are the consequences and rewards of the target data rates? As goals, 100-squared seems either too fast (too hard to accomplish) or too slow (as we'll all have gigabit wireless iBrains by then).

How Deep A Dive into Privacy? The language in the plan suggests the potential for significant examination of online activities and privacy policies, with the potential for new rules or regulations. To-date, companies such as Yahoo! have led the marketplace and outpaced all government proposals in bringing consumers new privacy tools, options and innovative offerings that marry the digital world and consumer choice (imagine if you could opt-out of certain kinds of TV commercials). Will the FCC seek to lead here, hand this off to the FTC with instructions to regulate, or encourage and enable continued market-led innovation?

Electric Industry Raises Concerns about National Broadband Plan

Eight electric utilities have taken their concerns about pole attachments to the Federal Communications Commission. While supportive of the deployment of broadband nationwide, the electric utility industry is concerned about recommendations in the National Broadband Plan. The industry says it is subject to unfair and discriminatory pole attachment rates, unauthorized attachments, safety violations and administrative burdens. These concerns, the commenters say, are absent in the broadband plan.

Media Access Project CEO Brown asks FCC about price competition

Tyrone Brown, former FCC commissioner and the new chief executive of the Media Access Project asks how the national broadband plan addresses current consumer offerings. He said Internet service providers offer bulk services that are also tied to equipment; that drives up prices and reduces competition, he said. How will the FCC tackle price competition?

Benton

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