June 28, 2010 (Presidential memo aims to free more spectrum for broadband)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010
Although everyone is looking to slip away for the holiday break, there's still a lot going on this week. http://bit.ly/9BDZIG
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Presidential memo aims to free more spectrum for broadband
Overcoming Comcast and Paving the Way for Universal Service Reform
Hill telecom talks consider targeted broadband bill
You Don't Want ISPs to Innovate
Reps Doyle and Shimkus on Broadband and Comcast
Leichtman: Majority of consumers happy with broadband speeds
UK regulator: network neutrality rules bad for consumers
CYBERSECURITY
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
McChrystal violated not just protocol but Obama tenets on media management
OMB Issues Federal 'Cookies' Guidelines
Please also see: New Federal Web 2.0 Rules Lack Full Privacy Protections
Do Apps for Democracy and Other Contests Create Sustainable Applications?
MORE NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC Local Telephone Competition Report Includes VoIP Data for First Time
FCC Responds to Congressional Data Roaming Concerns
Genachowski Answers Baca's Questions
Genachowski Answers Baca's Questions
McDowell: FCC Should "Think Twice" Before Wading into Retransmission Debate
HEALTH
ONC plans governance rule to expand nationwide health information network participants
Minding the public's health IT
STORIES FROM ABROAD
This headline is presented in partnership with:
Pakistan Dials Its Islamic Net Censorship Up to 11, Shutters Yahoo and Bing
Germany says Apple must improve data transparency
Australia to release 126 MHz of digital dividend
Virgin Media talks up 400Mbps broadband
Chinese Language Top-Level Domains Win ICANN Approval
MORE ONLINE
Heedlessly Hijacking Content
Fallout After a Blogger's Private Comments Are Aired
Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray
'Togetherville' founder calls growth of kids' networking site 'phenomenal'
Facebook's Beacon Settlement Appealed By Privacy Advocate
Privacy concerns challenge smart grid rollout
Monster, Governments Target Job Opportunities for Displaced Workers
BillShrink: AT&T's new data plans will create new class of smartphone user
Where old iPhones go to die
INTERNET/BROADBAND
PRESIDENTIAL MEMO ON FREEING UP SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
The Obama administration is seeking to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years, an effort that could greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smartphones and other hand-held devices. President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum on Monday that aims to make available for auction some 500 megahertz of spectrum that is now controlled by the federal government and private companies. Most of that would be designated for commercial use in mobile broadband and similar applications, though aspects of the plan will require Congressional approval. The effort embraces recommendations made by the Federal Communications Commission in its National Broadband Plan, which was released in March and encourages the expansion of high-speed wireless broadband services. But some aspects could be opposed by television broadcast companies, which will be asked if they want to give up some of their spectrum for auction. Cable companies that have invested heavily in wired telecommunications networks could also lose from the new direction.
benton.org/node/37308 | New York Times | Bloomberg
Recommend this Headline
back to top
OVERCOMING THE COMCAST VS FCC DECISION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Amina Fazlullah, Alexandra Wood]
Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing focused on the important task of modernizing the Universal Service Fund. During statements and questioning many senators and FCC Commissioners raised concern about the Federal Communications Commission's current authority over broadband and what that lack of authority may mean for improvements to the Universal Service Fund. On June 17th 2010, the FCC opened a proceeding seeking public input on the hotly-debated "Third Way" proposal to regulate high-speed Internet connections, broadband, as a telecommunications service. The proceeding, called a Notice of Inquiry (NOI), directly addresses the recent court decision in Comcast v. FCC that called into question the FCC's legal rationale and ability to enforce a significant number of its Internet-related rules. As a consequence, the FCC's ability to implement the National Broadband Plan and Universal Service reform is now in the balance.
http://www.benton.org/node/37271
back to top
HILL TALKS ON BROADBAND BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Over 30 statkeholders met on overhauling communications law and discussed whether there is room for targeted legislation to clarify broadband regulatory questions. The verdict: a bill is a long way off. The parties discussed what powers the Federal Communications Commission has over broadband service providers and whether it has enough authority to implement the National Broadband Plan, its strategy for expanding Internet access, according to sources in the meeting. The participants also looked at what characteristics a possible net neutrality rule might have if targeted legislation were to be shaped, they said, but the usual disagreements on this remained intact. Follow-up meetings are planned throughout July.
benton.org/node/37283 | Hill, The | The Hill -- attendee list
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ISPs AND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Ryan Singel]
[Commentary] You don't want your Internet service provider to innovate. At least not in the way, they want to "innovate." The net has seen an explosion of cool services in the last decade — Google created a search engine that works, Facebook created a social network that helps people stay more connected, webmail became a viable replacement for desktop software, you can collaborate online through wikis and online word processors, and everyone in the world can now have their own online printing press, thanks to blogging software. YouTube became the world's online video repository, while Netflix and Hulu are demonstrating the future of online video rentals, and sites like Wikipedia, Yelp and IMDB put encyclopedias of knowledge at the disposal of anyone with a net connection and a bit of curiosity. Where are the major players in the U.S. broadband industry in all of this innovation? Basically, nowhere. The U.S. is 26th in the world in terms of online access. The industry's investment in deployment of fiber optics — the transport medium of the future — is laughable. Instead, they are jealous of online services that make money from ads. ISPs would love to find a way to be paid for both sides of their networks -- from their users and from online services. And they want to get paid from the packets flowing inside their networks, too. It's time to put the FCC sideshow aside and put the focus where it ought to be -- on why the nation's telecoms are putting Wall Street ahead of American citizens and a truly modern infrastructure.
benton.org/node/37282 | Wired
Recommend this Headline
back to top
DOYLE AND SHIMKUS ON RECLASSIFICATION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Reynolds]
Reps Mike Doyle (D-PA) and John Shimkus (R-IL) appear on C-SPAN's The Communicators on June 26. Speaking about plans to reclassify broadband, Rep Doyle said he didn't think there would be enough time for Congress to clarify the Federal Communications Commission's broadband authority this year, and that the commission needed to go ahead and do it itself. "I fear the clock is running out on us this year," he said, "which is why we think it is important in that vacuum that the FCC has to take some action." He also said he was one of those who believed the FCC already has the flexibility under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to reclassify without any assistance from Congress. Rep Shimkus took the other side of the Title II debate. He said it was a way for the FCC to move on its network neutrality agenda, an agenda being pushed by "major interests on the West Coast that help support the Democratic party, and so that is why they are moving on this agenda." When asked to identify those political interests, Rep Shimkus replied: "You know who they are. Our friends at Google are one of the major focuses, and they have their interests and I support the rights of people to collectively organize to air their grievances and get the government changes, so I am not disputing their right to do that. They have supporters and allies and that is what this is about."
Rep Doyle believes the Comcast/NBCU deal will be approved, pointing to deals Comcast struck with affiliates this week as bringing the joint venture "one step closer." But he suggested the next negotiations will include small cable operators that have registered concerns about the deal's impact: "I think there are still some other negotiations that are going to take place between small cable and other stakeholders, and I think eventually it will be approved. I think that will be a good thing once all the safeguards are put in place."
Rep Doyle also said that targeted telecommunications legislation is unlikely to emerge this year -- but if it does, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) would champion it.
benton.org/node/37279 | Multichannel News | TechDailyDose
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CONSUMERS OK WITH BROADBAND SPEEDS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Dan O'Shea]
According to a new report from Leichtman Research Group, broadband speed is not a pressing issue for many consumers. Leichtman found that about 71% of U.S. respondents were "very satisfied" with their current residential broadband Internet service, having rated satisfaction 8-10 on a 10-point scale. Only about 3% ranked themselves as "not satisfied," rating satisfaction 1-3. 77% of broadband subscribers admitted to not knowing their home download speeds and 66% of survey respondents rated their connection speeds in the 8-10 range, with just 6% grading their speeds at the bottom level. 44% of respondents said they are "not very interested" in receiving faster broadband speeds at home, although 26% said they would be "very interested." Leichtman found that only 3% of the households surveyed didn't have broadband available to them at all, while a smaller group -- 1.4% -- actually wanted broadband but don't have availability in their area. Another 1% said cost was the main reason they haven't subscribed to broadband service. That would seem to suggest that lack of availability is not as pervasive a problem as it has been perceived. Meanwhile, lack of service provider choice may be a bigger issue -- about 17% of broadband subscribers said that there is not another high-speed Internet provider in their area, other than the one they have.
benton.org/node/37281 | Connected Planet
Recommend this Headline
back to top
OFCOM REVIEWING NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Ofcom, Britain's telecommunications regulator, says its "preliminary view" is that "there is currently insufficient evidence to justify regulation to prohibit certain forms of traffic management." In other words, Ofcom sees no need for open Internet rules, given the agency's view that nothing has happened in United Kingdom cyberspace to merit them. The "consultation," as Ofcom calls its new discussion piece, notes "the absence of complaints or concrete examples of discrimination" presented to the agency so far. But what caught our eye about the piece—the equivalent of a Notice of Inquiry launched by our Federal Communications Commission—is its theory of Internet economics. The report plays down worries about the prospect of ISPs charging content and applications providers for access to Internet subscribers, or seeing this as a form of potential discrimination.
benton.org/node/37280 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CYBERSECURITY
TRUSTED IDENTITIES IN CYBERSPACE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Howard Schmidt]
The White House released a first draft of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). The NSTIC, which is in response to one of the near term action items in the President's Cyberspace Policy Review, calls for the creation of an online environment, or an Identity Ecosystem as we refer to it in the strategy, where individuals and organizations can complete online transactions with confidence, trusting the identities of each other and the identities of the infrastructure that the transaction runs on. For example, no longer should individuals have to remember an ever-expanding and potentially insecure list of usernames and passwords to login into various online services. Through the strategy we seek to enable a future where individuals can voluntarily choose to obtain a secure, interoperable, and privacy-enhancing credential (e.g., a smart identity card, a digital certificate on their cell phone, etc) from a variety of service providers both public and private to authenticate themselves online for different types of transactions (e.g., online banking, accessing electronic health records, sending email, etc.). Another key concept in the strategy is that the Identity Ecosystem is user-centric that means you, as a user, will be able to have more control of the private information you use to authenticate yourself on-line, and generally will not have to reveal more than is necessary to do so.
benton.org/node/37284 | White House, The | read the draft | Fact Sheet
Recommend this Headline
back to top
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OBAMA MEDIA MANAGEMENT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jason Horowitz]
For a cerebral president intent on projecting a united front of seriousness to the public, the story couldn't have been further off message. The general leading the grim war in Afghanistan presented himself not as a hardened warrior-scholar but as the military's most decorated consumer of Bud Light Lime. When Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal opened his inner sanctum to a Rolling Stone reporter, he violated more than just the military chain of command. The general broke core tenets of President Obama's code of conduct: When it comes to the media, keep your guard up, your mouth shut and control of the situation. Instead, McChrystal and his merry band of Team America comrades sank their ship with astonishingly loose lips, revealed that the "lively debate" in the administration's foreign policy upper echelon may be a euphemism for jagged division and showed that high rank may be evidence of valor but not worldliness.
benton.org/node/37306 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top
GOVERNMENT COOKIES
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm]
The White House Office of Management and Budget issued new policies June 25 governing how agencies can interact with the public online and collect information from visitors to their Websites with so-called "cookie" files and other technologies. The new guidelines specify that agencies must ensure that third party sites and applications meet federal standards for privacy protections. The rules also set parameters for collecting personally identifiable information about online users, using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and participating in webinars or virtual town halls meetings. Personal information only can be gathered about visitors to federal sites if those parties have actively "opted in" to the data collection. Agencies are prohibited from tracking a user's online activity on non-government Websites
benton.org/node/37277 | CongressDaily
Recommend this Headline
back to top
APPS FOR DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Russell Nichols]
In the weeks following innovation contests, software developers attain almost celebrity status - at least on a local level. For that brief time, the winners of apps competitions step away from their computer screens to schmooze with mayors and pose for pictures. They field questions about how their winning Web-based apps will change the way citizens use government data. But this isn't a story about how to make an award-winning application. This is about the aftermath of innovation contests. In other words, what happens to these winning apps when the press stops calling and the cameras stop flashing? "Just because it wins doesn't mean the jurisdiction actually gets to use it," said Chris Vein, CIO of San Francisco, which held an innovation contest last fall. "The issue becomes whether the city can actually procure it. We're trying to figure out ways to address that."
benton.org/node/37298 | Government Technology
Recommend this Headline
back to top
MORE NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC RELEASES NEW LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPETITION DATA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission released its local telephone competition report including, for the first time, comprehensive information about subscribership to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. Interconnected VoIP service represents an important and rapidly growing part of the U.S. voice service market and the new data will provide the Commission with a comprehensive picture of that market going forward. Interconnected VoIP service enables voice communications over a broadband connection and allows users both to receive calls from, and place calls to, the public switched telephone network, like traditional phone service. Providers of the service include companies like Vonage as well as cable and telephone companies that own their own networks. Report highlights include:
At year-end 2008, there were 141 million traditional switched access lines in service and 21 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions in the United States, or about 162 million wireline retail local telephone service connections in total. Of these, 97 million were residential connections and 65 million were business connections.
Of the 162 million total connections, 48% were residential switched access lines, 39% were business switched access lines, 12% were residential VoIP subscriptions, and 1% were business VoIP subscriptions.
Of the 162 million total connections, 45% were residential lines and 28% were business lines owned by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), while 15% provided non-ILEC residential service, and 12% provided non-ILEC business service.
Of the 97 million wireline residential connections, 74.5% were ILEC switched access lines, 19.5% were non-ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions, 5.8% were non-ILEC switched access lines, and 0.3% were ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions.
Of the 65 million wireline business connections, 70.1% were ILEC switched access lines, 26.8% were non-ILEC switched access lines, 2.7% were non-ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 0.4% were ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions.
benton.org/node/37299 | Federal Communications Commission | read the report
Recommend this Headline
back to top