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  2. June 2010

June 2010

FCC Local Telephone Competition Report Includes VoIP Data for First Time

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.

Do Apps for Democracy and Other Contests Create Sustainable Applications?

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."

New Federal Web 2.0 Rules Lack Full Privacy Protections

[Commentary] The Office of Management and Budget's two long-awaited memos on federal agency use of cookies and Web 2.0 services make it easier to use third party services, measurement and analytics tools, and customization for users. However, some of the guidance does not clearly require agencies to protect user privacy in ways we had hoped.

1) Guidance for Agency Use of Third Party Websites and Applications addresses agency use of third party services, and how to protect privacy even as agencies interact with the public on sites that they do not have full control over. These technologies are often used in support of the Open Government Initiative, but the privacy implications and requirements had not been clearly set out for web managers. Using third party services makes it much easier to engage with the public, but pose privacy questions that have not been well addressed.

2) Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies gives an update on the oft-maligned "cookie policy" (which addressed all manner of tracking technologies online, not just cookies). This policy was a barrier to improving agency websites, but there was not a clear way to update the policy to enhance user control while allowing agencies more tools online. Despite some shortcomings, this memo is an improvement to the policies that agencies have had to work with until now. The memo makes it simpler to use cookies and other measurement technologies; where agencies were previously required to get agency head approval for the use of a tracking technology, the new policy is more targeted, requiring review by the Senior Agency Official for Privacy, as long as the technology does not track personally identifiable information. The memo does well to emphasize the need to inform users about their options and choose tools that provide simple and robust opt-out options, and the need for technical and policy restrictions to compliment each other in order to create privacy protective sites that also empower users and web managers.

BillShrink: AT&T's new data plans will create new class of smartphone user

AT&T's new lower-tier smartphone data plans have opened the door for a new class of Apple iPhone users, lowering the total cost of ownership for what was once the priciest phone in the market, according to analysis by consumer cost-savings site BillShrink.

AT&T's lower-tier $15 data plan doesn't meet the needs of most current iPhone users, said Schwark Satyavolu, CEO of BillShrink, but the lower barrier of entry could entice millions of more-casual smartphone users, who have balked at the idea of paying $30 a month for data. According to BillShrink's calculations, the total cost of an iPhone under AT&T's cheapest rate plans now comes to about $2000 over two years, $360 cheaper than the lowest-cost plans for a Droid Incredible on the Verizon Wireless network and at least $100 less expensive than comparable plans offered by Sprint and T-Mobile for the HTC Evo 4G and the Google Nexus One.

Pakistan Dials Its Islamic Net Censorship Up to 11, Shutters Yahoo and Bing

Pakistan's government has announced it will be filtering scores more Web sites for anti-Islamic content. Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia were just the start. The Ministry of Information Technology gave the order to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to begin monitoring and filtering many more Web sites suspected of playing host to anti-Islamic or merely blasphemous content. On the list: Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Hotmail, MSN, and Amazon -- pretty much the most clicked-on links around the world. In addition to this, 17 specific Web pages will be actually blocked, including Islam Exposed and Jehad. DOT org. Partly this decision is motivated by a decision by a high court in an Eastern Pakistan city which ordered blocking of content from sites like YouTube because they contained material the judge deemed to be contrary to the "fundamental principles of Islam and its preaching."

ONC plans governance rule to expand nationwide health information network participants

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT plans to establish rules of the road for the nationwide health information network (NHIN Exchange) in order to expand the kinds of organizations that can participate in it.

Participation in the NHIN Exchange is currently limited to federal health agencies and healthcare organizations that contract with them or are federal grantees. As the first step in the rulemaking process, ONC will publish a request for information in August to get public comment on the governance process. It expects to then release a proposed rule in early 2011, and to finalize it next summer, said Mary Jo Deering, senior policy advisor in ONC's Office of Policy and Planning.

Minding the public's health IT

[Commentary] The fervor over health insurance reform and electronic medical records in the HITECH Act seems to have sucked all the oxygen away from health information technology that is not about direct patient care.

Public health, health research and other parts of the broader health system have less healthcare IT influence than ever in the face of market forces geared toward healthcare delivery and the push to demonstrate the accomplishments of health insurance reform accomplishments. Even less prominent now are the distinct IT needs of these vital other health areas. The irony is that much of the actual "meaningful use" of health IT comes from areas that are not exclusively about direct patient care. Many of the outcomes that can actually improve health depend on supporting broader public health requirements than those of just electronic medical records (EMRs). Some public health needs that do not seem to be even on the horizon include: case reporting, disease investigation, vital statistics, prevention, integration with drug and immunization delivery, and well standardized data exchange.

FCC Responds to Congressional Data Roaming Concerns

On March 21, Sens Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission with concerns about the roaming obligations of commercial wireless providers. They believe the FCC has the authority to require automatic roaming for wireless data services and help satisfy consumer expectations. The senators note that these issues are particularly acute for rural and remote communities across the country. People in rural and remote areas have far fewer choices and usually pay more than their urban counterparts. The availability of roaming services in these areas at reasonable rates is exceptionally important.

On June 10, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski replied, pointing to the FCC's April 21 order and notice of proposed rulemaking which 1) modifies the automatic roaming obligation that the Commission adopted for voice and related services in 2007, by eliminating the home roaming exclusion, 2) creates a framework for voice roaming that will encourage carriers of all sizes to reach reasonable commercial agreements with each other, while also encouraging these carriers to continue investing in the coverage and capacity of existing voice networks and 3) examines whether to extend roaming obligations to data services that are provided without interconnection to the public switched network - including mobile broadband services.

Genachowski Answers Baca's Questions

On March 1, Rep Joe Baca (D-CA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski with a long list of question touching on media ownership diversity, minority broadband adoption, emergency broadcasts in languages other than English, advertising, labor diversity at the FCC, network neutrality, the proposed Comcast-NBC merger, and more.
On June 10, Chairman Genachowski replied with a seven-page document answering the questioned raised.

Genachowski Answers Baca's Questions

On March 1, Rep Joe Baca (D-CA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski with a long list of question touching on media ownership diversity, minority broadband adoption, emergency broadcasts in languages other than English, advertising, labor diversity at the FCC, network neutrality, the proposed Comcast-NBC merger, and more.
On June 10, Chairman Genachowski replied with a seven-page document answering the questioned raised.

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