June 2010

Chinese Language Top-Level Domains Win ICANN Approval

Web site operators will be able to register domain names written entirely in Chinese characters, including the final characters to the right of the last dot, in a matter of months.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) granted approval to three different organizations -- China Internet Network Information Center, Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation and Taiwan Network Information Center -- to create Chinese-language top-level domains (TLDs). ICANN controls the creation of new Internet TLDs.

Australia to release 126 MHz of digital dividend

The Australian government has decided to release 126 MHz of broadcasting spectrum as a digital dividend. This spectrum will become available as a result of the switch to digital-only television broadcasting, which will be completed in Australia by December 31, 2013. The digital dividend will be released as a contiguous block of spectrum in the upper UHF band, comprising the frequency range 694 to 820 MHz inclusive. The government aims to auction the digital dividend spectrum in the second half of 2012. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) plans to release a discussion paper on the digital dividend in the third quarter of this year, setting out planning and allocation issues and options for new spectrum licenses. ACMA will plan the digital dividend in full consultation with spectrum users.

Virgin Media talks up 400Mbps broadband

Virgin Media has started talking up the prospects of providing all its customers with 400Mbps broadband, which would outstrip BT's fastest Internet connections by a factor of four. The next generation of Virgin's customer premise equipment (CPE) will be capable of supporting the faster speeds, the cable operator said. However, it stopped short of saying it would definitely roll out the service. "We are making moves to make sure our equipment is capable of 400Mbps.

National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, and International Trade Administration
Department of Commerce
July 27, 2010
9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Contact:
W. Curt Barker
william.barker@nist.gov
(202) 482-0935.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the International Trade Administration (ITA), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce (Department), will hold a public meeting to discuss the relationship between cybersecurity in the commercial space and innovation in the Internet economy.

The event will seek participation and comment from all interested stakeholders, including the commercial, academic, and civil society sectors, on the impact of current cybersecurity law and governmental policy, the common and emerging techniques used in successful cybersecurity strategies, and the relative roles of the private and public sectors with respect to improving cybersecurity in the commercial arena. The bureaus will explore the changing nature of threats and whether those changes suggest gaps in cybersecurity policy. Similarly, they invite discussion and comment on how the public sector can organize more clearly its roles. The review will also seek to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship of current cybersecurity policy to consumer welfare, job creation, international trade, and fundamental democratic values. The review is being coordinated with the Office of the Cybersecurity Coordinator, Executive Office of the President. As part of this review, the Task Force will shortly issue a notice of inquiry seeking public comments on key issues.

Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce, is scheduled to deliver keynote remarks. Also participating with remarks will be Howard Schmidt, White House Cyber Security Coordinator, Cameron Kerry, the Department of Commerce's General Counsel, Patrick Gallagher, Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Anna Gomez, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Deputy National Telecommunications and Information Administrator. Other U.S. Government officials will also participate, as will a number of wellregarded,
non-government experts.

The meeting will be open to members of the public on a first-come, first-served basis. To pre-register for the meeting, please send a request to Teresa Vicente at teresa.vicente@nist.gov indicating your name, organizational affiliation, mailing address, telephone, and e-mail address.

Read more about Cybersecurity and Innovation in the Information Economy

Lawrence Summers on

New America Foundation
Monday, June 28, 2010
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

As the economy shifts from rescue to recovery, the importance of the government facilitating the private sector as an engine of job creation and economic growth has heightened. One area where government policy can enable economic growth is the ongoing development of the Internet ecosystem, which continues to transform markets and our society. Lawrence Summers, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council, will address the Administration's views on the importance of unleashing private investment, job creation and economic growth through ongoing technological development in the Internet ecosystem.

Introduction
Michael Calabrese
Vice President and Director, Wireless Futures Program
New America Foundation

Featured Speaker
Lawrence Summers
Assistant to the President, Economic Policy
Director, National Economic Council

To RSVP:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/lawrence_summers

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net

Read more about Technological Opportunities, Job Creation and Economic Growth

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace

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.

[Howard A. Schmidt is the Cybersecurity Coordinator and Special Assistant to the President]

Hill telecom talks consider targeted broadband bill

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.

Attendees included:

AT&T, Tim McKone
Amazon, Emmett O'Keefe
Center for Democracy and Technology, David Sohn
CompTel, Jerry James
Cisco, Jeff Campbell
CTIA (wireless lobby), Jot Carpenter
Communications Workers of America, Debbie Goldman
Dish, David Goodfriend
Google, Johanna Shelton
Free Press, Derek Turner
Free State Foundation, Randolph May
Information Technology Industry Council, Dean Garfield
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Rob Atkinson
Level 3, John Ray
Media Access Project, Andy Schwartzman
Microsoft, Paula Boyd
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Brian O'Hara
National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, Brenda Pennington
National Cable & Telecommunications Association, James Assey
Open Internet Coalition, Markham Erickson
Progress & Freedom Foundation, Dan Horowitz
Phoenix Center, Larry Spiwak
Public Knowledge, Ernesto Falcon
Qwest, Melissa Newman
RCA, Tim Donovan
Telecommunications Industry Association, Grant Seiffert
US Telecom, Walter McCormick
Verizon, Peter Davidson

You Don't Want ISPs to Innovate

[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.

Leichtman: Majority of consumers happy with broadband speeds

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.

UK regulator: network neutrality rules bad for consumers

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

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