June 2010

INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC HOLDS TALKS ON INTERNET RULES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
The Federal Communications Commission is holding talks with phone and cable companies about a compromise that would give the government authority over Internet lines without adopting controversial new rules the industry opposes. Edward Lazarus, the chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission, and other senior FCC staffers are holding closed-door meetings with a small group of lobbyists representing Internet providers, including AT&T, Verizon Communications, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Internet services companies such as Google and Skype. The negotiations revolve around a possible compromise that would avoid wholesale changes in how the FCC regulates Internet lines but still give the agency the ability to enforce "net neutrality" rules, which would prevent Internet providers from deliberately slowing or blocking Internet traffic. During a two-and-a-half-hour meeting Monday, the lobbyists discussed issues that their companies might be able to agree on but reached no consensus, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. The group is scheduled to meet again Tuesday. "It is stunning that the FCC would convene meetings between industry giants to allow them to determine how the agency should best protect the public interest," said Free Press CEO Josh Silver. "The Obama administration promised a new era of transparency, and to 'take a backseat to no one' on Net Neutrality, but these meetings seem to indicate that this FCC has no problem brokering backroom deals without any public input or scrutiny."
benton.org/node/37093 | Wall Street Journal | Broadcasting&Cable | Washington Post | Bloomberg | Free Press
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REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
There is a great menace roaming about telecommunications land. All worthy companies fear the thing and urge its banishment. Armies of lawyers, economists, and politicians watch the distant hills for its shadow and sound the alarm upon the first sign of its appearance. The fiend has a name: it is called "uncertainty," especially the regulatory kind. It must be stopped at all costs, cry the ISPs and their allies, especially the uncertainty that comes in the form of a proposed Internet non-discrimination rule. What's ironic about all this, of course, is that all these industries are endlessly in the public's face with speeches about the need for a "competitive marketplace," "robust competition," "bold innovation," and "risk taking." Then a day after the latest "thriving on uncertainty" innovation trade show, they're over at the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice asking the government to make everything more predictable for them. We suggest that telecommunications executives who seriously expect certitude in our time should do one of three things: go work for the IRS, open up a funeral parlor, or spend their days watching the Die Hard movies. As for the rest of us, the words of Voltaire will suffice: "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
benton.org/node/37078 | Ars Technica
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FCC AND INVESTMENT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
Financial investments in emerging competitors to traditional broadband and mobile industry incumbents suggest the Federal Communications Commission is doing its job. "The FCC's broadband policies continue to actively encourage Harbinger's and others' multi-billion dollar investment in broadband innovation. It's a truism that investment goes where it is welcome and this FCC, under Chairman Genachowski's leadership, has gotten it right," says Philip Falcone, Chief Executive Officer of Harbinger Capital Partners.
benton.org/node/37074 | GigaOm
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TELECOM INNOVATION INVESTMENT
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Liz Kerton]
[Commentary] Innovation is happening whether telephone carriers are part of it or not -- and not just from big players like Google and Apple, but also from thousands of small start-ups. Internet protocol networks, open standards and disintermediation of the operators has created opportunities for new ideas, new products, new services and innovation in general. Some carriers have missed more than one boat already. Now they know to put Not-Invented Here (NIH) behind them or they'll suffer worse maladies as opportunities pass them by. The thirst for outside innovation has never been greater. So who is investing in telecom innovation? The entire value chain: VCs, entrepreneurs, vendors and carriers. The doors are opening, the carriers and big vendors are scouting, and the party has already started. It's not dot-com speed, but as I recall the hare didn't win that race either. Let's call the situation one of "rational exuberance." [Liz Kerton, president of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley and principal of the marketing practice at the Kerton Group wireless consultancy]
benton.org/node/37070 | Connected Planet
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484 MILLION BROADBAND LINES
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Dan O'Shea]
After a year of slowing growth, worldwide broadband subscriptions and IPTV sign-ups both showed some verve in the first quarter of 2010, according to Point Topic research. Point Topic said broadband surpassed 484 million lines, a jump of slightly more than 3% in the last three months and almost 12.5% in the last year. Asia remained the world's most powerful broadband growth engine and China its fuel. Asia accounted for 53% of the total global broadband growth during Q1, while China alone accounted 45% of the worldwide total. China now has more than 112.5 million broadband lines, is the world leader in the category and appears to be quickly distancing itself from the No. 2 country, the US. The U.S. had about 87 million broadband lines at the end of Q1 and saw only modest growth in the quarter. Still, both China and the U.S. were among six countries in the top 10 overall — along with the Germany, South Korea, the U.K. and Brazil — that grew broadband lines at a faster rate in Q1 2010 than in Q4 2009. DSL remains the top broadband conduit, but fiber is growing.
benton.org/node/37073 | Connected Planet | TMCNet
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BROADBAND PLAN GOALS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
[Commentary] We're hearing more and more from rural carriers protesting the disparity between the broadband speeds that the National Broadband Plan seeks for rural and non-rural users. Although the plan sets a goal of 100 Mb/s to 100 million homes by 2020, it doesn't address the remaining 10% of U.S. homes other than to propose a broadband fund that would help bring 4 Mb/s service to several million homes that cannot get broadband today. One of rural carriers' concerns is that funding broadband service at only 4 Mb/s is short-sighted from the point of view of infrastructure investment. A goal of 4 Mb/s calls for either 4G wireless or a DSL-based approach that would bring fiber only to within 12,000 feet of the end user. If at some point in the future a decision were to be made to provide higher-speed connectivity, the carriers say they would have to go back out and bring fiber the rest of the way to the home. The cost of the two separate projects would be more than bringing fiber all the way to the end user to begin with, rural carriers argue. But if the broadband fund would cover fiber all the way to the home, rural users could have the same 100 Mb/s service the FCC is targeting for non-rural users. And once the investment in fiber to the home is made, speeds can be easily increased simply by upgrading the equipment at each end. The FCC argues that building a future-proof network immediately would be more expensive than paying for future upgrades because of the time value of money. According to the researchers, the cost of deploying 12,000-foot loop DSL or 4G wireless to unserved homes today then upgrading later to FTTP would be about $56 billion, while the cost of upgrading to FTTP today would be $86.5 billion.
benton.org/node/37071 | Connected Planet
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REPACKAGING BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Dan O'Shea]
On June 21, Verizon announced that new FiOS broadband customers can now sign up for service bundles that don't require a long-term contract, only a month-to-month agreement with price protection for one year and no early termination fee. What a consumer-friendly way to do business. In fact, it is so consumer-friendly it begs the question: Why now? Is Verizon trying to curry some favor with consumer groups and the Federal Communications Commission, as the FCC considers the possibility of new broadband regulation? Is Verizon trying to detract our attention from the fact that it is no longer expanding FiOS availability into new markets? More likely, the telco is responding purely to residential broadband consumer desires. It tried to bring the concept of early termination fees from the wireless world to the wireline world, as a way of protecting its considerable initial investment in deploying FiOS broadband to new customers. But guess what? Residential wireline broadband customers don't like that idea any more than they like the idea of data caps and usage-based billing — another concept that may fly in the wireless world but seems to be a non-starter in wireline.
benton.org/node/37072 | Connected Planet
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WIRELESS

VERIZON'S TIERED PRICING
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Amy Thomson]
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, may follow AT&T in introducing tiered pricing and eliminating unlimited data plans this year as it moves to its faster fourth-generation network technology. "We will probably need to change the design of our pricing where it will not be totally unlimited, flat rate," John Killian, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications Inc., the wireless unit's parent, said. The company anticipates "explosions in data traffic" over wireless networks as new phones on 4G networks incorporate data- heavy applications, such as video downloads, he said. Verizon is working to keep its network running smoothly as more of its customers switch to smartphones that connect to the Internet. The company is finalizing new data plans for the 4G network, which is expected to provide 10 times faster data rates than older networks, and isn't ready to announce specifics, said Killian, 55. AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, said this month it will introduce plans based on the amount of data customers use and stop offering unlimited plans to manage the soaring data traffic.
benton.org/node/37081 | Bloomberg
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VERIZON, AT&T AND SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two biggest U.S. mobile-phone carriers, have joined a grassroots alliance of police and firefighters to oppose a government plan that could award disputed airwaves to smaller competitors. The phone companies want Congress to give the airwaves to public-safety agencies for communications instead. That would derail a Federal Communications Commission plan for an auction and keep the spectrum out of the hands of potential bidders such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile. "This is all about AT&T and Verizon trying to keep their spectrum advantage," Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group, said. AT&T and Verizon were the biggest winners in a 2008 airwaves auction. The FCC may bar the two companies from bidding in the name of providing consumers more choices, Feld said. A new auction would raise as much as $4 billion.
benton.org/node/37080 | Bloomberg
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MORE SPECTRUM FOR MOBILE BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission Spectrum Task Force announced a plan to increase value, utilization, and investment in mobile satellite service (MSS) bands, which will kick off with a FCC proceeding in July. The proceeding could unleash up to 90 MHz of additional spectrum for mobile broadband, consistent with the National Broadband Plan recommendation to accelerate terrestrial deployment in the mobile satellite service band. By removing policies that are currently barriers to flexible use of terrestrial mobile wireless service, there is an opportunity to enable the deployment of mobile broadband, while retaining market-wide MSS capability, especially for public safety, rural services, and the federal government.
benton.org/node/37079 | Federal Communications Commission | Connected Planet | C-Net|News.com
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OWNERSHIP

DO MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES MAKE SENSE?
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Joelle Tessler]
Even the news industry's free fall probably will not be enough to wipe out complicated federal rules designed to restrain the power of media companies. For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has imposed strict limits preventing any company from controlling too many media properties in the same market. These limits were established to ensure that communities have choices of newspapers and local TV and radio stations. Congress requires the FCC to take a hard look at the rules every four years to determine whether they still serve the public interest. If they don't, the FCC has to rewrite them. Now, as the FCC kicks off its latest review, it faces calls to pare the limits because traditional media companies are no longer the almighty players that they were when the ownership rules were first enacted.
benton.org/node/37084 | Associated Press
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MOVE TO BLOCK COMCAST DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
A coalition of media companies, unions and nonprofits -- including media giant Bloomberg, the Writers Guild of America, West and advocacy groups like Free Press and Media Access Project -- is urging the Federal Communications Commission to block the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. The groups argue the new entity would have unprecedented control over the country's media landscape, raising antitrust concerns. "The proposed merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal is poised to fundamentally alter the landscape of the U.S. media market," the letter states. "We are a group of varied organizations with many specific concerns with this merger, but we have joined together because the threat of this merger to consumers is so great." "As filed," it goes on, "we oppose this merger." According to the letter, the new entity created by the merger would include the largest cable company, the largest residential broadband Internet service provider, the owner of one of the four national broadcast networks, several prominent local stations, cable networks and some of the most popular websites. This would give the company "a degree of market power unrivaled in our nation's media history," the letter claims.
benton.org/node/37083 | Hill, The
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DEFENDING COMCAST DEAL
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
As the first round of public comments on the proposed $30 billion union of Comcast and NBC Universal stream into the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast Executive VP David Cohen pledged that his company will take every step possible to assuage critics. "Comcast, GE, and NBCU stand ready, willing, and able to address legitimate concerns raised by commenters in the process," he said. "We've already made an unprecedented number of commitments ranging from our commitment to over-the-air broadcasting in this challenging economic environment to additional channels for independent programmers and additional news, public affairs, and children's programming," he wrote. The pledge might not be enough to satisfy the staunchest critics.
benton.org/node/37082 | CongressDaily
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INTEL SETTLEMENT?
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Chris Nuttall]
Intel and the Federal Trade Commission indicated June 21 they may soon reach an out-of-court settlement of their antitrust case, filing a joint motion to suspend administrative trial proceedings until July 22. The two parties said the suspension was needed while they considered potential settlement of the case originally brought by the FTC last December. They said this would create a month's window, till July 22, during which time they would review and discuss a proposed consent order. A consent order is an alternative to litigation, whereby the FTC can gain compliance from a company it has accused of unlawful conduct.
benton.org/node/37092 | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

TEXTS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
If you're a public employee who uses a work-issued computer or mobile device, pay attention: the Supreme Court ruled that government employers have the right to read transcripts of your e-mails or instant messages if needed for a legitimate work-related reason. So if you're a police officer sending huge volumes of sexually explicit text messages on a work device -- as Jeff Quon was -- the Fourth Amendment won't protect you from a government search. The Supreme Court ruled that the search was reasonable "because it was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose, and because it was not excessive in scope... Although Quon had exceeded his monthly allotment a number of times, [Ontario Police Department] requested transcripts for only August and September 2002 in order to obtain a large enough sample to decide the character limits' efficaciousness, and all the messages that Quon sent while off duty were redacted. And from OPD's perspective, the fact that Quon likely had only a limited privacy expectation lessened the risk that the review would intrude on highly private details of Quon's life." The Court neglected to get into the broader issues of privacy raised by such devices, however. "At present, it is uncertain how workplace norms, and the law's treatment of them, will evolve," said the justices, who elected to decide the case on narrower grounds.
The Center for Democracy and Technology found a silver lining in the ruling. CDT said the case was significant in that the high court chose not to weaken individual privacy rights. " Using a precedent set by a 1987 ruling, the court noted that government employees "generally retain their Fourth Amendment privacy rights, and it assumed that government employees may have a reasonable expectation of privacy even in communications they send during work hours on employer-issued devices," CDT said. CDT Vice President of Public Policy Jim Dempsey said, "This ended up as a workplace privacy case for government employees. The message to government employers is that the courts will continue to scrutinize employers' actions for reasonableness, so supervisors have to be careful."
benton.org/node/37076 | Ars Technica | CongressDaily
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PROBE OF GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Scott Morrison]
As many as 30 U.S. states are considering joining forces to look into how Google's Street View vehicles came to collect Internet users' personal data from unsecured wireless networks. The joint investigation, led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, will seek additional information from Google and determine whether laws may have been broken when the company mistakenly collected information on people's Web usage. He said a "core group" of state attorneys general had agreed to combine their resources and expertise to look into the matter. He said more than 30 states had expressed interest in the matter, and he expected a "significant group" of states will ultimately join the investigation. He declined to be more specific.
benton.org/node/37091 | Wall Street Journal | FT
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CYBERSECURITY

MORE DEVOTED TO CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
Cybersecurity, fast becoming Washington's growth industry of choice, appears to be in line for a multibillion-dollar injection of federal research dollars, according to a senior intelligence official. Delivering the keynote address at a recent cybersecurity summit sponsored by Defense Daily, Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director of national intelligence for acquisition and technology, said that along with the White House Office of Science and Technology, her office is going to sponsor major research "where the government's about to spend multiple billions of dollars." This newest element of the federal cybersecurity initiative will not be looking for what Meyerriecks called "classic Beltway . . . commercial answers" to be applied to today's hacker problems at federal agencies. "I think we need to be really innovative, because I think we're going to run out of runway on our current approach," she said. Three themes are to be stressed in this upcoming cybersecurity research agenda, she said. The first is called "tailored trustworthy spaces," which means creating different security levels for different government and non-government Internet activities. The second is called "moving targets," in which the search is for security systems that change constantly to increase uncertainty for hackers, recognizing that all systems inevitably become vulnerable. Finally, there will be research in "economic incentives," which, as it sounds, involves seeking to find ways to motivate users to adopt cybersecurity defenses, recognizing that convenience has caused consumers to ignore security pop-ups.
benton.org/node/37087 | Washington Post
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POLICYMAKERS

LOBBYISTS AND ADVISORY BOARDS
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Jesse Lee]
The White House announced the next step in President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce the influence of special interests on the federal government. He signed a memorandum directing agencies in the Executive Branch not to appoint or re-appoint currently-registered federal lobbyists to advisory boards or commissions. These part-time agency advisory boards and commissions of which there are thousands throughout the executive branch help the government shape policy on everything from international trade to scientific innovation. And while some specialists who've held roles on these boards for years have made positive contributions, phasing out those who simultaneously serve as lobbyists will have the added benefit of opening these boards up to fresh faces and engaging more Americans in our governing process. In order to avoid disrupting the ongoing work of these boards, the memorandum will not require removal of currently-serving lobbyists in the middle of their terms. But, it will prohibit their reappointment when their term expires if they continue to serve as registered federal lobbyists. And it prohibits the appointment of any new lobbyists from this date forward. The memorandum now directs the Office of Management and Budget to issue implementing guidance within 90 days. In order to engage Americans fully in reforming our government and fighting the special interests, draft guidance will be made available for public comment.
benton.org/node/37069 | White House, The | read the Memorandum
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FORMER MEMBERS TO LOBBY CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Sunlight Foundation, AUTHOR: Paul Blumenthal]
According to data obtained from lobbyist disclosure forms and the Center for Responsive Politics, seventy-two percent of the lobbyists hired by AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the US Telecom Association have previous government experience. These organizations combined to spend $20.6 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of 2010. Eighteen of the 276 revolving door lobbyists are former members of Congress. These include the powerful former senators John Breaux and Trent Lott. The Breaux Lott Leadership Group reported spending $150,000 lobbying on behalf of AT&T in the first quarter of 2010. The eighteen former lawmakers include a heavy representation from the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, the House committee with telecommunications jurisdiction. In 2010, the organizations hired former Energy & Commerce Committee members Jim Davis (AT&T), Jack Fields (Verizon), Ron Klink (Comcast), Chip Pickering (Comcast and National Cable and Television Association) and Al Wynn (US Telecom Association). The organizations are also hiring former lawmakers with previous clout in both the House and the Senate. Former Sen. Don Nickles, hired to lobby for Comcast, was the Republican Majority Whip from 1996 to 2001. Comcast also hired the former House Majority Whip William H. Gray.
benton.org/node/37068 | Sunlight Foundation | The Hill
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HEALTH

EHR RULE
[SOURCE: , AUTHOR: Press release]
On June 18, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a final rule to establish a temporary certification program for electronic health record (EHR) technology. The temporary certification program establishes processes that organizations will need to follow in order to be authorized by the National Coordinator to test and certify EHR technology. Use of "certified EHR technology" is a core requirement for providers who seek to qualify to receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs provisions authorized in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. HITECH was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will soon issue final regulations to implement the EHR incentive programs. Certification is used to provide assurance and confidence that a product or service will work as expected and will include the capabilities for which it was purchased. EHR technology certification does just that: It assures health care providers that the EHR technology they adopt has been tested and includes the required capabilities they need in order to use the technology in a meaningful way to improve the quality of care provided to their patients.
benton.org/node/37067 | Department of Health and Human Services | Health IT Buzz
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Analysis

June 2010

Joint Strategic Plan to Combat Intellectual Property Theft

Obama Administration Aims to Protect Identities in Cyberspace

The Battle Is Raging for Control of the Internet -- and Big Corporations May Come Out on the Losing Side

AT&T, Verizon join Wi-Fi roaming group

The Real Shakedown to Apologize for

Traveling abroad with a cell phone? Do these things first

Press chief's faux news reports part of growing campaign trend

Analysis

On Day 100, A New Tool To Track The National Broadband Plan

June 22, 2010 (FCC Industry Holds Talks on Internet Rule)