September 2010

FCC Telephone Competition Report

The Federal Communications Commission today released the second Local Telephone Competition report to be based on comprehensive information about subscribership to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service as well as more traditional telephone lines. The report summarizes data collected by FCC Form 477 as of June 30, 2009. Interconnected VoIP service represents an important and rapidly growing part of the U.S. voice service market. 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:

In June 2009, there were 133 million traditional switched access lines in service and 23 million interconnected VoIP subscriptions in the United States, or about 157 million wireline retail local telephone service connections in total. Of these, 93 million were residential connections and 64 million were business connections.
Interconnected VoIP subscriptions increased by 10% during the first six months of 2009 (from 21 million to 23 million subscriptions) and switched access lines decreased by 5% (from 141 million to 133 million lines) for a combined decrease of 3% (from 162 million to about 157 million total wireline retail local telephone service connections).
Of the 157 million total connections in service at mid-year 2009, 47% were residential switched access lines, 38% were business switched access lines, 13% were residential interconnected VoIP subscriptions, and 2% were business interconnected VoIP subscriptions.
Of the 157 million total connections, 44% were residential lines and 28% were business lines owned by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), while 16% provided non-ILEC residential service, and 12% provided non-ILEC business service.
Of the 93 million wireline residential connections, 73.1% were ILEC switched access lines, 20.7% were non-ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions, 5.5% were non-ILEC switched access lines, and 0.6% were ILEC interconnected VoIP subscriptions.

With Beacons lit, ONC prepares support network

Even as the Office of the National Coordinator named Cincinnati and Detroit as its final two "Beacon" communities, it was already at work on measures designed to share the findings and successes of the health IT test centers among rank-and-file clinics and medical practices.

These include a revised Web site where the 17 Beacon grant winners, as well as newly chartered health IT regional extension centers and state-sponsored health information exchanges can share their experiences, according to national coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal. ONC is also in discussions with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation to increase the number of health IT-related communities-of-practice, collaborations of the kind that will be set up by the Health IT Research Center, a national clearinghouse of research and lessons from those taking first steps at going digital. ONC's aim is to compile and make available a collection of real-world best practices, Dr Blumenthal said.

US Broadband Starts To Speed Ahead

[Commentary] US mobile data usage is expected to increase by 4,000% in the next four years. US broadband connection speed, however, is ranked a mere 18th in the world. These numbers, combined with already strained network capacity, paint a bleak picture of America's "Information Superhighway" as a traffic-jammed dirt road.

While there are several factors that contribute to the nation's disappointing position in broadband access, a closer look at the issues presents a real opportunity for the US to restore its rightful place as the world's leader in technology and innovation. Expanding wireless broadband to every part of the U.S. will have a more far-reaching and profound impact on all Americans. Increasing the capabilities and availability of mobile broadband will eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks and open up new worlds for those whose only disadvantage is location. Mobile broadband will enable someone with limited access to higher education to remotely pursue a Master's degree, and patients to receive remote diagnoses from their doctors.

Just as important--and especially so during these challenging economic times--mobile broadband will empower individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs to be creative, innovative and competitive. A vibrant new class of entrepreneurs is already emerging that is building new devices and developing applications to run on them; expanding mobile broadband network access will open the door to even more industry participation.

[Sanjiv Ahuja is chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared]

Gov. Christie pushes bill to convert New Jersey Network into independent entity

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) submitted legislation Sept 2 designed to end the state's four decades of support for the public television network, NJN, by year's end.

The Governor's plan calls for the Treasurer, by Nov. 1, to take inventory of the network's assets and find the best way to complete a sale or transfer of them, . The bill requires this step be and the list shared with the public broadcasting authority and the Legislature. It also calls for the Treasurer to negotiate directly with an existing public broadcasting outlet and to accept proposals for the sale or transfer. The administration says it wants to make sure the "successor to NJN can fulfill the responsibilities of maintaining a New Jersey-focused public broadcasting operation." Gov Christie's 2011 budget passed in June cut NJN's direct state aid to $2 million and called for the state's $11 million subsidy (for salaries, and buildings) to end as of Jan. 1, 2011.

For Comcast-NBCU, Charity Begins at the FCC

Comcast is hoping that federal regulators are, like Comcast itself, in a giving mood. To reinforce a $100-million blitzkrieg of 80-plus lobbyists and an untold numbers of PR spinmeisters, the cable giant is counting on its charitable ties to cherry-blossom festivals and small-town baseball leagues to help win consent for its proposed $30 billion merger with NBC Universal. And in a bit of a role reversal, the company in some cases has gone hat-in-hand to solicit the support of its philanthropic beneficiaries. During its almost year-long charm offensive to favorably sway regulators, Comcast has deployed its army of professional influencers to capture support of influential national organizations, ranging from the Chamber of Commerce and Urban League to the Boys and Girls Clubs, who marshalled their local and state branches. Comcast also secured big-name endorsements by high profile public officials, including Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California), David Paterson (D-New York) and Ed Rendell (D-Pennsylvania). But as the merger-approval marathon heads into the final stretch, the heartfelt sentiments of homespun beneficiaries of Comcast's philanthropy could prove to be crucial.

US told EU to hide ACTA from public

The United States is behind the wall of secrecy surrounding global trade talks to combat counterfeiting, say EU policy sources, who claim that American officials are refusing to let their European counterparts publish the draft agreement online.

American officials blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on an EU website after a Washington-based round of negotiations in August. The European Commission, which has been feeling the heat from lobby groups and the European Parliament for greater transparency in the negotiations, debriefed MEPs on the August negotiations September 1. MEPs have been demanding to see the full negotiating text as they will be asked to give ACTA their consent in a vote later this year.

Performance Rights Act: Additional Costs for Broadcast Radio Stations; Additional Revenue for Record Companies, Musicians

Congress is considering legislation, the proposed Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848), that would expand copyright protection for the public performance of sound recordings. The proposed act would require AM/FM radio stations that broadcast music to pay a royalty, and this royalty would be distributed to the copyright holder, performers, and musicians.

This report addresses 1) the benefits received by the recording and broadcast radio industries from their current relationship, 2) the possible effects of the proposed act on the broadcast radio industry, and 3) the possible effects of the proposed act on the recording industry. If broadcast radio stations with revenues of $1.25 million or more pay a royalty based on a percentage of station revenues, every 1 percentage point would cost the broadcast radio industry $101 million per year. GAO also estimated that with a 2.35 percent rate, the 25 percent of stations with revenues of $1.25 million or more would pay over 90 percent of the total royalties. According to broadcast industry stakeholders, these costs could lead some stations to reduce staff, switch to a nonmusic format, or discontinue operations. However, assuming a 2.35 percent royalty rate, GAO estimated that 56 percent of performers would receive $100 or less per year, and fewer than 6 percent of performers would receive $10,000 or more per year in royalties from airplay in the top 10 markets. (GAO-10-826)

Verizon's 10, 15 Mbps DSL service is great if you can actually get it

Verizon this week introduced new 10 and 15 Mbps DSL speed tiers in its non-FiOS markets in what could be seen as another defensive play against cable. Residential and SMB customers that reside outside of a Verizon FiOS territory were pretty much relegated to the lower speed 4-7 Mbps with a whopping 768 Kbps upload. Basically, the new offerings take advantage of Verizon's deployment of ADSL2+ throughout its respective markets. Even though the Verizon speed tiers are competitively priced, they aren't without their catches. Although the new offerings are competitively priced at $49.99, if you want standalone DSL, well, you have to pay an extra $10 price of $59.99. The baseline dual-play SMB package runs $89.99 a month with a two-year agreement and $99.99 without a contract.

But the bigger limitation, when you peel back the onion a bit further, is the actual availability of the service. Given the physical limitations of copper facilities if you live beyond the 7,000 foot mark, the reality is well, you're out of luck.

Google Loses German Court Ruling Over YouTube Videos

Google's YouTube video service lost a Hamburg court ruling over copyrighted video material that was posted online without permission for rebroadcast. YouTube may be liable for damages involving material shown in violation of copyright law, the Hamburg Regional Court said. The court said in the statement that the case applies to three recordings by singer Sarah Brightman.

Google trimming Its Privacy Policies

Long, complicated and lawyerly -- that's what most people think about privacy policies, and for good reason. Even taking into account that they're legal documents, most privacy policies are still too hard to understand. So we're simplifying and updating Google's privacy policies. To be clear, we aren't changing any of our privacy practices; we want to make our policies more transparent and understandable.

As a first step, we're making two types of improvements:

1) Most of our products and services are covered by our main Google Privacy Policy. Some, however, also have their own supplementary individual policies. Since there is a lot of repetition, we are deleting 12 of these product-specific policies. These changes are also in line with the way information is used between certain products—for example, since contacts are shared between services like Gmail, Talk, Calendar and Docs, it makes sense for those services to be governed by one privacy policy as well.

2) We're also simplifying our main Google Privacy Policy to make it more user-friendly by cutting down the parts that are redundant and rewriting the more legalistic bits so people can understand them more easily. For example, we're deleting a sentence that reads, "The affiliated sites through which our services are offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies," since it seems obvious that sites not owned by Google might have their own privacy policies.

Benton

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