October 20, 2010 (2 Billion People Online)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010
At Brookings today -- Confronting the Looming Shortage of Wireless Spectrum http://benton.org/calendar/2010-10-20
INTERNET
Paths to preserving an open Internet
Net Neutrality 101 -- Why The Government Must Act To Preserve The Free And Open Internet
ITU Predicts 2 Billion People Online By Year's End
WIRELESS
What the FCC White Space Ruling Means For Wireless ISPs
4 Ways Carriers Are Fighting Wireless Data Demand
TELEVISION
Internet Is a Weapon in Cable Fight
News Corp.'s hit and run
Fox and Cablevision fray marks shift in television economics
Sen Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes
Taking the Public Out of Public TV
The social networks
How To Save Cable
BBC Agrees to Cut Spending and Freeze License Fee
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
Tea Party gets tough with foes in media
Sometimes it's good news when candidates won't speak to the press
Christine O'Donnell and the rise of cable TV politics: Why we're responsible
PRIVACY
FTC To Recommend Self-Regulation, Not New Laws Says Commission Member
Markey and Barton Seek Info On Facebook Data Breaches
Canada Finds Google Violated Privacy Laws
ACCESSIBILITY
FCC Seeks Nominations for Access Advisory Committees
EDUCATION
Troubles abound in online learning regulation
Your guide to securing 2011 R-Rate dollars
HEALTH
Blumenthal asks vendors to help prevent 'digital divide'
Mobile Health 2010
OWNERSHIP
Lawmakers Request FCC to Review China's Huawei, ZTE
MORE ONLINE
Intel Announces Big US Investment
INTERNET
PATHS TO PRESERVING AN OPEN INTERNET
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Sen Tom Udall (D-NM)]
[Commentary] Internet services and applications stem from a complex, decentralized network of computers and data transmission lines. This openness to a constant stream of innovations and new services is a defining feature of the Internet. At its core, the principle of "network neutrality" is freedom to access any legal, online content without restrictions from Internet service providers. In our country, we have had the luxury to take this virtually limitless power for granted -- despite the fact that it is not guaranteed by law. In the wake of the Comcast decision, two clear paths to preserve an open Internet exist. First, the Federal Communications Commission should reinstate its limited authority over broadband access services by partially reclassifying Internet communications as a "telecommunications service" under Title II of the Communications Act. The goal would be to restore the status quo that existed before the Comcast ruling. Second, at this time of technological transformation to an increasingly mobile broadband era, Congress must reauthorize the Communications Act of 1996 and give the FCC new legal framework to ensure Network neutrality.
benton.org/node/43746 | Politico
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ACLU REPORT ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: American Civil Liberties Union, AUTHOR: Jay Stanley]
The American Civil Liberties Union says protecting the Internet against content discrimination by broadband carriers is crucial to protecting First Amendment rights in the age of modern technology. The group is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create strong policies that prevent Internet gatekeepers from exploiting their role for private gain. The report characterizes the need for "net neutrality" as a leading free speech issue of our time. The ACLU calls on the FCC to apply longstanding "common carrier" rules that would bar network owners from halting, slowing or otherwise tampering with the transfer of data to Internet users. Common carrier rules included by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 already apply to most forms of telecommunications but are not yet applied to broadband Internet service.
benton.org/node/43742 | American Civil Liberties Union | read the report
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2 BILLION PEOPLE ONLINE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) predicts that by the end of the year, 2 billion people will be online, an increase of 600 million in just the past year and double the number of only five years ago. According to a just-released statistical analysis, home Internet worldwide users have increased from 1.4 billion to almost 1.6 billion in the last year. There still remains a huge regional gap, with Europe at 65% penetration and Africa at 9.6%, obviously a factor of geography as well as other issues. The Americas, which are listed together, are at 55%. Making the point that higher download speeds are a growing requisite of accessing online content, ITU points out that at 256 kbps, it takes over 34 hours to download a "high quality" movie, and over four hours at 2 Mbps, 53 minutes and change at 10 Mbps, and only a little over five minutes at 100 Mbps. It also pointed to the price gap and the fact that it cost six times more per month for broadband in a developing country than in a developed one.
benton.org/node/43765 | Multichannel News | read the ITU report
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WIRELESS
WHITE SPACES AND WIRELESS ISPS
[SOURCE: MuniWireless, AUTHOR: Craig Plunkett]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission recently that it is opening up the vacant TV airwaves for unlicensed use. The big problem that White Space (WS) devices solve for aspiring Wireless Internet service providers (WISPs), is installation. Presently the WISP business is a mashup of the cellular carrier and satellite TV businesses. You have to acquire and backhaul to Access Point (AP) mounting locations just like the cellular carriers. Wi-Fi's range is limited so you need outdoor client devices (customer premises equipment or CPE) on roof tops. Wires have to run from the CPE through walls to get bandwidth to the customer, just like the dish and set top box for satellite. This requires capital expenditure, operating expenses, labor, and training and lengthens the payback time until a new customer becomes profitable if you bury the cost of all this into the service pricing. WS devices when they exist should be customer installed, which relieves the WISP of a huge burden. The WISP problem that WS doesn't solve yet is bandwidth.
benton.org/node/43740 | MuniWireless
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WIRELESS DATA DEMAND
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Tofel]
Global demand for wireless data surpassed mobile voice use back in December, and there's no inclination of the trend reversing. Carriers can continue investing billions of dollars for network expansion and faster wired backhaul to wireless towers, but throwing money at infrastructure won't work by itself. Instead, as expert panelists discussed at our Mobilize event last month, technological innovations must supplement infrastructure investment to gain efficiencies. Here's a quick look at some of the latest technical and pricing solutions that are now available, or coming soon, to ensure our wireless data pipes don't clog: 1) Cell towers in the home, 2) Reducing wasteful network signaling traffic, 3) Pushing customers to Wi-Fi, and 4) Ending unlimited data plans.
benton.org/node/43747 | GigaOm
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TELEVISION
INTERNET AS A WEAPON
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
In disputes between television programmers and distributors, the new battleground is the Internet. Entrenched media companies hope to replicate their walled gardens in a new medium, the Internet. In a widely read investors' note on Monday, Richard Greenfield, an analyst for BTIG Research, wrote of the broadcasters, "If you want to be paid like cable nets, start acting like cable nets on the Web." In other words, stop giving away so much content online. The blockade is potentially bad news for users of Internet TV, because it suggests that online access should be contingent upon a monthly payment to the cable or satellite TV company that also supplies Internet access. That mirrors the TV Everywhere concept, which says customers can pay once and watch anywhere -- but so far that effort has focused on cable channels like ESPN and TNT, not broadcast networks like Fox and CBS. The TV Everywhere concept is complicated, and it has been carried out slowly by distributors, causing frustration on the part of programmers like the News Corporation. But there are scattered examples of progress; on Monday, Time Warner Cable will start allowing subscribers to watch ESPN from any computer, as long as they sign in to authenticate their TV subscription. For the News Corporation, cutting off Web programming "is just a card that you need to play," said Jason Hirschhorn, a former executive at MTV, Sling Media, and the News Corporation's MySpace. "I think it showed how serious Fox was about retransmission," he added.
benton.org/node/43774 | New York Times
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FOX'S HIT AND RUN
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Shortly after the Cablevision blackout began, News Corp. barred Cablevision's high-speed Internet customers from accessing Fox.com. Instead, they were redirected to a website presenting Fox's side of the dispute. The ban at Fox.com also stopped Cablevision's Internet customers from watching Fox programs on Hulu.com, a popular online video outlet that News Corp. co-owns. A Fox spokesman said the company lifted the Fox.com ban several hours later after realizing that it also affected people who subscribed only to Cablevision's Internet service, not its cable TV packages. The problem isn't just that News Corp. harmed some innocent bystanders. It's that it discriminated against Internet users based on the identity of their broadband provider. The company's actions added a troubling element to the debate over Net neutrality. Until Saturday, the debate had focused on the potential power of Internet service providers like Cablevision to pick winners and losers among websites and services. Now it's clear that the power may flow in the other direction as well.
benton.org/node/43773 | Los Angeles Times
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SHIFT IN TV ECONOMICS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
A dispute between Fox and Cablevision highlights the pinch that networks and broadcasters feel as they struggle to adjust to shifting economics in the television business. Fox, the television network owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is demanding that Cablevision more than double the annual fees it pays to carry three local TV stations and three small cable networks, from $70 million to $150 million. The parties could be entering a battle of attrition over prime-time and other programming, as both sides face losses," wrote Stifel Nicolaus analysts Rebecca Arbogast and David Kaut. "Fox is losing ad revenues pegged to ratings and Cablevision is potentially losing cable subscribers." But Cablevision may have more to lose. "While Fox can recover eyeballs once the dispute is over, Cablevision could have a harder time winning back subscribers," added Stifel Nicolaus. The dispute exposes rifts in the traditional business models of old media companies. Fox and other networks are looking for new income in the face of diminished advertising revenues and higher programming costs. While network content is free to be transmitted over the public airwaves, they have taken to charging hefty "retransmission fees" to cable and satellite operators to help cover costs from costly programmes such as live sport. Cable companies are trying to maintain margins in the face of new digital subscription services and the threat of so-called "cord cutting" by consumers.
benton.org/node/43772 | Financial Times
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RETRANSMISSION BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) unveiled draft legislation to settle retransmission disputes. The legislation would include imposing fines for bad-faith bargaining, standstill agreements and the Federal Communications Commission as mediator, but not arbitrator. The bill would prompt parties who agree they have reached an impasse to submit the situation to the FCC for mediation. The legislation would still allow broadcasters to pull their content, resulting in blacked-out channels, but the rules would make it more difficult for them to do so.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also voiced frustration with the Cablevision-Fox dispute. "I am deeply troubled that Cablevision and Fox are spending more time attacking each other through ads and lobbyists than sitting down at the negotiating table," he said. "The time for petty gamesmanship is over."
"As history has shown, 99.9 percent of these deals are reached without disruption. We don't have a broken system," said National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton, "we have a broken pay-TV company that likes to play Washington games. Broadcasters and pay-TV operators share a mutual interest in reaching a fair, market-oriented carriage deal. Only when one party shifts their focus, pleading to government instead of negotiating fairly, does that mutual desire dissolve."
benton.org/node/43766 | Hill, The | B&C | CongressDaily | Washington Post | Chairman Genachowski | B&C - NAB
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TAKING PUBLIC OUT OF PUBLIC TV
[SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, AUTHOR: ]
Studies and analyses of PBS's major public affairs shows reveal that public television features guestlists strongly dominated by white, male and elite sources, who are far more likely to represent corporations and war makers than environmentalists or peace advocates. And both funding and ownership of these shows is increasingly corporate, further eroding the distinction between public and corporate television. There is precious little public left in public television.
benton.org/node/43743 | Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
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THE SOCIAL NETWORKS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Neal Gabler]
[Commentary] With the new television season upon us, here are a few things you are virtually certain to see again and again and again: lots of folks spending the better part of their day surrounded by their friends and family in happy conviviality; folks wandering into the unlocked apartments and homes of friends, family and neighbors at any time of the day or night as if this were the most natural thing in the world; friends and family sitting down and having lots of tearful heart-to-hearts; Little League games, school assemblies and dance recitals, all attended by, you guessed it, scads of friends and family. You're going to be seeing these scenes repeatedly because the basic unit of television is not the lone individual or the partnership or even the nuclear family. The basic unit of television is the flock — be it the extended family of brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers, nieces, nephews and cousins, or the extended circle of friends, and, rest assured, it is always a circle. On television friends never come in pairs; they invariably congregate in groups of three or more. What makes this so remarkable is that it has been happening at a time when it is increasingly difficult to find this kind of deep social interaction anyplace but on TV.
benton.org/node/43744 | Los Angeles Times
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HOW TO SAVE CABLE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Joe Marchese]
[Commentary] One of the main choking points for the cable industry is actually the hardware, meaning set-top boxes and the remote control. It is nearly impossible, as we have seen, to drastically improve the TV experience when the technology infrastructure in place simply won't allow this. Some conversations are about set-top boxes that are over 10 years old and still in market. Think about that for a second. We change our phones yearly, or computers every two or three years, but the device with which most people spend the most time with media might be a DECADE old. An easy example of how hardware is holding back innovation is the lack of a keyboard. Think about the last time you tried to type a word into your cable box. Most likely you were given a cursor and used the arrows on your remote control to move to each letter. How is content supposed to become interactive with this hurdle for usage? How can there be a consistently better user experience? And, maybe most importantly for this audience, how can marketers better engage consumers without rapid innovation?
benton.org/node/43763 | MediaPost
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BBC LICENSE FEE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sarah Lyall]
Caving in to government demands that it cut costs in an era of drastic public-sector retrenchment, the British Broadcasting Corporation has agreed to freeze its license fee at the current rate for the next six years. The decision represents a budget reduction in real terms of 16 percent for the corporation, which has been embroiled in tough financial negotiations with a Conservative-led coalition government that has accused it of profligacy and irresponsibility. Under the plan, the license fee -- the amount paid annually by all television owners in Britain, regardless of how much or little they use the BBC's services -- would remain frozen around $230 for six years. The license fee brings in more than $5 billion a year and provides the bulk of the corporation's budget. The agreement is to be announced today, when the government releases its plans to cut tens of billions of dollars from its budget to reduce the national deficit. Even as its income is cut, the BBC has agreed to take on about $530 million in new financial responsibilities annually. It is to use license-fee money to pay for the World Service, which costs $427 million a year and provides news and information to more than 200 million people in 32 languages. That money currently comes directly from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office budget.
benton.org/node/43768 | New York Times | FT
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
TEA PARTY AND THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Edward Luce]
Members of what US conservatives call the "mainstream media" know they are viewed as opponents by the Tea Party movement. But few expect to be handcuffed when they turn up at campaign events. However bizarre in its particulars, the arrest on Sunday of Tony Hopfinger, a journalist, by security guards working for Joe Miller, Alaska's Tea Party-backed Republican candidate for the Senate, was an incident waiting to happen. Although fueled by dislike for taxes, hatred of the "liberal media" - including virtually all channels, barring Fox News, and most print publications - is a central tenet of the Tea Party's world view. Hopfinger, who had written stories questioning aspects of Mr Miller's background for his website Alaska Dispatch, was handcuffed after he approached the candidate at what his campaign said was a private event. "I am leaving and this guy is just hounding me - he was right in front of me, blocking the way," Mr Miller told Fox News after the incident. Like most US elections, this year's midterm race is chiefly a contest between the Democratic and Republican parties. But not far behind is the strange tussle between the Tea Party movement and the media. Tea Partiers see the media as an arm of the bicoastal liberal elites. The media, on the other hand, see the colorful biographies of people such as Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate in Delaware, or Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, as unmissable stories.
benton.org/node/43771 | Financial Times
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CANDIDATES AND THE PRESS
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Jack Shafer]
[Commentary] Many candidates seem to be dodging unwanted exposure to the press and the public during this election cycle. Some politicians have justified their press-avoidance strategy by saying that they've found new, filter-free ways to directly connect to supporters that reduce the need to take journalists' questions. Television appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show, The View, and others are one example. E-mail lists, Facebook, and the comfortable confines of Fox News Channel are three more. But filter-free media are self-limiting. Politicians and office-holders have no "duty" to speak to reporters, a truth that more reporters should understand. The press is not a Fourth Estate, a co-equal of the three branches of government, and it is due no lordly entitlements. Whenever candidates brush journalists off, the press should merely note the pols' taciturnity and maybe give thanks. In my experience, it's better to be snubbed than to be lied to.
benton.org/node/43741 | Slate
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CABLE TV POLITICS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Shaffer]
[Commentary] During the past 18 years, frequent talk show guest and current "tea party"-backed US Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell has made a lot of statements -- such as denying the separation of church and state in America -- that I consider ridiculous. But she and I are on the same wavelength about one subject: why people like her are able to use TV as a springboard to fame. Having worked on both sides of the camera, I know why news producers are attracted to ambitious, compelling, even zany characters: Viewers enjoy the show and a big audience brings good ratings. Unfortunately, ratings rule in TV and if guests like O'Donnell can pump up ratings (and possibly get elected to the US Senate) don't expect changes soon. Critics of the system have my support, along with this advice: Leave the producers alone. They're already hard at work on an upcoming segment.
benton.org/node/43770 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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PRIVACY
FTC BEHAVIORAL TARGETING REPORT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
The Federal Trade Commission's upcoming report about behavioral advertising will include suggestions for how online ad companies can better protect consumers' privacy, but won't recommend that Congress enact new laws, commission member Julie Brill said. "The Commission isn't calling for regulation right now," she said in a speech at a privacy conference held by the law firm Proskauer. "We're talking about a new self-regulatory framework." Brill elaborated that the behavioral targeting industry should improve its privacy efforts in several key areas. Among others, she said that companies should provide consistent and simplified notice about online tracking and ad-serving when the data is collected or used. She also said she would like to see notices focus on the unexpected uses of data, as opposed to obvious ones -- such as an ecommerce company's transfer of consumers' addresses to a shipping company.
benton.org/node/43764 | MediaPost
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MARKEY AND BARTON LETTER TO FACEBOOK
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Reps Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX), co-chairs of the House Privacy Caucus, want Facebook's CEO to answer a lot of questions in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report of major privacy breaches in the social network powerhouse. They requested a reply by Oct 27. "Given the number of current users, the rate at which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users, combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place in Facebook's trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a cause for concern," they wrote in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
benton.org/node/43752 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOOGLE AND PRIVACY IN CANADA
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has found that Google violated Canadian privacy laws when the Internet firm collected personal information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in that country. Commissioner Stoddart launched the investigation earlier this year after Google revealed that its Street View cars, which take street-level photos for Google's mapping service, had mistakenly also collected personal information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in Canada and other countries including the United States. Several U.S. state attorneys general also have launched probes of the Wi-Fi incidents. "Our investigation shows that Google did capture personal information - and, in some cases, highly sensitive personal information such as complete e-mails," said Commissioner Stoddart. "This incident was a serious violation of Canadians' privacy rights." In addition to complete e-mails, Commissioner Stoddard said her office's probe also found that Google's Street View cars collected e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords, names and residential telephone numbers and postal addresses.
benton.org/node/43750 | CongressDaily
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ACCESSIBILITY
FCC SEEKS NOMINATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP ON TWO EMERGENCY ACCESS ADVISORY COMMITTEES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking nominations for membership on two new advisory committees, the Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) and the Video Programming and Emergency Access Advisory Committee (VPEAAC). Both Committees are being established to implement the provisions of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.
The EAAC will conduct a national survey of individuals with disabilities to determine the most effective and efficient technologies and methods by which to enable access to emergency services by individuals with disabilities and will develop and submit to the FCC recommendations to implement such technologies and methods. For the EAAC, the FCC is seeking nominations of persons with disabilities and advocates associated with organizations representative of persons with disabilities, emergency responder and emergency management representatives, elected and appointed officials of state, local or tribal governments and subject matter experts that are interested in participating on the EAAC.
The VPEAAC will develop recommendations for the provision of closed captioning of Internet programming previously captioned on television, video description of television programming, accessible emergency information for people with vision disabilities, compatibility of accessibility features and new video programming devices, and accessible user interfaces on video programming devices. For the VPEAAC, the FCC is seeking nominations of persons with disabilities, advocates associated with organizations representative of persons with disabilities and senior citizens, captioning providers, distributors and providers of video programming or national organization representing such distributors, vendors, developer, and manufacturers of systems, facilities, equipment and capabilities for the provision of video programming delivered using Internet protocol or national organizations representing such interests, manufacturers of consumer electronics or information technology equipment or national organizations representing such manufacturers, video programming producers or national organizations representing such producers, representatives of the broadcast television industry or national organizations representing broadcasters, other individuals with appropriate technical and engineering expertise.
Both Committees are being established to implement the provisions of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010.
benton.org/node/43753 | Federal Communications Commission | EAAC Public Notice | VPEAAC Public Notice
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EDUCATION
ONLINE LEARNING REGULATION
[SOURCE: eCampus News, AUTHOR: Jenna Zwang]
Difficulties in adopting national standards to regulate online education programs sparked a lively debate during a panel discussion at the Oct. 12 Presidents' Forum on Online Learning in the 21st Century, hosted by Excelsior College. The panel, moderated by Sally Johnstone of Winona State University, addressed the complexity of managing standards for online education programs across state lines. Panelists addressed struggles specific to their own states, as well as national issues to consider as the standards debate continues. "I would characterize New York's interest as being one of concern about the quality of education that New York residents receive, whether that education takes place in a traditional classroom setting or online," said Byron Connell, associate commissioner in higher education for the New York State Education Department. "Therefore, our concern is that there be strong assurances of quality for online [education] programs across the country so we don't sit there and fret over the quality of the education that our residents are engaging." David Dies, executive secretary for the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board, echoed similar sentiments regarding standards for online education programs. "It really boils down to a level of trust," Dies said. "Do we have faith in the other states' abilities, the functions that they're performing, and can we in some way accept the work that they've done to satisfy our requirements?" But regulating the industry has proven far more complex than some supporters originally thought.
benton.org/node/43748 | eCampus News
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HEALTH
HIT AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: ModernHealthcare.com, AUTHOR: Joseph Conn]
In an open letter posted online to the health information technology vendor community, Dr David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services, asked health information technology vendors for their help "in making sure that we are not creating a new form of 'digital divide.'" Dr Blumenthal also asked vendors of electronic health-record systems to ensure that they "include providers who serve minority communities in their sales and marketing efforts." "Despite our best efforts, data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey indicates that EHR adoption rates remain lower among providers serving Hispanic or Latino patients who are uninsured or relied upon Medicaid," Dr Blumenthal said. "Moreover, this data also identifies that EHR adoption rates among providers of uninsured non-Hispanic black patients are lower than for providers of privately insured non-Hispanic white patients."
benton.org/node/43745 | ModernHealthcare.com | read the letter
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MOBILE HEALTH 2010
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Susannah Fox]
The online health-information environment is going mobile, particularly among younger adults. The Pew Internet Project's latest survey of American adults, conducted in association with the California HealthCare Foundation, finds that 85% use a cell phone. Of those:
17% of cell owners have used their phone to look up health or medical information and 29% of cell owners ages 18-29 have done such searches.
9% of cell owners have software applications or "apps" on their phones that help them track or manage their health. Some 15% of those ages 18-29 have such apps.
This means that health-information searches and communications have joined the growing array of non-voice data applications that are being bundled into cell phones. Fully 76% of cell phone owners (age 18+) use their phones to take pictures, for example, up from 66% in April 2009. Seven in ten cell phone owners send or receive text messages; four in ten access the Internet on their phones. In addition, 35% of U.S. adults have software applications or "apps" on their phones (but only one in four adults actually use them). Even with the proliferation of mobile and online opportunities, however, most adults' search for health information remains anchored in the offline world. Most people turn to a health professional, friend, or family member when they have a health question; the Internet plays a growing but still supplemental role -- and mobile connectivity has not changed that.
benton.org/node/43739 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
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OWNERSHIP
Lawmakers Request FCC to Review China's Huawei, ZTE
HUAWEI AND ZTE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Edmond Lococo]
Lawmakers asked the Federal Communications Commission to review the security risks of domestic companies ordering network equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. The Chinese companies are in "active" discussions to supply at least two US companies, Sprint Nextel and Cricket Communications, Sen Jon Kyl (R-AZ) wrote in a letter co-signed by three other lawmakers. It's at least the second time in two months that U.S. lawmakers have prodded the Obama administration to review the risks of buying Chinese telecommunications equipment. Eight U.S. lawmakers on Aug. 18 warned that a Sprint contract with Huawei would "undermine U.S. national security." A copy of the letter -- also signed by senators Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut; Susan Collins, a Maine Republican; and Republican Representative Sue Myrick from North Carolina -- was posted on the website of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Sens Kyl and Collins were also signatories to the August letter.
benton.org/node/43769 | Bloomberg | CongressDaily
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