1. Monthly archive
  2. October 2010

October 2010

Free Press: FCC Should Build on Broadband Deployment Measurement Advances

In comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission about measuring the deployment of broadband, Free Press says certain large broadband providers wish to undermine the considerable progress made by the FCC in its efforts to more faithfully implement the directives of Section 706. In doing so, these incumbents not only misinterpret the relevant legislative language, but do so by relying on old, thoroughly refuted evidence to justify their assertion that deployment is reasonable and timely. These efforts are centered on convincing the Commission to lower the newly defined threshold speeds needed to offer consumers advanced telecommunications capability. This lobbying for mediocrity is a transparent attempt to have the Commission include in its Section 706 assessment connections that clearly are not robust enough to offer the capabilities described in the law. Regression to the old standard would thwart both the spirit and letter of the law. In short, providers are keen to go back to a world where the FCC praised their limited deployment efforts and heavily underestimated the bandwidth needed to have advanced telecommunications capability.

Expanding Opportunities in the Hispanic Community

This whitepaper calls for federal, state and local stakeholders to prioritize adoption of broadband through digital literacy programs and public-private partnerships that promote innovation and new economic opportunities. NHCSL also includes recommendations developed from the Broadband En Acción taskforce's analysis of the policy environment affecting the lag in Hispanic adoption of broadband -- 47% of Latinos have adopted broadband at home in comparison to 69% of African Americans and 79% of whites, according to the FCC. Only 20% of Spanish-dominant survey takers had adopted broadband at home. If the digital divide is not closed, Latinos will lag behind in the digital opportunities and economic expansion that broadband facilitates

UK Urges ISPs to Divulge Traffic-Shaping Policies

UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom has shied away from enforcing network neutrality, but has urged service providers to be more transparent about their traffic shaping policies. There is also pressure for mobile service providers to stop discriminating against specific applications in order to enforce use of their own.

UK operators were relieved to hear that their existing traffic shaping practices will be allowed to continue, following a recent eForum in London called "Net Neutrality in the UK." This recognized the reality that without traffic shaping at peak times, the cost of broadband services would have to double, according to Hugo Harber, director of convergence and network strategy at Star, which provides managed broadband services in the UK to small and medium businesses. "We don't have network neutrality in the UK.," said Harber, who attended the UK eForum. "There is some application restriction and all the major networks such as BT and Virgin Media restrict [peer to peer] traffic at peak times, or else they'd have to upsize their networks. That's considered quite acceptable, and the response from Ofcom and from the Communications Consumer Panel was that this should be more transparent."

Center for American Progress
October 13, 2010
12:00pm - 1:00pm
http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2010/10/fcc.html

Cell phones, smart phones, and other mobile devices are increasingly an essential part of Americans' everyday lives. But as minutes, messages, and megabytes quickly add up, avoiding "bill shock"—a sudden, unexpected increase in your monthly mobile bill—can be a challenge. According to a recent survey by the Federal Communications Commission, one in six mobile users—30 million Americans—have experienced bill shock. More than half those consumers saw an increase of $50 or more, but few were alerted by their mobile phone company—before or after the bill arrived.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will join Sarah Rosen Wartell from the Center for American Progress to discuss his consumer agenda, including the proactive steps that the agency is taking to empower consumers with simple solutions for avoiding bill shock. At the event, the chairman will outline the findings of a new FCC paper on bill shock and hear directly from consumers who have experienced an unexpected increase in their mobile bills. The Center for America Progress's Doing What Works program seeks to find ways that government can embrace new technologies to achieve their objectives, such as empowering consumers to make smart choices.

Featured Speaker:
Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Introduction by:
Sarah Rosen Wartell, Executive Vice President, Center for American Progress

A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.


Federal Communications Commission
Thursday, October 14, 2010
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db1007/DA-10-1938A...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) invites the public to participate in initial usability test sessions for the proposed (CLS) on Thursday, October 14, 2010. This session is another step in the Commission's ongoing effort to improve its spectrum management and to develop a transparent, easily accessible, data driven, efficient, cost-effective and green consolidated licensing system. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be forthcoming to seek comment on potential features of CLS and proposed changes to the Commission's application forms. Feedback received from the usability test sessions will be incorporated into the design of CLS where appropriate.

The usability test sessions will take place at the Washington, DC headquarters building, 445 Twelfth Street, S.W., in Room TW-B445b/c, and will focus on potential modifications to the application filing process for radio and television broadcast services. Currently, sessions are planned from 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. If the Commission receives enough public responses to participate, an additional session will be scheduled from 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on the same day. Interested parties must preregister for the event by October 13, 2010. Preregistration information is located at the bottom of the Public Notice.

The October 14, 2010, usability test sessions are a part of the FCC's efforts to encourage the public's input and participation with the development of the agency-wide CLS. As CLS is developed, the Commission plans to hold additional public usability test sessions and other outreach activities. Because of the complexity and size of this project, the Commission expects to deploy the new consolidated licensing system in phases. While the consolidated system will be implemented over a period of years, many new features will become available once a service is deployed. We note that the Commission has established a page for the CLS on its "Reboot" web site and interested parties can participate in on-line discussions there -- http://reboot.fcc.gov/reform/systems/cls.

Usability Testing
The usability test sessions will consist of participants sitting down at a computer to complete a series of application filings based on real-world use cases. Participants will be using working models of CLS screen mock-ups. A member of the Commission's Information Technology Center (ITC) staff will observe each session to gain insight on further potential improvements to CLS as it continues to be developed. Because the filing scenarios for this session involve radio and television broadcast services, we are especially interested in having participants that are familiar with these services, including those that currently submit filings in the Consolidated Database System (CDBS). As the CLS continues to be developed, we will announce future usability test sessions that will include scenarios for additional types of authorizations.

Remote Attendance
Due to the nature of usability testing, the Commission cannot accommodate remote attendance but encourages interested parties who will be in the Washington, D.C. area to participate and provide feedback.

Reasonable Accommodations
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities are available upon timely request. Such requests should include a description of the accommodation you will need with as much detail as possible and a way to contact the person making the request if more information is needed. Please allow at least five days advance notice. Requests made closer to the date of the event will be accepted, but regretfully may not be possible to accommodate. Send an e-mail to fcc504@fcc.gov or call the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-0530 (voice), 202-418-0432 (TTY).

Registration
Pre-registration is required. Please pre-register for the usability test sessions by contacting Eugene Chun by telephone at 202-513-4575 or email at echun@fcc.gov by October 13, 2010. Please provide your name, organization, telephone number and e-mail address. We will confirm your registration by return email. For additional questions, please contact Pat Rinn, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Office of the Managing Director at prinn@fcc.gov or 202-414-1223.


Waxman: Title II is 'imperfect,' but 'we just don't have any other recourse'

House Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (C-CA) and Rep Jay Inslee (D-WA) restated their calls for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move forward with Title II regulation of broadband services.

The regulatory path they are suggesting would place broadband companies under certain rules that apply to telephones, which the companies see as too onerous. Chairman Waxman restated that if Congress can't reach a compromise on broadband issues, the FCC should move forward. "Then, I think the only course of action will be for the FCC to act on its own. As imperfect as that may be, as uncertain as that may be because of possible lawsuits, we just don't have any other recourse," he said.

Survey: Tech firms still cautious about spending, hiring

A new survey of more than 300 information technology companies found executives are more confident about their firms' prospects but less optimistic about the state of the economy as a whole, causing them to delay hiring and spending decisions.

The latest IT industry business confidence index from the industry group CompTIA shows a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points from June to 52.8 on a 100 point scale. The index measures executives' opinion on the overall U.S. economy, the IT industry in general and their firms' fortunes. The survey shows the outlook for the U.S. economy dropped 2.3 points in September as executives expressed fear about a stalled recovery or a backslide into recession.

Plenipotentiary Conference

International Telecommunications Union
Guadalajara, Mexico
Monday, 4 to Friday, 22 October 2010
http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2010/index.html


ITU Opens Global Conference With an Eye on Broadband

The International Telecommunications Union this week opened its three-week conference in Mexico with a call by its secretary general for delegates to be "bold and visionary" in reaching agreements providing a sound platform for the development of information and communications technologies.

The 18th quadrennial global conference is expected to address broadband access, cyber security and Internet addresses, among other things. On Oct. 12, it will host a special side session focusing on roadblocks to broadband for everyone. The event, which is taking place at the Guadalajara Expo, is hosted by Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transport. It is expected to attract around 2,000 participants from some 190 ITU member states, sector members and observer organizations, including over 80 ministers, 40 deputy ministers and 40 ambassadors.

New Knight Grant Accelerates Digital Transformation Of Investigative Reporting Leader, Center for Public Integrity

The Center for Public Integrity, a 20-year leader in nonprofit investigative journalism, will speed its transformation into a 21st century news organization with a new $1.7 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The grant will enable the center's non-partisan, award-winning watchdog journalism to engage national and international audiences more effectively using all forms of digital media.

Specifically, the grant will allow the center to:

  • Hire a chief digital officer to develop a new digital strategy aimed at increasing the impact of the center's journalism and increase the center's impact
  • Develop new ways to engage the center's audience in selecting, producing and delivering stories, including through a redesigned website
  • Launch the Ujima Project, an open source computer-assisted reporting tool for investigative reporters internationally
  • Help produce at least 30 new major reporting projects over the next two years
  • Experiment with new fund-raising models and for-profit revenue streams.

The center has named John Solomon, an award-winning journalist who led investigative teams at the Associated Press and the Washington Post, as its new chief digital officer.

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