November 2010

Apple warned over built-in Sim cards

Some of Europe's leading mobile operators are warning that they could take punitive action against Apple if it introduces a technological innovation on its iPhone. The operators are privately saying they could refuse to subsidize the iPhone if Apple inserts an embedded subscriber identity module, or Sim card. The operators are accusing Apple of trying to gain control of their relationship with their mobile customers with the new Sim. The technology could allow customers to buy the iPhone and sign up for service on Apple's website and start using it immediately. Closer to the operators' hearts, it could allow customers to switch more easily from one to another or insist on shorter-term contracts. It could even set the stage for Apple to resell connection service on its own, although the company has not indicated such plans.

On tech issues, Obama falls short of high expectations

He was the embodiment of the modern, high-tech president when he took office: the first to fully harness the Internet to build a political movement, the first commander in chief to carry a BlackBerry, the first to promise to instill Silicon Valley sensibilities in the federal bureaucracy. However, halfway through President Barack Obama's first term, he has yet to deliver on much of his sweeping tech agenda, tempering the high expectations many in the industry had when he took office.

A research and development tax credit that candidate Obama pledged to make permanent lapsed at the end of last year and remains dormant. Legislation to invest in basic research and math and science education is bottled up in Congress. And while the federal stimulus bill directed tens of billions of dollars to clean energy, health IT and broadband deployment -- money long sought by the tech sector -- Obama has disappointed the industry in critical areas such as tax policy and trade. It's not that the president has abandoned his positions on key issues or doesn't appreciate technology and innovation, industry representatives say.

On issues such as cleantech and broadband, he's done more in two years, some of them argue, than his predecessor, George W. Bush, did in two terms. But there is still a palpable sense of disappointment. The recurring complaint is that the administration so far hasn't prioritized tech issues or devoted the time or energy to surmount resistance in Congress. And that resistance is certain to grow stronger after the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, especially to any tech proposals that require more federal dollars.

White House to push for tech policy action in 2011

The Obama Administration on will push Congress next year to move ahead on critical technology policies, Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said. The White House will work with Congress on bills dealing with on patent reform, privacy and corporate taxation. "Much of the policy work is really contingent on congressional action or budgetary action, so you're by default waiting for some bigger stakeholders to participate," he said.

"Spectrum, (universal service fund) reform, privacy issues -- those kinds of things we need to work on and we can work on in a bipartisan fashion," Sen John Ensign (R-NV). Online privacy, which Congress has debated in one form or another for more than a decade, is being hailed as a consumer protection issue as more companies collect personal data and use it in advertising or sell it to third parties without telling people that they are doing it. Patent reform, another recurring theme, has the backing of technology investors who say the system is not keeping up with the fast pace of software development and other innovations. Sen Ensign, ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on communications, technology and the Internet, was less optimistic about prospects for network neutrality legislation.

Time Warner Cable tries cheaper cable packages

Time Warner Cable will start testing lower-priced cable TV packages in New York City and Ohio in a bid to give more options to customers struggling with the rising bills from ever expanding basic cable channel packages.

The No.2 US cable company will kick off the trial of a new TV Essentials package in New York City next week with a $39.99 offer and on December 15 in north East Ohio for $29.99 in a promotional offer. It will officially retail at $49.99 and feature around 50 channels compared with around 130 channels for an average digital starter package at $59.95. Key to the reduced price will be the exclusion of higher cost channels such as Walt Disney Co's ESPN's flagship channels, which charge among the most expensive carriage fees in the cable business. Also excluded are Time Warner Inc's TNT Network, News Corp's Fox News and NBC Universal's MSNBC among others. One potential drawback of the new offer is that customers will not be able to buy it as a part of discounted 'Triple Play' or 'Double Play' package that would include Internet or/and telephone service.

MRC Pulls Accreditation of Nielsen Diaries

The Media Rating Council has revoked accreditation of Nielsen's NSI service that includes 154 markets measured solely using diaries.

The NSI service had been accredited by the MRC since September 1965. An annual independent external audit of the NSI service was completed in 2009 and a large audit committee -- comprising MRC members representing users of the NSI service including TV stations; broadcast networks; cable networks and operators; advertisers; agencies; and trade associations -- met on multiple occasions to consider the audit results and Nielsen's responses to audit questions and committee concerns. MRC said that the audit committee voted to recommend revoking MRC accreditation of the NSI diary-only markets. Both the MRC Television Committee and the MRC board of directors subsequently ratified this conclusion.

Rep Upton: I'll Block Net Rules Even If FCC Has Authority

Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) reiterated his opposition to Federal Communications Commission network neutrality rules and said that opposition holds whether or not the FCC has the legal authority to do so.

"I will block the FCC from regulating the Internet," he headlined item number five in his itemized pledge for what he would do as chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Echoing his consistent criticisms, Rep Upton said: "The FCC's regulatory compass must be broken as it continues in its unrelenting pursuit to impose so-called network neutrality regulations, regardless of whether the agency has the legal authority for such a blind power grab, and whether such regulations will actually undermine the FCC's ability to achieve the goals of the National Broadband Plan. The FCC must stand down from pursuing a course unauthorized and opposed by Congress," he said.

Memo to Washington: It's the broadband, stupid

[Commentary] As lawmakers gear up for the post-election Congress that convenes in January, the multiyear debate over new laws to keep ISPs from blocking Web sites or managing traffic in anticompetitive ways -- the so-called network neutrality rules -- is heating up again. The result can be safely predicted: more wasted energy and a continued failure by policymakers to focus on the real challenges of our increasingly important broadband infrastructure. The reality is that, as TV, telephony, and the Web continue to converge at breakneck speed, Net neutrality is little more than a sideshow in a complex circus of communications regulation. Now that the election is over, every stakeholder in Washington would do well to focus on the bigger problems--those that could stall progress in one of the few bright spots in the economy. First and foremost: stimulating broadband adoption.

Prospects For Cybersecurity Bill Dim

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) says that the Senate will not act on cybersecurity legislation during the lame-duck session, punting the issue of how to improve the government's response to cyber threats to the next Congress. He has been working with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) to try to merge the two panels' cybersecurity measures into one, but said time is running out to reach a compromise.

The Real Reasons Cell Phone Boosters Are Suddenly Taboo

Cellphone carriers now offer their own solution to the coverage problem in the form of femtocells: small cellular base stations that expand a localized coverage area up to 5,000 square feet. These femtocells are available for a fee, although in some cases, carriers have quietly offered them at no charge, and represent another revenue opportunity that signal boosters could be taking away. The carriers also sell additional service plans with femtocells; AT&T customers, for example, can pay $20 extra per month for unlimited voice calls made through the device.

Clearly, there's a financial benefit for carriers to corner this market, but there are additional incentives for them to want to shut out signal boosting device companies. Femtocells take traffic from the handset and offload it away from the cellular operator's wireless network; customers connect a femtocell to their existing home wired broadband which handles the traffic. In effect, femtocells reduce the demand for a carrier's wireless infrastructure as opposed to standard signal boosters, which still keep voice and data traffic on the operator network.

Sen Lieberman unveils bill to stabilize funding for e-rule-making

Sen Joe Lieberman (I-CT) announced a bipartisan bill that for the first time would require stable funding for technology aimed at letting the general public in on the arcane process of shaping federal regulations -- e-rule-making.

Rules are what the executive branch uses to put Congress' words into action by, for example, prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition. Most people might not know or care about proposed rules, or their right to oppose such draft regulations through open comment periods. The 2002 E-Government Act, which Sen Lieberman wrote, attempted to change that by mandating that agencies post rules on a searchable website, Regulations.gov. But the site is handicapped by underlying structural problems that Lieberman's new bill could fix.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Sen Susan Collins (R-Maine), would require a $10 million line item in the annual budget for Regulations.gov. Currently, agencies that want to use the site fund it based on the number of documents they file and the services they want. The bill also would provide $1 million a year to upgrade the system's architecture. The measure requires that rule-making data be formatted uniformly so that Internet users and agencies can easily retrieve and analyze materials. In addition, it stipulates improvements to the overall consistency of the rule-tracking system.

Benton

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