November 2010

Comcast NBC Deal Review Quickens

Federal regulators have stepped up their reviews of Comcast's deal to acquire control of NBC Universal in hopes of concluding them by the end of the year.

Few observers expect either the Justice Department or the Federal Communications Commission to block outright the roughly $13.75 billion deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. One reason: Because the two companies aren't direct competitors, it's harder to mount an antitrust challenge. Both agencies, however, are likely to impose significant conditions to prevent Comcast from withholding, or threatening to withhold, NBC Universal's programming from competitors, including companies that distribute TV shows and movies over the Internet, such as Apple and Netflix.

The FCC is looking at all parts of Comcast and NBC Universal's combined online-video distribution chain for ways Comcast could promote content over its rivals. The agency is considering imposing a network neutrality condition on Comcast's Internet network, banning it from deliberately slowing or blocking legal traffic. FCC staff members are meeting twice a week with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about the deal and have set an internal deadline of circulating proposed conditions by mid-December. Earlier, the FCC review appeared to be on a January or early February timetable.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department could announce its decision within weeks -- if Comcast accepts its proposed conditions. In particular, Justice Department antitrust officials want to ensure that distribution companies can't lock up content and stymie the development of the online-video market.

Forget any 'Right to Be Forgotten'

[Commentary] Privacy viewed in isolation looks more like a right than it does when seen in context. Any regulation to keep personal information confidential quickly runs up against other rights, such as free speech, and many privileges, from free Web search to free email.

There are real trade-offs between privacy and speech. Censorship requires government limits on speech, at odds with the open ethos of the Web. It's also not clear how a right to be forgotten could be enforced. If someone writes facts about himself on Facebook that he later regrets, do we really want the government punishing those who use the information? UCLA law Prof. Eugene Volokh has explained why speech and privacy are often at odds. "The difficulty is that the right to information privacy -- the right to control other people's communication of personally identifiable information about you -- is a right to have the government stop people from speaking about you," he wrote in a law review article in 2000. One of the virtues of competitive markets is that companies vie for customers over everything from services to privacy protections. Regulators have no reason to dictate one right answer to these balancing acts among interests that consumers are fully capable of making for themselves.

For Newsweek, Tina Brown Aims for Right Mix of Serious and Light

Facing a steady bleed of talent and money, Newsweek's merger with the Daily Beast is widely viewed as the best-possible outcome for the weekly magazine. But does Beast co-founder Tina Brown have enough magic -- and resources -- to revive a magazine widely left for dead?

Barry Diller, chief executive of Beast owner IAC/InterActiveCorp, says Newsweek under Brown will be a "completely different product." Newsweek owner Sidney Harman says he and Brown agree there is no place for a magazine that reports the events of the past week and it has to focus more on graphics and design, which he said have been an afterthought. Brown, who will oversee the editorial operations of the magazine as well as the news-and-culture website, says she isn't ready to talk about her plans for the publication. But in the early days of Harman's courtship of Brown, she sent him a "brilliant essay" that conveyed the key elements of her vision for the magazine, he says. That vision is expected to include introducing a blend of serious and light topics that she perfected at previous career stops, including the Beast.

Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?

[Commentary] Warning: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body.

The legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn't want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry's manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch. The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers.

The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry's primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only. If health issues arise from ordinary use of this hardware, it would affect not just many customers but also a huge industry. Our voice calls -- we chat on our cellphones 2.26 trillion minutes annually, according to the CTIA -- generate $109 billion for the wireless carriers. Henry Lai, a research professor in the bioengineering department at the University of Washington, began laboratory radiation studies in 1980 and found that rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation had damaged brain DNA. He maintains a database that holds 400 scientific papers on possible biological effects of radiation from wireless communication. He found that 28 percent of studies with cellphone industry funding showed some sort of effect, while 67 percent of studies without such funding did so. "That's not trivial," he said.

Huge majorities want control over health info

Patient Privacy Rights, the health privacy watchdog, has enlisted the help of Zogby International to conduct an online survey of more than 2,000 adults to identify their views on privacy, access to health information, and healthcare IT. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of individual choice and control over personal health information.

Ninety-seven percent of Americans believe that doctors, hospitals, labs and health technology systems should not be allowed to share or sell their sensitive health information without consent. The poll also found strong opposition to insurance companies gaining access to electronic health records without permission. Ninety-eight percent of respondents opposed payers sharing or selling health information without consent.

Saudi Arabia blocks Facebook, says content 'crossed a line'

An unnamed official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn't conform with the kingdom's conservative values. The official says Saudi's Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked the site Nov 13 and an error message shows up when Internet users try to access it. He says Facebook's content had "crossed a line" with the kingdom's conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam and religious leaders have strong influence over policy making and social mores.

India's Telecommunications Minister Quits After Probe Into License Auction

India's telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja resigned after a year-long investigation into the multibillion-dollar auction of mobile-phone airwaves stalled parliament and triggered opposition calls for him to step down.

"In order to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintain peace and harmony in parliament, my leader has advised me to resign," Raja told reporters last night after submitting his resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "My conscience is very clear." The Central Bureau of Investigation has been examining the role of Raja and the Ministry of Communications in the pricing of second-generation airwaves since October last year. The country's Supreme Court will resume hearing public interest petitions today on alleged irregularities in the sale. Raja said that he will prove that his actions were in accordance with the law.

USTelecom
Thursday, November 18, 2010
9:00am to 10:30am
http://www.ustelecom.org/Events/Rules-of-the-Road-for-Behavioral-Adverti...
You must register to attend

Join USTelecom, the FTC, Verizon, and Venable LLP/Digital Advertising Alliance for this breakfast briefing, where our expert panel will discuss the various initiatives to balance consumer privacy and behavioral advertising. Panelists will propose and debate rules of the road that will give consumers control and meaningful choice about how their personal information is gathered and used, while ensuring that the contributions that online advertising are making to the Internet are not undercut.

Presenters
Stuart Ingis, Partner, Venable LLP and counsel to the Digital Advertising Alliance
Christopher N. Olsen, Assistant Director - Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Kathleen Zanowic, Chief Privacy Officer, Verizon

Moderator
Genie Barton, Vice President & General Counsel, USTelecom

Read more about Rules of the Road for Behavioral Advertising: Balancing Consumer Privacy and Internet Innovation

USDA Announces More Funding for Rural Broadband

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced nearly $247.9 million in funding for telecommunications projects that will improve broadband service to rural residents and businesses in 11 states.

This funding, which is part of the $690 million investment from USDA's Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program during fiscal year 2010, will finance over 16,000 miles of fiber to the home (FTTH), bringing high speed Internet service to rural areas.

Administered by USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this infrastructure financing is in addition to the $3.5 billion in broadband funding RUS awarded for rural broadband projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The telecommunications infrastructure program funds facilities and equipment for upgrades, expansion, maintenance, and replacement of rural networks. RUS funded approximately $537 million in FTTH projects during fiscal year 2010.

The rural utilities that were selected for funding:

Alaska
Cordova Telephone Cooperative, Inc.; $10,750,000 loan

Arkansas
Southwest Arkansas Tel. Coop., Inc. $22,418,000 loan

Iowa
Interstate 35 Telephone Company $7,090,000 loan

Kansas
South Central Telephone Assoc., Inc. $10,215,000 loan

Minnesota
Garden Valley Telephone Company $34,177,000 loan

Montana
Central Montana Communications, Inc.; $38,793,000 loan
Southern Montana Telephone Company; $5,544,000 loan

Montana & Wyoming
Range Telephone Cooperative, Inc.; $18,000,000 loan

North Dakota
Reservation Telephone Cooperative $32,322,000 loan

New Mexico
Tularosa Basin Telephone Co., Inc.; $8,572,000 loan

South Dakota
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority; $37,870,000 loan

Wisconsin
Nelson Telephone Cooperative; $22,132,000 loan

Australia's $43 Billion Broadband Plan Faces Key Vote

Australia's plan to introduce a 43 billion Australian dollar (US$43 billion) national high-speed Internet network faces a key test next week with lawmakers in Canberra set to debate laws designed to boost competition in the telecommunications market that will allow the scheme to go ahead.

The competition bill, scheduled for debate in the lower house Nov 15, underpins an A$11 billion nonbinding deal reached in June with the country's largest telecommunications company Telstra Corp. to help build the new state-run network, a key election pledge for Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority center-left Labor government. Telstra Corp. Chief Executive David Thodey wants to finalize the deal by Dec. 20, so it can be put to the country's competition watchdog and Telstra shareholders for approval. The looming deadline heightens the urgency for Canberra to win over key lawmakers and pass the competition bill in the next fortnight before parliament breaks for a long summer hiatus Nov. 25. Australia's booming mining and commodities-fueled economy grates with its lack of development in terms of information technology infrastructure. The country ranks 13th among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, nations for high-speed Internet penetration. It is among the most expensive in the OECD for communications services, especially mobile broadband. In 2007, Australians spent an average US$1,600 a year on communications, a figure exceeded only by Switzerland and Iceland.

Benton

Search