December 2010

Net Neutrality End Run

[Commentary] Late Nov 30, the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to adopt network neutrality regulations over the objections of lawmakers and despite a federal court ruling in April that said the FCC lacked authority from Congress to restrict how Internet service providers manage traffic on their networks. If job creation and economic growth are priorities for the Obama Administration, it makes no sense to target the telecom industry with new rules that will hamper capital investment and lead to years of litigation and regulatory uncertainty. More troubling than even FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's bad judgment is the signal he is sending that the Obama Administration intends to use administrative agencies to circumvent Congress now that Democrats no longer have full control of the legislature. We hope the GOP doesn't let the White House get away with it.

FCC reticence frustrates GOP staffers at Hill meetings

The Federal Communications Commission's tight-lipped approach to educating Hill staffers on its net-neutrality proposal is frustrating GOP staffers who want to know more about the document, Republican aides said on Dec 3. The FCC has dispatched top aides, including general counsel Austin Schlick and adviser Greg Guice. The aides met with telecom staffers to brief them on the chairman's proposal, which has fielded solid support from Democrats and much stronger pushback from Republicans. But aides said they did not feel like the meetings imparted much about the FCC plan. "They were short on details," said one GOP aide. Various staffers said they were frustrated with how little FCC officials were willing to say about the net-neutrality proposal. The officials refused to describe the exact argument it will use to ground its legal authority.

Time for FCC to Divulge TV Repacking Plan

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission took its first steps this week toward its oft-stated goal of snatching a big hunk of spectrum away from broadcasting so that it can sell it at auction to others for wireless broadband, which it feels is a superior use in that it can conquer disease, make American school kids smarter than all their counterparts in India and China who all sit in the front row and pay attention and insure a sharply rising Dow Jones Industrial Average for the next 1,000 years. It’s hard to compete with all that, even if you have Glee on your schedule. The FCC rulemaking didn't actually propose moving any spectrum. Rather, it set the stage for channel sharing and band repacking, the mechanisms the FCC hopes to use to snag 40% of the TV spectrum for auctioning.

72 super PACs spent $83.7 million on election

The newly created independent political groups known as super PACs, which raised and spent millions of dollars on last month's elections, drew much of their funding from private-equity partners and others in the financial industry, according to new financial disclosure reports.

The 72 super PACs, all formed this year, together spent $83.7 million on the election. The figures provide the best indication yet of the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions that opened the door for wealthy individuals and corporations to give unlimited contributions. The financial disclosure reports also underscore the extent to which the flow of corporate money will be tied to political goals. Private-equity partners and hedge fund managers, for example, have a substantial stake in several issues before Congress, primarily the taxes they pay on their earnings. "Super PACs provide a means for the super wealthy to have even more influence and an even greater voice in the political process," said Meredith McGehee, a lobbyist for the Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for tighter regulation of money in politics.

Sens. Snowe and Warner want WiFi in all federal buildings

Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced legislation that would require all public federal buildings to install WiFi base stations in order to free up cell phone networks.

The Federal Wi-Net Act would mandate the installation of small WiFi base stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings in order to increase wireless coverage and free up mobile networks. The bill would require all new buildings under construction to comply and all older buildings to be retrofitted by 2014. It also orders $15 million from the Federal Buildings Fund be allocated to fund the installations. The bill is aimed at preventing dropped calls that occur indoors and in rural areas due to poor cell phone coverage, while also hopefully boosting wireless network capacity by more effectively deploying broadband wireless networks. The bill is also an acknowledgement of the crucial role that cell phones and smartphones such as BlackBerrys play in the daily routine of federal workers.

Mobile firms seeing ads coming to handsets

The long awaited uptake of the potentially lucrative mobile advertising market by advertisers and consumers has actually started to happen, companies from Canada, Egypt and Poland said.

Advertisers have great hopes for the cellphone market due to the personal nature of phones and the potential to know where customers are at any time, but have been held back by the small screen size and potential hostility from customers. The sector got a major boost from Google's deal to buy mobile ad firm AdMob late in 2009, and Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless.

Getting Media Right: A Call to Action

Speaking at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps said that , given what technology and innovation have wrought, this should be America's golden age of communications, news and information. "But the ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link-and too many links are at the breaking point now. We should be riding on the cusp of an information and civic commons where anyone and everyone can engage, where bountiful news and information flow like water, where guaranteed openness trumps the threat of walled gardens, and where small "d" democracy is practiced on a town square paved with broadband bricks."

He proposed that the FCC conduct a Public Value Test of every broadcast station at relicensing time-which should occur every four years in lieu of the slam-dunk, no-questions-asked eight year renewals we dispense 100% of the time now. If a station passes the Public Value Test, it of course keeps the license it has earned to use the people's airwaves. If not, it goes on probation for a year, renewable for an additional year if it demonstrates measurable progress. If the station fails again, give the license to someone who will use it to serve the public interest. The FCC's Public Value Test would include the following: 1) Meaningful Commitments to News and Public Affairs Programming, 2) Enhanced Disclosure, 3) Political Advertising Disclosure, 4) Reflecting Diversity, 5) Community Discovery, 6) Local and Independent Programming. 7) Public Safety.

For new media he called on steps to create an environment where the genius of this opportunity-creating technology can truly flourish: 1) Guarantee Internet Freedom Now, 2) Encourage Broadband Competition, and 3) Push for Digital Literacy.

Boucher Still Mulling Next Move, Reflects On Past

Defeated over the midterm elections, the widely respected lawmaker, Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA, said he is likely to pursue a career in telecommunications after he leaves Congress, but in what capacity has not been decided.

"I have no immediate plans," Rep Boucher said. "My phone is ringing which is a good thing," he chuckled. Most of the conversations he is having now are preliminary and related to jobs in the telecommunications sector. After serving 14 terms in Congress, Boucher lost to Republican Morgan Griffith in an election year of sweeping victories for the GOP. He said his 28 years in Congress was a "rare opportunity to have some effect on public policy and I'll forever remember that as a great period in my life."

Smaller Wireless Firms Urge FCC To Act On Roaming Proposal

A group of wireless firms sent a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) arguing on behalf of a Federal Communications Commission proposal that would force national wireless carriers to provide roaming services for customers of regional service providers.

Smaller wireless carriers are concerned that their ability to offer national data plans could be undermined by the two largest wireless providers, AT&T and Verizon, who have a commercial incentive not to allow competitors to roam on their networks or charge unreasonably high prices. AT&T and Verizon dismiss claims that regulations are needed to guard against their competitors' concerns, saying the market is functioning perfectly without government intervention. Wireless providers Clearwire, Sprint, T-Mobile and others wrote Chairman Rockefeller seeking his support for the FCC plan. The FCC launched a notice of proposed rulemaking on the matter last spring, but it has yet to take further steps. Without the right to data roaming, the firms said, regional carriers' ability to keep investing in building out broadband infrastructure will be threatened. They argue that data roaming also is important to attracting the customers needed to maintain current networks or invest in greater broadband coverage, the letter added.

Have stimulus funds helped spur educational technology gains?

Nearly two years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed, two new reports offer varying perspectives on how successful the billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds were in spurring educational technology gains and school reform.

One report, from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), highlights important educational technology gains across many states, while another report takes a more critical look at the effect that federal stimulus funds have had on education and school reform in general. Both reports warn that the future will be less than smooth for cash-strapped districts once the stimulus funds run out. The Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) state block-grant program received $650 million under ARRA. In FY2010, EETT suffered cuts that brought its funding to $100 million, and the Obama administration has proposed eliminating EETT altogether in FY2011, instead making educational technology funding a key part of its school reform and improvement programs. In SETDA’s report, “ARRA Investments in Technology, Innovation, and K-12 Reform: The Digital Education Funding Cliff,” the organization notes that the budget cut of nearly 65 percent to regular EETT funding in FY10, coupled with the administration’s request to eliminate the program in its FY11 budget, “has slowed the pace of [educational technology] implementation” within many states.

Benton

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