1. Monthly archive
  2. April 2011

April 2011

Alec Ross Talks "Radical" Global Citizenship

In the turbulent center of the Venn diagram involving President Obama's multilateral foreign policy, open government mandates, and Middle-East unrest is Alec Ross, the Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. From asking Twitter to delay down-time maintenance during the 2009 student uprising to courting programmers for Africa, Ross's office has been tasked with coordinating the monumental logistics of a new philosophy that embraces global interdependence. Ross spoke with Fast Company about the meaning of the highly controversial "global citizenship" concept, the diplomatic difficulties in supporting subversive technologies, and the future of transparency.

Google's Digital Library Failed -- Can Academics Succeed?

Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library, recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times hailng the Google Books court decision, writing, "only a digital public library will provide readers with what they require to face the challenges of the 21st century -- a vast collection of resources that can be tapped, free of charge, by anyone, anywhere, at any time."

A digital public library faces as many or more hurdles as a digital private library, though--as Darnton is first to admit, problems "legal, financial, technological, political." The main question that remains then, is this: Can Darnton et al. make good on their claims that they can have what the Times calls a "working prototype" inside of a year and a half? Worrying signs abound: The digital public library has "no formal structure other than a steering committee." There is far from unanimity of vision: "Everyone who is at the table has a different idea of audience, scope, content and governance," one of the people involved told the Times. (Though Darnton told us last fall that at a meeting, thankfully, "everyone checked their egos at the door.") And what does it say about your project if one of its members, Stanford librarian Michael Keller, is telling reporters that the project is "coming late to the party" and has "no practical plan for getting it started”? Academia is famously slow; businesses are famously fast. The lofty motives driving Darnton and his fellow advocates for a digital public library ought to animate them with the same passion that profit animates the folks at Google. It would be wonderful to be proven wrong about the differences between commerce and academia on this count.

Rural Telecom Groups Take on Inter-Carrier Compensation

Rural telecommunications groups have been working with a high degree of collaboration lately -- and comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission April 1 about intercarrier compensation are no exception.

No less than seven rural telecom associations -- including the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA), the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA), the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO), the Western Telecommunications Alliance (WTA), the Eastern Rural Telecom Association (ERTA), the Rural Alliance and the Rural Broadband Alliance -- signed the comments, which urge the FCC to take action to help rural carriers collect the full value of inter-carrier compensation they say is due to them.

The associations urge the FCC to:

  • Confirm that under existing law, traffic originating from or terminating to interconnected VOIP services is subject to the same inter-carrier compensation rates as any other traffic originating from or terminating to the public switched telephone network. VoIP providers have argued that because VoIP is not a telecommunications service, it is not subject to such charges.
  • Adopt rule revisions applying call signaling requirements to all types of traffic originating or terminating on the PSTN, including mechanisms to avoid fraud and ensure compliance with such requirements. A range of carriers—from VoIP providers to wireless operators—have avoided paying access charges by failing to provide sufficient billing information, a phenomenon sometimes called “phantom traffic.”
  • Adopt reasonable rules to address rate development and allowed levels of earnings in access stimulation situations. Access stimulation, also known as “traffic pumping,” is when calls to a free conference call service or chat line are terminated through a rural competitive local exchange carrier that charges unusually high terminating access charges and shares in the revenue with the conference call or chat line operator. This practice affects carriers of all types, not just rural carriers.

Extreme Makeover - USF: Looking At Lifeline/Link Up

As part of its ongoing effort to modernize (and rationalize) the various elements of the Universal Service Fund (USF), the Federal Communications Commission has now turned its attention to Lifeline and Link Up.

These two programs make up USF’s Low Income component, which seeks to make telecommunications accessible to those with low incomes. In a 98-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) released March 4, the FCC has set out a number of proposals for possibly significant changes to its current approach. Many of those proposals implement recommendations from the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (which we reported on here last fall), the Government Accountability Office, and the National Broadband Plan. The scope of the NPRM suggests that the FCC recognizes the daunting nature of the challenge it is undertaking. Whether -- and if so, when -- the FCC will ever be able to claim that it has met that challenge remains to be seen. But at least the FCC has made the first move in its quest.

The focal points of the FCC’s Lifeline/Link Up reform efforts described in the NPRM are:

  • eliminating fraud, waste and abuse;
  • capping the Low Income Fund;
  • improving program administration; and
  • modernizing Lifeline and Link Up (including reimbursement for broadband, of course).

Bloggers Remember Elizabeth Taylor

The online outpouring in response to last week's passing of Elizabeth Taylor demonstrated not only the kind of subjects bloggers can gravitate to, but how social media can serve as a kind of communal hearth, or in this case, a digital memorial service.

For the week of March 21-25, fully one-third (33%) of the news links on blogs were about Taylor's March 23 death at age 79, making it the No. 1 subject, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Bloggers were also attuned to the two big international crises last week, which were the No. 2 and No. 3 topics-the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan (25%) and the conflict in Libya, which now involves the U.S. military (18%). High levels of interest in the passing of a Hollywood luminary are part of a trend that has been evident ever since PEJ began the New Media Index in January 2009. Bloggers like to reminisce about popular culture figures. Dom DeLuise, Patrick Swayze, and Leslie Nielsen-lesser celebrities than Taylor-all received significant attention after their deaths. At 33% of the links, Taylor received more coverage on blogs than any other celebrity passing, including pop icon Michael Jackson who generated 27% of the links when he died in June 2009-although the fact that Jackson died later in the week (Thursday as opposed to Wednesday for Taylor) may have contributed to the smaller number. Indeed, Taylor's death was also a major story in the mainstream media last week, registering as the No. 3 subject in PEJ's News Coverage Index.

April 11, 2011 (Google-ITA)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011

We're still catching up on all that happened last week and we'll post summaries soon (check http://benton.org/headlines/newsletter and http://benton.org/taxonomy/term/6).

Here's a quick look at this week's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2011-04-10--P1W/


OWNERSHIP
   Justice Department Requires Google to Develop and License Travel Software in Order to Proceed with Its Acquisition of ITA - press release
   Google CEO Promotes Engineers in Management Shuffle [links to web]
   At Gannett, Furloughs but Nice Paydays for Brass [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Republicans Agree On 'Insatiable' Demand For Wireless Broadband
   Spectrum Inventory Tools: Touts And Doubts
   £5bn ‘wasted’ on mobile phone bills

PRIVACY
   Who Really Sent That E-Mail? - editorial

LOBBYING
   Silicon Valley Makes Peace With Washington - analysis
   With antitrust mutters growing, Apple boosts presence in DC [links to web]

TELEVISION
   Couric’s Rocky Path to a Likely Parting With CBS [links to web]
   More Media Time, on Various Screens [links to web]
   NCTC Extends HITS Agreement With Comcast Media Center [links to web]
   UK broadcasters oppose copyright changes [links to web]
   Cable business still whets M&A appetites [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Spending deal cuts proposed funds for R&D [links to web]
   Comcast, AT&T Building 100-Gig Backbones With Cisco [links to web]

back to top

OWNERSHIP

GOOGLE-ITA DECISION
[SOURCE: Department of Justice, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Justice announced that in order for Google to proceed with its proposed acquisition of ITA Software, the department will require Google to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development. The department said that the proposed settlement will protect competition for airfare comparison and booking websites and ensure those websites using ITA’s software will be able to power their websites to compete against any airfare website Google may introduce. The department said that the acquisition, as originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States, resulting in reduced choice and less innovation for consumers. The department said that Google will also be required to provide mandatory arbitration under certain circumstances and provide for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington (DC) to block the proposed acquisition. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns of the lawsuit.
Under the proposed settlement, Google will be required to continue to license ITA’s QPX software to airfare websites on commercially reasonable terms. QPX conducts searches for air travel fares, schedules and availability. Google will also be required to continue to fund research and development of that product at least at similar levels to what ITA has invested in recent years. Google will also be required to further develop and offer ITA’s next generation InstaSearch product to travel websites, which will provide near instantaneous results to certain types of flexible airfare search queries. InstaSearch is currently not commercially available, but is in development by ITA.
To prevent abuse of commercially sensitive information, Google will be required to implement firewall restrictions within the company that prevent unauthorized use of competitively sensitive information and data gathered from ITA’s customers. The proposed settlement delineates when and for what purpose that data may be used by Google. Google is also prohibited from entering into agreements with airlines that would inappropriately restrict the airlines’ right to share seat and booking class information with Google’s competitors. Finally, the proposed settlement provides for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner.
benton.org/node/54975 | Department of Justice
Recommend this Headline
back to top

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

INSATIABLE WIRELESS BROADBAND DEMAND
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to a copy of the majority staff memo on this week's House hearing on spectrum, Republicans are convinced more spectrum must be freed up for wireless, but they will look at a range of places to find it. "There are a number of spectrum bands that hold the potential to help us meet our goals, but there are tough decisions to be made about how, when, and for what purpose spectrum is put to use," according to the Republican staff memo on the upcoming April 12 hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee. The memo pointed to some of broadcasters concerns about the option of auctioning more of their spectrum. "While there are few that have outright opposed incentive auctions," the memo said, "there are concerns as to how they could be done with what spectrum. Broadcasters are emphasizing that incentive auctions be truly 'voluntary.' Broadcasters have also raised concerns about how repacking will be handled once licensees voluntarily auction off their spectrum. "
But the memo makes clear the Republicans are on board with the wireless industry's argument that they need more spectrum from somewhere.
"Everyone agrees that there needs to be additional spectrum for wireless broadband," according to the memo. "American consumers have an increasingly insatiable demand for wireless broadband Internet access. Smartphone's now comprise more than one-third of all wireless devices sold in a given quarter. App stores, such as Apple's iTunes App Store, Google's Android Marketplace, and Research in Motion's BlackBerry App World, have delivered more than 10 billion apps to wireless consumers. Cisco reports that the amount of data delivered over wireless networks last year was three times the traffic of the entirety of the Internet in 2000. Given these growth figures, it is no surprise that the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan and the President of the United States are calling for an additional 500 MHz of spectrum to be allocated for wireless broadband use in the next five years."
benton.org/node/54961 | Multichannel News
Recommend this Headline
back to top


SPECTRUM INVENTORY TOOLS
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Harry Cole]
[Commentary] In February, 11 Members of Congress sent Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter observing (again) that it would be a good idea to conduct an inventory so that we can all have “a complete picture of who is licensed to use what airwaves and how effectively they are being used”.
In a response dated March 18, Chairman Genachowski advised that the FCC has “inventoried the spectrum over which it has jurisdiction”, thereby producing “one of the most substantial and comprehensive reviews of spectrum in [the Commission’s] history”. He then waxed eloquent about two “tools” – “LicenseView” and “Spectrum Dashboard” – that “reflect our understanding of where the most significant spectrum opportunities lie”. He said: "LicenseView is a comprehensive online portal to information about each spectrum license; it presents data from multiple FCC systems in a searchable, user-friendly manner. The Spectrum Dashboard, originally released last year, identifies how non-Federal spectrum is currently being used, who holds spectrum licenses and where spectrum is available."
I think it’s fair to conclude from this that the Chairman was telling the folks in Congress that if they want to see the FCC’s spectrum inventory, they need look no farther than LicenseView and Spectrum Dashboard.
But, if you visit these websites, you'll find some disclaimers:
"The information contained [in LicenseView] has not been relied upon by the Commission to analyze the competitive marketplace or assessing [sic] the spectrum holdings of service providers in any particular geographic area."
"The Spectrum Dashboard does not constitute the official licensing records for the Commission. Specifically, the FCC makes no representations regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information maintained in the Spectrum Dashboard." and "The data and analyses contained herein are not relied upon by the Commission in analyzing the competitive marketplace or assessing the spectrum holdings of wireless service providers in any particular geographic area."
benton.org/node/54958 | CommLawBlog
Recommend this Headline
back to top


UK CELL PHONE STUDY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Simon Mundy]
Mobile phone users in the UK are “wasting” nearly £5bn ($8bn) a year by choosing inappropriate contracts, accounting for more than a third of mobile operators’ retail revenues, according to a new study. The research, by price comparison website Billmonitor, found that 40 per cent of mobile subscribers opted for a calling allowance that was too large, typically using only about a quarter of the calling time that was paid for. The group could save a cumulative £2.62bn by switching to cheaper contracts, said Billmonitor, which is endorsed by telecoms regulator Ofcom. A further 22 per cent of customers exceeded their allowance of calls, text messages and data usage, wasting £1.53bn, while £740m was ascribed to a failure to use free benefits. The study was based on analysis of 28,417 mobile phone bills with O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile, the UK’s biggest mobile networks. Ofcom said that, while it had regulations to prevent “mis-selling” of telephone services, it was inevitable that many consumers would not make the effort to secure the best deal.
benton.org/node/54951 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

PRIVACY

EPSILON BREACH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Americans are right to be concerned about a huge data breach at an online marketing company, Epsilon, which resulted in the theft of names and e-mail addresses for customers and employees of some of the nation’s largest businesses, including Citibank, Disney and Verizon. Epsilon issued a statement assuring that no other information was compromised. But millions of consumers could still be vulnerable to sophisticated identity-theft ploys — “spear phishing” — in which scammers target e-mails to specific people and make it appear as if they came from a company they trust. Familiarity can lure victims into clicking on links, downloading malware, or responding to requests for account numbers or passwords. This is not an isolated case. The breach at Epsilon underscores the urgent need for a federal standard of data safety that ensures companies follow adequate policies and procedures to protect consumers’ information and determines companies’ legal liability for breaches. As Congress debates new data privacy rules, it should put data security at the forefront. Possibilities include imposing maximum periods for retaining personal data and rules about how to protect data that is flowing through corporate networks, stored on corporate servers or, increasingly, on the cloud. It certainly seems risky to have one company handle sensitive information about the customers of so many large firms. Consumers must also be vigilant. For starters, they should be wary about clicking on any e-mail attachment, even if it comes with a seemingly personal greeting from a business they know and trust.
benton.org/node/54972 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

LOBBYING

SILICON VALLEY AND DC
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] It's time for Silicon Valley to rethink its relationship with Washington (DC) and Brussels. After generations of technology entrepreneurs keeping their distance, high-tech companies over the past decade became among the biggest employers of lawyers, lobbyists and fixers. As in Detroit, reliance on big government by Silicon Valley undermines the focus on competition and innovation. There's a lesson here for Microsoft and Google—and for Facebook and Twitter as the likeliest next-generation targets of complaints by frustrated competitors. In high-tech, by the time the political and legal systems catch up to an issue, the issue is moot. Soon after the Justice Department considered forcing Microsoft to break itself into separate Windows and Internet Explorer businesses, Mozilla launched a popular competing browser. Apple and Google later did the same.
benton.org/node/54966 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

Justice Department Requires Google to Develop and License Travel Software in Order to Proceed with Its Acquisition of ITA

The Department of Justice announced that in order for Google to proceed with its proposed acquisition of ITA Software, the department will require Google to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development.

The department said that the proposed settlement will protect competition for airfare comparison and booking websites and ensure those websites using ITA’s software will be able to power their websites to compete against any airfare website Google may introduce. The department said that the acquisition, as originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the United States, resulting in reduced choice and less innovation for consumers. The department said that Google will also be required to provide mandatory arbitration under certain circumstances and provide for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington (DC) to block the proposed acquisition. At the same time, the department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive concerns of the lawsuit.

Under the proposed settlement, Google will be required to continue to license ITA’s QPX software to airfare websites on commercially reasonable terms. QPX conducts searches for air travel fares, schedules and availability. Google will also be required to continue to fund research and development of that product at least at similar levels to what ITA has invested in recent years. Google will also be required to further develop and offer ITA’s next generation InstaSearch product to travel websites, which will provide near instantaneous results to certain types of flexible airfare search queries. InstaSearch is currently not commercially available, but is in development by ITA.

To prevent abuse of commercially sensitive information, Google will be required to implement firewall restrictions within the company that prevent unauthorized use of competitively sensitive information and data gathered from ITA’s customers. The proposed settlement delineates when and for what purpose that data may be used by Google. Google is also prohibited from entering into agreements with airlines that would inappropriately restrict the airlines’ right to share seat and booking class information with Google’s competitors. Finally, the proposed settlement provides for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner.

Couric’s Rocky Path to a Likely Parting With CBS

Katie Couric and CBS are now negotiating how and when to end her five-year run as anchor, one marked by early criticism, later journalistic successes and disappointing ratings over all.

Couric is pursuing the idea of her own syndicated talk show, possibly with her former “Today” show co-host, Matt Lauer. Any such move would be intensely complicated. Lauer’s contract extends to the end of 2012, while the new show would be expected to start in September. And NBC can be counted on to make perhaps the biggest offer in television news history to keep him at “Today.”

For Katie Couric, the offer in 2006 to become the anchor of “CBS Evening News” came with another incentive, one she prized almost as highly, according to two of her friends: the chance to report for “60 Minutes,” the newsmagazine that for Ms. Couric stood for the kind of serious journalism she had always aspired to. Regular appearances on “60 Minutes” were written into her $15 million-a-year contract with CBS, but once she arrived at the network, she found a chilly reception from some of the staff members at the venerable program. Some of Ms. Couric’s associates said that the chilliness seemed to stem from the top, the show’s executive producer, Jeff Fager. Her appearances on the show have been fewer than she hoped for — averaging not even five a year. Even after the show won an Emmy for her interview with the airline pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III, Couric’s visibility on the program never increased. In February, when Fager was named chairman of CBS News, his tepid response to the hugely public question of whether she might continue as anchor (Fager said he hadn't thought about it yet) sent an additional signal to Ms. Couric and her representatives: it was time to move on.

Who Really Sent That E-Mail?

[Commentary] Americans are right to be concerned about a huge data breach at an online marketing company, Epsilon, which resulted in the theft of names and e-mail addresses for customers and employees of some of the nation’s largest businesses, including Citibank, Disney and Verizon.

Epsilon issued a statement assuring that no other information was compromised. But millions of consumers could still be vulnerable to sophisticated identity-theft ploys — “spear phishing” — in which scammers target e-mails to specific people and make it appear as if they came from a company they trust. Familiarity can lure victims into clicking on links, downloading malware, or responding to requests for account numbers or passwords. This is not an isolated case. The breach at Epsilon underscores the urgent need for a federal standard of data safety that ensures companies follow adequate policies and procedures to protect consumers’ information and determines companies’ legal liability for breaches. As Congress debates new data privacy rules, it should put data security at the forefront. Possibilities include imposing maximum periods for retaining personal data and rules about how to protect data that is flowing through corporate networks, stored on corporate servers or, increasingly, on the cloud. It certainly seems risky to have one company handle sensitive information about the customers of so many large firms. Consumers must also be vigilant. For starters, they should be wary about clicking on any e-mail attachment, even if it comes with a seemingly personal greeting from a business they know and trust.

At Gannett, Furloughs but Nice Paydays for Brass

Just in case Gannett employees thought 2011 might bring better news after years of layoffs and furloughs, the year was just four days old when a note landed in the in-box of people who work for the community news division saying, once again, they were required to take an unpaid week off.

After explaining that revenues at the newspaper giant continued to be soft and the outlook was uncertain, Robert J. Dickey, Gannett’s president of U.S. Community Publishing, said, “I know furloughs are very hard on you and your families and I thank each of you for the continued commitment and great work.” Dickey made it clear that not only did the company’s executives feel their pain, they would share the sacrifice, noting that he too would take a furlough and that Craig A. Dubow, the chief executive, and Gracia C. Martore, the president and chief operating officer, “each will be taking a reduction of salary that is equivalent to a week’s furlough.” But as it turns out, the buck stopped just short of Dubow and other executives. Dubow had agreed to lower his salary by 17 percent through 2011, but then again, last month he received a cash bonus of $1.75 million for 2010 and Martore received $1.25 million. For 2010, they were also awarded stock, options and deferred compensation that would bring their combined packages to $17.6 million if the company and its stock hits certain targets.

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.