July 2011

France Télécom to Bid Adieu to Minitel

Next year, Minitel -- France's precursor to the Internet -- will finally meet its maker. For 30 years the toaster-sized screen weathered the Internet revolution. Despite a text-only service, basic graphics and snail-like speed, the terminal generated €30 million ($43.1 million) in revenue in 2010, with around 85% redistributed to service providers such as banks and weather forecasters, according to France Télécom SA, which operates the service. Despite the service still being profitable, the telecommunications operator has decided to swing the axe. "The Minitel will die on June 30, 2012," said a France Télécom spokeswoman, explaining that the architecture the Minitel runs on has become obsolete.

Japan Ends All Analog TV Broadcasts in Asia’s First Transition to Digital

Japan ended a 58-year era of analog television broadcast yesterday, becoming the first Asian nation to complete the transition to digital transmission.

Cathode-ray tube TVs, usually with a curved screen and a protruding box at the back, could no longer display programs without adding a special tuner after the switchover July 23. Public broadcaster NHK news and Pocket Monsters cartoon series were among the popular shows that shifted completely to digital beaming. The switch by Japan, which follows similar moves by the U.S. and Germany in the past three years, frees up air waves that may later be allocated to mobile-phone operators such as Softbank who want to improve service. With more than 90 percent of Japanese households already owning flat-screen TVs, some purchased with recent incentives, the switchover may damp sales of new sets.

Baidu strikes deal to pay record companies for music

China's leading search engine Baidu will now pay three major record companies for music downloads on its site, after years of facing criticism for hosting links to pirated songs. Baidu announced that it had signed an agreement with One-Stop China, a joint venture which Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music are shareholders of. Under the agreement, the three major record companies will license their Chinese and International music catalogues to be streamed or downloaded from Baidu.

EU considers stricter data breach notification rules

The European Commission is examining whether additional rules are needed on personal data breach notification in the European Union. Telecoms operators and Internet service providers hold a huge amount of data about their customers, including names, addresses and bank account details. The current ePrivacy Directive requires them to keep this data secure and notify individuals if such sensitive information is lost or stolen. Data breaches must also be reported to the relevant national authority.

Belgium confirms open cable networks regulation

Belgian regulators have approved a plan to open the cable networks to competition. While incumbent telecoms operator Belgacom said it was pleased with the extension of access regulation to the cable sector, the country's leading cable operator Telenet said it will pursue legal action to halt the measures. From 1 August, the regulators including BIPT will work with the operators to develop the technical and financial conditions for implementing the regulations. The aim is to open the market to new alternative providers of broadband and analog and digital TV over cable networks. If all goes to plan, the terms and conditions should be in place by October 2012.

Ofcom cuts rural broadband prices

Rural broadband bills could fall after telecoms regulator Ofcom moved to cut the wholesale price that BT charges other Internet providers.

The company is the only operator in many smaller telephone exchanges and ISPs have to factor 'renting' BT's equipment into their price plans. That means customers often miss out on cheaper deals available in towns and cities. The reduction only affects broadband services of up to 8Mbps. From mid August until March 2014, Ofcom has ruled that BT must cut its rates by 12% below inflation per year. Rural campaigners welcomed the news.

South Korea moves to replace paper with digital textbooks for its tech-savvy students

Outside the classroom a hot summer day beckons, but fourth-grade teacher Yeon Eun-jung's students are glued to their tablet PCs as they watch an animated boy and a girl squabble about whether water becomes heavier when frozen. The small scene in this rural town is part of something big: South Korea is taking a $2 billion gamble that its students are ready to ditch paper textbooks in favor of tablet PCs as part of a vast digital scholastic network.

France, Singapore, Japan and others are racing to create classrooms where touch-screens provide instant access to millions of pieces of information. But South Korea - Asia's fourth-largest economy - believes it enjoys an advantage over these countries, with kids who are considered the world's savviest navigators of the digital universe. A 2009 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-headquartered grouping of wealthy nations, found 15-year-olds in South Korea scored highest in their ability to absorb information from digital devices, beating runners-up New Zealand and Australia by a large margin.

CBO Scores the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act

S. 911 would modify existing law regarding federal management of the electromagnetic spectrum. It would extend and expand the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) authority to auction licenses for commercial uses of the radio spectrum and would authorize agencies to spend some of those receipts for new purposes. Other provisions would create a Public Safety Broadband Corporation, which would receive federal financing to develop a wireless broadband network using spectrum provided by the bill.

Finally, the bill would require several agencies to conduct studies and issue regulations related to spectrum management, including measures aimed at expediting the siting of telecommunications facilities.

CBO estimates that enacting S. 911 would reduce net direct spending by $6.5 billion over the 2012-2021 period; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply to the bill. The projected savings reflect an estimated increase in offsetting receipts from FCC auctions of $24.5 billion (which count against direct spending) and an increase in direct spending of $18.0 billion. Enacting this bill would not affect revenues.

In addition, CBO estimates that implementing this bill would increase discretionary spending by $43 million over the 2012-2016 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts.

FCC Stops the Clock on AT&T/T-Mobile Review

In a letter to AT&T, Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Rick Kaplan indicates that the FCC has stopped its informal 180-day clock on the review of AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile.

Within the past week, AT&T has indicated that, since filing its public interest statement supporting its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile and its opposition comments to various petitions to deny the merger, it has developed new models upon which it now relies. Indeed, AT&T is now expressly relying on these models to bolster its arguments concerning the size of the efficiencies made possible by the merger as weighed against the potential anti-competitive effects. The FCC first learned of the scope of these models on July 13, 2011, during an ex parte meeting on economic issues held at the FCC, and now understands that its first opportunity to access the finalized versions of the new models will be on July 25, 2011.

Kaplan writes that the delay is necessary to allow sufficient time not only for the FCC to evaluate and test this new evidence, but also for third parties to have an opportunity to provide feedback to the FCC on the contents and construction of the yet-unseen models.

The FCC will restart the clock once the new evidence has been provided in a format and with sufficient explanation and back-up information to enable the FCC, and third parties entitled to have access to the information, to adequately evaluate it. The FCC will also allow time before restarting the clock for those third parties to have a meaningful opportunity to comment on the submission.

Sens. Call for Inquiry Related to News Corp. Hacking Scandal

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) have asked the Dow Jones & Co. Special Committee to make sure that "no News Corporation senior executives at United States properties were aware of or complicit in any wrongdoing in the burgeoning hacking scandal and that no misconduct occurred in our country."

The special committee, made up of journalism professional, was formed during News Corp.'s purchase of Dow Jones in 2007 to insure "continued journalistic integrity." They say they want to be able to assure the American people that the UK scandal did not spread to this side of the pond. Dow Jones' own news wire reported that last week, the committee released a statement saying that no similar hacking had occurred at Dow Jones. Rockefeller and Boxer said they were concerned the statement appeared to suggest the case was closed. They particularly want the committee to investigate the hiring of Les Hinton, who was forced to resign as Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal publisher in the wake of the hacking revelations at News International's UK tabloid, News of the World. Hinton was formerly head of News International.

Benton

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