July 2011

NTIA's Strickling to Plug Incentive Auctions

National Telecommunications & Information Administration chief Lawrence Strickling plans to put in a plug for incentive auction legislation at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on government spectrum use, while mirroring broadcasters requests that future spectrum needs of incumbent users be factored into the reclamation equation.

According to a copy of his prepared testimony, Strickling will urge Congress to pass legislation granting the Federal Communications Commission authority to hold incentive auctions, which will compensate broadcasters for giving up spectrum for auction to wireless broadband, and use some of the auctions proceeds for a national interoperable emergency broadband communications network. "Importantly, it is critical that any spectrum reallocation legislation be feasible to implement and consistent with ongoing interagency work to find the most efficient and effective uses of our national spectrum resources." he says.

Sens. Warner, Kerry urge FCC to close gaps in broadband coverage

Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Kerry (D-MA) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission backing the agency's plan to shift the focus of the $8 billion Universal Service Fund (USF) from landline phone service to broadband coverage.

"Broadband is no longer a luxury; it has become critical economic infrastructure for Americans," the senators wrote, adding their support to that of USF reform supporters from both sides of the aisle such as Rep. Lee Terry (R-Nebraska). The pair urges the FCC to require that all funds distributed through the proposed program to prioritize areas that lack broadband service at a baseline speed determined by the commission. They argue the baseline connection speed should be revisited annually to ensure it keeps up with consumers' needs.

Study Finds Most Reluctant To Cut Cable Cord

Despite the increased options for watching television programming (or content, to use the term du jour) away from the set, people are still reluctant to dump the box completely.

In its inaugural "Residential Pay-to-View" study, J.D. Power and Associates found only 3% of U.S. consumers who subscribe to either cable or satellite television services have completely "cut the cord" from those services in favor of other viewing options. As would be expected, younger consumers were more likely to break with the pay television services than the older generations. Among Gen Y consumers, 6% said they no longer subscribe to a residential television service, compared with only 2% of Baby Boomers. (Generation X, not surprisingly, falls right in the middle with a 4% cutting rate.)

Anti-Piracy Bill Could Hurt Online Advertising

A proposed anti-piracy bill pending in the Senate could make it difficult for online advertisers and credit card companies to continue doing business on the Web, warns a group of law professors.

The Protect IP Act (S. 968), which recently cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, is aimed at sites "dedicated to infringing activities." The measure enables the Department of Justice to obtain orders prohibiting Internet service providers from putting through traffic to those sites' URLs. (Web users could still reach the sites by typing in their numerical addresses.) The Protect IP Act also provides for court orders forcing Google, Bing and other search engines to stop returning certain results. In addition, the proposed law would require credit-card companies and advertisers to stop doing business with sites that content owners allege are dedicated to infringement.

"Giving this enormous new power not just to the government but to any copyright and trademark owner would not only disrupt the operations of the allegedly infringing Web site without a final judgment of wrongdoing, but would make it extraordinarily difficult for advertisers and credit-card companies to do business on the Internet," the academics allege in a letter drafted by professors Mark Lemley of Stanford, David Levine of Elon and David Post of Temple.

Vonage's Lefar Tapped for President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Marc Lefar to be a member of the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Lefar is the CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. Prior to joining Vonage, Mr. Lefar was Chief Marketing Officer of Cingular Wireless, now AT&T Mobility. Prior to joining Cingular, Mr. Lefar served as Executive Vice President, Marketing and Value-Added Services for Cable and Wireless Global. He also held senior leadership roles at Verizon Wireless and GTE Wireless. Mr. Lefar’s career began at Procter and Gamble. He holds a B.S. from the University of Virginia.

The AT&T/T-Mobile Fine Print

[Commentary] The AT&T/T-Mobile deal comes with its own set of fine print.

AT&T and its allies make all kind of promises about how the deal will encourage mobile broadband and create jobs ‘n stuff, while the actual Federal Communications Commission filings have all kinds of wonderfully crafted (from a legal perspective) fine print that explains all the limitations on these promises. Alas, AT&T doesn't do nearly as good a job with the helpful "*" for fine print on it’s advertisements for approving A&T/T-MO as it does on its regular advertisements. I want to especially point this out to all the state governors that have supported the merger based on the advertising implying that the mighty AT&T lion is going to go all Aslan and spread broadband and jobs after it devours the sickly gazelle that is T-Mobile. Based on the fine print, you have as much chance of seeing rural broadband deployment and job creation as the average AT&T iPhone user in San Francisco has of connecting a call and enjoying “unlimited downloads”* (*subject to bandwidth cap, phases of the Moon, and wicked packet-intercepting gremlins).

FCC's July 12 Agenda

On July 12, the Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting. The FCC will consider:

A Notice of Proposed Rule Making seeking comment on the impact of the Local Community Radio Act on the future licensing of low power FM and FM
translator stations.
A Notice of Proposed Rule Making designed to empower consumers to prevent and detect unauthorized telephone bill charges (“mystery fees” or “cramming”) by improving the disclosure of third-party charges on telephone bills.
A Report and Order enabling a more effective emergency response system by ensuring that 911 call centers continue to receive precise wireless E911 location information and a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to improve E911 location accuracy and reliability for existing and new voice communications technologies, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

'Like' it or not, sharing tools spur privacy concerns

"Like" buttons and other social media apps — those ubiquitous little programs that allow you to do cool things with your computer and mobile devices — have taken the Internet by storm. But they've also introduced unprecedented security and privacy risks now being discussed as part of the push for stronger federal privacy laws.

The core problem: anyone can introduce a social media app that ties directly into Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other popular services designed primarily to profile and track consumers to better sell advertising, says Craig Spiezle, executive director of the non-profit advocacy group, Online Trust Alliance. The idea is to provide more relevant services and advertising to the consumer. "However, in the wrong hands or without consumer consent, you run into the danger that that information can be used against their wishes," says Spiezle. There is little stopping application developers from "combining and appending" personal data extracted from multiple sources. The goal: amass profiles of users' online behavior and preferences for advertisers. "Individually these may appear to be like a few pixels of a photo, but when combined can provide a comprehensive mosaic of a user," says Spiezle.

Google, Microsoft sued over map technology

Google and Microsoft were sued for infringing a Louisiana company's patent with their map websites, which let users navigate street-level views of towns and cities. Transcenic Inc, asked a Delaware District court to prevent Google and Microsoft from continuing to infringe its patent and asked the court to award it damages.

Transcenic said in court documents that Google's Streetview and Google Earth and Microsoft's Streetside infringe its technology which covers systems for capturing and navigating within panoramic images. AOL and its MapQuest mapping website were also named as defendants for Mapquest's 360 View, which allows users to navigate through street-level images.

Why Do Some Local TV Stations Have Political Beat Reporters When Most Don't?

[Commentary] If you watch local TV news in different cities around the country, and I'm not suggesting you do so, you see that a small number of stations have political beat reporters, but most do not. Why?

"Most stations where politics is a beat with dedicated reporter happen to be in places where politics is part of the culture," says Deborah Potter, who writes about television news for the American Journalism Review. "So stations in Des Moines, for example, Chicago, New Hampshire, New Orleans, places where politics is what makes the world go round." James Pindell, the political beat reporter for WMUR-TV in New Hampshire told me that's exactly why he's covering politics there. "My station is crazy about politics," he says. "It's the state sport. We spend a lot of time on politics. It's very much based on market." Pindell, who's on the board of the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, could not explain why a station in a place like Denver would cover politics so closely. Potter said a local TV news beat may be driven by the "passion of an individual reporter." "Unless you have some kind of huge story involving a particular person and particular issue are you ever going to say that's something that will get more people to watch," said 9News News Director Patti Dennis. "It's about being responsible. It's about all the things I believe a media organization is responsible for."

Benton

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