September 2011

Rural Broadband Alliance: FCC Has “Systemic Disdain” for Rural Telcos

Some members of the Federal Communications Commission have a “systemic disdain” for small rural carriers, says the Rural Broadband Alliance.

“Both the official record and meetings with the Commission evidence the creation of a superficial caricature of rural companies at the Commission,” the group said. “This caricature is forged on a baseless assumption that rural carriers make unwarranted investments in network.” The RBA is a lobbying and public interest group that was originally created last year by certain rural telcos that were unhappy about the direction the FCC was moving as a result of recommendations about Universal Service reform made in the National Broadband Plan.

40 Percent of U.S. Mobile Users Own Smartphones; 40 Percent are Android

Forty percent of mobile consumers over 18 in the U.S. now have smartphones, according to July 2011 data from Nielsen. Android is the most popular operating system, with 40 percent of mobile consumers reporting they have a smartphone with an Android OS. Apple’s iOS is in second place, with 28 percent. Among those who say they are likely to get a new smartphone in the next year, approximately one third say they want their next smartphone to be an iPhone and one third say they want an Android device.

New Research Finds EHRs Improve the Quality of Diabetes Care

Physician practices that use electronic health records have significantly higher achievement and improvement in meeting standards of care and outcomes in diabetes than practices using paper records.

Care is better: Nearly 51% of patients in EHR practices received care that met all of the endorsed standards.
Outcomes are better: Nearly 44 % of patients in EHR practices met at least four of five outcome standards for diabetes.
Improvement is faster: EHR practices had annual improvements in care that were 10% greater and improvements in outcomes that were 4% greater than those of paper-based practices.
Everyone benefits: Patients in EHR practices showed better results regardless of their insurance status, whether privately insured, uninsured, or covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Thus, all payers benefited too.

FCC fines calling card companies for deceptive marketing

The Federal Communications Commission announced $20 million in fines against four prepaid calling card companies for allegedly using deceptive marketing practices.

According to the FCC, STi Telecom, Lyca Tel, Touch-Tel USA and Locus Telecommunications scammed consumers by claiming that they could make hundreds of minutes of calls to foreign countries for only a few dollars. In fact, because of hidden fees and surcharges, consumers could only use a fraction of those minutes, the FCC said. The FCC fined the companies $5 million each.

Jobs' Resignation Fills Twitter

Steve Jobs' announced resignation resonated throughout Twitter last week, making it by far the biggest news story shared on the site.

Responses were generally admiring of Apple's CEO and co-founder with remembered quotes from Jobs and expressions of concern for his health. There also though, many cracked jokes about the change in power with Apple lingo as the punch-line. For the week of August 22-26, Steve Jobs' resignation was the most-discussed subject on Twitter according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The subject so dominated Twitter, that on August 25, the day after he announced his departure, all but one of the links appearing on the top story lists was about the CEO. Two other stories that did make it on the list of the most linked-to news Twitter for the week were natural disasters that struck the East Coast.

Federal Communications Commission, Department of Commerce, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
October 12-13, 2011
Washington, DC
http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,3746,en_2649_33757_48518861_1_1_1_1,00...

Agenda

Around the world and across OECD member countries, communications policy agencies, communications regulatory agencies and national statistical bodies all collect data on information and communications technology infrastructure, supply, access and use with the goal of understanding its economic and social impact. Agencies in different countries take different approaches to what is key information in this landscape and how it should be collected and analyzed, partly depending on the focus of agency responsibilities and partly on domestic policy interests, perceived needs and dynamics.

This workshop will focus on broadband infrastructure, its availability, access and use. A broader understanding of the use of broadband data requires analysis of additional economic and demographic data. The discussions will bring together various agencies that collect broadband data in the context of economic and demographic data, in order to enable them to share their data and tools, and with the goal of identifying synergies across data collections and possible gaps. While some agencies focus on households and others focus on businesses, all of them share a common interest in understanding the implications of broadband development for their respective policy goals.

The collection and analysis of broadband data is a key component in assessing market outcomes including competitiveness, the availability and use of services to meet policy objectives in the area of communication services. They are also a requirement to inform critical questions about the perceived role of broadband as a facilitator of important economic outcomes such as improved productivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This workshop will also include the perspectives of those who use available data to measure and analyze these outcomes.

Read more about Broadband and Its Impact on Consumers and Economies: Developing a New Framework for Future Metrics

China Overtakes U.S. in PC Shipments

China has reached yet another milestone in its rise as a consumer of technology by becoming the biggest market for personal computers. In the second quarter, manufacturers shipped 18.5 million PCs in China compared with 17.7 million in the United States, according to IDC, a market research firm.

It is the first time that shipments in China have exceeded those in the United States. The shift reflects China’s growing appetite for electronics and the increasing wealth of its huge population. However, it is likely just a temporary phenomenon — at least this year. The United States is expected to remain the top market for the full year with 73.5 million PC shipments versus 72.4 million in China, IDC said. Shipments in the United States typically rise in the fourth quarter because of the holidays — offsetting a slower pace the rest of the year — while China’s contracts after the traditional summer discounts. In 2012, however, China is expected to lead the annual ranking.

(Aug 23)

Gaps in Cellphone Service After Earthquake

Cellular service across all major wireless carriers suffered on August 23 after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Virginia. The networks worked intermittently along the East Coast when customers tried to make phone calls soon after the quake. Text messaging and data connections did not seem to be affected to the same degree. It was unclear if the network issues were a result of an overload of people using the network to make calls, or if any cellular towers were damaged in the earthquake.

(Aug 23)

Local TV Newscasts Expanding

This is what the rebound in local television looks like: news is starting earlier than ever in the morning, and replacing “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in the afternoon. Three years after the business buckled under the weight of the advertising recession, the more popular stations are adding newscasts and in some cases employees — though not as many as were dismissed during the downturn. Station economics affect the nation’s news diet because local TV news is consistently identified in surveys as the top news source for most Americans. Three trends have benefited the local station business.

First, advertisers have streamed back, especially in the automotive sector that is so important to local media. Steve Ridge of Frank N. Magid Associates, which consults with local stations nationwide, said local TV ad revenues were up almost 25 percent in 2010 compared with 2009, buttressed by political ad spending. So far this year, even without political ads, the owners of several big groups of stations reported slight upticks in ad revenues versus 2010.

Second, cable and satellite companies have agreed in many cases to pay retransmission fees to stations, and bigger stations in local markets can command bigger fees. Even though stations are splitting those fees with their network partners, like NBC and ABC, they “really have been an infusion of stability,” Ridge said.
Third, the downturn became a rationale not only to cut costs but to innovate and experiment within news divisions, which have historically been profit centers for stations. The benefit of the industry’s bad times, executives say, is that it forced a hard look at news operations.

(Aug 21)

Behind Google’s Huge Breakup Fee in Motorola Deal

Google agreed to pay Motorola Mobility $2.5 billion if the proposed purchase does not happen.

Motorola filed a copy of the acquisition agreement that spells out the exact terms when this fee is required to be paid. Basically, it can be boiled down to an agreement that if the transaction is blocked on antitrust grounds, then Google is on the hook for $2.5 billion. But as long as Google complies with the agreement, it will have to fight such a government action in court, and a final disposition of the action has to occur by Feb. 15, 2013. People close to Google have said they do not believe there are antitrust problems. So why is the fee so big? The fee’s driver is that Google has become what Microsoft was a few years ago, a natural target for European and American antitrust regulators. For the foreseeable future, any significant transaction Google engages in will really be all about antitrust in terms of getting it done. Absent this factor, the antitrust risk on this deal seems low.

(Aug 18)

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