August 2012

August Agenda Includes Privacy

[Commentary] On August 1, the Federal Trade Commission proposed to update the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule. Currently, sites aimed at children are required by law to ask a parent’s permission when collecting personal identifiable information such as e-mail addresses and names. But vague language in the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) could allow so-called third parties like Facebook and Twitter, whose services are attached to numerous smartphone games, to avoid the parental consent process. The FTC action this week is not the only development in the privacy arena. Also on August 1, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration provided more detail on the ongoing privacy multistakeholder process regarding mobile application transparency.

Facebook Begins Original Content Push With Facebook Stories

Facebook just launched an original editorial project, called Facebook Stories. The site showcases videos and articles that depict creative ways in which the Facebook community uses the platform, not unlike Tumblr's Storyboard or Twitter Stories. Facebook Stories, which has been in the works since last June, will focus on a different theme each month, starting with "Remembering." The Facebook Stories team will experiment with a variety of content types in the future, but that no other microsites are currently in the works.

Mobile Phone Problems

Even though mobile technology often simplifies the completion of everyday tasks, cell phone owners can also encounter technical glitches and unwanted intrusions on their phones. In an April 2012 survey, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project assessed the prevalence of four problems that cell owners might face.

Some 88% of American adults have cell phones, according to this survey, and, of those cell owners:

72% of cell owners experience dropped calls at least occasionally. Some 32% of cell owners say they encounter this problem at least a few times a week or more frequently than that.
68% of cell owners receive unwanted sales or marketing calls at one time or another. And 25% of cell owners encounter this problem at least a few times a week or more frequently.

Some 79% of cell phone owners say they use text messaging on their cells. We asked them if they got spam or unwanted texts:

69% of those who are texters say they get unwanted spam or text messages. Of those texters, 25% face problems with spam/unwanted texts at least weekly.

Some 55% of cell phone owners say they use their phones to go online— to browse the internet, exchange emails, or download apps. We asked them if they experience slow download speeds that prevent things from loading as quickly as they would like:

77% of cell internet users say they experience slow download speeds that prevent things from loading as quickly as they would like. Of those cell internet users, 46% face slow download speeds weekly or more frequently.

New battle-lines in the war for mobile

The mobile market seems to be all anybody ever talks about these days. Consumers have more smartphones and tablets to choose from every day. For the vendors, however, it's not all fun and games.

For every Apple, there is a Nokia. And for every Google Android, there's a Symbian. There are, in other words, haves and have-nots. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the smartphone market. Back in May, research firm Asymco released a study it conducted on smartphone market operating profits spanning the second quarter of 2007 to now. And what the company found was shocking: Out of the $14.4 billion in operating profits generated in the fourth quarter, Apple made 73% of them. Samsung, its chief competitor, nabbed 26%. The remaining 1% -- a mere $144 million -- went to HTC. It was a much different story back in 2007, when Nokia owned well over half of the smartphone market's operating profits. RIM, LG, and Sony Ericsson were also doing well. Now, they've lost it all.

Bring On The Broadband With Private/Public Partnerships

Companies providing broadband services that can strike a deal with a city that already has or is planning fiber within the city will save on the huge upfront costs of providing faster and more robust Internet access, voice, and TV services, and will, therefore, enjoy larger profits.

As wireless operators continue to roll out fourth-generation wireless services, they have to run fiber to each cell site within a city, an expensive project that is usually the roadblock to bringing wireless fourth-generation services up and running in a given area. Here again, private/public partnerships could speed up this process while providing still more ongoing revenue for a city. The impact for telephone, cable, and other companies could be substantial by helping reduce capital and operational expenses, and provide greater profits more quickly. Private/public partnerships is an idea whose time has come, not only in rural America, but in urban areas as well. The technology to make this happen has been around for a long time. The stumbling block for private companies, especially those that compete head-to-head in a given marketplace, is the upfront cost of deploying the technology and the uncertainty of how many paying subscribers they can win over to pay for the system. Seattle has one answer in leasing its fiber capacity, and Google seems to have hit on another by pre-selling neighborhoods before building, a process Google calls building a “fiberhood.” It is time to take a close look at these types of partnerships and to put them into place.

The Power of Licensed Spectrum

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST, recently released a Report on “Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth.” The Report found that the new norm for spectrum use should be sharing, not exclusive licensing. While we agree that sharing paradigms should be explored as another option for spectrum management, sharing technologies have been long promised but remain largely unproven. The over-eager pursuit of unlicensed sharing models cannot turn a blind eye on the model proven to deliver investment, innovation, and jobs – exclusive licensing. Industry and government alike must continue with the hard work of clearing and licensing under-utilized government spectrum where feasible. On that point, we were heartened by statements made by Tom Power, White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications, in the days following the Report, clarifying that the Administration has not given up on making parts of 1755-1850 MHz, which he called “this most appealing of spectrum,” available for exclusive commercial use.

The Gore-ing of Mitt Romney

The profane confrontation between one of Mitt Romney’s press aides and reporters at the end of the presumptive GOP nominee’s difficult overseas trip has brought new attention to the way the 2012 race is being covered in the press—in particular, the media’s embarrassing gaffe obsession and the incentives it provides for campaigns to place ever-greater limitations on access to their candidates in unscripted settings. This dynamic has been especially pathological for Romney. While the gaffe patrol isn’t the only reason that the presidential campaigns are placing such tight limitations on the press, any discussion of those issues should acknowledge the role that the media’s seeming hostility toward Romney is playing in the coverage and in the access restrictions that have been imposed by his campaign.

Strong Apple Shipments Drive Robust Tablet Market Growth

A record-setting quarter for Apple's iPad led to a better-than-anticipated second quarter for the tablet market, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker.

Total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 (2Q12) are estimated at 25 million units; up from 18.7 in the first quarter of 2012. That represents a quarter-over-quarter increase of 33.6% and a robust year-over-year growth rate of 66.2%, up from 15 million units in the second quarter of 2011. IDC will release final shipment totals for the quarter later this month. Apple shipped 17 million iPads during the quarter, up from 11.8 million units in 1Q12 and well above its previous record of 15.4 million in 4Q11. Apple wasn't the only company to experience solid growth in the second quarter. Four of the top five worldwide vendors saw their shipments increase year over year. Samsung experienced exceptional growth, and landed in second place with 2.4 million units shipped, up from 1.1 million units a year ago. Amazon rebounded from a sluggish first quarter to post shipments of 1.2 million units (the company, which ships its Fire tablet only in the U.S., entered the market in 4Q11). ASUS shipped 855,454 units, well above its total of 397,048 units a year ago. Finally, only fifth-placed Acer saw its year-over-year numbers decline, as it shipped 385,458 units this quarter, down from 629,222 units a year ago. It's worth noting that shipments of the well-received Google/ASUS co-branded Nexus 7 aren't reflected in these totals, as that product officially began shipping into the channel in the third quarter of 2012. IDC expects competition in the tablet space to continue to heat up in the second half of 2012.

BITAG Denial of Service Report

The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (“BITAG”), an organization created to develop consensus on broadband network management practices and other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience, is pleased to announce the completion of its Technical Review, and publication of its Technical Report, on the subject of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks.

Horrigan to Lead Joint Center Media and Technology Institute

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the nation’s leading research and public policy institutions and the only one whose work focuses primarily on issues of particular concern to African Americans and other people of color, has named Dr. John B. Horrigan to head its Media and Technology Institute, which is a hub for research on how minority Americans use media, broadband and other emerging communications technologies as avenues of advancement.

Dr. Horrigan, who for nine years was Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, recently served on the Federal Communications Commission’s team that developed the National Broadband Plan (NBP), where he created the research agenda for the Plan’s digital inclusion elements. He also designed and conducted the FCC’s first national survey on broadband adoption and usage, the findings of which were highlighted in the NBP’s first working paper.

Benton

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