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May 2013

AT&T Spearheading State-Level Deregulation

The nation’s largest service providers would like to see regulations governing local phone service relaxed – and as data compiled by the National Regulatory Research Institute illustrates, AT&T has been particularly active on this front.

Twenty-five states limited or eliminated public service commission oversight of local telecom service between 2006 and the first quarter of 2012, including 16 in states where AT&T is the dominant local carrier, one Verizon state, five CenturyLink states and three Fairpoint states, according to the NRRI. Another nine states, primarily AT&T states, have legislation pending, said Sherry Lichtenberg, principal of the NRRI, who presented the data on a webcast yesterday organized by broadband association USTelecom, whose members include large telcos. It’s not surprising that AT&T has been so active in pursuing telecom deregulation, as the company wants to phase out its traditional voice network but may be prevented from doing so in some states until the states are deregulated. Telecom deregulation has occurred in two separate waves. Initial legislation focused on getting rid of some elements of the carrier of last resort concept, which traditionally required telcos to make phone service available to anyone in their territories who wanted it. Some states also re-defined home phone service. More recently telecom legislation has had a different focus – and states that already passed bills are already looking at updates. The bills state, ‘Thou shalt not touch VoIP or IP-enabled services even if we haven’t defined them yet.’

Google Says Authors Can’t Sue Over Digital Books as Group

Google asked an appeals court to deny class status to a group of authors who claim in a $3 billion lawsuit that the company’s project to digitally copy millions of books from libraries violates their copyrights.

Lawyers for Google and three writers, including Jim Bouton, the author of “Ball Four,” argued their case before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan. Google is seeking to overturn a lower-court order that let the authors proceed as a class on behalf of other writers. “Plaintiffs cannot claim to represent the many class members who benefit from and approve of Google Books,” Seth Waxman, a lawyer for Google, told the judges, who said they would issue a ruling later. The Authors Guild, which represents writers, and individual authors sued in 2005, alleging that Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, was making digital copies of books from libraries without seeking permission from copyright owners or paying fees.

State-by-state, America keeps betting on online poker and gambling

On April 30, 2013, the poker world saw the launch of the United States' first legal online poker site, Ultimate Poker. But Ultimate Poker has one significant limit: it is only legal within the boundaries of Nevada. As more sites come online under similar state schemes—New Jersey and Delaware are likely next—online gambling in the United States may be poised for an explosion.

It wasn't always this way. Among online poker players, Black Friday refers to the infamous day in April 2011 when the United States brought federal criminal charges against the founders of three major overseas online poker companies: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Cereus (under the brand name Absolute Poker). The move targeted companies accused of illegally catering to US players, and it shut down easy access to real-money online poker for American players. Federal prosecutors alleged that the 11 defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 and conducted notable bank fraud between financial institutions, poker companies, and players. In parallel, a civil case sought the forfeiture of $3 billion worth of company assets, many of which were overseas.

In Nook, Microsoft sees a chance to compete against Amazon and Apple

Apparently, Microsoft, which already has a stake in Barnes & Noble’s Nook and college bookstore businesses, is offering to buy them outright for $1 billion.

Barnes & Noble plans to discontinue its line of Nook tablets by the end of fiscal year 2014, while letting the e-readers stick around for a while longer. It’s not surprising that Microsoft reportedly has no interest in Barnes & Noble’s tablets, which have never taken off. In fact, as of last week, the Nook HD and HD+ incorporate a full host of Google services, including Google Play, Gmail and the Chrome browser. While B&N has claimed it is committed to the Android platform and to the tablet business overall, Microsoft obviously has no incentive to keep a line of poorly performing Android tablets up and running. What Microsoft does need is a reading ecosystem for its Surface tablets and other Windows 8 devices. That’s why the company bought a stake in Nook in the first place, but so far it hasn’t resulted in much more than a Nook app for Windows 8.

Verizon: Sandy Victims Should Be Customers, Not Guinea Pigs

[Commentary] Ever since Hurricane Sandy destroyed huge pieces of its landline network last October, Verizon made it clear it did not want to rebuild its traditional copper network. Most folks assumed that meant replacing damaged copper with fiber.

While some consumers have grumbled about being upgraded to a more expensive service, no one doubts fiber to the home represents a step up – especially on the broadband side. But what about those communities where Verizon does not want to spend the money upgrading to FIOS? Turns out, rather than an upgrade to fiber, these communities will play guinea pig for Verizon’s new, cheaper, more limited wireless alternative called “Voice Link.” Verizon filed an application with the State of New York to replace traditional copper lines destroyed by Sandy on Fire Island with a brand new fixed wireless product called Voice Link. Whether or not Verizon is right that Voice Link is “just as good or better” than copper lines, that does not justify making a community recovering from a natural disaster into test subjects. If Verizon does not want to replace its copper system, it should offer customers that don’t want a never-before-deployed fixed wireless system an upgrade to FIOS.

Proper Role of Ed-Tech in Pre-K a Rising Issue

Tablet computing exploded with the introduction of the iPad from Apple in 2010, and since that time, tablets have made inroads at every instructional level. But their use is particularly seductive at the preschool level because tablets do not require children to have the keyboarding or mouse skills necessary for other forms of computer technologies.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, a New York-based children's digital-media research organization, studied the education category of Apple's app store, a slice of the more than 500,000 apps available in all subjects. Of about 200 top-selling apps in the education category, 58 percent were for toddlers and preschoolers. But the introduction of tablets and other electronic media in preschools poses tough questions for educators, among them: how to select developmentally appropriate software; what academic areas are best supported with technology; and how technology use should be balanced with other classroom activities. At the same time that educators are trying to figure out how to use technology best, others are saying that evidence suggests that there's little need to introduce technology to young learners because it crowds out more appropriate activities.

Building Our Broadband Future

The Internet overflows with information services, content and applications that currently involve some 42,000 networks. An intricate host of different commercial transit and peering arrangements shape the Internet as we know it today.

Broadband is critical infrastructure, vital for national competitiveness in the modern global economy. The role of broadband for promoting economic growth, productivity and trade is undisputed and it is increasingly clear that no country can do without broadband infrastructure. Although the networks are not themselves public goods, the information, knowledge and education that can be provided via broadband services are commodities with potentially global reach. Broadband is disrupting and transforming how healthcare and education are delivered in developed and developing countries alike, and promises to improve people’s lives and livelihoods and accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This year’s Strategic Dialogue at the World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum 2013 will sketch tantalizing visions of how the Internet might evolve, and debate all the associated opportunities and risks. The Strategic Dialogue offers perspectives from top industry leaders and policy pioneers for building our broadband future, and explores some of the challenges and tentative predictions for realizing that future.

New Zealand Government Announces That Software Will No Longer Be Patentable

The Government of New Zealand announced that software in the country will no longer be patentable.

New Zealand’s largest IT representative body, the Institute of IT Professionals, expressed relief and said the decision removed a major barrier to software-led innovation. The policy was passed in a Supplementary Order Paper, which sets out proposed amendments to the existing Patents Bill. The order defines three basic principles:

  • (1) A computer program is not an invention and not a manner of manufacture for the purposes of this Act.
  • (2) Subsection (1) prevents anything from being an invention or a manner of manufacture for the purposes of this Act only to the extent that a claim in a patent or an application relates to a computer program as such.
  • (3) A claim in a patent or an application relates to a computer program as such if the actual contribution made by the alleged invention lies solely in it being a computer program.

May 9, 2013 (The Truth About Lifeline)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013

FCC Open Meeting today http://benton.org/calendar/2013-05-09/


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   The Coming War on Network Neutrality - op-ed
   Connecting Things to the Internet Does Not an Internet of Things Make - op-ed
   Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduces Legislation to Combat Cyber Theft - press release [links to web]
   University of Florida embraces Internet2′s 100-gigabit network, launches new supercomputer
   Symantec advises Senate on complexity of cyber threats

OWNERSHIP
   Coalition Protests Tribune Sale to 'Radical Right Wing' Koch Brothers [links to web]
   SoftBank to meet Sprint investors, many eye higher bid [links to web]
   SoftBank Says Sprint Merger Will Save $3 Billion a Year [links to web]
   Apple Seeks Android Source Code Records in Samsung Suit

TELEVISION/RADIO
   PTC, Morality in Media press Congress over FCC indecency rules
   Bill Would Pull Licenses Over Move to Cable [links to web]
   Broadcast TV must adapt says News Corp [links to web]

TELECOM
   The Truth About Lifeline - op-ed

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Internet Service on Planes: FCC to Consider Using Satellite Airwaves
   San Francisco surrenders in fight over cell phone warnings [links to web]
   AT&T, US Cellular at Odds on 700 MHz Interference [links to web]
   Report: Apple Has 39% of Smartphone Market [links to web]
   Technological Advisory Council Recommendation for Improving Receiver Performance - public notice
   Outsmarting Smartphone Thieves
   SoftBank to meet Sprint investors, many eye higher bid [links to web]
   SoftBank Says Sprint Merger Will Save $3 Billion a Year [links to web]

CONTENT
   Bowie Video Is Restored to YouTube [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   Coca-Cola anti-obesity promises include no advertising to kids [links to web]
   Rep Markey touts telecom work in first general election ad [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant
   Lawmakers eager to see Internet wiretap plan
   Google's Eric Schmidt: Internet will let Chinese rise up [links to web]

LOBBYING
   Silicon Valley Group’s Political Effort Causes Uproar

AGENDA
   Deletion of Agenda Item from May 9, 2013 Open Meeting [links to web]
   The Network Technology Transitions: Enormous Opportunities, Some Key Challenges

POLICYMAKERS
   An Industry Man for the FCC - editorial
   Christopher Yoo Says He Has Asked Not to Be Considered for FCC Post

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Mexico Looks to Increase Competition, Foreign Investment in Communications Industries - op-ed
   Internet back up in Syria after 20-hour outage [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE COMING WAR OVER NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] Tom Wheeler, President Obama’s nominee to run the Federal Communications Commission, surely has much he hopes to get done. Perhaps it’s freeing up some more wireless spectrum or bringing cell-phone service to Mars—who knows. But chances are (assuming his confirmation goes smoothly) that he’ll end up spending time on different challenges, and a chief candidate is a resurgence of the network neutrality wars. The outgoing chairman, Julius Genachowski, made many very good and important decisions, but he also made a rather terrible one that may darken Wheeler’s term. Chairman Genachowski spent years and much political capital negotiating network neutrality rules that everyone could live with, only to enact them in a way that is highly vulnerable to a court challenge. That challenge (brought, cynically, by Verizon after it negotiated the rules it wanted) may soon invalidate years of work and create industry chaos. Wheeler and the other members of the Federal Communications Commission will be very tempted to try and avoid and ignore network neutrality during President Obama’s second term. If, magically, the rules aren’t struck down, they will have that luxury. But if the rules are struck down, avoiding the problem may lead to a replication of the horrors of the cable-television market. There’s trouble brewing; facing it is both the Commission’s responsibility and its destiny.
benton.org/node/151372 | New Yorker
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CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Liat Ben-Zur]
[Commentary] The Internet of Things has continued to emerge as a trend this year within the consumer electronics sector. Everyone’s trying to get into the game, with connected devices now ranging from dog collars to toasters to sneaker, all getting connected to the “cloud.” This is an exciting trend for consumer electronics in general, but we as an industry need to take a step back and realize that true connectivity extends beyond just the cloud. Just because something is connected to the Internet, doesn’t mean it’s truly part of an Internet of Things (or as we like to call it at Qualcomm, the “Internet of Everything”). What’s unique about the Internet is its openness — the ability for one website to link to any other and leverage information in novel ways. The problem is that each specific device seems to connect to its particular cloud service. There isn’t really ONE cloud. Every manufacturer has their own cloud service, and often these clouds are closed, proprietary environments. Devices that live in their own silo’d cloud cannot speak to one another, meaning they cannot benefit from the data, context or control of nearby IoT devices. That is why we currently need a separate app to control — and interface with — each connected thing we buy. This may be acceptable in the near term, but it cannot scale. [Liat Ben-Zur is a senior director of product management at Qualcomm]
benton.org/node/151371 | Wall Street Journal
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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA’S 100 GIG
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Amanda Alvarez]
Universities have been pioneer participants in developing and using the internet since its inception. Now, the consortium of education and research institutions known as Internet2 has reached another milestone, with the announcement that the University of Florida has implemented Internet2’s next-gen computing architecture, the Innovation Platform. The platform should bring superfast connections and software-defined networking (SDN) to campuses across the country. The 300 or so universities and government labs that belong to Internet2 have been able to access a 100Gb network backbone since its launch in 2006. But on Tuesday UF became only the fourth university to roll out a full 100Gbps connection to Internet2 and the only school so far to fulfill the other two Innovation Platform requirements: SDN and a Science DMZ, a kind of buffer between the campus network and the wider internet that lets research computing move freely without firewalls.
benton.org/node/151389 | GigaOm
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HEARING ON CYBER THREATS
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Byron Acohido]
Symantec's government policy vice president Cheri McGuire brought a summary of the antivirus giant's rich metrics showing the intensity and pervasive nature of daily cyber attacks to a U.S. Senate hearing. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) chaired the meeting before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism to hear how law enforcement and the privacy sector responds to cyber threats. "Today's hearing highlighted the increasingly complex nature of the cyber threat landscape and the need to bolster law enforcement and judicial resources and training," McGuire tells CyberTruth. "There are simply not enough investigators, prosecutors or judges with the necessary training to keep up with the cybercriminals – thus there is a low bar for deterrence globally." Large scale data breaches continue. Approximately 93 million identities were exposed through hacking, theft, and simple error in 2012, she says. Small businesses have emerged as targets. In 2012, 50 percent of all targeted attacks were aimed at businesses with fewer than 2,500 employees, and the largest growth area for targeted attacks was aimed at businesses with fewer than 250 employees. Meanwhile, mobile malware increased by 58 percent in 2012 vs. 2011 -- and 32 percent of all mobile threats attempted to steal personal information, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
benton.org/node/151404 | USAToday
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OWNERSHIP

APPLE-SAMSUNG SUIT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joel Rosenblatt]
Apple, taking its patent fight to Google through its infringement litigation against Samsung, is asking a judge to force Google to turn over documents related to its Android operating system. Apple told U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, that Google is improperly withholding information about what terms it’s using to find the documents Apple has requested in pretrial information sharing. Apple, as part of its second patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung in the same court, argues that Android is used in all of Samsung’s allegedly infringing products and “provides much of the accused functionality” in Apple’s claims, according to a court filing. “It’s a question of transparency,” Mark Lyon, a lawyer for Apple, told Judge Grewal, referring to the documents. “We have concerns that they’re not doing a full search.” The dispute over evidence gathering comes in the case filed last year by Cupertino, California-based Apple covering technology in newer smartphones made by both companies, including its iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Matthew Warren, a lawyer for Google who also represents Samsung, told Judge Grewal that Apple made a “strategic decision” in filing its case “to keep Google off the complaint.” As a third-party to the case, Warren said, Google doesn’t have the same legal rights that Apple and Samsung have, in particular with respect to “reciprocal discovery.”
benton.org/node/151366 | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION/RADIO

OPPOSITION TO FCC INDECENCY RULES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
Angry about a proposal to relax the Federal Communications Commission's rules regulating indecent content on broadcast television and radio, the Parents Television Council and Morality in Media are pressing Congress to stop the regulatory agency in its tracks. "We urgently request that you do all you can to stop the proposed enforcement standard, including opposing any nominee to the Federal Communications Commission who supports changing the current standard," wrote PTC President Tim Winter and Morality in Media President Patrick Trueman in a letter to the House and Senate Commerce Committees. At issue is the FCC's April notice seeking comments from the industry and consumers about raising the bar for indecency notices and fines for so-called indecent content. The PTC's Winter said that the FCC's proposal to change its indecency regulations is "absurd, and it must be defeated." Morality in Media's Trueman added, "Congress is more responsive to the public than the unelected five-member FCC commission and many in Congress will act to stop the FCC." The letter from the pair was co-signed by more than 75 groups and individuals.
benton.org/node/151384 | Los Angeles Times | Broadcasting&Cable
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TELECOM

THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: David Honig]
[Commentary] It’s past time to set the record straight on Lifeline, the essential service to low-income families that has recently suffered fallacious attacks and been mislabeled as the “Obama Phone” program. Recently, political talking heads have falsely and irresponsibly excoriated the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline telephone program as a product of the Obama Administration, saying it is focused on giving free cell phones to poor people as a method of garnering their votes. Here are the real facts about this important program.
http://benton.org/node/151379
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

INTERNET SERVICE ON PLANES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Danny Yadron]
In-flight Internet speeds could rival those on the ground under a proposal expected to move forward on May 9. US airlines have been rolling out Internet service on flights for several years. But the service, which typically uses Earth-based antennas, is often too slow for today's data-guzzling Web apps. Qualcomm is pushing the Federal Communications Commission to free up airwaves used by the satellite industry. Such a system could be years away, but commissioners are likely to vote in favor of opening the issue to public comment, agency officials said. Qualcomm has been lobbying on the matter since 2011. Regulators appear eager to move forward on the proposal. But it faces headwinds from the satellite industry, which uses the same airspace and is trying to maintain its own foothold in airborne Internet service. Interference could hamstring equipment used by cable news stations and for other uses, said Patricia Cooper, president of the Satellite Industry Association.
benton.org/node/151408 | Wall Street Journal
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IMPROVING RECEIVER PERFORMANCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC) has been tasked to study the role of receivers in ensuring the efficient use of spectrum and to provide recommendations on avoiding obstacles posed by receiver performance to making spectrum available for new services. Acting on this request, the TAC working group on Receivers and Spectrum provided actionable recommendations to the Chairman at the TAC’s December 2012 meeting and has recently formalized these recommendations in a white paper for the Commission. The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) invites comment on the TAC white paper and its recommendations to help determine what next steps may be appropriate.
Comments must be filed on or before June 21, 2013, and reply comments must be filed on or before July 8, 2013.
benton.org/node/151365 | Federal Communications Commission
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OUTSMARTING SMARTPHONE THIEVES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Malia Wollan]
How do you dodge robbers in the first place? And what should you do if your phone is stolen? Here are some suggestions:
If you need to use your phone in the wilds of the subway or sidewalk, do so discreetly, reserving at least a portion of your cognitive capacity for minding what is happening around you.
Avoid leaving your phone on the table at restaurants, bars and coffee shops where it can easily be snatched.
Most thieves erase all identifying information from a phone within hours, sometimes minutes, after stealing it. Still, passwords on your phone’s home screen can help protect your personal information in case it isn’t wiped clean.
Write down your phone’s model number, serial number and unique device identification number. If your phone is stolen you’ll want to report these numbers to the police and to your carrier.
When a phone is stolen, one of the first questions the police will ask is whether you have a tracking app. The police have recovered stolen phones by tracking the GPS signal trail straight to a robber’s pocket or backpack.
If your phone is stolen, immediately report the theft to the police and your carrier. Start with the police. Give them your IMEI and serial number and the password to remotely log in to your tracking app. Once you’ve finished dealing with the police, call your carrier. Tell your carrier to disable, or brick, your device, which will lock it and prohibit anyone else from activating it, even with a new SIM card.
Even if your carrier bricks your stolen phone, you should change your passwords for any social networking sites, e-mail, banks and health care sites you may have visited from your phone.
benton.org/node/151407 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

FBI READING EMAIL?
[SOURCE: American Civil Liberties Union, AUTHOR: Nathan Freed Wessler]
New documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s e-mail surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read e-mails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content.
benton.org/node/151382 | American Civil Liberties Union
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LAWMAKERS WANT TO SEE WIRETAP PLAN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso, Jennifer Martinez, Amrita Khalid]
Several senators said that they are eager to see the Obama Administration's proposal to make it easier for police to intercept online communications as they occur. But the lawmakers said they will have to see a final version of the plan before they can say whether they will support it. "I want to have a chance to review it rather than to shoot from the hip," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in an interview in the Capitol. He emphasized that any proposal should balance civil liberties with law enforcement concerns. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she has yet to see the Administration's plan. "I need to think about it, but I can understand these warrants have to be able to be carried out," she said. "That's the whole point. You have to get a warrant, but the warrant needs to mean something. We need to look into it, and we will."
benton.org/node/151391 | Hill, The
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LOBBYING

FWD.US
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta, Eric Lipton]
“Move fast and break things” has been the motto at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, embodying the Silicon Valley ethos of unapologetically finding new ways to solve old problems. His latest foray into politics in Washington, however, might be characterized as “Move fast, play hardball and be prepared for blowback.” Fwd.Us, the new nonprofit advocacy group created by Zuckerberg and several technology executives and investors to push for an overhaul of immigration law, has bankrolled television ads endorsing the conservative stands taken by three lawmakers, prompting an outcry from liberal groups and a call to withhold advertisements from Facebook. The uproar, some say, will be a lesson for Silicon Valley companies as they try to influence emotional political issues like immigration. But the group’s supporters brashly say they were ready for the reaction.
benton.org/node/151405 | New York Times
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AGENDA

NETWORK TECHNOLOGY TRANSITIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Sean Lev]
The Technology Transitions Policy Task Force held its first workshop on March 18th. As we had hoped, we learned many significant things from the discussion at the workshop that help us understand the technological transitions that are the focus of this Task Force—from TDM to IP, from copper to fiber, and from wireline to greater use of wireless networks. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the key takeaways.
First, we focused on capabilities and limitations of new and emerging technologies.
Second, we gathered some good data about what decisions consumers are making as they adopt voice and broadband services. The data demonstrate dramatically that patterns of adoption vary significantly, depending on facts such as age, urban or rural residence, culture, and wealth.
Finally, a key thing we heard is that the technology transitions are not happening overnight and that economic necessity alone, not regulation, will require providers to support both existing legacy technologies and new ones for a significant time.
What was resoundingly clear by the end of the workshop is that these transitions present enormous opportunities and some key challenges. At the Commission, we are committed to working with stakeholders to solve these challenges in ways that are grounded in solid data and analysis, and that protect consumers, enhance competition, preserve and advance public safety, and speed broadband access for all Americans, both rural and urban.
benton.org/node/151390 | Federal Communications Commission
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POLICYMAKERS

AN INDUSTRY MAN FOR THE FCC
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] President Obama has picked a former telecommunications lobbyist and campaign fund-raiser to serve as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, raising serious questions about his 2007 pledge that corporate lobbyists would not finance his campaign or run his administration. There is no question that Wheeler, who was chief executive of the National Cable Television Association for five years and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association for 12 years before becoming a venture capitalist, understands the industry. The question is whether his long career representing the interests of telecommunications companies would make it hard for him to be an independent and fair regulator when consumers have few choices and pay high prices for cellphone, cable TV and broadband services. He was also a big “bundler” for President Obama in the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, which means that he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from relatives, friends and business associates. Political campaigns disclose their donors, but they are not required to disclose which of them were recruited by bundlers like Wheeler. Given his background, it is almost certain that he raised money from people whose companies he would regulate, creating potential conflicts of interest. President Obama has said that he wants the United States to lead the world in telecommunications technology. The next chairman of the FCC will need to have credibility and vision to carry that out.
benton.org/node/151410 | New York Times
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YOO NOT INTERESTED IN FCC POST
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Academic, author and network neutrality rule skeptic Christopher Yoo said that he is not a candidate for the FCC Republican seat being vacated by Robert McDowell, at least not now. Sources had said that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is vetting candidates for the post, was looking at academics, and one source said Yoo's name had surfaced as one of those. Yoo confirmed there had been interest. Yoo indicated he was flattered but not interested, at least not for the moment. "Others have suggested my name," he wrote. "[W]hile I am flattered, I have asked McConnell's staff not to consider me for a position as FCC Commissioner at this time." Among the names still said to be in the hunt for the seat are Michael O'Reilly, a top staffer with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Ray Baum, a former Oregon Public Utility Commission chairman and current top adviser to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR).
benton.org/node/151368 | Broadcasting&Cable
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

MEXICO’S TELECOMMUNICATIONS REFORM
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Ernesto Velarde-Danache]
[Commentary] For so many years important sectors of the telecommunications industry in Mexico have been under the control of the Mexican government or in the hands of a few private investors. This practice has been systematically denounced as oligopolistic by both Mexican and foreign entrepreneurs frustrated by the lack of opportunities within the sector. Fortunately, this situation is nearing a most anticipated end. The Mexican congress recently approved a bill that, once approved by the majority of the Mexican states’ legislatures, will result in unprecedented opportunity for Mexican and foreign investors who have been waiting for this dramatic and, for many, most welcome breakthrough. Under the new law, foreign investors will be allowed to invest up to 100% in the telecom industry. Historically, foreigners have been limited to owning no more than a 49% interest in Mexican telecom businesses. The new law will also dramatically change Mexico’s long-time bar against foreign ownership of any share of Mexican broadcast stations. The new law permits foreign investment in broadcast stations up to the higher of: (a) 49% of the corporate capital, or (b) the percentage of corporate capital investment made available to Mexican nationals in the investor’s home country. Final approval by the necessary majority of state governments is viewed as a near certainty and likely to be completed within a matter of months.
benton.org/node/151362 | CommLawBlog
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The Truth About Lifeline

[Commentary] It’s past time to set the record straight on Lifeline, the essential service to low-income families that has recently suffered fallacious attacks and been mislabeled as the “Obama Phone” program. Recently, political talking heads have falsely and irresponsibly excoriated the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline telephone program as a product of the Obama Administration, saying it is focused on giving free cell phones to poor people as a method of garnering their votes. Here are the real facts about this important program.

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