June 2013

GOVERNEMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

RULES ALLOW NSA TO USE DATA WITHOUT WARRANT
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Glenn Greenwald, James Ball]
Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant. The documents detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target "non-US persons" under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance. The documents show that even under authorities governing the collection of foreign intelligence from foreign targets, US communications can still be collected, retained and used. The documents detail the circumstances in which data collected on US persons under the foreign intelligence authority must be destroyed, extensive steps analysts must take to try to check targets are outside the US, and reveals how US call records are used to help remove US citizens and residents from data collection. However, alongside those provisions, the FISA court-approved policies allow the NSA to:
Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;
Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;
Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;
Access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.
benton.org/node/154321 | Guardian, The
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OBAMA TO MEET WITH CIVIL LIBERTIES BOARD
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Justin Sink]
President Barack Obama will meet for the first time with an independent oversight board tasked with examining privacy and civil liberties issues within the federal government, as the White House looks to deflect criticism over a pair of recently revealed National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs. The meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is a chance for the five-member panel to share their concerns with the President about the government's top-secret Internet and telephone monitoring programs. President Obama has billed the oversight board as a counterweight to the government's surveillance programs, saying earlier this week that the panel served as a check on the data mining programs secretly authorized under the Patriot Act. The White House believes that meeting with the panel can help assuage privacy concerns voiced since the revelation of the NSA programs. The senior administration official said the board's functions included "ensuring that the need for such actions is balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties."
benton.org/node/154331 | Hill, The
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DAVID MEDINE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alina Selyukh]
David Medine, the recently-confirmed chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, pledged to be "as transparent and public as possible" as the board reviews recently exposed U.S. government secret surveillance programs. The board, which has been largely dormant since 2008, held its first full-fledged meeting on June 19. The meeting was behind closed doors to review classified information about the vast and controversial Internet and phone monitoring programs. But Chairman Medine said that the board is aiming to hold a public event around July 9 to get legal insight from experts, academics and advocates.
benton.org/node/154320 | Reuters
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BIG BROTHER AND SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: George Packer]
[Commentary] The National Security Agency’s data-mining story has fundamentally changed the public’s picture of Silicon Valley and its relation to the state. The Valley has, historically, kept as far away from Washington as possible. A strong, though not particularly ideological, strain of libertarianism appears to be coded into the DNA of computer engineers—a desire to be left alone to create beautiful systems that can be messed up only by the uncomprehending interference of mediocrities from the government. Partly as a result, information technology has been one of the country’s most lightly regulated industries. Last year, when Congress was poised to pass laws intended to protect intellectual property and prevent online piracy, tech companies, led by Google, struck back with one of the most effective lobbying tactics ever used: they shut down for a day. The effect was instantaneous—both bills went from easy sailing to overwhelming defeat. So much for that regulatory effort. But the opposition between tech and government has been breaking down recently, and in ways not limited to the N.S.A. program. Silicon Valley was always aware of the downsides to a relationship with Washington, but now it knows more about potential positives, not just in the growing influence of tech money in political campaigns and tech endorsements of individual candidates but in industry-led advocacy efforts on issues like immigration reform, and in the idea of technology as a solution for chronic social problems. Now, it turns out, the biggest companies in the computer business—Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Apple, among others—have been giving vast amounts of user data to the government’s chief surveillance agency, in some cases for years.
benton.org/node/154319 | New Yorker
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WHY MONOPOLIES MAKE SPYING EASIER
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] These days, America has one dominant search engine, one dominant social-networking site, and four phone companies. The structure of the information industry often goes unnoticed, but it has an enormous effect on the ease with which the government spies on citizens. The remarkable consolidation of the communications and Web industries into a handful of firms has made spying much simpler and, therefore, more likely to happen. We are often told that we’re living in special times, but it has always been a good time to spy on citizens, whether during the Cold War or the Second World War, or at the turn of the nineteenth century, when anarchists actually killed a President. The state’s will to surveil and to spy is constant. It is the structure and design of the information industries that make it more or less likely.
benton.org/node/154318 | New Yorker
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NSA AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Taylor Armerding]
It is not just personal information that is being swept into the National Security Agency's (NSA) massive databases. It is corporate data as well. And that could cause some serious international blowback for the U.S., both politically and economically. According to a number of security experts, the U.S. surveillance state --exposed more officially than ever before by former NSA consultant Edward Snowden -- will likely undercut the U.S.'s role and influence in Internet governance. "The revelations that have emerged will undoubtedly trigger a reaction abroad as policymakers and ordinary users realize the huge disadvantages of their dependence on U.S.-controlled networks in social media, cloud computing, and telecommunications, and of the formidable resources that are deployed by U.S. national security agencies to mine and monitor those networks," wrote Ron Deibert, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
benton.org/node/154317 | InfoWorld
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FEDERAL FUNDS AND SPEECH
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Scott Neuman]
The Supreme Court has struck down a law mandating that nonprofit organizations adopt a policy opposing prostitution as a condition for receiving federal funds for HIV/AIDS programs abroad, saying such a requirement violated the groups' free-speech rights. In the 6-2 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts led the majority, with Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself. The case, Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., stems from a 2003 vote by Congress stating that no federal funds "may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution" nor go to any organization "that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution."
benton.org/node/154316 | National Public Radio
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CONTENT

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Victoria Espinel]
The release of the Administration’s 2013 Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement builds on our efforts to protect intellectual property to date, and provides a roadmap for our work over the next three years. In preparing the 2013 Joint Strategic Plan, we solicited public comment on how to improve our approach, and that public input was invaluable in drafting the final version of the Joint Strategic Plan. We will continue to seek public views on how to best promote and protect intellectual property rights. We will review our domestic legislation to make sure it is effective and up-to-date. We will look for ways to use technology better to make enforcement more efficient and targeted. We want to discourage infringement and encourage those that are appropriately building on the works of others to create new works, so we will educate authors on how fair use works to allow creation of new works. We will increase support for small and medium sized companies that are seeking to expand into foreign markets. And we will begin collecting information on labor conditions in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit and pirated goods overseas.
benton.org/node/154315 | White House, The | Dept of Commerce | B&C | The Hill
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FTC INVESTIGATION OF PATENT TROLLS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The Federal Trade Commission will launch an investigation of the business practices of so-called patent trolls in an effort to understand whether those companies are harming competition and consumers, the agency's chairwoman said. As part of a growing focus of the U.S. government on patent abuses, the FTC will study patent assertion entities (PAEs), companies with the primary business model of buying and licensing patents, in an effort to understand the costs and benefits of PAE activity, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said. The agency will also watch PAEs closely for possible anticompetitive lawsuits and will take antitrust enforcement action against PAEs if warranted, Ramirez said. One PAE business model that's emerging is patent privateering, in which an operating company transfers its patents to a PAE, and the PAE files a patent infringement lawsuit against a competitor of the first company, she said.
benton.org/node/154314 | IDG News Service | The Hill
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COPYRIGHT AND PATENT PLAN
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Adi Robertson]
The White House laid out how it hopes to enforce rules against copyright infringement, patent trolling, and more. The Joint Strategic Plan, as it’s called, isn’t exactly a new initiative. It’s a periodic report that codifies existing ideas, urges government agencies and companies to work together, and picks up where previous measures left off. But despite years of complaints about overzealous intellectual property protection — and high-profile cases over whether things as simple as human DNA can be patented — it may be a step in the right direction. "The White House’s Strategic Plan identifies a number of sensible measures to improve copyright enforcement that even copyright skeptics should be able to embrace," says Berin Szoka of the libertarian-leaning think tank TechFreedom. Sherwin Siy, of digital rights group Public Knowledge, also called the report "very encouraging." Both groups have frequently opposed what they see as an overreaching enforcement system, but Siy believes that the report challenges some of the draconian "received dogma" about intellectual property.
benton.org/node/154313 | Verge, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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DOJ CLOSING ARGUMENT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
The three-week U.S. vs. Apple trial, in which the government accused Apple of conspiring with book publishers to fix e-book prices, is over — and now time to wait for Judge Denise Cote’s verdict. Following Apple attorney Orin Snyder’s summation, Department of Justice attorney Mark Ryan argued that the case was a simple antitrust suit — Apple’s conduct was “a per se violation of the Sherman Act,” an “old-fashioned, straightforward price-fixing agreement” that caused e-book prices to go up. Ryan argued that by setting price bands for e-books in the iBookstore, Apple intended to raise e-book prices: “Ceilings became floors” because publishers priced at the top limits of the caps. Ryan also said Apple’s argument that its negotiations with publishers were hard-fought didn’t matter — “[Why is it] that difficult negotiations cannot surround a conspiracy?…You can pick up a paper and see Venezuela and Saudi Arabia” arguing over what oil prices should be, but it “doesn’t mean they aren’t members of a cartel.” Ryan said, “I’d like to have a brief discussion about credibility,” then introduced a series of slides headed “Credibility” where the government sought to show that Apple’s witnesses were not reliable. Throughout the case, he said, the witnesses were “reaching for answers” and there was “constant retraction of testimony.” (In particular, he said, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy repeatedly changed her answers to a question after being shown her deposition.) “The court is well within its rights to credit none of a witness’s testimony” if some of that testimony is faulty, Ryan said; the court should not “hunt and peck” through testimony to pull out the true parts.
benton.org/node/154329 | paidContent.org
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SPRINT AND CLEARWIRE AGREE TO INCREASED ACQUISITION OFFER
[SOURCE: Sprint, AUTHOR: Press release]
Sprint and Clearwire announced that they have agreed to amend Sprint's agreement to acquire the approximately 50 percent of Clearwire it does not currently own (the “minority stake”) for $5.00 per share, valuing Clearwire at approximately $14 billion, or about $0.30 per MHZ-pop. This increased offer represents a 47 percent premium to Sprint’s previous offer of $3.40 per share announced on May 21, 2013 and a 285 percent premium to Clearwire's closing share price on Oct. 10, 2012, the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were first confirmed in the marketplace and Clearwire was speculated to be a part of that transaction. This offer also represents a 14 percent premium to the $4.40 per share DISH tender offer. Sprint has received commitments from a group of significant Clearwire stockholders -- including Mount Kellett Capital Management LP, Glenview Capital Management LLC, Chesapeake Partners Management Co., Inc. and Highside Capital Management LP -- which collectively own approximately 9 percent of Clearwire’s voting shares, to vote their shares in support of the transaction. These stockholders have also agreed to sell their shares to Sprint in the event the transaction does not close. Together with the voting commitments previously received from Comcast Corp., Intel Corp and Bright House Networks LLC, who collectively own approximately 13 percent of Clearwire’s voting shares, and Clearwire’s directors and officers, stockholders owning approximately 45 percent of the Clearwire voting shares not affiliated with Sprint, have now agreed to vote their shares in support of the transaction. Sprint expects a majority of the non-Sprint stockholders to support the Clearwire merger based on these agreements and the votes of shareholders with both Sprint and Clearwire shareholdings who have already voted in favor of the Sprint SoftBank transaction. In addition to the increased price per share, the companies have further amended the merger agreement that was previously entered into. Specifically, among other things, in certain circumstances where the transaction between Sprint and Clearwire terminates, Clearwire will be required to pay a termination fee of $115 million, or 3 percent of the equity value of the minority stake. In the event the transaction is not completed, Clearwire has agreed to hold its annual shareholder meeting as expeditiously as possible and if the transaction is not completed under certain circumstances, Clearwire has agreed to waive the current standstill provision in the Equityholders’ Agreement between Sprint, Clearwire, and the company’s strategic investors. That standstill provision was originally set to expire on November 28, 2013.
benton.org/node/154312 | Sprint | WSJ | WSJ | Bloomberg
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PENTAGON TO WIRELESS INDUSTRY: WE NEED OUR SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
The Defense Department must retain exclusive access to some spectrum in order to support military training and other critical national security needs, said Pentagon Chief Information Officer Teri Takai. She warned there needs to be a balance between supporting the growth of the wireless industry and Defense missions. “We have to weigh not only our responsibility to the nation, but also our operational responsibility,” she said. While she didn’t identify specific frequency bands considered critical, she said, “I think it’s important from a national security standpoint to recognize that we have a certain amount of spectrum that we utilize which is exclusive to us from a national security and an interference perspective.’ Among other things, Takai said Defense needs spectrum to support training in the United States, noting that 80 percent of training occurs around domestic military bases. “The safety of our men and women overseas is really based on their . . . ability to train,” she said. She suggested spectrum could be shared geographically based on population density or time. To do that, she said, requires knowing who owns the spectrum, and when and where they’re using it. “There’s certainly opportunity for us to do spectrum-sharing in, for example, rural areas, where we don’t have the bases,” Takai said. “Unfortunately, those aren’t the areas where there’s the commercial demand.”
benton.org/node/154289 | nextgov
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

HOW US GOT BROADBAND RIGHT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Lowell McAdam]
[Commentary] Some observers have painted a dire picture of the state of Internet availability in America. Some critics have called for new government policies to “fix” the telecommunications industry. Such criticisms are misplaced. If he is confirmed, Tom Wheeler will have the good fortune to be arriving at the Federal Communications Commission at a time when the United States has gained a global leadership position in the marketplace for broadband. More than 80 percent of American households live in areas that offer access to broadband networks capable of delivering data with speeds in excess of 100 megabits per second. Fifty-six percent of American adults have smartphones that give them access to mobile broadband data and video. The United States built its lead because companies invested nearly $1.2 trillion, over 17 years, to deploy next-generation broadband networks. These investments, which began with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, were neither accidental nor inevitable; they were a result of deliberate policy decisions by Congress and by Democratic and Republican administrations alike to protect consumers while encouraging companies to invest in nascent technologies that are now flourishing. Regulatory restraint has resulted in a robust broadband market, but today some self-styled policy advocates insist that America’s broadband marketplace is badly broken and that the only solution is to revert to Depression-era regulations, like government rate setting and price controls or rules dictating what types of competitive offerings broadband providers can offer consumers. These ideas, however, are part of the rigid bureaucratic approach that European regulators have correctly identified as stifling. Regulatory prudence is the only way to keep up the momentum in broadband innovation. There is no telling what will come out of this next wave of change. For its potential to be fully realized, however, it will be critically important for the industry to work with regulators — led, we hope, by Mr. Wheeler — to continue the bipartisan policies that have made our fast-changing industry a global leader. [Lowell McAdam is chairman and chief executive of Verizon Communications]
benton.org/node/154330 | New York Times
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IS CABLE HOLDING BACK BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
The cable industry insists that it's ready and able to compete with Google Fiber when it comes to delivering ultra high-speed broadband. But the rhetoric doesn’t match up with the actions of the industry. Cable providers have been slow to make its speedier options broadly available, and when they do, they charge significantly higher prices that escalate as you move to faster tiers. Based on how the industry has chosen to price its service, it's clear that cable operators are not exactly encouraging adoption of ultra high-speed broadband. In comparison, Google is expanding Google Fiber to more markets, and offers a much faster connection at reasonable rates.
benton.org/node/154291 | C-Net|News.com
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SERVERS ARE NEW BATTLEFIELD
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
High-profile flare-ups between content providers and broadband providers over traffic exchange are becoming an annual or even semi-annual Internet tradition. The latest flare-up is between Cogent Communications, which provides backbone connectivity for Netflix, and Verizon. But this time there’s a new issue embedded in an old issue. The old issue is how to deal with traffic imbalances between broadband providers and content providers who tend to send more traffic to broadband providers than they receive from them. The new issue pertains to a new approach to solving those traffic exchange problems – allowing the content provider to put servers in key broadband provider connection points, thereby minimizing the distance content has to travel between the two companies. The goal is to minimize transport costs and enhance the quality of the end user experience. And the fight now seems to be over who controls those arrangements.
benton.org/node/154288 | telecompetitor
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OWNERSHIP

TRIBUNE’S TAX TROUBLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Floyd Norris]
It was perhaps the cleverest corporate tax strategy ever devised: no matter how much money the company made, neither it nor its shareholders would ever owe a penny in federal income taxes. “In conception, it was brilliant,” said Robert Willens, a longtime tax analyst who now runs his own firm, Robert Willens L.L.C. “It would have been probably the greatest tax avoidance structure ever devised, had they earned income.” Instead, the strategy has now backfired on the Tribune Company, the publisher of The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The company seems likely to have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that it would never have owed had it not tried to be so clever. Without the expected tax savings, the numbers probably would not have worked when Samuel Zell, the real estate billionaire, was putting together his 2007 takeover of Tribune. Perhaps he would have dropped the deal, or perhaps he would have been unable to finance it. In either case, everyone involved would have been better off.
benton.org/node/154311 | New York Times
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BROADCASTING

FCC INDECENCY
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Brent Lang]
The Federal Communications Commission has spent much of the Obama Administration punting on indecency. But now, as a new chairman waits in the wings, broadcasters and advocacy groups are searching for signs about its future direction on the hot-button issue. Already there have been indications that the FCC is flirting with relaxing standards and limiting its enforcement efforts to flagrant use of profanity or blatant displays of sexuality. It just ended a request for comments from viewers and members of the broadcast industry in which it floated the idea that it would no longer fine programs featuring fleeting expletives or nudity. And Tom Wheeler, the former telecommunications executive President Obama appointed to take over for departed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, hinted during his confirmation hearings in Congress this week that he may take a laissez faire attitude when it comes to cracking down on blue language or content. Meanwhile, the FCC did not take a single enforcement action against a network-owned and operated affiliate for indecency or profanity during the first half of President Obama's tenure. During that time, the backlog of complaints swelled, prompting Genachowski to instruct the agency’s enforcement bureau last fall to dismiss roughly a million of these objections, noting the statute of limitations had expired in certain instances.
benton.org/node/154328 | Wrap, The | MediaPost
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TELECOM

VERIZON AND FIRE ISLAND
[SOURCE: Verizon, AUTHOR: Tom Maguire]
Recently, Stop the Cap! published stories about Verizon’s decision to discontinue traditional wired landline service for approximately 500 customers on Fire Island and offer them a wireless alternative called Voice Link. This is an important change for Verizon and our customers, and we wanted to clarify several points about the service and how Verizon is deploying it. In places like Fire Island, New York and some communities along the Jersey Shore, such as Mantoloking and Seaside Heights, Verizon evaluated the extent of the damage to its facilities – which in many cases were literally washed away by Super Storm Sandy – and conducted extensive research before deciding the best course of action to take in terms of restoration. Fire Island is a popular beach community with only a few hundred year-round residents, but the population swells each summer. Verizon’s equipment on the eastern side of the island was not too heavily impacted, so repairs were made and services restored. On the western side of the Island, however, a large percentage of Verizon’s copper facilities were damaged beyond repair. We studied the voice traffic on and off the island and where it was originating from on both Verizon’s wireline and wireless networks. The company discovered that 80 percent of the voice traffic was already wireless. If other wireless providers were factored in, it is likely that the percentage is closer to 90 percent. This made it clear that people had already made the decision as to what technology works best. They had abandoned copper long before Sandy.
benton.org/node/154279 | Verizon
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LIFELINE ACCOUNTABILITY DATABASE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Kimberly Scardino]
The National Lifeline Accountability Database will ensure compliance with one of the Federal Communications Commission’s most important rules to protect the integrity of the Lifeline program: limiting Lifeline benefits to one subscription per household. By harnessing communications and information technology to enforce this rule, the FCC will protect the universal service fund and the consumers who pay into it, promote fairness to beneficiaries and companies who play by the rules, and reduce the burden on providers. Implementation of the database will begin in Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma and Washington this fall, with other states to follow shortly thereafter. Importantly, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) will “scrub” the subscriber information to eliminate duplicates BEFORE loading it into the database. The database will be operational by the end of the year and going forward will permanently detect and prevent duplicative Lifeline support before a consumer enrolls in the Lifeline program.
benton.org/node/154304 | Federal Communications Commission
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CYBERSECURITY

NIST CYBERSECURITY UPDATE
[SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology, AUTHOR: Patrick Gallagher]
President Barack Obama directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to work with industry on a voluntary cybersecurity framework for better protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Development of the framework is a NIST-coordinated but industry-led effort that draws on standards and best practices already available. Any effort to better protect critical infrastructure must be supported and implemented by the owners and operators of that infrastructure. Our task hinges on bringing the right people with the right expertise to the table. For the last several months, we’ve been soliciting information on the current state of cyber threats and security, how to identify and manage risk, what standards exist or are needed, and how the framework should address these issues. Our first two meetings in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh were well attended, and represented an array of industries. We received more than 200 comments in response to our Request for Information. But we still need your input. We need to hear from you about what works and what additional tools you need. We particularly want to hear more about foundational cybersecurity practices, ideas for how to manage privacy and civil liberties needs, and outcome-oriented metrics that leaders can use in evaluating the position and progress of their organizations’ cybersecurity status. In a few weeks, we expect to post an outline of the preliminary cybersecurity framework, including existing standards and practices. Then from July 10-12 we’ll be hosting our 3rd Cybersecurity Framework Workshop in San Diego, where the private sector will be able to help us fill in the framework in more detail.
benton.org/node/154303 | National Institute of Standards and Technology | NIST - update
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AGENDA

FCC MEETING AGENDA CONFIRMED
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an open meeting on June 27, 2013. Here’s the agenda. The FCC will consider:
a Second Report and Order to improve and streamline the collection of broadband subscription and deployment data.
a Report and Order with licensing, service, and technical rules in the H Block at 1915-1920 and 1995-2000 MHz, that would help increase the Nation’s supply of spectrum for flexible-use services, including mobile broadband.
a Declaratory Ruling clarifying that wireless carriers that collect, or direct the collection of, customer proprietary network information (CPNI) on mobile devices must adhere to statutory and regulatory CPNI requirements in protecting that information.
an update on universal service reform implementation.
an update on progress towards the television broadcast incentive auction.
benton.org/node/154305 | Federal Communications Commission
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

NETWORK NEUTRALITY IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital policy, has urged lawmakers in Brussels to fast-track legislation to guarantee network neutrality — the equal treatment by telecommunications carriers for all types of content, whether voice, video or data — for the more than 500 million people in the European Union. Whether they can deliver such a far-reaching commitment before the current European legislative period ends next June is an open question, but the push to legally cement net neutrality raises other issues. Mobile operators, whose wireless grids are increasingly the go-to means for access to the Internet, are not the only companies that restrict people around the world from following their bliss on the Internet. But like beauty, net neutrality is in the eye of the beholder, say critics including Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association in Brussels. Operators oppose the push for a tougher net neutrality law, he said, but if such a regulation must exist, it should also be enforced on Web businesses like Microsoft, Google and Apple whose smartphones and tablets increasingly let people avoid their operator’s calling, texting and data charges.
benton.org/node/154278 | New York Times
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A NEW EUROPE FOR TELECOMS?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Frances Robinson]
Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s commissioner in charge of telecoms, gave some more hints about what the EU’s new Single Market Package for telecoms could look like when it lands this summer ahead of the discussion among EU leaders at their October summit. Here’s the WSJ translation of her speech: 1) Get ready for another fight, 2) Tear down those borders, give people choice, and cut those roaming prices (again) already, 3) Guys, we are behind the Chinese and the Americans as well. This is embarrassing, 4) Why isn’t my Samsung or Facebook European? 5) But don’t worry, once those barriers come down, and you give consumers what they want, you companies can start buying each other, 6) Governments: chillax. We won’t take your precious spectrum auction windfalls away, or your national regulators* but don’t use this as an excuse for more bureaucrats, and 7) P.S. don’t you DARE block Skype on smartphones!
benton.org/node/154277 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE AND PRIVACY IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan]
European data protection authorities have for the first time threatened to fine Google, if the Silicon Valley company does not address their privacy concerns within three months. The co-ordinated move by regulators in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands could result in Google having to pay several million euros, under proposed new rules. “Time is running out for Google to get serious about data protection,” said Viviane Reding, the EU’s top justice official in charge of bolstering the bloc’s data protection rules. The decision to threaten Google with sanctions comes eight months after a probe led by EU regulators concluded that the US internet company failed properly to disclose how it was using its users’ personal data across multiple platforms. It also comes amid growing concern about the extent to which both governments and private companies collect and exploit people’s personal data on a vast scale.
benton.org/node/154323 | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal | CSM | Washington Post
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AT&T IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas, Anousha Sakoui, Paul Taylor]
Randall Stephenson, chief executive of AT&T, is expected to be back in Europe this month to meet Neelie Kroes, the continent’s industry regulator. It will be the latest of his frequent visits, and a sign of how AT&T has been scouring the European mobile telecoms markets for acquisitions to expand outside its core US market. AT&T was most recently linked with talks with the Spanish government over the availability of Telefónica. While Madrid talks were denied by government officials, AT&T has been talking to companies, government officials and regulators across Europe, according to corporate advisers. “The intelligence coming back from all parts of Europe is that AT&T is interested, even if there has not been any traction yet,” says one industry adviser. “AT&T is testing the waters,” says another informed person. “They are exploring everything, which means talking to everyone. But if it was to do a deal then the idea would be ‘go big, and go early’ as the opportunities will not last forever.” AT&T has made little secret of its desire to acquire European businesses, although its focus is on mobile telecoms, which would make a bid for a whole group such as Telefónica less likely.
AT&T’s European ambitions reflect the technology lead that US mobile operators believe they have now established over their European counterparts, after having lagged behind them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Stephenson sees an opportunity to capitalize on some of the lessons AT&T has learnt during its introduction of LTE-based 4G services in the US over the past two years. This includes the extraordinary growth of mobile broadband use that has resulted, and the potential for web-based services that can be provided over these new networks.
benton.org/node/154322 | Financial Times | Financial Times – 4G | Bloomberg
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Daily Digest

Analysis

June 2013

Internet Sales Tax Could Reap $23 Billion For States

Hagel’s Gospel on Defending Networks

FCC: Landline Voice Lines Decline 4.7% in Six Months, VoIP Growth Slows

UK Orders Google to Delete Data

Weekly Digest

What Did We Learn at the Wheeler Nomination Hearing?

June 21, 2013 (NSA; Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board)

President Obama to discuss NSA in first meeting with civil liberties board

How the U.S. Got Broadband Right

DOJ compares Apple and publishers to oil cartels; now sit back and wait for the verdict