June 2013

Recruitment of First Responder Network Authority Board of Directors

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issues this Notice on behalf of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) as part of its annual process to seek expressions of interest from individuals who would like to serve on the FirstNet Board.

When the Acting Secretary of Commerce made the initial appointments to the Board last August 20, 2012, by law, four of the 12 appointments of nonpermanent members were for one-year terms. While the Secretary of Commerce has the discretion to reappoint individuals to serve on the FirstNet Board provided they have not served two consecutive full three-year terms,3 NTIA issues this Notice in case the Secretary will need to fill any vacancies on the Board at the time the one-year terms expire on August 19, 2013. Expressions of interest for appointment to the FirstNet Board will be accepted until June 14, 2013.

FirstNet claims Verizon ties are not influencing its plans

Despite some concerns regarding former ties between some appointed board members of the First Responder Network Authority and leading U.S. mobile operators, a FirstNet spokeswoman says there are no conflicts of interest that might impact development of the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

Some observers allege that a cozy relationship exists between certain FirstNet board members representing telecom interests and mobile carriers, particularly Verizon Wireless, and that a secret plan has been drawn up under which the NPSBN will be built out using Verizon's network resources. During a regional meeting held in Denver during late May, FirstNet board member Jeff Johnson denied that the authority has already created a business plan or has decided upon the network design. "You'll know when we have a plan when we vote on it," he said. However, FirstNet Chairman Sam Ginn's financial history with AirTouch Communications continues to fuel rumors of potential conflicts. AirTouch eventually morphed into what is now Verizon Wireless.

SAG-AFTRA Members Approve New Commercials Contract

SAG-AFTRA members overwhelmingly approved new, three-year contracts negotiated with the advertising industry covering commercials.

The 2013 SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract and 2013 SAG-AFTRA Radio Recorded Commercials Contract are the first major contracts negotiated by SAG-AFTRA as one union since merger in March 2012. The contracts cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on television, radio, the Internet and new media, and will result in wage increases and other payments totaling $238 million for all categories of performers, improvements in cable use fees, increases in payments for work on the Internet and new media platforms, an increase in the late payment fee, and an increase in contributions to the health and pension/retirement plans. The approved agreements also achieved recognition for the new union, merged the previous SAG and AFTRA television contracts into a single contract, and renamed the radio contract as a SAG-AFTRA contract. Overall, the membership of SAG-AFTRA voted 96 percent in favor of the new agreements. Integrity Voting Systems, an impartial election service based in Everett, Wash., facilitated the voting and certified the final count today. The new contracts go into effect immediately, retroactive to April 1, 2013, and remain in force until June 30, 2016.

Cable One Eliminates Broadband Overage Fees

Cable One said that it will eliminate data plans with overage fees as of June 10 as it launches two new higher speed cable modem tiers and raises the ceiling on monthly consumption limits.

In 2011, Cable One introduced a policy that charged 50 cents per Gigabyte when customers used more than their monthly allotment of 100 GB per month for the MSO's 50 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 high-speed Internet That fee-based policy goes away next week as Cable One expands its monthly usage cap to 300GB for its 50 Meg service. In tandem, the MSO is also launching two new tiers that offer downstream speeds up to 60 Mbps and 70 Mbps and are paired with higher monthly usage ceilings. The 60 Mbps comes with a monthly ceiling of 400 GB, while customers who sign up for the 70 Mbps service get a monthly limit of 500 GB, a company spokeswoman said. Under the new, fee-free policy, if a customer exceeds the monthly usage ceiling “they will receive multiple notices letting them know they’ve gone over as well as tools and tips to monitor their usage,” the Cable One spokeswoman said via email. “If they continue to go over, we’ll invite them to move to a plan with a bigger data guideline.”

Political Consultants: Campaigns Stay Clear Of Privacy Pitfalls

In the last presidential race, Obama for America 2012 campaign workers had an idea for an email initiative. They wanted to send supporters emails that would include other people's names and phone numbers, with instructions to call them and make sure they went to the polls. The campaign believed that doing so would have been legal, but nonetheless decided against it, according to Rayid Ghani, chief scientist of the Obama for America 2012 campaign. Speaking at a conference on Friday about data and political campaigns, Ghana said that campaigns, in some respects, “stay far away from the boundary” of what might offend voters, or draw criticisms in the press. “We couldn't do the whole experiment we wanted to do, because people were really worried about sending out personal information over e-mail,” he said.

FCC Needs To Step Up On Voice Link; Nature (and Natural Disasters) Abhor A Vacuum

[Commentary] Federal Communication Commission (FCC) line staff are telling your average citizen who calls to ask that Verizon can refuse to repair their copper lines as long as Verizon offers Voice Link instead. “It is acceptable” for Verizon to refuse to offer copper service even if “there will be no landlines” available at all, said FCC Representative TSR54. (And no, I did not make up the designation just to make this look more like some faceless bureaucratic drone.)

Did I miss the FCC Order on this? No. But the fact that FCC line staff are taking it upon themselves to say this is totally OK shows just how badly the FCC has lost control of the situation.

The FCC needs to move quickly to (a) makes Verizon file the necessary application under federal law to discontinue its traditional copper service so the FCC can actually decide this question for real; and, (b) develop a process for carriers in areas where disasters have destroyed copper infrastructure to replace that infrastructure with a new product like Voice Link or voice-over-IP (VOIP). Otherwise, we can forget about having any kind of useful pilot program where we protect consumers and gather information. Carriers will take the Verizon approach, and convert natural disasters into “nature’s little laboratories.” If the FCC continues to let Verizon decide on the proper policy for itself, we can expect other carriers to stop playing by the FCC’s rules and follow in Verizon’s footsteps.

The Echo Chamber of Silicon Valley

Sometimes, Hollywood screenwriters create scripts filled with inside jokes that only people in Hollywood could appreciate. Sometimes, New York media writers write about other New York media writers. And sometimes, tech entrepreneurs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley to the south create companies best appreciated by other people who live and breathe technology.

“One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that we are guilty in the Valley of designing things for ourselves, and we are not the target market,” said Andy Smith, who is the co-author of “The Dragonfly Effect,” a book about marketing, technology and entrepreneurship. Engineers tend to move to the Bay Area because of the opportunity to get together with other engineers and, just maybe, create a great company, Smith said. But in a region that has the highest concentration of tech workers in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the bars, restaurants and other haunts of entrepreneurs can be an echo chamber. The result can be a focus on solutions for mundane problems.

For Broadband In Northern Illinois, The Future Is Now

A push to bring high speed internet access to smaller communities and rural areas was a key part of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package. One of the first projects to gain funding in Illinois was the DeKalb Advancement of Technology Authority, or DATA. It was followed soon after by iFiber, a project to bring broadband to counties in north central and northwest Illinois.

Both are now moving from the construction phase to implementation. John Lewis is Director of the Regional Development Institute at Northern Illinois University. He’s overseen the development of DATA and iFiber, as well as another NIU-led broadband project, the Illinois Rural HealthNet, which links healthcare providers across the state. Lewis says a key to the success of these projects is the public-private partnership that developed them. That allowed the networks to be built and made available at a lower cost. Lewis says DATA and iFiber face two challenges going forward: first, getting the 500 community anchor institutions that will be part of the network- schools, municipal governments and the like-hooked up; second, finding ways to extend that network to the broader community.

Suspension lifted, Eagle-Net Alliance is ready to build

Colorado’s Eagle-Net Alliance will start the second season of construction on its $134 million broadband network in early June, a month after regaining access to its federal stimulus grant that had been suspended for five months in a political firestorm.

It’s the fifth-largest of the Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program projects funded by the 2009 federal stimulus program. Broomfield-based Eagle-Net won a $100.6 million federal grant to connect schools in 168 Colorado school districts to higher-capacity, lower-priced broadband service, plus offer access to hundreds of local government buildings, hospitals and other “community anchor institutions.”

Audit finds "material weaknesses" with EAGLE-Net's accounting

Independent auditors uncovered a handful of "material weaknesses" with EAGLE-Net Alliance's internal controls, including the intergovernmental entity's cash management and cost allocations. The findings were disclosed in the group's long-delayed state audit, submitted to the Colorado Office of the State Auditor this week. The report also revealed that EAGLE-Net, mired in controversy since last summer, has lost access to a $17 million revolving line of credit from UMB Bank after drawing just $500,000.

Benton

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