September 2013

Broadband Expanding Possibilities for Students in West Virginia and the Nation

[Commentary] During a recent visit to Southside K-8 School in McDowell County (WV), I witnessed how technology allows students to dissect not just frogs online, but starfish and other amphibians as well. As a web-based program, this requires real bandwidth.

Such activities would not have been possible last year when Southside was using two slower 3 Mbps-speed Internet connections for the whole school, which allowed for only a few students to work online at the same time. With the help of a $126 million National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) broadband grant, the school now has access to a fiber-based 100 Mbps connection that allows any Southside student to get online. NTIA’s grant has produced real results in this classroom in McDowell County and throughout West Virginia. It has helped bring a fiber broadband connection to all 750 public elementary and high schools in the state. West Virginia’s broadband project is a good example of NTIA’s efforts to expand access to broadband in schools throughout the country. NTIA’s broadband grant program has provided a head start on meeting the Obama Administration’s goal of bringing next-generation broadband to 99 percent of American students within the next five years.

[Laura Dodson is Director for Comprehensive Communities Infrastructure for NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.]

Regulators to weigh bitcoin donations in politics

If a conservative political action committee has its way, supporters will be able to donate to federal elections using bitcoins, a relatively new form of virtual currency.

The Conservative Action Fund PAC asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to approve rules governing the use of this online form of currency. The move seeks to push the technology envelope for federal regulators who just last year endorsed political donations via text message for the first time. "As bitcoins become a bigger part of the economy, we see a future in this ... particularly among libertarian-minded voters," said Dan Backer, the Conservative Action Fund lawyer who filed the FEC request.

Broadcasters score win over Aereo copycat FilmOn X

The major broadcasters have scored a legal victory over FilmOn X, the live TV streaming service formerly known as Aereokiller, with the US District Court for the District of Columbia granting an injunction against the service. FilmOn X has structured its offering after Aereo, which is why the broadcasters may try to use this decision to go after the original.

The FCC’s Incentive Auction: Getting Spectrum Policy Right

As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers how to allocate the broadcasters’ spectrum in the upcoming “incentive auction,” it should be guided by economic principles designed to maximize social benefits.

To date, the spectrum policy debate largely has been driven by considerations of the private benefits of carriers. Assuming generously that promoting wireless competition is the proper objective—as opposed to promoting broadband competition in general—the FCC should determine whether smaller carriers would be impaired in their ability to compete effectively against the likes of AT&T and Verizon in the absence of “low-frequency spectrum” (defined as frequencies generally below 1 GHz). Clearly, smaller carriers would benefit from obtaining low-frequency spectrum at discounted prices, but that private benefit is not a sufficient basis for regulatory intervention. It would be a mistake to permit the narrow, self-interests of smaller carriers to dictate spectrum policy that has nationwide implications in broader product markets. For these reasons, we conclude that the FCC should not prevent current owners of low-frequency spectrum from competing in the upcoming incentive auction.

Apple Investigating Worker-Abuse Charges at “iPhone C” Supplier

Apple hasn’t even launched the less-expensive iPhone it’s rumored to have in the pipeline, but already a company involved in its manufacture stands accused of labor violations.

China Labor Watch decried Apple supplier Jabil Circuit for a broad range of ethical and legal labor violations at its factory in Wuxi, China: Hiring discrimination, overcrowding, poor training, mandatory overtime — three times in excess of legal limits — and the withholding of overtime pay. Together, they constitute what the watchdog organization describes as a systemic pattern of violation, one that “runs counter to Apple’s Code of Conduct and their self-reporting of conditions at these facilities.” Apple has dispatched a team to the Jabil facility to investigate the group’s claims.

Retransmission Reform Advocates Pin Hopes On Satellite Bill

Retransmission reform advocates think they've got an opening to convince Congress it's time to change the law that leads to blackouts like the one between CBS and Time Warner Cable that left more than 3 million Time Warner Cable subscribers outside the CBS dome. Their big hope? Getting retransmission consent reform language attached to the reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).

A 25-year-old law, STELA allows satellite TV companies like Dish and DirecTV to retransmit in a local market a network TV signal from outside the subscribers' market if a local signal isn't available. Because it deals with carriage of local signals, retransmission reform advocates see the STELA debate as a perfect bill to attach retransmission reform. Without STELA, it could be a lot harder to build support in Congress. Retransmission reform advocates will get a good shot at making their case stronger during two House subcommittee hearings called to address the issues around STELA. But despite the opportunity to testify, it could be an uphill battle for retransmission reform advocates, banking on the few supporters like Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who have co-sponsored an á la carte bill which is going nowhere, and on the House side, Rep Steve Scalise (R-LA), who has yet to find a co-sponsor to re-introduce a bill that would eliminate all media ownership rules.

Cisco: E-Rate Should Target 1 Gbps In Schools By 2014

Network infrastructure company Cisco is recommending that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put more emphasis on network infrastructure when it reforms the E-rate program.

"E-rate is the cornerstone of providing digital connection to students," said Renee Patton, director of public sector education for Cisco, but it is at a "crossroads." Cisco suggests the FCC should take the road that leads to greater investment in infrastructure and speed. "In too many schools the promise of connected classrooms is not a reality," she said.

Cisco recommended that the FCC should: 1) put more money into the program for the necessary services and equipment, 2) mandate baseline speeds, 3) support investment in "comprehensive, business-grade broadband and network solutions," and 4) eliminate the current priority on funding access service over investing in the network infrastructure used to provide that service.

"Schools need more flexibility in shaping their funding requests," said Patton.

FCC's Rosenworcel: Viewers Should Get Refunds For Long Retransmission Blackouts

Federal Communications Commission member Jessica Rosenworcel suggests that viewers who lose channels due to extended retransmission blackouts should get refunds, and that the FCC should use its authority to require good faith negotiations to do something about those extended blackouts.

Referencing the recent CBS blackout on Time Warner Cable systems Commissioner Rosenworcel said, “That's not a good thing by any measure. We shouldn't want that to happen for extended periods of time. I think the consumers, honestly, are deserved a refund if that happens for a long period of time, and I think that if it happens for an extended period of time, the FCC should look at its good faith authority under the Communications Act and help do something about it." She did not specify what that might be. The FCC has authority to mandate good faith bargaining, but according to FCC lawyers' reading of that authority, it requires one of the parties to file a formal complaint alleging breach of good faith. Neither CBS nor TWC filed such a complaint, for example.

Commissioner Rosenworcel suggested that rather than happening more frequently, the impasses were getting more attention because they were getting more heated and complicated in part because of the introduction of online rights to the equation. CBS chief Les Moonves has said those online rights were a key issue -- and sticking point -- in the negotiations.

Rural Towns Frustrated By Big Telecom Are Just Building Their Own Internet

[Commentary] For communities that lack Internet access, maybe it's time to take matters into their own hands. Communities beyond US borders are building their own internetworks.

In rural Lancashire, England, the residents of one village have begun digging trenches and installing their own fiber optic cables. To make their homemade network run, they've enlisted everyone from a "Lancaster University professor who is an expert in computer networks" to a "farmer's wife who has just retired from a career in IT support." Other rural communities have set up "mesh networks," in which signals are transmitted directly from one Wi-Fi access point to the next -- no towers or cables required.

Comcast Boosts Speeds for Low-Income Service to 5 Mbps

With the start of the new school year, Comcast is re-launching Internet Essentials. This marks the program’s third year, and in the 22 months since the program was first launched, more than 220,000 families, benefitting an estimated 900,000 low-income Americans nationwide, now have a broadband connection at home.

Benton

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