October 2013

Microsoft has asked European Union antitrust regulators to approve its 5.44-billion-euro ($7.49 billion) takeover of Nokia's phone business as part of a push into the mobile devices business.

The deal, announced in September 2013, includes a 10-year licensing agreement of Nokia's patent portfolio. The European Commission said it would decide by December 4, 2013 whether to clear the acquisition. It can extend the review by 10 working days if Microsoft offers concessions to allay possible competition concerns.

"Concerning the licensing of the X1 product, we have had interest expressed by a number of MSOs (multi-system operator or cable companies), and we are considering the opportunity," Comcast's cable unit Chief Executive Neil Smit said.

Comcast unveiled its X1 cloud-based platform in 2012 and has expanded the service which has an advanced interface, a more complete search function, and a better digital video recorder to nearly all of its markets. John Malone, the billionaire chairman of Liberty Media who made his name in the cable industry, has been calling on Comcast to share its technology with smaller players. Cable companies should team up to create a rival to Internet streaming service Netflix, Malone said on October 10, 2013. He thinks Comcast will share its technology with the rest of the industry.

In September 2013, a group of consumer advocates interceded in a proceeding Verizon had initiated with the New York Public Service Commission to shut down its traditional network, known as the “wireline” network. The advocates were interested in reviewing documents Verizon had filed with the commission about its wireline and wireless build-outs. Under the state Freedom of Information Law, advocates requested that Verizon provide information about the actual costs and expenses associated with the repair, upkeep and maintenance of the traditional wireline network on the resort community of Fire Island. Verizon responded to the advocate’s Freedom of Information request with more than 300 fully redacted pages. Among other documents, Verizon claimed as a “trade secret” a list of Voice Link deployments, a Voice Link leader’s guide and a document about overcoming customers’ objections to Voice Link and responding to requests to return to copper.

[Commentary] The Washington Post’s Brian Fung recently argued that a Netflix-Time Warner Cable collaboration would be bad news for net neutrality because it would take one of its strongest advocates off the playing field. I agree that Netflix’s evolution is bad news for net neutrality, but on economic rather than political grounds. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Netflix isn’t, and perhaps never was, a likely victim of anticompetitive discrimination by Internet service providers.

That’s important, because if there was ever a plausible scenario for discriminatory conduct by infrastructure owners against “edge” firms -- the heart of the case for the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules -- Netflix was the poster child. But in its July 2013 Fifteenth Report on Competition in the Market for Video Delivery, released just six months after its brief to the DC Circuit defending Open Internet rules, Netflix went from being a substitute for cable service to a complement. We now know that one of the central arguments for net neutrality regulation was based on a faulty assumption. One could make a pretty good argument that the rule ought to be withdrawn and reconsidered. At a minimum, though, if the rule is overturned by the Court as many believe likely, it surely should be allowed to RIP.