December 2013

Rejuvenated T-Mobile shakes up US mobile sector

Heavily subsidized handsets have long been the norm in the US mobile industry, but those days could be nearing an end as the big operators react to changing market dynamics. Leading the charge is a rejuvenated T-Mobile US.

The fourth-largest US mobile network operator by subscribers -- and the target of a rumored takeover offer from SoftBank-owned Sprint -- has shaken up the sector with what its feisty chief executive, John Legere, calls its “un-carrier strategy”. That strategy, focused on cutting subscription prices and providing subscribers with more flexible options to buy and upgrade their smartphones, has helped T-Mobile US gain valuable monthly subscribers and outgrow most of its larger rivals in recent quarters. While such price competition is common in Europe where most markets have at least one low-cost operator, the US market has traditionally been dominated by AT&T and Verizon, which competed on handset deals and network quality instead. Aside from offering some of the lowest priced monthly data plans, key parts of the T-Mobile strategy involved allowing subscribers to upgrade their handsets more frequently and ending smartphones subsidies replacing them with mobile device financing plans. These moves put pressure on rivals to match T-Mobile’s initiatives, including its price cuts.

ABC Viewers Tilt Female for a Network Light on Sports

For ABC, every important ratings measure in prime time is qualified by what amounts to a footnote: “not counting sports.” Among the four big broadcasters, ABC has competed this fall with no help from the NFL and virtually no help from sports programming at all. What does it mean for a network to try to survive on a largely sports-free diet? Mainly, it means building a lifeline to women.

Television viewing is widely dominated by women -- every broadcast network but Fox has a majority female audience, as do the vast majority of cable networks. The scale is unusually tipped at ABC, where much of its sports programming has moved to ESPN, which shares the same parent, the Walt Disney Company. About 62 percent of the ABC audience is female. (CBS is the next most female-skewed at 57 percent.) More strikingly, the top five most popular shows among women are on ABC, as well as seven of the 10 most popular. All of those shows have an audience that is more than 70 percent female.

Cut the cord: New HD antennas bring your monthly TV bill back to $0

New antennas from Audiovox, Antennas Direct, and Aereo outgrew their rabbit-ear appearances and picked up several interesting new traits along the way.

Over-the-air television offers more than you might think. After the digital TV conversion in 2009, several networks switched to high-definition broadcasts. You need an antenna that was built in the past few years (and an HD TV) to take advantage of the sharp image quality, but the service is still free. And some areas now get more than 40 over-the-air channels. Indoor antennas now come in a range of shapes and prices.

Prime Minister’s security adviser urges tighter rules at cybersecurity center

Better governance of a cybersecurity center that scrutinizes equipment provided by Huawei, the Chinese technology group, has been recommended in a report from the prime minister’s national security adviser.

A review by Sir Kim Darroch on the effectiveness of the center also raised concerns about the country’s ability to cope with the “fast-moving nature of the telecommunications industry”. Ministers will be given options to consider from officials tasked with assessing “the security implications arising from the changing industry landscape”, while further suggestions were put forward to create a wider group of people with the cybersecurity skills needed. The review followed a scathing report about the center from the intelligence and security committee (ISC), which cited fears that staff were being paid by the Chinese group even though all were vetted to a high level of security clearance.

The future of broadband looks very much like cable TV. Here is why

There is a coming clash between the telecommunications firms and the internet giants, but it’s not just about the internet giants buying broadband underlying pipes and access technology. It’s about the way technology is delivered and how to build out business models that take into account the value of content and services when the cost of transporting bits is significantly lower than the cost of transporting atoms.

The underlying enabler of all this -- broadband networks -- provides an excellent case study in how this might play out. Today we are moving from all-you-can-eat broadband to usage-based pricing as service providers try to reign in the demands on their networks, deliver a return on their investments and also compensate for high prices they pay per subscriber for video content. The battle here is exemplified by the likes of Netflix fighting caps implemented by companies including Comcast. But at the Fiber to the Home conference, I saw the battle lines beginning to shift thanks to faster networks and new capabilities. IP networks are about services, which means that a delivery model where services are delivered as different channels becomes a possibility. Soon, software-defined networking will allow providers to build out those channels virtually on their networks and deliver them a la carte or as a bundle. What’s missing is the business model.

Enabling the Future of Learning

They should be able to connect and collaborate with other teachers to tackle common challenges and develop solutions. No matter where they are located, students should have access to world-class resources and experts that can enrich a learning experience that is largely designed just for them. And parents should be able to follow their child’s activities and progress almost in real-time, helping them stay more engaged in their child’s education. This is an exciting future, and for some districts and schools across the country, that future is now.

The Department of Education announced the second round of grantees in the Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) competition. (Five winners, representing 25 districts, won a total of $120 million in grant funds.) These grants will support locally developed plans to personalize and improve student learning, directly increase student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and prepare every student for success in college and careers. Through these grants, innovative school districts will be able to better support teachers and students by increasing educational opportunities through more personalized learning.

Journalists, White House Agree To Work Towards Expanding Access To President Obama

The White House and news media representatives have agreed to work toward expanding access to President Barack Obama's public duties to give news photographers a less restricted view of the President at work. Participants in the meeting said the session did not resolve the coverage issues recently raised by a group of news organizations and media associations, but said they were hopeful the discussion marked progress. Associated Press Senior Managing Editor Mike Oreskes said media representatives were encouraged by the commitment expressed by White House press secretary Jay Carney. Oreskes said, "The proof will be in the outcome."

FirstNet Board Approves Spectrum Lease Agreements with Adams County, Colo. and New Jersey

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) Board approved separate agreements with the State of New Jersey and Adams County (CO) allowing them to lease access to FirstNet’s spectrum. With the approval of these agreements, FirstNet has entered in to four separate spectrum lease agreements with public safety Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grantees.

The agreements between FirstNet and New Jersey and Adams County mark the first step in the process towards restarting these important projects. They each now will submit a request to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to lift their partial suspension, and FirstNet will submit a letter in support of that action. NTIA, which is the grant administrator, will make a recommendation to the grants office on whether to lift the funding suspension. The ADCOM 911 project will be one of the first systems to have the capability to provide advanced mobile data services to a major airport complex and link adjacent public safety entities to airport public safety operations. Its proximity to the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) center in Boulder, Colo. enables it to serve as a pilot demonstration project to test interoperability with FirstNet’s nationwide network. New Jersey revised its original project plan to focus on procuring deployable assets — 37 cell sites on wheels. New Jersey will use these mobile cell sites to expand network coverage in the state and help inform FirstNet’s deployable strategy.

CPB Funds New Local Journalism Center

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it has awarded a $1.4 million grant for the creation of a new, multimedia local journalism center (LJC) that will focus on energy issues.

The Energy LJC is a collaboration of seven public television and radio stations. Rocky Mountain PBS/KUVO FM will serve as the lead station, with KUNC FM, Colorado Public Television, Wyoming Public Media, Wyoming PBS, and Prairie Public Broadcasting serving as partner stations. The LJC, using a strong data-centered approach, will explore the opportunities and consequences of energy policy, production, use and innovation. CPB’s LJC initiative builds local journalism coverage through collaboration among public radio and television stations. By drawing on a pool of reporters and editors, LJCs are able to provide a greater scope of coverage as well as diversity in public media content.

A New Map Reveals the Geography of American TV News

Most Americans -- some 55 percent -- get their news from television. That’s more than double the number who look to the web first, and more than five times the number who turn to print. So television news steers, to a great degree, our political discourse. But unlike text on the page or screen, it remains more difficult to analyze. TV arrives as sound and moving images -- both of which algorithms have a harder time making sense of. That’s why a recent pilot project from the Internet Archive is so welcome. Using the Archive’s massive archive of television news, Georgetown scholar Kalev Leetaru tracked all the locations mentioned on US television news between June 2009 and October 2013, then plotted them on a world map. On the foundation’s blog, archivist Roger Macdonald writes that the map constitutes the “first large-scale glimpses of the geography of American television news, beginning to reveal which areas receive outsized attention and which are neglected.”

Benton

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