December 2013

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013

A New Kingsbury Commitment: Universal Service Through Competition? http://benton.org/calendar/2013-12-19/

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Review Panel Recommends New Limits on NSA Spying
   Barack Obama’s NSA fine-print problem - analysis
   United Nations calls for end to excessive electronic spying
   A Blow Against Big Brother - op-ed
   FISA Court Won’t Reconsider Phone Data Collection
   NSA phone program on trial - op-ed
   The NSA vs. the Constitution - LA Times editorial [links to web]
   Turn Off the Data Vacuum - NY Times editorial [links to web]
   How Obama Can Save the NSA - Karl Rove op-ed [links to web]
   NetSuite Speeds Data-Center Rollout Amid NSA Spying [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Snowden’s Leaks Have Finally Forced Companies to Enhance Their Security - op-ed
   Senate report warns of vast data mining 'behind veil of secrecy'
   Chairman Rockefeller: 'Data brokers' worse than NSA spying
   FCC Seeks Comment Public Knowledge Petition on Prohibitions on Selling Non-Aggregate Call Records Without Customers’ Consent - public notice
   Marvel, Sanrio accused of ignoring privacy rules meant to protect children
   Data Mining Exposes Embarrassing Problems For Massive Open Online Courses
   State Assessment Group Approves Privacy Rules for Student Data [links to web]
   Traders Seek an Edge With High-Tech Snooping

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Report Attacks Broadband Stimulus Award Process
   The Mission to Decentralize The Internet
   Bitcoin, Nationless Currency, Still Feels Government’s Pinch [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Verizon, T-Mobile Will Swap Unused Airwaves to Improve Coverage
   6 Reasons Sprint Shouldn't Buy T-Mobile - analysis [links to web]
   Delta CEO makes it clear: No voice calls on our flights [links to web]

TELEVISION
   FCC Proposes Ending Sports Blackout Rules
   Mapping major broadcasters' growing TV station footprints: 2013 vs. 2012
   Cable Must Embrace Binge Viewing, Better User Experiences, Study Finds [links to web]

TELECOM
   Poor Americans Lead Shift to Wireless Homes Abandoning Landlines
   FCC Seeks Comment Public Knowledge Petition on Prohibitions on Selling Non-Aggregate Call Records Without Customers’ Consent - public notice
   Controversial Michigan Landline Phone Legislation Advances
   CEO Of Frontier Expects AT&T Acquisition To Be Less Of A Struggle Than Similar Deals

JOURNALISM
   Under Amazon's CIA Cloud: The Washington Post - op-ed
   "Fear And Concern" Keeping MSNBC Hosts Quiet In Union Dispute, AFL-CIO Suggests [links to web]
   A Compelling Case for 'Knowledge-Based Journalism' - op-ed [links to web]
   MediaNews Group to merge with 21st Century Media [links to web]

EDUCATION
   PCAST Considers Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Related Technologies in Higher Education - press release
   Data Mining Exposes Embarrassing Problems For Massive Open Online Courses
   State Assessment Group Approves Privacy Rules for Student Data [links to web]

OPEN GOVERNMENT
   Sacramento Launches Open Data Portal [links to web]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Battle over Healthcare.Gov Paper Trail Reaches House Leadership [links to web]
   O-Care focus at White House meeting frustrates tech execs [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Suspend US cloud data deal, European Parliament’s civil liberties committee says

MORE ONLINE
   Study Shows Google’s Dominance of Online Advertising [links to web]
   Parents: Don’t Panic About Your Kids’ Social Media Habits [links to web]
   Google to co-head open-source patent defense alliance [links to web]

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

OBAMA PANEL RECOMMENDS NEW LIMITS ON NSA SPYING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger, Charlie Savage]
A panel of presidential advisers who reviewed the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices urged President Barack Obama to end the government’s systematic collection of logs of all Americans’ phone calls, and to keep those in private hands, “for queries and data mining” only by court order. In a more than 300-page report made public by the White House, the group of five intelligence and legal experts also strongly recommended that any operation to spy on foreign leaders would have to pass a rigorous test that weighs the potential economic or diplomatic costs if the operation becomes public. The decision to monitor those communications, it said, should be made by the president and his advisers, not the intelligence agencies. It also recommends new limits on surveillance of ordinary non-Americans. It argues for applying to foreign targets of intelligence the protections accorded to Americans under the Privacy Act of 1974, meaning the government could release very little information about them. The panel also declared that the NSA should cease efforts to undermine work to create secure encryption standards to protect confidential communications and data stored on remote “cloud” servers, and make clear that “it will not in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable generally available commercial encryption.” It also said the United States should get out of the business of secretly collecting flaws in common computer programs and using them for mounting cyberattacks, because the technique undermines confidence in American products. That technique, using what are called “zero day” flaws that have never been discovered before, were critical to the cyberattacks that the United States and Israel launched on Iran in an effort to slow its nuclear program. Taken together, the recommendations would remove from the NSA's hands the authority to conduct many of its operations without review by the president, Congress or the courts. But by themselves, they would terminate few programs.
benton.org/node/170701 | New York Times | Washington Post | The Hill | National Public Radio | The Verge | The White House | nextgov | The White House | GigaOm | Huffington Post | Huffington Post
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FINE PRINT PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Josh Gerstein]
An independent panel’s call for major changes to the nation’s surveillance programs ups the pressure on President Barack Obama to back serious reforms. But the big changes the committee is calling for may be less vexing for President Obama than one painful, half-buried conclusion: Vacuuming up all that data the National Security Agency collects in its call-tracking database, the panel says, hasn’t actually done much to protect the country from terrorism. And so the panel’s report raises a pointed question: If collecting huge volumes of metadata on telephone calls from, to and within the United States doesn’t bring much benefit, just how much political capital is President Obama willing to spend to keep the program going? The review group’s finding that the much-debated metadata program hasn’t really accomplished much isn’t mentioned in the report’s executive summary or any of the 46 recommendations, but it appears, in an understated tone, about a third of the way into the 300-plus-page document.
benton.org/node/170716 | Politico
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UNITED NATIONS CALLS FOR END TO EXCESSIVE ELECTRONIC SPYING
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Michelle Nichols, Louis Charbonneau]
The United Nations General Assembly called for an end to excessive electronic surveillance and expressed concern at the harm such scrutiny, including spying in foreign states and the mass collection of personal data, may have on human rights. The call was included in a resolution drafted by Germany and Brazil which the 193-member General Assembly adopted by consensus. The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand -- known as the Five Eyes surveillance alliance -- supported the resolution after language that had initially suggested foreign spying could be a human rights violation was weakened to appease them. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, unlike resolutions of the 15-nation Security Council. But assembly resolutions that enjoy broad international support can carry significant moral and political weight.
benton.org/node/170699 | Reuters
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A BLOW AGAINST BIG BROTHER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ryan Goodman]
[Commentary] The United Nations General Assembly is expected to approve a resolution recognizing an international “right to privacy in the digital age” -- a significant political development in response to the controversy over the surveillance tactics of the United States National Security Agency. As an attempt to get governments to rein in abusive behavior, the resolution is widely viewed as a victory for that part of the political universe where liberal progressives and conservative libertarians meet. Buried in the text of the resolution, however, is a very different policy agenda, one that may surprise libertarians and delight progressives. The main controversy surrounding the resolution has been its language suggesting that governments must respect the privacy of noncitizens living in their countries. Compromise language on that score was introduced to the satisfaction of the United States government. By calling on states both to respect and protect the right to privacy, the resolution includes an expectation for member states to regulate private actors. Requiring governments to “respect” privacy rights essentially refers to negative rights -- freedom from interference by the state. Nothing earth-shattering there. Requiring governments “protect” privacy rights, however, refers to positive obligations upon the state -- a duty of the government to safeguard individuals from abuse by third parties. In United Nations circles, it is well understood that such a duty to safeguard includes protection from other private actors, including businesses. [Goodman is a professor of law at New York University]
benton.org/node/170653 | New York Times
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FISA COURT WON’T RECONSIDER DATA COLLECTION
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Andrew Zajac]
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected a request by a civil liberties watchdog group to re-examine an order authorizing the US to collect call data from phone companies. The Center for National Security Studies “has no standing to move for reconsideration of a decision,” Judge Mary McLaughlin wrote. Judge McLaughlin also rejected the center’s request that the government declassify documents explaining arguments for the legality of the data program, known as bulk telephony metadata collection. The ruling comes amid a growing debate over privacy linked to the Obama Administration’s data gathering program, overseen by the National Security Agency. A federal judge in Washington on Dec. 16 said the NSA’s telephone data surveillance program probably violates constitutional privacy rights, a ruling that may lay the foundation for the US Supreme Court to review the matter. McLaughlin’s ruling concerns the periodic reauthorization of bulk telephone data collection required under the Patriot Act, the federal law enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
benton.org/node/170718 | Bloomberg
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NSA PHONE PROGRAM ON TRIAL
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Siobhan MacDermott]
[Commentary] US District Court Judge Richard Leon has effectively handed the NSA four assignments in public relations -- crucial assignments the agency has so far avoided, evaded, or simply failed to carry out.
Define metadata: The NSA has failed to adequately differentiate it from wiretapping, voice recording, and other methods of searching or seizing communications.
Explain traffic analysis, which is the technical name for what the NSA is doing by collecting and analyzing metadata: The NSA needs to argue that James Madison et al could have imagined neither 21st-century technology nor 21st-century terrorism when they framed the Fourth Amendment. Technology and terrorism demand a redefinition of unreasonable searches and seizures.
Make the case for the effectiveness of traffic analysis and its application in the metadata program: If this cannot be done on the basis of fact, do it in theory -- with the justification that traffic analysis on a massive scale is still an evolving science and counterterrorism tool.
Open a dialogue on limiting by statute how metadata is used: Promote legislation precluding the "incidental" use of metadata in non-terrorist criminal or civil cases.
[MacDermott is Chief Policy Officer, AVG Technologies]
benton.org/node/170641 | USAToday
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PRIVACY

SNOWDEN LEAKS HAVE FINALLY FORCED COMPANIES TO ENHANCE THEIR SECURITY
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Christopher Soghoian]
[Commentary] Shortly after the news of the National Security Agency was intercepting nearly half a million of Yahoo users’ broke, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer proclaimed that “there is nothing more important to us than protecting our users’ privacy.” If that’s the case, why did it take the disclosures of Edward Snowden for the company to finally deliver industry-standard Web encryption? Why didn’t the company protect its customers from hackers using tools like Firesheep, or from the deep packet inspection equipment that we have long known governments around the world are using? The answer is that they didn’t care -- until their utter failure to deploy basic Web security was featured on the front page of the Washington Post. Yahoo isn’t the only company to up its game in response to the Snowden disclosures. Indeed, many of the big cloud computing companies -- including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others -- have started to encrypt information between data centers. They have also increased the size of their encryption keys and switched to encryption algorithms that offer “perfect forward secrecy.” The EFF’s “Encrypt the Web” report reflects the rapid embrace of security technologies by major companies. Finally, Google, Microsoft, and five other leading Web companies just formally requested that the US government rein in its use of dragnet surveillance. However, were it not for Snowden’s whistle-blowing and the brave decision by journalists to reveal technical details about some of the NSA’s activities, it’s doubtful that many companies would have made these security improvements.
[Soghoian is principal technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project]
benton.org/node/170663 | Technology Review
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SENATE REPORT WARNS OF VAST DATA MINING 'BEHIND VEIL OF SECRECY'
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
The Senate Commerce Committee released a report warning of the harms of firms that silently track and label consumers for marketing purposes. The report -- based on an investigation of nine companies that Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) initiated in 2012 -- focuses on data brokers, or companies that track consumers online and offline, and encourages continued oversight of the industry from lawmakers. The Federal Trade Commission is conducting its own investigation of data brokers and is expected to release its report in early 2014. Data brokers typically collect and sell information without consumers’ knowledge -- including about purchasing history and social media activity -- and that information can be used to target “vulnerable customers,” according to the report. Some of the companies included in the investigation sell products to marketers that label groups of consumers based on their financial vulnerability, the report said, citing labels like “Rural and Barely Making It,” “Credit Crunched: City Families” and “Tough Start: Young Single Parents.” “The use of these consumer profiles merits close review” because products that group consumers based on financial vulnerability “likely appeal to companies that sell high-cost loans and other financially risky products,” the report said. The Committee found that data brokers collect information on consumers’ purchases, health information and social media activity and get their information from publicly available data sources, social media platforms, direct input from consumers and agreements with other data-collecting companies, including retailers and financial institutions.
benton.org/node/170647 | Hill, The | Senate Commerce Committee | MarketPlace | AdWeek
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ROCKEFELLER: 'DATA BROKERS' WORSE THAN NSA SPYING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said tracking by "data brokers" is worse than surveillance by the US government. During a hearing on the data broker industry, Chairman Rockefeller compared data brokers’ tracking of Americans to government surveillance of Americans, saying the latter is less concerning. “The [National Security Agency] is so secure in its protection of privacy as compared to this group that we’re talking to, these data brokers,” he said. “It’s not even close.” Chairman Rockefeller also repeated accusations that three data brokers -- Acxiom, Experian and Epsilon -- failed to turn over information to the committee as it conducted its investigation into the data broker industry. “I’m putting these three companies on notice today,” he said, for “continuing to resist oversight” and failing to provide the requested information about where companies get information about consumers and to whom they sell that information. Sen Rockefeller said he is “considering further steps, and I have steps ... that I can take to get this information.”
benton.org/node/170695 | Hill, The
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FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE PETITION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a petition filed by Public Knowledge et al. on December 11, 2013, requesting that the FCC issue a declaratory ruling that: Non-aggregate call records that have been purged of personal identifiers but that leave customers’ individual characteristics intact are protected as individually identifiable customer proprietary network information (CPNI), and telecommunications providers -- including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile -- are prohibited from selling or sharing such records with third parties without customers’ consent. Interested parties may file comments by January 17, 2014 and reply comments on or before February 3, 2014. (WC Docket No. 13-306)
benton.org/node/170687 | Federal Communications Commission
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MARVEL, SANRIO ACCUSED OF IGNORING PRIVACY RULES MEANT TO PROTECT CHILDREN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man greet visitors to Disney’s MarvelKids Web site, but parents may be surprised to learn that these superheroes may also open the door to tools that track their children’s activities across the Web, according to complaints to be filed with the Federal Trade Commission. The filings accuse Disney’s Marvel subsidiary, as well as the Japanese firm Sanrio, of flouting new privacy rules for children by collecting personal information from users without verifying that they’re older than 13. Marvel declined to comment on the complaint. Sanrio -- known for its Hello Kitty character -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the privacy rules, which went into effect in July, parents must sign off before sites can track a child’s Internet activities or collect personal information such as photos, videos and location data. The Center for Digital Democracy, the privacy and consumer rights organization that filed the complaints, said the potential violations show that major companies are flouting the new regulations, which updated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). According to the filings, an independent researcher hired by the center found evidence that the Sanrio app and MarvelKids.com were able to collect a user’s location data and were placing persistent identifiers -- cookies or similar pieces of code that can track users’ activity across sites -- without asking for visitors’ ages.
benton.org/node/170651 | Washington Post | AdWeek
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HIGH-TECH SNOOPING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Rothfeld, Scott Patterson]
A growing industry uses surveillance and data-crunching technology to supply traders with nonpublic information. The techniques, which are perfectly legal, represent the latest advance in the longtime Wall Street practice of searching for every possible trading advantage. But the high cost of much of the new information means that some forms of trading are becoming even more the province of firms with substantial resources. Andrew Lo, a finance professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says advances in technology can make markets more efficient but also can raise questions of fairness. "It can drive less-informed investors out of the market," he says. "Is the information so valuable, and so hard to get, that only a few people can get it? That creates a barrier to entry."
benton.org/node/170706 | Wall Street Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

REPORT ATTACKS BROADBAND STIMULUS AWARD PROCESS
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The broadband stimulus program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was an “inefficient income transfer mechanism,” says a new report from the Technology Policy Institute. The report, titled “The Broadband Stimulus: A Rural Boondoggle and Missed Opportunity,” was authored by economists Greg Rosston and Scott Wallsten. Many of the NTIA-administered projects were “middle mile” projects designed to bring connectivity from fiber backbone networks to community anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and libraries. In studying project effectiveness, the report authors ranked projects based on the cost per mile. And as Rosston noted, the per-mile cost of the least cost-effective projects was 100 times higher than the per-mile cost for the most cost-effective projects. The authors argue in the report that the NTIA’s method for selecting projects “appears to have been largely incoherent” and that the best approach would have been to award funding to the most cost-effective projects -- an approach the authors say the Federal Communications Commission used effectively in awarding funding through the recent mobility fund auction. The authors raise some good points about project cost-effectiveness, although it might have been more appropriate to rank projects based on the number of community anchor institutions connected per dollar. I suspect any rural residents or advocates who read the report will have difficulty getting through it without grinding their teeth, however, as the authors have to some extent a rather anti-rural attitude. They argue, for example, that “rural subsidies take money from urban customers and give [it] to rural residents and companies serving rural residents,” that “there is little economic rationale for subsidizing rural areas” and that “subsidy money for rural areas ultimately results in either a transfer to rural landowners or rural service providers.”
benton.org/node/170683 | telecompetitor
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THE MISSION TO DECENTRALIZE THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Joshua Kopstein]
[Commentary] In the 1970s, the Internet was a small, decentralized collective of computers. This is not the Internet we know today. Nearly two decades later, a staggering percentage of communications flow through a small set of corporations -- and thus, under the profound influence of those companies and other institutions. Google, for instance, now comprises twenty-five percent of all North American Internet traffic; an outage last August caused worldwide traffic to plummet by around forty per cent. Internet users now regularly submit to terms-of-service agreements that give companies license to share their personal data with other institutions, from advertisers to governments. In the US, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a law that predates the Web, allows law enforcement to obtain without a warrant private data that citizens entrust to third parties -- including location data passively gathered from cell phones and the contents of e-mails that have either been opened or left unattended for a hundred and eighty days. As Edward Snowden’s leaks have shown, these vast troves of information allow intelligence agencies to focus on just a few key targets in order to monitor large portions of the world’s population. Despite recent efforts by corporations to guarantee more transparency and to close back doors from snooping, an air of distrust surrounds the US cloud industry. One solution, espoused by some programmers, is to make the Internet more like it used to be -- less centralized and more distributed. Though Snowden has raised the profile of privacy technology, it will be up to engineers and their allies to make distributed-server technology for emails and viable for the masses. “Discussions about innovation, resilience, open protocols, data ownership and the numerous surrounding issues,” said Irina Bolychevsky, an organizer for Redecentralize.org, an advocacy group that provides support for projects that aim to make the Web less centralized, “need to become mainstream if we want the Internet to stay free, democratic, and engaging.”
benton.org/node/170664 | New Yorker
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

VERIZON, T-MOBILE WILL SWAP UNUSED AIRWAVES TO IMPROVE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Scott Moritz]
Verizon and T-Mobile will swap airwave licenses in 518 US counties covering about 133 cities and towns, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The exchange involves spectrum types known as advanced wireless service, or AWS, and high-band personal communications service, or PCS. The deal is about tidying up the carriers’ spectrum, so that their airwaves aren’t in scattered patches, said Walt Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG.
benton.org/node/170697 | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION

SPORTS BLACKOUT RULES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the Federal Communications Commission proposes to eliminate the Commission’s sports blackout rules, which prohibit certain multichannel video programming distributors (MPVDs) from retransmitting, within a protected local blackout zone, the signal of a distant broadcast station carrying a live sporting event if the event is not available live on a local television broadcast station. The sports blackout rules were originally adopted nearly 40 years ago when game ticket sales were the main source of revenue for sports leagues. These rules were intended to address concerns that MVPDs’ importation of a distant signal carrying a blacked-out sports event could result in lost revenue from ticket sales, which might cause sports leagues to expand the reach of blackouts by refusing to sell their rights to sports events to all distant stations. The rationale underpinning the rules was to ensure to the greatest extent possible the continued availability of sports telecasts to the public. Changes in the sports industry in the last four decades have called into question whether the sports blackout rules remain necessary to ensure the overall availability of sports programming to the general public. In this proceeding, the FCC will determine whether the sports blackout rules have become outdated due to marketplace changes since their adoption, and whether modification or elimination of those rules is appropriate. The FCC seeks comment on whether it has authority to repeal the sports blackout rules. Next, it examines whether the economic considerations that led to adoption of the sports blackout rules continue to justify the intervention in this area. Finally, the FCC proposes to eliminate the sports blackout rules and seek comment on the potential benefits and harms of that proposed action on interested parties, including sports leagues, broadcasters, and consumers.
benton.org/node/170689 | Federal Communications Commission | The Hill | The Verge
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MAPPING MAJOR BROADCASTERS' GROWING TV STATION FOOTPRINTS: 2013 VS. 2012
[SOURCE: SNL, AUTHOR: Sarah James, Mike Donohoe]
With 2013 not yet over, SNL Kagan has counted $10.9 billion worth of broadcast TV deals through Nov. 30, involving 270 full-power stations and 265 low-power stations. By comparison, the entirety of 2012 saw broadcast TV deals totaling roughly $2 billion, and 2011 saw deals totaling only $527 million. There are myriad factors that have driven the uptick in consolidation, including strong balance sheets on the part of certain broadcasters and access to cheap debt, but perhaps the most important is retransmission consent fees. Moody's senior analyst Carl Salas noted in a report earlier in 2013, "The recent pickup in broadcast M&A activity reflects the buyer's ability to charge higher retransmission fees for most, if not all, of its acquired stations immediately upon closing, and with little risk." He added, "Both buyers and sellers stand to benefit, as buyers, armed with more favorable retransmission agreements, can offer sellers generous multiples for the chance to gain these arbitrage opportunities." As an example, Salas said it was easy to imagine a group of stations earning retransmission fees of 25 cents per subscriber per month being sold to a larger company that is able to earn retransmission fees of 67 cents per subscriber per month. Upon closing or soon thereafter, the new owner would likely be able to raise the fees earned by the acquired stations, immediately increasing their value and profitability. "That is what is allowing this consolidation to happen," Salas said. "Because we can see who's buying who and what the financials are, [we know] this is representative of what you're getting."
benton.org/node/170675 | SNL
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TELECOM

POOR AMERICANS LEAD SHIFT TO WIRELESS HOMES ABANDONING LANDLINES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Alex Barinka]
Poor adults in the US continue to lead the shift to wireless-only homes, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 55 percent of adults whose income falls below the poverty line had only mobile phones in their homes during the first half of 2013, up 2.9 percentage points from the year before, according to the report. That compares with 35 percent of individuals whose incomes are at least double the poverty threshold. The research shows the portion of all wireless-only households rose to 39 percent from 27 percent in the same period three years ago, while the portion of homes with both landlines and mobile phones fell to 50 percent from 58 percent. The portion of individuals in wireless households, whose incomes are at least double the poverty threshold, gained 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier, the report said.
As consumers move from landlines to wireless phones, low-cost and contract-free carriers -- like billionaire Carlos Slim’s TracFone Wireless -- have attracted attention over Lifeline, the $2.2 billion US phone subsidy for poor Americans. Congressional Republicans earlier in 2013 tried to rein in the program, saying it’s open to abuse and benefits the providers. The Federal Communication Commission’s program subsidizes telephone service -- either wireline or wireless -- for recipients who can’t earn more than 135 percent of the federal poverty line, defined as $23,550 for a family of four in most states. Started in 1985, the Lifeline program pays carriers $9.25 per customer a month.
benton.org/node/170670 | Bloomberg | nextgov
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CONTROVERSIAL MICHIGAN LANDLINE PHONE LEGISLATION ADVANCES
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Brian Heaton]
An effort to make it easier for telecommunications companies to stop offering landline phone service appears to be succeeding in Michigan. Legislation that would amend the Michigan Telecommunications Act to streamline the process companies have to go through to discontinue basic local exchange or toll service passed through the Michigan Senate and is now being evaluated by the state’s House of Representatives. If signed into law, the bill’s provisions would go into effect after Jan 1, 2017. Sponsored by Sen Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek), Senate Bill 636 has been categorized by some as a death knell for traditional hardwired phone service. But Sen Nofs and some providers feel the bill protects landlines for those that need them, at the same time giving companies the flexibility to transition to a more cellular-based platform of services, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. Sen Nofs described the problem as a matter of companies supporting multiple systems and whether it is right to require them to keep investing in “antiquated technology.” In addition, the Free Press reported that FCC data indicates the number of landline customers in Michigan dropped from 6.7 million in 2000 to 2.6 million in 2012. “The Internet has changed the way the world works, and it has already changed how millions of people talk on the phone,” Sen Nofs said in a statement. “This bill ensures our constituents are protected while delivering new and improved technology. It’s the best of both worlds.” Not everyone is buying that rationale, however. AARP of Michigan, for one, opposes SB 636, citing concern for older adults who likely rely more on landlines for social contact along with health and safety. The organization noted that residents with home security systems or medical monitoring needs that run through landlines might be in jeopardy.
benton.org/node/170649 | Government Technology
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CEO OF FRONTIER EXPECTS AT&T ACQUISITION TO BE LESS OF A STRUGGLE THAN SIMILAR DEALS
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Sarah Cohen]
Billion dollar acquisitions of old access lines usually take a toll on rural local exchange carriers like Frontier Communications. But CEO of Frontier, Maggie Wilderotter, said the company’s $2 billion acquisition of AT&T access lines in Connecticut is more manageable than similar deals, including Frontier’s acquisition of Verizon access lines for $8.6 billion in 2008. Previous acquisitions of access lines have burdened acquirers with declining businesses and high costs of upgrading substandard phone lines in areas big phone companies felt disinclined to maintain. Wilderotter said the AT&T transaction comes with a number of differences to its Verizon transaction. In the case of AT&T, Frontier is purchasing assets in one state, only 20% of its business, a state in which Frontier has operated for 70 years. The Verizon deal covered 14 states and tripled Frontier’s size. Another difference is Frontier has a partnership with AT&T and knows these Connecticut customers. “We’ve done everything we can to mitigate risk,” said Wilderotter. “We’re a seasoned team. This deal is easy to do compared to others. And these are also good assets. Not fixer uppers.”
benton.org/node/170666 | Forbes | Fierce | CT Mirror
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JOURNALISM

UNDER AMAZON'S CIA CLOUD: THE WASHINGTON POST
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Norman Solomon]
News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper's CIA coverage are left in the dark. The Post's new owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder and CEO of Amazon -- which recently landed a $600 million contract with the CIA. But the Post's articles about the CIA are not disclosing that the newspaper's sole owner is the main owner of CIA business partner Amazon. Even for a multibillionaire like Bezos, a $600 million contract is a big deal. That's more than twice as much as Bezos paid to buy the Post four months ago. And there's likely to be plenty more where that CIA largesse came from. Amazon's offer wasn't the low bid, but it won the CIA contract anyway by offering advanced high-tech "cloud" infrastructure. Bezos personally and publicly touts Amazon Web Services, and it's evident that Amazon will be seeking more CIA contracts. In November 2013, Amazon issued a statement saying, "We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA."
benton.org/node/170681 | Huffington Post
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EDUCATION

PCAST CONSIDERS MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES (MOOCS) AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Jim Gates, Craig Mundie, Shirley Jackson]
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a letter report to the President about opportunities for advanced education technologies to improve educational outcomes and lower costs in higher education. The report, which builds on insights from PCAST members and additional outside experts, underscores the promise of new high-tech educational tools and advocates for continued experimentation in the education technology domain. Access to higher education is an important pathway to success in almost any field. According to a report released by the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center, over the past decade, tuition and fees at public, four-year colleges have risen 5.1% per year faster than the rate of inflation. This troubling trend puts a college education out of reach for many young people in America, especially those from middle-class or low-income families. In its new report, PCAST explores the potential of recent advances in technology -- with a focus on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) -- to expand access to higher education opportunities and to address other challenges facing America’s higher education system. PCAST recommends three key steps the Federal Government can take to derive maximum benefits from new education technologies:
Let market forces decide which innovations in online teaching and learning are best.
Encourage accrediting bodies to be flexible in response to educational innovation.
Support research and the sharing of results on effective teaching and learning.
benton.org/node/170635 | White House, The | read PCAST letter | Infographic | College Board
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DATA MINING EXPOSES EMBARRASSING PROBLEMS FOR MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: ]
Christopher Brinton at Princeton University studied the behavior in online discussion forums of over 100,000 students taking massive open online courses (or MOOCs). Participation falls precipitously and continuously throughout a course and almost half of registered students never post more than twice to the forums. What’s more, the participation of a teacher doesn’t improve matters. Indeed, there is some evidence that a teacher’s participation in an online discussion actually increases the rate of decline. Brinton studied the discussion threads associated with 73 courses offered by Coursera. These involved 115,000 students who wrote over 800,000 posts in 170,000 different threads. The team then plotted how the volume of discussion varied through the course and what factors correlate with this decline. Brinton found various correlations with the drop. One of these is the amount of peer-graded homework on the course, a factor which moderately increases the rate of decline. More worrying is the discovery that teacher involvement in a thread seems to accelerate the decline (although it also increases the number of posts).
benton.org/node/170691 | Technology Review | Cornell University Library
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

SUSPEND US CLOUD DATA DEAL, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S CIVIL LIBERTIES COMMITTEE SAYS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
Europe should suspend the Safe Harbor agreement with the US that allows American cloud firms to handle the data of European Union citizens, the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee proposed in a set of draft recommendations. The committee has, for months, been hearing evidence about surveillance of Europeans by the National Security Agency and EU countries’ own governments. The inquiry is now on a holiday break, but Claude Moraes -- the Member of the European Parliament leading the committee -- presented draft conclusions that, if all goes well, will be up for a parliamentary vote in late February. One of the biggest recommendations is for the Safe Harbor to be suspended. Under the current agreement, US firms can self-certify to say they comply with EU-strength data protection standards, even if their country’s laws do not. However, NSA leaker Edward Snowden has shown that EU citizens’ data is far from protected when traveling through US firms’ systems, and German privacy officials have already called for its suspension. According to the draft recommendations, the European Commission should “re-negotiate new, appropriate data protection standards.” The Commission should also suspend the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP), which involves the limited handing-over of Europeans’ banking data to the US, the committee said.
benton.org/node/170633 | GigaOm
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