October 27, 2014 (How affordable is broadband?)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014
This week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2014-10-26--P1W/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
How affordable is broadband? - analysis
Nearly 80% of US Households Get Broadband at Home - press release
Rep Hal Rogers leads tour to tout the benefit of better broadband in southern and Eastern Kentucky [links to web]
Out of money, West Virginia broadband council ends 5-year run [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Incentive Auction Progress Report - FCC press release
AT&T Confirms Apple SIM Gets Locked to Its Network, but Says Switching Carriers Still Easy
OWNERSHIP
Five Reasons Why Critics of Comcast’s Time Warner Cable Deal Are Feeling Hopeful - analysis
Comcast: Broadband battleground
How Facebook Is Changing the Way Its Users Consume Journalism
DIVERSITY
Three blacks, one Hispanic sit on major high-tech boards
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Elections Matter, Don’t They? - Kevin Taglang analysis
TV stations strike election gold [links to web]
3 ways this election could transform money in politics - op-ed [links to web]
Chicago Sun-Times reporters to owners: We want answers [links to web]
PRIVACY
FCC Plans $10 Million Fine for Carriers that Breached Consumer Privacy - press release
Verizon Wireless injects identifiers that link its users to Web requests
LABOR
More Federal Employees are Teleworking More Often [links to web]
RADIO
At Lambeau Field, Green Bay Packers Fans Still Appreciate Radio, Mounted on Ears [links to web]
LOBBYING
Secretive funding fuels ongoing net neutrality astroturfing controversy
Tech political giving ticks off Silicon Valley liberals
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Cable customers startled by 'Emergency Alerts' [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US Inquiry Sought in Police Treatment of Press at Ferguson Protests
STORIES FROM ABROAD
FCC Chairman’s Reflections on this week's ITU discussions - Chairman Wheeler press release
US Fights Critiques of How Web Is Managed
In the Fight Against Ebola, Connectivity Can Save Lives - analysis
Egyptian Media to Limit Criticism of Government
Apple’s Tim Cook reports ‘very open’ privacy talks with Chinese [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
HOW AFFORDABLE IS BROADBAND
[SOURCE: World Bank, AUTHOR: Arturo Muente-Kunigami]
There are approximately 20 countries where, despite having broadband prices below five percent of their average income, broadband is still unaffordable for the bottom 40 percent (see, for example, China). In fact, only 29 countries out of the 75 studied can claim under this analysis that broadband is affordable for the 100 percent of their population. It is also interesting to note that there are 14 countries where the monthly price of broadband is more than 100 percent of the average monthly income. Moreover, there are 39 countries with an estimated aggregated population of more than 840 million people that have broadband prices higher than five percent of monthly income for all deciles – that is, unaffordable for close to 100 percent of the population (see, for example, Iraq above). Taking into account this analysis by deciles and applying it to all the countries, an estimated 3.5 billion people do not have access to affordable fixed broadband. The analysis shows that almost 3.5 billion people are being left without affordable broadband, spread all over the world. Further analysis at the country level should be carried out to determine the different options to make broadband more affordable.
benton.org/headlines/how-affordable-broadband | World Bank
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NEARLY 80% OF US HOUSEHOLDS GET BROADBAND AT HOME
[SOURCE: Leichtman Research Group, AUTHOR: Press release]
79% of US households get a broadband Internet service at home, an increase from 20% in 2004. Broadband now accounts for 95% of all households with Internet service at home -- an increase from 94% last year, 89% in 2009, and 33% in 2004. The mean reported time spent online at home per day is 2.8 hours among all individuals online at home -- up from 2.2 hours per day in 2009. Among those online, ages 18-34 spend, on average, 3.3 hours per day online at home, compared to 2.8 hours per day among those ages 35-54, and 2.1 hours per day among ages 55 and above. For the first time ever in this study, the 18-34 age group overall reports spending more time per day online at home than time spent watching TV. Other related findings include:
84% of households get an Internet service at home -- similar to recent years
63% of adults access the Internet on a smartphone -- up from 44% in 2012
59% get Internet service at home and on a smartphone -- up from 42% in 2012
24% of all not online at home access the Internet on a smartphone -- compared to 19% last year, and 12% in 2012
2% of households paid to subscribe to Internet service at home in the past year, do not currently subscribe, and do not plan to subscribe again in the next six months
41% of households with annual incomes <$30,000 do not use a laptop or desktop computer at home -- compared to 9% with incomes >$30,000
2% of all households have an iPad or tablet, but do not use a desktop or laptop computer
benton.org/headlines/nearly-80-us-households-get-broadband-home | Leichtman Research Group
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
INCENTIVE AUCTION PROGRESS REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Gary Epstein]
When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler arrived at the FCC, he described the incentive auction as taking a cutting edge concept to market on deadline. Now is a good time to take stock of where we are and where we are going. It is also time to carefully consider and recalibrate our proposed timing for the commencement of the incentive auction. There are undeniable impediments to FCC efforts to implement a successful auction. As Chairman Wheeler indicated several weeks ago, the court challenges to the auction rules by some broadcasters have introduced uncertainty. The court issued a briefing schedule in which the final briefs are not due until late January 2015. Oral arguments will follow at a later date yet to be determined, with a decision not likely until mid-2015. We are confident we will prevail in court, but given the reality of that schedule, the complexity of designing and implementing the auction, and the need for all auction participants to have certainty well in advance of the auction, we now anticipate accepting applications for the auction in the fall of 2015 and starting the auction in early 2016. Despite this brief delay, we remain focused on the path to successfully implementing the incentive auction.
benton.org/headlines/incentive-auction-progress-report | Federal Communications Commission
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APPLE’S NEW SIM CARD
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
One of the big changes with the latest iPad was the arrival of the Apple SIM, which lets customers buy an iPad and then choose with which carrier they want to use it. Though not mentioned onstage, the Apple SIM was quickly highlighted as a big shift. It suggested to some the possibility of an exciting new future in which customers paying full price for their device could effortlessly hop from network to network whenever they want. The picture gets a little less rosy when you consider that Verizon requires a separate SIM. The idea of easily switching back and forth among carriers took another hit when it became clear that AT&T was participating in the Apple SIM but is choosing to lock that SIM to the network once a customer uses it on AT&T. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel confirmed that customers who use the Apple SIM on AT&T will need another SIM card to switch carriers, but stressed that the device itself remains unlocked. “With us you can change carriers with this iPad any time you want,” he said. “It is an unlocked device. … All [you] have to do is switch out the SIM in the device so it works on another carrier.” As for why AT&T is locking the SIM card to its network while other carriers are not, Siegel said that “it’s just simply the way we’ve chosen to do it.”
benton.org/headlines/att-confirms-apple-sim-gets-locked-its-network-says-switching-carriers-still-easy | Revere Digital | ars technica
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OWNERSHIP
COMCAST-TWC
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
[Commentary] Critics of Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable sounding cautiously optimistic it’ll either be killed or heavily conditioned. Here’s why:
Many, Many Complaints: The Federal Communications Commission has already gotten 81,000 comments, mostly from consumers. And at least 19 parties have asked regulators to kill the acquisition, including Dish Networks, Netflix, Frontier Communications and Internet backbone provider Cogent Communications.
Conditions? What Conditions? Regulators are taking a closer look at industry complaints that Comcast hasn’t abided by conditions imposed on its acquisition of NBCUniversal three years ago.
National or Local? Some senior FCC officials always viewed the Comcast-TWC deal as more of a deal about Internet access. That’s why FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s recent speech about how the residential broadband market isn’t very competitive was seen as a bad thing for Comcast.
Some Call It Extortion: Comcast’s extraordinary attack on some competitors -- saying they have tried to extort the cable giant -- raised eyebrows. Comcast’s critics point to evidence that complaints about the deal are gaining traction and that Comcast is sweating.
Ties to Network Neutrality: The FCC is currently rewriting the net neutrality rules, and while it doesn’t have anything directly to do with the Comcast deal, political considerations are likely to tie the two together.
benton.org/headlines/five-reasons-why-critics-comcasts-time-warner-cable-deal-are-feeling-hopeful | Revere Digital
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COMCAST: BROADBAND BATTLEGROUND
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Garrahan]
Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable is being studied by regulators, who are expected to decide whether to approve it by 2015. If the deal goes ahead, it will create the world’s biggest provider of broadband and cable television services, reshaping the media landscape in the process. The prospect of an enlarged Comcast -- which will leapfrog Walt Disney as the world’s largest media company -- has sparked anxiety among content companies. The recent, shortlived $71 billion bid for Time Warner, owner of HBO and CNN, from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox was driven in part by a need to create a company big enough to stare down Comcast in negotiations on distribution over its cable systems. A combined Comcast-TWC will supply some of the largest metropolitan areas in the US with cable television services and, more significantly, will be the largest provider of fixed-line, high-speed internet access. More than 40 percent of homes with speeds of 10 mbps – which is necessary to view streaming video services such as Netflix -- will get their broadband service from Comcast-TWC. For fixed-line homes capable of receiving speeds of 50 mbps, the combined company’s share will jump to almost 60 percent, according to Free Press. The proposed merger of the top two cable providers has generated a storm of protest.
benton.org/headlines/comcast-broadband-battleground | Financial Times
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FACEBOOK AND JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ravi Somaiya]
Facebook is increasingly becoming to the news business what Amazon is to book publishing -- a behemoth that provides access to hundreds of millions of consumers and wields enormous power. About 30 percent of adults in the United States get their news on Facebook, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. The fortunes of a news site, in short, can rise or fall depending on how it performs in Facebook’s News Feed. Though other services, like Twitter and Google News, can also exert a large influence, Facebook is at the forefront of a fundamental change in how people consume journalism. Most readers now come to it not through the print editions of newspapers and magazines or their home pages online, but through social media and search engines driven by an algorithm, a mathematical formula that predicts what users might want to read. It is a world of fragments, filtered by code and delivered on demand.
benton.org/headlines/how-facebook-changing-way-its-users-consume-journalism | New York Times | David Carr commentary
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DIVERSITY
BOARD DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Three blacks and one Hispanic sit on the boards of 20 major technology companies. That's according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which surveyed the companies. In all, four out of 189 directors are black or Hispanic, the survey found. Eleven of the 20 companies -- including Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, eBay and Google -- have no one of color on their boards. Just three companies -- Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com -- have a black or Hispanic on their boards, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. That means 1.6% of board members at major high-tech companies are black and .5% are Hispanic. By way of comparison, blacks hold 7.4% and Hispanics hold 3.3% of board seats in the Fortune 500, according to the Alliance for Board Diversity.
benton.org/headlines/three-blacks-one-hispanic-sit-major-high-tech-boards | USAToday
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
ELECTIONS MATTER, DON’T THEY?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Michelle Quinn of the San Jose Mercury News wrote on October 17 that the tech industry's interest in Washington may be about to perk up. The status quo in Washington has meant that movement on many key issues has stalled. We’re less than two weeks from Election Day 2014 and deciding which party will control Congress for the next two years. Nate Silver gives Republicans a 66% chance of winning a majority of seats in the Senate which would give the party control of both Houses. What would that mean for telecommunications and technology policy?
http://benton.org/blog/elections-matter-dont-they
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PRIVACY
FCC PLANS $10 MILLION FINE FOR CARRIERS THAT BREACHED CONSUMER PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission intends to fine TerraCom, Inc. and YourTel America, Inc. $10 million for several violations of laws protecting the privacy of phone customers’ personal information. According to an investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, TerraCom and YourTel apparently stored Social Security numbers, names, addresses, driver’s licenses, and other sensitive information belonging to their customers on unprotected Internet servers that anyone in the world could access. The information was gathered to demonstrate eligibility for the Lifeline program, which is a Universal Service Fund program that provides discounted phone services for low-income consumers. The companies allegedly breached the personal data of up to 305,000 consumers through their lax data security practices and exposed those consumers to identity theft and fraud. This is the FCC’s first data security case and the largest privacy action in the FCC’s history.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-plans-10-million-fine-carriers-breached-consumer-privacy | Federal Communications Commission | FCC cancels Enforcement Meeting
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VERIZON WIRELESS PRIVACY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Robert Lemos]
Verizon Wireless is adding cookie-like tokens to Web requests traveling over its network. These tokens are being used to build a detailed picture of users’ interests and to help clients tailor advertisements, according to researchers and Verizon’s own documentation. The profiling, part of Verizon’s Precision Market Insights division, kicked off more than two years ago and expanded to cover all Verizon Wireless subscribers as part of the company’s Relevant Mobile Advertising service. It appends a per-device token known as the Unique Identifier Header (UIDH) to each Web request sent through its cellular network from a particular mobile device, allowing Verizon to link a website visitor to its own internal profiles. The service aims to allow client websites to target advertising at specific segments of the consumer market. Privacy experts recently began warning of the issue, arguing that the service is essentially tracking users and that companies paid for a fundamental service should not be using the data for secondary purposes.
benton.org/headlines/verizon-wireless-injects-identifiers-link-its-users-web-requests | Ars Technica
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LOBBYING
NET NEUTRALITY AUSTROTURFING
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The contentious debate about network neutrality in the US has sparked controversy over a lack of funding transparency for advocacy groups and think tanks, which critics say subverts the political process. News stories from a handful of publications in recent months have accused some think tanks and advocacy groups of "astroturfing" -- quietly shilling for large broadband carriers. In a handful of cases, those criticisms appear to have some merit, although the term is so overused by people looking to discredit political opponents that it has nearly lost its original meaning. Critics of astroturfing -- defined as hiding the sponsors of a message or group as a way to make it appear to have grassroots support -- say it twists political debate by making some positions appear to be more popular with the public than they really may be. Groups that hide their funding open themselves up to accusations of astroturfing and questions about credibility. An IDG News Service investigation has found a mixed record of funding transparency at prominent think tanks and advocacy groups involved in the net neutrality debate.
benton.org/headlines/secretive-funding-fuels-ongoing-net-neutrality-astroturfing-controversy | IDG News Service
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TECH AND POLITICAL GIVING
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Silicon Valley’s power players have learned that Washington can be a political asset -- and a cultural hazard. Google, Facebook and other tech giants have been spending furiously inside the Beltway as they seek sweeping changes to the country’s patent, privacy and immigration laws. But as these companies angle to improve their political fortunes, they’ve also backed candidates and causes that are at odds with the beliefs of the larger tech community back home -- and the industry has faced plenty of criticism as a result. For well-established Washington insiders, these strange bedfellows are merely the price of doing business. But for tech companies, still learning to navigate politics, the new relationships are the subject of serious friction and scorn.
benton.org/headlines/tech-political-giving-ticks-silicon-valley-liberals | Politico
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
THE PRESS IN FERGUSON
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
Compiling 52 accusations of violations of the freedom of the press during the protests in Ferguson (MO) after the killing of Michael Brown, the PEN American Center is calling on the Justice Department to investigate the local police forces’ treatment of the news media. Such an investigation, a report by the organization said, would “shed essential light on the factors that drove law enforcement officers in Ferguson to infringe on media freedoms,” and should lead to new guidelines from the Justice Department for police departments in the United States “on respect for media freedoms during public demonstrations.”
benton.org/headlines/us-inquiry-sought-police-treatment-press-ferguson-protests | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
FCC AND ITU
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Every four years, the International Telecommunication Union holds a Plenipotentiary Conference to address the strategic direction of the ITU on telecommunications issues. I have just spent several days in Busan, Korea at this year's conference, working side by side with other USG officials, including head of delegation Ambassador Danny Sepulveda from the State Department, Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling from NTIA, Assistant Secretary Andy Ozment from DHS, and my colleague from the FCC, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. I came away from these meetings with a few key points.
First, virtually every regulator emphasized how important it is to get broadband to rural and remote areas of their countries - to promote economic development, education and effective healthcare. Not just connectivity, but broadband.
A second shared challenge is the difficulty of freeing spectrum for more efficient uses.
Third, every session included a spirited discussion about the challenges regulators face as they grapple with regulatory frameworks from a circuit-switched world trying to keep up with a fast-evolving IP environment.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairmans-reflections-weeks-itu-discussions | Federal Communications Commission
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HOW THE WEB IS MANAGED
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Drew FitzGerald]
US officials are fighting off another upswell of dissent from countries irked by the way the Internet is managed. The latest debate at the International Telecommunication Union’s conference in Busan, South Korea, could eventually determine whether the United Nations agency in charge of radio and telephone standards claims a role in setting rules for the Internet, too. More than 190 nations are haggling at the summit, which entered its formal debate phase over the weekend. The main argument covers whether the ITU’s mandate covering “information and communication technology” specifically includes the Internet, a network that didn’t exist for most of the organization’s 149-year history. US officials and their allies are working to keep the Web separate, while countries including Russia and several Arab states have filed resolutions that would give the ITU a stronger hand.
benton.org/headlines/us-fights-critiques-how-web-managed | Wall Street Journal
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CONNECTIVITY AND EBOLA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Christopher Mims]
[Commentary] If we want to stop the next pandemic, connecting the world’s poorest to the most effective communication method ever invented is a good place to start.
benton.org/headlines/fight-against-ebola-connectivity-can-save-lives | Wall Street Journal
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EGYPTIAN MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Kirkpatrick, Merna Thomas]
A group of Egyptian newspaper editors pledged to limit their criticism of state institutions, a day after Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, warned of a “conspiracy” behind a militant attack that killed at least 31 soldiers. The editors said they condemned the attack, which occurred in the Sinai Peninsula, while promising to confront the “hostile culture toward the national project and the foundations of the Egyptian state.” The statement raised the likelihood of growing limits on dissent, and appeared to be an attempt to please President Sisi, who drastically sharpened his own tone in dealing with the simmering Islamist insurgency centered in the Sinai Peninsula that escalated after the military takeover in July 2013.
benton.org/headlines/egyptian-media-limit-criticism-government | New York Times
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