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October 2014

Chicago Sun-Times reporters to owners: We want answers

Chicago Sun-Times journalists, who watched one of their political reporters resign, are asking the newspaper's owners for reassurance that they won't seek to influence editorial content.

The request comes in a petition that's also posted on the reporters' union website. It follows the exit of Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney, who in his resignation letter questioned whether the newsroom is insulated from owners' interests. McKinney quit Oct. 22 after management pulled him from his beat after a story he co-wrote was unfavorable to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner. Rauner is a former investor in the newspaper's parent company, Chicago-based Wrapports LLC, which is led by Chairman Michael Ferro and CEO Tim Knight.

FCC Chairman’s Reflections on this week's ITU discussions

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.

Apple’s Tim Cook reports ‘very open’ privacy talks with Chinese

Apple CEO Tim Cook says he had a “very open” and “impressive” conversation with a top Chinese leader just days after reports that China may have launched cyberattacks on Apple to steal users’ information. Cook told the official Xinhua news service that his meeting with Vice Premier Ma Kai touched on privacy and data security issues, but declined to go into further detail about the discussions. "China is a really key market for us," Cook told Xinhua. "Everything we do, we are going to work it here.”

Elections Matter, Don’t They?

[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?

Nearly 80% of US Households Get Broadband at Home

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

Rep Hal Rogers leads tour to tout the benefit of better broadband in southern and Eastern Kentucky

US Rep Hal Rogers (R-KY) led a tour to showcase the potential for much-improved broadband service to boost economic development in southern and Eastern Kentucky. The tour was part of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region initiative, which Rep Rogers and Gov Steve Beshear (D-KY) started in 2013 to try to diversify the economy in Eastern Kentucky, crippled by the loss of half its coal jobs since early 2012.

The initiative is promoting a project that would cost up to $200 million to build 3,000 miles of fiber-optic infrastructure across the state, starting in Eastern Kentucky. The Internet pipeline would come from the Cincinnati area down Interstate 75 and branch off at several points through the eastern end of the state, Rep Rogers said.

Out of money, West Virginia broadband council ends 5-year run

After a five-year run, the West Virginia Broadband Deployment Council likely held its last meeting Oct 22.

In 2009, then-Gov. Joe Manchin (D-WV), now a US senator, established the Broadband Deployment Council to fund projects that would make high-speed Internet available to West Virginia’s most remote areas. State lawmakers set aside $5 million for the council to spend. The council is set to disband Dec. 31, after the Legislature rejected repeated requests to provide additional funding for the group.

The Council released a financial statement that showed a wireless Internet provider in Wheeling and an out-of-state consultant received the bulk of the council’s grants. StratusWave, which serves businesses and residential customers in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle, picked up $2.2 million in grants, or 44 percent of the $5 million the council has distributed over the years. StratusWave received nine of the 11 grants funded by the council. The grant money is being used to expand high-speed Internet in West Virginia. The council also previously awarded $713,000 to Bridgeport-based Citynet, which plans to expand Internet service at Snowshoe Mountain resort, and $57,528 to 3WLogic, a wireless Internet provider headquartered in Buckhannon. The broadband council paid nearly $2 million, or 40 percent of its total funds, to a Pennslvania-based consultant, L.R. Kimball. The firm managed the council’s grant program. The council, which has no full-time staff, also spent $20,000 on lawyers with the attorney general’s office, and $13,800 for “miscellaneous expenses,” according to the financial statement.

Verizon Wireless injects identifiers that link its users to Web requests

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.

Broadcasting Board of Governors

Thursday, October 30, 2014
9:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. EDT
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-10-24/pdf/2014-25381.pdf

The Board will vote on a consent agenda consisting of the minutes of its August 13, 2014 meeting and a resolution to propose Board meeting dates in 2015.

The Board will consider establishing a new Board special committee on the future of the Voice of America.


Weekly Digest

Elections Matter, Don’t They?

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?

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