October 2014

Twenty-First Quarterly Status Report to Congress Regarding BTOP

Pursuant to Section 6001(d)(4) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law No. 111-5), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration provides this Quarterly Report on the status of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This Report focuses on the Program’s activities from January 1 to March 31, 2014. As of March 31, 2014, 82 projects remained in active status, and 198 projects had completed their project activities.

Lynn Chadwick, Federal Program Officer, State Broadband Initiative

You could say Lynn Chadwick’s career has come full circle. After spending the early part of her career in community radio, she found herself in 2001 once again working with community telecommunications -- this time from the federal perspective when she began working at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration first in the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP). Now, working as a federal program officer for NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI), Chadwick’s focus is on helping states use broadband technology to better compete in the digital economy and assist states in gathering data twice a year on the availability of broadband in their communities.

Hong Kong Protests Propel FireChat Phone-to-Phone App

The idea behind FireChat is to enable smartphones to speak directly to each other -- whether or not there is a working cellular or Wi-Fi connection -- through the small Bluetooth or Wi-Fi radios in the phones themselves.

To the tech-savvy democracy protesters in Hong Kong, FireChat has offered the potential to stay connected and organized even if the authorities shut down cellphone service. Thus far, cellphone service in Hong Kong has been untouched, but FireChat has come in handy nonetheless: The center of the city -- where thousands of protesters are concentrated -- has stressed and strained cellphone service. According to Open Garden, during the week of protests there have been millions of chats in Hong Kong through FireChat, and the app has been downloaded several hundred thousand times.

To Reach China, LinkedIn Plays by Local Rules

For American technology companies from Microsoft to Facebook to Google, China is a difficult, even impossible, place to operate. But one company, the social network LinkedIn, has found a way to do business -- by being willing to compromise on the free expression that is the backbone of life on the Western Internet.

Antitrust Nominee in Europe Promises Scrutiny of Big Tech Companies

The nominee to become the next antitrust chief for the European Union has said that keeping a close eye on American technology titans like Google and Apple will be among her top priorities if she is confirmed.

Margrethe Vestager, a former Danish economy minister, told lawmakers at the European Parliament that Google was “a business with a huge, huge, huge market share,” and she signaled that she would look more deeply into whether amassing data was a factor entrenching the strength of digital companies like Google. Personal data “is the new currency of the Internet,” Vestager told the Parliament’s influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. “We should engage in not only fact-finding but much deeper understanding of these markets.”

Facebook Receives European Approval for $19 Billion WhatsApp Deal

Facebook is nearing the finish line of its $19 billion acquisition of the Internet messaging service WhatsApp. Europe’s competition authorities approved the deal despite vocal opposition from telecom companies, which voiced concerns that the deal would harm their messaging and voice businesses. The unanimous approval, which follows a similar green light from the American authorities in April, is the final step before the acquisition can be completed. The deal is now expected to close within the next couple of months, if not earlier.

Putin Supports Project to ‘Secure’ Russia Internet

President Vladimir V. Putin appeared to throw his support behind a plan to isolate the Internet in Russia from the rest of the World Wide Web, but said the Russian government was “not even considering” censoring Internet sites.

In a speech to the Russian National Security Council, Putin said the plan was intended to build a backup system to keep websites in the Russian domains -- those ending in .ru and .rf -- online in a national emergency. Putin said other countries had taken to using the Internet “for not only economic, but military and political goals” and said information security was a priority for the country.

EC clears telecoms groups of ‘throttling’ services of rivals

Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telefónica have been cleared by regulators of “throttling” the services of rivals -- avoiding a potentially bruising competition case.

In 2013, European Union officials raided the offices of the three telecoms groups over allegations that they were deliberately limiting access to data-heavy services, such as YouTube and Skype. But, on Oct 3, the European Commission said that, following a review, the practices of the telecoms companies “do not appear to breach EU antitrust law with a view to shutting out competitors from either the internet transit market or internet content markets.”

UK rural-urban broadband speed divide narrows

The gap between broadband speeds in rural and urban areas of the UK is narrowing, says the industry regulator.

The average UK broadband speed increased 5 per cent to 18.7 megabits a second between November 2013 and May 2014, according to Ofcom’s latest research, although the level of availability of fast broadband services still differs according to location. Many customers living in rural areas experience slower broadband speeds, Ofcom said, owing to the longer distances to telephone exchanges and the limited availability of superfast broadband services in some parts. However, the regulator’s analysis suggests that rural customers experienced a bigger increase in average broadband speeds, up by a fifth to 13.6Mbit/s in the six months to May 2014. This compares with the 5 per cent increase of speeds in urban and suburban areas to 33.4Mbit/s and 22.9Mbit/s, respectively.

Lower-cost handsets help drive Africa’s Internet revolution

The battle among the world’s largest tech and telecoms groups to connect Africans has intensified in the past year, with drones and blimps brought in to provide the first sight of the Internet for many in the region.

The vast scale of the continent makes generalisation difficult. The more tech-savvy smartphone users in southern Africa are a very different proposition from those in areas in central Africa where infrastructure remains rudimentary. In such areas, technology takes on different roles as companies navigate challenges from political revolution to Ebola scares -- from educator and healthcare provider to bank and business partner. But the opportunities are still clear for many of the world’s biggest companies in Africa. The key attraction remains the rapidly growing population, according to Marc Rennard, executive vice-president of Orange and head of African operations across more than 20 countries and 106 million customers.

Benton

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