February 5, 2015 (This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015
Hearing today: Getting it Right on Data Breach and Notification Legislation in the 114th Congress https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-02-05
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality - op-ed
FCC Fact Sheet for Chairman's New Rules for Protecting the Open Internet - press release [links to web]
DC Reacts to FCC Chairman Open Internet Rules
No, the FCC Isn’t Destroying the Internet - analysis
New FCC net neutrality proposal: Not as rigid as ISPs think - analysis
How White House Thwarted FCC Chief on Internet Rules
The Biggest Hole in the FCC's New Internet Rules - analysis
3 ways your wireless service will change under the FCC's net neutrality rules
How Netflix helped change the FCC's definition of net neutrality
People Power Is Winning Net Neutrality - John Nichols analysis [links to web]
Cable stocks up after net neutrality unveiled
The FCC's new rules for a free and open Internet - Los Angeles Times editorial [links to web]
Washington Conquers the Internet - WSJ editorial [links to web]
Net Neutrality Bait and Switch to Title II - Scott Cleland op-ed [links to web]
Title II is Not Net Neutrality, and Net Neutrality is Not Utility Regulation - Public Knowledge analysis
OWNERSHIP
Why Comcast-TWC Won’t Get Approved
Prince Al Waleed sells most of stake in News Corp [links to web]
Moonves looks to buy CBS ahead of potential Viacom merger [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Ending Welfare for Telecom Giants - Ayotte /Pai op-ed
EOBC Asks FCC To Raise Auction Opening Price
FCC Left a Staggering $22.5 Billion on the Table in Recent AWS-3 Auction - Phoenix Center press release [links to web]
80 percent of all mobile data is consumed by just 10 percent of users [links to web]
Android and iOS are nearly tied for US smartphone market share [links to web]
In prison, a cell phone is a dangerous weapon [links to web]
Carey: Spectrum Numbers ‘Pretty Interesting’ [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
Official: Bulk collection would halt without Patriot Act extension [links to web]
As President Obama tightens surveillance guidelines, uncertainty lingers on NSA program [links to web]
Proposed changes to US data collection fall short of NSA reformers' goals [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
China’s Undermining an Open Internet - Michael Daniel, Robert Holleyman, Alex Niejelow op-ed [links to web]
Defense secretary nominee: US 'not where it should be' on cybersecurity [links to web]
Pentagon Proposes At Least $27 Million to Grow Ranks of Cyber Forces [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
How Much Is Too Much Television? [links to web]
Talk Radio’s Advertising Problem [links to web]
Carey: Spectrum Numbers ‘Pretty Interesting’ [links to web]
DIVERSITY
The Soft War in High-Tech Culture - op-ed
Tech needs attitude change on gender - op-ed [links to web]
PHILANTHROPY
Ford and Other Big Grant Makers Join Forces to Safeguard Internet Liberties
FCC REFORM/PLANNING
FCC Reporting Act Passes Out Of Subcommittee, Again
New FCC Reports Act Would Preserve Section 706 Authority [links to web]
Strategic Plan for the FCC for Fiscal Years 2015 through 2018 - public notice
RESEARCH
NTIA Seeks Comments on Changes to US Census Bureau's Current Population Survey - public notice [links to web]
LOBBYING
Time Warner, fighting move to municipal broadband, hosted Maine lawmakers at resort [links to web]
Pandora joins Internet Association [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Susan Crawford appointed clinical professor of law at Harvard Law [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Trade Groups Urge US to Push Against Chinese Regulations [links to web]
China Is Requiring People to Register Real Names for Some Internet Services [links to web]
Facebook faces fight in Europe over new privacy policy [links to web]
MORE ONLNE
Silicon Valley powers to record job boom, but surge produces income and gender gap [links to web]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
FCC CHAIRMAN TOM WHEELER: THIS IS HOW WE WILL ENSURE NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
[Commentary] After more than a decade of debate and a record-setting proceeding that attracted nearly 4 million public comments, the time to settle the network neutrality question has arrived. On Feb 5, I will circulate to the members of the Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules to preserve the Internet as an open platform for innovation and free expression. This proposal is rooted in long-standing regulatory principles, marketplace experience, and public input received over the last several months. Originally, I believed that the FCC could assure internet openness through a determination of “commercial reasonableness” under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. While a recent court decision seemed to draw a roadmap for using this approach, I became concerned that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers. That is why I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open Internet protections. Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply -- for the first time ever -- those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of Internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.
[Tom Wheeler is the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission]
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-how-we-will-ensure-net-neutrality | Wired
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NO, THE FCC ISN’T DESTROYING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Vikas Bajaj]
[Commentary] Listening to large cable and phone companies might lead some people to conclude that the Federal Communications Commission is about to unleash the technological equivalent of the bubonic plague upon the Internet, or what some are calling “utility regulation.” Don’t believe the hype. Common carrier regulation has played a vital role in the growth of the Internet. In brief, a company designated as a common carrier can’t engage in unjust and unreasonable discrimination. (Lots of businesses fall into this category including phone companies, hotels and airlines.) Under that principle, the FCC in the late 1960s ordered AT&T, then a regulated monopoly, to allow users to attach devices not made by the company to its networks. One of those devices was the Carterfone, which allowed people to connect their landlines to two-way radios. This decision eventually led to more detailed FCC rules, which, in turn, made it possible for AOL and others to offer dial-up Internet service. Now the FCC appears poised to say that broadband Internet service should also be treated like a common carrier, at least to an extent. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to do this to prevent cable and phone companies like Comcast and Verizon from blocking or slowing down content requested by their customers. This is a smart, new use of an age-old concept that remains valid.
benton.org/headlines/no-fcc-isnt-destroying-internet | New York Times
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NOT AS RIGID AS YOU THINK
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed outright prohibitions on only three things: blocking lawful sites, applications, services or devices; impairing or degrading lawful traffic based on its content or origin; and prioritizing traffic from sites for a fee ("paid prioritization") or from affiliates. Aside from the three no-no's outlined above, ISPs don't have to get the commission's permission to do anything. Instead, Wheeler's proposal would require consumers or site operators who object to something an ISP is doing to file a complaint, which the FCC's enforcement bureau will then review. That's a much more flexible approach than the one the commission took with local phone monopolies, who had to obtain prior approval for seemingly every initiative. This ex-post-facto review would be used in two ways under Wheeler's proposal. One is a general standard of openness and neutrality for ISPs. Such a standard would be applied when ISPs do things that appear to favor certain sites but don't actually block, degrade or prioritize traffic. In such a circumstance, the FCC would use Title II's just-and-reasonable standard to measure whether the ISP "unreasonably interfered with or unreasonably disadvantaged" rival sites. The other situation when ex-post-facto review would be used is when a content provider or network operator outside the last mile believes that an ISP is hindering its ability to interconnect, that is, to deliver traffic into the ISP's network. Interconnection is not a net neutrality issue, but it's something the FCC has been exploring in response to complaints by Netflix. For those, the FCC would examine the ISP's actions to make sure they were just and reasonable.
benton.org/headlines/new-fcc-net-neutrality-proposal-not-rigid-isps-think | Los Angeles Times
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HOW THE WHITE HOUSE INTERVENED
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh, Brody Mullins]
In November, the White House’s top economic adviser dropped by the Federal Communications Commission with a heads-up for the agency’s chairman, Tom Wheeler. President Barack Obama was ready to unveil his vision for regulating high-speed Internet traffic. Days later, President Obama said he the Internet should be overseen as a public utility, with the “strongest possible rules” forcing broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. The prod from President Obama came after an unusual, secretive effort inside the White House, led by two aides who built a case for the principle known as “net neutrality” through dozens of meetings with online activists, Web startups and traditional telecommunications companies. Acting like a parallel version of the FCC itself, R. David Edelman and Tom Power listened as Etsy, Kickstarter, Yahoo’s Tumblr and other companies insisted that utility-like rules were needed to help small companies and entrepreneurs compete online, people involved in the process say. In an office on the fourth floor of the Old Executive Office Building, some companies claimed they would have never gotten off the ground if they had been forced to pay broadband providers. The big losers in the White House process were cable and phone companies, which spent years lobbying to gain support for their view that toughened rules would make it harder for them to offer new kinds of services. Executives who tried to go over the two aides’ heads, including by appealing directly to Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s senior adviser, got nowhere.
benton.org/headlines/how-white-house-thwarted-fcc-chief-internet-rules | Wall Street Journal | USA Today
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THE BIGGEST HOLE IN THE FCC'S NEW INTERNET RULES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joshua Brustein]
The new framework described by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, if enacted, would ban throttling, blocking, and paid prioritization by Internet service providers, reclassify broadband as a telecommunications utility, and bring mobile networks into the same rules. The proposed rules would take away every opportunity for Internet providers to play favorites -- except one. Chairman Wheeler’s rules don’t explicitly block a practice known as zero-rating, in which Internet providers exempt certain types of traffic from counting against data caps. Senior officials at the FCC said that they aren't convinced zero-rating is a bad thing and see less urgency to act on an issue that largely happens overseas. The FCC agrees that zero-rating has the potential for abuse but hasn’t set a line for what practices are acceptable.
benton.org/headlines/biggest-hole-fccs-new-internet-rules | Bloomberg | Andrew Jay Schwartzman
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3 WAYS YOUR WIRELESS SERVICE WILL CHANGE UNDER THE FCC'S NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
Here are some of the features and arbitrary limitations your wireless carrier puts on you that could change or go away altogether under a Title II-driven regime.
1) T-Mobile Music Freedom: it exempts streaming music services from data caps. Under the FCC's proposed new rules, so-called zero-rating services like Music Freedom wouldn't be outright banned, but they'd be examined on a "case-by-case basis," says a senior FCC official.
2) Bandwidth Throttling: There is a loophole -- throttling would be disallowed "on the basis of content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices," which means that customers on capped plans might still be subject to throttling, but targeting specific customers with unlimited plans for using Verizon's fungible definition of "too much" data would almost certainly run afoul of FCC guidelines.
3) Sponsored Data: When asked whether sponsored data constitutes "paid prioritization" -- a notion unambiguously disallowed under Open Internet rules -- an FCC official's response was very clear: "Yes, it would," he said. As with almost every aspect of the proposed regulation, though, there are plenty of exceptions backstopped by a commission that is keen on taking possible violations on a case-by-case basis.
benton.org/headlines/3-ways-your-wireless-service-will-change-under-fccs-net-neutrality-rules | Verge, The
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HOW NETFLIX HELPED CHANGE THE FCC'S DEFINITION OF NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Ben Popper]
Back in March of 2014, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote a blog post accusing the major Internet service providers of imposing unfair tolls on companies, like his, that were sending large volumes of traffic to their customers. Hastings called on the Federal Communications Commission to expand the definition of network neutrality to cover this little-known world of "interconnection" between networks. On Feb 4, the FCC did just that. Senior FCC officials said that they would handle interconnection complaints on a case-by-case basis, and the new proposal allows "reasonable network management," a term which the ISPs have already been using to justify congestion at interconnection points. This is actually a fairly radical departure from the way the FCC has operated in the past. So what changed? Companies like Netflix -- along with the companies that carry their traffic, like Cogent and Level 3 -- have been making their case with blog posts on the web and closed door meetings in Washington, DC. Netflix's complaint became the central data point in a long segment by John Oliver that went viral. Peering and interconnection make the average person glaze over, but "Cable industry f--kery" is something the masses can rally against. Commenters responded in such numbers that the FCC website crashed.
benton.org/headlines/how-netflix-helped-change-fccs-definition-net-neutrality | Verge, The
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CABLE STOCKS UP AFTER NET NEUTRALITY UNVEILED
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Stocks for Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and other Internet service providers all rose on the heels of news that the Federal Communications Commission would push to treat broadband Internet service like a utility. Stock of Comcast rose more than 4 percent late on the morning of Feb 4, before sliding back down slightly. Time Warner Cable’s stock rose by a similar amount. Shares of Charter Communications increased by more than 6 percent. Stocks for Verizon, which operates both wireless service and wired broadband Internet, rose by about 1 percent after Wheeler’s announcement, before settling back down to its opening price. Shares of AT&T performed similarly.
benton.org/headlines/cable-stocks-after-net-neutrality-unveiled | Hill, The
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TITLE II IS NOT NET NEUTRALITY, AND NET NEUTRALITY IS NOT UTILITY REGULATION
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: John Bergmayer]
[Commentary] Title II is not network neutrality. Not only that, but net neutrality is not "utility" regulation. While Title II of the Communications Act provides the firmest legal grounding for net neutrality rules, Title II and net neutrality are not one and the same. While Public Knowledge has argued that the Federal Communications Commission should use its Title II authority to enact net neutrality rules for broadband, we have never said the Title II is useful only for net neutrality. Title II will also help the FCC refocus its universal service program on broadband more directly, protect subscriber privacy, and ensure public safety and network reliability, among other things. We are not "moving the goalposts" and expanding the definition of net neutrality by pointing out that a bill that ostensibly protects net neutrality could have negative consequences for broadband in areas other than net neutrality. While we agree that certain provisions of Title II should be forborne from (or put in abeyance) by the FCC with respect to broadband since they either have no applicability or are not needed for the broadband market today, the FCC should not voluntarily give up the authority it needs to protect broadband consumers in areas beyond net neutrality. Just because two different things are both “rules,” doesn’t mean they’re the same. And just because net neutrality supporters are finally about to put some numbers on the board, doesn’t mean the goalposts have moved.
[John Bergmayer is a Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge]
benton.org/headlines/title-ii-not-net-neutrality-and-net-neutrality-not-utility-regulation | Public Knowledge
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OWNERSHIP
WHY COMCAST-TWC WON'T GET APPROVED
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Influential Internet and media analyst Richard Greenfield detailed why he believes the $67 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger won’t receive regulatory approval, noting that the decision will ultimately come down to broadband dominance. The BTIG Research analyst, who has warned in the past that the deal could be blocked, wrote that with Title II reclassification of broadband looming, it is almost unimaginable that federal regulators would approve the deal. “With the overlay of the populist uprising driving government policy, it is hard to imagine how regulators could approve the Comcast Time Warner Cable transaction at this point,” Greenfield wrote. “Comcast continues to try to get the government to look to the past to get its deal approved. But the framework is about not only what is current, but what the future will look like -- especially in a rapidly changing broadband world."
benton.org/headlines/why-comcast-twc-wont-get-approved | Multichannel News
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SPECTRUM AUCTION RULES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sen Kelley Ayotte (R-NH), FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai]
[Commentary] Should the federal government hand out more than $3 billion from American taxpayers to a Fortune 500 company as part of a program to help small and disadvantaged businesses compete with large corporations? Of course not, but it’s about to happen. Nothing undermines confidence in government more than the perception that big, sophisticated and connected corporate interests can work the system at the expense of ordinary people. The Federal Communications Commission needs to do a top-to-bottom review of policies that aid billion-dollar interests at the expense of entrepreneurs. Congress should conduct oversight and put an end to this corporate welfare.
benton.org/headlines/ending-welfare-telecom-giants | Wall Street Journal
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EOBC ASKS FCC TO RAISE AUCTION OPENING PRICE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition met with Federal Communications Commission staffers to ask them to raise the opening bid prices on TV stations in the incentive auction, and to change its valuation of stations. They said that the FCC should recalculate -- as in increase -- its opening prices given the record-breaking prices for the AWS-3 auction. They also said that the FCC can't justify hundreds-of-millions-of-dollar differences in pricing for stations with nearly the same impact on the station repacking process, which the coalition has always argued should be the standard, rather than figuring in population served, which the coalition says results in the greatest loss of TV service. They proposed a number of alternative factors all based on that clearing potential, including "frequency at which a station is frozen in repeated auction simulations, the relative value of spectrum precluded by a given station, and the population precluded by a given station." EOBC says a compromise path would be to reduce the weight of a station's interference-free population, which would encourage greater participation by broadcasters.
benton.org/headlines/eobc-asks-fcc-raise-auction-opening-price | Broadcasting&Cable
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DIVERSITY
THE SOFT WAR IN HIGH-TECH CULTURE
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Caryl Rivers, Rosalind Barnett
[Commentary] A shocking 73 percent of women in the industry report feeling like an outsider, compared to a mere 17 percent of men. In addition, women are paid less than men, and don’t believe they can get to the top. That worry is well-founded. What to do? Make sure men and women with equivalent credentials start out at equal levels, and are paid equally and at a competitive rate with others in the industry. Engage and empower senior male executives to sponsor up-and-coming women. If this doesn’t happen, the “boys’ club” will stay firmly in control. Make performance standards totally transparent. With that knowledge, women will be able to determine whether they are being held to a higher standard than men. It’s obvious that unless the culture changes in tech-intensive businesses, women will never realize their dreams, a sad story for women, and for the rest of us, as well.
[Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett are the authors of "The New Soft War on Women"]
benton.org/headlines/soft-war-high-tech-culture | Revere Digital
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PHILANTHROPY
NETGAIN
[SOURCE: Chronicle of Philanthropy, AUTHOR: Alex Daniels]
Over the past two decades, the Internet has evolved from an obscure Defense Department project to a global communications phenomenon. Now, say a group of foundation leaders, it’s time to make sure it is a force for good. The group, which includes several heavy hitters from the foundation world including the Ford, Knight, MacArthur, Mozilla, and Open Society foundations, has formed a partnership to figure out how to get the Internet to live up to its potential as a tool for social justice. The effort, called NetGain, will be formally announced at an event hosted by the Ford Foundation at its New York headquarters on February 11. Details of the collaboration, including how long it will last and what additional support each institution will provide, are still being worked out.
benton.org/headlines/ford-and-other-big-grant-makers-join-forces-safeguard-internet-liberties | Chronicle of Philanthropy
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FCC REFORM/PLANNING
FCC REPORTING ACT PASSES OUT OF SUBCOMMITTEE, AGAIN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House Communications Subcommittee unanimously approved a discussion draft of a bill that would consolidate eight separate Federal Communications Commission reports to Congress, including the FCC's Section 706 report, into a single report on the state of the communications marketplace. The Consolidated Reporting Act was clearly bipartisan, with not a discouraging word uttered and the manager's amendment proposed by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) passing unanimously. The bill reinforces that Sec 706 is an explicit grant of broadband authority as signaled by a DC federal appeals court in the Verizon case. House Majority Whip Scalise, who co-authored a managers amendment to that effect, said that this Sec 706 condition was not because he agreed with that decision, but because he wanted to separate the bill from the net neutrality-related debate over that authority.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-reporting-act-passes-out-subcommittee-again | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC STRATEGIC PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission has established four strategic goals:
Promoting Economic Growth and National Leadership: Promote the expansion of competitive telecommunications networks, which are a vital component of technological innovation and economic growth and help to ensure that the US remains a leader in providing its citizens opportunities for economic and educational development.
Protecting Public Interest Goals: The rights of network users and the responsibilities of network providers form a bond that includes consumer protection, competition, universal service, public safety and national security. The FCC must protect and promote this Network Compact.
Making Networks Work for Everyone: In addition to promoting the development of competitive networks, the FCC must also ensure that all Americans can take advantage of the services they provide without artificial impediments.
Promoting Operational Excellence: Make the FCC a model for excellence in government by effectively managing the FCC’s resources and maintaining a commitment to transparent and responsive processes that encourage public involvement and best serve the public interest.
benton.org/headlines/strategic-plan-fcc-fiscal-years-2015-through-2018 | Federal Communications Commission
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