February 2015

Why Matt Drudge might be more powerful now than ever before

[Commentary] Matt Drudge and his Web site Drudge Report remains a decidedly relevant player in the political world. Drudge isn't all-powerful. But, 2016 is shaping up as a race in which he will have as much -- and, likely, more -- influence than he has ever had before. With such a crowded Republican field, the candidate -- or candidates -- that Drudge chooses to favor will benefit. And those on whom he turns negative will rue the day and wonder what they could have or should have done differently.

Drudge's importance to 2016 is threefold:
1) Drudge is an ideal landing place for hard-hitting opposition research on one of your political opponents.
2) Drudge (and his small crew of editors) uses the influence of the site to push what they believe to be overlooked stories within a campaign.
3) Hillary Clinton. Drudge's site rose to notoriety in the late 1990s by revealing many of the details about Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Senate Minority Leader Reid backs tough Network Neutrality rules

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is putting his weight behind the Federal Communications Commission’s attempts to police the Internet like a utility. Minority Leader Reid is "in favor of" network neutrality rules under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act, he said. Minority Leader Reid has previously said that he supports strong network neutrality provisions but has declined to specifically endorse Title II rules.

FCC Announces Entities Under Consideration As Next-In-Line Bidders For Rural Broadband Experiments Support

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau announces the entities that successfully submitted the required financial and technical information for bids in the rural broadband experiments by the FCC's Jan 6 deadline. This does not determine which entities ultimately may be provisionally selected as next-in-line bidders; we simply list the entities that submitted the required information and indicated their interest in remaining under consideration by the deadline.

FCC Enforcement Bureau Adds Career Consumer Protection Litigator to its Leadership Team

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau announced that Phillip Rosario has been named Deputy Bureau Chief, overseeing consumer protection issues for the Bureau.

Rosario was most recently Department Head of the Consumer Protection Department at the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office. Rosario has spent most of his distinguished legal career at the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, where he established its first stand-alone Consumer Protection Department. As Head of that Department, he implemented several changes to improve its responsiveness to consumers and improve informal adjudication between consumers and businesses, and managed investigations and complex litigation under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practice Act. His Department has collaborated with federal agencies on consumer protection efforts, most recently collaborating with the FCC Enforcement Bureau on its landmark cramming settlements with AT&T and T-Mobile.

FCC Adopts a Policy Statement on Forfeiture Methodology for Violations of Rules Governing Payment to Certain Federal Programs

As part of ongoing efforts to reform processes in ways that enhance the Federal Communications Commission’s efficiency and effectiveness, the FCC has reevaluated its methodologies for calculating forfeitures for violations of the Universal Service Fund and other federal program payment rules.

This reevaluation has made clear that the current methodologies are unnecessarily cumbersome and therefore prevent the FCC from resolving investigations quickly and efficiently, which in effect constrains our ability to deter non-compliance. The FCC therefore adopts a treble damages methodology to assess forfeitures for violations of federal program payment Rules. Assessing forfeitures for payment violations on this simpler and more straight-forward basis will enable the FCC to resolve investigations more quickly and thereby promote increased compliance with the federal program payment Rules.

Competition could cost US Internet Service Providers $24 Billion a year

Point Topic, a United Kingdom research firm which gathers worldwide data on broadband prices, said that if the US market were truly competitive, its Internet service providers would lose $2 billion in revenue each month.

Currently, US customers spend $5.27 billion a month based on Point Topic’s report. The report is mostly a thought exercise instead of a reaction to a definitive policy change, but it does make a compelling argument that US consumers pay the price for the current broadband duopoly we have in most markets. It also noted that the US is no longer the largest broadband market -- that distinction now belongs to China, which is what the analyst is comparing the US market against. The thought exercise ends with a pretty damning conclusion -- that the lack of competition and subsequent high price for broadband has hindered adoption and is beyond where it should be compared to other wealthy countries where broadband is cheaper.

Big Bucks for ONC in President's FY16 Budget Request

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology would get a huge funding increase in fiscal year 2016 under the federal government budget request that President Barack Obama sent to Congress.

Under the proposal, ONC would get $92 million in FY 16, compared with $60 million this year and in 2014. It should be noted that the Obama Administration over the years has regularly requested sizable increases for ONC, and generally hasn't gotten them. A major focus of the proposed big boost in spending is to support accelerated improvements in health information technology interoperability, which in turn would further care transformation, according to the Administration. Initiatives to be funded under the request include Stage 3 of the electronic health records program, strategic investments to support development and testing of interoperability standards and the new Interoperability Roadmap, IT support for the newly proposed Precision Medicine Imitative, and $5 million to improve the integration of prescription drug monitoring programs, particularly opiates, by leveraging health IT.

Net Neutrality is Critical for Europe's Future

[Commentary] Maintaining network neutrality is critical for the future of the Web and the future of human rights, innovation and progress in Europe. Yet, some companies and governments are arguing that we should depart from the principle of net neutrality.

Until now, we’ve largely got along ok without explicit laws to protect net neutrality, but as the Internet evolves, the situation has changed. If we want to maintain and enhance the Internet as an engine for growth, we must ensure that companies providing access should not be able to block, throttle, or otherwise restrict legal content and services of their users online, be it for commercial or political motivation. Of course, it is not just about blocking and throttling. It is also about stopping 'positive discrimination', such as when one internet operator favours one particular service over another. If we don’t explicitly outlaw this, we hand immense power to telcos and online service operators. In effect, they can become gatekeepers - able to handpick winners and the losers in the market and to favour their own sites, services and platforms over those of others. Binding net neutrality rules under consideration by the European Union (part of an omnibus proposal called the Telecoms Single Market Regulation) would do exactly that. The European Parliament made a clear and strong statement for net neutrality in their version of the legislation in Spring of 2014. Now it’s in the hands of the Council of the European Union to determine their position.

[Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the Founding Director of the World Wide Web Foundation]

Teens who use screens more sleep less

Teenagers who use smartphones, laptops, and tablets more often than their peers take longer to fall asleep and sleep for less time overall.

Researchers surveyed more than 10,000 16-to-19-year-olds from Norway, questioning them about their use of electronics and sleeping habits. Those who used gadgets including MP3 players, video game consoles, tablets, smartphones, and computers for more than five hours a day were three and a half times more likely to sleep for fewer than five hours at night and 49 percent likelier to need more than an hour to get to sleep. "There was a gradual increase up to this point," lead author Dr. Mari Hysing said. "The more you spent on devices during the daytime, the less you slept, and the longer it took to fall asleep." The research confirms long-standing assumptions about the effects of electronic devices on sleep, but scientists say the exact mechanisms at work still aren’t clear. Light from electronic devices could be affecting teenagers’ body clocks, for example, or there could be less obvious effects, such as the emotional stimulation from chatting with friends.

Investor Concern Mounting Over Time Warner Cable-Comcast Deal

Investors have become increasingly concerned that Comcast's $45 billion deal for Time Warner Cable won’t make it to the finish line.

Time Warner Cable’s stock has dropped precipitously, falling more than 10 percent since the end of 2014. At $136.56 per share, its stock is also trading more than 10 percent below the value of Comcast’s offer, which gives Time Warner Cable shareholders 2.875 shares of Comcast for each share they own.

Concerns are mounting that the Federal Communications Commission or the Justice Department could block the merger outright or that the FCC could try to get major concessions out of Comcast to approve it. If it does the latter, some analysts think that Comcast might simply walk away.

Benton

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