March 2015

Alarms sound over changes to EU roaming, net neutrality and privacy rules

The European Parliament’s liberal-centrist bloc has warned over changes being made by European Union countries to incoming telecommunications legislation, saying they will severely weaken efforts to introduce unified network neutrality rules and eliminate mobile roaming surcharges for people moving between member states. The Council of the European Union, which represents member states, is expected to present its position on March 4 regarding the Telecoms Single Market proposal -- this follows the European Commission’s original proposal and changes made by the Parliament, and will trigger negotiations over the final text.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group said that the Council’s position is so watered down that it would undermine campaign pledges made by Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and the Parliament that came in 2014. Meanwhile, digital rights groups have released leaked documents relating to the Council’s under-development position on a separate legislative package, the new General Data Protection Regulation. The version that left Parliament would introduce very tough new rules for companies and governments handling EU citizens’ personal data, but it appears member states have been agitating for these rules to be weakened.

Florida moving to unmask anonymous websites to combat online piracy

Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it unlawful to run a website anonymously if it offers "commercial" recordings and videos. The aim of the bill is to close or disrupt websites that don't comply -- all in the name of protecting intellectual property rights. The bill, which landed on the state's House and Senate floors on March 3rd, requires websites to display a "correct name, physical address, and telephone number or e-mail address" of the owner if they play a "substantial part in the electronic dissemination of commercial recordings or audiovisual works, directly or indirectly." The disclosure is required even if all the recordings or audiovisual works disseminated by the website are owned by the website owner.

The bill excludes Internet service providers from its purview and would give copyright owners the right to ask a judge to unmask the identity of the website operator. According to a legislative analysis of the bill, the recording or motion picture industry intends "to proceed with third-party injunctions to discourage Internet service providers, hosting services, payment services or other Internet website services from working with websites that fail to disclose their personal information required by this bill."

First Responders Network Authority Board

Department of Commerce
Board Committees meetings on March 24, 2015 9am-5pm
Open public meeting of the Board on March 25, 2015 9am-12pm
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-03-03/pdf/2015-04367.pdf

On March 24, 2015 between 9:00 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time there will be sequential meetings of FirstNet’s four Board Committees: (1) Governance and Personnel; (2) Technology; (3) Outreach; and (4) Finance.

The full FirstNet Board will hold a meeting on March 25, 2015 between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Read more about First Responders Network Authority Board (March 2015)

Samsung steps up the battle to be your "pay phone"

Samsung is hoping to take a bite out of Apple, and cash in on a share of the more-than-$30 billion in swipe fees collected by credit card companies every year. How? By removing one of the main stumbling blocks to expanding mobile-payments among consumers. Namely, too many retailers don't have the devices needed to process the payments. So far, only about 200,000 of the 12 million checkout points in the US, have the machines to process payments from apps like Apple pay. Samsung's new Galaxy 6 smartphones use a technology that radiates magnetic energy from your phone directly into traditional credit-card readers, essentially turning your phone into a credit card.

Google Wireless Plans: Reconnecting Dropped Calls Could be Just the Start

With Google’s announcement that it will provide wireless service, what can we expect? I wouldn’t be surprised to see Google focusing on Google Fiber markets –initially at least – for its wireless service offering. Dropped calls that automatically reconnect could be coming your way thanks to Google. It’s also worth noting that Google is one of the TV white spaces database administrators – and if the company is venturing into the mobile market, it wouldn’t be a total surprise to see it experiment with capabilities that could be enabled by the high bandwidth that could be unleashed through the 802.11af standard for nomadic broadband service using TV white spaces spectrum.

Digital divide: Improving Internet access in the developing world through affordable services and diverse content

In a recent paper, Darrell West examines some of the economic and political factors that prevent an estimated 4.2 billion people from accessing the Internet. Policies to mitigate the digital divide:

Zero rating services: A lack of disposable income is a major factor that prevents many from gaining Internet access. Users must also pay for data in addition to the cost of a device. Zero rating services circumvent this barrier by providing access to applications that have no associated data costs.
Reducing Taxes: Several countries have “connectivity taxes” on mobile and fixed Internet connections. These taxes drive up costs for consumers, which can make the Internet unaffordable for many families.
Diversifying content: English is the primary language of the Internet. This excludes millions of educated people who could use the Internet if content were available in their native tongue. Expanding the type of content on the Internet would also increase its attractiveness for people around the world.

Verizon Says Dish Bidding Tactic Distorted FCC Spectrum Auction

Verizon said the bidding strategy employed by entities related to Dish Network distorted the government’s $45 billion spectrum auction, joining its counterparts in complaining about the satellite-TV provider’s tactics. In a regulatory filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon said its analysis of auction data indicated that Dish closely coordinated its bidding with a pair of partnerships in which it was an investor, creating the impression there was more demand for some licenses than there actually was and driving smaller bidders out of the running.

Dish’s entities ended up winning $13.3 billion in bids, more than Verizon and second only to AT&T. Dish also claimed a 25 percent discount aimed at small businesses. Verizon said it shared data with the FCC and attended a meeting with the FCC at the agency’s request.

What changed the FCC Chairman's mind?

[Commentary] The network neutrality regulation that passed with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's vote -- and those of the other two Democrats on the FCC -- was not the much sounder one Chairman Wheeler initially proposed, but a radical version that carries within it opportunities for mischief and much worse than that. So what happened to change Wheeler's mind?

The most obvious explanation is the interjection of President Barack Obama who, a few weeks before the vote, publicly stated his view that the FCC should subject Internet service providers to utility-like regulation. This is the explanation for Chairman Wheeler's switch held by most insiders, and there's no doubt that these FCC commissioners, their notional "independence" notwithstanding, move like earlier ones to the music of their parties and the Presidents that appoint them. But to think that this is all that occurred with the net neutrality vote is both too comfortable and myopic. It's too comfortable because it fails to challenge the inadequacy of the lobbies on the other side of the issue, and it's myopic because it looks past the enormous role played by the nation's crackpot left.

[Patrick Maines is President of the Media Institute]

The left’s historic power win: How the long-fought “net neutrality” triumph transformed history

[Commentary] Here’s what I think the net neutrality fight means.
First, it is the reemergence of populist politics into the industrial sector.
Second, the entities who emerged in this populist movement included a whole host of small businesses, internet businesses that have become attuned to power and the need for democratic processes to place checks on authoritarian threats that come from private monopolies.
Third, and this is connected to my first point about industrial politics, this is the first significant anti-monopoly principle affirmatively put into legal force since at least the 1970s.
Fourth, and once again this is connected to both industrial politics and to my original opening anecdote, net neutrality is a pricing law. Millions of people acted to make sure that at least some pricing power would be in the hands of the public rather than in the hands of monopolistic owners of cable and telecommunications networks. That’s a really big deal.

[Matt Stoller is a political strategist with a focus on Wall Street]

How Netflix Maneuvered to Become the Biggest Winner from the FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules

Netflix has acted to subtly reframe the debate in Washington over the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed Title II public utility regulation of the Internet in the name of “Net Neutrality.” Netflix, known for its innovation in reshaping the entertainment industry, worked to add unprecedented regulations to new Net Neutrality rules that will cement its power, eliminate its current costs and, in turn, pass those costs onto all Internet users to benefit its bottom line. Netflix appears set to emerge as the biggest winner from the FCC’s approval of Title II on Feb 26.

Benton

Search