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November 2015

When Will the Internet be Cheaper?

Long distance telephone calls used to be expensive, per minute expenses; today long-distance calling barely exists. Not technically, and not culturally. Could the same happen for Internet access charges?

“It's a very natural question to ask, but the metaphor fails for a number of reasons,” said Shane Greenstein, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. “First, in telephony, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States had direct regulatory authority over long-distance prices. There is nothing equivalent for the Internet today for long-distance data transmission [in the United States].” “It was a couple things that made the price of long distance go down,” said Gerald Faulhaber, a professor emeritus at Wharton who served as the FCC’s chief economist in the early 2000s.

“It was bringing competition to long distance. But the other part of it was we began to stop the concept of regulating long-distance prices. We said, ‘Okay, you can charge what you want.’ What happened then was, in response to competition, long-distance rates went down.” What people sometimes forget, though, is that as long-distance prices fell, the price for local calls went up. (Then, of course, people abandoned landlines for cellphones, only complicating the economic picture—a paradigm shift the FCC didn’t fully grasp when it ditched long-distance regulation.)

FCC’s Emergency Alert Debate Might Not Include FM

You may not know it, but there’s a radio in your smartphone.

Whether iPhone or Galaxy, all smartphones contain a chip that receives FM radio signals. Most carriers don’t activate them, so they sit inert, forcing you to use Wi-Fi or cellular data to listen to the radio. Broadcasters have urged the Federal Communications Commission to give the FM chips a second life as an emergency communications system, but their pleas aren’t resonating: the chips aren’t on the agenda for the FCC’s upcoming meeting on the Wireless Emergency System. Public safety officials and broadcasters warn that individuals who are potentially in danger could be cut off from crucial information when the wireless networks get overloaded or damaged in an emergency, and FM radio bands would be a rugged, relatively failsafe means of communicating during a crisis. Leaving the chip deactivated means smartphone users turn to apps like Spotify or SoundCloud to stream music on their devices. Wireless service providers can profit from that, because users need data to power them. Some in the wireless network industry also doubt there’s a real market demand for FM-enabled phones. While broadcasters argue the demand for radio does still exist, public safety plays a central role in the push for carriers to enable FM radio receivers in smartphones.

The Wi-Fi/LTE Unlicensed Debate: A Path Forward

I agree with Harold Feld that the answer to the Wi-Fi / LTE unlicensed debate should not be in new rules or regulations around the use of unlicensed bands – the very existence of which would redefine the unlicensed experience to the detriment of innovators and users. The answer instead should be found in the FCC’s existing authority to protect wireless services authorized by the 1996 Telecommunications Act from interference that is intentional or malicious.

Section 333 of the Act states that “No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized by or under this chapter or operated by the United States Government.” This section has long provided the Commission with the authority to police interference into licensed operations and, more recently, albeit with some controversy, has been relied on by the FCC to police conduct in unlicensed bands. If this provision were broadly interpreted as applying to licensed and unlicensed services alike, it could provide protection against the very type of apocalyptic results that the Wi-Fi proponents fear. It could stand for the proposition that, while no existing unlicensed technology is entitled to any specific incumbency protections, no new unlicensed technology will be permitted to do the spectral equivalent of throwing existing users off park benches or flinging rocks at them.

Crossing the Digital Divide on Chicago’s Toughest Streets

[Commentary] Too often the “digital inclusion” crisis in America is seen as a low-emotional-valence issue that is both exhausting and impossible to fix.

The facts behind the crisis are easy to tick off: In many cities in America, 40% or more of citizens don’t have high-speed Internet access at home. Data caps and overage charges make mobile wireless access by way of smartphones unattractive as a substitute for that wire, and about two-thirds of Americans say they wouldn’t want to rely on a smartphone alone for Internet access. If you can afford it, you probably have both smartphone access and a wire at home — about 85% of Americans with a smartphone also have home high-speed Internet access. A far larger portion of poorer Americans are smartphone-dependent than richer Americans.

The successful Smart Chicago summer program, called Youth-Led Tech, combined crucial elements that meant the effort actually reached and held the attention of teenagers in Chicago neighborhoods. What Smart Chicago learned should be put to use by cities across the country; the group has posted online all the information it can about the program for just this reason. But cities will need substantial philanthropic and private support to pull this off. And they’ll need a local Smart Chicago.

Senate Commerce Committee
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
11:00 a.m.
http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=849CCC2E-BCF...

Agenda includes:

  • S.1685, Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015, Sponsors: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Al Franken (D-Minn.)
  • S.1916, Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015, Sponsor: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.)
  • S.2044, Consumer Review Freedom Act of 2015, Sponsors: Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.)

This bill was removed from the agenda:

  • S._____, MOBILE NOW Act, Sponsor: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) - discussion draft to be updated

November 12, 2015 (T-Mobile; Spectrum Bill)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2015

Will Libraries Outlive Books? https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-11-12


WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   T-Mobile Video Plan Could Test FCC’s New Net Neutrality Rules
   T-Mobile is basically a cable company now - analysis
   Expansion of T-Mobile Data Plans Comes With Higher Prices
   Sen. Schatz Pushes for National Unlicensed Spectrum Plan

SECURITY
   Cox fine should force telecoms to get serious about data security - op-ed
   Hospital Gear Could Save Your Life or Hack Your Identity [links to Bloomberg]

CONTENT
   Senate bill to protect customers' online reviews heads to markup [links to Hill, The]
   DraftKings, FanDuel to fight order shutting down sites in New York [links to Hill, The]
   DraftKings and FanDuel Look Wobbly, and So Does $220 Million in TV Ads [links to Revere Digital]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Republican Debate on Fox Business Draws 13.5 Million [links to New York Times]
   Analysis: Was the GOP-approved Fox debate really so different from the much-maligned CNBC debate? [links to Washington Post]
   Ben Carson won the Republican debate on Facebook even though he said the least [links to Vox]
   Editorial: California must make transparent campaign records a must [links to San Jose Mercury News]

COMPANY NEWS
   Google's new 'about me' page puts your personal info settings in one place [links to Verge, The]
   With Notify Facebook is slowly eating your phone’s operating system [links to Washington Post]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Twitter told to store Russian data in Russia [links to Benton summary]
   Microsoft May Let Europeans Store Data Closer to Home [links to Benton summary]
   Spanish Writer Says El País Column Canceled After Comments on Media [links to New York Times]
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

T-MOBILE AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
A new plan from T-Mobile to allow unlimited streaming of some video services may become the first test of the federal government’s rules to prevent favoritism on the Internet. Supporters of network neutrality rules, which are meant to prevent one content provider getting preferential treatment over another, quickly warned that the plan could set a dangerous precedent. They urged the Federal Communications Commission, which passed the rules this year after acrimonious debate, to consider taking up the issue. The T-Mobile plan may offer the first real look at how the F.C.C. plans to enforce the new rules. “The open Internet order indicated that the commission would take a case-by-case approach to such plans,” an FCC spokeswoman said.
benton.org/headlines/t-mobile-video-plan-could-test-fccs-new-net-neutrality-rules | New York Times
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T-MOBILE AS CABLE COMPANY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
[Commentary] T-Mobile is trying to become cable faster than cable can become T-Mobile. Binge On isn't just a way to stretch your data cap. It's effectively a skinny bundle of TV content, all offered to consumers in hopes of persuading them to abandon their traditional TV providers. This phenomenon, known as cord-cutting, puts intense pressure on cable companies. But cord-cutting also puts pressure on non-cable companies such as T-Mobile to snag a piece of the television pie — for themselves. While T-Mobile is still a wireless carrier at its core, meaning its main business is to make money off of its network and service, the line between cable and wireless is blurring.
benton.org/headlines/t-mobile-basically-cable-company-now | Washington Post
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T-MOBILE’S HIGHER PRICES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
T-Mobile raised prices on many of its data plans. T-Mobile’s unlimited data plan now costs $95, up from $80. The carrier increased the size of its limited data plans, but also raised the price for most of them. The data tiers now cost $50, $65 and $80 for two gigabytes, six gigabytes and 10 gigabytes. In the past, the data tiers cost $50, $60 and $70 for one gigabyte, three gigabytes and five gigabytes. The revised pricing structure can be a good deal for some existing T-Mobile subscribers, who have the option to switch to the new plans. If you’re on the five-gigabyte plan for $70 a month, for example, it would be beneficial to switch to the new six-gigabyte plan that costs $65 a month. And if you’re on the current one-gigabyte plan for $50 a month, you might as well switch to the new two-gigabyte plan for the same cost. But brand-new customers signing up for T-Mobile may find that the data plan options are generally higher priced than the previous ones were.
benton.org/headlines/expansion-t-mobile-data-plans-comes-higher-prices | New York Times
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NATIONAL UNLICENSED SPECTRUM PLAN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Senate Commerce Committee is preparing consideration of a new bill, the Mobile Now Act, which would charge the federal government with finding new spectrum to free up for wireless broadband. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) has introduced the Promoting Unlicensed Spectrum Act, a bill that would create a "National Unlicensed Spectrum Strategy" and would require the Federal Communications Commission to "establish a process that will ensure that future spectrum allocation and assignment actions produce a balance between licensed and unlicensed bands." "As the Commerce Committee considers a strategy to expand a spectrum pipeline for the future, it is critical to ensure unlicensed spectrum is a central piece of our overall strategy," Sen Schatz said in announcing the bill.
benton.org/headlines/sen-schatz-pushes-national-unlicensed-spectrum-plan | Broadcasting&Cable
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SECURITY

COX FINE AND DATA SECURITY
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Melanie Teplinsky]
[Commentary] While the scope of federal agency authority over privacy and data security remains ill-defined, the writing is on the wall: a failure to take reasonable steps to protect customers’ sensitive personal information could lead to Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal agency investigations and enforcement actions, large penalties, and administrative agency oversight. Given the maddening state of cybersecurity, in which companies have in many instances failed to take even the most basic precautions to protect sensitive consumer data, perhaps it is about time.
[Teplinsky teaches information privacy law at the American University Washington College of Law]
benton.org/headlines/cox-fine-should-force-telecoms-get-serious-about-data-security | Christian Science Monitor
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