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  2. December 2015

December 2015

Remarks of Commissioner Pai at the Institute on Telecommunications Policy & Regulation

Instead of applying the law to the facts, the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement process is focused on issuing headline-grabbing fines regardless of the law. This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of party-line votes on enforcement matters. In fact, there have been significantly more party-line enforcement votes in the past 14 months than in the prior 43 years.

The FCC should renew its commitment to a bipartisan and responsible enforcement process. Congressional oversight, such as the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s recent inquiry to the Government Accountability Office, can help fix what has gone wrong. The Commissioners should vote on large consent decrees. The FCC should speed up its resolution of enforcement cases by setting a meaningful deadline for final action. Specifically, we should require any forfeiture order to be issued within one year of the issuance of an Notice of Apparently Liability (NAL). If no such forfeiture order is adopted within this timeframe, that NAL would be automatically nullified. Finally, the FCC’s enforcement process should be more transparent.

Nielsen: Smartphones and the Internet are eating our TV time

The use of Internet-ready devices like smartphones appears to have seriously cut into the time Americans spend watching traditional TV, new Nielsen data show, potentially undercutting the notion that mobile devices merely serve as "second screens" while people are plopped in front of the set. Data show an increase in the number of 18-to-34-year-olds who used a smartphone, tablet or TV-connected device like a streaming box or game console. That grew 26 percent in May compared with a year earlier, to an average of 8.5 million people per minute. Those devices, which all showed gains in usage, more than offset declines in TV, radio and computers. In the same age group, the demographic most highly coveted by advertisers, use of those devices fell 8 percent over the same period to a combined 16.6 million people per minute.

It's not a one-to-one tradeoff, however. Sometimes people are using smartphones while watching TV, or using them outside the home where it wouldn't cut into TV time. Some mobile device use is also, well, to watch TV shows. The study counts all apps, Web surfing and game play but not texts or calling. Still, the trends are strong enough to confirm a trend in other Nielsen data that found viewing of traditional TV -- through a cable or satellite connection or an antenna -- peaked in the 2009-10 season.

Campaigns Turn to a Cheaper Medium to Get Voters’ Ears: Radio

The sprawling Republican primary field naturally has a lot to do with it, but campaign commercials on radio appear to be having a moment: Political advertising on iHeartMedia, one of the biggest radio conglomerates in the country, with 858 stations in more than 150 markets, was already up 30 percent for the fourth quarter over the same period in 2011, the company said. Donald Trump, whose campaign has dominated television news coverage of the Republican primary, has bought ads only on radio, with six different commercials playing across the country. A big “super PAC” supporting Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX), Keep the Promise I, has spent $1.3 million on the radio so far and nothing on television.

Yet radio ads may be more effective at getting a candidate’s message through to its intended audience, some campaign strategists said. “From Dec. 15 through January, if you want to find a basket full of white noise, go to your Iowa TV set,” said Doug Watts, a spokesman for Dr Ben Carson’s campaign, which has been advertising on radio since the summer. “People are spending millions of dollars, and every other spot is going to be a political spot.” “You’ve got to find a way around that,” Watts said, adding: “Radio works.”

Cities and the presidential tech agenda

[Commentary] One curiosity of this presidential campaign is that the candidates -- with the exception of Hillary Clinton -- have largely ignored issues related to cities and communication technology, even though all claim economic growth as a top priority. This is patently short-sighted.

Digital technologies like broadband, smartphones, and sensors could be core enablers of future economic growth if we confront gaps in broadband adoption and outdated infrastructure. Fortunately, there is plenty of time to inject urban affairs and technology policy into the campaigns. Here is a list of issues presidential aspirants should consider and city leaders should weigh in on: Municipal choice, Wi-Fi v LTE-U, Lifeline program reform, Congressional broadband legislation, E-rate implementation, FirstNet, and Next generation 911.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting Oral Arguments for Yet Another Appeal of FCC Open Internet Rule

[Commentary] On Dec 4, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments for yet another appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet rules. Important point for the uninitiated before we get into the details: there will not be a final decision Dec 4. This is just the part of the case where judges ask their most pressing questions of the parties, after which they will deliberate for several months before issuing a final opinion, most likely sometime in the earlier part of 2016.

In general, it’s likely that no matter who wins, and on what grounds, there will be an appeal from the losing side. It may also not be a full win or a full lose, depending on where the court comes down on the disparate arguments we’ve discussed. Public Knowledge is optimistic that the FCC’s rulemaking was founded on sufficiently strong legal authority coupled with a robust record to give the agency its best chance of success. Let’s just hope the court agrees.

NJ officials unite to insist Verizon maintain landline service

A group of 16 municipalities from four counties in South Jersey has filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in a final effort to ensure Verizon New Jersey does not abandon its basic landline telephone service. South Jersey officials and Verizon New Jersey have sparred over the issue of broadband service improvements for about two years, often reaching levels of contention.

The matter reached a pinnacle in May when the BPU approved an accord allowing Verizon to be exempt from certain state regulations for basic landline telephone services. Officials in South Jersey -- particularly Cumberland County -- have called on the BPU numerous times to provide oversight ensuring Verizon maintains the copper landline infrastructure in their municipalities. South Jersey officials argued that the wireless telephone service Verizon has continued to push for is not sufficient and that unless the telecommunications company vowed to implement its superior fiber-optic network (FiOS), officials prefer to keep their copper systems -- which is considered more reliable than wireless broadband.

America’s Bipartisan Spectrum Opportunity

[Commentary] Supplying more radio spectrum to satisfy Americans’ rocketing demand for more mobile bandwidth is a bipartisan and common sense goal. Fortunately Congress has an exceptional opportunity in Dec’s must-pass omnibus spending bill to work together to make significantly more progress toward this bipartisan congressional goal and the President’s pledge to make 500 megahertz of spectrum available by 2020 for both licensed and unlicensed use.

Congress needs to work on a bipartisan basis with the Administration to get this high economic priority done in the pending omnibus spending bill. It can’t wait another year, because demand for radio spectrum is growing at roughly 100 percent annually. No bipartisan cooperation on spectrum reallocation means stunting America’s twenty first century mobile opportunity.

[Scott Cleland is the Chariman of NetCompetition and president of Precursor LLC]

The Daredevils Without Landlines -- And Why Health Experts Are Tracking Them

A Q&A with Stephen Blumberg, associate director for science int he division of Health Interview Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Nearly half of US homes don't have a landline and rely on cellphones instead, according to a recent federal report. The number predictably has been climbing over the years, now surpassing even the households with both a landline and a mobile phone. And it's tracked -- of all agencies -- by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics records all kinds of trends about the state of Americans' health. One of its surveys traces the decline of landlines and what kinds of health habits are common to mobile-only homes. (Hint: the drinking and smoking kind.) How did the CDC become the expert on the rise of the cellphone use? I spoke with Stephen Blumberg, who's been leading this research.

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