Broadband Privacy Enters the Home Stretch
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2016 (9)
This week’s events https://www.benton.org/calendar/2016-10-09--P1W
ELECTIONS 2016
US Formally Accuses Russia of Stealing DNC E-mails
Trump transition team picks regulation foe Jeffrey Eisenach as telecom point man
How ‘Access Hollywood’ Found the Trump Tape – and Why NBC News Probably Leaked It [links to Wrap, The]
Greg Ferenstein: Hillary Clinton Will Likely Be As Pro-Innovation as President Obama. Here’s the Data To Prove It [links to Medium]
Big names in Silicon Valley are siding with Democratic challenger Deborah Ross in her campaign against NC Sen. Richard Burr [links to Hill, The]
The cost of hosting a presidential debate [links to Marketplace]
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz pledges millions more to elect Clinton [links to Medium]
The media’s Weimar moment - CJR op-ed
Why is Trump Outspending Clinton Online? - Campaigns and Elections op-ed [links to Benton summary]
In retrospect, Tim Kaine’s debate was a masterful lesson in campaign strategy [links to Medium]
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Trump: 'It's so bad for America if he wins' [links to CNNMoney]
TELECOM
FCC Chairman Wheeler's Proposal To Promote Fairness, Competition, And Investment In The Business Data Services Market - press release
FCC BDS Proposal Draws Crowd [links to Multichannel News]
AT&T Statement on FCC’s Special Access/BDS Proposal [links to AT&T press release]
AT&T Asks FCC to Take Action on “Nefarious” Inter-Carrier Compensation Practices
David Lazarus: Frontier still struggling to put Verizon takeover issues to rest [links to Los Angeles Times]
ACCESSIBILITY
FCC’s Biennial Report to Congress as Required by the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 - public notice
Improving Accessibility through Technology - FCC Chairman Wheeler op-ed [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
The Frontrunner in the Race to be a "Gigabyte State" - Susan Crawford op-ed [links to Benton summary]
AT&T Enters CenturyLink Market with Competitive AT&T Broadband Wireless Service [links to Benton summary]
Video: Facebook wants The US to have free internet, but it's not that simple [links to USAToday]
How indie bookshops are using the internet to boost retail sales, through free shipping, social media, personalized recommendations, online characters, and more [links to New York Times]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
Orin Kerr: Remotely accessing an IP address inside a target computer is a search [links to Washington Post]
TELEVISION
The channels getting hit hardest by cord cutting: The Weather Channel, ESPN, Spike, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and CMT [links to Media life]
Parents Television Council slams Fox for gratuitous sex scene opening to otherwise family-friendly show Pitch [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
What's behind the NFL's sagging ratings? [links to Marketplace]
JOURNALISM
Broadcast News Spent Less Than Six Minutes Covering Obstruction Of Garland Nomination In The Last Six Months [links to Media Matters for America]
Miami Tunes In to Local TV for Storm Reports [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
SENIORS
Mobile-first technology is bringing our seniors the promise of the digital world [links to Verizon]
PATENTS
Apple Wins Appeal Reinstating $119.6 Million Samsung Verdict [links to Bloomberg]
LABOR
AT&T, CWA reach three-year tentative contract for 2K internet workers [links to Fierce]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Assessing the Obama Administration’s Tech Legacy [links to Benton summary]
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ELECTIONS 2016
US FORMALLY ACCUSES RUSSIAOF STEALING DNC E-MAILS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Sanger]
The Obama Administration formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing e-mails from the Democratic National Committee and from a range of prominent individuals and institutions, immediately raising the issue of whether President Barack Obama will seek sanctions or other retaliation for the cyberattacks. In a statement from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., and the Department of Homeland Security, the government said the leaked e-mails that have appeared on a variety of websites “are intended to interfere with the US election process.” The e-mails were posted on the well-known WikiLeaks site and newer ones that have run under the names DCLeaks.com and Guccifer 2.1. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said. It did not name President Vladimir Putin, but that appeared to be the intention. For weeks, aides to President Obama have been debating a range of possible responses to the Russia action, from targeted economic sanctions to authorizing covert action against the computer servers in Russia and elsewhere that have been traced as the origin of the attacks. The White House has not said whether President Obama has reviewed those options, or decided on any. The statement said that the recent “scanning and probing” of election systems “in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company,” but did not say the Russian government was responsible for those probes.
benton.org/headlines/us-formally-accuses-russia-stealing-dnc-e-mails | New York Times | Joint DHS and DNI Statement | Washington Post
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AEI’S JEFFREY EISENACH JOINS TEAM TRUMP
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Donald Trump's presidential transition team is turning to a crusader against regulation as it seeks to craft a strategy on issues like network neutrality and the future of the Federal Communications Commission, according to three sources familiar with the effort. The newly tapped aide, Jeffrey Eisenach, is a known commodity in Washington tech and telecom circles. Dating back to his time as leader of the now-defunct Progress and Freedom Foundation, he's argued vigorously in favor of the FCC taking a hands-off approach to digital issues. While there in the 1990s, he also called for robust penalties against Microsoft during the US government's antitrust investigation of the software giant. In 2012 Eisenach arrived as a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and, in that role, he’s been an outspoken antagonist of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his policies. In his research and advocacy, often backed by tech and telecom interests, he's slammed the Obama administration's efforts on net neutrality, broadband investment and more. It also marks a shift for Eisenach, who earlier this election cycle had criticized Trump. In March, he tweeted that he wouldn’t “apologize for pulling out all stops to defeat Trump,” citing the stakes in the election. But that tweet, and others critical of the GOP candidate, have since been deleted from his timeline. He's also been the source of controversy: The New York Times in August needled Eisenach for his research and writing on issues like net neutrality, some of which has been funded by companies like Verizon and other telecom interests that oppose the FCC's rules.
benton.org/headlines/trump-transition-team-picks-regulation-foe-jeffrey-eisenach-telecom-point-man | Politico
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THE MEDIA'S WEIMAR MOMENT
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Lee Siegel]
In June 1954 on national television, Joe Welch, the US Army’s chief counsel, exposed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s dubious morality with those two legendary questions: “Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Such was the novelty of television back then that having given Sen McCarthy an authoritative forum for his views, TV could now serve as the instrument of his destruction. We all know what followed. The media attained the highest point of its legitimacy and authority during the Vietnam War with the publication of the Pentagon Papers and then the unfolding of the Watergate scandal. That ascendancy ran parallel to the rapid discrediting of politics as a vocation. Journalists were heroes. Politicians were scoundrels. Thirty years later, with the revelations of the media’s blindness to and sometimes complicity with the lies that led America into the Iraq War, journalists joined politicians in the space of detention into which public opinion puts those figures who betray the people’s trust. From that point on, America, once dubbed the oldest young country in the world by Gertrude Stein, began to experience the historical version of a senior moment. It began to undergo a Weimar moment.
[Lee Siegel is the author of five books and the recipient of a National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. His forthcoming book, The Draw: A Memoir, will be published in April.]
benton.org/headlines/medias-weimar-moment | Columbia Journalism Review
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TELECOM
BUSINESS DATA SERVICES REFORM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
To promote fairness, competition, and investment in this $45 billion marketplace, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated to his fellow Commissioners proposed rules to take necessary and overdue steps to reform a long-broken regulatory regime. The Order provides a new framework for the Business Data Services (BDS or “special access”) market that strikes a balance between targeted regulation for legacy TDM (DS1 and DS3) services, where evidence of market power is strongest, and lighter-touch regulation of packet-based services, where there has been new entry and competition may be emerging. The Order also reaffirms that TDM and Ethernet BDS are both subject to the Commission’s Title II oversight. This framework supports the rapid deployment of innovative 5G mobile service by ensuring that wireless providers have fair access to BDS, including packet-based BDS, at just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions. These requirements are enforced by strengthening our complaint process to expedite resolution of problems if they arise. The Chairman is also proposing a Further Notice on packet-based BDS, which will provide the Commission with a vehicle to take further action on Ethernet pricing if that proves necessary.
A Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would seek comment on how best to collect accurate data on market developments and what administrable means can be developed, if necessary, to deal with any concerns that may emerge with respect to pricing for packet-based BDS.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheelers-proposal-promote-fairness-competition-and-investment-business-data | Federal Communications Commission
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ICC REFORM
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission to address what it called “nefarious” inter-carrier compensation(ICC) practices including unusually high tandem switching and transport access charges and non-competitive 800-number database dips. AT&T noted that such practices are counter-productive to FCC efforts to phase out the traditional approach toward inter-carrier compensation in favor of a “bill-and-keep” approach in which carriers will pay few, if any, charges to one another for exchanging voice traffic. The unusually high tandem switching and transport access charges come into play for competitive local exchange carriers who terminate calls to companies engaged in access stimulation, also known as “traffic pumpers.” The traffic pumpers traditionally have included companies offering services such as free or low-cost conferencing and chat lines that receive a high volume of calls. Such companies traditionally have chosen local carriers that charge other carriers large fees for terminating calls. The benefit for the traffic pumpers is that they traditionally have received a portion of ICC revenues from their local carriers.
benton.org/headlines/att-asks-fcc-take-action-nefarious-inter-carrier-compensation-practices | telecompetitor | AT&T
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ACCESSIBILITY
CVAA REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission prepared this Biennial Report for submission to the House and Senate Commerce Committees in accordance with the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). This Report presents information and assessments related to the accessibility of telecommunications services and equipment, advanced communications services (ACS) and equipment used for ACS, and Internet browsers built into mobile phones, along with a summary of actions taken by the Commission related to the CVAA. Specifically, this Report presents information and assessments related to the accessibility of telecommunications services and equipment as required by section 255,14 ACS and equipment used for ACS as required by section 716,15 and Internet browsers built into mobile phones as required by section 718,16 since the submission of the 2014 CVAA Biennial Report. In addition, this Report provides information about complaints alleging violations of sections 255, 716, and 718 for the period of January 1, 2014, through December 31, 2015.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-biennial-report-congress-required-twenty-first-century-communications-and-video | Federal Communications Commission
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