1. Monthly archive
  2. November 2016

November 2016

SHLB Coalition Has Issues With FCC's BDS Approach

The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition has launched a campaign trying to get the Federal Communications Commission to reverse course on its new approach to business data services (BDS), saying with that approach "our kids will suffer from buffer brains rather than developing into the next-generation of entrepreneurs and leaders."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was initially going to impose rate regulations on both the ethernet BDS service used by new competitive entrants like cable ISPs and the traditional TDM (time-division multiplexing)-based service provided by the incumbent telecommunication companies, but he subsequently switched to a case-by-case, market-by-market, complaint-driven approach to ethernet service price regulations. SHLB Coalition wants the FCC to regulate both TDM and ethernet below 50 Mbps in an "equivalent manner," saying not to do so excludes schools and libraries from the BDS revamp. The campaign is called #NoBufferBrains, and it wants the FCC to make "emergency improvements" to the proposal. "Emergency" because Chairman Wheeler has scheduled a vote on the latest BDS proposal for the Nov 17 public meeting after originally circulating it for a vote outside a public meeting.

Civic Engagement Strongly Tied to Local News Habits

In local communities, the civically engaged – the people who vote, volunteer and connect with those around them – play a key role in community life. Thus, how and to what degree they stay informed about their communities carries added weight. A new study by Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reveals that, overall, the civically engaged are indeed more likely than the less engaged to use and value local news. But two particular aspects of civic engagement stand out as most closely associated with local news habits: a strong connection to one’s community and always voting in local elections.

Americans with one of these two attributes, the study finds, consistently display stronger local news habits across a range of measures: news interest, news intake (the number and types of sources they turn to) and news attitudes – their views of local news organizations. The roughly one-in-five US adults (19%) who feel highly attached to their communities demonstrate much stronger ties to local news than those who do not feel attached. Similar to the highly attached, those who say they always vote in local elections (27% of US adults) display strikingly stronger local news habits than those who do not regularly vote in local elections.

Opting in to better online privacy protection

The new Internet service provider privacy rules mandate that consumers must affirmatively opt-in to allow ISP sharing of their app and browsing histories, mobile location data, and any other identifiable information that can be gleaned from internet use. Otherwise, ISPs will be prohibited from undertaking such activities. Behavioral information is the fuel for online targeted advertising. This allows advertisers to tailor their messages and sales offers to consumers who best fit their buying profiles. To advertisers, aggregating real-time information online about consumer interest has significant economic value.

For now, better consumer education should inform the general public about when and how to opt in or opt out, and which entities offer which option. Here, an impactful public service advertising campaign coordinated by The Advertising Council, the non-profit organization and the largest producer of public service programs in the United States, may be an important next step.

Don’t Connect to a Public Wi-Fi Network Anywhere You Wouldn’t Go Barefoot

[Commentary] Coffee shops, parks—bring your device to any public place and see what networks are out there. Your phone is constantly calling out, looking for any Wi-Fi networks it has connected to in the past, and any networks that it might want to connect to in the future. (Your smartphone is definitely in an open relationship with your home network.) Some of these Wi-Fi networks have names you want to trust: OHare Airport Official Wi-Fi, for example. Some definitely scream “stay away”—like GetOffMyLAN. Some are bizarrely complex—Purchase4478_Open3’—and some are thoroughly bland—Netgear00. But what do you really know about any of them?

Using a VPN is an easy step to take—much like wearing shoes—and can go a long way towards protecting your cyber health.

[Jamie Winterton is the Director, Strategy with ASU's Global Security Initiative, where she specializes in creating novel solutions for multifaceted and disparate problem spaces that relate to global security.]

Communicating in a Catastrophe: The Lessons of Orlando

On what should have been any other normal Saturday night in Orlando (FL), 49 people were shot and killed in a nightclub. The perpetrator, Omar Mateen, claimed allegiance to ISIS, though there is no evidence he was in direct contact with the group or its members. The June 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub is now considered the worst terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11—and the deadliest public mass shooting in US history.

Security vulnerabilities—whether domestic or international—will never vanish completely, but communities, governments, media, and members of the public each play a role in promoting the resilience that prevents societies from bowing to terrorist threats. Several of these institutions played a part in the attack and aftermath in Orlando.

Big AT&T Deal Proves It’s Time to Stop ‘Zero-Rating’

Facebook and several other Western companies tried to give away free Internet in India, but regulators wouldn’t allow it. The trouble is that the service provided free access to some online apps—including Facebook—but not others. This is called zero-rating, and regulators believe it harms online competition, giving certain companies an unfair advantage over others. So far, despite complaints from various public advocates, US regulators have just let zero rating happen. But the issue may soon come to a head, now that AT&T, one of the world’s biggest Internet service providers, has signed an $85.4 billion agreement to acquire Time Warner, one of the world’s biggest media companies.

The overarching problem here is that widespread zero-rating harms innovation. It prevents newer and smaller players from challenging the established companies, and that’s particularly true when those established companies start consolidating and getting even bigger. And companies of a certain size can have an influence on the rest of the playing field—as the Justice Department seeks to show with a new lawsuit against none other than DirecTV, accusing the company of colluding with other pay-TV companies to block content (before its merger with AT&T). Among public advocates, the hope is that regulators will bar a combined AT&T-Time Warner from practicing zero-rating, but that’s not enough. The bigger hope is that the AT&T deal leads to stiffer rules for the entire industry—a firm declaration that zero-rating harms competition wherever it’s practiced.

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.