December 2016

INTERNET/BROADBAND

DIGITAL DENIED
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: S Derek Turner]
In this report, we demonstrate that communities of color find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide for home-Internet access – both in terms of adoption and deployment – in a manner that income differences alone don’t explain. Once we control for other economic and demographic factors that contribute to this divide, the data illustrate persistent broadband adoption and deployment gaps for people of different races and ethnicities. We find that several personal and household characteristics are associated with home-Internet adoption, including race and ethnicity, along with family income, educational attainment, and use of the Internet at work or school. There are however large differences in some of these factors depending on a person’s race or ethnicity. We conclude that public policies aimed at closing the digital divide must focus on correcting failures endemic to the home-Internet market, such as supra-competitive pricing, provider cross-subsidization, and the lack of a functioning resale/wholesale market. Confronting these market failures would increase the ability of people in marginalized communities to access advanced telecommunications services and purchase those services in an equitable manner.
benton.org/headlines/digital-denied-impact-systemic-racial-discrimination-home-internet-adoption | Free Press | Press release | B&C
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EFFORT UNDERWAY TO IMPROVE DIGITAL INCLUSION AND LITERACY FOR TRIBAL AND RURAL RESIDENTS
[SOURCE: Institute of Museum and Library Services, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the PAST Foundation’s National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA-PAST), announced a pilot project that aims to increase digital inclusion in the United States through local digital literacy trainers, called the Digital Inclusion Corps. The pilot project will work with three state library agencies and two museum organizations to deploy Corps members in five tribal and rural communities. The five Corps members will work with local communities to discover their community digital inclusion-related needs. They will then create a digital equity plan to address such issues as affordable home Internet access, public access, low-cost devices and digital literacy training and technology support. With support from a the project manager, the Corps members will implement the plans, share their experiences online and gather and annotate a collection of digital literacy materials for a publicly available repository at the US Impact Research Group at the University of Washington. Evaluation data will be collected throughout the project period. The pilot is part of a broader effort between IMLS and NDIA-PAST to create more equitable access to online information as well literacy support and training for all residents and communities, particularly those most disadvantaged.
benton.org/headlines/effort-underway-improve-digital-inclusion-and-literacy-tribal-and-rural-residents | Institute of Museum and Library Services
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LEGISLATORS PURSUE BROADBAND FOR VETS AND CHILDREN
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The House of Representatives has adopted legislation and a resolution targeting broadband for veterans and school-age children.
Broadband for Veterans: The bill is the Improving Broadband Access for Veterans Act of 2016 (HR 6394). Introduced by Rep Jerry McNerney (D-CA), the bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to submit a report to Congress about promoting broadband Internet access service for veterans, with a special focus on low-income veterans and veterans residing in rural areas.
Student Broadband Resolution: The resolution, H. Res. 939, was introduced by Rep Peter Welch (D-VT). It argues that all students should have access to digital tools, including broadband, which are necessary to further their education and compete in today’s economy. Leading up to that assertion are 13 “whereas” clauses, such as:
Whereas the United States should lead the world in providing high-quality education and opportunities to its citizens;
Whereas digital skills are essential for education and preparing citizens for the economy of the future;
Whereas a disproportionate number of students without high-speed Internet access at home reside in low-income and minority households.
benton.org/headlines/legislators-pursue-broadband-veterans-and-children | telecompetitor
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SECURITY

HOW RUSSIAN CYBERPOWER INVADED THE US
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lipton, David Sanger, Scott Shane]
Like another famous American election scandal, it started with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee. The first time, 44 years ago at the committee’s old offices in the Watergate complex, the burglars planted listening devices and jimmied a filing cabinet. This time, the burglary was conducted from afar, directed by the Kremlin, with spear-phishing e-mails and zeros and ones. An examination by The Times of the Russian operation — based on interviews with dozens of players targeted in the attack, intelligence officials who investigated it and Obama Administration officials who deliberated over the best response — reveals a series of missed signals, slow responses and a continuing underestimation of the seriousness of the cyberattack. The DNC’s fumbling encounter with the FBI meant the best chance to halt the Russian intrusion was lost. The failure to grasp the scope of the attacks undercut efforts to minimize their impact. And the White House’s reluctance to respond forcefully meant the Russians have not paid a heavy price for their actions, a decision that could prove critical in deterring future cyberattacks. The low-key approach of the FBI meant that Russian hackers could roam freely through the committee’s network for nearly seven months before top DNC officials were alerted to the attack and hired cyberexperts to protect their systems. In the meantime, the hackers moved on to targets outside the DNC, including Clinton’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta, whose private e-mail account was hacked months later.
benton.org/headlines/perfect-weapon-how-russian-cyberpower-invaded-us | New York Times
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TRANSITION

TRUMP TECH MEETING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ali Breland]
A coalition of tech entrepreneurs and investors called for a “safeguarding of civil liberties”, ahead of a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump. In the letter, startup founders, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists say civil liberties are “inextricably linked with our global competitiveness and success.” Citing “recent incidents of harassment in diverse communities that could lead to a brain drain of much needed talent,” the business leaders pledged to “protect people from the erosion of their civil liberties;” to “refuse to contribute skills or platforms to any effort that infringes on civil liberties by any government agency;” and to “accept a responsibility to partner with communities where the effects of rapidly changing technologies have hurt all Americans.” The letter -- signed by the leaders of Shift, Comfy, HelloVote, Willpower Labs, Kiva and The Westly Group, among others -- argues that preservation of such liberties is essential for the advancement of American business. Top officials from major tech organizations such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tesla are expected to attend the tech meeting with the president-elect at Trump Tower in New York. Jobs will likely be the focal point of the conversation.
benton.org/headlines/ahead-trump-meeting-tech-leaders-prioritize-civil-liberties | Hill, The | Los Angeles Times | San Jose Mercury News - agenda | San Jose Mercury News – criticism | Vox | USA Today | CNN
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REQUIEM FOR AN AGENCY
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Kevin Werbach]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission had a great run. Under six Chairmen, Democrat and Republican, the FCC played an important role in one of the greatest economic and cultural transformations in history: the global rise of the converged digital communications environment that now pervades our lives. The agency wasn’t the source of the entrepreneurial ideas, technical innovations, and massive investments, of course. All that took place predominantly in the private sector. Yet without the FCC, the Internet ecosystem today would be different, and in most ways worse: less vibrant, less advanced, less competitive, less open, and less reflective of American leadership and values. Along the way, this tiny agency—a tenth the size of the Environmental Protection Agency—became a highly visible and important player in critical public policy debates. And now, I fear, the FCC’s moment in the sun is coming to an end. The Trump FCC may become at best insignificant, and at worst, a tool for mischief and dirty tricks that will weaken the foundations of our democracy.
[Kevin Werbach is a Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania]
benton.org/headlines/requiem-agency | Medium
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

RUSSIAN CYBERPOWER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lipton, David Sanger, Scott Shane]
An investigation reveals missed signals, slow responses and a continuing underestimation of the seriousness of a campaign to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.
benton.org/headlines/perfect-weapon-how-russian-cyberpower-invaded-us-0 | New York Times
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TELECOM

12 DAYS OF PHONE INJUSTICE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
You may have caught my tweetstorm over the past few days highlighting several examples of bad practices when it comes to our nation's inmate calling services regime. Sadly, there are many more examples, particularly when it comes to city and county jails where some of the highest intrastate inmate calling rates across the country remain in effect. Arkansas County, Arkansas, for one, charges almost $25 for a 15 minute call; Clare County, Michigan charges $22.56; and in a Natrona County, Wyoming facility it costs $9.47 to speak to an inmate for 15 minutes. Contrast that with a 15 minute voice call from a mobile provider at $0.28, and you see why families and children of inmates are as captive to the system as their loved ones. Given that the median income of a male inmate before incarceration is $19,650, how do you suppose he (or the family left behind) can be expected to pay a phone bill that is 8800% higher than before he began his sentence? And while voice rates and usage are on the decline for the majority of consumers, charges for inmates continue to rise in most communities. Despite attempts at reform when the FCC made substantial concessions as it voted to approve rates that far exceeded what the data for over 90% of the providers own unaudited numbers substantiated,, Inmate Calling Services (ICS) companies continue to fight to keep their excessive profits flowing. For example, when the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Order eliminated all but three ancillary fees (that historically added as much as 40% to the cost of ICS calls), Securus, one of the largest providers of ICS, effectively transferred the now disallowed connection fees into “first minute rates.” On top of that, they lowered the prepaid account maximum deposit, so that the company would be able to continue charging inmates and their families exorbitant rates including when they add money into the inmate's account! No one except an inmate and/or his/her family, pays more for the first minute of a call; no one except an inmate (family) pays a fee in order to PREPAY their telephone bill. No one.
benton.org/headlines/12-days-phoneinjustice-redux | Federal Communications Commission
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CONTENT

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REPORT
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: ]
Title III of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-403 (the “PRO-IP Act,” or the “Act”), mandates a coordinated approach to intellectual property enforcement policy. The Act requires development of a three-year National plan on enforcement of laws protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms of intellectual property, with an emphasis on combatting counterfeit and infringing goods in the domestic and international supply chains. Raising public awareness and developing effective solutions begins with a detailed understanding of the nature of the problem presented. To advance a detailed understanding, the Act places special emphasis on teasing out the dimensions of the overall problem as part of the strategy-setting process. Specifically, the Act places as a core objective of the Strategic Plan the need to identify “structural weaknesses,” “systemic flaws,” and other “impediments” to effective IPR enforcement actions against the financing, production, trafficking, or sale of counterfeit or infringing goods. The Strategic Plan is organized and divided into four main sections:
Section 1 provides an overview of how intellectual property serves as a material force behind U.S. economic growth, high-paying jobs, economic competitiveness, and creative expression.
Section 2 focuses on illicit IP-based activity in the online (digital) environment
Section 3 focuses on strategies designed to facilitate secure and lawful trade domestically and abroad.
Section 4 examines broader IP enforcement strategies
that bridge both online and trade-based threats, focusing on overarching governmental frameworks and policies that are critical to supporting robust intellectual property enforcement efforts in a rapidly changing environment.
benton.org/headlines/supporting-innovation-creativity-and-enterprise-charting-path-ahead | White House, The
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TRANSPORTATION

DOT ADVANCES DEPLOYMENT OF CONNECTED VEHICLE TECH
[SOURCE: US Department of Transportation, AUTHOR: Press release]
Citing an enormous potential to reduce crashes on US roadways, the US Department of Transportation issued a proposed rule that would advance the deployment of connected vehicle technologies throughout the US light vehicle fleet. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology on all new light-duty vehicles, enabling a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that, once fully deployed, could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes every year by helping vehicles “talk” to each other. Separately, the Department’s Federal Highway Administration plans to soon issue guidance for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, which will help transportation planners integrate the technologies to allow vehicles to “talk” to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, stop signs and work zones to improve mobility, reduce congestion and improve safety. V2V devices would use the dedicated short range communications (DSRC) to transmit data, such as location, direction and speed, to nearby vehicles. That data would be updated and broadcast up to 10 times per second to nearby vehicles, and using that information, V2V-equipped vehicles can identify risks and provide warnings to drivers to avoid imminent crashes. Vehicles that contain automated driving functions—such as automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control—could also benefit from the use of V2V data to better avoid or reduce the consequences of crashes.
benton.org/headlines/us-dot-advances-deployment-connected-vehicle-technology-prevent-hundreds-thousands-crashes | US Department of Transportation | New York Times | O'Rielly Statement | Public Knowledge
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EDUCATION

BOOKS OR LAPTOPS?
[SOURCE: National Bureau of Economic Research, AUTHOR: Rosangela Bando, Francisco Gallego, Paul Gertler, Dario Romero]
Information and communication technologies, such as laptops, can be used for educational purposes as they provide users with computational tools, information storage and communication opportunities, but these devices may also pose as distractors that may tamper with the learning process. This paper presents results from a randomized controlled trial in which laptops replaced traditional textbook provision in elementary schools in high poverty communities in Honduras in 2013 through the program Educatracho. We show that at the end of one school year, the substitution of laptops for textbooks did not make a significant difference in student learning. We additionally conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis, which demonstrated that given the low marginal costs of digital textbook provision, the substitution of three additional textbooks in the program (for a total of five) would guarantee computers to be more cost-effective than textbooks. Therefore, textbook substitution by laptops may be a cost-effective manner to provide classroom learning content.
benton.org/headlines/books-or-laptops-cost-effectiveness-shifting-printed-digital-delivery-educational-content | National Bureau of Economic Research | Washington Post
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SPRINT PILOT PROJECT WILL OFFER FREE MOBILE DEVICES TO STUDENTS
[SOURCE: Kansas City Business Journal, AUTHOR: Elise Reuter]
Kansas City students will be among the first to participate in the Sprint Foundation's 1Million Project, helping close the "homework gap" for low-income students. Sprint Corp announced the first 11 cities to participate in its pilot program Dec 12, as part of a five-year goal to provide free devices and Internet connectivity to 1,000,000 US high school students. The pilot will launch in January, providing free devices and high-speed wireless to about 4,000 students across 11 locations, including 500 students in Kansas City Public Schools. After the pilot program ends, schools will be able to apply for the program for its nationwide rollout in the 2017-2018 school year. Participating students will receive a free smartphone, tablet or hotspot device with three gigabytes of high-speed LTE data per month and unlimited texting. Students will be able to keep the devices for up to four years, until they graduate.
benton.org/headlines/sprint-pilot-project-will-offer-free-mobile-devices-students | Kansas City Business Journal
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: David Folkenflik]
Some Democrats and journalists are raising concerns about a new law they say could give incoming President Donald Trump great propaganda powers abroad, through such famous broadcasters as the Voice of America, Radio Marti and Radio Free Europe. The law strips away a governing board over the government-funded broadcasters, which are intended to provide reliable news reports in countries without a viable independent media and to promote democratic values abroad. Those outlets instead would answer to a chief executive nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The Obama Administration embraced the changes, promoted by congressional Republicans before the November elections. It was passed by the Republican-controlled House and Senate as part of a much larger and essentially unrelated bill, which awaits Obama's signature or veto.
benton.org/headlines/obama-backed-change-voice-america-has-trump-critics-worried | National Public Radio
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POLICYMAKERS

JOHN THUNE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has made himself into an indispensable player in debates over the future of technology policy and its ripple effects around the economy. His education on technology issues began when he unexpectedly became the committee’s ranking member after then-Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) left the Senate to become the head of the conservative Heritage Foundation. When he became chairman in 2014, Thune said in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute that lawmakers should work to free up government-owned spectrum — the invisible frequencies that carry signals to mobile devices — for private use. Chairman Thune released a bill to carry through that pledge, though it did not make it out of Congress. He’s found bipartisan ground on a bill to reauthorize the Federal Communications Commission, which would give Congress another chance to weigh in on the goings-on at the agency. That bill, however, also failed to make it through Congress. “He knows the facts, he knows the background, he knows where the policy challenges are and he knows what needs to be done,” said Andy Halataei, senior vice president for government affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council. “And I think the other thing that gives us confidence is the way he conducts the debate is that it’s usually pretty open, transparent, it’s pretty thoughtful and it lends itself to a bipartisan result.” Even some who disagree with Thune sing his praises.
benton.org/headlines/sen-john-thune-prairie-player-tech-world | Hill, The
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CHAIRMAN WHEELER NAMES SIX MEMBERS TO USAC BOARD
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public notice]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler appointed six members to the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC):
Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (Bell Operating Companies): Joel Lubin, Consultant, AT&T
Representative for libraries that are eligible to receive discounts: Robert Bocher, Consultant, Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction
Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts: Dr. Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director, American Association School Administrators
Representative for state consumer advocates: Cynthia Kinser, Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Tennessee Attorney General
Representative for commercial mobile radio service providers: Matt Gerst, Director for Regulatory Affairs, CTIA
Representative for cable operators: Beth Choroser, Vice President of Regulatory, Comcast
benton.org/headlines/chairman-wheeler-names-six-members-board-directors-universal-service-administrative | Federal Communications Commission
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December 2016

Google Officials Promised To Stop Making Fake News Profitable, But One Month Later, They've Failed

The New Privacy Debate: Ensuring Privacy in a 'mixed reality' world

MMTC Welcomes Dr Rikin Thakker as VP of Telecommunications and Spectrum Policy

Trump is threatening to wreck our democracy. Blame the Republicans who are looking the other way.

Donald Trump follows anti-media campaign with anti-media transition

The Chosen: Who Trump Is Putting In Power

Trump’s supporters admonish him for Twitter use but give him wide berth to govern

Newt Gingrich explains how Donald Trump expertly manipulates the media

NAB Teams With Knight Foundation on News Initiatives

December 14, 2016 (Digital Denied)