BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017
Today's Event -- Strategies for Broadband Adoption and Digital Inclusion in Rural Communities, NTIA -- https://www.benton.org/node/257141
INTERNET/BROADBAND
The FCC Is Leading Us Toward Catastrophe - Susan Crawford op-ed
The relentless fighting over network neutrality rules needs to end, but how can it? - editorial
FCC Revises Direction to USAC on E-rate Fund Administration [links to Benton summary]
FCC Chairman Pai Letter to Chris Henderson, Universal Service Administrative Company, Re: USAC's Performance as Schools and Libraries Program Administrator - press release [links to Benton summary]
3 GOP Reps Call on Chairman Pai to Soften Business Data Services Proposal
Sen Markey, Rep Doyle Call for Business Data Services Vote Delay [links to Benton summary]
BDS Reform for 2017, Not 2005 - press release [links to Benton summary]
CenturyLink, Level 3 say they don’t ‘significantly’ compete with each other for business service opportunities [links to Benton summary]
BDS Deregulation Foes: FCC's Plan Raises Legal Issues [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
George Ford: Economics Makes a Welcome Return in the Forthcoming BDS Order [links to Phoenix Center]
Internet Innovation Alliance: Time for BDS Deregulation [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
FairPoint brings broadband to 25 rural Vermont towns via FCC’s CAF-II program [links to Benton summary]
Google Fiber realigns San Antonio FTTH rollout strategy, but new coverage plans are unclear [links to Benton summary]
Charter accuses Google Fiber of ‘abandoning’ Kansas City in newspaper ad [links to Fierce]
COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
A Lesson in Moscow About Trump-Style ‘Alternative Truth’
President Reagan Manipulated Television. President Trump Is Controlled by It. - analysis [links to Benton summary]
Rep Cummings on President Trump Transparency: 'If you want privacy, don't go into politics' [links to The Hill]
President Trump’s old tweets are becoming a minefield of hypocrisy [links to Washington Post]
OWNERSHIP
Beware: The UHF Discount Is Rising From The Dead - analysis
Verizon Preps for 5G with $1 Billion+ Next Generation Optical Fiber Purchase [links to Benton summary]
Statement Of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai On $1.05 Billion Fiber-Purchase Agreement Between Verizon Communications And Corning - press release [links to Benton summary]
Verizon CEO says he'd be open to a merger with Comcast, Disney or CBS [links to Hill, The]
Yahoo expects Verizon deal to close in June [links to CNN]
JOURNALISM
Bringing News Voices to North Carolina - Free Press
City magazines, dependent on print, face uncertain future amid wave of deals [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
How The New York Times decides which stories to link to and which ones to match [links to Poynter]
The Boston Globe is trying to reinvent the metro newspaper [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Another trick to try to get mainstream media articles deindexed by Google [links to Washington Post]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Universities to Support FCC 5G R&D Portal [links to telecompetitor]
Remarks of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Before the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 Advisory Committee - speech [links to Benton summary]
Mapping T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast and AT&T: Who got how much 600 MHz spectrum and where? [links to Fierce]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
DC appeals court poised to rule on whether police need warrants for cellphone tracking [links to Benton summary]
Consumer groups blast DHS head for seeking travelers' social media passwords [links to Benton summary]
ADVERTISING
comScore to Provide More Metrics for Facebook Ads [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
CONTENT
MLB players are launching their own social media app [links to CNN]
Facebook’s News Literacy Advice Is Harmful to News Literacy [links to Medium]
LABOR
President Trump signs order taking aim at H-1B visa program [links to Benton summary]
The newest Silicon Valley perk? Paid time off to protest President Trump. [links to Washington Post]
ELECTIONS
Anger Isn’t Enough, So the #Resistance Is Weaponizing Data [links to Wired]
FTC REFORM
Federal Trade Commission says it's getting to work cutting down its regulatory footprint in line with President Trump's agenda [links to Hill, The]
POLICYMAKERS
The i2Coalition announces recipients of its 2017 Champion of Internet Freedom Awards will be Rep Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) and Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [links to Internet Infrastructure Coalition]
COMPANY NEWS
Mark Zuckerberg Sees Augmented Reality Ecosystem in Facebook [links to New York Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU launches public consultation into fears about future of internet
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC IS LEADING US TOWARD CATASTROPHE
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Here’s what we know about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s latest plans: He’s planning to erase the utility designation the Obama FCC re-applied to high-speed internet access carriers in February 2015 (following an unprecedented 10-year period of deregulation). In parallel, in an empty bid to pay lip service to the idea of an open internet, he wants to shift authority to the Federal Trade Commission...This move is not really about net neutrality: It’s about whether or not internet access is a utility rather than a luxury. If it’s a utility, it needs to be subject to rules, laid out in advance, about availability and quality. If it’s not, we’re saying we trust competition in the private market to protect consumers and ensure that everyone in the country gets world-class, open, nondiscriminatory internet access. Chairman Pai is saying he trusts competition in the private marketplace. That’s nonsensical.
[Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School]
benton.org/headlines/fcc-leading-us-toward-catastrophe | Medium
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FIGHT OVER NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s latest target is the network neutrality rules the commission adopted in 2015 after a federal appeals court threw out the commission’s previous neutrality regulations. The 2015 rules try to preserve the openness that has been crucial to the Internet’s success by barring broadband providers from blocking or impeding legal sites and services, favoring some sites’ traffic in exchange for pay, or unreasonably interfering with the flow of data on their networks. These are all vitally important principles, as even opponents of the rules recognize. The fight has largely been over how strictly they should be interpreted and enforced. In particular, the dispute has been over the FCC’s move to reclassify broadband providers as utilities, which a federal appeals court ruled the commission had to do before it could impose blanket prohibitions on blocking, throttling or prioritizing data. The reclassification also subjected providers to some of the same, decades-old rules as local phone monopolies. The process of undoing a rule usually requires another public notice and months of public comment on the proposed change. But Chairman Pai may take a procedural shortcut next month that undoes the utility classification right away. And instead of having neutrality rules that the FCC would enforce, Chairman Pai may call on broadband providers to pledge not to block, impede or prioritize traffic unreasonably — with the Federal Trade Commission available to slap the hands of any provider that goes back on its pledge. That’s a laughable idea. Protecting net neutrality shouldn’t be a partisan issue, considering how widely shared that goal is. If Chairman Pai manages to kill the current rules, Congress shouldn’t wait for the courts to settle the matter. Instead, lawmakers should make clear once and for all that broadband providers mustn’t pick winners and losers online, and that the FCC has the power to make sure they don’t.
benton.org/headlines/relentless-fighting-over-network-neutrality-rules-needs-end-how-can-it | Los Angeles Times
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3 GOP REPS CALL ON PAI TO SOFTEN BDS PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harper Neidig]
Three members of the Arkansas delegation, Sens Tom Cotton (R-AR), John Boozman (R-AR) and Rep French Hill (R-AR), are asking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to soften his proposal to deregulate the business data services market. The lawmakers wrote a letter to Chairman Pai asking that he implement a “reasonable transition period” in the proposed rule so that small businesses can prepare for any price hikes that may result. “A transition period would create a window where all market participants could plan for price increases or the purchase of internet protocol (IP)-enabled equipment, shop for alternative service arrangements, and even solicit build-out proposals from potential market entrants,” the lawmakers wrote. “A reasonable transition would also enable service providers to adapt and remain viable in more markets than will occur in the event of a flash cut to new policies.”
benton.org/headlines/3-gop-reps-call-chairman-pai-soften-business-data-services-proposal | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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COMMUNICATIONS & DEMOCRACY
A LESSON IN MOSCOW ABOUT TRUMP-STYLE 'ALTERNATIVE TRUTH'
[SOURCE: The New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Rutenberg]
I wanted to better understand President Trump’s America, a place where truth is being ripped from its moorings as he brands those tasked with lashing it back into place — journalists — as dishonest enemies of the people. So I went to Russia. [In one instance, w]hen Trump administration officials tried to counter Russia’s “false narratives” by releasing to reporters a declassified report detailing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles — and suggesting to The Associated Press without proof that Russia knew of President Bashar al-Assad’s plans to use chemical weapons in advance — the Russians had a ready answer borrowed from Trump himself. As the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia put it, “Apparently it was for good reason Donald Trump called unverified information in the mass media one of the main problems in the US.” It was the best evidence I’ve seen of the folly of President Trump’s anti-press approach. You can’t spend more than a year attacking the credibility of the “dishonest media” and then expect to use its journalism as support for your position during an international crisis — at least not with any success. While President Trump and his supporters may think that undermining the news media serves their larger interests, in this great information war it serves Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests more. It means playing on his turf, where he excels. Integral to President Putin’s governing style has been a pliant press that makes his government the main arbiter of truth.
benton.org/headlines/lesson-moscow-about-trump-style-alternative-truth | New York Times, The
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OWNERSHIP
THE UFH DISCOUNT
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Schwartzman]
[Commentary] The ultra high frequency (UHF) Discount is the zombie of media policy, likely to rise from the dead this week at the Federal Communications Commission’s April 20, 2017 meeting. The likely restoration of the UHF Discount raises interesting legal issues, since no one disputes that there the policy rationale for its adoption has long since disappeared. Those arguments will play out at the Federal Communications Commission and, perhaps, in the courts, but this post is about the colorful history of the UHF Discount and why restoring it would likely lead to vastly increased concentration of control of TV stations in this country. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has made plain that he intends to relax or repeal almost all of the Commission’s restrictions on how many media properties a broadcaster can own or operate. However, the very first item on his list, which he has slated for expedited consideration, actually restores a very important, if seemingly arcane, provision that his predecessor had deleted - the so-called UHF discount.
[Andrew Jay Schwartzman is the Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation]
benton.org/headlines/beware-uhf-discount-rising-dead | Benton Foundation
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TELECOMS INDUSTRY SET FOR M&A NEGOTIATIONS FRENZY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Liana Baker, Anjali Athavaley]
In 10 days, the Federal Communications Commission will lift a ban on telecoms companies engaging in merger talks, and Wall Street is betting on T-Mobile US, Sprint, and Dish Network to be the first ones out of the gate. Shares of these companies have soared over the past 12 months on expectations of deal talks, and are trading at up to 31 times forward earnings, versus the S&P 500 telecom services index's .5SP50 18 times. The rich valuations could discourage acquirers, who also have to assume the risk that antitrust regulators may look askance at more consolidation in the sector after a wave of mergers in recent years, investment bankers and industry experts say. "It seems as though valuations have already jumped to a near certainty a deal will be announced and approved. You have to ask yourself whether T-Mobile is going to be as eager to do a deal as Sprint," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson.
benton.org/headlines/us-telecoms-industry-set-ma-negotiations-frenzy | Reuters
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JOURNALISM
BRINGING NEWS VOICES TO NORTH CAROLINA
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Fiona Morgan]
We’re launching News Voices: North Carolina to forge connections between North Carolinians and the newsrooms that serve them. We’re beginning our community-engagement initiatives in Charlotte and the Triangle, and we anticipate working in places like Asheville, the Triad and Wilmington over the next two years. We’ll host small gatherings, trainings and public conversations. We’ll foster collaborations between newsrooms and community groups. We’ll strengthen networks of journalists, media makers and people who care about quality local news and information, building stronger bonds statewide to foster better and more sustainable news coverage of North Carolina.
benton.org/headlines/bringing-news-voices-north-carolina | Free Press
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU LAUNCHES PUBLIC CONSULTATION INTO FEARS ABOUT FUTURE OF INTERNET
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: ]
The European Union is launching an unprecedented public consultation to find out what Europeans fear most about the future of the internet. A succession of surveys over the coming weeks will ask people for their views on everything from privacy and security to artificial intelligence, network neutrality, big data and the impact of the digital world on jobs, health, government and democracy. A dozen leading European publications, including the Guardian, are to publicise the surveys over the coming three weeks. Results will be compiled in early June. Readers can complete the first questionnaire here. “Science should be open and freed from its traditional ivory tower; to be discussed, submitted to critique and fed with new perspectives,” said Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, adding that the consultation would “inspire fresh ideas about how to solve some of our society’s most pressing problems”. The project is being led by REIsearch, a non-profit initiative co-funded by the European commission. The aim is to give policymakers a better sense of public priorities in their decision-making.
benton.org/headlines/eu-launches-public-consultation-fears-about-future-internet | Guardian, The | read the survey
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