BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2013
Today’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-03-14/
CYBERSECURITY
Cyber threats against U.S. 'ramping up,' President Obama says
Financial, energy sectors call for cyber information-sharing legislation
US welcomes China willingness to discuss cyber threats [links to web]
Who pays the bill for a cyber war? [links to web]
Can a company 'hack back' to retrieve stolen secrets? [links to web]
China hacker's angst opens a window onto cyber-espionage [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
House Commerce Committee Leaders Continue Examination of $7 Billion Broadband Stimulus Programs - press release
Five Fundamentals for the Phone Network, Part 3: Protecting All Consumers - analysis
Is that really broadband? A look at the technologies in play.
What Do You Do With the World’s Fastest Internet Service? - analysis
Consumers Visit Retailers, Then Go Online for Cheaper Sources [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Keeping the Incentive in Incentive Auctions - editorial
Newest Phone Unlocking Bill Criticized as 'Temporary Fix'
Fast, unlimited wireless at last? What a combined T-Mobile/MetroPCS means to you
Why Cellphones Are So Annoying [links to web]
Verizon's Palmer details the company's AWS deployment strategy, VoLTE launch plans and more [links to web]
Google’s Android lead steps down [links to web]
ITC Postpones iPhone Ban Decision [links to web]
NAB Slams Wireless Call for BAS Spectrum [links to web]
CONTENT
House lawmakers skeptical of relaxing computer crime law [links to web]
Introducing Netflix Social
Aaron Swartz Lawyers Accuse Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Of Misconduct [links to web]
Berkeley e-mail tax is not the answer - editorial [links to web]
Google Reader lived on borrowed time: creator Chris Wetherell reflects [links to web]
PRIVACY
Google Hastens to Show Its Concern for Privacy
Recalculating the privacy debate after Google Maps penalty - editorial
Sen. Franken Pushes In-Store Tracker Euclid to Seek Shopper Permission [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC Mulls Over Raising Limits on Foreign Ownership of Broadcast Stations - analysis
FCC’s Pai: Retransmission Relief Must Come from Congress [links to web]
ACA Summit: WOW CEO Abdoulah Says It's Time for FCC to Call Out Broadcasters on Retransmission [links to web]
ACA Summit: Sen. Heller Says Video Regulations Need Reboot [links to web]
HEALTH
Solving the talent equation for health IT - research [links to web]
'Virtual house calls' for Parkinson's as beneficial as office visits: study [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Engaging with Mayor Booker To Improve Government Social Media [links to web]
LOBBYING
Video game industry hires former Capitol Hill aides [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
China Mobile to invest $30.6 billion in 4G [links to web]
Mobile Apps Put Users’ Privacy at Risk, EU Regulators Say [links to web]
América Móvil suffers as reforms sink in [links to web]
Vodafone and France Telecom in Spain deal [links to web]
EMC donates Vatican storage of biblical proportions [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Kids To Marketers: We Want Tech Gadgets, Not Toys [links to web]
Forrester Forecasts 13% Gain In Online Sales [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
PRESIDENT OBAMA ON CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Susan Heavey]
Cyber security threats against the United States are growing, President Barack Obama said before meeting corporate leaders to discuss rising concerns about hacking attacks emanating from China. "What is absolutely true is that we have seen a steady ramping up of cyber security threats," President Obama said in an interview with ABC, noting that some threats were "state sponsored." "We've made it very clear to China and some other state actors that, you know, we expect them to follow international norms and abide by international rules," the President said. President Obama took the unusual step of meeting with corporate chief executives in the White House Situation Room, the secure site in the West Wing basement where the president meets with national security advisers during crises. The meeting included Honeywell International's David Cote, AT&T's Randall Stephenson, and Northrop Grumman's Wes Bush.
benton.org/node/147800 | Reuters | LA Times
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BUSINESS LEADERS CALL FOR LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Two representatives from the financial and energy sectors called on Congress to pass legislation that would increase the flow of data shared between the government and industry about cyber threats. "At the end of the day, we need to know what's going on and what's affecting us," said Anish Bhimani, chief information risk officer of JPMorgan Chase, who testified on behalf of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center at a House hearing. Bhimani told members of the House Homeland Security Committee that companies need to receive data from the government about online threats in a timely manner so they can thwart cyberattacks in real time. "What we care most about is that we're able to receive actionable, timely information from whoever has it," he said. Gary Hayes, chief information officer of CenterPoint Energy, said cybersecurity legislation needs to be flexible enough so it can apply to both small and large businesses. "One size fits all is not appropriate," he said.
benton.org/node/147799 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
BROADBAND STIMULUS OVERSIGHT
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
Republican leaders of the House Commerce Committee continued their examination of the president’s broadband stimulus programs, requesting information from both the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding Rural Utilities Service’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). In a letter to RUS Acting Administrator John Padalino, the members requested information regarding the agency’s management and oversight of the BIP program, particularly its review process for awarding $66.4 million in grants and loans to Lake County. Members expressed concern that the Lake County project may be overbuilding areas already served by existing broadband providers, instead of expanding access to underserved or unserved areas, as required by ARRA.
Additionally, committee leaders requested GAO examine all of the loans and grants distributed through the BIP program. The members wrote, “As we seek to expand the deployment of broadband infrastructure in a constrained budget environment, the overbuilding of existing broadband networks using federal dollars represents a significant concern. As GAO and others have reported, access to broadband service can improve economic growth and quality-of-life. Yet, overbuilding diverts scarce budget resources from areas without broadband service to areas with service and can impede vital private-sector investment. Given the need to ensure the most efficient and effective use of federal dollars and guard against waste, fraud, and abuse, we ask that GAO conduct an in-depth analysis of work already completed under BIP.”
benton.org/node/147767 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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PROTECTING ALL CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Lucy Wolf]
Public Knowledge has proposed Five Fundamentals to guide the phone network upgrade to an IP-based system and this piece focuses on protecting all consumers. The need for consumer protection builds upon PK’s previous two principles for the PSTN transition. The first principle states that everyone has the right to be a consumer of the phone network and that phone carriers have a duty to bring service to all Americans. The second principle promotes competition and interconnection between carriers, meaning that anyone should be able to place a call to another person, regardless of which phone company they use. Interconnection and other competition policies lead to a healthy, consumer-friendly market for phone service. Yet competition between carriers does not always guarantee all aspects of consumer protection. PK’s third principle ensures that all consumers are protected from potential harm dealt to them by their phone service providers, by enforcing privacy principles, truth-in-billing, and safety from predatory practices. It is important that the consumer protections ensured in current communications law are updated to reflect the IP-based infrastructure of the future. Today, the law explicitly protects consumers’ confidential information, and the FCC has relied on its authority over the traditional phone network to extend this protection to VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services. But the FCC has jurisdiction over other safeguards like “slamming rules” and “cramming rules” that they have yet to apply to VoIP providers.
benton.org/node/147758 | Public Knowledge
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IS THAT REALLY BROADBAND
[SOURCE: GCN, AUTHOR: Kevin McCaney]
The National Broadband Plan has set ambitious goals for high-speed Internet connectivity across the country, and agencies, cities and other municipalities have hopped on the broadband bandwagon. But what exactly counts as broadband? The Federal Communications Commission originally designated broadband as anything faster than 200 kilobits/sec, which basically meant anything that wasn't the old dial-up modem, then upgraded it to 768 kilobits/sec downstream and 200 kilobits/sec upstream. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration still considers 768 kilobits/sec to be broadband at the most basic level, but the FCC in 2010 set the bar for the national broadband plan at 4 megabits/sec downstream and 1 megabit/sec upstream. The range of available broadband technologies is still wide. Here’s is a rundown of the most common types of broadband, their range of transmission speeds and, to put it into context for the everyday user, an estimate of how long, on average, each technology would take to download a 1M book, 4M song and 6.14G movie, drawn from the trove of information available from NTIA's National Broadband Map.
benton.org/node/147753 | GCN
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GOOGLE FIBER
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
Google’s gigabit initiative, called Google Fiber, has sparked a round of questions across the tech industry. Is Google looking to become an Internet service provider? Does it simply want to spur other ISPs into providing faster service? And why wire Kansas City rather than, say, Silicon Valley or New York? And, finally, why gigabit Internet—what does Google expect people to do with the world’s fastest broadband service? In this piece, I’ll focus on the last two questions: What has it been like for the people of Kansas City to live and work with the world’s fastest Internet? In my next column, I’ll examine Google’s strategic interests in Fiber—why is the search company building its own Internet lines? The fundamental problem with Google Fiber: It’s totally awesome, and totally unnecessary. During my time in Kansas City, I spoke to several local businesspeople, aspiring startup founders, and a few city boosters. They were all thrilled that Google had come to town, and the few who’d gotten access to the Google pipe said they really loved it. But I couldn’t find a single person who’d found a way to use Google Fiber to anywhere near its potential—or even a half or quarter of what it can do. It was even difficult to find people who could fully utilize Google Fiber in their imaginations. As hard as people tried, few could even think up ways to do something truly amazing with the world’s fastest Internet.
benton.org/node/147755 | Slate
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
INCENTIVE AUCTIONS
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR)]
[Commentary] What if the Federal Communications Commission held a broadcast incentive auction and no one came? That’s a distinct possibility if the Commission does not heed the advice that a coalition of television stations filed recently with the agency. The CC must encourage as many broadcasters as possible to participate, since without broadcasters there is no spectrum to auction. The FCC must also maximize the amount of money it raises, since the FCC will need to compensate the broadcasters that relinquish spectrum and reimburse broadcasters that relocate, with $7 billion left over for public safety and preferably more to help with the deficit. The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, representing more than 40 stations in the top dozen markets, listed three critical elements for a successful auction.
First, the Commission must not artificially limit the potential compensation to broadcasters. This is, after all, an incentive auction, and it would be foolhardy to limit the incentives from the get-go. The market forces of the auction will apply competitive pressures on the compensation broadcasters require and determine the prices wireless carriers are willing to pay while still maximizing broadcaster participation.
Second, the Commission must not exclude potential wireless bidders. Closing the auction to certain carriers would reduce competitive pressures and likely suppress the final bid amount, leaving crucial revenue on the table.
Third, the FCC must auction all the airwaves it clears rather than giving some away for unlicensed use. Freeing the spectrum will come with appropriate but considerable cost, and the FCC needs not only to cover that cost but earn a healthy return if it is going to meet the legislation’s objectives.
benton.org/node/147769 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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PHONE UNLOCKING BILL
[SOURCE: PC Magazine, AUTHOR: Chloe Albanesius]
Another phone unlocking bill has emerged on Capitol Hill, with Judiciary Committee members from both chambers joining forces to allow users to unlock their devices without carrier permission. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen Al Franken (D-MN), as well as Sens Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Mike Lee (R-UT) unveiled the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act yesterday. In the House, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers are backing companion legislation. The bill reverses a decision from the Library of Congress's Copyright Office, which made cell phone unlocking illegal back in January. "This straightforward restoring bill is about promoting consumer rights," Sen. Leahy said in a statement. "When consumers finish the terms of their contract, they should be able to keep their phones and make their own decision about which wireless provider to use." "It just makes sense that cell phone users should be able to do what they want with their phones after satisfying their initial service contract," Sen. Hatch said. "This bill reinstates that ability, while also ensuring that copyrights are not violated."
benton.org/node/147756 | PC Magazine
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WHAT T-MOBILE/METROPCS MEANS TO YOU
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
With approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, we could be just months away from the biggest transaction in the US telecom industry in years — a transaction that would be great news for T-Mobile. But what does it mean for customers? Turning off MetroPCS's network has major advantages: by not having to support two entirely different kinds of networks on the same bandwidth, the combined company can eventually devote most or all of its AWS spectrum to LTE — 20MHz of it in some locations, which is an extremely fat, fast data pipe. By comparison, neither Verizon nor AT&T have more than 20MHz of LTE spectrum active in any market, and each of those carriers has more than twice the number of subscribers that a merged T-Mobile-MetroPCS would. But the roll-in of MetroPCS's airwaves isn't the only thing going for T-Mobile right now — it's been collecting valuable spectrum in droves since AT&T called off its doomed deal last year.
benton.org/node/147762 | Verge, The
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CONTENT
NETFLIX SOCIAL
[SOURCE: Netflix, AUTHOR: Cameron Johnson]
Netflix members in the U.S. can share their favorite shows and movies on Netflix with friends by connecting to Facebook and agreeing to share. By default, sharing will only happen on Netflix. You'll see what titles your friends have watched in a new “Watched by your friends” row and what they have rated four or five stars in a new “Friends’ Favorites” row. Your friends will also be able to see what you watch and rate highly. You are in control of what gets shared. You can choose not to share a specific title by clicking the “Don't Share This” button in the player. You can also visit your “Social Settings” in “Your Account” on Netflix.com to turn on additional sharing to Facebook or stop sharing altogether. We will be adding the ability to turn on these features for our US members over the coming days, so keep an eye out for them. All U.S. Netflix members will have access to the social features by the end of this week.
benton.org/node/147749 | Netflix | Bloomberg | B&C | The Hill | GigaOm | Washington Post | NYTimes | WSJ
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PRIVACY
GOOGLE CARES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Streitfeld, Claire Cain Miller]
Google has repeatedly redefined how people communicate and acquire knowledge in the 21st century, and it has repeatedly been accused of breaking the rules in the process. The company says it has taken its mistakes in the Street View case to heart and has already changed. Never again, it says, will a midlevel engineer be able to do anything like what one did in Street View: start a program to scoop up data secretly from potentially millions of unencrypted Wi-Fi networks around the world, without his bosses bothering to know. To make sure of this, a coalition of 38 states has drawn up numerous specific steps for Google to take, ranging from educating its engineers to educating its lawyers. Whatever Google was doing before to improve its privacy controls was not enough, the states say. Google’s internal compliance will not be directly monitored. But if states feel Google is not upholding its side of the deal, they can bring the matter up to the executive committee that brokered the deal, including the attorneys general of Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas. Some privacy experts think the program has a fair chance of success.
benton.org/node/147821 | New York Times
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GOOGLE AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] By now, consumers and citizens may have detected a pattern: New technologies allow new types of privacy invasions, which then lead to ad hoc remedies – until the next type of intrusion. As the string of Google violations shows – along with dozens of new privacy laws passed since the 1970s – the pace of this cat-and-mouse privacy quest has quickened in the Digital Age. Even a mighty Internet company like Google, whose informal motto is “do no evil,” can falter when it creates new technologies with new uses without always knowing exactly what privacy guardrails society expects. The basic need is to better define the purposes of privacy rather than simply react to the fear of losing it. If tech users, companies, and government had a broad consensus on the benefits of privacy, then it would be easier to design comprehensive and consistent policy. Lawmakers and law enforcers would not always be playing catch-up with the latest “violation,” and coming up with a patchwork of solutions.
benton.org/node/147820 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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TELEVISION/RADIO
FOREIGN OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: CommLawCenter, AUTHOR: Richard Zaragoza]
[Commentary] Should the Federal Communications Commission be open to allowing non-citizens and foreign companies to hold more than a 25% equity interest in U.S. radio and television stations? The deadline for public comments is April 15, with reply comments due by April 30. The Coalition for Broadcast Investment -- comprised of national broadcast networks, radio and television station licensees, as well as community and consumer organizations -- is urging the FCC to publicly commit, going forward, to considering on their individual merits transactions proposing significant foreign investment in broadcast stations, rather than reflexively rejecting foreign ownership above the 25% mark, as the FCC has traditionally done when reviewing broadcast transactions.
benton.org/node/147786 | CommLawCenter
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