BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2012
Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board | FCC’s Emergency Access Advisory Committee http://benton.org/calendar/2012-10-12/
PRIVACY
GAO report: Wireless consumers don’t know how location data are shared
Your iPhone Is Tracking You Again
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Rep Eshoo says FCC's Pai wrong on congressional intent for auctions
Some Common Misperceptions About Incentive Auctions, and Why They Matter - analysis [links to web]
Sprint Confirms Talks With SoftBank Over “Substantial Investment”
Softbank’s Sprint Bid Seen Surviving U.S. Review [links to web]
Softbank-Sprint Deal Seen Presaging Deutsche Telekom Exit [links to web]
Softbank's Long-Distance Call for Sprint
A difficult call - analysis
Execs: 700 MHz interoperability will unleash investment, jobs
Defense Department pushes spectrum sharing as solution to wireless crunch
When will Verizon shutter its CDMA networks? 2021, maybe [links to web]
Government and Wireless Carriers Need to Partner on Cybersecurity, Survey Says [links to web]
Study: Mobile data traffic doubled in past year [links to web]
LightSquared Asks FCC to Can Network Conditions [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Romney’s Pledge Puts Focus on Public TV
What the Presidential Candidates Say About Tech
One-in-Ten 'Dual-Screened' the Presidential Debate - research
Google study: Swing voters trust online information [links to web]
Election App Targets Voter Suppression Fears [links to web]
TELEVISION
After Political Windfall, TV Spending to Fall in '13 [links to web]
PTC Launches PSA on Sexualization of Young Girls [links to web]
Hulu Struggles To Survive The Influence Of Its Parent Companies [links to web]
Must-Tweet TV: How The Pioneers Of Social Television Turn Viewers Into VIPs - analysis [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Sec Panetta Warns of Dire Threat of Cyberattack on US
House and Senate Republicans Urge President to Rethink Issuing Cybersecurity Executive Order - press release
House Commerce Committee Leaders Continue Working to Protect Nation's Critical Infrastructure from Growing Cyber Threats - press release [links to web]
See also:Why the U.S. needs a networked energy grid - op-ed [links to web]
Internet advertisers still a growth business, but pace slows [links to web]
CONTENT
Court rules book scanning is fair use, suggesting Google Books victory
September 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings - research [links to web]
TELECOM
FCC Reminds Eligible Telecommunications Carriers Of Their Obligation To Eliminate Duplicative Lifeline Support - public notice [links to web]
FCC Reminds Carriers that they Must Recertify Eligibility of All Lifeline Subscribers by December 31, 2012 - public notice [links to web]
FCC Clarifies Minimum Requirements for States Seeking to Opt Out of National Lifeline Accountability Database - public notice [links to web]
Reform of Rules and Policies on Foreign Carrier Entry Into the U.S. Telecommunications Market - public notice [links to web]
PATENTS
US court clears Samsung phone, hands Apple setback [links to web]
Microsoft says Motorola's Android phones infringe its mapping patent [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Cisco says Huawei misstated facts in 2003 copyright case [links to web]
Britain scrutinizes Huawei's telecoms infrastructure role [links to web]
Huawei’s U.S. competitors among those pushing for scrutiny of Chinese tech firm [links to web]
Huawei maintains wary U.S. partners [links to web]
Where’s the Discussion of Trojan Horses? - analysis
POLICYMAKERS
Vice presidential debate 2012: Paul Ryan's wonk appeal [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Around the world, no set rules for e-book pricing or digital reading [links to web]
How Cellphones Helped Researchers Track Malaria In Kenya [links to web]
PRIVACY
GAO REPORT ON LOCATION DATA
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
A study released by the Government Accountability Office suggests that the government could do more to protect consumer privacy when it comes to mobile device location data. The report, which was requested by Sen Al Franken (D-MN), concludes wireless companies are not fully explaining how they use location data culled from mobile phones. Industry self-regulation practices, the report contends, are not strong enough to provide consumers with enough information about how data are collected and shared with third-party companies. “Mobile industry companies we examined have inconsistently implemented these practices,” the report said, adding that in many cases disclosure policies are not enough to give users a way to provide “informed consent.” The report recommends that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration work with stakeholders to develop more specific standards, timeframes and performance measures for policies on mobile location data. It also suggests that the Federal Trade Commission consider issuing guidance for wireless firms on what “appropriate actions” they must take to protect these data.
benton.org/node/136913 | Washington Post | read the report | AdWeek | National Journal | The Hill
Recommend this Headline
back to top
IPHONE TRACKING
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Rebecca Greenfield]
The iPhone 5 and any phone running iOS 6 not only by default tracks users for advertising purposes, but also makes it difficult to opt out. After Apple told developers to stop tracking users with the UDID system, basically eliminating this privacy breach completely, it has implemented a new targeting system. It's called IFA and is "more effective than ever" multiple mobile advertising executives told Business Insider's Jim Edwards. Apsalar, a mobile advertising company compares it to a "persistent cookie," that gives more accurate user-habits than before. The privacy world says the new system isn't as tricky as the old one, which wouldn't let users opt out at all. But Apple kind of negates that by making it so complicated to turn the tracking off.
benton.org/node/136912 | Atlantic, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
ESHOO LETTER TO PAI ON SPECTRUM AUCTIONS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told Federal Communications Commission member Aji Pai that he is misreading a spectrum auction law Congress passed earlier this year. "Contrary to your assertion, the legislation specifically gave the FCC the discretion to create guard bands out of spectrum that is relinquished by the broadcasters, without any requirement to auction such guard bands," she wrote in a letter to the FCC commissioner. Rep Eshoo, the ranking member of the Communications and Technology subcommittee, and other Democrats successfully fought to include a provision that empowers the FCC to set aside some of the reclaimed spectrum for "unlicensed use." Unlicensed spectrum, which can be used by any company for free, powers technologies such as Wi-Fi, garage door openers and remote controls. The FCC voted last month to begin accepting comments on proposed rules for the auctions. The proposal would set aside unlicensed spectrum blocks in-between broadcast and mobile broadband frequencies. Commissioner Pai supported the decision to move ahead with the auction proposal, but questioned the decision to reserve more unlicensed spectrum. Rep Eshoo argued that lawmakers meant to make clear that the FCC has the authority to promote unlicensed spectrum.
benton.org/node/136910 | Hill, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top
SPRINT-SOFTBANK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
Sprint Nextel confirmed that it is in talks with Japan’s SoftBank about a possible deal. The No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier said the discussions are about a “substantial investment by SoftBank,” but offered few other details. “Although there can be no assurances that these discussions will result in any transaction or on what terms any transaction may occur, such a transaction could involve a change of control of Sprint,” Sprint said in a statement. “Sprint does not intend to comment further unless and until an agreement is reached.”
benton.org/node/136863 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top
SOFTBANK-SPRINT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Gottfried]
A Softbank-Sprint deal could significantly reshape the competitive landscape of the US telecom industry. The deal could be worth more than ¥1 trillion ($12.8 billion), potentially giving Sprint the financial wherewithal to do more deals, including acquiring the 51% of Clearwire it doesn't already own. There are still many questions as to why Softbank would want Sprint, particularly as cross-continental telecom investments tend to come with few cost savings, apart from greater leverage with handset makers. One possibility is that Softbank has its eye on the large swaths of spectrum owned by Clearwire. Softbank may also have ambitions of eventually playing a role in an attempt by Sprint to consolidate smaller players within the U.S. wireless market. A deal with Softbank could strengthen Sprint's balance sheet. That could potentially pave the way for it to try and snatch MetroPCS from T-Mobile and maybe Leap Wireless, or even T-Mobile itself down the line. Pulling off such a roll-up would be no easy feat, if indeed that is the goal of either Sprint or Softbank. Were it to happen, though, it could leave Sprint with about 106 million subscribers, slightly more than AT&T, based on second-quarter subscriber numbers. This would give Sprint the spectrum it needs to build a more robust LTE network and the scale to boost margins.
benton.org/node/136933 | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
Recommend this Headline
back to top
A DIFFICULT CALL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
[Commentary] Could Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless join together in some combination that would allow them to more effectively challenge Verizon and AT&T, and win the blessing of regulators? For there to be a truly viable third competitor, T-Mobile and Sprint would have to join up. But it is not clear that Washington would allow an enlarged T-Mobile and Sprint to come together. In its ruling against the AT&T bid for T-Mobile last year, the Department of Justice routinely referred to the “Big Four” wireless carriers – Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Nowhere did it advocate the creation of a stronger third player to rival the two industry leaders, and there is little reason to suspect regulators would want to see T-Mobile and Sprint join together. “Their goal is not to ensure viable rivals,” said Craig Moffett, senior analyst with Bernstein Research. “Their goal is to ensure price competition.” Regulators are likely to let T-Mobile, or perhaps Sprint, acquire MetroPCS without much trouble. The thornier issue will come if and when the victor in that battle decides it wants to take on Verizon and AT&T. At that point, Washington will be faced with an unsavory choice: either allow Verizon and AT&T to retain their duopoly by blocking the formation of a third real rival, or further reduce consumer choice by allowing yet another wireless company to be swallowed up. Unfortunately for consumers, you cannot have it both ways.
benton.org/node/136931 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
700 MHZ INTEROPERABILITY
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Tammy Parker]
Mandating LTE interoperability in the Lower 700 MHz band will drive billions of dollars in private investment and spur 100,000 new jobs over the next five years, according to a letter sent to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski by the Interoperability Alliance. "Lack of interoperability is having a chilling effect on the market, investment, and network deployments," wrote the letter's eleven signatories, which represent operators and others with interests in the Lower 700 MHz A Block. Those include the Competitive Carriers Association, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, C Spire Wireless, Cincinnati Bell, U.S. Cellular and King Street Wireless, which are demanding the FCC mandate interoperability before year's end. "Collectively, we and other competitive wireless operators invested nearly $2 billion in private capital in this spectrum block," they wrote. "The lack of device interoperability has significantly hampered Lower 700 MHz network build out, device availability, and roaming. Without interoperability, substantial numbers of non-urban American consumers and emergency first responders will not be able to access 4G LTE networks," said the alliance's letter.
benton.org/node/136846 | Fierce | read the letter
Recommend this Headline
back to top
SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
The Department of Defense says it's onboard with freeing up more wireless spectrum for commercial wireless broadband use. But proposals that rely heavily on the government sharing wireless spectrum with private sector wireless carriers doesn't jive with what the industry wants. Major General Robert Wheeler, a deputy CIO for the Department of Defense, outlined how the government agency plans to free up additional spectrum that will help the country reach President Obama's goal of releasing 500 MHz of additional wireless spectrum to the market. While he promised that the Defense Department, which is the largest license holder of government owned spectrum, would clear or move off some spectrum to make room for commercial use, he also emphasized the prospect of sharing spectrum with commercial providers.
benton.org/node/136853 | C-Net|News.com
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
FOCUS ON PUBLIC TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter, Elizabeth Jensen]
It has been a strange week for public television executives. Meetings have been postponed. Trips have been canceled. And conversations have turned in urgency to, of all things, Big Bird. The turn of events can be traced to Mitt Romney’s pledge at the Oct. 3 presidential debate to “stop the subsidy to PBS,” and the subsequent political jousting between him and President Barack Obama over the fate of the iconic “Sesame Street” character. The give-and-take has brought new attention to the public financing of television and radio and has elevated it to an election issue, much to the dismay of PBS and local stations that say they are nonpartisan and would like to stay that way. The public broadcasting budget has long been a target of Republicans in Congress. Paula A. Kerger, the PBS chief executive, however, said she could not recall a time when a presidential candidate had opposed the financing in so public a forum. The public television executives caught in the middle say the issue is drawing far more attention than it truly merits.
benton.org/node/136936 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CANDIDATES AND START-UPS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
NYCTechMeetUp, a nonprofit group that represents computer coders and other technology industry people in New York, asked the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to pitch how their policies “would benefit the growth of New York start-up community and other start-up entrepreneurs.” Mitt Romney promised, among other things, to raise visa caps for “highly skilled foreign workers,” lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent and weaken the power of regulatory agencies. President Barack Obama told the group that he had invested in broadband connectivity, signed a law making it easier for start-ups to go public, established a “start-up visa program” to allow foreigners to set up businesses in this country and created a new White House job — chief technology officer.
benton.org/node/136934 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
DUAL-SCREEN DEBATE VIEWING
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: ]
The vast majority of Americans say they followed coverage of the first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, including 56% who followed the debate live. Most of these real-time viewers watched on television, but 11% of live debate watchers were “dual screeners,” following coverage on a computer or mobile device at the same time as following television coverage. Another 3% say they followed the debate live exclusively online. Overall, 32% of those younger than 40 say they followed the debate live online, including 22% who followed it both on television and online, and 10% who followed exclusively on a computer or mobile device. Those 40-to-64 are less likely to have followed live online (11%); just 1% followed only online, while 10% followed online as well as on television. Very few Americans 65 and older followed the debate live online (2%) and none followed live coverage exclusively on a computer or mobile device.
benton.org/node/136841 | Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Recommend this Headline
back to top
INTERNET/BROADBAND
PANETTA WARN ON CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Elisabeth Bumiller, Thom Shanker]
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned that the United States was facing the possibility of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” and was increasingly vulnerable to foreign computer hackers who could dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial networks and government. In a speech at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, Sec Panetta painted a dire picture of how such an attack on the United States might unfold. He said he was reacting to increasing aggressiveness and technological advances by the nation’s adversaries, which officials identified as China, Russia, Iran and militant groups. Defense officials insisted that Panetta’s words were not hyperbole, and that he was responding to a recent wave of cyberattacks on large American financial institutions. He also cited an attack in August on the state oil company Saudi Aramco, which infected and made useless more than 30,000 computers. But Pentagon officials acknowledged that Sec Panetta was also pushing for legislation on Capitol Hill.
benton.org/node/136938 | New York Times | Wall Street Journal | FT
Recommend this Headline
back to top
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OPPOSE CYBERSECURITY ORDER
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
Republican members of the House of Representatives and Senate urged President Barack Obama to refrain from issuing an executive order exerting regulatory influence over the Internet in the name of cybersecurity. The members expressed concern that using executive power to regulate the Internet would bolster the arguments being made by nations such as Russia, China, and Iran that are seeking global government control and undermine the United States’ position to continue the current multistakeholder governance model which has allowed the Internet to flourish. Both the House and Senate have unanimously approved resolutions that oppose such attempts to exert regulatory control over the Internet. The bicameral leaders are also concerned that a top-down approach to cybersecurity will slow the response and impose unnecessary costs on the economy. They write: “An executive order exerting influence over critical infrastructure is not just a step in the wrong substantive direction. It will almost certainly be exploited by other nations to justify their efforts to regulate the Internet. This is a most critical time, and we cannot afford a hasty, unilateral action that will only serve to bolster the efforts of less democratic nations to stifle the very free exchange of ideas and expression that has allowed the Internet to flourish across the globe. For these reasons, we urge you to rethink the wisdom of an executive order.”
benton.org/node/136889 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | The Hill
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CONTENT
SCANNING IS FAIR USE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
The Author's Guild has suffered another major setback in its fight to stop Google's ambitious book-scanning project. The Guild lost a key ally when Google settled with a coalition of major publishers last week. Now a judge has ruled that the libraries who have provided Google with their books to scan are protected by copyright's fair use doctrine. While the decision doesn't guarantee that Google will win -- that's still to be decided in a separate lawsuit -- the reasoning of this week's decision bodes well for Google's case. Most of the books Google scans for its book program come from libraries. After Google scans each book, it provides a digital image and a text version of the book to the library that owns the original. The libraries then contribute the digital files to a repository called the Hathitrust Digital Library, which uses them for three purposes: preservation, a full-text search engine, and electronic access for disabled patrons who cannot read the print copies of the books. There are four factors the courts consider in fair use cases. Judge Harold Baer sided squarely with the libraries on all four factors.
benton.org/node/136855 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
TROJAN HORSES?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
It was striking that the word “Trojan” was not mentioned in a 52-page report issued by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence focusing on the activities of two giant Chinese telecommunications firms, Huawei and ZTE, which have long been suspected of having links to the Chinese government. A striking map of the paths followed by Stuxnet infection created by researchers at Symantec, the Silicon Valley computer security firm, indicates that Stuxnet actually broke out of Natanz, rather than breaking in. The program acted as a Trojan horse, perhaps delivered first on a USB memory stick, that then spread through computer networks inside the secret facility before spreading to the outside world. Possibly that is why the term Trojan — if it exists in the House report on Huawei and ZTE — is found only in what is reportedly a classified annex that has not been made openly available.
benton.org/node/136864 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top