Headlines will return TUESDAY, September 6 -- enjoy your Labor Day weekend.
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011
Headlines took a few days off in August. We've now compiled all the stories we missed -- see http://benton.org/node/88720
AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T, T-Mobile job creation claims debunked
AT&T is overlooking its best argument for the T-Mobile merger - analysis
AT&T Losing T-Mobile Seen Spurring Exodus on Dropped Calls - analysis
CWA Takes On Sprint In Wake Of Justice Effort To Block AT&T Merger
AT&T's T-Mobile merger lobbying campaign falls short
Public Knowledge Tells FCC It Should Act Now To Block AT&T Takeover of T-Mobile - press release
Protecting Innovation and Competition - editorial
Feds hang up AT&T - editorial
AT&T left scrambling to revive deal
AT&T prepares two-track plan to save T-Mobile deal
If AT&T Prevails at Trial, It Faces Battle With FCC
T-Mobile May Suffer if AT&T Deal Fails - analysis
AT&T spent 30% more on lobbying for T-Mobile deal
Which operators emerged as winners and losers after the DOJ-AT&T fallout? - analysis
Veteran Antitrust Judge in the AT&T Fight
Justice Dept.’s Key Officials in Pursuing the AT&T Lawsuit [links to web]
Gov Rick Perry reiterates support for AT&T/T-Mobile merger [links to web]
Is Google-Motorola the Next Antitrust Case? - op-ed
MORE ON SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
The New Political (Smartphone) Platforms - analysis
EU says Motorola deal will not impact Google probe
Android vendors unfazed by Google-Motorola deal [links to web]
Is Google-Motorola the Next Antitrust Case? - op-ed
Google Bought Motorola for More Than Patents [links to web]
Motorola Deal Could Give Google A Huge Tax Break
40 Percent of U.S. Mobile Users Own Smartphones; 40 Percent are Android - research [links to web]
Sen. Boxer urges Sprint, T-Mobile to beef up voicemail security
Super Wi-Fi or white spaces, what’s up with unlicensed broadband? - analysis
TELECOM
Verizon Delaying Hurricane Irene Repairs To Punish Workers For Strike, Union Alleges
FCC fines calling card companies for deceptive marketing [links to web]
Rural Broadband Alliance: FCC Has “Systemic Disdain” for Rural Telcos
How AT&T conquered the 20th century - analysis
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT/GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
New Media and the People-Powered Uprisings
Revolutions Aren't Built on Facebook Alone, Nuke Negotiator Says
White House Announces We the People - press release
Political Repression 2.0 - op-ed
Cyberattacks popular way to conduct social protest
NEWS FROM COURT
Court signs off on Comcast takeover of NBC Universal
Google wins antitrust victory in Ohio case
Lawsuit Magnet Sirius XM Wins One Ruling, Loses Another [links to web]
CONTENT
Netflix offered $300 million-plus, but Starz wanted higher consumer prices
FCC AGENDA
FCC Releases Sept Meeting Agenda - press release
MORE ONLINE
'Washington Post' Shuts Bureaus [links to web]
The Fastest ISPs in the US 2011 [links to web]
Internet Explorer will drop under 50 percent share by mid-2012 [links to web]
New Research Finds EHRs Improve the Quality of Diabetes Care - press release [links to web]
Brazil to cut tax to woo new telecoms investment [links to web]
Jobs' Resignation Fills Twitter - research [links to web]
Tech Blogger to Invest in Start-Ups [links to web]
Amazon's offer in California sales tax fight gets tepid response [links to web]
Samsung Presses Ahead on Android [links to web]
Nokia Sells 2,000 Patents [links to web]
AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T JOB CREATION CLAIMS DEBUNKED
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Michelle Maisto]
Sprint hired a respected economist to look more closely at AT&T's job-creation claims. The T-Mobile acquisition, the study found, is more likely to result in job losses, just as other AT&T takeovers have. David Neumark, a professor of Economics and director of the Center for Economics and Public Policy at the University of California at Irvine, reiterated that the merger is "good for the CWA but, in the aggregate, not good for Americans."
benton.org/node/88819 | Connected Planet | The Hill
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AT&T OVERLOOKING BEST ARGUMENT
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Scott Woolley]
AT&T advertised the benefits of the acquisition of T-Mobile in high-minded, almost patriotic terms. The deal will create jobs, the company vowed, and it will bring broadband to rural America. Even after the Justice Department sued to block the deal, AT&T's retort focused on jobs and network upgrades. It ignored the classic economic argument that consolidation would make the industry dramatically more efficient, slashing the cost of providing wireless service to its customers.
It seems a peculiar omission, since over the last 30 years the cellular industry has repeatedly demonstrated just that link: the more users you put on a cellular network, the less it costs to serve each one. It's practically an iron law of mobile communications business: Bigger means cheaper. On page 51 of a long filing with the FCC in support of the merger, AT&T did get around to describing how the deal would save it $3 billion a year starting three years after it was complete. One of the ways will be "optimizing" the combined company's retail and distribution networks (a process that traditionally involves more firing than hiring). It's easy to see how AT&T got in this pickle. Back when the company first announced the $39 billion takeover, its biggest stumbling block appeared to be regulators at the FCC. So, perhaps not surprisingly, the company tailored its arguments to appeal to the political climate, promising to increase spending and create jobs. Now a federal court date is AT&T's biggest problem and while promises to hire call center workers won't sway a federal judge, blunt arguments centering around economic efficiency might. Courts must balance the rights of consumers and corporations according to a "rule of reason" in which "anticompetitive consequences of a challenged practice are weighed against the business justifications upon which it is predicated." The Justice Department argues that AT&T "cannot demonstrate merger-specific, cognizable efficiencies" that outweigh the harm to consumers. A judge will ultimately assess the validity of that statement. Right now, AT&T's doesn't seem to have a problem "cognizing" the merger's actual benefits. Verbalizing them is a different matter.
benton.org/node/88817 | Fortune
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AT&T EXODUS?
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
The Justice Department’s effort to block the takeover of T-Mobile USA Inc. chokes off AT&T’s path to an expanded network and wrecks its plan to gain as much as $20 billion in airwaves to help handle surging call volume. If AT&T fails to gain T-Mobile’s network, some of its 98.6 million customers may defect to rivals to avoid dropped calls and get access to faster services for smartphones and tablets. Besides paying a $3 billion breakup fee, AT&T would also have to transfer some of its spectrum to T-Mobile, further squeezing its network capacity and stalling plans for growth. If the T-Mobile deal falls through, the company may have to scale back its plans to deploy faster networking technology, Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie Securities. While AT&T still might seek to acquire spectrum from other companies, such as Comcast, Dish Network, Clearwireor LightSquared, any other deals are now going to be viewed with skepticism because they are likely to face similar regulatory scrutiny, Smithen said.
benton.org/node/88816 | Bloomberg
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CWA TARGETS SPRINT
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
One day after AT&T vowed to fight a Justice Department lawsuit to block the firm's acquisition of T-Mobile USA, the Communications Workers of America appears to be following them into battle by taking aim at one of the deal's fiercest critics: Sprint. The CWA launched a new website called "eyeonsprint" aimed at highlighting what the union says are Sprint's true reasons for opposing the AT&T-T-Mobile deal. The new CWA website aims to rebut claims made by Sprint and other critics who say the merger will lead to job losses, higher prices and less innovation. It also outlines why the union opposes a possible merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.
benton.org/node/88814 | National Journal | Eye On Sprint
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AT&T LOBBYING FAIL
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Kim Hart, Anna Palmer]
AT&T has long been known for its lobbying prowess in Washington — and it pulled out all the stops to try to convince regulators that its $39 billion acquisition of rival T-Mobile was a good idea. AT&T spent nearly $11.7 million on lobbying during the first half of 2011, up nearly $2 million over the same time period in 2010. It has more than 10 contract firms on retainer -- including Clyburn Consulting, Crossroads Strategies, Polaris Government Relations and Peck, Madigan and Jones -- and dispatched more than 72 outside lobbyists and consultants to help convince the Federal Communications Commission and DOJ to bless the deal. It brought on public relations agencies that helped craft the message that the mega-deal will expand wireless broadband to underserved populations across the country and would, therefore, create new jobs. But the company’s master plan showed serious signs of unraveling , when the Justice Department went to court to block AT&T’s bid. The FCC said it also has serious concerns about the deal. AT&T has an impressive track record on merger proceedings. Over the past decade, it has cleared high-profile deals, including one with SBC Communications, despite the initial reservations of regulators. But this time, AT&T’s confidence in the deal may have hurt its case. In fact, AT&T’s confidence bordered on arrogance, according to staffers who were in meetings with A&T’s lobbyists over the past five months. One staffer said AT&T was “almost dismissive” of competition concerns that had been raised about the deal. While it’s a setback for AT&T, DOJ’s move is a victory for the consumer advocates and public interest groups that are often far outgunned giant corporations like AT&T.
benton.org/node/88813 | Politico
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PK ASKS FCC TO ACT OF AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Press releasse]
Public Knowledge followed up the decision by the Department of Justice to file a court blocking AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile by asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use its authority under the Communications Act to reject the deal immediately. PK said in a filing with the Commission that the FCC is required to turn down the deal under provision of the law that prohibits the agency from approving deals that reduce competition for any international phone service (Sec. 314 of the Act). PK noted that the Justice Department sued to block the deal because of the potential for increased concentration of mobile services markets. Those markets have an international component, meaning the absolute prohibition comes into play, Public Knowledge said. Carriage of international traffic, international roaming, and reciprocal carriage agreements all are part of the international component that makes it compulsory that the deal be rejected, PK said.
benton.org/node/88812 | Public Knowledge | read the letter
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PROTECTING INNOVATION AND COMPETITION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] After a decade-long merger spree in which AT&T and Verizon amassed more than 60 percent of the nation’s cellphone subscribers, the Justice Department was right to call a halt to the consolidation process, filing an antitrust suit to block AT&T’s $39 billion attempt to buy the nation’s fourth-largest carrier, T-Mobile. The merger poses a clear anticompetitive threat. Not only would it give AT&T more than 40 percent of the market, it would take out a scrappy and innovative rival that competed profitably by offering cheaper service plans and took risks others would not. For instance, it introduced the first smartphone based on Google’s Android, which today is the leading mobile phone operating system. The Justice Department’s antitrust division rightly concluded that T-Mobile’s cheaper service would be one of the first victims of a merger. And allowing the number of national service providers to shrink to three posed too great a risk to development of wireless computing, slowing innovation on the frontier of information technology. Blocking the merger entails some costs. Buying T-Mobile would allow AT&T to expand more quickly. It would also reduce some costs. But the benefits to subscribers are more doubtful. The Justice Department’s decision was the right one for consumers and technology.
benton.org/node/88904 | New York Times
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FEDS HANG UP AT&T
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Department of Justice is right to place its faith in competition, not efficiency, as the consumers' best ally in the long run. On the surface, AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile is a garden-variety acquisition — a big company trying to get bigger by snapping up a smaller rival. What sets it apart is the increasing importance of wireless data services to the U.S. economy. T-Mobile may not prove to be an effective supplier of wireless broadband, given the reluctance of its current owner, Germany's Deutsche Telekom, to make the necessary investments. But just by competing for subscribers, T-Mobile presses all other wireless carriers to improve their services and hold down their prices. As the Justice Department's lawsuit shows, AT&T hasn't made a persuasive case yet that consumers would be better off in the long run if that pressure were relieved.
benton.org/node/88902 | Los Angeles Times
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AT&T LEFT SCRAMBLING
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Paul Taylor, Helen Thomas, Matt Kennard]
Analysts are struggling to understand what went wrong for the AT&T/T-Mobile deal.
“I'm not sure they actually did anything wrong,” says Michael Sohn, a former FCC general counsel, now an antitrust lawyer at Davis Polk. “They are facing an administration that prides itself on aggressively enforcing antitrust laws.” Analysts and lawyers are split on what, if anything, could get the deal back on track. Some believe that the Department of Justice’s move is a negotiating ploy to extract greater concessions. Antitrust experts say the DoJ’s rapid move to sue suggests that the two sides may not yet have put every remedy on the table, and see the judge hearing the case as better news for the companies than for the DoJ. But most fear for AT&T’s chances of keeping the deal alive. James Ratcliffe, a Barclays Capital analyst, dismissed the idea that the DoJ’s suit was a negotiating tactic. Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research concluded that the deal “can be considered all but definitely dead.”
AT&T could offer to acquire less spectrum from T-Mobile USA, sell spectrum in the most concentrated markets to rivals, or even agree to price controls to address the DoJ’s concern that losing T-Mobile would remove the low-price competitor from the market. But the DoJ’s complaint seems to signal it has little interest in possible remedies, dismissing the “efficiencies” AT&T had proposed in a single sentence. Another problem for AT&T is that the DoJ has rejected its argument that mobile market power should be measured on a regional or local basis, saying national market share is the relevant measure. Industry advisers say it is hard to see how local disposals could create another credible national operator. The biggest hurdle may be the DoJ’s argument that the market needs four national players, not three, one banker said. But AT&T and T-Mobile still plan to fight, noting that the DoJ has the burden of proving that the merger would be anti-competitive.
benton.org/node/88901 | Financial Times
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TWO-TRACK RESPONSE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Nadia Damouni, Diane Bartz]
Apparently, AT&T Inc is expected to soon present a proposed solution to U.S. antitrust regulators to salvage its planned $39 billion acquisition of smaller rival T-Mobile USA. Even as the No. 2 U.S. wireless service provider gears up for a lengthy court battle against the Justice Department, AT&T is prepared to make concessions to address concerns that the T-Mobile deal is anti-competitive and could cause wireless prices to rise. This two-track plan will allow AT&T to try to find a settlement before the lawsuit reaches the court. AT&T may have to sell up to 25 percent of T-Mobile's business, including airwaves and customers, two sources said, to address the government's concern that just three companies would control 90 percent of the U.S. wireless market if the merger goes through.
benton.org/node/88900 | Reuters
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AT&T FACES FCC NEXT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Even if AT&T Inc. wins its court fight with the Justice Department over its bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, the deal could still be torpedoed by the Federal Communications Commission, which has shown little liking for the combination. The Justice Department, which filed suit Wednesday in federal court to block the acquisition, and the FCC are separate agencies with different standards for assessing mergers. But the two worked together as the Justice Department prepared its suit, and the FCC has never approved a deal that the Justice Department rejected, according to FCC officials. "It's a DOJ decision, but there was a lot of input from [FCC Chairman Julius] Genachowski's team," an FCC official said. Chairman Genachowski also released a statement saying that while the FCC was still conducting its review, he had "serious concerns" about how competition would be affected by the deal, which would combine two of the four nationwide cellphone companies. While the Justice Department focuses on competition issues, the FCC looks more broadly at whether mergers are in the public interest. That standard is more subjective, and it has allowed the agency to seek wide-ranging merger concessions in the past, such as multiyear price caps for consumers or access to networks for competitors. Analysts, meanwhile, were skeptical that the merger could go through.
benton.org/node/88898 | Wall Street Journal
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COULD T-MOBILE SUFFER?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham]
When AT&T agreed to buy T-Mobile USA in March, the deal looked like a happy fate for a company that had been losing customers and facing declining sales. But should the lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on Wednesday kill the proposed merger, some analysts say it could leave T-Mobile in a much worse position than it was before the deal was announced, its competitiveness sapped by months spent in limbo. “This is a business that is treading water,” said Robin Bienenstock, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company who tracks T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom, its parent company. “They have to go back into the market in the meantime, and they are going to have to figure out a way to build momentum in their core business.” T-Mobile has long staked its reputation on offering low-cost service plans. But in recent months, the company has lost ground to its larger rivals, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, which have lured away subscribers with popular devices like the iPhone and the promise of faster networks and services. The company’s position is especially precarious given the evolving state of the wireless industry, which is increasingly focused on customers willing to pay for expensive smartphones and the data plans that go with them. It will be harder for a company that emphasizes lower prices to stay afloat in that market, experts say.
benton.org/node/88897 | New York Times
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AT&T LOBBYING BILL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields, Jonathan Salant]
The Justice Department's move to block AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile USA marks a rare Washington defeat for the largest U.S. phone company, a failure that deal opponents called a triumph of antitrust analysis over lobbying muscle. As it sought regulators' blessing for the transaction, AT&T boosted lobbying spending by 30%, to $11.7 million, in the first six months of 2011, vs. the same period last year, according to Senate records. Its PAC gave $805,500 to federal candidates this year, more than any other company, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. AT&T's lobbying strategy has been guided by 13-year company veteran Jim Cicconi, a Washington insider since serving in the Reagan White House. It produced letters to regulators from more than 70 members of Congress, multiple economic studies aimed at supporting the deal, and a pledge to preserve 5,000 jobs. Yet the Justice Department on Wednesday sued to halt the $39 billion deal, calling it harmful to competition.
benton.org/node/88895 | Bloomberg
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WINNERS AND LOSERS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
The Justice Department’s move to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile will likely have repercussions felt throughout the U.S. wireless industry. AT&T obviously lost the most. The merger hasn't been killed outright, but AT&T will have to jump through many more hoops to close the deal, and it will likely have to make concessions it would have balked at if it only faced Federal Communications Commission scrutiny. But every other US operator big and small has a stake in whether or not AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile is approved, and if it is, under what conditions. How AT&T proceeds from here could affect other operators’ future acquisition plans and the ability of regional and rural operators to negotiate roaming agreements. If the deal goes through, networks and spectrum could be up for grabs in hundreds of key markets, triggering expansion drives among lower tier operators. While the merger would shift the balance of mobile customers to two big operators – Verizon and AT&T – it would also have a profound impact on the balance of spectrum ownership. In many cases, several operators stand to both gain and lose depending on how the merger proceedings shake out.
Fitchard says the winners are Sprint, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Leap Wireless, and rural GSM operators. The losers? Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
benton.org/node/88894 | Connected Planet
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ANTITRUST JUDGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael De La Merced]
As AT&T prepares to defend its $39 billion deal for T-Mobile USA against a lawsuit by the Obama Administration, the two sides will face a judge who has refereed many big antitrust fights. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, in her 12 years on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has overseen numerous antitrust cases brought by regulators, including one in which she ruled against the government. She has also presided over prominent matters like the trial of the disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement talks with Citigroup over subprime mortgages. The Justice Department’s lawsuit against AT&T is one of her biggest cases to date. It is the Obama administration’s most significant effort to halt a landscape-altering transaction, one that would combine two of the nation’s biggest cellphone service providers. And the tenor of both the Justice Department’s complaint and AT&T’s response suggests that a contentious brawl may be in the works, even as both sides leave open some possibility of a settlement. In a case this complex, with reams of market and technological data to consider, a jurist with experience presiding over antitrust matters may prove a boon for both parties.
benton.org/node/88891 | New York Times
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MORE ON SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
PLATFORMS
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Robert Fabricant]
As a host of industries converge (consumer electronics, mobile computing, software, media), Platforms have become the political currency of the technology world. They are the gateway to apps, devices, services, and all kinds of "value." These politics are deadly serious, with billions in market cap at stake. The drama plays out most clearly not in the public commons, but in the corporate boardroom. Platform strategy has become the new way technology companies set their agenda. You can mark the rise and fall of executives and divisions by how they play the New Politics of Platforms. Enormous power comes from naming a new Platform within these environments.
benton.org/node/88803 | Fast Company
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EU ON GOOGLE-MOTOROLA
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Foo Yun Chee]
Google's planned purchase of Motorola Mobility will not influence an ongoing antitrust probe into the Internet search engine, the EU's antitrust chief said. "(The antitrust investigation) is not simple, it is a complex issue," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said at the Alpbach Forum Economic Conference. Asked if the Motorola Mobility deal would affect the antitrust probe, Almunia said: "No, no ... we deal with mergers in a completely separate way than the antitrust cases that we have. Nothing to do (with each other)." "This is the same company but two different cases, two different procedures, two different analyses, two different teams analyzing but no link."
benton.org/node/88805 | Reuters
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GOOGLE-MOTOROLA NEXT?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Robert Hahn, Peter Passell]
[Commentary] The Justice Department is going to court to stop the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. Will the pending union of Google and Motorola suffer the same fate? At first glance, the two mergers appear to have little in common. AT&T and T-Mobile are in the same business, while Google and Motorola occupy different niches in the telecommunications ecosystem. But AT&T and Google share a common problem: Both are victims of bungled government regulation, and both need merger partners to sustain competitive momentum in the face of federal roadblocks. Indeed, it's unlikely that either would have risked such intense antitrust scrutiny if the government had been doing its job properly.
Justice apparently believes that the AT&T/T-Mobile merger would inevitably mean less competition -- and therefore higher prices and lower quality -- in the wireless carrier market. We're skeptical. For one thing, it's far from clear that T-Mobile is viable any longer on its own: Deutsche Telekom, the carrier's parent, is reportedly unwilling to make the huge investment T-Mobile needs to keep up with rivals. For another, carrier concentration varies from locality to locality, and some judicious divestiture of customers and spectrum would make a big difference -- which, one hopes, is all that the Justice Department is really after. In a perfect world, AT&T would be able to buy the spectrum it needs. However, the FCC has been slow in convincing broadcasters to give up some of their airwaves.
Google, for its part, faces a very different government-manufactured obstacle. The giant's Android operating system, which is licensed to a dozen equipment makers world-wide, is a runaway success. But, thanks to a government patent and copyright system that is ill-equipped to navigate the modern and complex issues of carving out rights in software, Google faces as-yet-unknown challenges to ownership of the intellectual property that makes Android tick.
[Hahn is director of economics at the Smith School, Oxford, and a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute]
benton.org/node/88887 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE COULD GAIN TAX BREAK
[SOURCE: Business Insider, AUTHOR: Matt Rosoff]
Google not only gets patents, a phone business, and a set-top box business from buying Motorola. It could also get a huge tax break. According to calculations by tax expert Robert Willens, who laid out his reasoning to Reuters yesterday, Motorola's losses will help Google will reduce its tax liability by $1.7 billion in the year that the deal closes -- that's $1 billion from U.S. losses and $700 million from losses overseas. Google will also get about $700 million a year in new tax deductions through 2019. Motorola wasn't able to use these losses because it didn't have the revenue to offset them. Google doesn't have that problem.
benton.org/node/88882 | Business Insider
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BOXER ON PHONE SECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Sen Barbara Boxer (D-CA) wrote to Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA urging them to improve the security of their voicemail service in light of the ongoing phone-hacking scandal in the United Kingdom concerning News Corp. Employees of British tabloid News of the World allegedly hacked into the voicemail accounts of numerous British citizens in the past decade, prompting investigations from authorities and the resignations of several top News Corp. executives. In her letter, Sen Boxer cites security experts that claim T-Mobile and Sprint customers may be vulnerable to similar attacks because they don't require users to enter their PIN number when accessing voicemail from their own device.
benton.org/node/88795 | Hill, The
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FUTURE OF WHITE SPACES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The UK’s equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission laid out plans to use white spaces broadband in the UK, and expects to see such networks in use by 2013. Ofcom, the British regulator believes so-called white spaces, which are the fallow areas of spectrum between digital TV bands, could be used to help mobile operators offload traffic from their networks. Ofcom also suggests that it will evaluate using more spectrum for such a purpose with unused FM radio bands.
In the US, where the FCC has taken to calling the service Super Wi-Fi, a combination of rules designed to keep those trying to use the spectrum for broadband from interfering with those trying to use the spectrum for TV or wireless microphones have made the deployment of services and building devices a time-consuming challenge. A year after the rules were approved there are just a few test networks, no commercial devices and nine companies that have volunteered to operate databases that will help keep white spaces signals from interfering with nearby broadcasts.
Instead of being a utopian vision of mobile broadband, which Google and others portrayed it as back in 2008, it has morphed more into a utilitarian way to provide broadband to rural areas at a lower cost than laying fiber. So goodbye to white spaces as the future home for an economical Internet of things and hello to it as a WISP of sorts for rural America. In the UK it’s still discussed as potential backhaul, but perhaps that vision will also change.
benton.org/node/88856 | GigaOm
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TELECOM
IS VERIZON DELAYING REPAIR WORK?
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Matt Sledge]
A union official alleged that Verizon is slowing post-Irene repairs for thousands of phone, internet and TV customers on Long Island and in upstate New York to put pressure on its workers during ongoing contract negotiations. Verizon says those payback claims are baseless. Verizon employees are "ready, willing, and more than able" to work extra hours to fix the problems, said Communications Workers of America District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton, but he claims the company instead is intent on denying them overtime as punishment for their recently abandoned strike. "The customers who are out, they're leaving them out. They don't care," Shelton said. "They're just sitting there with thousands of repair jobs." John Bonomo, Verizon's director of media relations for the region, agreed that there were thousands still without landline service in New York State, but downplayed the importance of that service disruption and denied that the company was forgoing overtime. Bonomo said the company had not declared an emergency, which the union claims might help in restoring service to customers more quickly, because "the traditional landline phone is not as vital as it had been in past years."
benton.org/node/88789 | Huffington Post, The
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FCC DISDAIN FOR RURAL TELCOS?
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Some members of the Federal Communications Commission have a “systemic disdain” for small rural carriers, says the Rural Broadband Alliance. “Both the official record and meetings with the Commission evidence the creation of a superficial caricature of rural companies at the Commission,” the group said. “This caricature is forged on a baseless assumption that rural carriers make unwarranted investments in network.” The RBA is a lobbying and public interest group that was originally created last year by certain rural telcos that were unhappy about the direction the FCC was moving as a result of recommendations about Universal Service reform made in the National Broadband Plan.
benton.org/node/88784 | telecompetitor
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AT&T CONQUERED THE 20TH CENTURY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
As the reconstituted AT&T makes its bid to buy T-Mobile, another interesting question presents itself. Why did the United States of America, supposedly the land of free market competition, accept the near total dominance of AT&T over telephone service for about 60 years? Historians have been debating this question for almost as long. They often disagree on the answers. But if you accept their observations and arguments as mostly compatible pieces of a larger story, what stands out is a corporation that, at crucial moments, did just about everything right. In the early 20th century, the Bell system got there before its competitors. It learned how to fight or game the emergent regulatory system better than its rivals. AT&T publicly framed its purposes better than its critics. It used advertising not just to promote itself, but to sanctify its mission. And the corporation mastered the art of backing away from its darker ambitions at strategic public moments. Sometimes Bell was just lucky. But almost as often, the quality of service that the emergent monopoly created approximated its message -- that AT&T was about creating telephone access for everybody.
benton.org/node/88808 | Ars Technica
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CIVIC ENGAGEMENT/GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NEW MEDIA AND UPRISINGS
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Zeynep Tufekci]
Regimes survive mainly by creating a "collective action" problem for their citizenry and by playing "whack-a-protest" to prevent cascades of action. "Collective action problems" arise when a problem can be solved only through cooperation by many, but when there are strong disincentives for any one individual to participate, especially if victory is not guaranteed. It is in this context Facebook "likes" of dissident pages such as "We are All Khaled Said," sharing of videos of regime brutality, online expressions of political anger, and acceptances of Facebook "invitations" to protest all matter as they help build a visible momentum which, itself, is a condition of success. A public is not created just because everyone individually holds an opinion but because there is multi-level awareness of other people's views leading to a spiral of action and protest. That is why the new media ecology is a game-changer.
benton.org/node/88792 | Technology Review
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REVOLUTIONS AREN'T BUILT ON FACEBOOK ALONE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
The true believers who credit Facebook and Twitter with singlehandedly enabling regime-toppling revolts in Egypt and Tunisia and the Green Revolution in Iran give social media too much credit, Ambassador David J. Smith said. But those who say social media hasn't fundamentally changed the way democracy movements operate in repressive states are also off the mark, he added. "Social media are enablers -- more than tools but less than causes -- of unrest, which may or may not result in revolution," Smith said. "They interact with traditional social networks synergistically, possibly leading to new levels -- size, tempo and frequency -- but also possibly leading to confusion, backlash and reactive use."
benton.org/node/88791 | nextgov
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WE THE PEOPLE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Press release]
The White House announced We the People, a new online engagement feature. Individuals will be able to create and sign petitions seeking action from the federal government on a range of issues. If a petition gathers enough signatures, White House staff will review it, ensure it is sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response. To create and build support for a petition, visitors will simply need to create an account and gather signatures by reaching out to friends, family and coworkers. If a petition reaches a certain threshold – the initial level will be 5,000 signatures within 30 days – it will be sent to the appropriate policy makers throughout the Administration, reviewed, and an official response will be published to WhiteHouse DOT gov and e-mailed to all signers of the petition.
benton.org/node/88787 | White House, The | We The People
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POLITICAL REPRESSION 2.0
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Evgeny Morozov]
[Commentary] Agents of the East German Stasi could only have dreamed of the sophisticated electronic equipment that powered Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s extensive spying apparatus, which the Libyan transitional government uncovered. The monitoring of text messages, e-mails and online chats — no communications seemed beyond the reach of the eccentric colonel. What is even more surprising is where Colonel Qaddafi got his spying gear: software and technology companies from France, South Africa and other countries. Narus, an American company owned by Boeing, met with Colonel Qaddafi’s people just as the protests were getting under way, but shied away from striking a deal. As Narus had previously supplied similar technology to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it was probably a matter of public relations, not business ethics. Amid the cheerleading over recent events in the Middle East, it’s easy to forget the more repressive uses of technology. In addition to the rosy narrative celebrating how Facebook and Twitter have enabled freedom movements around the world, we need to confront a more sinister tale: how greedy companies, fostered by Western governments for domestic surveillance needs, have helped suppress them.
benton.org/node/88870 | New York Times
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CYBERATTACKS AND PROTEST
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: James Temple]
[Commentary] "Hacktivism" is fast becoming the new normal of social protests, an information-age reality likely to continually trip up local government agencies. Cyberattacks of all types are on the rise, as hackers snatch sensitive information or impede information systems in acts of espionage, theft, cyber warfare or, increasingly, public demonstrations. Government departments often don't have the staffing, expertise or funding to realistically combat the threats, experts say. "Not just government, but many smaller organizations are outmatched when it comes to a determined hacker," said Matt Pauker, co-founder of Voltage Security in Cupertino. "In the current situation we're in, with government spending being cut back across the board, these kind of attacks are something unfortunately that I think we'll see more of, not less."
benton.org/node/88857 | San Francisco Chronicle
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NEWS FROM COURT
GOOGLE CASE IN OHIO
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
An Ohio judge dismissed antitrust claims in a case against Google, handing the company a victory as it faces a separate federal investigation into its search results. Google is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over whether it uses its strength in online searches to thwart competitors, and the Ohio case leveled similar allegations against the Internet search company. MyTriggers DOT com, an Ohio-based shopping comparison search Website, accused Google of giving preferential treatment in its search results to Google's own services. It also accused Google of making unfair agreements with other sites to exert control over search advertising. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Bessey agreed that the federal Communications Decency Act did not prohibit Ohio state law antitrust claims against Google. However, Judge Bessey also ruled that myTriggers had only identified harm to itself. The law requires it show harm to competition generally, Bessey wrote, and myTriggers.com had not identified other competitors harmed by Google's alleged conduct.
benton.org/node/88802 | Reuters
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COURT OKs COMCAST-NBC
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
A federal court has approved the government's conditions placed on Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon tacked on a two-year oversight period that aims to protect competitors who want to distribute NBC Universal video content online. He ordered the government and Comcast to report annually on online video competitors who attempt to arbitrate disputes either through the Federal Communications Commission or an arbitration process set up as part of the takeover.
benton.org/node/88881 | Associated Press | Bloomberg | B&C
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CONTENT
NETFLIX AND STARZ
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fritz, Joe Flint, Dawn Chmielewski]
Starz didn't just want Netflix to pay more money for its content. It wanted Netflix consumers to pay more too. Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement, but the pay cable channel was insistent on so-called tiered pricing. Tiered pricing would require Netflix subscribers who want movies and television shows from Starz and other premium providers to pay more than the standard $8 per month. That demand was apparently a key sticking point in talks that fell apart, meaning the two companies' deal, which began in 2008, will expire at the end of February. Starz wanted Netflix to charge a premium price for its content in order to put the popular online video service more in line with cable and satellite providers. Protecting relationships with multiplatform video programming distributors (MVPDs) like DirecTV and Time Warner Cable is critical to Starz. The MVPDs are wary of Netflix because they fear customers will "cut the cord" if enough fresh content is available online at a lower price. Netflix was apparently unwilling to introduce higher prices for access to certain content on its streaming service. However, the company was willing to pay a very high price for access to the movies from Walt Disney Pictures and Sony Pictures that Starz controls, as well as original series like "Camelot." It offered more than $300 million annually, a person close to the talks said, more than 10 times the rate that it currently pays.
benton.org/node/88864 | Los Angeles Times | NYTimes | Wall Street Journal
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FCC AGENDA
FCC SEPT AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2011:
Framework for Next Generation 911 Deployment, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to accelerate the development and deployment of Next Generation 911 (NG911) technology to improve public safety by enabling the public to send text, photos, videos, and data communications to 911 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and enhancing the information available to PSAPs and first responders for assessing and responding to emergencies.
Deployable Aerial Communications Architecture White Paper. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau will present a white paper on the use of deployable aerial communications architecture to facilitate the ability of first responders to communicate with each other and consumers to reach first responders in the wake of natural and manmade disasters, even in situations where there is severe damage to terrestrial communications infrastructure. The report will make recommendations regarding next steps the FCC should consider to promote the development and use of deployable aerial communications architecture.
benton.org/node/88854 | Federal Communications Commission
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