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BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013

Unfinished Business: Wireless Competition and the FCC Transition http://benton.org/calendar/2013-05-15/

STATE OF VIDEO
   Senate Hearing Finds State of Video in Flux
   Rockefeller Calls for GAO Study of TV Station Shared Service Agreements
   ESPN not worried about a la carte or competition [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   House unanimously votes for government-free Internet
   Justice Dept. Defends Seizure of Phone Records
   Spying on The Associated Press - editorial [links to web]
   Damage to press freedom likely outweighs national security gain - editorial [links to web]
   Angst over Internet surveillance detected on Hill
   Snooping and the News Media: It’s a 2-Way Street - analysis
   AG Holder recused himself from DOJ decision to seize AP records
   Dot-Govs Dip Below 1,000 [links to web]
   Analysts Assess Federal Open Data Policy [links to web]
   FBI says more cooperation with banks key to probe of cyber attacks

INTERNET AND MEDIA
   NTIA Explores Broadband Availability in New Report Series - press release
   FCC Updates Report on a Rural Broadband Strategy - research

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   U.S. & Canada Reach Agreement on Border Spectrum Sharing Arrangements - press release

CONTENT
   In court filing, Justice Department accuses Apple of e-book price fixing
   E-Book Sales a Boon to Publishers in 2012
   Gun Control and the Media - research
   Internet advocates say the TPP is the biggest threat yet to open web
   Clear Channel's iHeartRadio Reports 30 Million Users, Audio Competition Heats Up [links to web]
   Kids access porn sites at 6, begin flirting online at 8 [links to web]
   Court rules against Google on search feature

OWNERSHIP
   Who Can Stop the Koch Brothers From Buying the Tribune Papers? Unions Can, and Should - analysis
   Unions protest over potential sale of L.A. Times to Koch brothers
   Christian radio group faces financial hard times [links to web]

TELECOM
   New FCC Chair Continues Prison Phone Battle

POLICYMAKERS
   What the Senate needs to ask Tom Wheeler
   FCC’s McDowell Headed to Hudson Institute - press release [links to web]
   FCC Announces New Municipal and Tribal Representatives to the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee - public notice [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Firms Brace for New European Data Privacy Law [links to web]
   Court rules against Google on search feature

MORE ONLINE
   Mobile Phone Data Proves Humans Are Predictable During Chaos [links to web]
   Web Browsers Are Reinvented [links to web]

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STATE OF VIDEO

SENATE HEARING FINDS STATE OF VIDEO IN FLUX
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing titled “State of Video.” There appeared to be a lot more questions than answers. The general consensus was that the marketplace for video deliver was changing rapidly and government needed to take that into account. But there was not a lot of focus on what exactly Washington should do about it.
Testifying before the panel, former Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) advocated for the a la carte pay-TV model. He introduced legislation along those lines last week. He said consumers didn't want all the channels cable was bundling together. While he said he was an EPSN fan and wouldn't give it up, he argued that most people weren't and didn't want to have to pay the several dollars it costs per month. Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor (R-Ariz.) said it "seems very common sense," but he asked industry witnesses to weigh in about potential problems.
National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith advised that whatever government does or doesn't do, it should keep the value of free, over-the-air broadcasting top of mind. Smith warned that DISH's ad-skipping technology threatened the ad side of the broadcast revenue stream model responsible for all that free, local, public interest programming broadcasters supply, while Aereo threatened the other revenue stream, retransmission consent
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell offered no policy solutions. He said that NCTA did not endorse sweeping Cable Act reform, suggesting that video is too fast-moving a space for what would be a slow process. And while he said surgical strikes on particular elements might be in order, he did not offer any of those, citing his membership's differences of opinion. NCTA members include both the operators who have to buy programming in bundles and some of the programmers who bundle them. He warned that McCain's legislation could actually drive up prices for many consumers. He said that as fewer people subscribe to a channel, the advertising revenue falls and the price of the channel goes up. He also argued that an a la carte system would make it harder for small channels to grow in popularity and could kill off channels aimed at minorities.
Dish Network executive R. Stanton Dodge said his company’s service, The Hopper, did not delete ads, only gave subscribers the option of skipping them.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) signaled he was troubled by News Corp. President Chase Carey's warning that if broadcasters lost their court challenge to Aereo’s service, some high-value content might have to move to cable. Sen Warner, a former wireless executive, pointed out that those companies had bought their spectrum at auction while broadcasters had not. He said that if broadcasters were threatening to take some of their high-value content off free TV, it raised the question of whether they should be able to keep their broadcast licenses or whether the spectrum might be repurposed to a higher public good. NAB’s Smith came just short of branding Aereo a pirate, but as much as said that it was piracy to provide TV station signals and charge for the service while not paying a copyright fee, as MVPDS do.
There was no Aereo exec on the panel, but a strong defense of the service came from John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge. He said two courts had already concluded Aereo was a remote TV antenna rental service. On McCain’s bill, Bergmayer agreed that bundles of channels make sense for many consumers, but he applauded McCain's bill and said people should have the option to purchase individual channels if they want.
benton.org/node/151885 | Broadcasting&Cable | The Hill | TVNewsCheck | The Hill | The Wrap | Bloomberg
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ROCKEFELLER REQUESTS GAO STUDY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has asked the Government Accountability Office to look into the impact of broadcast television station joint sales agreements (JSAs) and shared service agreements (SSAs) on consumers. Chairman Rockefeller said that in light of the "serious questions" raised about the impact of those and other coordination arrangements, he wants GAO to take a "closer look" at that coordination, including how broadcasters use the agreements, how many such arrangements there are (he tells GAO he will want to know why they can't determine that if they are unable to), whether the arrangements make programming blackouts more likely or raise costs of services, do they result in more local programming or simply duplication on multiple outlets, what would prevent the FCC from requiring copies of all JSA's and SSA's and other evidence of coordination be placed in a public file, and whether there should be some aspects of them that are regulated.
benton.org/node/151883 | Broadcasting&Cable | | B&C
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

INTERNET GOVERANCE BILL ADVANCES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Pete Kasperowicz]
The House unanimously approved legislation reaffirming U.S. policy as one that supports an Internet that is controlled by stakeholders, not governments. In a 413-0 vote, members passed H.R. 1580, which once again signals the support of Congress for the continued development of the Internet without guidance from any single government or a collection of governments. The legislation aims to promote a global Internet managed under the current multi-stakeholder governance model. Last Congress, a similar measure unanimously passed the House and Senate. In light of continued international efforts to regulate the Internet, the House voted today to make it official U.S policy rather than merely a sense of the Congress.
benton.org/node/151908 | Hill, The | House Commerce Committee
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DEFENDING AP PHONE RECORDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage, Scott Shane]
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. defended the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of telephone records of Associated Press journalists, describing the article by The A.P. that prompted a criminal investigation as among “the top two or three most serious leaks that I’ve ever seen” in a 35-year career. “It put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole,” he said in an apparent reference to an article on May 7, 2012, that disclosed the foiling of a terrorist plot by Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen to bomb an airliner. “And trying to determine who was responsible for that, I think, required very aggressive action.” In a statement in response, The A.P.’s president and chief executive, Gary Pruitt, disputed that the publication of the article endangered security. “We held that story until the government assured us that the national security concerns had passed,” he said. “Indeed, the White House was preparing to publicly announce that the bomb plot had been foiled.” Pruitt said the article was important in part because it refuted White House claims that there had been no Qaeda plots around the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. AG Holder’s deputy, James M. Cole, portrayed the search as justified and disputed a detail in the wire service’s account of the Justice Department action. While the news organization had said that records from “a full two-month period” had been taken, Cole said that the seizure covered only “a portion” of two calendar months.
benton.org/node/151907 | New York Times | WSJ
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INTERNET SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Federal law enforcers say they have their hands full with criminals who skirt legal surveillance by using hard-to-wiretap services like Google and Facebook. Now they’re about to inherit a new foe in the fight: Capitol Hill. Some of the top lawmakers closely aligned with civil liberties and Silicon Valley interests are expressing early umbrage with the Obama administration as it weighs legislative proposals to track criminals who, in the government’s view, are “going dark” by communicating online. The White House hasn’t signed off on a plan, which could impose fines on Internet companies that lack the capacity to comply with federal wiretapping orders. If history is any guide, however, it eventually may be a steep climb for the Justice Department, the FBI and its allies, which already are under siege this week for pursuing the phone records of Associated Press reporters.
benton.org/node/151903 | Politico
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SNOOPING AND THE NEWS MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] Word that the Justice Department had obtained the records of more than 20 phone lines at The Associated Press sent the Fourth Estate into a frenzy. Big Government, Big Data, Big Brother, all the symbols of an increasing surveillance-driven age were invoked. Given that the government has brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, under an administration that has set a record for the use of the Espionage Act, the Associated Press story adds to a growing atmosphere in which working reporters always need to worry that someone is looking over their shoulder while they type. In the instance of The Associated Press, its leaders, who were notified of the investigation May 10, worried that the information obtained would “provide a road map to A.P.'s newsgathering operations and disclose information about A.P.'s activities and operations.” Something about that has a familiar ring. “On Wall Street, anonymity is critically important,” a former senior trader at Bear Stearns told The New York Times. “Secrecy and the ability to cover one’s tracks is paramount. If Bloomberg reporters crossed that line, that’s an issue.” The clients who use Bloomberg terminals found out on May 10 — the same day that the government sent The Associated Press notice that it had seized the phone records — that reporters at Bloomberg News had used terminals to find out when clients were signing in to the service. Besides Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks, who were among the concerned subscribers? The United States Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The hunted and the hunter, the hacked and the hacker, all of it seemed up for grabs.
benton.org/node/151882 | New York Times
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HOLDER RECUSED HIMSELF
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Daniel Strauss, Jordy Yager]
Attorney General Eric Holder recused himself from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to secretly seize two months of phone records of Associated Press journalists. AG Holder said he recused himself early on in the DOJ's investigation of what he described as some of the most serious leaks from government officials that jeopardized national security. Deputy Attorney General James Cole signed off on the subpoena authorizing the seizure of the AP's phone records last year. Because he recused himself, AG Holder said he does not have all of the facts surrounding the probe, which is coming under intense scrutiny. "I don't know all that went into the formulation of the subpoena," AG Holder said. He did say that the leak that sparked the subpoena was "a very serious leak." "This was a very serious leak. A very, very serious leak," AG Holder said. "It put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole. It put the American people at risk."
benton.org/node/151880 | Hill, The
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COOPERATION AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
The FBI last month gave temporary security clearances to scores of U.S. bank executives to brief them on the investigation into the cyberattacks that have repeatedly disrupted online banking websites for most of a year. Bank security officers and others were brought to more than 40 field offices around the country to join a classified video conference on "who was behind the keyboards," Federal Bureau of Investigation Executive Assistant Director Richard McFeely said. The extraordinary clearances, from an agency famed for being close-mouthed even among other law enforcement agencies, reflect some action after years of talk about the need for increased cooperation between the public and private sectors on cybersecurity.
benton.org/node/151898 | Reuters
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INTERNET AND MEDIA

BROADBAND AVAILABILITY REPORT
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Anne Neville]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration introduced a new set of reports, the Broadband Briefs series, that use publicly available data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce to examine broadband availability in greater detail. This report further examines improvements in broadband availability by speed, technology and location since 2010. NTIA noted in January that most Americans (98 percent) now have access to basic broadband service, and this report explores the change in availability over the last two years -- and the consistency with which broadband speeds are now available across the country. Since June 2010, broadband availability at all speed levels has increased and basic broadband service is nearly universal in urban areas. While there is still a gap in broadband availability between urban and rural areas, 91 percent of rural Americans have access to basic broadband service as of June 2012. NTIA has been working to address gaps in availability and increase demand for services throughout the country through its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), while the Rural Utilities Service’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) has targeted rural areas in particular. Both programs were part of a 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiative aimed at expanding broadband access and adoption. NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI) has also supported broadband expansion and adoption, state and local planning and capacity-building activities. Other highlights from the Broadband Brief include:
Changes: Between June 2010 and June 2012, national broadband availability increased at all advertised speed levels. During both years, the greatest rates of change occurred in the higher speed tiers, beginning with the 25 Mbps or greater tier. The percentage of Americans with access to broadband with speeds of 25 Mbps or greater has grown from nearly 50 percent in 2010 to more than 78 percent in 2012.
Technologies: Cable is the primary technology that providers use to offer services of at least 25 Mbps or greater but less than 1 Gbps. At 3/768, 87 percent of the population has access to broadband via cable, 74 percent get this type of broadband from DSL providers and 20 percent get this broadband from fiber deployments.
Rural/Urban: Almost 100 percent of urban residents have access to download speeds of at least 6 Mbps, while 82 percent of rural communities can access these speeds.
Counties: In almost 59 percent (1,896) of U.S. counties, at least 95 percent of the population has access to speeds of 3/768; and in just under 10 percent (317) of counties, at least 95 percent of the population has access at 25 Mbps.
benton.org/node/151850 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | read the NTIA report
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FCC UPDATES REPORT ON A RURAL BROADBAND STRATEGY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
The 2008 Farm Bill directed the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture, to submit to Congress a report describing a “comprehensive rural broadband strategy” in 2009. The 2008 Farm Bill also required the Chairman, in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture, to “update and evaluate” the Rural Broadband Report in 2011. This Report constitutes that update and evaluation. It focuses on key actions at the FCC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to meet the demand for affordable, high quality broadband services in rural communities, including historic investments made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). While significant progress has been made to increase rural broadband deployment and adoption since the publication of the 2009 Rural Broadband Report, and a number of private- and public-sector initiatives are underway, additional efforts and new policies—including major universal service policy reform—are still required to ensure that rural America fully shares in the benefits of the emerging broadband economy.
benton.org/node/151842 | Federal Communications Commission
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

BORDER SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: press release]
The Federal Communications Commission and its Canadian counterpart, Industry Canada, have agreed, through a process known as an exchange of letters, on ten interim spectrum sharing arrangements covering operations in their common border area. These arrangements will aid in the deployment and use of mobile broadband and improve public safety communications along the U.S.-Canada border by facilitating the efficient sharing of spectrum and avoiding potential interference. Among the technical sharing arrangements is an arrangement reached on the 3650-3700 MHz band, which allows wireless broadband and high-speed Internet services to coexist along the U.S.-Canada border. In this band, the United States and Canada agreed upon a spectrum sharing arrangement which includes, among other things, the use of “contention-based protocols” to avoid harmful interference while sharing the spectrum more efficiently. Contention-based protocols allow multiple users to share the same spectrum by defining the events that must occur when two or more devices attempt to simultaneously access the same channel and establishing rules by which each device is provided a reasonable opportunity to operate. The technical sharing arrangement reached on the 700 MHz band will allow public safety licensees on both sides of the border to fully implement their 700 MHz narrowband systems. The arrangement reflects the harmonization of the U.S. and Canadian public safety 700 MHz narrowband channel plans, thus providing more efficient, interference-free public safety operations in the border area.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-320945A1.pdf

CONTENT

APPLE AND E-BOOK PRICE FIXING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The Justice Department accused Apple executives, including its late chief executive Steve Jobs, of leading a conspiracy that raised e-book prices in an attempt to hurt Amazon and other competitors, according to documents filed in federal court. At one point, Eddy Cue, Apple’s lead e-books negotiator, counseled the chief executive of Random House to withhold e-books from Amazon unless it agreed to higher prices, the Justice Department said. Another publisher, Macmillan, would later employ this strategy, Justice said. In its own court filing, Apple vehemently denied allegations of price fixing, saying it brought fresh competition to a market dominated by Amazon. “The evidence proves that Apple acted independently, to further its own legitimate business goals,” the company said. The dueling documents with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York detail for the first time aspects of the government’s case against Apple. The court is scheduled on June 3 to hear the price-fixing trial that has reverberated beyond the fast-growing digital books market.
benton.org/node/151901 | Washington Post | NYTimes
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E-BOOK SALES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Julie Bosman]
E-book sales, especially in the thriving romance genre, gave the book business a lift in 2012. In a year that was monopolized by the “Fifty Shades” erotic novels and their various knockoffs, e-book sales in fiction rose 42 percent over the year before, to $1.8 billion. Growth in nonfiction e-book sales was smaller, a 22 percent increase, to $484.2 million. E-book sales in the children’s and young-adult categories increased 117 percent, to $469.2 million. E-books now account for 20 percent of publishers’ revenues, up from 15 percent in 2011. Publishers’ net revenues in 2012 were $15 billion, up from $14 billion in 2011, while unit sales of trade books increased 8 percent, to $2.3 billion.
benton.org/node/151899 | New York Times
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GUN CONTROL AND THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR:]
In the four months since the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, the tone of the conversation about gun control on Twitter has shifted sharply several times in apparent response to ongoing events, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of nearly 21 million tweets from December 18 through April 21. In that period, the Twitter sentiment overall was almost balanced between those supporting stronger gun control measures (42% of the conversation) and those opposed (38%), according to the report. That is in contrast to the first three days after the December 14 attack when an earlier Pew Research report found that pro-gun control voices dominated their opponents 64% to 21%. But what stands out even more is the fluid nature of the debate on Twitter. In 10 of the 18 weeks studied, assertions favoring tougher regulations outnumbered those opposing; in seven of those weeks, the sentiment against a new law was more prominent. In one of those weeks, the mix was exactly even. The findings also suggest that while pro-gun control forces dominated in the emotional and painful hours immediately following the attack, over time the conversation shifted to reflect the nation's more divided view of gun control that has become evident in recent years. At the same time, one of the biggest shifts in Twitter opinion occurred the week of the April 17 Senate vote, when sentiment favoring tougher gun laws outstripped expressions of opposition by 3-1.
benton.org/node/151874 | Project for Excellence in Journalism
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TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Russell Brandom]
On May 15 in Lima, representatives from 11 countries are gathering to hammer out something called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It's an international treaty, and the latest entry in the ongoing battle between copyright holders and the open web. Already, the treaty has been compared to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), with the Electronic Frontier Foundation describing it as the biggest threat to the global web in years. As in previous years, they're raising the alarm, and hoping that the global outcry will be enough to shoot down the treaty. The biggest red flags in the TPP are familiar from previous agreements — the inflated penalties, the prohibition on even temporary copies of protected intellectual property (IP), all the worst parts of the DMCA — but the larger concerns are how little we actually know. The negotiations are all secret, with only a small advisory committee kept in the loop on what's proposed. The public is only aware of the ACTA-like provisions because of a leak last summer that unveiled an early draft, but otherwise we'd still be in the dark.
benton.org/node/151839 | Verge, The
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OWNERSHIP

KOCH BROTHERS AND THE TRIBUNE
[SOURCE: Rolling Stone, AUTHOR: Matt Taibbi]
The Kochs brothers, after years of working through the media with relentless lobbying and messaging, are exploring the idea of skipping the middleman and becoming media themselves, with the acquisition of one of the biggest media groups in the country. The Tribune papers encompass eight major publications across the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the Allentown Daily Call, the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Hartford Courant, the Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Hoy, America's second-largest Spanish-language paper. It should go without saying that the sale of this still-potent media empire to the cash-addled Koch brothers duo – lifetime denizens of a sub-moronic rightist echo chamber where everything from Social Security to Medicare to unemployment benefits to the EPA are urgent threats to national security, and even child labor laws are evidence of an overly intrusive government – would be a disaster of epic proportions. One could argue that it would be on par with the Citizens United decision in its potential for causing popular opinion to be perverted and bent by concentrated financial interests.
benton.org/node/151871 | Rolling Stone
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UNIONS PROTEST KOCH BROTHERS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Walter Hamilton]
About 300 labor union members and other activists staged a demonstration to protest the potential sale of the Los Angeles Times to the politically conservative Koch brothers. Demonstrators marched outside the downtown L.A. headquarters of Oaktree Capital Management, an investment firm that holds a roughly 20% stake in Tribune Company, which owns The Times. Protesters alleged that Charles and David Koch, billionaire siblings who fund conservative causes, want to buy The Times in order to skew the paper's coverage to favor anti-union objectives. Demonstrators carrying signs that read "No Koch Hate in L.A." marched in front of the Oaktree building on Tuesday afternoon. The building's security guards placed yellow security gates in front of two entrances where the protesters marched. The protesters targeted Oaktree because the firm manages pension investments on behalf of unionized government employees, including those in the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
benton.org/node/151896 | Los Angeles Times
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TELECOM

FCC’S CLYBURN CONTINUES PRISON PHONE BATTLE
[SOURCE: Washington Informer, AUTHOR: Stacy Brown]
Mignon Clyburn, a veteran policymaker from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, has been appointed acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission, the first woman to ever hold the post. Since joining the FCC in 2009, Chairman Clyburn remains a leader in the fight to reduce telephone rates for prison inmates throughout the country and, in her first interview since being appointed by President Barack Obama to her new post, she vows to continue that battle. "Tens of thousands of consumers have written, emailed, and telephoned the Federal Communications Commission, pleading for relief on interstate long distance rates from correctional facilities and I intend to keep pushing this issue," said Chairman Clyburn. She is miffed that rates make it cheaper to place a cellular telephone call from as far away as Singapore than it is for an inmate to make an interstate collect call from prisons in the United States.
benton.org/node/151837 | Washington Informer
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POLICYMAKERS

QUESTIONS FOR TOM WHEELER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Stephanie Chen]
[Commentary] The nomination of Thomas E. Wheeler, longtime president and CEO of the Cellular Telecom and Internet Association, to head the Federal Communications Commission has produced predictable bursts of praise and criticism. Both sides make some valid points, but the simple truth is that we don’t know where Wheeler stands on some of the most critical issues the FCC will face in the coming years — issues that will have a huge impact on consumers. Before confirming Wheeler’s nomination, the Senate should insist on clear, specific answers to the following questions:
Competition: In many communities, particularly in rural areas or lower income neighborhoods, there are fewer carriers offering service than in higher income, urban or suburban areas. At the same time, modern “basic” technologies like wireless and broadband are lightly regulated, as compared to the old copper phone network. What role should the FCC play in improving competition in currently underserved areas, so that we can get closer to universal service?
Availability: In many areas of the country, especially in rural areas or tribal lands, you still can’t get broadband service even if you want it and could afford it — the network simply isn’t built there. This leaves millions of Americans with significantly diminished ability to grow and thrive. How can the FCC achieve universal broadband deployment?
Affordability: In many areas where broadband networks do exist, low-income customers can’t afford to sign up, which perpetuates the digital divide. In an era when applications for even entry-level fast-food jobs are handled online, this stifles economic opportunities for those who need them most. What can the FCC do to make broadband more affordable for low-income consumers?
Advanced Services: Increasingly, telephone service is moving to Internet-based (VoIP) systems, but to the customer, a phone call is a phone call. Customers aren’t concerned with what technology is involved; they care that service is reliable, available and affordable. Given that reality, how should the different technologies used to provide voice services be regulated? Should the type of wires determine the sort of regulation needed, or should the function the technology serves for the customer be the determining factor? And given that it is used to make phone calls, is VoIP a communications service or an information service? What should be the role of the states in regulating those services? Today the U.S. lags behind much of the industrialized world in broadband speed and quality. What can we do to guarantee subscribers in the United States the same quality and speed found in places like Japan and South Korea?
Preemption: Should local governments be allowed to construct their own telecommunications networks, especially in areas where service providers have not built out their networks?
benton.org/node/151852 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

GOOGLE AUTOCOMPLETE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Michael Steen]
A top German court ruled on that Google must heed requests to remove automatically generated search suggestions linked to people’s names if these are deemed defamatory. In the ruling, the Federal Court of Justice said that the rights of an unnamed founder of an internet nutritional supplement and cosmetics company were infringed upon, when the “autocomplete” function on www.google.de added “Scientology” and “fraud” as suggested searches related to his or her name. The court, which is the highest instance for appeals, said this did not mean that Google had been wrong to develop its autocomplete feature, but “it has not taken sufficient measures to prevent the software-generated search suggestions from infringing on the rights of third parties.”
benton.org/node/151891 | Financial Times
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