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May 6, 2013
Source 
Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

On April 26, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission adopted landmark new rules to ensure browsers on mobile devices will be accessible to people with disabilities.

For example, this means a blind or low vision person will have the same access to content available on the Internet that other smart phone users can get to. In this FCC Order federal regulators affirmed that manufacturers of equipment that include Advanced Communications Services (ACS) --that is, companies that make computers, laptops, tablets, and other devices -- and that provide or install Internet browsers with that equipment now must ensure that this equipment and software, including browsers, are accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, unless doing so is not achievable. The new rule goes into effect October 8, 2013.

Mobile Browsers Must be Accessible Under New 21st CVAA Rules

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May 6, 2013
Source 
Denver Post
Author 
Andy Vuong
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

More than 50 companies and organizations, including the state’s largest telecom and cable-TV providers, are banding together to fight a last-minute measure that they say could have a “chilling effect” on innovation in Colorado.

Sponsors of Senate Bill 287, introduced Monday and passed out of committee Wednesday, are trumpeting the measure as a bipartisan effort to “connect rural Colorado to broadband Internet service.” “Rural Colorado is in desperate need of broadband,” Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said in announcing the introduction of the measure. “Businesses and communities suffer when they can’t access what the 21st Century has to offer to the rest of the state. The time has come to make the commitment to bring broadband to our entire state.” The bill proposes to divert a portion of the ratepayer-funded High Cost Support Mechanism – which collects more than $50 million annually to subsidize phone service in rural areas – toward broadband expansion in unserved and underserved communities.

The telecom bill that has Colorado carriers and technology firms on edge

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National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Department of Commerce
May 8, 2013
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
viatelephone conference
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-05-06/pdf/2013-10663.pdf

Members of the public may listen to the meeting by dialing toll-free 1 (888) 469–1931 and entering passcode 9056016. Due to the limited number of ports, attendance via teleconference will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Agenda

Call to Order (Chairman Ginn)

Minutes of the April 23, 2013 Meeting

Board Actions

Resolution on Modifications to FirstNet’s Bylaws
Resolution on Establishing a Special Review Committee
Adjourn

Agenda subject to change

Submitted on May 6, 2013

It’s a sad commentary on the state of our public discourse that clever misnaming of issues can totally recast what should be substantive policy discussions. The most obvious example: adding the suffix “gate” onto anything that smacks of real or alleged political wrong-doing in the wake of Richard Nixon’s Watergate is usually sufficient to muddy the waters beyond all reality; often it demolishes any chance for serious debate. Remember Billygate, NannyGate, CoinGate, CableGate and all the rest?

The latest example is the current Lifeline program that provides basic prepaid cell phone subsidies to low-income citizens. I knew its opponents were out to kill serious discussion (and the program, too) when they came up with the cute idea of calling the issue “Obama Phones.” As a supporter of the program, I think it would be more realistic to call them “Gipper Phones” since the program started in the Reagan years, or even “Bushie Phones” because that’s when the Lifeline program made room for wireless services. Tempted as I am, I think that would only further distract us from looking at the program on its merits.

Connecting low-income consumers is a central pillar of our telecommunications law. All our people need access to the wonders of communications—and I always underline that word “all.” America can no longer afford to have digital divides between haves and have-nots. Until each and every citizen of this great country is connected—be they urban or rural, rich or poor, living on tribal lands or in distressed inner cities, whether they be members of our disabilities communities—our work is unfinished.

Let’s be clear at the outset: Lifeline is a necessary and mandated program that has accomplished many good things. It has not been without problems and has come in for its share of criticism—some merited, some not. I believe the merited criticisms are being addressed. As for those critics who are just out to kill another program providing assistance to low-income consumers—well, there’s no satisfying them. It is also striking that so many of those critics out to eliminate Lifeline are the same people who continue to support tax subsidies and wheelbarrows full of other giveaways for the affluent even as they battle to shrink programs that are helping the rest of us. It’s not just Lifeline that these critics are going after—it’s dozens of other programs, too, like unemployment benefits and food stamps for the needy and down-on-their-luck.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing, “The Lifeline Fund: Money Well Spent?” It is impossible to read the testimony from that hearing and deny that the program is contributing importantly to the central goal of the Telecommunications Act: to bring affordable and advanced telecommunications services to every American. More than ever our success as individuals, and as a nation, depends upon everyone being connected to the communications infrastructure of the Twenty-first century. Indeed, it is not going too far to equate such access with a civil right, because the doors of opportunity are closed and locked for those without it.

Red-lining low-income citizens by denying them access to these necessary telecommunications services would constitute a clear-and-present public danger as well as a blatant denial of equal opportunity in the Internet Age.

Lifeline is providing no-frills telephone service (no smart phones funded here!) for $9.25 per month, per subscriber, one-to-a-household, to some 15 million low-income people. Given the current high jobless rate and a still-anemic economic recovery, the number of eligible participants should actually be higher. Outreach needs to be enhanced. Success is not pruning the rolls of legitimate subscribers—it is helping those who truly need help. And that’s millions of people.

Lifeline originally applied, back in the Reagan years, to plain old wireline telephone service—service that is rapidly losing customers as consumers turn to wireless and broadband technologies. Cell phones have become a part of our daily lives. Who among us can imagine a week or a day without it, let alone having no access to it ever? Pilot programs are beginning for the inclusion of broadband in Lifeline—an essential step forward. Most jobs today are found through online searches; public safety is enhanced through everyone being part of the grid; education cannot be done offline; and the list goes on.

I suggest that any Lifeline doubters among the readership take a look at some of the numerous testimonials that were presented during the Congressional hearing. Jessica Gonzalez of the National Hispanic and Media Coalition made a fact-filled and particularly moving statement. Read that and you will understand how vital Lifeline is for millions of Americans who were caught, through no fault of their own, in the economy’s awful downward spiral. How does denial of no-frills Lifeline service help them, or the country? How does denial help the unemployed worker looking each morning for a job so she or he has a shot at putting some groceries on the family table that night? How does denial help the suddenly-ill or injured child whose parents don’t have the ability to call 911 for help? How does denial help the working parent trying to check in with their child after school to make sure she is safe and well? As Ms. Gonzalez said, Lifeline helps real people. While far from bringing the kind of services and applications most of those reading this page enjoy, Lifeline provides what can only be viewed as a bare necessity for those in need.

It’s no secret that the original program lacked the controls it needed. There was waste and almost certainly fraud on the part of a few at the expense of the many. But the increasing numbers using Lifeline came more from the deep recession we were plunged into than from overt abuse or wrong-doing. There is plenty of blame to go around, to be sure, and lax policy guidelines and enforcement at the Federal Communications Commission must shoulder a significant share of the burden. The opportunities for abuse clearly multiplied with the necessary inclusion of wireless by the previous FCC. The current Commission, to its credit, realized the need for corrective program reform and enforcement action. In 2011 it began a process to check for duplication and ineligible users. It went on to enact far-reaching new eligibility and certification requirements and other safeguards to cure the problems that had arisen. Internal controls, significantly-enhanced monitoring, and new data bases are in place and being improved as you read this. These reforms are already having a positive effect. Spending has dropped, and the FCC forecasts savings of $2 billion by the close of 2014. Over a million duplicate subscriptions have been identified and eliminated. Many additional subscribers have been declared ineligible for participation in the program because they have not responded to queries requesting certification of their eligibility.

Unfortunately, some of those who were decertified may indeed be entirely eligible. They may never have received the certification forms because they are transient, don’t have a regular mailing address, or lack the literacy required to fill out a detailed government form. There is a lesson here: regulatory vigilance should always be accompanied by the avoidance of unintended negative consequences. Mid-course corrections do not imply just tougher requirements; sometimes it is more a matter of smarter ones.

On balance, the new reforms seem to be working. We need to let these reforms do their work before rushing to judgment about further significant changes. If it develops—as indeed it might—that additional or different proofs of eligibility or other enforcement measures are needed, the Commission can, should, and must implement them. It will have the obligation to do so. Government programs need credibility to survive, and good implementation can mean the difference between public support and public opposition. Low-income citizens deserve a credible, well-run program just as much—I would say more—than those who rave and rant against every public assistance initiative. Let us also beware of robbing this needed program to pay for other programs, however meritorious those others may be. Lifeline stands on its own.

“Names will never hurt me,” the old saying goes. Unfortunately that adage doesn’t seem to apply in politics. After dollars, it’s often the name that determines the game. The more ridiculous the label or outlandish the charge, the more attention it attracts. But when the game is serious public policy, it’s time to expect more. We each have a role to play here, either by turning off our own labeling strategies or tuning out those who engage in them. And our media, about which I write so much in this space, has an obligation to discipline itself, too. It can do this by toning down sensation-seeking headlines, beefing up real reportage, and not looking for a “gate” in every issue.

Lifeline wins on the merits—it’s not even close. We’re on the way to making it better already, and I trust we are committed to doing whatever else may be necessary to fulfill the mandate of our telecommunications laws and our ongoing duty to serve the public interest. So let us rally ‘round a program that can boast millions of success stories. Let’s improve and expand it, fixing those things that may not be totally repaired yet and helping millions of fellow citizens who, thanks to Lifeline, have access to the communications ecosystem that every day performs a larger role in binding our country together.

May 6, 2013 (FCC priority should be faster bandwidth)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

A look at this week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-05-05--P1W/


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC priority should be faster bandwidth - op-ed
   USDA Changes Community Connect Broadband Grant Program Rules - public notice
   American Library Association highlights library and community impacts from Broadband Technology Opportunities Program in new report - press release
   Web Sales-Tax Bill Set to Face Bumps
   Norquist presses Senate sponsor on online sales tax [links to web]
   Report: 78% of U.S. Broadband Homes Have a Home Network [links to web]
   TDG: 56% of U.S. Broadband Homes Have an Internet-Connected TV [links to web]
   New Motto for Silicon Valley: First Security, Then Innovation #CISPA [links to web]
   Helping Seniors Learn New Technology [links to web]
   Bernstein Research Likes What it Sees in Google KC Fiber [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Industry ties run deep for Obama's FCC pick
   Chairman Rockefeller Weighs in on FCC, Commerce Nominees - press release
   Obama’s Bad Pick: A Former Lobbyist at the FCC - analysis
   Good News from Washington (and it’s about the FCC) - analysis
   What to Expect from a Tom Wheeler FCC - editorial
   In Commerce Pick’s ’08 Answers on Finances, Possible Hints at Road Ahead
   Pritzker's Progress - editorial
   BTOP’s Emy Tseng [links to web]
   House of Un-Representatives - analysis [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Do-Not-Track Talks Could Be Running Off the Rails
   Silicon Valley uses growing clout to kill a digital privacy bill

OWNERSHIP
   Alaska Media Battle Pits Old Power vs. Cable Rival
   Clearwire Shareholders to Press for Higher Buyout
   Dish's Charlie Ergen on Sprint Offer: 'We're Not Going to Lose' [links to web]
   For Media Moguls, Paydays That Stand Out [links to web]

CONTENT
   Is Internet Killing the Video Star? - op-ed
   Internet has extended battlefield in war on terror [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Plan to boost in-flight Internet could wreak havoc on satellite networks
   Apple Leads Samsung in U.S. Smartphones [links to web]
   How will we measure the internet of things? - analysis [links to web]
   Payphone Wi-Fi Piloted in Boston [links to web]
   Report: 78% of U.S. Broadband Homes Have a Home Network [links to web]
   TDG: 56% of U.S. Broadband Homes Have an Internet-Connected TV [links to web]
   U.S. Wireless Providers Invested Almost Six Times More Per Subscriber than Rest of World - press release [links to web]
   Pentagon OKs Samsung, Blackberry devices for government use [links to web]
   Dish's Charlie Ergen on Sprint Offer: 'We're Not Going to Lose' [links to web]
   Apple and others could stop smartphone theft. Here’s why they don’t - analysis [links to web]

TELECOM
   Attacking Lifeline for Political Gain - editorial

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   European Commission sends Statement of Objections to Motorola Mobility on potential misuse of mobile phone standard-essential patents - press release
   UK government sets out reform plans to improve mobile coverage

MORE ONLINE
   Survey: Most parents support mobile learning devices [links to web]
   Can Researchers Influence Government's Cybersecurity Agenda? [links to web]
   Watchdogs Ask Court To Reject 'Sponsored Stories' Settlement [links to web]
   How the Internet is boosting marriage rates [links to web]
   Shining the Light on Press Freedom Worldwide - op-ed [links to web]
   It is down to democracies to protect the most precious of freedoms - op-ed [links to web]
   Spanish TV Eyes English Ad Budgets [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FASTER BROADBAND
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
[Commentary] We live in a world where goods and services are increasingly delivered over broadband networks, not roads and railways. So what kinds of networks will our communities - our innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses - need to be competitive in the global economy? This question should top the list for Thomas Wheeler, nominated by President Obama last week to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Wheeler should note that So-net Entertainment, a Japanese Internet service provider, just announced a 2 gigabit-per-second service to customers in the Tokyo region for $51 per month. That's about what the average American pays for broadband. But the average speed of U.S. broadband connections? It's less than 1 percent as fast. No wonder many U.S. communities are worried that their networks soon will not measure up. Communities depend on access to affordable, high-quality broadband to improve their economic prospects, just as they depended on access to abundant water or electricity, or high-quality roads or freight service in the last century. Today, the United States is doing reasonably well, but tomorrow could present a whole different picture. The 2010 National Broadband Plan found - and subsequent evidence affirms - that no domestic Internet access provider plans to upgrade its networks to offer world-leading broadband speeds. Wheeler has a big and important job ahead of him in making sure that bandwidth does not constrain our imaginations or our economic growth.
benton.org/node/151246 | San Francisco Chronicle
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RUS BROADBAND RULES
[SOURCE: Rural Utilities Service, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), a Rural Development agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), amends its regulations for the Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant Program The purpose of this regulatory change is to provide the Agency the ability to target limited resources to geographical as well as technological areas of need. The new regulations seek to simplify the grant application process, will let the USDA prioritize rural and poor areas and will increase flexibility for using matching funds that grant applicants have to provide. This rule is not applicable to Community Connect grant applications filed for funding prior to the publication of a Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) under this regulation. This rule is effective June 3, 2013.
benton.org/node/151214 | Rural Utilities Service | press release | The Hill
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BTOP AND LIBRARIES
[SOURCE: American Library Association, AUTHOR: Press release]
The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy released a new report that details U.S. library engagement with the federal program. The report is the first to highlight state and local library BTOP projects nationwide and the improvements they have made to public access technology resources, digital literacy, and workforce development. Library projects in 29 states and the District of Columbia are featured in the report. ALA estimates about 20 percent of U.S. public libraries have benefited from BTOP funding. Highlights from the report:
Nearly all statewide library projects included digital literacy training. More than 367,000 Coloradans increased their digital literacy skills through that state’s BTOP project. Ninety-five percent of those who took formal classes in Colorado stated they learned a valuable skill and would recommend the classes to others.
Nearly 600 people who participated in New York State Library’s “Broadband Express @ your library” programs and used online job resources went on to secure employment. The Nebraska Library Commission has more than double its grant goal (45 libraries) for upgrading broadband speeds in this mostly rural state. Of the 101 libraries upgraded so far, the average speed moved from 2.9 Mbps to 21.4 Mbps.
Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Oklahoma and Rhode Island have established new videoconferencing capabilities in several, if not all, libraries in their states. The Maine State Library is deploying its statewide network to provide legal information clinics through the Volunteer Lawyers Project. The clinics are offered in real time, allowing patrons at multiple locations, and especially in rural locations, to attend and ask questions directly of the presenting attorney.
benton.org/node/151224 | American Library Association | read the report
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WEB SALES TAX BILL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Hughes, John McKinnon]
A bill that effectively would end tax-free online shopping appears to be sailing smoothly toward Senate passage May 6 but will hit choppier waters in the Republican-controlled House, where antitax sentiment is stronger. Opponents portray the bill as a tax increase and say it would burden small online businesses with complex tax-collection responsibilities. Supporters say the bill would enable states to collect sales taxes that already are owed, not create a new tax or raise tax rates. "It's probably more complicated in the House," said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), the chief House supporter of the bill. "There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase." Supporters cast the bill as an issue of fairness, saying brick-and-mortar stores are hurt as consumers increasingly check out merchandise in shops but buy the products online. Many House Republicans are sympathetic to that argument but are reluctant to embrace legislation that constituents could see as a tax increase, wary of a potential grass-roots voter backlash. Many of these legislators are silent on the issue or vague about their intentions. House leaders haven't come out against the measure but aren't jumping to move it along. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has taken no public position on the Senate bill, and a spokesman directed questions to the House Judiciary Committee. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said Congress should address the fairness issue, but he hasn't said how or when.
benton.org/node/151241 | Wall Street Journal
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POLICYMAKERS

TOM WHEELER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Tom Wheeler has an extensive history with the industries he would be in charge of regulating. He was the president of the cable industry lobby about 30 years ago and later led the lobbying group for the cellphone carriers. In recent years, he has worked at venture capital firm Core Capital, investing in technology start-ups. Wheeler was one of the driving forces behind the 1984 Cable Act, which set up a legal framework for cable providers to compete with over-the-air broadcasters. In a bid to win the support of black lawmakers for the legislation, Wheeler agreed to equal opportunity employment requirements for minority groups and women. Larry Irving, who at the time was an aide to Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Mickey Leland (D-TX), said the employment rules for cable companies were a "huge deal" and gave the bill a boost of momentum to pass the House. Irving said Wheeler fought to keep the employment provisions in the bill when senators tried to take them out. After several years working for various technology start-ups, Wheeler became the president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, now known as CTIA-the Wireless Association, in 1992. Although the cellphone service market is now dominated by only four nationwide firms, at the time, the industry was made up of dozens of small start-ups. As their top lobbyist, Wheeler pushed back against concerns that cellphones cause cancer and successfully lobbied for access to more wireless frequencies for the industry. He often touted the ability of cellphones to save lives during emergencies. He left the association in 2004.
benton.org/node/151245 | Hill, The
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ROCKEFELLER REACTION
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)]
Senate Commerce Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV) released the following statement after President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“I respect President Obama’s decision to nominate Tom Wheeler as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He has a long and diverse career in both communications policy and business. The FCC will work toward promoting universal access to broadband, expanding the E-Rate program, and making sure incentive auctions generate funds to create a communications network for our first responders. I look forward to meeting soon with Mr. Wheeler and discussing the challenges facing the Commission.”
Chairman Rockefeller released the following statement after President Obama nominated Penny Pritzker to be U.S. Secretary of Commerce. “The last four years have seen the U.S. return from the brink of a depression to showing encouraging signs of sustained job creation. But our economy remains fragile, as millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed know all too well. The federal government can do much more to support private sector expansion and the creation of quality jobs. Penny Pritzker’s decades of business experience would greatly assist her in leading this effort as President Obama’s Commerce Secretary nominee. I look forward to meeting with Ms. Pritzker and discussing how the Commerce Department’s work in export promotion, advanced manufacturing, weather forecasting, and ocean resource management can continue to foster economic growth and help create American jobs.”
benton.org/node/151222 | US Senate Commerce Committee | Senate Commerce
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OBAMA’S BAD PICK: A FORMER LOBBYIST AT THE FCC
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: John Cassidy]
[Commentary] Memo to a President who said, in November, 2007, “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over”: If you are going to name a former lobbyist for big cable and wireless companies as head of the federal agency that regulates the cable and wireless industries, you had better find a public-interest-group advocate to say something positive about him (or her) before you make the announcement. Job done. By May 1, when the White House confirmed that it was nominating Tom Wheeler, a veteran Washington insider who has headed not one powerful industry association but two, as the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the nomination had already secured the support of Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that promotes open and unlimited access to the Internet. “Certainly we will have disagreements with the new Chairman (assuming Wheeler is confirmed), but we expect that Wheeler will actively work to promote competition and protect consumers,” Harold Feld, a senior vice-president at Public Knowledge, wrote in a blog post. That’s a relief—or is it? The closer you look at Wheeler’s selection, the more questionable it appears.
benton.org/node/151220 | New Yorker
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GOOD NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
[SOURCE: DailyIrv, AUTHOR: Larry Irving]
If you were looking for some good news out of Washington, you finally got some with the President’s announcement that he is nominating Tom Wheeler to be the next Chairman of the FCC. Tom will be an outstanding Chairman. I am confident of that because I have known Tom for almost three decades and I have watched him succeed at everything else he has done over a long career. If you were putting together the ideal candidate for an FCC Chairman, you would want someone who understands the industry, possibly with experience in the broadband and wireless industries. You likely would seek a candidate who understands the regulatory and legislative processes. It would be helpful if that candidate had business experience, had advised businesses, started businesses, run businesses or served on the boards of businesses. If that candidate had relationships with key industry leaders, that would be a major plus. But it would also be helpful if the public interest community had worked with and trusted that candidate. And since America is the global technology leader, how about some international experience? That would be a good thing, as would be service on boards of global technology organizations and nonprofit organizations that use technology to solve societal issues. America faces significant challenges in protecting our telecommunications infrastructure. The next Chairman of the FCC needs to have an understanding of the prospects of disruptive attacks or systems failures caused by natural disasters and should have a knowledge of and working relationship with the organizations and the officials tasked with protecting that infrastructure. And an ideal candidate should have a close working relationship with key leaders in the White House and yet be strong enough to be the independent leader and thinker that an independent regulatory agency requires. On all of the above criteria, Tom Wheeler passes the test. He is an experienced leader with exceptional communications skills AND organizational skills. Those are not qualities found in one person very often.
benton.org/node/151218 | DailyIrv
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WHAT TO EXPECT FROM WHEELER
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] What will the Tom Wheeler-led Federal Communications Commission mean for broadcasters? Expect little or no change in the incentive auction policy. Look for Wheeler to push the auction with all the zeal of the outgoing FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski. What emerges from Wheeler's prolific blogging is a belief that much of the broadcast spectrum is being wasted and that it would be put to better use in wireless broadband. So, when broadcasters think of Wheeler and spectrum, they should think status quo. What's near impossible to divine is where Wheeler will go on two issues that should be of more immediate concern to broadcasters: ownership and retransmission consent.
benton.org/node/151217 | TVNewsCheck
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PRITZKER’S TAXES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
In November 2008, as President-elect Barack Obama began putting together his cabinet, reports emerged that he was considering nominating Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heiress and businesswoman who had served as his chief campaign fund-raiser, as commerce secretary. But faced with awkward questions about her financial dealings, she declared that she did not want the nomination. Recently, she accepted the nomination but amid a far more toxic political atmosphere than President Obama faced at the start of his first term. Republican senators are likely to be interested in the Pritzker family’s reputation as innovators in the use of offshore trusts and foreign bank secrecy laws to shelter their wealth from income, capital gains and inheritance taxes. Even after tax code loopholes were closed, the family’s trusts were grandfathered in and it kept benefiting from them.
benton.org/node/151244 | New York Times
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PRITZKER’S PROGRESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama presumably nominated Penny Pritzker to be Commerce Secretary for reasons other than her record-breaking fundraising as his 2008 campaign chair. And we assume it's despite her history of investing in toxic mortgage-backed securities and her family trusts' allegedly copious use of offshore tax shelter strategies. Let us hope the President chose Pritzker to reorganize and streamline government, starting with a Commerce Department that is "an outdated bureaucratic maze" and "produces redundancy and inefficiency." Those are the words President Obama used in January 2012 to ridicule Commerce, adding in the White House East Room that the department was "a mess" and that "these kinds of inefficiencies exist across government." Obama's proposal at the time was for Congress to grant him "consolidation authority" to combine executive branch functions, specifically singling out the five housing agencies and the six shops that deal with business like the Commerce Department and the Export-Import Bank. For some reason none of this came up this week when President Obama introduced Pritzker, though those now forgotten words are worth recalling in the context of the sequester panic. Congress never gave President Obama his consolidation power, but in the 16 months since he asked for it the President seems to have concluded that government is now so efficient it can't tolerate even modest budget cuts without laying off park rangers and meat inspectors. The Commerce job is notoriously one of Washington's least influential. So if she wants to make a difference, perhaps Pritzker can resurrect the agenda to fix a broken government. At least she'd have something to occupy her days.
benton.org/node/151243 | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

DO-NOT-TRACK TALKS COULD BE RUNNING OFF THE RAILS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Sinder]
After nearly two years of negotiating and little progress, the international group trying to agree on a Do Not Track standard is convening its final official face-to-face meeting next week. Although many people may not know that advertisers and other third parties operating on Web sites install cookies, which are small bits of code that track users’ browsing history, a small subset of consumers have already activated the Do Not Track mechanisms on their devices. These don’t-track-me browser settings send out signals telling third parties that a user does not want to have his or her online activities tracked. Advertisers say they need to collect tracking data in order to show relevant ads to consumers. Without behavior-based ads to support free content and services, they argue, certain sites would have to shut down or start charging for access. Privacy advocates, for their part, argue that consumers have a right to choose not to be tracked by companies they don’t do business with. If the price consumers have to pay is more generic ads that are not tailored to them, they say, so be it.
benton.org/node/151213 | New York Times
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SILICON VALLEY KILLS PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn, Marc Lifsher]
Silicon Valley has wielded its growing political clout at the California state Capitol to kill a digital privacy bill that would have given consumers access to information about them being collected online. Had the Right to Know Act become law, California would have been the first state to take direct aim at an online industry that stockpiles and trades in a wide range of personal data about nearly every adult in the United States. In a major defeat for consumer groups and privacy watchdogs, AB 1291 will instead become a two-year bill, effectively putting it into a deep freeze until next year. Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) said she preferred to wait rather than "water down" the substance of her bill. "Californians don't need to be persuaded that they should be able to ask a business what it knows about them and who it's sharing that information with. But in the Legislature, it has become clear that we still have our work cut out for us," she said. The bill faced vehement opposition from a powerful coalition of technology companies and business lobbies that included Facebook Inc., Google Inc., the California Chamber of Commerce, insurers, bankers and cable television companies as well as direct marketers and data brokers. Their members collectively give millions of dollars to lawmakers and politicians.
benton.org/node/151205 | Los Angeles Times
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OWNERSHIP

ALASKA MEDIA BATTLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kirk Johnson]
Yes, Alaska is woolly and wild. But here is the paradox: it functions in many ways like a medium-size city with a big backyard. Nearly 54 percent of the population, in a state more than twice the size of Texas, clusters in the largest metropolitan area, Anchorage. That degree of single-city dominance is matched in only a few other places in the United States, notably Nevada, where a tail named Las Vegas wags its dog. Concentration of population, in turn, creates concentration of power in economics, news and culture, which means that Anchorage — though very different from the rest of the state, if only by virtue of being urban — largely defines what it means to be Alaskan through the messages it sends out and controls. Now, there is a fight over who wields that Anchorage-centered, Alaska-size microphone. In one corner, wearing the rainbow-colored peacock logo, is the powerful NBC affiliate, KTUU. As Channel 2, it was one of the first stations on the air here, starting in the early 1950s, before statehood, and it has been crushingly dominant just about ever since in statewide news coverage. In the other corner, just as muscular in its own way, is a homegrown cable company, General Communication Inc., Alaska’s biggest provider of telecommunications services, from cable to telephone. Last fall the company, known as GCI, proposed going into the content side of the business, putting its own programming into the cable lines it controls with near-monopoly power in parts of the state. The fight that has raged ever since: will access to the cable system that snakes out of Anchorage to inform and entertain the state still be fair?
benton.org/node/151212 | New York Times
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CLEARWIRE-SPRINT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Gryta]
Some Clearwire shareholders have formed a group with the aim of getting a higher buyout price for the mobile broadband provider than the one currently in place from Sprint Nextel. In December, Clearwire's majority owner, Sprint, offered to buy the rest of Clearwire that it doesn't own for $2.2 billion, or $2.97 a share. The next month, satellite TV company Dish Network bid $3.30 a share, and Clearwire shares have traded well above the Sprint offer since. Dish since has bid for the entirety of Sprint, putting its Clearwire bid in question. In a regulatory filing, the four shareholders—Mount Kellett Capital Management, Highside Capital Management, Glenview Capital Management and Chesapeake Partners Management—said they hold a collective 127.4 million shares, or about 18.2% of the non-Sprint shares outstanding. They intend to act as a group in beginning discussions with Sprint and other interested parties, including Dish, about the deal. The filing said the group members "unanimously believe that such price offered by Sprint is too low" and they have retained legal counsel to assist in any negotiations. The group members have agreed not to sell or transfer their shares before May 22, when the pact will end unless members holding a majority of the group shares decide to end it earlier.
benton.org/node/151208 | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
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CONTENT

INTERNET AMD THE VIDEO STAR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Stephen White]
[Commentary] Instead of adapting to changing viewer behavior, the cable companies, Hollywood and broadcasters are holding onto old business models for dear life and calling the lawyers. Sound familiar? Ignoring or fighting digital consumer behavior is a recipe for disaster — resulting in rejection faster than an unpalatable creation by a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen. It’s time for TV broadcasters, content creators and advertisers to innovate their businesses instead of maintaining existing models through threats and litigation. First, they need to understand that their viewers are setting the rules and defining the life expectancy of their programming and services. They will decide your fate — not you. Not only accepting, but also realizing that TV programs and movies are easily accessible via proliferating distribution channels such as Netflix and Aereo, the industry can turn the tables and find opportunities with additional platforms and options to reach viewers for their eyeballs and spending. Most importantly, cable, broadcasters and Hollywood have the opportunity to move forward and determine better and more efficient business models to thrive. [White is President of Gracenote]
benton.org/node/151210 | Wall Street Journal
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

IN-FLIGHT INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The Federal Communications Commission will soon consider a plan to beam Internet signals up to airplanes from 150 ground stations operating in a spectrum band already used by satellites. Qualcomm has proposed such a service in the 14.0-14.5GHz band but faces opposition from the satellite industry, which says the service is unnecessary and would interfere with satellite transmissions. Qualcomm's proposal came in July 2011 and is now on the verge of moving forward. The FCC's meeting on May 9 "will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [NPRM] seeking to improve consumer access to broadband aboard aircraft and encourage innovation through establishment of an Air-Ground Mobile Broadband secondary service in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, while ensuring that existing users are protected from interference." This isn't the final step. If approved, the NPRM will be followed by extensive debate, public comment, and likely testing to determine whether interference concerns are valid. Already, the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) and others using the spectrum band say Qualcomm's proposal should be rejected or heavily restricted.
benton.org/node/151202 | Ars Technica
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TELECOM

ATTACKING LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Joseph Torres]
[Commentary] Too many members of Congress blame the poor for the country’s economic woes. It’s a way to score political points, especially when the poor are often synonymous with people of color. This is the motivation for much of the criticism of the government’s Lifeline program, which subsidizes phone service for 15 million poor people, including the elderly and people living in rural areas. Many conservative critics want to eliminate the program’s funding for wireless services. A Republican-led House bill, co-sponsored by more than 40 congressional members, would do just that. The bill's supporters claim Lifeline is fraught with waste and abuse, and last Thursday the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on the program. At the heart of the criticism lies a false claim that the program provides poor households with free cellphones — aka, “Obama phones.” The image of that poor family, for many, is that of a poor black family.
benton.org/node/151188 | Free Press
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EUROPEAN COMMISSION WARNS MOTOROLA
[SOURCE: European Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The European Commission has informed Motorola Mobility of its preliminary view that the company's seeking and enforcing of an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents ("SEPs") amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by European Union antitrust rules. While recourse to injunctions is a possible remedy for patent infringements, such conduct may be abusive where SEPs are concerned and the potential licensee is willing to enter into a license on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (so-called "FRAND") terms. In such a situation, the Commission considers at this stage that dominant SEP holders should not have recourse to injunctions, which generally involve a prohibition to sell the product infringing the patent, in order to distort licensing negotiations and impose unjustified licensing terms on patent licensees. Such misuse of SEPs could ultimately harm consumers. The sending of a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation. Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said: "The protection of intellectual property is a cornerstone of innovation and growth. But so is competition. I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer – not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice."
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-406_en.htm
EU regulator takes aim at Google over Apple mobile patent lawsuit (Reuters)
benton.org/node/151234 | European Commission | Reuters
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UK MOBILE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
Reform plans to speed up the process around building mobile masts and other phone infrastructure have been set out as the government seeks to improve mobile coverage across the UK. The proposed changes will clarify and simplify the planning restrictions around mobile broadband infrastructure, although they will focus on operators sharing existing sites to avoid installing new masts wherever possible. The reforms were agreed by government as part of the 4G auction negotiations, according to a person familiar with the situation. They have met opposition from campaigners worried about the effect on the environment. The proposals will be opened for consultation, although those close to the process said that they could still come into effect this year.
benton.org/node/151233 | Financial Times
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May 6, 2013
Source 
San Francisco Chronicle
Author 
Blair Levin
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] We live in a world where goods and services are increasingly delivered over broadband networks, not roads and railways. So what kinds of networks will our communities - our innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses - need to be competitive in the global economy? This question should top the list for Thomas Wheeler, nominated by President Obama last week to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Wheeler should note that So-net Entertainment, a Japanese Internet service provider, just announced a 2 gigabit-per-second service to customers in the Tokyo region for $51 per month. That's about what the average American pays for broadband. But the average speed of U.S. broadband connections? It's less than 1 percent as fast. No wonder many U.S. communities are worried that their networks soon will not measure up. Communities depend on access to affordable, high-quality broadband to improve their economic prospects, just as they depended on access to abundant water or electricity, or high-quality roads or freight service in the last century. Today, the United States is doing reasonably well, but tomorrow could present a whole different picture. The 2010 National Broadband Plan found - and subsequent evidence affirms - that no domestic Internet access provider plans to upgrade its networks to offer world-leading broadband speeds.

Wheeler has a big and important job ahead of him in making sure that bandwidth does not constrain our imaginations or our economic growth.

FCC priority should be faster bandwidth

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May 6, 2013
Source 
Hill, The
Author 
Brendan Sasso
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Tom Wheeler has an extensive history with the industries he would be in charge of regulating. He was the president of the cable industry lobby about 30 years ago and later led the lobbying group for the cellphone carriers. In recent years, he has worked at venture capital firm Core Capital, investing in technology start-ups.

Wheeler was one of the driving forces behind the 1984 Cable Act, which set up a legal framework for cable providers to compete with over-the-air broadcasters. In a bid to win the support of black lawmakers for the legislation, Wheeler agreed to equal opportunity employment requirements for minority groups and women. Larry Irving, who at the time was an aide to Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Mickey Leland (D-TX), said the employment rules for cable companies were a "huge deal" and gave the bill a boost of momentum to pass the House. Irving said Wheeler fought to keep the employment provisions in the bill when senators tried to take them out.

After several years working for various technology start-ups, Wheeler became the president of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, now known as CTIA-the Wireless Association, in 1992. Although the cellphone service market is now dominated by only four nationwide firms, at the time, the industry was made up of dozens of small start-ups. As their top lobbyist, Wheeler pushed back against concerns that cellphones cause cancer and successfully lobbied for access to more wireless frequencies for the industry. He often touted the ability of cellphones to save lives during emergencies. He left the association in 2004.

Industry ties run deep for Obama's FCC pick

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May 6, 2013
Source 
New York Times
Author 
Charlie Savage
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

In November 2008, as President-elect Barack Obama began putting together his cabinet, reports emerged that he was considering nominating Penny Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heiress and businesswoman who had served as his chief campaign fund-raiser, as commerce secretary. But faced with awkward questions about her financial dealings, she declared that she did not want the nomination. Recently, she accepted the nomination but amid a far more toxic political atmosphere than President Obama faced at the start of his first term.

Republican senators are likely to be interested in the Pritzker family’s reputation as innovators in the use of offshore trusts and foreign bank secrecy laws to shelter their wealth from income, capital gains and inheritance taxes. Even after tax code loopholes were closed, the family’s trusts were grandfathered in and it kept benefiting from them.

In Commerce Pick’s ’08 Answers on Finances, Possible Hints at Road Ahead

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May 6, 2013
Source 
Wall Street Journal
Author 
Editorial staff
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] President Barack Obama presumably nominated Penny Pritzker to be Commerce Secretary for reasons other than her record-breaking fundraising as his 2008 campaign chair. And we assume it's despite her history of investing in toxic mortgage-backed securities and her family trusts' allegedly copious use of offshore tax shelter strategies.

Let us hope the President chose Pritzker to reorganize and streamline government, starting with a Commerce Department that is "an outdated bureaucratic maze" and "produces redundancy and inefficiency." Those are the words President Obama used in January 2012 to ridicule Commerce, adding in the White House East Room that the department was "a mess" and that "these kinds of inefficiencies exist across government." Obama's proposal at the time was for Congress to grant him "consolidation authority" to combine executive branch functions, specifically singling out the five housing agencies and the six shops that deal with business like the Commerce Department and the Export-Import Bank. For some reason none of this came up this week when President Obama introduced Pritzker, though those now forgotten words are worth recalling in the context of the sequester panic. Congress never gave President Obama his consolidation power, but in the 16 months since he asked for it the President seems to have concluded that government is now so efficient it can't tolerate even modest budget cuts without laying off park rangers and meat inspectors. The Commerce job is notoriously one of Washington's least influential. So if she wants to make a difference, perhaps Pritzker can resurrect the agenda to fix a broken government. At least she'd have something to occupy her days.

Pritzker's Progress

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May 6, 2013
Source 
New York Times
Author 
Nick Bilton
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Although technology companies say they take security seriously, protecting their customers seems to come second to announcing new products. One solution is a bill crawling through Congress over the last two years, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

The bill would make it easy for tech companies to share information about computer security threats with government agencies, helping fortify against cyberattacks. But privacy groups say that CISPA is not a solution to the problem, and that instead it hands the highly sensitive personal data we want protected to the government. “It has to be the obligation of these tech companies to build in security from the very beginning before we start moving into solutions about bringing the government into the private sector,” said Leslie Harris, president and chief executive of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based advocacy group financed by a broad coalition of technology and telecommunication companies. “You want to see these very innovative companies step up and become the leaders in security solutions first.”

New Motto for Silicon Valley: First Security, Then Innovation

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