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China's new-found clout in regulating global mergers is causing headaches for companies seeking high-stakes deals that need Beijing's approval. Where corporate lawyers and advisers were once primarily concerned with merger clearance in the United States and Europe, China's anti-monopoly law - just five years old - has altered the calculus, as Beijing forces often painful delays with an antitrust regime that some see as an industrial policy tool. Tucked into the hulking Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square, a handful of antitrust officials are what stands between multi-billion dollar mergers and access to the world's second-largest economy. The hiccups in China's system have the potential to gum up the works - extending firms' funding needs and creating uncertainty around mergers.
Flexing antitrust muscle, China is a new merger hurdle
H.R. 1580 would affirm the policy of the United States to preserve and advance a multistakeholder model to govern the Internet. Such a model, currently in practice, involves groups drawn from civil society, the private sector, governments, academic and research communities, as well as national and international organizations.
Based on information from the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would not have an effect on spending subject to appropriation because the workloads of those agencies would not be affected. Further, enacting H.R. 1580 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. H.R. 1580 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
CBO Scores Internet Governance Bill
Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker is facing some tough questions but little or no doubt she'll be confirmed as commerce secretary by the US Senate.
Pritzker, a director of Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp., took herself out of the running to oversee the Commerce Department four years ago after her tour de force performance as fundraising chairman for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign. Although she carries the baggage of a billionaire, including disputes with labor and her family's use of foreign tax havens, she hasn't drawn the heat that other Cabinet picks have drawn from the opposing party. “It would be a stretch to predict now that she won't make it through confirmation,” said a spokesman for Heritage Action, the activist arm of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. While her role as an outside adviser on the Administration's stimulus program will be a chance for Republicans to “relitigate” some issues, he added, “it isn't something that's going to raise immediate alarm bells.” An early indicator was a generic statement issued by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, which will vet her nomination in coming weeks.
About his only jab was that “Americans continue to suffer from weak economic growth and persistent, high unemployment," and that seemed directed more toward President Obama.
Why Penny Pritzker can be confident
A longtime Washington DC insider, Tom Wheeler has spent the better part of his career lobbying for big business.
Starting at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Wheeler later became president of the National Cable Television Association, fighting for legislation on behalf of cable companies in the industry’s formative 1980s. After briefly leaving to start a couple companies focused on broadband and cellular — experiences that would clearly inform his role as an Federal Communications Commission chairman — Wheeler was once again pulled into the beltway, becoming the head of The Wireless Association (CTIA) for over a decade. But Wheeler left CTIA in 2004. As a policymaker, can he be even-keeled without putting unbalanced weight in favor of industry giants — the kinds of giants who wanted a T-Mobile-AT&T merger?
"He has money and he's old," one industry source told The Verge, suggesting that Wheeler is effectively a lame duck — he has nothing to prove, no company or industry to make happy enough to secure a lucrative job in his post-FCC life. That might work out to the consumer’s advantage. It’s also worth noting that Wheeler’s stint in the cable industry came before it was huge, incumbent, slow-moving, often hostile toward its subscribers, and at constant risk of endangering competition.
Meet Tom Wheeler, the man who could control your digital life
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling delivered a keynote address at the annual conference at the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. He spoke about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $4 billion worth of investment in roughly 230 projects around the nation to expand access to and use of broadband.
NTIA and the Census Bureau have also found that one third of American households still do not subscribe to broadband at home. And roughly one fifth of American households do not use the Internet at all. Nearly half of all households that do not have Internet access say they do not subscribe because they do not see a need or are not interested. Another quarter of households say broadband is too expensive. NTIA’s broadband grant program has addressed these issues from the outset. We awarded $250 million in sustainable broadband adoption programs to teach digital literacy skills to those who are not comfortable going online and to help low-income households acquire discounted computer equipment and sign up for affordable broadband service. We also provided roughly $200 million in grants to install and upgrade computer centers in schools, libraries and other public buildings to provide Internet access to those who do not have it at home. These adoption and computer center projects are also providing online job search and career assistance for the unemployed, and are helping small businesses integrate technology and move online to expand their reach. Along the way, we have all learned a lot about what works – and what does not work – when it comes to setting up the most functional computer labs, designing the most effective broadband training programs, and helping the most disadvantaged people use technology to improve their lives.
Let me share a few of these lessons:
- First is the importance of making the Internet relevant to people. The most successful digital literacy programs start by showing people why the Internet matters to them and how it can make their own lives better. They teach people how to apply for a job over the Web; how to bank or find coupons online; how to use the Internet to help their kids with their homework; and how to use an online calling service to communicate cheaply with family members in distant countries.
- Second, partnering with established neighborhood institutions that people already know and trust can be a key to engaging populations that are hard to reach. That is one reason why anchors such as schools and libraries are at the forefront of so much digital inclusion work. These institutions already have strong personal connections within their communities and can leverage those existing relationships.
- Third, computer centers and training programs must be accessible and convenient. For a library, this could mean keeping a computer lab open at night so people can stop by after work. For a school, this could mean offering digital literacy training for parents during the day when their kids are in class. It also often means offering classes in different languages to serve people who do not speak English.
- Fourth is the need to make services affordable. Cost can be a big barrier. That is why many successful adoption programs provide not only digital literacy training, but also assistance with finding discounted computer equipment and signing up for affordable broadband service.
- Finally, perhaps the most important lesson of all is that increasing the level of broadband adoption is a complex, multi-faceted challenge with no simple, one-size-fits-all solution. Addressing it requires a comprehensive, multipronged approach. Moreover, we must find a way to tackle this challenge beyond the communities served by our grants so that we can reach the millions of households that still do not subscribe to broadband today.
Strickling at SHLB
Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released its Broadband Adoption Toolkit, a document aimed at sharing best practices developed from broadband adoption and digital literacy projects funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
Leveraging the experience of about 100 communities served by BTOP to benefit the entire nation, the Toolkit gives practical ideas and tools for overcoming barriers to getting more Americans online access. Since its creation, BTOP funded $452 million in grants to cities, libraries, nonprofit organizations, colleges and other groups for projects to teach Americans the digital literacy skills they need to be competitive in the 21st century economy, and to promote the benefits of and provide access to high-speed Internet through public computer centers.
“We developed the toolkit in order to share the expert knowledge and experience of the broadband adoption and computer training projects with a broader base of anchor institutions, government agencies, non-profits and others engaged in this effort,” said Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling in a speech at the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition’s spring conference. “Our projects reached only a small percentage of the nation’s households, but we want the lessons learned to be available to everyone. And we hope that as the grant program winds down, this toolkit will serve as a legacy and foundation for others to build on as they continue this vital digital inclusion effort.”
NTIA collected many of the best practices developed by BTOP grantees to create the Broadband Adoption Toolkit. This report gives guidance to communities and organizations across the country on how to structure the most effective broadband training programs, set up the most productive computing centers and teach people to use technology to improve their lives. The 68-page publication includes chapters on program planning, outreach, training and curriculum with many practical ideas and tools for bringing new groups online. NTIA utilized the contributions of nearly 40 programs in the toolkit.
Key messages and guidance in the toolkit include the following:
- Make digital literacy programs relevant by teaching skills that can change people’s daily lives, such as how to apply and search for a job online.
- Partner with established community organizations that people know and trust to help engage hard-to-reach populations.
- Provide convenient times and locations for broadband training and computer use to ensure easy access.
- Address the cost of broadband adoption by providing access to discounted computer equipment and/or affordable broadband service.
The toolkit also provides specific examples from BTOP recipients describing the strategies and practices that worked best for their broadband adoption programs. For example, the City of Boston worked with a local organization, Technology Goes Home, to teach participants how using the Internet can save them money, for instance, by cutting out the cost of cashing checks through online banking.
NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit Shares Best Practices Across US NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit (see the toolkit) Benton Applauds NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit (Benton Foundation press release) NTIA Releases BTOP Best Practices Toolkit (B&C)
At a House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Lifeline program oversight hearing, Billy Jack Gregg of Universal Consulting testified that six states receive more Lifeline funding than they should — some almost twice the amount — based on each state’s total number of eligible users. He used these numbers to suggest that there’s widespread oversubscription and fraud in these states. Here’s the problem: Gregg’s analysis itself uses flawed statistics regarding both the number of eligible subscribers and the amounts they're eligible to receive. His testimony gained a lot of traction during the hearing. Too many witnesses and representatives focused on the image of the deceitful subscriber who walks around with multiple free phones.
Misleading Math from a Critic of Lifeline
About one-quarter of all Verizon Communications shareholder votes were cast in favor of a proposal that asks the company to report on business risks from Verizon’s controversial FCC lawsuit and other actions to oppose open Internet and network neutrality principles. The preliminary vote of 24.1% in favor of the net neutrality proposal was reported at Verizon’s May 2 annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This represents a three-fold increase in support from a similar action filed last year, which garnered 7.9% of shareholder votes in favor of a net neutrality proposal. In an open letter to Verizon shareholders, the proposal sponsors said failure to uphold network neutrality could present “serious legal, regulatory, reputational and financial risks” to Verizon while potentially reducing consumer choice, stifling economic growth and creating enormous barriers to tech innovation.
Open Internet Proposal at Verizon Wins 24.1% of Shareholder Votes
In a blog that he has written regularly since joining Core Capital Partners several years ago, Tom Wheeler offers a few hints at where he might stand on important telecom policy issues.
- On broadband authority: The Communications Act and its enforcer the FCC are analog legacies in a digital world. Of course, there will remain jurisdiction in areas such as the Universal Service Fund, rights of way, and Title I ‘ancillary jurisdiction,’ but absent a new vehicle the regulation of marketplace behavior that has characterized telecom regulation for almost a century is headed towards the same fate as the dial tone – another fatality of digital zeroes and ones.
- On a PSTN sunset: The PSTN is a casualty of the digital world. The lifeblood of telephone companies . . . and the new blood of cable companies, circuit switched telephony, is headed for history. Internet Protocol (IP)-based voice service is just another app on an IP wireless or wired network.
- On spectrum policy: Exhibit A for 21st century spectrum planning is Wi-Fi. . . The rules for 21st century spectrum allocation need to evolve from the avoidance of interference to interference tolerance.
FCC Chairman Nominee Wheeler in His Own Words
Tom Wheeler, a former wireless and cable lobbyist, might on paper be seen as a boon to industry and a blow to public interest groups. The fear among critics is that Wheeler's ties to big business could threaten consumers. But in fact, the battle lines on Wheeler's confirmation process aren't hardening in a predictable way at all. Consumer advocates themselves are somewhat divided on the pick.
Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation said he was "skeptical" of Wheeler's ability to "[hold] his former clients accountable." At the same time, a number of high-profile influentials have spoken out in Wheeler's favor -- including Susan Crawford, a professor at Cardozo Law School who was said to be in the running for FCC chair herself. Crawford often finds herself at odds with industry in her role as an outspoken defender of consumers, making the split among public interest groups all the more noteworthy.
But Gigi Sohn, the president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said Wheeler's left-wing critics simply don't know him well enough and that he plans to be more than a "traffic cop" with little actual power over policymaking and regulation. "They've never worked with Tom Wheeler," said Sohn. "They're just going off his resume. And I just don't think a resume tells you everything." Sohn was quick to downplay the divide among consumer advocacy groups, but as a parting shot drew comparisons between Wheeler and sitting commissioner Mignon Clyburn, whom many initially opposed over ties that her father, Rep. Jim Clyburn, had with AT&T. "We were convinced she was going to be an AT&T toadie," said Sohn. "We assumed the worst about Clyburn and we were totally wrong."
Obama’s FCC Pick Has Some Surprising Allies