November 8, 2012 (The Agenda)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012
Today: Community Fiber Networks and the Reboot America Summit see http://benton.org/calendar/2012-11-08/
THE AGENDA
Obama Maps Out His Second Term
Obama 2.0 will revitalize tech agenda
The Internet Remains a Tangle of Issues
Sen Reid seeks to limit filibuster in next Senate [links to web]
25 problems facing Obama, Congress
President Obama win may boost WH stance on cybersecurity
Focus of the FCC in a Second Obama Administration: More Spectrum
What the Election Means for the Internet - analysis
Tech Industry Offers Congrats, Wish List for Obama [links to web]
Obama victory stirs hopes for Bay Area economy [links to web]
ELECTION 2012
Speculation about Pelosi’s future grows as Republicans retain House control [links to web]
House Commerce panels to face membership changes
House Judiciary roster faces post-election shake-up
Voters boot three SOPA-sponsoring Hollywood allies from Congress
Rep Bono Mack Loses Close Race [links to web]
Election Night Ratings Come Close to 2008 Record [links to web]
Has Political Ad Spending Hit a Ceiling? Sorry, But No [links to web]
San Francisco Tech Companies Win a Proposition to Save on Taxes [links to web]
The iPhone Is Having a Rough Election Day [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win
Data Doesn't Belong to the Democrats [links to web]
How Conservative Media Lost to the MSM and Failed the Rank and File - analysis
How Karl Rove Fought With Fox News Over the Ohio Call
Why the New York Times announced Obama’s win 49 minutes after Obama did
Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election [links to web]
Obama victory tweet becomes his most-retweeted ever
Spending by outside groups topped $1 billion by Election Day [links to web]
Outside spending makes big difference in state-level races [links to web]
Political online spending hits new heights [links to web]
Ratings: NBC Elected Victor of Election-Night Coverage Race [links to web]
How to cover the presidential results - analysis
New Jersey E-Mail Votes Shouldn’t Be Counted Yet, Experts Say [links to web]
Election Takeaway: Emergencies Aren’t the Time for Experimenting [links to web]
Groups prepare new round of ads [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM/BROADBAND
Sprint Buys Spectrum From U.S. Cellular
The strategy behind U.S. Cellular's Sprint deal - analysis
AT&T to Invest $14 Billion to Significantly Expand Wireless and Wireline Broadband Networks, Support Future IP Data Growth and New Services - press release
AT&T is glad to expand service, but wants pesky FCC regulations dropped
AT&T’s LTE investments will go big by using small cells [links to web]
Here’s AT&T’s $14 billion plan to kill its copper network and leave rural America behind - analysis
AT&T caught in a brazen 4G lie
Hey, DSL, it is time for good bye - analysis [links to web]
The ‘Smart Device’ Future
Which devices use Wi-Fi hotspots the most? Not laptops… [links to web]
Mobile carriers' Sandy recovery teams brace for another storm [links to web]
Internet data usage jumps; Netflix makes up one-third of bandwidth use [links to web]
A School Distanced From Technology Faces Its Intrusion [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
Report: China is biggest cyber threat to US, says congressional panel
PRIVACY
Yahoo Seeks Dismissal Of Lawsuit Challenging E-mail Ads
CONTENT
Paywalls are a means, not an end - analysis [links to web]
News Corp.'s Carey Says Sports Rights Will Pay Off [links to web]
Study: Mobile Rich Media, Video Converge [links to web]
HEALTH
Disbursement of Federal Health IT Incentives Tops $7 Billion
EDUCATION
A School Distanced From Technology Faces Its Intrusion [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Groups prepare new round of ads [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Google reaches out to the "next billion"
Deutsche Telekom in €6bn loss on US deal [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
The roles of libraries and museums in early learning - press release [links to web]
Did Apple use $2 billion to bail out Sharp last quarter? [links to web]
THE AGENDA
SECOND TERM AGENDA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Carol Lee, Peter Nicholas]
President Barack Obama turned his focus to how he will work with Congress in his second term, while also preparing for the expected departure of many senior administration officials. He immediately faces a fiscal crisis looming at the end of the year, with limited time to bridge differences between the parties over taxes and spending plans. At the same time, he is preparing for the departure of nearly half to two-thirds of his staff at the highest levels of the White House and across the administration. His top advisers have been working on a plan for filling posts expected to be vacated by senior White House aides, ambassadors and the secretaries of State and Treasury. White House aides are closely watching GOP leaders for clues about whether there is an opening for an agreement on fiscal issues and are trying to determine both the approach and tone President Obama should take in engaging Republicans—in particular, how tough a public posture he should take. Mr. Obama believes his re-election gave him a mandate to raise taxes on the wealthy as part of any deficit-reduction deal.
benton.org/node/138717 | Wall Street Journal
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TECH AGENDA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
The reelection of President Barack Obama along with another politically divided Congress means the tech policy battles from the past few years are going to intensify, even if a few of the faces fighting are about to change. During a second term, President Obama can capitalize on new momentum to push his agenda to boost the country’s cybersecurity defenses, improve the nation’s wireless system and develop rules to assuage consumers’ online privacy fears. But greeting Obama 2.0, so to speak, will be a new cast of characters with a familiar story — a Congress with some fresh faces, yet the partisanship that’s stymied tech legislation in sessions past. With the election results still fresh, there are some early takeaways for tech.
The administration can double down on its tech policy program
There will be new leadership on tech issues in Congress
An early fight: high-skilled immigration
benton.org/node/138716 | Politico
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INTERNET ISSUES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta, Edward Wyatt]
The Internet will be at the center of some of the knottiest policy fights President Barack Obama is likely to face in his second term. Privacy, cybersecurity and piracy are the top issues, but the technology industry may also press for tax code reform and more visas for foreigners with math and science skills. The Administration is likely to continue pressing to free up airwaves to satisfy the demands of smartphones and tablets. The President will likely to have make appointments to the Federal Trade Commission which regulates how private Web companies collect and use personal information.
benton.org/node/138715 | New York Times
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25 PROBLEMS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Erik Wasson]
A slew of thorny issues awaits President Obama and Congress in the lame-duck session. Obama’s victory increases the chances that the lame duck will be productive, but it remains to be seen if the president and leaders on Capitol Hill can break the gridlock that has gripped the 112th Congress. The following are policy matters that could be addressed in the coming weeks:
Online poker. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants action in the lame duck on a bill legalizing online poker and online lottery sales. Companion legislation has been introduced in the House by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX).
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Senate might consider the controversial FISA amendments bill in the lame duck. The legislation would reauthorize spying on foreign communications without a judicial warrant. The House has approved a five-year extension of the authority, which expires in January.
Online sales tax. Retail groups have been pushing hard for an online sales tax measure they say will level the playing field between brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers. Similar, but not identical, bipartisan measures in both the House and Senate would allow states to collect from out-of-state retailers. Some conservatives, such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), oppose it.
Cybersecurity. Senate Republicans blocked the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), in September, and a compromise has been elusive, given business opposition.
benton.org/node/138703 | Hill, The
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BOOST FOR CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
The reelection of President Barack Obama along with another politically divided Congress means the tech policy battles from the past few years are going to intensify, even if a few of the faces fighting are about to change. During a second term, Obama can capitalize on new momentum to push his agenda to boost the country’s cybersecurity defenses, improve the nation's wireless system and develop rules to assuage consumers’ online privacy fears. But greeting Obama 2.0, so to speak, will be a new cast of characters with a familiar story — a Congress with some fresh faces, yet the partisanship that’s stymied tech legislation in sessions past. With the election results still fresh, there are some early takeaways for tech:
The administration can double down on its tech policy program.
There will be new leadership on tech issues in Congress.
An early fight: High-skilled immigration.
benton.org/node/138702 | Politico
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FCC FOCUS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
The direction of the Federal Communications Commission during a second Obama Administration will be decided in two places: In the chairman’s office, which could have a new occupant next year, and in federal court, where cases are pending that challenge the FCC’s authority over broadband service, Internet traffic and wireless data. Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman since 2009, made the expansion of broadband service a priority during his tenure, but the next chairman will face formidable foes in efforts to free up more airwaves, or spectrum, for use by wireless phone companies. Two of the biggest potential sources of repurposed spectrum are television broadcasters and the military, and neither has eagerly embraced the prospect of giving up or sharing significant swaths of their current airwaves. Telecommunications companies have challenged the FCC’s authority to adopt rules governing how Internet service providers manage their networks and enforce what is known as network neutrality. Also under fire are FCC rules that require big companies like AT&T and Verizon to offer use of their data networks to customers of competing companies while they are roaming out of their service area. And small, rural phone companies are fighting the commission’s right to overhaul the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes for otherwise-uneconomical rural phone service, for use to build broadband networks. All three cases are pending before federal appeals courts. Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group, said that because the cases all dealt with next-generation communications, if the FCC were to lose all three of three cases, “we could be looking at an agency that’s almost irrelevant.”
benton.org/node/138701 | New York Times
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THE ELECTION AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
[Commentary] After nearly two years of debates, never-ending commercials, donation solicitations and ever-present polling, Election Day is over and the results are in. As many had predicted, the balance of government has not changed significantly. Democrats will retain the Presidency and control of the Senate, and Republicans will continue to control the House, albeit by a slightly smaller margin than before. What do these results portend for the issues on which Public Knowledge and its public interest allies work? It’s always hard to tell. Based on what we are hearing, these are some of the technology policy issues on which we work that we believe will get traction in 2013-14.
Copyright Reform
The Future of Video
Open Internet/FCC Authority
benton.org/node/138700 | Public Knowledge
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ELECTION 2012
HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
The technology industry is bracing for some big membership changes on the House Commerce Committee after the election. One of the big question marks for tech insiders is whether Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) will remain chairman of the committee's influential communications and technology subpanel, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission and telecommunications matters. Chairman Walden is expected to head up the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) next year, and observers say it's unclear if House GOP leadership will allow him to juggle both jobs, or keep his focus on NRCC duties. If Rep Walden gives up his gavel, Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) would likely make a move for the chairman seat on the Communications and Tech panel, according to tech insiders. While Rep Terry is known for advocating for rural telecom issues, observers say the focus of the subcommittee wouldn't change much if he nabbed Walden's chairman seat. Rep. John Shimkus's (R-IL) name is also being floated for the role.
benton.org/node/138697 | Hill, The
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HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
The House Judiciary Committee's roster in the next congressional session will look markedly different after Election Day, with implications for the entertainment and tech industries. Rep. Howard Berman's (D-CA) loss to Rep Brad Sherman (D-CA) leaves an open seat on the panel and deals a tough blow to the entertainment industry. Rep Berman was a loyal advocate for the entertainment industry's policy issues while serving on Judiciary, including pushing for tougher protections for copyrighted movies and music online. He was also an early supporter of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. The committee's top leadership spots will also get reshuffled. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is expected to head up Judiciary in the next Congress, as current chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is term-limited. Rep Smith is expected to make a bid for the chairman seat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, according to a tech insider. With Rep Goodlatte slated to chair the full committee, that leaves the Intellectual Property (IP) subcommittee chairmanship up for grabs. The subpanel oversees several issues that are important to tech, including antitrust, copyright, patent and trademark matters. Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) has said he's going to make another run at chairing the IP sub-panel, but no decisions have been made on who will get the gavel.
benton.org/node/138696 | Hill, The | Politico | NextGov
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VOTERS DROP SOPA SPONSORS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
When the new Congress takes office in January, Hollywood will have lost at least four staunch allies in the House of Representatives. Three co-sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act lost their seats in Tuesday's election: Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Rep Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), and Rep Joe Baca (D-CA). A fourth member of Congress from Southern California who will not be returning next year is Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA). Like many of his fellow members of Congress from the greater Los Angeles area, Rep Gallegly was an original SOPA co-sponsor. He announced on January 5 that he would not be seeking re-election. Two other one-time SOPA supporters, Rep. Tim Holden (D-PA) and Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) will not be returning for the new Congress. Both candidates initially co-sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act but withdrew their support after January's Internet backlash. And both were defeated in primary challenges earlier this year.
According to Congress' official legislative website THOMAS, the Stop Online Piracy Act received a total of 31 co-sponsors. Eight of these representatives withdrew their support after January's historic protest against the legislation, leaving 23 members of Congress who stood by Hollywood in the face of an intense public backlash.
benton.org/node/138694 | Ars Technica
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
OBAMA’S DATA CRUNCHERS
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: Michael Scherer]
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina promised a totally different, metric-driven kind of campaign in which politics was the goal but political instincts might not be the means. “We are going to measure every single thing in this campaign,” he said after taking the job. He hired an analytics department five times as large as that of the 2008 operation, with an official “chief scientist” for the Chicago headquarters named Rayid Ghani, who in a previous life crunched huge data sets to, among other things, maximize the efficiency of supermarket sales promotions. Exactly what that team of dozens of data crunchers was doing, however, was a closely held secret. “They are our nuclear codes,” campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt would say when asked about the efforts. Around the office, data-mining experiments were given mysterious code names such as Narwhal and Dreamcatcher. The team even worked at a remove from the rest of the campaign staff, setting up shop in a windowless room at the north end of the vast headquarters office. The “scientists” created regular briefings on their work for the President and top aides in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, but public details were in short supply as the campaign guarded what it believed to be its biggest institutional advantage over Mitt Romney’s campaign: its data. On Nov. 4, a group of senior campaign advisers agreed to describe their cutting-edge efforts with TIME on the condition that they not be named and that the information not be published until after the winner was declared. What they revealed as they pulled back the curtain was a massive data effort that helped Obama raise $1 billion, remade the process of targeting TV ads and created detailed models of swing-state voters that could be used to increase the effectiveness of everything from phone calls and door knocks to direct mailings and social media.
benton.org/node/138693 | Time
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CONSERVATIVE MEDIA AND THE ELECTION
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Conor Friedersdorf]
Before rank-and-file conservatives ask, "What went wrong?", they should ask themselves a question every bit as important: "Why were we the last to realize that things were going wrong for us?" So many on the right had predicted a Mitt Romney victory, or even a blowout -- Dick Morris, George Will, and Michael Barone all predicted the GOP would break 300 electoral votes. Joe Scarborough scoffed at the notion that the election was anything other than a toss-up. Peggy Noonan insisted that those predicting an Obama victory were ignoring the world around them. Even Karl Rove, supposed political genius, missed the bulls-eye. These voices drove the coverage on Fox News, talk radio, the Drudge Report, and conservative blogs. Those audiences were misinformed. Outside the conservative media, the narrative was completely different. Its driving force was Nate Silver, whose performance forecasting Election '08 gave him credibility as he daily explained why his model showed that President Obama enjoyed a very good chance of being reelected. Other experts echoed his findings. Readers of The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other "mainstream media" sites besides knew the expert predictions, which have been largely born out. The conclusions of experts are not sacrosanct. But Silver's expertise was always a better bet than relying on ideological hacks like Morris or the anecdotal impressions of Noonan.
benton.org/node/138691 | Atlantic, The
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ROVE VS FOX
[SOURCE: New York Magazine, AUTHOR: Gabriel Sherman]
Shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes assembled his network's election team in a second floor conference room at Fox’s midtown headquarters to discuss the night’s coverage. He prepared them for the worst. “Guys," he told them according to a source familiar with the exchange, "if things don’t go your way tonight, don’t go out there looking like someone ran over your dog." Six hours later, American Crossroads co-founder and Fox News contributor Karl Rove was on-camera seeming to ignore his boss’s orders. Shortly after 11 p.m., Bret Baier went on-camera to read a script written by Fox’s Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, based on an analysis by the network's decision desk, announcing Ohio for Obama. “That’s the presidency, essentially," Baier said. Instantly, Fox phones lit up with angry phone calls and e-mails from the Romney campaign, who believed that the call was premature, since tallies in several Republican-leaning Southern counties hadn't been fully tabulated. "The Romney people were totally screaming that we’re totally wrong," one Fox source said. "To various people, they were saying, 'your decision team is wrong.'" According to a Fox insider, Rove had been in contact with the Romney people all night. After the Ohio call, Rove — whose super-PAC had spent as much as $300 million on the election, to little avail — took their complaints public, conducting an on-air primer on Ohio's electoral math in disputing the call. By midnight, Rove reluctantly seemed to concede. But his rear guard action seemed like a moment he would rather forget. He had raised hundreds of millions of dollars as the co-founder of the Crossroads PAC and came up short. He never went to the decision desk to apologize.
benton.org/node/138690 | New York Magazine
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NEW YORK TIMES AND CALLING THE RACE
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
If you were watching a major news network or following Twitter, you were pretty sure that Barack Obama was your next president by 11:15. If you were instead relying on NYTimes.com and 538.com for the news, you might have gone to bed thinking the election was still up in the air. The New York Times did not project that Obama had won the election until 12:03 a.m. Nate Silver has built his reputation on accurately predicting elections, and it looks as if his model got all 50 states right last night, though votes in Florida and Virginia are still being counted. But if you were looking for commentary from him last night, particularly after the networks announced an Obama win and the Obama campaign started celebrating, he and the NYT were not the place to get it — even though readers were seeking him out. The delay makes some sense: Silver has to be cautious, and the New York Times has to protect its own reputation. It can’t call the election too early and it doesn’t want to risk a Dewey defeats Truman moment. But Nate Silver is the man of the hour, the NYT’s top brand and probably traffic driver yesterday, and he could have brought even more traffic to the site between 11:15 p.m. and 12:03 a.m. if he’d been saying, well, anything. He, or another Times writer, could have written about why the Times hadn’t called the election yet and explained to readers what they were waiting for. But last night the paper was too slow to get in on the action, and readers who wanted a really good sense of how the election was unfolding had to turn to other sources.
benton.org/node/138689 | paidContent.org
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OBAMA RETWEET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
President Barack Obama’s victory tweet became the most-retweeted message from his account. Twitter confirmed that Obama’s tweet — which read “Four more years” and featured a picture of him and Michelle Obama embracing — earned more retweets than any other message from his account. The message has been shared more than 670,000 times. Those numbers may even give Obama the title for most-retweeted message of all time. By MediaBistro’s Shea Bennett’s reckoning, the victory tweet far outstrips a message from Justin Bieber that had around 223,000 retweets and previously held the list’s top spot.
Twitter activity surged on Election Day, Nov. 6, with over 31 million tweets, according to a blog posted by Adam Sharp, head of government, news and social innovation on Twitter's official blog. The biggest spike in activity occurred at 11:19 P.M. ET, as the major networks and news organizations called the election for President Barack Obama and the number of tweets hit 327,452 per minute.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/obama-victory-tweet-be...
Obama, election break Twitter records (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-twitter-obama-electi...
Election Day Sees 31 Million Tweets (B&C)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/490291-Election_Day_Sees_31_Mil...
Actually, the Election Didn't Break Twitter (The Atlantic)
benton.org/node/138687 | Washington Post | Los Angeles Times | B&C | The Atlantic
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HOW TO COVER PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Brendan Nyhan]
[Commentary] One of the most fascinating parts of the aftermath of an election is the construction of post-hoc narratives to “explain” the results. There’s plenty of Web traffic to be gained by meeting the public’s demand for these sorts of tidy explanations, but there’s peril too. Reporters should be wary of telling stories about why President Obama won re-election that are not supported by the available evidence. The most important fact for understanding what happened in the election is that the fundamentals mattered. As in 2004 and 2008, the results in the presidential race corresponded closely to the forecasting models, which are largely driven by economic variables and presidential approval. In this case, a model-averaged composite forecast published before the election predicted that President Obama would receive 50.3 percent of the two-party vote—quite close to his current total of 51.1 percent. In short, the state of the economy predicted a very close race that narrowly favored President Obama. That’s exactly what we observed. The fact that the result was consistent with the forecasting models does not mean that campaigns don’t matter. Indeed, exposure to campaigns helps move voters toward the outcomes predicted by the fundamentals. However, as John Sides correctly emphasized on The Monkey Cage after both the 2008 election and Nov 6, it is more difficult to show that President Obama (or any other candidate) won due to his campaign’s superior message or organization.
benton.org/node/138682 | Columbia Journalism Review
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPRINT-US CELLULAR DEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Melodie Warner]
Sprint Nextel agreed to acquire spectrum and business operations in parts of five states from U.S. Cellular for about $480 million, in a deal that will significantly increase the company's network capacity. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said the deal includes several important Midwest markets such as Chicago and St. Louis. The deal will also give Sprint 30MHz of spectrum in the 1900MHz band — that's one of the bands Sprint is using for its fledgling LTE network, which just expanded to the Chicago suburbs. The transaction involves 585,000 U.S. Cellular customers in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio. U.S. Cellular said the deal will allow it to focus on markets where it has strong positions and to streamline its operations in an effort to improve efficiency and effectiveness. U.S. Cellular has been steadily losing postpaid subscribers amid fierce competition in a wireless industry nearly saturated with cellphones.
benton.org/node/138681 | Wall Street Journal | The Verge | AP | GigaOm | ars technica
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US CELLULAR STRATEGY
[SOURCE: Crain’s Chicago Business, AUTHOR: John Pletz]
U.S. Cellular Corp. CEO Mary Dillon may have dodged a bullet by selling off Chicago and St. Louis markets to Sprint for $480 million and avoiding the expense of upgrading its wireless network to next-generation technology needed to handle the demands of smartphones and tablets. She rolled back the clock a decade — before the Chicago-based company began offering wireless service in its hometown with the purchase of PrimeCo – returning U.S. Cellular to its roots as a rural carrier that made much of its money providing roaming access to other carriers' customers in out-of-the-way places. “This is a clear strategy about accelerating profitable growth,” Ms. Dillon told Crain's after the company reported third-quarter results. “We're selling underperforming markets and focusing on our remaining 5.2 million customers. We see this as setting us up for stronger future growth.” While it will help Ms. Dillon boost the bottom line, the move leaves hanging the investors who were angling for a payday, betting that the Carlson family that controls U.S. Cellular ultimately would decide to sell the nation's No. 5 carrier to a larger rival. U.S. Cellular plans to keep its Far Northwest Side headquarters. Overall, it will cut 980 jobs, including 640 in the Chicago area, according to a spokeswoman. That's slightly less than 12 percent of the approximately 8,400 total employees U.S. Cellular had at the end of the third quarter. U.S. Cellular also will abandon 170 stores, 116 of them in Chicago. “Sprint may or may not choose to take them over,” Dillon said. In addition, the company is unloading about 585,000 customers, or about 10 percent of its customer base. U.S. Cellular will continue to operate the piece of the network it's selling for up to two years. It will retain its towers, however. The deal isn't expected to close until next year.
benton.org/node/138680 | Crain’s Chicago Business
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AT&T’S RURAL PLAN
[SOURCE: AT&T, AUTHOR: Press release]
AT&T announced plans to invest $14 billion over the next three years to significantly expand and enhance its wireless and wireline IP broadband networks to support growing customer demand for high-speed Internet access and new mobile, app and cloud services. The investment plan – Project Velocity IP (VIP) – expands AT&T's high-potential growth platforms, helping drive continued increases in revenues from existing and new products and services, and earnings per share.
4G LTE Expansion. AT&T plans to expand its 4G LTE network to cover 300 million people in the United States by year-end 2014, up from its current plans to deploy 4G LTE to about 250 million people by year-end 2013. In AT&T's 22-state wireline service area, the company expects its 4G LTE network will cover 99 percent of all customer locations.
Spectrum. AT&T has acquired spectrum through more than 40 spectrum deals this year (some pending regulatory review) and has plans to buy additional wireless spectrum to support its 4G LTE network. Much of the additional spectrum came from an innovative solution in which AT&T gained FCC approval to use WCS spectrum for mobile broadband. Between what the company already owns and transactions pending regulatory approval, AT&T expects to have about 118Mhz of spectrum nationwide. The company will continue to advocate with the FCC for release of additional spectrum for the industry's long-term needs.
Densification & Small Cell Technology. As part of Project VIP, AT&T expects to deploy small cell technology, macro cells and additional distributed antenna systems to increase the density of its wireless network, which is expected to further improve network quality and increase spectrum efficiency.
AT&T plans to expand and enhance its wireline IP network to 57 million customer locations (consumer and small business) or 75 percent of all customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2015. This network expansion will consist of:
U-verse. AT&T plans to expand U-verse (TV, Internet, Voice over IP) by more than one-third or about 8.5 million additional customer locations, for a total potential U-verse market of 33 million customer locations¹. The expansion is expected to be essentially complete by year-end 2015.
U-verse IPDSLAM. The company plans to offer U-verse IPDSLAM service (high-speed IP Internet access and VoIP) to 24 million customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2013.
Speed Upgrades. The Project VIP plan includes an upgrade for U-verse to speeds of up to 75Mbps and for U-verse IPDSLAM to speeds of up to 45Mbps, with a path to deliver even higher speeds in the future.
In the 25 percent of AT&T's wireline customer locations where it's currently not economically feasible to build a competitive IP wireline network, the company said it will utilize its expanding 4G LTE wireless network -- as it becomes available -- to offer voice and high-speed IP Internet services. The company's 4G LTE network will cover 99 percent of all in-region customer locations. AT&T's 4G LTE network offers speeds competitive with, if not higher than, what is available on wired broadband networks today. And in many places, AT&T's 4G LTE service will be the first high speed IP broadband service available to many customers.
Fiber to Multi-Tenant Business Buildings. AT&T plans to proactively expand its fiber network to reach an additional one million business customer locations – 50 percent of the multi-tenant business buildings² in its wireline service area. AT&T expects the proactive fiber deployment to increase business revenue growth, accelerate provisioning and facilitate the installation of distributed antennas systems and small cell technology to help offload wireless network traffic.
benton.org/node/138679 | AT&T | AT&T blog | C|Net | WSJ | AP | The Hill
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AT&T REQUESTS REGULATIONS DROPPED
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
AT&T announced a plan to invest $14 billion in expanding its wireless and U-Verse service around the country. At the same time, the company submitted a petition to the Federal Communications Commission asking for an end to the "conventional public-utility-style regulation." "AT&T believes that this regulatory experiment will show that conventional public-utility-style regulation is no longer necessary or appropriate in the emerging all-IP ecosystem," the company wrote in its FCC filing. "Customers are abandoning obsolescent [time-division multiplexing] services, but AT&T and other incumbent carriers still must be prepared to serve every household in their service territories on demand. Thus, the costs of maintaining those networks remain in place, and every loss of another customer increases the average cost per line of serving the customers that remain." Some industry watchers are worried such a move would make an end-run around existing regulations that require a baseline level of phone service under federal law. If the FCC heeds AT&T’s advice, some fear there will be even further entrenchment of the dominant wired carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, who are pushing more profitable wireless services.
benton.org/node/138709 | Ars Technica
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AT&T’S PLAN TO KILL COPPER
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] AT&T is done with its copper telephone network and copper DSL business, according to its CEO and chairman Randall Stephenson. The company believes that an all-IP network is the path to more profitable future. Given the millions of subscribers that are dependent on the copper telephone lines and copper DSL products, AT&T has offered a $14 billion fringe benefit for those customers and the regulators who will likely balk at the idea of AT&T stopping its investment in copper. For those worried about losing their access to communications, AT&T said with the new investment, its LTE network will reach 300 million people or 99 percent of the U.S. , while its wireline U-Verse network will expand to cover 75 percent of the current customer locations — or 57 million people. The premise being that the remaining 25 percent of its customer territory will subscribe to LTE broadband, which comes at a much higher cost and has onerous caps that DSL access and AT&T phone lines do not have. Essentially those living in rural areas are screwed when it comes to broadband, with Stephenson saying that he believes that in an IP age, wireline broadband will still be profitable in markets of “reasonable density.” He further went on to say that “The best service is delivered through an IP-only service with a streamlined product set,” which clearly doesn’t include copper telephone lines and DSL. This news will have huge ramifications for Americans in rural areas as well as those who still rely on their wireline copper-based telephones for burglar alarms, emergencies and fire alarm systems. Competitive local exchange carriers in many regions will be wondering how they will continue to offer their products over AT&T’s copper pipes. But it’s clear that AT&T is running from copper like I’d run from a PR person waving a social media pitch, so now it’s up to the Federal Communications Commission to take a hard look at what the loss of copper means for consumers and for the marketplace. As AT&T moves forward we need to look at who is left behind.
benton.org/node/138677 | GigaOm
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AT&T’S BRAZEN LIE
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: David Goldman]
AT&T announced a plan to cover 96% of the U.S. population with 4G-LTE service by the end of 2014. That's great news for customers -- but it reveals that AT&T told regulators a pretty big whopper last year while fighting for its doomed T-Mobile merger. One of the deal's fiercest battle points was 4G access outside major cities. Without T-Mobile, AT&T said it was "very unlikely" that it would expand 4G-LTE service beyond the 80% coverage threshold it already planned to reach by 2013. The Federal Communications Commission called AT&T's bluff. It released a damning report on the scuttled merger saying it believed AT&T would expand its 4G deployment with or without T-Mobile. AT&T hit the roof, complaining that the FCC's analysis directly contradicted AT&T's "documents and sworn declarations." It got particularly irate about the FCC's prediction -- "based purely on speculation" -- that AT&T would eventually expand its LTE deployment to 97% of the population even if it didn't get T-Mobile. Fast-forward 11 months. AT&T says that its $14 billion network investment will allow its 4G service to cover 300 million Americans, the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population. The FCC held off on taking a victory lap. It released a statement on praising AT&T's expansion plans, calling them "proof positive that the climate for investment and innovation in the U.S. communications sector is healthy. "
benton.org/node/138676 | CNNMoney | FCC | Public Knowledge
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SMART DEVICE FUTURE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: ]
The smartphone is now a developed market. The tablet is newer, but is clearly catching on with consumers as more companies create products to compete with the iPad. So at this stage, how are tech analysts looking at the market? Gartner predicts that 1.2 billion “smart devices” will be sold next year, up 50 percent from this year. (To savor that number, here is this fact from Gartner: 821 million smart devices — smartphones and tablets — have been sold in 2012. That’s about 70 percent of all devices sold to consumers in 2012.) Horace Dediu, who writes some of the smartest analysis of the mobile market on his Asymco blog, is starting to think about the late adopters of smartphones. He notes that comScore has declared that half the cellphones in use in the United States are smartphones. He thinks the fast conversion of late adopters to smartphones will continue. Mary Meeker, the technology analyst who is now a Kleiner Perkins partner, made a presentation that predicted that by the middle of next year the number of smart devices in use would surpass PCs.
benton.org/node/138673 | New York Times
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CYBERSECURITY
CHINA AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Carlo Muñoz]
China's increasingly advanced capabilities to cripple military and civilian computer networks has emerged as the biggest threat facing the United States in the cyber realm, according to a new report from the U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission. Cyber warriors with Chinese military and intelligence agencies have made great strides in their ability to attack "specialized targets" such as American military surveillance and reconnaissance systems, the report says. These cyber operatives are Chinese civilians working for the military, according to the report, with many of the hackers holding day jobs in China as computer and information technology specialists.
benton.org/node/138674 | Hill, The
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PRIVACY
E-MAIL AD SUIT
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Yahoo is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the company violates a California law by scanning emails in order to send ads to users. Yahoo argues that the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act allows email providers such as itself to record and monitor emails on its servers. The company contends that the federal law trumps California's Invasion of Privacy Act -- a state wiretap law that prohibits companies from intercepting communications without the consent of all parties. Yahoo's court papers, filed last week, come in response to a potential class-action lawsuit brought by Alabama resident Carson Penkava. He alleges that Yahoo violates the California law by "intercepting" messages sent from non-Yahoo email accounts to recipients who use Yahoo. Penkava, who doesn't use Yahoo for email, says he never agreed to the interception. He argues that scanning the messages for keywords and then serving contextual ads infringes his privacy rights under California's law. But Yahoo says that the sweeping federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act trumps a California state law. The comprehensive federal statute, which outlines the privacy rights of email users, says service providers can intercept emails with permission from one of the parties.
benton.org/node/138668 | MediaPost
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Do Not Track finally arrives with version 23 of Chrome [links to web]
HEALTH
DISBURSEMENT OF FEDERAL HEALTH IT INCENTIVES TOPS $7 BILLION
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: John Pulley]
Federal funds continue to benefit health-care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records. As of September, incentive programs have distributed more than $3.9 billion through Medicare, $3.5 billion through Medicaid, according to figures provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Providers in 16 states had received more than $151 million in incentive payments (as of Aug. 31): California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. A number of states had received less than $50 million during that time period: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming. Florida, which has a large retiree population, led the way in Medicare payments at $307.5 million, as of Sept. 30. Alaska, which ranks 47th out of 50 states in population, was at the bottom, with only $1.99 million in Medicare incentive payments as of Sept. 30. In terms of combined Medicare and Medicaid payments, California leads all states, with $637.6 million in total payments, according to CMS. Florida is second in the combined total, at $525.8 million – far outpacing No. 3 Illinois, with $258.8 million in payments. Idaho had $15.1 million in combined incentive payments, least among states. Its Medicaid incentive payment has been active since summer.
benton.org/node/138665 | nextgov
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
FREE ZONE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Wagstaff]
Google launched a service it hopes will push millions of people in the developing world to access the Internet - and Google's ads - via basic mobile phones. Google is launching the service, called Free Zone, first in the Philippines via local carrier Globe Telecom. The service allows phones with an Internet connection but limited functionality to access basic Google products like search, e-mail and its social networking service Google+ for free. Users could access websites that show up in Google's search results for free, but any website outside those results would prompt an invitation to subscribe to the mobile operator's data plan. Google and Globe hope that by offering a free layer of services they will entice users of so-called feature phones to move beyond just making phone calls and sending SMS messages to sign up for Internet services. Such services are more lucrative for carriers.
benton.org/node/138706 | Reuters
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