September 17, 2012 (Spectrum; Broadband; Content)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2012
Here’s this week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2012-09-16--P1W/
WIRLESS/SPECTRUM
FCC Circulates Spectrum Auctions Model
Why the government needs to free up more spectrum for wireless companies - op-ed [links to web]
FCC to make spectrum sharing reality, whether carriers want it or not
Can’t We All Just Share? - analysis
Small cells will get a band of their own
How Your Wireless Carrier Overcharges You
Can the App Economy Cure Dismal Job Numbers?
IPhone 5 Shift to LTE Tests What Users Will Pay for Speed [links to web]
Why the iPhone 5 Does Not Have NFC — It Can’t [links to web]
Smartphone Ads and Their Drawbacks [links to web]
ITC hands Apple initial victory in Samsung’s patent suit
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Recovery Act: Broadband Programs Are Ongoing, and Agencies' Efforts Would Benefit from Improved Data Quality - research
Sen Rockefeller: White House Confirms It's Exploring Cybersecurity Executive Order [links to web]
Internet’s tax-free days are over in California [links to web]
How Chicago became one of the nation's most digital cities [links to web]
CBO Scores Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act [links to web]
Despite a Slowdown, Smartphone Advances Are Still Ahead [links to web]
'Internet Freedom'? AT&T's Verbal Jujitsu to Close Down Telecommunications in America - op-ed
CONTENT
Google’s YouTube Expands Anti-Islam Film Restriction in Asia
White House asks YouTube to check if anti-Muslim video violates terms of use [links to web]
On Web, a Fine Line on Free Speech Across the Globe
Judge Approves E-Book Price-Fixing Settlement [links to web]
Hachette to raise e-book prices for libraries by 220% [links to web]
Filesharing ‘costs music industry £500m’ [links to web]
When Twitter Fans Steer TV [links to web]
Networks Track Social Buzz for Fall Shows Before They Air [links to web]
PRIVACY
When the Privacy Button Is Already Pressed [links to web]
TELEVISION
FCC Source: Prohibition on Exclusive Contracts to Sunset [links to web]
Rep Barton: Local TV Has Had Tough Time [links to web]
When Twitter Fans Steer TV [links to web]
Networks Track Social Buzz for Fall Shows Before They Air [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Ad Avalanche: 43,000 Political Spots a Day Until November - op-ed [links to web]
Obama Taps Video Games for Early Voting [links to web]
The Puppetry of Quotation Approval - analysis
HEALTH
Mostashari says EHR incentives estimated to reach $20 billion by 2015 [links to web]
ASPR Twitter challenge sparks innovation in tracking local health trends - press release [links to web]
JOURNALISM
The Puppetry of Quotation Approval - analysis
In wake of Journatic, Tribune reduces number of TribLocal editions [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Electronic Government Act: Agencies Have Implemented Most Provisions, but Key Areas of Attention Remain [links to web]
White House asks YouTube to check if anti-Muslim video violates terms of use [links to web]
Twitter hands over records in NY Occupy case [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein Leaving USDA - press release [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Arab Spring: Tech as tinder
Telecom Italia and rival in network pact [links to web]
Filesharing ‘costs music industry £500m’ [links to web]
On Web, a Fine Line on Free Speech Across the Globe
MORE ONLINE
Online Mentors to Guide Women Into the Sciences [links to web]
It’s Official: The Era of the Personal Computer Is Over - analysis [links to web]
Complaints about illegal robocalls are rising [links to web]
WIRLESS/SPECTRUM
FCC SPECTRUM AUCTION PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Apparently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a model of spectrum and incentive auction repacking as an addendum to a draft notice of proposed rulemaking on an auction framework. The model is described as essentially a "tab A in slot B" description of the process, from reverse auction clock countdowns, to running the winning bids through the FCC's modeling for reconfiguring that spectrum, to the spectrum's re-auction to wireless, soliciting questions all along the way. The model talks about cross-border spectrum arrangements and says there will probably have to be different rules for stations along the shared border with Canada and Mexico, seeking comment on what those should be. The 20-page model, the work of outside consultants rather than FCC staffers, provides flexibility in the broadband plan for the forward auction--the re-auction of reclaimed spectrum presumably to spectrum-hungry wireless broadband players--assuming varying participation in the reverse auction, in which broadcasters will offer up the lowest price they will take for their spectrum, and the border issues. So, each market could wind up slightly different. The goal, said an FCC source, is for a unified band plan, but it recognizes that there could be some markets where there is not enough broadcaster participation or along the border where it won't be as uniform.
benton.org/node/134427 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC AND SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Two months ago, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) unveiled a bold plan to share 1,000MHz of federal spectrum with cellular providers. It wasn’t exactly what carriers were looking for. They’d prefer exclusive licenses to use spectrum whenever and wherever they need it. But the Federal Communications Commission has decided to adopt the plan, or at least its first steps. By the end of this year, the FCC announced this week, it will "initiate formal steps to implement the key recommendations of the PCAST report." The first target is freeing up 100MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band for small cell use. The brief announcement actually doesn’t mention the word "sharing." Perhaps the FCC is trying to avoid controversy. But we confirmed with an FCC spokesperson yesterday that the commission plans "to take spectrum in 3550-3650 (currently used for radar) and share it with wireless carriers," as recommended by PCAST. Bureaucratic problems are, well, problematic. For one thing, just figuring out what each chunk of spectrum is used for is difficult, said Michael Calabrese, who contributed to the PCAST report and is director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation. "Congress needs to mandate a granular spectrum inventory," he said. "Right now, what's operating on federal spectrum is incredibly opaque. It’s like pulling teeth to get these guys to say how much you’re actually using, what kinds of systems, and where does it operate."
benton.org/node/134423 | Ars Technica
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CAN’T WE ALL JUST SHARE?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] As Headlines readers well know, there’s a general consensus among federal policymakers that the wireless industry faces a looming shortage of available spectrum used to transmit voice and data. Demand for such services are booming and this week’s release of the iPhone 5 may only increase the demand for portable, wireless devices. The question before policymakers now is how to make more spectrum available to meet that demand. On September 13, the House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing to examine the use of spectrum by federal agencies. Many government departments and agencies have been allocated spectrum over the years, but may not be making the best use of that capacity.
http://benton.org/node/134407
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SMALL CELLS TO GET OWN BAND
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
The Federal Communications Commission plans to designate 100 MHz of spectrum for small use, which would go a long way in encouraging the deployment of a dense layer of mobile broadband capacity for our smartphones to romp around in. But there’s a catch: carriers don’t just get to buy this spectrum and lock it into their networks — they have to share it with the government agencies already occupying it. The FCC’s plan is part of a larger, and quite controversial, proposal first put forth by the President’s Council of Advisors on Policy and Technology (PCAST) to clear 1000 MHz of airwaves for mobile broadband use. That’s far more than the Obama administration is aiming for in its broadband plan, but PCAST’s recommendations all come with the sharing caveat: instead of booting the feds out of their airwaves, the public and private sectors must find a way to coexist. The FCC is chipping away at the recommendation one spectrum band at a time, and it’s choosing to start with the 3.5 GHz band.
benton.org/node/134443 | GigaOm
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IS YOUR WIRELESS CARRIER OVERCHARGING YOU?
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Tom Simonite]
When your wireless carrier charges you for the amount of data you used on your cell phone in a given month, how do you know the bill is accurate? It very well might not be, according to a new study. Working with three colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, computer science PhD researcher Chunyi Peng probed the systems of two large U.S. cell-phone networks. She won't identify them but says that together they account for 50 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. The researchers used a data-logging app on Android phones to check the data use that the carriers were recording. The carriers were found to usually count data correctly, but they tended to overcount—and hence potentially overcharge—when a person used applications that stream video or audio, and particularly when coverage was weak or unreliable. The researchers determined that even typical use of a phone could lead the data to be overcounted by 5 to 7 percent, Peng says. That could cost customers money. The two largest U.S. wireless networks, AT&T and Verizon, both charge a user $15 for straying into each new gigabyte of data over the data cap. The problem stems from the way networks count data use.
benton.org/node/134419 | Technology Review
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APP ECONOMY AND JOBS
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Amrita Khalid]
House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Chairman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) believes that the average American has become so app-enabled that if we come across a problem, we expect to find an app solution. In just five years, mobile apps have become a $20 billion industry. The Apple Store has grown from 500 apps in 2008, the year it launched, to more than 600,000. One industry group reports that there were 11 billion downloads of apps in 2010 and anticipates that figure will grow to 77 billion by 2014—that’s more than 10 apps downloaded for every person alive on the planet today. The booming mobile app market has created roughly 466,000 jobs since 2007, according to a study released in February by TechNet. And the app industry says that there could be more—if Congress cooperates. That’s why, under the pressure of a dismal September jobs report and upcoming election, a hearing on the future of the “app economy” took place in the first week Congress was back in session. The four-member panel that testified before the subcommittee included representatives from small-business app-developers FastCustomer and Flurry Inc., plus and the tech industry trade associations TechNet and the Association for Competitive Technology. The figures they boasted were the stuff of political dreams: The apps industry is American born and bred. Seventy-eight percent of app companies are small businesses. Many are women-owned. U.S. app developers even command a 22 percent of Chinese app market revenues. Yet several potential snags loom.
App Developers Need More Spectrum
App Developers Need More People
App Developers May Face More Scrutiny in How They Handle Data
benton.org/node/134418 | Slate
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ITC HANDS APPLE VICTORY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The U.S. International Trade Commission in an initial finding said Apple’s iPhones, iPods and iPads don’t violate Samsung’s patents, handing the mega tech firm another victory in a contentious patent war between the world’s biggest handset makers. The decision was preliminary and must be voted on by the whole commission. But it set Samsung back another step as the ITC both defended and fired its own shots at Apple. ITC Judge James Gildea disagreed with Samsung’s allegations that Apple violated four of its patents being used in the iPhone, iPod and iPad. The ITC handles global patent disputes and has the ability to block imports of infringing products.
benton.org/node/134446 | Washington Post | IDG News Service | Reuters
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
GAO LOOKS AT BTOP AND BIP
[SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: Mark Goldstein]
To extend broadband access and adoption, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provided over $7 billion to NTIA and RUS for grants or loans to support broadband projects. NTIA and RUS made all awards by September 30, 2010. This report responds to mandates under the Recovery Act for GAO to examine the use of Recovery Act funds and report on the quarterly estimates of jobs funded. This report addresses (1) the progress of broadband projects, (2) their effect on expanding access to and adoption of broadband, and (3) any challenges awardees face in completing projects and agency actions to address these challenges. GAO analyzed program documentation and data and interviewed agency officials and BTOP and BIP awardees.
To ensure RUS is collecting reliable information regarding the effect of its investments in broadband, GAO recommends that RUS take steps to improve the quality of its data on the number of fiber miles and wireless access points created by BIP projects. RUS disagreed with GAO’s characterization that it does not collect adequate data, and stated it has already taken steps to improve data quality. GAO believes that more reliable data will permit RUS to better assess the progress of the BIP program.
[GAO-12-937, September 14]
benton.org/node/134448 | Government Accountability Office
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INTERNET FREEDOM
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Bruce Kushnick]
[Commentary] You got to hand it to AT&T. The phone company either wrote the Republican's 'Internet Freedom' platform or the Republicans just lifted the hype. Either way, AT&T has created this verbal jujitsu and has been able to confuse America to the point that night is day, opaque is transparent or, in this case, the term "Internet freedom" is really about making people believe it's about "freedom" when it is really about the destruction of America's entire telecommunications ecosystem. Internet Freedom, then, is freedom for AT&T and the other phone companies, not freedom for those who actually use telecommunications or even Internet services. And as we wrote previously, the wires matter as wireless simply can't compete with wired broadband or as cable competition. In fact, almost all wireless calls end up at a cell site that is attached to a wire connection to the networks.
benton.org/node/134457 | Huffington Post, The
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CONTENT
YOUTUBE AND RESTRICTS ACCESS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Brian Womack]
Google’s online video service YouTube said it’s restricting access to an anti-Islam film in India and Indonesia in order to comply with local laws. The video about the Prophet Muhammad, which Google earlier restricted in Libya and Egypt, triggered demonstrations against the film across several Islamic countries. “This video -- which is widely available on the Web -- is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube,” YouTube said. “However, we’ve restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal, such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries.”
benton.org/node/134445 | Bloomberg | Politico | Reuters | The Atlantic
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FINE LINE ON FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
For Google the decision was clear. An anti-Islamic video that provoked violence worldwide was not hate speech under its rules because it did not specifically incite violence against Muslims, even if it mocked their faith. The White House was not so sure, and it asked Google to reconsider the determination, a request the company rebuffed. Although the administration’s request was unusual, for Google, it represented the kind of delicate balancing act that Internet companies confront every day. These companies, which include communications media like Facebook and Twitter, write their own edicts about what kind of expression is allowed, things as diverse as pointed political criticism, nudity and notions as murky as hate speech. And their employees work around the clock to check when users run afoul of their rules. “Because these speech platforms are so important, the decisions they take become jurisprudence,” said Andrew McLaughlin, who has worked for both Google and the White House. Most vexing among those decisions are ones that involve whether a form of expression is hate speech. Hate speech has no universally accepted definition, legal experts say. And countries, including democratic ones, have widely divergent legal approaches to regulating speech they consider to be offensive or inflammatory.
benton.org/node/134456 | New York Times
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JOURNALISM
QUOTATION APPROVAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] Now that it’s become clear that many journalists covering politics and government agree to quotation-approval as a condition of access, it’s tough not to see the pageant of democracy as just that: a carefully constructed performance meant to showcase the participants in the best light. When quotations can be unilaterally taken back, the Kabuki is all but complete. Good thing those of us who cover business don’t have to deal with the same self-preserving press policies. Except we do. In an anecdotal survey of 20 reporters, it was clear that on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and at some of the big media companies I cover, subjects of coverage are asking for, and sometimes receiving, the kind of consideration that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. It used to be that American businesses either told reporters to go away or told them what they wanted to know. Now, a reporter trying to interview a business source is confronted by a phalanx of factotums, preconditions and sometimes a requirement that quotations be approved. What pops out of that process isn’t exactly news and isn’t exactly a news release, but contains elements of both.
benton.org/node/134455 | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
TECH AND THE ARAB SPRING
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jonathan Allen, Michelle Quinn]
The Internet tools of the Arab Spring have become the weapons of a new Arabian nightmare playing out at American diplomatic missions across North Africa and the Middle East. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube that spread an obscure movie trailer depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in offensive ways are facing a clamp-down from governments and even Internet companies in some cases. Google-owned YouTube has blocked access to the video from inside Libya and Egypt. President Hamid Karzai has set up a firewall to prevent Afghans from viewing YouTube videos at all. And the U.S. Embassy in Cairo deleted its own tweets about the video after they became part of the political debate in the American presidential election. These social media platforms were hailed as the tinder for the democratic revolutions that swept across the Arab world beginning in late 2010 — revolutions that the U.S. government supported. But the power of these social media platforms is coming under new scrutiny in the midst of the wave of protests and the attack at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, earlier this week. Whatever the motivation for the attacks, the free flow of information at the heart of American democracy is no longer aligning with U.S. interests abroad. The fringe views of a Florida pastor, which might once have been ignored because he had no real platform for them, are now weighty enough to contribute to violence halfway across the world.
benton.org/node/134435 | Politico
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