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In this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the fourth quarter of 2012 will be 0.174 or 17.4 percent.
Proposed Fourth Quarter 2012 Universal Service Contribution Factor – 17.4%
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks nominations for the following board member positions on the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The positions are currently vacant or will soon become vacant.
- Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) (other than Bell Operating Companies) with annual operating revenues in excess of $40 million (position formerly held by D. Michael Anderson).
- Representative for interexchange carriers with more than $3 billion in annual operating revenues (position formerly held by Rex Knowles).
- Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts (position currently held by Dr. Anne Bryant).
Additionally, the Bureau seeks nominations for the following board member positions, which had terms that expired on December 31, 2011:
- Representative for ILECs (other than Bell Operating Companies) with annual reporting revenues of $40 million or less (position currently held by Geoff Fleiss).
- Representative for competitive local exchange carriers (position currently held by Joseph Gillan).
- Representative for low income consumers (position currently held by Ellis Jacobs).
- Representative for rural health care providers that are eligible to receive to receive supported services (position currently held by Peter Kragel).
- Representative for interexchange carriers with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less (position currently held by Carolyn Ridley).
- Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts (position currently held by Brian Talbott).
FCC Seeks Nominations for Nine Board Member Positions On The Universal Service Administrative Company Board of Directors
Almost two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a lite version of network neutrality in its "Open Internet" order. That order is now under legal attack from Verizon, which argues that it exceeds the agency's authority.
The concept of network neutrality hadn't been invented yet when Congress last overhauled telecommunications law in 1996. But the FCC points to several different provisions of telecommunications law that it says justify its regulations. The centerpiece of its argument is Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, which instructs the FCC to "encourage the deployment" of "advanced telecommunications capability." Verizon has argued that this provision isn't relevant, since the Open Internet Order focuses on the management of existing broadband services, not the deployment of new ones. And Verizon has contended that, if anything, network neutrality regulations will discourage the deployment of new broadband networks by tying their owners up in red tape. But in its most-recent court filing, the FCC argued that network neutrality rules actually promote the deployment of broadband access.
FCC defends its "trojan horse" approach to network neutrality
After violent attacks on Americans in both Egypt and Libya — including an attack in Libya on September 11 that killed the American ambassador to that country — Google said on Sept 12 that it has restricted access to a controversial YouTube video about the Prophet Muhammad that has been linked to the violence. However, while many of the reports from mainstream media sources about the deaths in Libya have linked it to the video, CNN has said that the embassy attack was actually planned well in advance by members of an extremist group connected to al-Qaeda and was not directly connected to the clip, according to the news network’s sources. As more than one person has pointed out, blocking access to a video from a specific country is also quite easy to get around, even for a technically-challenged viewer — and as Google itself noted, the offending video is available on any number of other websites apart from YouTube. So why bother censoring it?
Should Google be censoring videos just because they are linked to violence?
While number one and two mobile carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T have adopted tiered plans for wireless data, T-Mobile and Sprint have opted to stick with so-called "all-you-can-eat" options for customers. And unlike older so-called "unlimited" plans, which tended to be anything but truly "unlimited," T-Mobile claims its new plan won't throttle down speeds or place any caps on data usage.
This is just the latest move from the major mobile carriers, with each looking to draw customers with promises of either shared data or unlimited data, not to mention various options for unlimited talk time and texting. But are the carriers actually asking their respective consumers what they want, or does that even matter? Overall, consumers seem less than enthused when it comes to shared data plans (when several different devices all eat from the same data trough, so to speak). According to a recent Parks and Associates study, 40% of mobile phone users would actually rather switch mobile carriers than use a shared mobile data plan. Some 38% of respondents in the survey suggested that they would voluntarily adopt a shared data plan but not switch providers for it. And just 10% said they'd choose a shared plan if it was the only way of sticking with their current provider.
Mobile users to carriers: 'Give me my unlimited data'
The creator of a Twitter account called Invisible Obama — born five minutes or so after the furniture-centric speech by Clint Eastwood at the Republic National Convention ended — is making himself, er, um, visible.
Invisible Obama turns out to be Ian Schafer, chief executive of Deep Focus, a digital agency with a specialty in social media like Facebook and, yes, Twitter. Mr. Schafer has long had a Twitter account under his own name, @ischafer, which has more than 13,600 followers, and the agency, part of Engine USA, has one, too, @deepfocus, with almost 1,700 followers. But @InvisibleObama, which began on Aug. 30, already dwarfs them both, with almost 69,700 followers; there is also a complementary presence on Facebook. And the Twitter account has been the subject of a fair amount of news coverage, on television and blogs. “This is what we do,” Mr. Schafer said, “try to take these moments in the zeitgeist and use them as a launching pad for relevancy.”
@InvisibleObama Was Quick Twitter Thinking by Digital Ad Executive
Apple won a preliminary sales ban on Motorola phones and tablets in Germany when the regional court of Munich ruled that Motorola infringes on a touchscreen-related patent, a spokeswoman for the court said.
Apple sued Google-owned Motorola Mobility for infringing on its "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touchscreen display" patent, said Stefanie Ruhwinkel, spokeswoman for the Munich court. The patent is also known as the "overscroll bounce" or "rubber band" patent and allows pages, documents or photos on touchscreen devices to scroll past their boundaries and bounce back when users release their fingers from the screen. The Munich court ruled that Motorola Mobility infringes on the patent with its smartphones and tablet computers, said Ruhwinkel. Infringing devices include the Motorola Milestone XT720, the Motorola Defy, the Motorola Atrix and Motorola Xoom, which all use the Android OS.
Apple wins preliminary sales ban on Motorola phones and tablets in Germany
Two recent show the UK newspaper with the highest combined print and online readership is also the least trusted. A new dataset released in the UK measures print and digital circulation of the British press for the first time.
The study, called the National Readership Survey Print and Digital Data (NRS PADD), used 35,000 responses about where people go online measured by UKON/Nielsen combined with readership numbers from the NRS. Newspapers saw an audience increase of an average of 20 percent with the inclusion of online statistics. The full dataset is available to view and The Guardian has broken down the numbers by category. The Sun is also the least trusted newspaper, according to the second survey.
Two new surveys shed light on trust and circulation of British press
Federal Communications Commission
Friday, September 21, 2012
09:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-1491A1.pdf
The FCC will discuss the expansion of the Measuring Broadband America program to include measurements of mobile broadband service performance in the United States.
New America Foundation
Friday, September 28, 2012
12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Fast and affordable broadband is essential to the productivity of business firms and public services, from branch banks and professional firms, to local health clinics and national retail chains. Competition in the business broadband marketplace drives innovation, investments in new technologies, and affordable services.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dedicated an entire chapter of its National Broadband Plan to competition, and the current FCC chairman highlighted competition as a key issue in his agenda. But has the FCC lived up to its promise of fostering competition in this sector?
Join us for a discussion of the key issues facing the competitive marketplace today, including "last mile" access and advanced connectivity. Our panel will examine the FCC's record on these issues and consider the implications for future competition in the business broadband marketplace today.
Opening Remarks
Michael C. Copps
Former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission (2001-2011)
Panelists
The Hon. Chip Pickering
Spokesman, The Broadband Coalition and Former U.S. Representative (R-Miss.)
Gene Kimmelman
Senior Associate, Global Partners and Former Chief Counsel for Competition Policy, U.S. Department of Justice
Todd Thibodeaux
President and CEO, CompTIA
Joseph Gillan
Consulting Economist and CEO, Gillan Associates
Moderator
Michael Calabrese
Director, Wireless Future Project, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation
Lunch will be provided.
On Twitter? Follow @NewAmericaOTI for updates and use #BroadbandComp to join the conversation online.
To RSVP for the event:
http://newamerica.net/events/2012/fair_play_competition_in_business_broa...
For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at New America at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net