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The European Commission is pushing telecoms companies to share the radio frequencies they use for mobile and broadband services as space runs out for rapidly increasing Web use.
European economies must squeeze more out of the radio waves that carry mobile and Internet technologies if they are to cope with the huge growth in demand for data services on smartphones and tablet computers. More than 50 percent of all smartphone traffic is routed over Wi-Fi networks and this type of traffic is growing four to six times faster than that on mobile networks, the commission said. Companies that own parts of the radio wave spectrum after liberalization in the 1990s consider this capacity to be among their most valuable assets and many have been reluctant to share. Spectrum is a finite resource so it can carry only a certain amount of traffic. If you have licenses for adjacent blocks of spectrum, then you can carry more traffic. If your blocks are separated by a slice owned by someone else, you can't carry as much traffic.
EU Commission asks telcos to share radio waves
Three months after a tuxedo-clad George Clooney shared a White House dinner table with Barack and Michelle Obama, the president traveled to the actor’s mansion in Studio City for another meal. That second party, a star-studded affair in May, came with a better dessert: $15 million in campaign cash. Less than two weeks later, President Obama returned to California, this time to the San Francisco Bay area, to collect contributions from the state’s technology crowd at a Hawaiian- themed dinner thrown by venture capitalist Douglas Goldman. “Arguably, California has become the ATM for Democrats in this race,” said Chris Lehane, a San Francisco-based party strategist who worked on Al Gore’s 2000 campaign. “Hollywood is doing more than ever; Silicon Valley is stepping up with its new money.”
Actors Join Tech Tycoons Backing Obama Amid Piracy Feud
Some of President Barack Obama’s biggest Silicon Valley backers already have touched down in the convention center — joined by dozens of others expected to tune in virtually at hotspots in San Francisco. More than 90 company execs, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs involved with the campaign’s satellite group Technology for Obama — or T4O, for short — have been touting the administration’s tech credentials while cultivating supporters and fundraisers in the Bay Area and beyond. T4O already has experienced some success, chipping in millions of dollars to Obama’s election campaign. But there’s also something in it for techies — the group offers large donors “potential tech advisory roles” and access to “highest level donor events,” according to its public pitches. Some events have included meetings with President Obama.
Obama’s tech backers woo with potential access
With many of president Obama's top financial contributors in Silicon Valley—Microsoft and Google PACs are the second and third biggest contributors, per Open Secrets, a website that tracks political contributions—it was a given that the party's platform would devote several points to the Internet.
Much the same as the Republican platform released last week, the Democratic platform was long on philosophy and short on details. Both parties have plenty of wiggle room when it comes to actual execution. But with both giving the Internet plenty of play, one message is clear: The Internet is now part of the political discussion. Internet freedom was a big talking point for Democrats and the GOP and both threw their party's support behind the current multi-stakeholder governance approach, vowing to fight off any power grab by the United Nations or any other intergovernmental organization to control the Internet. "The Obama administration has led the world to recognize and defend Internet freedom, the freedom of expression, assembly, and association online for people everywhere, through coalitions of countries and by empowering individuals with innovative technologies. The administration has built partnerships to support an Internet that is secure and reliable and that is respectful of U.S. Intellectual property, free flow of information, and privacy," the DNC platform said.
The DNC also reiterated its goal to expand wired and wireless broadband, perhaps the single biggest focus of the Federal Communications Commission under this administration.
The Internet's Role in the Democratic Platform
Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Chris Dodd praised the Democratic Party for recognizing the danger of online piracy in its party platform language on intellectual property.
“I am extremely pleased that the Democratic Party’s platform language reinforces the critical importance of protecting America’s intellectual property while ensuring the free flow of information on the Internet," Dodd said. "The Internet is a nearly unparalleled source of creativity and innovation, not just in the entertainment community, but across nearly every sector of the U.S. economy. Protecting that source of creativity, as well as protecting the rights of the people behind that creativity, is integral not just to our economy, but to who we are as a nation."
MPAA's Chris Dodd Praises Democrats for Anti-Piracy Language in Party Platform
The Federal Communications Commission has granted Journal Broadcasting a failing station waiver of its duopoly rule so the broadcasters can buy independent WACY-TV Appleton (WI), which is licensed to the same market (Green Bay) as Journal's WGBA.
Journal has already been providing all of WACY's programming under a grandfathered local marketing agreement -- dating back almost two decades -- and argued in seeking the license transfer. Ordinarily, since Journal's purchase of WACY would not leave eight independently-owned stations in the Green Bay market, it would be prevented from owning both stations. But the FCC also has a waiver for so-called "failed stations," which are stations that are either dark or in financial straits (bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings) or that it concludes would be without the financial help of a new owner.
FCC Okays Journal Request for Green Bay Duopoly Waiver
Internet-based intelligence gathering could get a boost from companies that are touting sophisticated software that can analyze vast amounts of data. Police departments are being pitched about various tools that could narrow down their search for criminals online and provide better insight into nefarious Internet practices.
Some Web surveillance tools search through not only social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, but also blogs, online forums and chat rooms. This provides deeper insight into someone’s online interactions than simply searching Twitter. for example, for uses of the word “bomb.” California Watch, a reporting initiative launched by the Center for Investigative Reporting, reported that random keyword searches won’t produce actionable intelligence. "Twitter's, like, 90 percent noise — bots that are producing erroneous or extraneous tweets," Tim Gasper, product manager for Infochimps, a company that seeks to make meaning from large amounts of data, told California Watch. "So you'd be scrolling through all of that just to see if anything caught your eye. Obviously, that's not a very efficient use of people."
Web Surveillance Companies Pitch Their Tools to Police
A new study says social media "disproportionately impacts the viewing behaviors of younger consumers," according to Horowitz Associates. The study says 24% of 18- to-34-year-old adults and 30% of 15- to-17-year-olds have started watching a show on TV because of something they saw online or through social media. All this compares to a 16% for all adult viewers 18 years and older.
For 18-34s, Social Media Can Jump-Start TV Viewing
Everybody hates the cable company. The big cable carriers constantly score among the lowest in customer satisfaction among all industries. Yet the cable operators continue to thrive largely because they operate as natural monopolies — the upfront capital costs of laying new cable keep potential competitors at bay. The satellite services don’t fare much better in terms of consumer love, and they too enjoy similar barriers to entry (satellites!). But get ready for a sea change. Even if you’re tied to a subscription television service today, there’s a great chance you’ll become a cord-cutter in short order. Everything we know about cable and satellite service is rapidly mutating. Both content delivery platforms are finally facing competition, and it’s coming from a hundred different directions. YouTube is muscling in on traditional cable channels with live broadcasting and by producing its own content. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are all experimenting with original programming, too. On-demand content from the mainstream outlets is also everywhere — Apple, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Microsoft and Sony are all happy to take your money to deliver programming that once was exclusively distributed by cable and satellite providers.
Cable’s Walls Are Coming Down
[Commentary] Google is poised to stumble into Kansas City’s racial past, entangled in the historic boundary between black and white that is Troost Avenue. Sept. 10 is the day of reckoning. That’s the day after Google’s deadline for people to pre-register for its ultra-fast Internet service. Predictions of a backlash that Google neither fathomed nor intended are being voiced this week in community meetings with company representatives. “The collateral damage for Google is going to be devastating,” said Kansas City school board member Joseph Jackson. More positively, the fears are accompanied by strategies and commitments to stave off what some see as inevitable.
“If only” keeps creeping into the conversation If only Google had hired local high school students to help push the possibilities of Google fiber in their schools and neighborhoods. If only Google hadn’t put its office space at State Line and Westport Road, not very accessible for many east of Troost who depend on bus service. If only Google had anticipated the many elderly people east of Troost who are bound to bundled service providers now and hesitate to sign up for anything new that doesn’t include a land line phone. And the big one: If only Google had realized just how quickly the racial wounds associated with Troost as a division between black and white people can boil up. If Google runs afoul here, we all lose.
Troost is where east/west divide trips up Google