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CLECs ALARMED BY THREAT OF ILEC COPPER RETIREMENT
[SOURCE: CedMagazine.com, AUTHOR: Brian Santo]
Don't be scared off by this article's alphabet soup... The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration has asked the FCC to open a rulemaking on the way incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs -- think AT&T, Verizon, etc) retire their copper infrastructure. The move may help competitive carriers (CLECs -- think XO Communications) who lease those lines. The Office of Advocacy has sent a letter with that request to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. In it, the Office asserts that CLECs are developing competitive new services that ultimately benefit consumers. A rulemaking, the Office said, will give these companies a formal venue for discussing the issue. ILECs don't rip out their copper when they install fiber. The procedure, as they install more and more fiber, is to send a copper retirement petition to the FCC. These are granted in as few as seven business days. Once approved, the ILECs no longer have to support those lines, although apparently, they typically still do. CLECs who may be using those lines (or who had planned to) remain concerned, however, that the ILECs could entirely shut down their retired copper loops. Recall, too, that the FCC has determined that ILECs do not have to lease fiber loops to CLECs. In essence, the CLECs see a threat that as ILECs are increasing their potential fiber markets, they could simultaneously shrink the CLECs’ potential markets. Meanwhile, the pace at which the ILECs file petitions for copper retirement is accelerating as the pace of their fiber installations increases.
http://www.cedmagazine.com/article.aspx?id=147700

THE STABLE OF CABLE AS A POSTER CHILD
[SOURCE: MediaChannel.org, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter]
The market is our icon and fetish built on the assumption that it acts freely, guided by an “invisible hand” in Adam Smith’s phrase, and always clear of external pressures except the occasional­and I would say systematic­acts of corruption. No one talks about what this word market really means or what its impact is. In theory, we have a market system that reflects the democratic impulses of buyers and sellers. In practice, there is nothing free about it. It is dominated and monopolized by a handful of companies who choke off real competition and exclude players who challenge their dominance. A “deregulated regime” guarantees market failure and all the problems that go along with it. Cable execs “understand” the concerns of their viewers and critics but please, they implore, Congress and the FCC don't regulate, don't impose public interest obligations, don't insist on more diversity or kids fare or honest news, don't assure the continuing presence of public access programming, and most of all, don't do anything that will stop the revenues flowing into huge media combines as Americans pay more and more for cable and entertainment and often get less and less. What we need is more regulation in the public interest and rules to insure that the needs of viewers come before the needs of advertisers and highly paid cable executives.
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/05/14/the-stable-of-cable-as-...

SELLING SPANISH TV TO AD BUYERS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Lorenza Muñoz]
Considering that Latinos make up the largest ethnic group in the United States and Latino buying power is on an upward march, you'd figure Spanish-language networks would be fighting advertisers off. They aren't. This week in New York, where the bulk of the commercial time for the upcoming television season will be sold at what's called the upfront market, Univision and Telemundo will need to make hard sells. Advertising spending on Spanish-language media has been growing, rising more than 14% last year from 2005, according to Nielsen Co. But only 3.2% of total national television and print advertising is directed at Spanish markets in the Spanish language, TNS Media Intelligence has found. What's more, recent research by the Assn. of Hispanic Advertising Agencies determined that of the country's top 250 advertisers, about 100 don't market in Spanish at all, and many of those that do aim less than 1% of their promotional budgets at Latinos. A large group of advertisers — mainly in the banking, investment and technology industries — question whether they need to reach out to Latinos en español or whether their messages are getting across in English.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-spanishads15may15,1,2...
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PENTAGON BLOCKS 13 WEB SITES FROM MILITARY COMPUTERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Dan Frosch]
Members of the military will not be allowed to use military computers to communicate through Web sites like YouTube and MySpace under restrictions that the Pentagon imposed yesterday. The rule bans 13 sites, many of them networking, music or photo-sharing sites, because they have slowed the Internet network of the Defense Department, military officials said. Critics said the policy represented the latest effort to control the deluge of information flowing from soldiers on the battlefield.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15block.html
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* A Casualty Of War: MySpace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR200705...