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KEY DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS COMMUNICATIONS GRANT PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 1/3, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm]
Senior Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee urged Congress to create a grant program to help cities update their emergency communications in order to communicate across jurisdictions. The lawmakers said such a program is needed given a new report from the Homeland Security Department that found gaps in such interoperability among emergency responders. Incoming House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) said more than five years has passed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which emergency responders died due to a lack of interoperable communications. "Time and again, the lack of interoperable communication has hindered the ability of our first responders to successfully do their jobs," Rep Thompson said in a statement. "The only way to truly address this problem is to create an interoperability grant program that provides guidance and exclusive funding for states and cities to wisely build out their communications systems without forcing them to choose over funding their bridges and water supply." Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) said she "will fight to pass legislation to finally establish a federal grant program for interoperable communications" within the coming weeks. A package of security measures that Democrats are expected to unveil next week also will address shortfalls in interoperability, a Democratic leadership aide said. It is unclear if the package would authorize additional funding toward that goal.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-QMOT1167943989352.html
Key Democratic Lawmakers Communications Grant Program
MA BELL IS BACK. SHOULD YOU BE AFRAID?
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] Ma Bell is back. Blown into eight pieces by an antitrust court in 1984, AT&T, like a self-repairing robot, has slowly put itself back together. Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission, demanding net neutrality and other conditions, approved AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth. That will make AT&T -- once again -- the world's largest technology company. And don't just think big. Think Goliath, with about $110 billion in annual revenue, more than 300,000 employees, and 90 million paying accounts. Google, by way of comparison, brings in about $9 billion a year. Even Microsoft, at $45 billion, is a mere elephant compared to the AT&T mammoth. So, should you be afraid? A little. AT&T will wield power over the nation's information networks to a degree unprecedented in the Internet age. How you feel about that depends on whether you trust the company, and unfortunately, AT&T has the corporate version of a criminal record. From the 1950s through the 1970s, AT&T—while creating the greatest network on earth—also killed long-distance competition, bottled up new technologies like the cell phone and home answering machine, and resisted the innovations that were later known as "the Internet." Some will argue that letting AT&T run the nation's networks is like putting Hannibal Lecter in charge of making dinner.
http://www.slate.com/id/2156918/fr/rss/
Ma Bell is back. Should you be afraid?
INTERNET TOLL LANES APPEAR LESS LIKELY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com]
Edward E. Whitacre Jr., then chief executive of SBC Communications Inc., ignited an impassioned online debate about creating toll lanes on the Internet in late 2005, when he called Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. "nuts" for expecting free use of his company's network to deliver their content. A little more than a year later, Whitacre may have taken a big step toward dousing that debate. As head of the muscular new AT&T Inc. — SBC took the name when it acquired the venerable long-distance giant — Whitacre surprisingly agreed last week that his company would not sell premium delivery of Web content for the next two years. His decision could spur Congress to extend the prohibition to all Internet providers. AT&T and other telecommunications companies fought furiously last year to block congressional proposals mandating such nondiscriminatory treatment of content, known as network neutrality. They warned that those rules would inhibit new spending on high-speed data lines and deprive network builders of a way to recoup their investments. But AT&T was forced to agree to treat all online content the same to gain Federal Communications Commission approval of its purchase of BellSouth Corp. The $86-billion deal, which the FCC unanimously approved Dec. 29, makes AT&T the dominant phone company in 22 states, including California, and the nation's largest provider of high-speed Internet service. Advocates of network neutrality requirements now contend that if a behemoth such as AT&T can build its data highways without charging websites for faster delivery of video and other bandwidth-devouring services, so can other providers.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-neutral5jan05,1,50420...
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-- See also --
* AT&T planning a big price hike for call waiting
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]
Just as AT&T was trumpeting the benefits to consumers of its $86 billion takeover of BellSouth last week, the company was mailing notices to California phone customers saying that prices for a variety of popular services are about to go up -- in some cases by between 24 and 57 percent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/05/LAZARUS.TMP
Internet toll lanes appear less likely
NEW YORK TIMES SELLS BROADCAST GROUP FOR $575 MILLION
[SOURCE: Reuters]
The New York Times Co. said on Thursday it sold its broadcast group, including nine television stations, for $575 million to private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners in order to concentrate on its newspaper business. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year, and includes affiliates of the ABC, NBC and CBS networks in Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Illinois, Virginia, Pennsylvania and two in Oklahoma. The NYT had previously disclosed plans to complete the sale of its broadcast media group in the first half of 2007. The stations in the deal are WHO Des Moines, KFSM Ft. Smith, Ark., WHNT Huntsville, Ala., WREG Memphis, WQAD Moline, Ill., WTKR Norfolk, KFOR and KAUT in Oklahoma City, and WNEP in Scranton. Oak Hill Capital Partners, with offices in New York, Stamford and Northern California, was part of a consortium that unsuccessfully attempted to purchase the Knight Ridder newspaper company last March. According to its Website, Oak Hill has more than $4.6 billion invested in a wide range of businesses, ranging from restaurants to pharmacies to southwestern cable operator Wometco Cable Corporation.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
* NY Times Co. Finds Stations Buyer
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6404372.html?display=Breaking...
MCCORMICK TRIBUNE FOUNDATION REVIEWING TRIBUNE STAKE
[SOURCE: Reuters]
McCormick Tribune Foundation, one of the largest shareholders in media group Tribune Co., said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it is evaluating its investment in light of Tribune's strategic assessment. The foundation said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has established an advisory committee, hired the Blackstone Group as its financial adviser and signed an agreement to obtain confidential Tribune information to conduct its evaluation. The foundation owns an 11.7 percent stake, or about 28 million common shares, in Tribune stock. It said it reserves the right to take actions such as buying or selling Tribune stock in the open market, in block trades and in privately negotiated transactions, and pursuing alternative transactions.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070104/tribune_mccormick.html?.v=1
* Second-Largest Tribune Company Shareholder Hires Buyout Consultant
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/business/media/05tribune.html?_r=1&ore...
* Tribune Holder Might Back A Management Buyout
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116794474932767434.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
* Charity may join bid for Tribune
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-tribune5jan05,1,53042...
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070104/tribune_mccormick.html?.v=1
THE MEDIA AND THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The 2008 presidential campaign may well be decided by the way the news media cover the candidates over the next few months. It's about the ability and willingness of the political media and pundit class to affix narratives to each candidate that shape subsequent news coverage -- and voter attitudes. These narratives tend to have a few things in common: 1) The narratives about progressives tend to be negative (Al Gore was a liar and a wimp, Howard Dean was crazy, John Kerry was a flip-flopping wimp, etc.); 2) The narratives about conservatives tend to be positive (John McCain is a straight-talking maverick, Rudy Giuliani is "America's Mayor," etc.); 3) The narratives about progressives are often based in large part on the media's endless repetition of snarky comments, stories, and anecdotes about purported personal qualities; and 4) Progressives and journalists often blame the victims of these narratives, chalking them up to inept candidates and campaign staff. No matter how many different progressives get unfairly defined by the media as soft and dishonest and ineffectual, too many people refuse to hold journalists accountable.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200612160001
The Media and the 2008 Presidential Election
FCC DENIES RETRANSMISSION COMPLAINT AGAINST SINCLAIR
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has denied a retransmission consent complaint against Sinclair by cable operator Mediacom, setting up the possibility that some 700,000-800,000 cable subs could lose access to TV station signals starting Friday, Jan. 5, on the eve of the NFL playoffs. The two biggest markets involved are Des Moines and Cedar Rapids Iowa, where Mediacom is the dominant cable player and Sinclair has Fox and CBS stations that will be carrying both NFL playoffs and the college championship game over the next week. Mediacom had argued that Sinclair was not bargaining in good faith over carriage of 22 of its TV station signals in markets where MediaCom has cable systems. The stations include 13 affiliates of the major networks and nine stations either CW affiliates or currently unaffiliated. Sinclair told Mediacom Sept. 28 it was terminating carriage Dec. 1, 2006, over their failure to agree to a price for the stations, but that date was pushed to January 5 through private negotiations. Sinclair wants something comparable to what MediaCom pays for cable nets with ratings similar to those of its TV stations. The FCC said Thursday that it would like the two sides to submit to arbitration by its Media Bureau, and if they agreed would require Sinclair to allow MediaCom to carry the stations while the Media Bureau was resolving the issue. It was only a suggestion by he FCC, but a forceful one.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6404369.html?display=Breaking...
* FCC Shoots Down Mediacom
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6404371.html?display=Breaking+News
* FCC Rules in Sinclair's Favor in Mediacom Retrans Spat
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10035...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6404369.html?display=Breaking%20News
BUSH WARNED ABOUT MAIL-OPENING AUTHORITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dan Eggen]
President Bush signed a little-noticed statement last month asserting the authority to open U.S. mail without judicial warrants in emergencies or foreign intelligence cases, prompting warnings yesterday from Democrats and privacy advocates that the administration is attempting to circumvent legal restrictions on its powers. A "signing statement" attached to a postal reform bill on Dec. 20 says the Bush administration "shall construe" a section of that law to allow the opening of sealed mail to protect life, guard against hazardous materials or conduct "physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR200701...
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* Bush administration defends warrantless mail inspection
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070105/a_mail05.art.htm
Bush Warned About Mail-Opening Authority
NCTA CHALLENGES FCC REPORT
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: William Triplett]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. has urged the Federal Communications Commission to "correct a number of inaccuracies" in a recent agency report stating that cable prices have been rising, in some cases dramatically. In a letter sent Thursday to FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin, NCTA chief Kyle McSlarrow maintained that cable prices have actually gone down. Shortly after Christmas, the FCC issued its annual cable price survey, which stated that basic cable prices "increased more than 5% last year and by 93% since the period immediately prior to Congress' enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996." "Expanded basic prices rose more than 6% or twice the rate of inflation last year," survey continued. "The commission's annual cable price survey is a very limited and crude instrument for collecting information, and it is essentially obsolete in today's dynamic marketplace," McSlarrow said.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956720.html?categoryid=18&cs=1&nid=...
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956720.html?categoryid=18&cs=1&nid=2567
CIVITIUM RETAINED BY THE CITY OF CHICAGO TO ADVISE ON COMMUNITY WIRELESS BROADBAND INITIATIVE
[SOURCE: Civitium press release]
Civitium, a consulting firm for municipal broadband and Digital Community initiatives, has been retained to provide advisory services for the City of Chicago’s community wireless broadband project. Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, announced its intent in 2006 to form a public-private partnership to deploy a citywide wireless broadband network. The City has retained Civitium to provide advisory services on strategy, policy, technology, proposal evaluation and negotiation with the selected proposer to the City's RFP.
http://www.civitium.com/PressReleases/Civitium-PR-Chicago-01-03-07.pdf
Chicago hires Advisor on Community Broadband Initiative