Benton's Communications-related Headlines For Wednesday October 11, 2006
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TELECOM/INTERNET
AT&T, BellSouth Expected to Clear Merger Review
Sen. Tunney still Shining the Light on Antitrust Enforcement
Here's the FCC's Playbook for Burying Net Neutrality
Verizon may Lobby states on TV service Rules
FTC Issues Municipal Wireless Report
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Australia Relaxes Media Ownership Restrictions
The FCC should Not Allow Broadcasters to Own More Radio Stations
QUICKLY -- ABC's Foley scoop changes Web media game; As Election
Nears, Groups Plan Negative Ads; Deal to Provide Laptops to All
Libyan Schoolchildren; Firms to boost Internet speeds without fiber
optics; Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Subscribe to Wireless
TELECOM/INTERNET
AT&T, BELLSOUTH EXPECTED TO CLEAR MERGER REVIEW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz( at )wsj.com]
The Justice Department is expected to approve AT&T's $67 billion
purchase of BellSouth Corp. as early as today with few or no
conditions. Justice Department officials are expected to say that the
merger of the two phone giants doesn't pose significant competitive
threats that require divestures, conditions or a consent decree, the
lawyers said. The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled a
vote to approve the deal tomorrow.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116051833199888489.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
(requires subscription)
* Justice near OK of AT& T-BellSouth deal with no restrictions
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20061011/fcc11.art.htm
SEN TUNNEY STILL SHINING LIGHT ON ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 10/6, AUTHOR: Mark Cooper, Consumer
Federation of America]
[Commentary] The Tunney Act, a landmark reform to the nation's
antitrust laws that poured sunshine on subsequent antitrust
investigations, requires the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain
judicial approval of any settlement of an antitrust investigation,
ensuring that the nation's courts, not backroom political operatives,
would oversee antitrust enforcement. In 2004, following a
controversial antitrust settlement with Microsoft, Congress tightened
the leash on the Department of Justice even further, imposing strict
new standards on the judicial review of Department of Justice consent
decrees. Last year's merger of AT&T and SBC - previously labeled
"unthinkable" by one FCC chairman -- and that of Verizon and MCI
sounded alarm bells for consumer advocates, legal experts and the
telecommunications industry. Even the FCC, which had relied on the
competition among the Bells and their largest competitors in
massively scaling back the market-opening provisions of the
Telecommunications Act, showed promising initial skepticism. But the
Department of Justice quickly gave up the farm, approving the rebirth
of Ma Bell's monopoly without requiring the divestiture of a single
telephone line, even in areas of expansive geographic market overlap
between the merged companies. But the gavel has not yet come down --
fortunately, U.S. Sen. John Tunney's namesake legislation is offering
renewed hope of restoring justice to the department that carries its
name. In a closely watched proceeding in the U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C., the Department of Justice has been trying in vain
to squelch a full judicial review of the sweetheart deal it struck
with the Bells. The judge assigned to this review as required by the
Tunney Act, however, has expressed skepticism over the Department of
Justice's deficient pleadings, and has permitted public participation
in the proceeding over the strenuous objection of the Department of
Justice and its Bell partners. The Department of Justice even sought
to dissuade community input by burying the required public notice in
a Christmas Eve edition of a single newspaper.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/06/EDGCTLHFN313...
HERE'S THE FCC'S PLAYBOOK FOR BURYING NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: TPM Cafe 10/5, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is planning
in the next couple of weeks to begin an inquiry into Net Neutrality.
On the surface, that might appear to be an enlightened, even noble,
action for the agency to take. It's not. Beneath the surface, the
reality is that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's planned Notice of Inquiry
on Net Neutrality is an audacious triple play with the goals of
greasing the largest telecom merger in history, relieving pressure on
a key piece of legislation, and burying the Net Neutrality concept
for good. Chairman Martin's actions should be seen as dodge they
really are. FCC Commissioners Copps and Adelstein should insist on
strong non-discrimination language as part of the AT&T takeover of
BellSouth. They should either dissent to the bogus Notice of Inquiry
or, at the least, point out the reality of the situation. And pending
telecom legislation in Congress should be allowed to die after the
election. Then, perhaps next year, a serious discussion about
protecting the open Internet can take place.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/specialguests/2006/oct/05/heres_the_fccs_pla...
VERIZON MAY LOBBY STATES ON TV SERVICE RULES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News 10/5]
Verizon's lead lobbyist said the company is likely to abandon efforts
to pursue federal rules to ease the sale of television service if
pending legislation fails this year. The second-largest US telephone
company will instead focus on obtaining statewide agreements in
Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, lobbyist Tom Tauke said.
Those states are the largest Verizon markets without statewide
franchises in place to help it sell TV service without having to get
permission and negotiate deals with each municipality, Tauke said.
The company has secured agreements in Texas, New Jersey, California,
Virginia and Indiana.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/10/05/verizon_ma...
FTC ISSUES MUNICIPAL WIRELESS REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Jon Leibowitz says a new staff
report on municipal wireless Internet networks released by the FTC
Tuesday should be used to counter state attempts to prohibit cities
and towns from creating a government "third pipe" to the home. The
61-page study does not come down on one side or the other of the
issue, however, spelling out federal and state legislative proposals
and pros and cons of municipal service. Pros include increasing
competition, lowering prices, and increasing efficiency. Cons are
primarily associated wit incentives for government to engage in
anticompetitive practices. But the study does site the advantages of
broadband rollout and competition, and advises that "policymakers
considering this issue may want to evaluate whether competition and
consumers would be better served if they permitted municipalities to
provide broadband Internet services but insured that municipalities
would not engage in conduct that disadvantaged or excluded private
competitors." It suggests letting the government participate in an
open bidding process is another option. But the report also says that
a one-size-fits-all policy does not work, saying there is a
difference between markets where there are already several competing
providers and rural ones without wireless service, the latter being
the more conducive to municipal entry.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6379787.html?display=Breaking...
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
AUSTRALIA RELAXES MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
The Australian government on Tuesday agreed to curb media takeovers
in proposed legislation to relax the law and allow more foreign
investment in the sector. Some lawmakers had threatened to scuttle
the first proposed amendments to media ownership laws in 20 years for
fear they could enable a single owner to control television, radio
and newspapers in their rural electoral districts, reducing the
diversity of opinions. The change on Tuesday headed off a revolt. A
meeting of coalition government lawmakers agreed to vote for the
legislative package with added amendments preventing any one investor
buying all three media in any market, Communications Minister Helen
Coonan said in a statement. The amendments were introduced to the
Senate a few hours later. It was not clear when they would be voted on.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
THE FCC SHOULD NOT ALLOW BROADCASTERS TO OWN MORE RADIO STATIONS, POLL SHOWS
[SOURCE: San Antonio Business Journal]
Clear Channel Communications officials may be lobbying the Federal
Communications Commission to raise the cap on the number of radio
stations a broadcaster can legally own. However, the results of a San
Antonio Business Journal online poll show that a majority of survey
participants don't agree with that move. 66 percent of people who
participated in the online poll said that the existing FCC caps on
local radio-ownership limits should not be raised. A number of other
people who voted in the poll also said allowing further consolidation
would lead to an even greater degradation of content. Several who
voted in the poll said the caps, in fact, should be lowered in order
to allow for more diversity of station owners, and thus, greater
diversity of content. That's because the media already is under the
control of too few players, some said. Twenty-four percent of those
who voted in the poll said the FCC should raise the existing cap on
radio stations. Another 8 percent were undecided.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2006/10/09/daily15.html?fr...
QUICKLY
ABC'S FOLEY SCOOP CHANGES WEB MEDIA GAME
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Michele Gershberg]
Anonymous tips sent over the Web helped ABC break the story of
disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley's graphic messages to teenage aides,
proving a new model for news gathering as TV outlets embrace the
Internet. ABCNews.com was the first major news outlet to report the
story that Foley, a Republican, sent inappropriate e-mails to a
Congressional page. But the news ballooned into a larger scandal when
other pages who knew of more sexually explicit messages sent tips to
the station's Web site; Foley promptly resigned when confronted with
the material. Media experts said the practice of collecting anonymous
tips online defines a new era for reaping information, not unlike the
way media used eyewitness photos snapped at the scene of the London
bus and train bombings in July 2005.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
AS ELECTION NEARS, GROUPS PLAN NEGATIVE ADS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Broder]
Expect a boatload of negative political advertising to appear in the
weeks before the Nov. 7 election. Many of the advertisements will be
produced by independent organizations known as 527 groups, after the
provision in the tax code that allows such groups to spend virtually
unlimited sums on political activity as long as it is not formally
coordinated with parties or candidates. The 527 groups had raised
nearly $200 million as of June 30, much of which appears to be
available to be spent on pre-election activities. And if past trends
hold, the total raised and spent by the groups on this election will
surpass $300 million, eclipsing the $258 million spent by such groups
in the last midterm election, in 2002. The increase is striking
because the campaign finance law enacted in 2002 now forbids federal
elected officials and candidates from operating their own 527 groups.
In 2002, committees maintained by such officials raised about a third
of the total dollars for the groups.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/politics/11donate.html
(requires registration)
US GROUP REACHES DEAL TO PROVIDE LAPTOPS TO ALL LIBYAN SCHOOLCHILDREN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
The government of Libya reached an agreement on Tuesday with One
Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit United States group developing an
inexpensive, educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying
machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008. The
project, which is intended to supply computers broadly to children in
developing nations, was conceived in 2005 by a computer researcher at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nicholas Negroponte. His
goal is to design a wireless-connected laptop that will cost about
$100 after the machines go into mass production next year. To date,
Mr. Negroponte, the brother of the United States intelligence
director, John D. Negroponte, has reached tentative purchase
agreements with Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand, and has
struck a manufacturing deal with Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwanese
computer maker. Mr. Negroponte, who was in Tripoli this week to meet
with Libyan officials, said he discussed the project extensively with
the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, in August.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/africa/11laptop.html
(requires registration)
FIRMS TO BOOST INTERNET SPEEDS WITHOUT FIBER OPTICS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Lucas van Grinsven]
As Verizon and AT&T plan to invest billions in new fiber optic
networks in the US, a group of technology and telecoms companies,
including Spanish giant Telefonica, joined forces on Tuesday to boost
the Internet speeds of copper telephone wires to almost equal that of
fiber optic cable.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
THREE-QUARTERS OF US ADULTS SUBSCRIBE TO WIRELESS
[SOURCE: PRNewswire press release]
Three-quarters (74%) of U.S. adults say they currently subscribe to
wireless (cell or mobile) telephone service, more than those who say
they currently subscribe to wireline (landline) service (58%). About
one-quarter (24%) of cell phone users consider the cell phone their
primary means of communication, and two in five (41%) say their cell
phone provides them with a sense of personal security.
http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=3309524
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
service provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted
Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important
industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events.
While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone
does not always represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang headlines( at )benton.org -- we
welcome your comments.
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