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Rocco Commisso, CEO of New York-based Mediacom Communications, delivered the latest commentary in the ongoing Net neutrality fray at an annual Washington, D.C., summit organized by the American Cable Association, a lobbying group for small and medium-size independent cable companies. Mediacom, which bills itself as the nation's eighth-largest cable television provider, counts 1.5 million basic-cable subscribers across 23 states, according to its Web site.
"I think what the phone industry's saying and what we're saying is we've made an investment, and I don't think the government should be coming and telling us how we can work that infrastructure, simple as that," Commisso said during a panel discussion about issues faced by companies like his, adding, "Why don't they go and tell the oil companies what they should charge for their damn gas?"
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/2265
HOUSE SCHEDULE EXCLUDES BARTON BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
The House floor schedule this week excludes a telecommunications bill that would overhaul cable-franchising rules to allow new providers to initiate service within 30 days under a national authorization scheme. Key sponsors of the bill were hoping that the House would debate the bill Wednesday or Thursday, but the floor schedule released by Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) listed 11 bills, not including H.R. 5252, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE Act), sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas). The House schedule could change if House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) refuses to refer the COPE Act to the Judiciary Committee, deciding a power struggle in Barton’s favor over Judiciary chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI).
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6332676.html?display=Breaking+News
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6332676.html?display=Breaking%20News
COMMUNICATIONS REFORM BILL AS MEASURE TO SPEED BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee press release]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on Friday received the Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s report detailing certain shortcomings in broadband deployment and penetration in the United States. In response, Chairman Stevens urged his colleagues to support S. 2686, the Communications, Consumers’ Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006, which, he argues, responds to many of the GAO report’s findings. The GAO report found that only 28 percent of American households subscribe to broadband Internet service, another 30 percent subscribe only to dial-up service, and 41 percent of American households are not connected to the Internet at all. The GAO report also found that rural Americans are much less likely to subscribe to broadband than those living in cities. In all, only 17 percent of rural households have to broadband service. “The disparity of broadband deployment between rural and urban America cited in the GAO report raises serious concerns,†said Chairman Stevens. “High-speed Internet access is absolutely essential to all Americans, whether you live in Manhattan or a remote village in Alaska. Numerous provisions in the Communications, Consumers’ Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 focus on addressing this broadband deployment problem.â€
http://commerce.senate.gov/newsroom/printable.cfm?id=255239
* For more on GAO report, see http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/2246
http://commerce.senate.gov/newsroom/printable.cfm?id=255239
BELL BROADBAND PLANS
[SOURCE: Reuters]
Below find links to three articles about the plans of telecom giants AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. 1) AT&T said on Monday it would a) offer new satellite-based Internet services in U.S. rural markets where DSL service is not available and b) expand its investment in emerging WiMax wireless connections. 2) Verizon Communications warned the financial services industry may not get the secure networks it needs if Congress adopts laws governing high-speed Internet broadband networks. Verizon's chief congressional lobbyist Peter Davidson warned that the financial services industry "better not start moaning in the future about a lack of sophisticated data links they need" if Net neutrality laws were passed because the communications industry may not invest in new networks. 3) Qwest Communications International, the fourth largest but financially weakest U.S. local telephone company, said on Monday that it would expand high-speed network capacity as much as customers want, but not too much more. Qwest's Chief Executive Richard Notebaert said that he aimed for "just in time" bandwidth expansion, referring to a popular inventory strategy to optimize the return on investment. 4) Is it me, or do these articles really say C) DSL service will never be available in many rural areas, Y) "Shut up and eat your bandwidth and A) we'll cling to any successful buzzword we can to make us look good.
1) AT&T plans fast Web alternatives in rural areas
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
(See AT&T press release: http://www.sbc.com/gen/press-room?pid=5097&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=22272)
2) Verizon warns financial sector on Internet fight
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
3) Qwest to expand bandwidth "just in time"
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
COURT TO HEAR FROM BELL RIVALS
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
A U.S. District Court judge in Washington will hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether Comptel, a telecommunications industry association, should be granted intervener status in a judicial review of two recent telecom mega-mergers. A favorable ruling for Comptel would be significant, because the association represents many competitors of the former regional Bell operating companies who are critical of the recent combinations of AT&T with SBC Communications and MCI with Verizon Communications.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-ZPWH1147115045123.html
Court To Hear From Bell Rivals
COMMISSO TAKES AIM AT NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John M. Higgins]
In a stark departure from the cable industry's public position, Mediacom Communications Corp. CEO Rocco Commisso decried proposed "net-neutrality" rules Monday by saying that they keep cable operators from deciding how to "rent" their networks to Web-content providers. "The government is coming and telling us how we can rent our infrastructure," Commisso told around 200 cable executives at the annual meeting of the American Cable Association, a lobbying group for small cable operators, in Washington, D.C. The comments are very close to the controversial position of AT&T chairman Ed Whitacre, who has alarmed Web companies and consumer advocates by openly declaring that he wants to charge the likes of Google and Yahoo! for access to AT&T's customers. Cable operators and telcos currently charge consumers extra for higher capacity service. But Commisso added another reason, one that Web companies and consumer advocates fear: the ability to make financial arrangements with content providers, including charging for access to Web surfers through cable's high-speed data networks. Citing networks that sell episodes of hit TV shows online, Rocco says "they're making money through our pipe" but then "turn around and `say don't let Rocco charge anybody for this usage.'" He also criticized Google which is lobbying for net neutrality rules. Noting that the company has a greater stock market valuation than the entire cable industry. "They need special favors in Washington, so make sure they can use our pipe and they make their money and we can't make any?" Interviewed afterward, Commisso says that arrangements with content providers could come in the form of advertising availabilities for cable operators. "We should have the flexibility at some point in time -- not today -- to have different business models that ensure our return on investment."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332793?display=Breaking+News
* Smaller cable firms take aim at Net neutrality fans
http://news.com.com/Smaller+cable+firms+take+aim+at+Net+neutrality+fans/...
* Commisso Open to Charging Web Fees
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6332865.html?display=Breaking+News
More Net Neutrality Commentary --
* Save the net from what?
http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/021047.php
* Net Diversity Threatened by Neutrality Advocates
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/features/50350.html
* Let's Get Neutral
[SOURCE: AlterNet, AUTHOR: Annalee Newitz]
[Commentary] If the big corporations win their push to charge Internet users different rates for the same product, the Web as we know it will wither on the vine. If the deregulationists succeed, power over the Internet will be centralized among the companies that own the wires, and everyone but the big corporations will lose. We may be about to witness the end of the ends.
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/36002/
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332793?display=Breaking%20News
TAX FOES ATTACK NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Calling itself a conservative response to moveon.org's pro-"network neutrality" regulation lobby, the Internet Freedom Coalition has formed to "fight regulation of the Internet." The new coalition, including limited-government groups like Americans for Tax Reform, the Center for Individual Freedom, and Tennessee Center for Policy Research, argue that tough network neutrality language in the bill would be "the first major attempt by Washington to regulate the Internet." They will fight moveon.org's Internet fire with fire, promising to launch a massive e-mail campaign, take out Internet banner ads to fight what is says will be a tax on the Internet. Why is network neutrality regulation a tax? If networks aren't allowed to recoup their build-out costs by charging more for bandwidth, security or other services, the argument goes, they will have to pass them along to customers.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332711?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332711?display=Breaking%20News
A COMEDIAN'S RIFF ON BUSH PROMPTS AN E-SPAT
[SOURCE: New York Times 5/8, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner nine days ago has already created a debate over politics, the press and humor. Now, a commercial rivalry has broken out over its rebroadcast. On Wednesday, C-Span, the nonprofit network that first showed Mr. Colbert's speech, wrote letters to the video sites YouTube.com and ifilm.com, demanding that the clips of the speech be taken off their Web sites. The action was a first for C-Span. "We have had other hot -- I hate to use that word -- videos that generated a lot of buzz," said Rob Kennedy, executive vice president of C-Span, which was founded in 1979. "But this is the first time it has occurred since the advent of the video clipping sites." After the clips of Mr. Colbert's performance were ordered taken down at YouTube -- where 41 clips of the speech had been viewed a total of 2.7 million times in less than 48 hours, according to the site -- there were rumblings on left-wing sites that someone was trying to silence a man who dared to speak truth to power. But as became clear later in the week, this was a business decision, not a political one. Not only is the entire event available to be streamed at C-Span's Web site, c-span.org, but the network is selling DVD's of the event for $24.95, including speeches and a comedy routine by President Bush with a President Bush imitator. And C-Span gave permission to Google Videos to carry the Colbert speech beginning Friday. The arrangement, which came with the stipulation that Google Videos provide the entire event and a clip of Mr. Bush's entire routine as well, is a one-time deal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/technology/08colbert.html
(requires registration)
A Comedian's Riff on Bush Prompts an E-Spat
BAY AREA DEMOCRATS WANT CLOSER LOOK AT MEDIANEWS DEAL
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 5/6, AUTHOR: Carolyn Said]
Six Bay Area members of Congress wrote to the Justice Department on Friday, asking it to carefully consider the antitrust implications of McClatchy Co.'s proposed acquisition of Knight Ridder. Specifically, the representatives questioned the impact on Bay Area readers and advertisers of a key related transaction -- the transfer of three Northern California Knight Ridder newspapers to Denver's MediaNews Group and the involvement of New York's Hearst Corp. in that complex arrangement. Those papers are the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey County Herald. The letter was signed by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, George Miller, Anna Eshoo, Ellen Tauscher, Barbara Lee and Mike Honda, all Democrats. MediaNews, which already has a string of Bay Area dailies and nondailies, would have 43 papers extending across the Bay Area with the addition of the Knight Ridder dailies and associated weeklies, the letter said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/06/BUGUCIMG7A1.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/06/BUGUCIMG7A1.DTL
CW AFFILIATE WORTH $217 MILLION IN ORLANDO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Allison Romano & John Eggerton]
Hearst-Argyle is buying WKCF-TV Orlando, the 20th largest TV market in the US, from Emmis for $217 million. Hearst-Argyle already own WESH-TV there, so it will now have a duopoly in the market. WKCF is a WB and soon-to-be CW affiliate. The company now has duopolies in five of its seven biggest markets, four TV duopolies and one radio-TV. Opportunities for duopolies in top markets like Orlando don't come up often under today's FCC rules, said H-A spokesman Tom Campo. For its part, Emmis is divesting its TV properties to concentrate in radio. Also Monday, Emmis unveiled a stock buyback proposal that would give founder and Chairman Jeff Smulyan full control of the company. Under the proposal, Smulyan’s corporation, ECC Acquisition, would buy back outstanding shares at $15.25 per share, a 13.6% premium over the stock’s closing price last Friday.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332568?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6332568?display=Breaking%20News