Bloomberg

[Commentary] One of the most interesting applications of quantum mechanics is in computing. In theory, quantum computers could take advantage of odd subatomic interactions to solve certain problems far faster than a conventional machine could. Although a full-scale quantum computer is still years off, scientists have lately made a lot of progress on the materials, designs and methods needed to make one. Investment in the field is surging. IBM, Microsoft and Google are all building quantum research labs. Startups are gearing up. Banks are very interested indeed. Governments see applications for space exploration, medical research and intelligence-gathering. America's National Security Agency, in fact, has been quietly trying to build a quantum computer for years, in the hope that it would make an unstoppable code-breaker.

Businesses, in particular, should pay attention. Many have files that must be stored for years, for legal or commercial reasons. But woefully few have a long-term strategy for protecting them. That's especially worrisome because, without precautions, sensitive records -- medical files, financial data, trade secrets -- that are stored using today's encryption could potentially be exposed by quantum computers. Governments could also help. Quantum computing requires competence in physics, computer science and engineering, and that makes it hard to find qualified workers. Public investment in basic quantum-science research would help build a skilled workforce, boost technical know-how and generally lay the groundwork for a promising new field. It could also speed the development of stronger cryptography. More cooperation between Silicon Valley and the government, not on notable display recently, could be invaluable in this regard. In short, common sense isn't useless in approaching quantum computers; it may be the best way to prepare for an era of thrilling strangeness.

Federal regulators tightened limits on owning television stations by eliminating the practice of only counting part of some stations’ audience, a move opposed by broadcasters including 21st Century Fox Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. The Federal Communications Commission in a 3-to-2 Democratic-led party-line vote on Sept 7 abolished the 30-year-old UHF discount. Under the eliminated discount, the agency counted only half of households in a TV station’s local area, when judging ownership against the limit of reaching 39 percent of US TV households. Groups that exceed the limit as a result of the change needn’t sell stations, but must comply in future transactions, meaning future deals could result in sales to conform with the regulation. Companies over the limit without the discount include Tribune Media Co., Ion Media Networks Inc. and Univision Communications Inc., the FCC said.

The FCC in August voted to preserve other TV and radio station ownership restrictions, including a ban on owning both a daily newspaper and a nearby broadcast station. The live audience for broadcast TV has been shrinking for years, and broadcasters have said they need to be freed of “antiquated and unreasonable” rules to vie with digital competitors. Tribune, with 42 stations in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where it is located, in an annual filing told investors that abolishing the UHF discount would affect its ability to acquire additional stations. Gary Weitman, a spokesman, in an e-mail said the FCC decision is a “non-issue” since company holdings comply with the rules.

Apple, Google and Amazon were among the tech leaders that rallied behind Microsoft in its battle to stop the US government from conducting so-called sneak-and-peek searches of customer e-mails. Microsoft and its supporters argue the very future of mobile and cloud computing is at stake if customers can’t trust that their data will remain private.

A group of 11 technology firms including Google said in its court filing that the federal law allowing the searches goes “far beyond any necessary limits” while infringing users’ fundamental rights. “The government’s ability to engage in surreptitious searches of homes and tangible things is practically and legally limited," the companies said in the filing. “But the act allows the government to search personal data stored in the cloud without ever notifying an account owner that her data has been searched."

[Commentary] The 21st-century equivalent of Herbert Hoover’s chicken-in-every-pot promise is a faster Internet connection in every home. It’s a laudable but, for now, elusive goal. While working to reach it, however, the next president -- whether that’s Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, both of whom have promised far greater investment in public infrastructure -- must attain a more immediate objective: finishing the Obama Administration’s work of connecting so-called anchor institutions across the nation.

Stories of public school students congregating outside schools or libraries so they can use their public Wi-Fi networks to do homework are stirring evidence of the digital divide. Addressing this inequity will require a broader definition of “anchor institutions,” which include not just libraries but public-transit systems and parks. Public Wi-Fi needn’t be confined by roofs or walls. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission must conduct yearly reviews of whether advanced telecommunications capability “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” and take “immediate action” if it is not. When it comes to anchor institutions, and consumers who have nowhere else to turn for vital access, “immediate action” remains overdue.

Since January, Baltimore police have been testing an aerial surveillance system adapted from the surge in Iraq. And they neglected to tell the public.

The Federal Communications Commission has until Sept. 12 to respond to petitions by broadband providers including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, CenturyLink, and others for a full federal appeals court review of a panel decision upholding the agency's network neutrality rules. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit won't accept replies from broadband providers after that. After considering any filings from the FCC and its supporters, the full court will determine whether or not to rehear the case.

The request for responses by the court is standard procedure, said Andrew Schwartzman, Benton Senior Counselor at the Georgetown University Law Center Institute for Public Representation in Washington. “The odds of granting rehearing are still near zero,” Schwartzman said. Several telecom industry sources said on background that they do not expect the DC Circuit to grant a full court hearing.

When it comes to connecting India’s population to the Internet, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is having better luck than his Facebook counterpart, Mark Zuckerberg. Google began offering free Wi-Fi at about two dozen train stations in the country earlier in 2016, and now has 2 million people using the service each month, Pichai said. Millions more will gain access as the service expands to 100 locations by the year end. The search provider’s goal is to reach 400 stations. Facebook had also sought in 2015 to get people online by covering the cost for mobile users to connect to select websites and services on their phones. That effort, called Free Basics, was blocked in February by India’s telecommunication regulator. The ban was a setback for Zuckerberg, who had visited India to promote the program, which was designed for people who can’t afford expensive mobile-data charges.

Google, Facebook and other providers of web services are all flocking to India to amass their next billion users and get them to adopt their products first. By targeting train stations and offering unfettered access, Google has been able to leap ahead. Both are seeking to maximize eyeballs for their revenue-generating ads in the country of 1.3 billion, according to C.S. Rao, chairman of QuadGen Wireless Solutions Inc., a wireless engineering services company which has more than 2,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. “Their popular apps are seen to have huge growth potential in a country with youthful demographics and good technology literacy,” Rao said.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, 10 percent of Americans don't have access to fixed high-speed networks for Internet service, mostly delivered via cable, fiber-optic or digital subscriber telephone lines. That number jumps to 39 percent of Americans in rural areas. Local governments, supported by the FCC, say they should be able to build out broadband networks, especially in rural areas where commercial service is slow or non-existent. About 490 cities offer some sort of public broadband, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a non-profit advocacy group that promotes community development. Internet service providers have fought against local government efforts. Nineteen states, including Tennessee, have laws on the books limiting municipal broadband networks, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

The question before the Sixth Circuit: How much authority do Tennessee and North Carolina have to restrict local broadband networks, and does the FCC have the power to overrule them? “There’s considerable legal precedent around the ability of states to have unfettered authority on laws impacting municipalities,” said Michael Santorelli, a director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School.

In the past three years, Tribune’s 42 stations have added 170 hours a week of local news programming, for a total of more than 80,000 hours annually. Tribune executives said in a May earnings call that they expect to increase political ad business by 20 percent this year from 2012 Local newscasts across the nation have already reaped an estimated $279 million in revenue from political ads since Jan. 1, or about 40 percent of the money spent on ads across broadcast and national cable television, according to Kantar Media, which tracks ad spending through its Campaign Media Analysis Group. “People who watch local news are more likely to vote in the same way that if I watch sports on TV I’m more likely to buy a ticket,” says Will Feltus, senior vice president at National Media, a Republican ad-buying firm. Saturation coverage has another benefit, he says: “Campaigns are never going to complain about having too many spots on the local news because they want to see themselves. All of the donors to the campaign, the candidate’s family and friends, and the people around the campaign all watch the local news.”

The increase comes as local news viewership is falling. Since 2007 the average audience for late-night local news fell 22 percent, according to a June report from the Pew Research Center. Viewership in the morning and early evening decreased by 2 percent from 2014 to 2015, while viewership of early-morning newscasts has increased by the same amount. Adding news programming is attractive to station managers because it’s usually cheaper than buying syndicated shows to run in the daytime hours. That’s a concern for stations that aren’t affiliated with ABC, CBS, or NBC. “If you’re a Big Three, you’re getting 12 to 14 hours a day from the network,” says Larry Wert, president for broadcast media at Tribune, where only about a quarter of stations are affiliated with one of those three networks. “If you’re a Fox station, you’re really getting two hours plus sports.”

The Democratic National Committee was warned in the fall of 2015 that its computer network was susceptible to attacks but didn’t follow the security advice it was given, apparently. The missed opportunity is another blow to party officials already embarrassed by the theft and public disclosure of e-mails that have disrupted their presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia (PA) and led their chairwoman to resign.

Computer security consultants hired by the DNC made dozens of recommendations after a two-month review, apparently. Following the advice, which would typically include having specialists hunt for intruders on the network, might have alerted party officials that hackers had been lurking in their network for weeks -- hackers who would stay for nearly a year. Instead, officials didn’t discover the breach until April. The theft ultimately led to the release of almost 20,000 internal e-mails through WikiLeaks on the eve of the convention.