GigaOm

[Commentary] Creating “Smart Cities” is a concept taking hold in rural and urban communities. An IDC report states these are cities investing in technology such as broadband networks and analytics software to enable people to be more productive, use city infrastructure more efficiently, and receive better government services.

Innovation for them is defined by quality of life improvements that attract and retain individuals and businesses while making a positive impact on local government budgets. Another type of innovation that’s drawing people to fight states’ intrusion into local broadband decisions is creating new innovative companies. Broadband advocates expect the drive to prevent state intrusion into local decisions to increase.

[Settles is a consultant who helps organizations develop broadband strategies ]

As customers are finding more entertainment value in broadband -- either because they are spending all night on reddit or because they are streaming movies via Netflix or Apple’s iTunes -- they are increasingly questioning the value of the cable package.

And while these people may not be the dreaded cord cutters or cord nevers, they may attempt to cut the costs of cable by going for an economy package or signing up for service and then dropping it a few months later.

Together the combination of broadband data caps, contracts and cost reductions are helping cable companies transition from being in the pay TV business to being in the broadband business while attempting to keep their margins intact. It’s a thin line, but it’s one that its rivals in the telecommunications world walked a few years ago as they transitioned from wireline voice to mobile services.

A Canadian court is forcing Google to remove search listings not just for google.ca, but beyond the country’s borders too. The case could lead to more regional censorship practices becoming global.

Despite television ad spending crossing $75 billion in 2013, the industry’s core business model is in flux. Shrinking audience ratings and the fragmentation of television viewership across second and third screens could drive marketing and advertising dollars online and confirm the view of digital and direct marketers that television advertising is inefficient and doesn’t even deliver the reach it used to.

Media-measurement oligarchs are struggling to keep pace with seismic shifts in video-viewing behavior. Driven by a combo of consolidation and new players, a fragmenting audience, and social media technologies, TV ad buying and selling is facing major disruptions. Advertising techniques that arose in online media are finally having an effect on traditional television.

[Loizides is Strategy & Business Planning Consultant, Paphion]

Verizon Wireless has been trying to coax its remaining unlimited data customers onto its tiered plans for years, and starting this fall it’s providing one more disincentive to remain with its grandfathered all-you-can-eat plans.

On October 1, Verizon will start throttling back LTE speeds on its heaviest unlimited-plan subscribers when they move into congested cells on its networks. What that means is that when the network gets crowded, Verizon will prioritize 4G customers who buy their data by the gigabyte over unlimited plan customers who fall into the top fifth percentile of monthly data usage.

[Commentary] Censorship is always bad, right? Not to many people around our connected globe, and there is sometimes validity to their views. Unfortunately the tension between those views places a profound and perhaps dangerous dilemma at the heart of the Internet.

[Commentary] This is the Federal Communications Commission’s dilemma as it tries to design rules to prevent broadband providers from playing favorites when they deliver web traffic: It has a big stick, called “Title II,” but most people think the agency lacks the political juice to wield it against some very powerful companies.

And while some have proposed “light touch” options to avoid a confrontation, that may be wishful thinking: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will have to go all-in and swing the Title II stick, or just it lay down altogether. Simply put, Chairman Wheeler won't wield his only weapon because Title II advocates just don’t have the money and lobbying firepower to challenge the telecom industry

AT&T’s second-quarter earnings report was a tale of two carriers. On the one hand, AT&T had a record spring quarter when it came to its core postpaid business, adding 1 million net new customers. But in its prepaid business, AT&T lost 405,000 subscribers, all casualties of AT&T’s acquisition of Leap Wireless.

From Ma Bell’s perspective it’s all good news, since postpaid customers buying premium data plans are far more profitable than pay-as-you-go subscribers. However, no former Cricket customers upgraded to AT&T postpaid plans, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega pointed out, meaning AT&T reached 700,000 smartphone net adds entirely by luring them away from other carriers. So we’re basically seeing flight in two different directions: postpaid customers arriving and prepaid customers leaving.

Google could face criminal proceedings, as well as a €1 million ($1.35 million) fine, in Italy if it doesn’t change its data-handling ways.

According to a ruling by the Italian data protection commissioner, who has been coordinating with counterparts across Europe, Google must do the following within 18 months to comply with privacy law:

• Make it clear to users that their data is mixed and matched across Google services for marketing purposes, both by cookies and by more advanced behavioral “fingerprinting” technologies.
• Get explicit opt-in permission from users before using their data in this way.
• Define how long it retains users’ data.
• Delete users’ data when asked, within 2 months for data stored on “active” systems and within 6 months for backed-up data.

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler clearly wants to protect communities from state intrusion by having the legislative barriers to public-owned networks in 19 states removed or heavily curtailed.

Those who see high-speed internet services strengthening local economies, transforming medical and healthcare delivery, improving education and increasing local government efficiency agree with him.

[Settles works with Gigabit Nation]