Hill, The

AT&T claims merger is about ‘consumer demand’

AT&T and DirecTV executives will make the case to lawmakers that the proposed $49 billion deal to merge the two companies is necessary to stay competitive.

“This transaction is about meeting consumer demand,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told members of the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee in his prepared testimony. “It’s about providing consumers with the integrated video and broadband Internet services they want, delivered over any type of device, to nearly anywhere in the country.”

AT&T offers phone and Internet service, but its television offerings do not turn a profit and “cannot meet the needs of enough consumers,” Stephenson claimed, noting that the company’s U-verse service operates in less than one-quarter of the country. And even in those markets, AT&T doesn’t have the “scale” to “to forge strong relationships with programmers and compete effectively against the dominant cable companies,” he said.

DirecTV, which has about 20 million TV subscribers in the US but no Internet service, needs the deal in order to keep up with the changing market, the satellite company’s chief executive Michael White added.

“If we want to compete effectively in today’s Internet-driven marketplace, we must adapt,” he claimed in prepared testimony. That means “integrated bundles” of TV and Internet service, like the deals offered by competitors at Comcast and Time Warner Cable, as well as the ability to offer subscribers chances to watch television online with companies like Netflix.

Compromise struck on cellphone unlocking bill

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation that would allow people to “unlock” their cellphones when changing providers.

The bill, which is scheduled for consideration, would allow users to take their mobile device from one wireless network to another, and is backed by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“Consumers should be able to use their existing cell phones when they move their service to a new wireless provider,” Sen Leahy said. “Our laws should not prohibit consumers from carrying their cell phones to a new network, and we should promote and protect competition in the wireless marketplace,” he added.

Sen Grassley called the bipartisan compromise “an important step forward in ensuring that there is competition in the industry and in safeguarding options for consumers as they look at new cell phone contracts.” “Empowering people with the freedom to use the carrier of their choice after complying with their original terms of service is the right thing to do,” he said.

Russia calls for Twitter censorship

Russia wants Twitter to block or censor some “extremist” accounts, a top regulator said. The head of the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, claimed to ask for 12 “extremist” accounts to be deleted or restricted in a meeting with the head of Twitter’s public policy division during the executive’s first official trip to Russia.

“I hope the content of some extremist blogs will be deleted,” Alexander Zharov said, according to the state-owned ITAR-TASS news service. “It concerns not only Russian users. Even if the account has been registered on the territory of Ukraine, this information would be considered extremist as well," he added. "The management of Twitter has heard us, and I hope that these accounts will be deleted in the nearest time.”

Media mega-mergers under the microscope

Megamergers are heading back to Congress with lawmakers set to probe AT&T’s $49 billion bid to buy DirecTV, the second mammoth media deal to come under scrutiny in 2014.

The hearing comes with many lawmakers expressing growing skepticism about the trend toward consolidation following earlier hearings on the proposed Comcast and Time Warner Cable deal. That sentiment could boil over when the AT&T and DirecTV executives come to Washington for a set of double-header hearings in the House and Senate.

“On the one hand you’ve got to look at each of these mergers on their own individual merit but you can’t ignore the broader landscape,” said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at the consumer interest group Public Knowledge.

“Yes, you have to just look at the facts of this one but you also have to bear in mind an ever more concentrated communications market,” added Bergmayer, who has been critical of the deal and is slated to testify in the House. Both AT&T and DirecTV say they are missing a crucial component in the suite of services that their subscribers are looking for.

House Republicans: FTC should take the lead on net neutrality

Republicans on a House panel want the country’s antitrust regulators, not its telecom regulators, to take the lead on net neutrality.

During a hearing held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Law, Republicans questioned the need for net neutrality regulation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“The Internet has flourished precisely because it is a deregulated market” and should be kept open through “vigorous application of the antitrust laws,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said.

“As regulatory proceedings continue to stretch on, a question I have is whether there might be a more efficient and more effective way to safeguard against potential discriminatory behavior than federal rulemaking,” Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said in his opening statement. “That is where antitrust law comes in.”

He also pushed for evidence that Internet providers are behaving in a way that warrants FCC intervention in the form of net neutrality rules and said the agency should conduct a cost-benefit analysis “before regulating such an important component of our national economy.”

Sens Rubio, Booker want more airwaves for Wi-Fi

Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) want more space in the nation’s airwaves for Wi-Fi Internet.

“In a century defined by drastic and colossal technological advancement, it is hard going even a day without using our cell phones, tablets and other wireless devices,” Sen Rubio said. “But our wireless devices rely on spectrum, a valuable and limited resource.”

To free up space for the devices, the two senators introduced a bill requiring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to explore opening new chunks of the electromagnetic spectrum for unlicensed use. Wi-Fi routers operate alongside garage door openers and other consumer electronics on those airwaves.

“Not only does access to wireless broadband open the door for innovation and transformative new technologies, it helps bridge the digital divide that leaves too many low-income communities removed from the evolving technology landscape and the growing economic opportunities,” Sen Booker added. The Wi-Fi Innovation Act is the second in a trio of bills Rubio has been touting to tackle the spectrum “crunch,” in which increasing data usage comes up against finite airwave space.

Senate Dems to Obama: Don't wait for us on NSA

A trio of Senate Democrats says President Barack Obama should end contested National Security Agency (NSA) operations immediately, without waiting for Congress.

In a letter, the same day the agency’s legal authority to continue collecting Americans’ phone records comes up for court renewal, Democratic Sens Mark Udall (CO), Ron Wyden (OR) and Martin Heinrich (NM) said that President Obama should use the powers he has now.

“We believe the way to restore Americans’ constitutional rights and their trust in our intelligence community is to immediately end the practice of vacuuming up the phone records of huge numbers of innocent Americans every day and permit the government to obtain only the phone records of people actually connected to terrorism or other nefarious activity,” they wrote.

“More comprehensive congressional action is vital, but the executive branch need not wait for Congress to end the dragnet collection of millions of Americans' phone records for a number of reasons." The Obama Administration will likely ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records for 90 days.

The Senate is currently debating legislation to end that program and require the government get a court order to search records held by phone companies.

Undermining transparency at the FCC

[Commentary] It can take weeks, and sometimes months, for the Federal Communications Commission to release an order they voted on. Unfortunately, this process is standard operating procedure at the FCC.

The key question is whether the absence of a public text of what the commissioners voted on plus editorial privileges allows for substantive changes in the order or simply fixing typos. Small changes can tilt rules to favor or disadvantage different groups enough to be valuable to someone but not enough to cause an uproar. Such changes should not be possible to make in the shadows.

One simple change to the FCC's rule-making process would address the problem: For final orders, publish the text on which the commissioners will vote before the vote begins. The commission could still grant editorial privileges, but it would then be possible to see what has changed between the vote and the final, published rule.

[Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]

Email privacy bill gets a boost

Tech companies and privacy groups are pushing Congress to move ahead with email privacy reform now that a majority of the House supports a bill that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing stored emails.

The Email Privacy Act -- from Reps Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Jared Polis (D-CO) -- got its 218th cosponsor, meaning a majority of the House now supports the bill, which would reform a 1986 law that allows law enforcement officials to access, without a warrant, emails that have been stored more than 180 days.

The companies and privacy groups that have long lobbied for email privacy reform hailed the milestone. Among others, Google and Digital 4th -- a pro-ECPA reform coalition that includes the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform -- hailed the bill and called for Congressional action.

Poll: Most oppose Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger

More than half the country opposes the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, according to a new poll by Consumer Reports.

The survey found that 56 percent of the public was against the $45 billion deal, while just 11 percent supported it. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of respondents predicted it would lead to higher cable and Internet prices and would also leave consumers with fewer choices.

“Comcast and Time Warner Cable have consistently scored poorly when it comes to customer satisfaction so it’s no surprise that Americans are skeptical of this proposed deal,” Consumers Union policy counsel Delara Derakhshani said. “Most consumers expect the merger will turn things from bad to worse.”