Los Angeles Times

Verizon customers who have unlimited data plans and use more than 200 gigabytes a month will be required to switch to a capped data plan by Feb 16 or be disconnected from service. A letter notifying affected customers about the change started to go out last week, Verizon spokeswoman Kelly Crummey said. Those customers will also be notified on their bill statements. If they still have not made the switch by Feb 9, Verizon will send them a text message reminder, she said. Crummey said the change was made to “ensure the network works for all of our customers.” “If they’re using that much data, they’re taking up a lot of capacity on the cell tower, so other people who are trying to use the service within proximity of that cell tower may or may not be able to use that service,” she said.

When asked in 2015 on the campaign trail whether he thought the United States should create a database of Muslims in the country, Donald Trump said, “Oh, I would certainly implement that — absolutely." On Dec 13, hundreds of members of the technology industry weighed in on whether they would help build such a database. The answer? Absolutely not. By Dec 14 some 590 software engineers, designers, business executives and data processing personnel from US firms such as Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and Palantir Technologies had signed a pledge “choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies."

As part of the pledge, the individuals promised, among other things, to:

• Refuse to participate in the creation of databases that would allow the government to target individuals based on race, religion or national origin
• Advocate within their organizations to minimize data collection that would facilitate ethnic or religious targeting
• Responsibly destroy high-risk data sets and backups
• Resign from their organization if ordered to build such a database

If airlines allow passengers to make in-flight cellphone calls, the carrier must notify passengers in advance, under a rule proposed by the US Department of Transportation. The rule, proposed during the week of Dec 5, may be a moot question because the Department of Transportation is still considering a complete ban on airborne voice calls within, to or from the United States. Still, the agency said that if such calls are allowed, airlines could prohibit them on all or some individual flights, and should notify passengers of the policy for their flight in advance.

“Consumers deserve to have clear and accurate information about whether any airline permits voice calls before they purchase a ticket and board the aircraft,” said US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. The Federal Communications Commission currently prohibits cellphone calls on commercial flights but has opened the door for phone calls using the airplane’s Wi-Fi connection. Several airlines, including Delta Air Lines, have said they oppose allowing voice calls on their planes — even those using Wi-Fi. Flight attendants have also spoken out against calls on planes, saying loud phone conversations are sure to create conflict and confusion.

On average, parents are spending what amounts to more than a full workday connected to screen-based media, according to a new survey from Common Sense Media. Just like their kids, parents are spending upward of nine hours a day engaging with media. They asked a sample of about 1,800 parents of tweens (ages 8-12) and teens (13-18) from across the country this summer about how they spent their time using media, whether it was using computers or hand-held digital devices, watching television or reading. They also asked about how parents monitor and what they think about how their kids use media. Some 78% of the parents surveyed said they believe they are “good media and technology role models” for their children.

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen billionaire financier Wilbur Ross, known as the king of bankruptcy for his investments in distressed properties, to serve as Commerce Secretary. If confirmed, Ross would become the Trump Administration’s chief liaison with the business community and a leading advocate for US trade abroad.

Ross said he wanted to fix “dumb trade” deals made by the US and would work to improve the quality of US jobs. Like President-elect Trump, Ross has been critical of US trade deals. He sharply criticized trade negotiators and called for the US to withdraw from the yet-to-be-ratified Trans-Pacific Partnership and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump has pledged to do both upon taking office.

[Commentary] Hopes that Google would establish a nationwide model for fiber Internet service were dashed, when the company suddenly declared a “pause” in its plans to lay fiber in as many as 18 municipalities. The disappointed suitors will have to wait for this strategy to play out or move ahead on their own. They would be well advised to keep an eye on San Francisco. That city is contemplating what would be the largest and most ambitious public broadband system in the country, with the ultimate goal of running fiber into every home and public building.

San Francisco has some advantages other communities lack. It’s geographically compact and densely populated, with a technophile citizenry. But the city of 865,000 residents is facing a daunting challenge. No city of comparable size has deployed a system of fiber to every building. The technical and physical obstacles to laying fiber citywide could sink the project at birth. The cost, which could come close to $1 billion, could raise public and political opposition. Existing Internet providers such as Comcast and AT&T can be expected to fight the project through lobbying and lawsuits. Still, this is a city sensitive to its digital inadequacies. As of 2014, the legislative analyst reported, only 2.6% of San Francisco residents had gigabit-per-second access, the gold standard for broadband connectivity. To this day, service in a city closely identified with high technology is spotty and often atrocious.

Gone are the days when federal infrastructure spending was measured in highways, bridges and ports. As President-elect Donald Trump considers a massive new spending plan on public works, policy experts, lawmakers and companies are racing to make the case that infrastructure could include projects such as fast Internet networks, electric-vehicle charging stations, power transmission lines and drinking water systems.

During a conference on infrastructure, Mrinalini Ingram, vice president of smart communities at Verizon Communications, had her own candidates for infrastructure spending: Verizon networking technology embedded in LED street lights and blue-light kiosks where pedestrians in danger can call police. At the same event, Richard Lukas, director of federal grants and program development at the Trust for Public Land, was worrying about the fate of federal grants used to fund a riverside park in Newark, NJ, a three-mile park along an abandoned rail line in Chicago, and a trail and bike system in Cleveland. "Infrastructure doesn't just mean roads and bridges. Infrastructure means a lot of different things to a lot of different people," said Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center. "We have to be confident that we're investing in things with common benefits, not like digging holes. The outcomes have to be consistent with our national priorities."

Hillary Clinton was the choice of nearly every American newspaper editorial board. It didn’t matter. When it comes to influencing public opinion, the 2016 presidential election demonstrated with sobering effect the weakening role of traditional media and the ascendant power of social networks like Facebook.

Forty-four percent of Americans get their news from Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center, filling a void left by the declining ranks of newspapers. By comparison, only 2 in 10 U.S. adults get news from print newspapers today. The consequences of Facebook’s growing sway became clear during an election cycle that saw the rise of partisan news, conspiracies, fake articles and a winning candidate who fully embraced social media as a way to circumvent the media establishment and its proclivity for checking facts. The problem with rumors and fake news grew so acute that President Obama felt the need to address it. The question now is whether Facebook and other social media platforms have the responsibility to stop, or at least identify to readers, phony news. That’s eliciting some reflection in Silicon Valley, which has always advocated a laissez faire approach to information.

Musical artists are reacting with outrage at the dismissal of the head of the US Copyright Office, calling the move an aggressive attack that is part of a larger effort to erode their creative rights and bolster advocates of free content.

"This is a major affront to copyright," said songwriter and music publisher Dean Kay. "Google seems to be taking over the world — and politics ... Their major position is to allow themselves to use copyright material without remuneration. If the Copyright Office head is toeing the Google line, creators are going to get hurt." The Copyright Office administers the complex set of rules governing US copyrights and advises Congress on policy and legal issues. It is a federal department within the Library of Congress. New Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in Oct abruptly removed Maria Pallante from the position she had held since 2011 and reassigned her to a role of "senior advisor." Pallante resigned three days later.

AT&T’s blockbuster bid for Time Warner might be a boon for investment bankers, lawyers and lobbyists, but it is anyone’s guess whether investors, employees and consumers ultimately would benefit from the combination. AT&T estimated that it could achieve $1 billion in cost savings in three years after buying Time Warner. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson promised the merger would transform media because AT&T would be able to create new subscription and advertising models. Time Warner movies and popular TV shows like “The Big Bang Theory” could be promoted to AT&T cellphone customers. But some analysts have expressed doubts that such a massive tie-up will pan out the way that Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes hope — should the federal regulators allow the two companies to come together.

There’s good reason for skepticism: Many mergers fail to live up to the hype. “Most of them don’t work out,” said Rita Gunther McGrath, a management professor at Columbia Business School. “And the success rates for the big ones are abysmal.” Problems include challenges integrating disparate business units, conflicts in corporate culture and getting beat by rivals who respond faster to changes in market conditions.