February 1, 2012 (FCC Reforms, Modernizes Lifeline Program)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Augmenting Mobile Broadband in Your Community http://benton.org/calendar/2012-02-01/

DIGITAL DIVIDE
   FCC Reforms, Modernizes Lifeline Program for Low-Income Americans - press release
   Mixed Reaction to FCC's Lifeline/Linkup Reform [links to web]
   Comcast connects 41,000 families to Internet through low-cost program
   NCTA Advises USDA to Help Institute FCC's USF Reforms

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Global broadband zooms, US penetration is over 80 percent
   Sen. Rockefeller presses Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation [links to web]
   The Critical Role Broadband Plays in Today's Economy - press release [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out
   Facebook IPO to spark valley economy

PRIVACY
   Senators, witnesses slam amendment to video privacy law
   Lawmakers say questions remain about Google’s policy
   Google to give closed-door briefing on policy changes
   Privacy Caucus Echoes Facial Recognition Concerns [links to web]
   Poll: Most Consumers Concerned About New Google Privacy Policy [links to web

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Reed Hundt rips House spectrum bill
   Sprint grants LightSquared new extension to get FCC clearance [links to web]
   The Wireless Equivalent of Fracking - editorial

CONTENT
   EU Data Rules Worse Than SOPA? - analysis
   What Broadcast And Cable Executives Still Don’t Understand About YouTube [links to web]
   Study: As E-Readers Increase, So Does Resistance [links to web]
   Barnes & Noble: We Will Not Carry Amazon Publishing Titles In Our Stores [links to web]
   New tactic in mass file-sharing lawsuit: just insult the EFF - analysis [links to web]
   Be Better at Twitter: The Definitive, Data-Driven Guide [links to web]
   The secret behind the SOPA defeat [links to web]
   Feasting on junk info - op-ed
   White House office studies benefits of video games
   Marketing to Young Fans on Their Technology Level

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Gingrich vs. Romney: Whose website got the most hits? [links to web]
   Would President Romney Be Good For Tech, Science, And Space Innovation In The US? [links to web]

TELECOM
   Will AT&T Get Rid of the Yellow Pages? [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:

   Global broadband zooms, US penetration is over 80 percent
   EU Data Rules Worse Than SOPA? - analysis
   Introducing the iFactory - editorial [links to web]
   Gov.uk launches one UK government website to rule them all [links to web]
   Thailand welcomes Twitter's new censorship policy [links to web]
   London Lagging Rest of the UK for 3G Mobile Broadband Speeds [links to web]
   Petition calls for “ethical” iPhone 5 [links to web]
   BlackBerry Under Siege in Europe [links to web]
   Machine-to-Machine Communications: Connecting Billions of Devices - research [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   President Obama Sends Startup America Legislative Agenda to Congress [links to web]
   Public-Private Standards Efforts to Make America Strong - press release [links to web]
   FCC apologizes to Sen. Grassley for 'McCarthyism' remark [links to web]

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DIGITAL DIVIDE

FCC REFORMS, MODERNIZES LIFELINE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Acting to reform and modernize a program vital to ensuring affordable communications for low-income consumers, the Federal Communications Commission approved a comprehensive overhaul of its Lifeline program. As a universal service program that fulfills Congress’s mandate to ensure the availability of communications to all Americans, Lifeline for the past 25 years has helped tens of millions of low-income Americans afford basic phone service. Access to telephone service is essential for finding a job, connecting with family, or getting help in an emergency, and the percentage of low-income households with phone service has increased from 80% in 1985, when Lifeline began, to nearly 92% last year. But the program faces real challenges, including rules that have failed to keep pace as consumers increasingly choose wireless phone service, and that create perverse incentives for some carriers.
The FCC’s Lifeline reforms address these and other challenges:
Changes to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, saving up to $2 billion over 3 years
Setting a savings target of $200 million for 2012, and putting the Commission in a position to adopt an appropriate budget for the program in early 2013 after review of a six-month report and one-year report on the effects of the Order.
Creation of a National Lifeline Accountability Database to prevent multiple carriers from receiving support for the same subscriber. The database will build on FCC efforts in 2011 that eliminated nearly 270,000 duplicate subscriptions in 12 states following review of over 3.6 million subscriber records, saving $33 million.
Creation of eligibility databases from governmental data sources, enabling fully automated verification of consumers’ initial and ongoing Lifeline eligibility. This would reduce the potential for fraud while cutting red tape for consumers and providers. A database based on the three most common federal benefit programs through which consumers qualify for Lifeline will be created no later than the end of 2013.
Establishing a one-per-household rule applicable to all providers in the program, defining household as an “economic unit” so that separate low-income families living at the same address can get connected.
Establishing clear goals and metrics to measure program performance and effectiveness.
Phasing out support for services such as Toll Limitation – subsidies to carriers for blocking or restricting long-distance service—and ending Link Up – subsidies to carriers for initial connection charges. Link Up will continue in Tribal lands.
Reducing burdens on carriers by establishing a uniform, interim flat rate of reimbursement, allowing carriers to obtain a subscriber’s signature electronically, and streamlining enrollment through uniform, nationwide eligibility criteria.
Adopting an express goal for the program of ensuring availability of broadband for all low-income Americans.
Establish a Broadband Adoption Pilot Program using up to $25 million in savings from other reforms to test and determine how Lifeline can best be used to increase broadband adoption among Lifeline-eligible consumers. Starting this year, the program will solicit applications from broadband providers and will select a number of projects to fund. Lifeline will help reduce the monthly cost of broadband service, but applicants will be expected to help address other challenges to broadband adoption, including the cost of devices and digital literacy.
Proposes increasing digital literacy training at libraries and schools. A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on using savings from other Universal Service Fund reforms to increase digital literacy training at libraries and schools, a key step in increasing broadband adoption.
Build on FCC efforts to close the broadband adoption gap and address digital literacy, including the Connect-to-Compete initiative, which enlists government, non-profit, and private sector leaders to address broadband adoption barriers through digital literacy training and low-cost broadband availability.
Allow Lifeline support for bundled services plans combining voice and broadband or packages including optional calling features.
benton.org/node/112063 | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Genachowski | Commissioner McDowell | Commissioner Clyburn | Washington Post | USAToday | The Hill | B&C | National Journal
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COMCAST ESSENTIALS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Comcast announced that 41,000 families, an estimated 160,000 Americans, took advantage of the company's low-cost Internet program last year. Comcast's Internet Essentials plan offers broadband Internet service for $9.95 per month to low-income families. The company agreed to offer the plan to gain approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its $13.8 billion merger with NBC-Universal last year. The plan also offers a laptop computer for less than $150 to eligible families. Comcast said it sold 5,500 computers during 2011. Comcast said it advertised the program in 4,000 school districts and more than 30,000 schools.
benton.org/node/112051 | Hill, The
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NCTA, USDA AND USF REFORM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has advised Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to work with, not against, the Federal Communications Commission to reform the Universal Service Fund. In a letter to Vilsack, NCTA President Michael Powell, a former FCC chairman, said that all parties had to make concessions, but that the reform effort needs to proceed. Powell said he appreciated that the USF reform has "significant consequences" for the phone companies that receive loans from the USDAs' Rural Utilities Service, but that those rural carriers assertions that the reform order is a "downside only" approach is wrong. NCTA was weighing in after the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance wrote Vilsack to take issue with the FCC's USF reform, adopted last fall, and ask USDA to intervene, to advise against some of those changes.
benton.org/node/112081 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP

FACEBOOK IPO
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta, Evelyn Rusli]
Facebook, the vast online social network, is poised to file for a public stock offering on Feb 1 that will ultimately value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, cashing in on the fuel that powers the engine of Internet commerce: personal data. The company has been busily collecting that data for seven years, compiling the information that its more than 800 million users freely share about themselves and their desires. Facebook’s value will be determined by whether it can leverage this commodity to attract advertisers, and how deftly the company can handle privacy concerns raised by its users and government regulators worldwide. As the biggest offering of a social networking company, the sale is the clearest evidence yet that investors believe there is a lot of money to be made from the social Web. Facebook’s dominance in this field has left Google, a Web king from an earlier era — less than a decade ago — racing to catch up.
benton.org/node/112091 | New York Times
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FACEBOOK IPO
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Swift]
Eight years after the fateful decision by a Harvard sophomore to spend a summer in California working on his new website, that choice is about to pay off in a big way -- not just for Mark Zuckerberg and the roughly 3,000 employees of Facebook, but for Silicon Valley and the rest of the Golden State. Even as Facebook begins the process of offering its stock to the public, the wealth being created by the company is already rippling through the local economy, and experts say the IPO will buoy the valley even more in future years. Anticipation of the biggest IPO ever for an Internet company has real estate agents seeing a note of urgency in the local market, Wall Street money managers moving in for a piece of the action, and even state budget analysts factoring in a "Facebook effect" that could top $1 billion. The Facebook IPO "is a continuation of this little mini-surge we're having right now" in the valley's economy, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Unlike the dot.com boom and bust, Levy said, fast-growing social networking companies such as Facebook, Zynga and LinkedIn "are real companies, many of them with millions of customers."
benton.org/node/112090 | San Jose Mercury News
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PRIVACY

VIDEO PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT HEARING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law held a hearing to examine proposed changes to the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which requires firms to obtain customers' consent before sharing any information about their video rental history. Changing a crucial video privacy law to allow companies to obtain blanket consent to share customers' viewing choices would gut one of the government's most effective privacy laws, according to witnesses and lawmakers. Several lawmakers and witnesses used their opening remarks to criticize H.R. 2471, which passed the House in December and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director Marc Rotenberg said the bill could gut what is in many respects a model privacy law. The bill would amend the VPPA to allow video providers to obtain consent to share customers' viewing histories up front rather than every time the information is shared. Netflix has strongly backed the bill to enable easier sharing of customer viewing habits on sites like Facebook.
benton.org/node/112055 | Hill, The | AdWeek | B&C
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LAWMAKERS STILL HAVE QUESTIONS FOR GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Lawmakers said that they still have questions regarding Google’s privacy policies after receiving an explanatory letter from the company. Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Ed Markey (D-MA) both said they had lingering questions about the policy, particularly about whether the company will allow its account holders to opt out of data collection and integration between its services. Rep Stearns praised Google for responding quickly and simplifying its policies, but said that he would like Google to brief lawmakers on its responses before the policy goes into effect March 1. Rep Markey said that he understands that integrating data makes good business sense for Google, but that he believes it “undermines privacy safeguards” in place for consumers.
benton.org/node/112087 | Washington Post
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GOOGLE CLOSED DOOR HEARING
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Byron Acohido]
Google CEO Larry Page won't be testifying before Congress this week. In response to an invitation last week from Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), who asked Page to appear and explain the company's user policy changes, two other Google executives will appear. Google deputy general counsel Mike Yang and public policy director Pablo Chavez are preparing to deliver a closed-door briefing on Feb 2, says Ken Johnson, Mack's senior adviser. The audience will be restricted to members of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, which Mack chairs. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) is the ranking minority subcommittee member.
benton.org/node/112085 | USAToday
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

HUNDT RIPS SPECTRUM BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt called the House GOP spectrum legislation "the single worst telecom bill" he has ever seen at a briefing on Capitol Hill. "It should be rejected, not compromised with," Hundt said. The bill would restrict the FCC's ability to impose conditions on the companies that buy the spectrum and would prohibit the FCC from designating the spectrum it reclaims from broadcasters for unlicensed use. Unlicensed spectrum, which can be used by any company for free, powers technologies such as Wi-Fi, garage-door openers and remote controls. Hundt was the most outspoken in his blunt criticism of the House bill, saying the legislation focuses on one topic and "gets everything about that topic wrong." He worried that the bill would allow the largest wireless carriers to buy up all of the spectrum at auction, expanding their dominance of the airwaves. He said the carriers might not even plan to use some of the spectrum but could buy it just to kill off competition. He argued that Congress should rely on the FCC to use its technical expertise to set the conditions of the auction. "It's not a good idea to have Congress act like an agency and pass legislation that's ten times longer than it needs to be," Hundt said. "This is a microcosm of why the American people are so unhappy with government in Washington."
benton.org/node/112053 | Hill, The
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WI-FI AND FRACKING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins Jr]
[Commentary] Freedom to innovate is a concept that was lost in the fiasco of the government's recent review and quashing of a proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. Regulators feared the wireless industry congealing into an uncompetitive duopoly of AT&T and Verizon thanks to an alleged shortage of regulated spectrum. Yet this picture was already being utterly upended by the mobile equivalent of fracking. The mobile equivalent of fracking is Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is free, unregulated spectrum, separate from the regulated spectrum that mobile operators buy from the government. Faster than anyone might have guessed, Wi-Fi is blowing up the distinction between fixed and wireless networks and exerting subtle but serious downward pressure on what cellular operators can charge for access to their cellular networks. You, me or the kid down the block can set up a Wi-Fi hot spot that, if open to the public, allows free high-speed access to anybody within a radius of a few hundred feet. Like fracking, only later have big companies noticed the potential and begun rolling out professionally-managed Wi-Fi networks to help deliver mobile broadband coverage without the huge costs (including spectrum costs) of building a cellular network.
benton.org/node/112088 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT

JUNK INFO
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Clay Johnson]
[Commentary] There is a new kind of ignorance afoot in the world, one that results from overconsumption of information rather than from a lack of access to it. It's fashionable to blame cable television and the Internet for this new ignorance. And it's true that if you spend much time watching cable news and surfing the Internet, you'll come away thinking that many information providers are more interested in fanning fear and feeding people's preconceived notions than they are at communicating truth. But we should really blame ourselves for the content we're seeing. Why? Because what shows up on the Internet and cable television is shaped by what we choose to click on and watch, and we're making terrible choices. Your habits have immense power. A movement led by a few dozen activists and a few high-end consumers led Wal-Mart to significantly reduce the salt, fat and sugar content in the foods it sells. You can do the same thing for the media. Let's make the market chase us. Consume deliberately, consume locally, consume close to the original source, consume less and produce more. Seek facts, not comfort. And not all the time. We'll all be better off.
benton.org/node/112084 | Los Angeles Times
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CONSTANCE STEINKUEHLER
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Greg Toppo]
If you're training for a new job someday soon with a video game controller in your hands, thank Constance Steinkuehler. This summer, when your kids' favorite science museum boasts a new augmented-reality environmental simulation? Same deal. If in the next few years a video game teaches you anything — how to conserve energy, eat a balanced diet or solve quadratic equations — consider the invisible hand of one of the most unconventional White House hires in recent memory. Steinkuehler studies video games. Since last September, she has been a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she's shaping the Obama administration's policies around games that improve health, education, civic engagement and the environment, among other areas. On leave for 18 months from the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin with MacArthur Foundation funding, Steinkuehler says the job represents "an incredible opportunity to make good on the claim that games have real promise."
benton.org/node/112082 | USAToday
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THE WHISTLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Sandomir]
The founders of the Whistle have a single aspiration: create an ESPN for kids. It is no small ambition. Sports television viewing is dominated by the habits of men 25 and older, who are targets for commercial pitches for beer, cars and insurance. Until now, pint-size fans watched what Mom, Dad and older siblings did — including the Cialis ads. ESPN’s many spin-offs include none for the 6- to 16-year-olds in the Whistle’s sights. Enter the Whistle. Rather than build an old-style brick-and-mortar cable network, it is plotting its digital domain out of its Web site; a channel on YouTube; channels that it hopes to occupy on the major gaming consoles; and time that it is buying on the NBC Sports Network. The Whistle’s executives believe that their audience can be found among the tens of millions of children who play organized sports and who navigate with increasing ease between televisions, computers, tablets, cellphones, apps and social media.
benton.org/node/112079 | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:


GLOBAL BROADBAND ZOOMS, US PENETRATION IS OVER 80 PERCENT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
Did you know that Bulgaria has the highest level of broadband adoption at 96 percent? Or that average connection speed in South Korea is 16.7 megabits per second (Mbps) versus the global average connection speed of 2.7 Mbps? These are some of the fun facts included in Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the third quarter of 2011. The company will release its report later this week. South Korean and Japanese cities dominate the top 100 cities list. Amsterdam is the fastest city in Europe (ranked #33), and San Jose was once again the fastest city in the United States with an average connection speed of 13 Mbps. It was ranked at number 13 amongst the top 100 and was one of the 23 US cities that made the list. Other US cities in the top 100 include Plano, Texas (8.9 Mbps,) Fremont, California (8.6 Mbps,) North Bergen, NJ (8.5 Mbps,) and Jersey City, New Jersey (8.2 Mbps.)
benton.org/node/112022 | GigaOm
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IS ACTA WORSE THAN SOPA?
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Thomas Claburn]
Last week, the European Commission (EC) released a draft revision of its 1995 data protection rules for the stated purpose of strengthening online privacy rights and Europe's digital economy. But the rules threaten the viability of data-driven businesses, from Google to credit bureaus, critics contend. The EC says that a single streamlined set of rules will save businesses billions in administrative work. The rules require: notification of national data authorities as soon as possible following a serious data breach; explicit rather than assumed consent for data collection; easier consumer access to data and easier transfer of that data to other providers; and support for a "right to be forgotten," which gives consumers the option under some circumstances to have their data deleted from third-party service providers. The fine for violating these European Union (EU) data rules is substantial: up to 1 million Euros or up to 2% of global annual revenue. Under this regime, Google's collection of Wi-Fi network data through its Street View cars, disclosed in 2010, could have cost the company $586 million, had the EU chosen to punish the company to the full extent of the law.
benton.org/node/112031 | InformationWeek
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