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July 19, 2012 (FCC's Measuring Broadband America Report)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2012
Three events of note today: 1) FCC open meeting, 2) Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference, and 3) What Can Congress Learn About Its Own Tech Policy? http://benton.org/node/129112
INTERNET/BROADBAND
ISPs improve delivery of the Internet speeds you pay for
M-Lab Supports Call for FCC to Commit to Openness and Transparency in Broadband Measurement
Norway has more bandwidth than all of Africa -- and other broadband gaps
Recap -- Digital Divide: Expanding Broadband Access to Small Businesses
Government reach for secure electric grid exceeds its grasp [links to web]
Cogeco Cable Buying Atlantic Broadband To Expand In US [links to web]
Sen Rubio opposes UN Internet regulation [links to web]
Online sales tax bill is approached with caution
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Mobile Phone Access Reaches Three Quarters of Planet's Population - press release
AT&T to Introduce Shared Data Plans in August [links to web]
How AT&T learned from Verizon’s shared-data mistakes - analysis
FCC Commissioners at Minority Media & Telecom Council's Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference
Is Wi-Fi the answer to mobile operators' woes? [links to web]
AT&T chief says network is getting stronger [links to web]
HTC files counterclaims against Apple with two acquired patents [links to web]
Judge rejects secrecy bids in Apple vs. Samsung battle [links to web]
LightSquared Judge Prepared To Approve $51.4 Million Loan [links to web]
Samsung Asks To Limit Apple References To Jobs At Trial
TELEVISION/RADIO
A Record Amount of TV News…Again - research
Cable's new business drama - editorial
Denied Nickelodeon, DirecTV’s Youngest Clients Find Substitutes [links to web]
NAB, Hearst Slam TWC Over Retransmission [links to web]
Aereo CEO on dismantling television as we know it [links to web]
How Kickstarter could disrupt public radio
Internet TV Usage Growing [links to web]
Online Video Breaks Ad, Viewer Records [links to web]
Viacom sees red: Ratings bloodbath from DirecTV fight [links to web]
PRIVACY
Senators Urge Facebook to Make Tagging Opt-In
Yes, we should be afraid of facial-recognition software - editorial
Face blurring: when footage requires anonymity - press release [links to web]
Mobile Phones and Privacy - research
Online privacy: Do we need 'Do-Not-Track'? - op-ed
Personal info tapped with an app [links to web]
CONTENT
Why the Washington Post will never have a paywall
E-books Are Booming, and Still Sort of Small [links to web]
Online comic Penny Arcade seeks $1 million to go ad-free [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Jokes About Fox News Creep Into Obama’s Comments as the Campaign Heats Up
Mitt Romney ad returns to Web
Rush Limbaugh's Batman Conspiracy: I Never Said Villain Was Created For 2012 Campaign
Political Ad Database Debuted by FCC [links to web]
LABOR
What Marissa Mayer Means for Silicon Valley Women
FCC REFORM
Unlocking Investment and Innovation in the Digital Age: The Path to a 21st-Century FCC
FCC Proposes FY 2012 Regulatory Fee Reform - public notice
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NSA Mimics Google, Pisses Off Senate
EFF says FBI gag orders violate service providers' free speech rights [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
As Apple and Samsung vie over tablet patents, judge at center of a tech storm
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Digital Freedom of Expression in Uzbekistan - research
UK Judge Orders Apple to Publicly Recant Galaxy Copycat Claim [links to web]
France plans action on telcos in September [links to web]
Judge steps down over US ‘enemy’ comment in Megaupload case [links to web]
In Egypt, new newspapers and old problems [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Young Hispanics' Media Use Varies By Gender [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC BROADBAND REPORT
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Mike Snide]
In the Federal Communications Commission's second annual "Measuring Broadband America" report, to be released July 19, the agency found that Internet service providers (ISPs), on average, delivered 96% of their advertised download speeds during peak hours, defined as 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time. That's up from 87% for download speeds in the first report last year. ISPs delivered 107% of advertised upload speeds, up from 103% last year. All types of home broadband delivery technology — cable, DSL and fiber optic — showed improved performance. Fiber led the way by delivering, on average, 117% of the advertised speed in prime time, up from 114% in 2011. Cable improved to 99%, up from 93%. DSL rose to 84% from 82%. Not only were ISPs providing more consistent, faster broadband service, but consumers were opting for pricier, faster connections. The average consumer in the survey of about 6,200 U.S. homes increased their service to an average download speed of 14.3 megabits per second (Mbps), up 30% from last year.
benton.org/node/129955 | USAToday | Broadcasting&Cable
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BROADBAND MEASURMENT
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Sascha Meinrath]
Over 60 preeminent researchers for network and Internet measurement sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski urging the FCC to commit to the following principles and actions for broadband measurement:
All network data collected be released publicly, in its raw, non-aggregated form, no later than one year after its collection date.
The tests used to measure the network be open-source, allowing the methodology used in measurement to be vetted and improved by collective scientific insight.
The measurement infrastructure on which the tests run be openly documented, consistently run, and independently managed by the research community.
The analytic and statistical methodologies applied to the raw data in the production of a published report be released openly, allowing peer review and replication of results by independent researchers.
The program make commitments to operational openness that explicitly includes participants from the research and public interest community.
benton.org/node/129923 | New America Foundation
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BROADBAND GAPS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Broadband use in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are growing incredibly quickly, but developed nations are still the heaviest broadband users. This research shouldn’t come as any big surprise but the fact that Norway has access to more bandwidth than the entire African continent sure does. In 2011, there was 677 Gigabits per second of used capacity connected to Africa and 729 Gbps of used capacity connected to Norway. For perspective, almost 23 Terabits per second of capacity connects North America. The Middle East has access to 2.3 Terabits of capacity, a boost of 98 percent from the previous year, while Latin America has 5.6 Tbps. And all areas of the world are growing.
benton.org/node/129891 | GigaOm
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BROADBAND AND SMALL BUSINESS HEARING
[SOURCE: House Committee on Small Business]
The House Committee on Small Business conducted a hearing titled, Digital Divide: Expanding Broadband Access to Small Businesses. The purpose of the hearing was to examine the role of the federal government in expanding broadband access to small businesses in the United States. Specifically, the Committee heard from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Department of Commerce, and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the United States Department of Agriculture on the status of current broadband programs and the overall strategy to expand broadband capabilities to small businesses.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spent a lot of his time defending the FCC's reform of the Universal Service Fund, specifically the decision to phase out support to areas with multiple subsidized carriers or where there is an unsubsidized competitor. Numerous legislators on both sides of the aisle had heard from small businesses in their districts that faced the phase-out of federal dollars. Their complaints included that the subsidy withdrawal could kill their companies, that the case-by-case waiver process the FCC included was burdensome and costly, and that the FCC's regression analysis model for capping the fund was unreliable. Chairman Genachowski pointed out that there were going to be transition issues for some of the companies as support was moved from those areas to unserved ones. He said the FCC was currently considering nine or 10 waiver requests, that the FCC had made that process as streamlined as possible, that filing requirements in terms of paperwork included important financial information the FCC needed, and that the waiver requests were for millions of dollars -- between $250 and $1,300 per subscriber -- so the FCC needed to determine if they were justified. He pointed out that it was the FCC's duty to make sure that public money was going where it was most needed because if it was not there would be less to go to other places -- fill in the name of the state his interrogator represented. He also rejected the suggestion by one legislator that the subsidy phase-out would drive companies out of business.
NTIA head Larry Strickling said that the agency should be finished with its agency-by-agency survey of possible spectrum sharing between the government and private industry by January. Chairman Genachowski said that clearing as well as sharing must be part of the equation. Strickling made the point that if the government had to clear all the spectrum it freed up, which would include finding new homes for all those agencies and allocations, it would take 10 years and $18 billion. He said that was too much time and money, which was why sharing "was the path we need to go."
benton.org/node/129930 | House Committee on Small Business | B&C - Genachowski | B&C - Strickling | Chairman Genachowski | Asst Sec Strickling | Jonathan Adelstein, RUS
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ONLINE SALES TAX BILL
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
Despite the support of about a dozen GOP governors, conservative Republicans on the Hill have a way to go before they are willing to support a federal bill on online sales tax. The lawmakers tend to view — or fear their constituents will view — the measures as a tax increase. And that just won’t fly in 2012. “In this election season, any reference to tax increase, especially for a conservative Republican, is toxic,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), one of the sponsors of the House bill. Conservative lawmakers have concerns. One is whether supporting the bill is in violation of the Americans for Tax Reform’s no new taxes pledge, something many Republicans have signed. The organization has yet to make a determination about whether support is in violation.
benton.org/node/129944 | Politico
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
MOBILE PHONE ACCESS REACHES 3/4 OF PLANET’S POPULATION
[SOURCE: World Bank, AUTHOR: Press release]
Around three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants now have access to a mobile phone and the mobile communications story is moving to a new level, which is not so much about the phone but how it is used, says a new report released today by the World Bank and infoDev, its technology entrepreneurship and innovation program. The number of mobile subscriptions in use worldwide, both pre-paid and post-paid, has grown from fewer than 1 billion in 2000 to over 6 billion now, of which nearly 5 billion in developing countries. Ownership of multiple subscriptions is becoming increasingly common, suggesting that their number will soon exceed that of the human population. According to Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile, more than 30 billion mobile applications, or “apps,” were downloaded in 2011 – software that extends the capabilities of phones, for instance to become mobile wallets, navigational aids or price comparison tools. In developing countries, citizens are increasingly using mobile phones to create new livelihoods and enhance their lifestyles, while governments are using them to improve service delivery and citizen feedback mechanisms. The report emphasizes the role of governments in enabling mobile application development. It also highlights how mobile innovation labs – shared spaces for training developers and incubating start-ups – can help bring new apps to market. For instance, infoDev, in collaboration with the Government of Finland and Nokia, has established five regional mobile innovation labs (mLabs) in Armenia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Vietnam. infoDev is also using mobile social networking to bring grassroots entrepreneurs together with other stakeholders in mobile hubs (mHubs).
benton.org/node/129870 | World Bank
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AT&T LEARNED FROM VERIZON
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
When Verizon Wireless announced its new shared-data plans in June, it should have enjoyed a big advantage over its arch-rival, AT&T. Consumers had been demanding the right to pool data among their families and between devices, and Verizon was the first carrier to deliver. Instead, Verizon fumbled, and AT&T now knows exactly what to do with the ball. Verizon’s new plans brought on immediate backlash, as it will be forcing all new customers onto the plans regardless of whether they have multiple data devices or not. In addition, those customers have no choice but to pay for unlimited talk and text as part of their monthly plans, which runs counter to consumer trends. Smartphone subscribers are using more data while cutting their usage of traditional voice and SMS. In that sense, Verizon is robbing Peter to pay Paul. According to Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at Ovum, AT&T had a month to watch Verizon’s missteps and Ma Bell has capitalized on them, even though it’s still offering essentially the same shared-data pricing structure.
benton.org/node/129918 | GigaOm
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FCC COMMISSIONERS AT MMTC
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission members Jessica Rosenworcel, Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn all fielded questions at an FCC commissioner luncheon at the Minority Media & Telecom Council's Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference in Washington. Commissioner Rosenworcel said that upcoming incentive auctions would be a "big and innovative" undertaking. She emphasized that the auctions were voluntary and that broadcasters should have a full and fair opportunity to remain in the business. But for those that volunteer to give up spectrum, she said, there will be must-carry rights for those who share channels, and compensation. Commissioner Robert McDowell said he agreed with strong build-out conditions for spectrum reclaimed in incentive auctions. He also put in a plug for flexible use of spectrum, spotlighting Wi-Fi and its lightning rise from a technology that nobody knew about to one everybody had to have. Commissioner Clyburn said the FCC should consider new entrant bidding credits for the upcoming spectrum auctions to make it more attractive to small businesses.
benton.org/node/129897 | Broadcasting&Cable
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JOBS NOT ON TRIAL
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joel Rosenblatt]
Samsung Electronics asked U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to restrict references by Apple’s lawyers to the company’s late founder Steve Jobs at a jury trial scheduled for July 30 over mobile-device patents. Harold McElhinny, a lawyer for Apple, said that he plans to show jurors two slides of Jobs during opening statements in the case. The slides include one when Jobs announced the release of the iPhone in 2007 -- an “announcement that went around the world,” the lawyer said. “I’m not doing a complete prohibition of Steve Jobs, but it needs to be relevant,” Judge Koh said, adding that she wants to see the images Apple wants to display before she issues a final ruling.
benton.org/node/129949 | Bloomberg | Reuters
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TELEVISION/RADIO
RECORD AMOUNT OF TV NEWS
[SOURCE: Radio Television Digital News Association, AUTHOR: Bob Papper]
For the fourth year in a row, the latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey found that the average television station set a new record for the amount of local news aired. Over those last four years, the average amount of weekday news has gone from 4:36 to 5:00 to 5:18 last year. This year, it's up another 12 minutes to five and a half hours per weekday. The average network affiliate is even higher at 5:48.
benton.org/node/129941 | Radio Television Digital News Association
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CABLE’S NEW BUSINESS MODEL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The emergence of low-cost movies and TV programs online shows that the industry is in transition, and the increasingly bitter battles between networks and pay-TV operators suggest that neither side has a grip yet on how these new sources affect the value of the established ones. (Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, also owns local television stations in 23 markets, which negotiate with pay-TV operators over retransmission fees.) The spreading blackouts may leave consumers angry enough to switch providers or dump pay TV entirely; when it comes to filling their TV screens, they have more options now than ever before. But even if viewers stay put, the blackouts also may be a sign that, after years of routinely hiking prices, pay-TV providers no longer see their customers' wallets as bottomless.
benton.org/node/129948 | Los Angeles Times
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KICKSTARTER AND PUBLIC RADIO
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Janko Roettgers]
“We interrupt our regular program . . .” These words, uttered into microphones across the country every few months, are the beginning of a recurring nightmare for public radio. Listeners dread the seemingly never-ending pledge drives, and radio executives sweat over the fear that their funding goals aren’t being met in times of economic hardship and declining public funds. The good news is that Kickstarter and other forms of crowdfunding could eventually replace these pledge drives. However, they could also change public radio forever. Some radio producers have already begun to turn to Kickstarter, Indiegogo and similar sites to raise funds for their shows.
benton.org/node/129895 | GigaOm
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PRIVACY
FACIAL RECOGNITION HEARING
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) kicked over a new front on the privacy debate, holding a hearing to explore facial recognition technology and raise awareness about its potential impact on privacy. Only a few years ago the stuff of sci-fi, facial recognition is quickly becoming pervasive, in digital signs to deliver targeted ads, as a way for consumers to unlock smart phones, and as part of social networking sites like Facebook. The state department uses facial recognition to stop passport fraud, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is working on a pilot biometric ID program to process criminal mug shots. “There’s nothing inherently right or wrong with facial recognition technology. It’s a tool that can be used for great good. It can also be abused,” said Sen Franken, chairman of the subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, who ran most of the hearing solo. “Our privacy laws are almost totally unprepared for this technology.” But, said Chairman Franken, “there are uses that should give us pause. Facebook may have created the world’s largest database without [the] knowledge of its users.”
benton.org/node/129925 | AdWeek | Federal Trade Commission
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FACIAL-RECOGNITION SOFTWARE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Derrick Harris]
[Commentary] My gut instinct is to call Sen Al Franken (D-MN) a well-meaning fool when it comes to his latest outcry — this time against the advent of facial-recognition software — but he actually has a point. By and large, I think Congress should leave new web technologies alone so they can grow organically and we, the people — who are actually perfectly able to adjust to them — can decide the limits with which we’re comfortable. If someone gets out of line, agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission are more than capable of bringing down the regulatory hammer on an individual basis. But facial recognition is a whole new beast. I’m not even so concerned about government or law enforcement agencies using facial recognition to identify suspects under murky constitutional protection (although it is a legitimate concern). Rather I’m more troubled about the thought of any average Joe having this power at his own fingertips.
benton.org/node/129946 | GigaOm
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MOBILE PHONES AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Social Science Research Network, AUTHOR: Jennifer Urban, Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Su Li]
Mobile phones are a rich source of personal information about individuals. Both private and public sector actors seek to collect this information. Facebook, among other companies, recently ignited a controversy by collecting contact lists from users’ mobile phones via its mobile app. A recent Congressional investigation found that law enforcement agencies sought access to wireless phone records over one million times in 2011. As these developments receive greater attention in the media, a public policy debate has started concerning the collection and use of information by private and public actors. To inform this debate and to better understand Americans’ attitudes towards privacy in data generated by or stored on mobile phones, we commissioned a nationwide, telephonic (both wireline and wireless) survey of 1,200 households focusing upon mobile privacy issues. We found that Americans overwhelmingly consider information stored on their mobile phones to be private — at least as private as information stored on their home computers. They also overwhelmingly reject several types of data collection and use drawn from current business practices. Specifically, large majorities reject the collection of contact lists stored on the phone for the purposes of tailoring social network “friend” suggestions and providing coupons, the collection of location data for tailoring ads, and the use of wireless contact information for telemarketing, even where there is a business relationship between the consumer and merchant. Respondents evinced strong support for substantial limitations on the retention of wireless phone usage data. Respondents also thought that some prior court oversight is appropriate when police seek to search a wireless phone when arresting an individual.
benton.org/node/129877 | Social Science Research Network | Chris Jay Hoofnagle
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DO WE NEED ‘DO-NOT-TRACK’?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Thomas Lenard]
[Commentary] Can “self-regulation” adequately protect privacy online? That question was posed during a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing focused on the current self-regulatory effort to develop a “Do-Not-Track” (DNT) mechanism—and answered in the negative by the committee’s senior Democrats, who believe privacy legislation is long overdue. Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) emphasized that he was speaking for consumers. But despite years of such hearings, the benefits to consumers of privacy regulation of any kind—let alone net benefits (i.e., benefits minus costs)—have yet to be demonstrated. A bad idea does not become better if it is pushed through a “self-regulatory” process. DNT would either prevent users’ online browsing information from being collected or prevent them from seeing “behavioral advertising”—advertising targeted to their interests. Either way, DNT has the potential to strike at the heart of the Internet. Self-regulation is an example of a “multistakeholder” process, which is in vogue these days. But such processes usually leave out many interested parties. Consumers are not directly represented, nor are those who might want to start a business with a new idea. The most powerful multistakeholder process—which reconciles the interests of many more stakeholders than possibly can be accommodated in a committee process—is still the market. And, there is no evidence the market is not working. [Lenard is president and a senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]
benton.org/node/129909 | Hill, The
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CONTENT
WASHINGTON POST
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
The list of major newspapers that haven’t at least experimented with a paywall or subscription option for online content is pretty short, and one of the most prominent abstainers is the Washington Post. While the success of the New York Times metered paywall has sparked a wave of imitators throughout the industry, the Post has remained steadfast in its opposition to that approach — despite the financial pressures the company is under. At a recent technology conference in Colorado, publisher and controlling shareholder Don Graham talked at some length about why the newspaper hasn’t jumped on the paywall bandwagon, and his reasons make for an interesting counterpoint to much of the conventional wisdom in the media industry. Graham said that a subscription option like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal offers wouldn’t make sense for the paper for one simple reason: because the vast majority of its digital readership comes from outside the print newspaper’s circulation area, and therefore there isn’t any way to tie an online subscription to the print publication the way most of the Post‘s competitors do.
benton.org/node/129893 | GigaOm
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
OBAMA AND FOX
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
Few things seem to pique President Barack Obama like Fox News. Consider some recent barbs from the campaign trail. At a bar in Ohio where a television was tuned to Fox News, the President joked that one of the customers should ask to change the channel. “The customer is always right,” President Obama cracked. Last week he used the network as a punch line in his stump speech, saying that “Uncle Jim” — a fictional amalgam of his conservative critics — was “a little stubborn and been watching Fox News.” Then there was an interview with Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s senior advisers. Jarrett was asked why some voters had the impression that the President was attacking the rich. “Well, they may be watching one particular network,” she sniffed. “CNN?” the interviewer teased. None of this has gone unnoticed inside the studios and executive suites of Fox News, which is rebuffing these White House put-downs as a denigration of the presidency. The White House and the Obama campaign in Chicago both view Fox News with a degree of skepticism. “We work with Fox News and their reporters in a professional way every day,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “But we’re not naïve about their business model.”
benton.org/node/129957 | New York Times
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ROMNEY AD
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Mitt Romney’s campaign has quietly reposted a controversial Web ad that uses audio of President Barack Obama singing a few bars of an Al Green classic two days after YouTube took down the spot over copyright claims. The ad, which was removed from YouTube at the request of Sony BMG, returned to the Internet on Vimeo, a YouTube competitor known to be far less trigger-happy about taking down suspect material. BMG has said it was acting on behalf of Green, an Obama supporter who objected to the Romney campaign’s use of Obama’s riff of “Let’s Stay Together” at New York’s Apollo Theater in January. YouTube removed the spot after receiving the BMG complaint. The Romney campaign has sent a counter letter to YouTube appealing the removal on grounds it was a fair use and not a copyright violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Yet Romney’s camp didn’t wait to resurrect the spot. According to Vimeo, the ad was posted so quietly at 4 p.m. July 17 that it had been played just 50 times and received no comments as of 5 p.m. July 18.
benton.org/node/129942 | Politico
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LIMBAUGH EXPLAINS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: ]
Rush Limbaugh sought to clarify his controversial allegations about the political motives behind Batman. He previously wondered if it was merely "accidental" that the villain in "Dark Knight Rises" is named Bane like Mitt Romney's Bain Capital. He speculated that many movie goers would associate the two. "You may think it's ridiculous," Limbaugh said. "I'm just telling you this is the kind of stuff the Obama team is lining up." But on July 18 he said the reaction to his Batman comments was even greater than the backlash against his remarks about Sandra Fluke. He denied reports that he had a "conspiracy theory" about the movie. "I never said that the villain was created by the comic book character creator to be part of the 2012 campaign," Limbaugh claimed. "I said that Democrats were going to use it, which they are." He alleged that Jon Stewart was already "harping" on the parallel.
benton.org/node/129888 | Huffington Post, The
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LABOR
WOMEN IN SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
It was a good day for women in Silicon Valley — and women in business everywhere — when Marissa Mayer, 37, became chief executive of Yahoo and announced that she is seven months pregnant. But the good news is a blip. There remain distressingly few women among Silicon Valley engineers, start-up entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and computer science and engineering majors, for reasons including the technology industry’s girl-repelling image problem, the tiny number of powerful women role models and the insular Silicon Valley deal-making boys’ club. Still, Mayer’s two new roles mean that Silicon Valley, the heart of American innovation, could become the place where a more progressive attitude toward women and work takes root. After all, it is difficult to imagine other, more conservative industries, like finance or law, hiring a chief executive in her third trimester.
benton.org/node/129917 | New York Times
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FCC REFORM
PATH TO A 21ST-CENTURY FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai]
Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University, Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai discussed how the federal government can help accelerate economic growth and enhance job creation in the information and communications technology sector. In particular, Commissioner Pai outlined an agenda for how the FCC can modernize its regulatory approach to remove barriers to infrastructure investment and technological innovation. Here’s his proposals:
The FCC should be as nimble as the industry it oversees.
Establish an Office of Entrepreneurial Innovation, charged with reviewing proposals for new technologies and services within one year, consistent with section 7 of the Communications Act.
Enhance transparency by creating centralized webpage to keep track of FCC’s compliance with statutory and internal deadlines.
Establish nine-month deadline to resolve applications for review.
Establish six-month deadline to resolve waiver requests.
The FCC should prioritize the removal of regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment.
Establish an IP Transition Task Force to create recommendations within nine months on how the FCC can accelerate the transition to an IP world.
Forbear from applying section 652 to allow pro-competitive mergers between CLECs and cable operators.
Ensure USF support is predictable.
Move forward quickly with Phase II of the Connect America Fund for price-cap carriers and wireless providers.
Rethink the yearly adjustment of spending limits on rate-of-return carriers.
Settle the nine-year-old contributions reform proceeding.
The FCC should accelerate its efforts to allocate additional spectrum for mobile broadband.
An “all of the above” approach is needed for spectrum policy.
Adopt rules for AWS-4 by September 2012.
Adopt rules to facilitate broadband in the WCS spectrum by August 2012.
Commence rulemaking on incentive auctions in fall 2012 and set a deadline to conduct the auctions by June 30, 2014.
benton.org/node/129904 | Federal Communications Commission | speech summary | The Hill | B&C
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FCC REGULATORY FEE REFORM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on proposals to reform the FCC’s policies and procedures for assessing and collecting regulatory fees. This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on the issues related to how the FCC should allocate its regulatory costs among different segments of the communications industry. In particular, we seek comment on:
What the Overarching Goals of the Regulatory Fee Program Should Be. We propose three goals to guide our regulatory fee policymaking—fairness, administrability, and sustainability—and we seek comment on these goals and invite commenters to propose others.
Regulatory Costs Should Be Allocated. Section 9 of the Communications Act requires that regulatory fees be derived by determining the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) performing certain activities. We propose to change the way we allocate “direct” and “indirect” FTEs to calculate regulatory fees. The proposals on which we seek comment are based on aggregated bureau-level FTE data, and would allocate all FTEs in the Wireless Telecommunications, Media, Wireline Competition, and International Bureaus as “direct” and all FTEs in the support bureaus and offices as “indirect.”
How Current Cost Allocation Percentages Should Be Revised. We then look at the cost allocation percentages that we use now and propose to update these percentages using current FTE data derived from the reallocation of FTEs described above. We set out the adjustments projected to result from these updates, examine the impact of these adjustments on the categories of fee payors, ask whether and how we should mitigate the impact of any substantial fee increases that would result, and ask whether any other
changes are necessary to ensure an equitable result.
benton.org/node/129901 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC Commissioner McDowell | FCC Commissioner Pai | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NSA AND THE SENATE
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Cade Metz]
In 2008, a team of software coders inside the National Security Agency started reverse-engineering the database that ran Google. They closely followed the Google research paper describing BigTable — the sweeping database that underpinned many of the Google’s online services, running across tens of thousands of computer servers — but they also went a little further. In rebuilding this massive database, they beefed up the security. After all, this was the NSA. Like Google, the agency needed a way of storing and retrieving massive amounts of data across an army of servers, but it also needed extra tools for protecting all that data from prying eyes. They added “cell level” software controls that could separate various classifications of data, ensuring that each user could only access the information they were authorized to access. It was a key part of the NSA’s effort to improve the security of its own networks. But the NSA also saw the database as something that could improve security across the federal government — and beyond. Last September, the agency open sourced its Google mimic, releasing the code as the Accumulo project. It’s a common open source story — except that the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to put the brakes on the project.
benton.org/node/129880 | Wired
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POLICYMAKERS
JUDGE LUCY KOH
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
As Apple and Samsung escalated a multibillion-dollar war over one of the hottest consumer gadgets of our time, the tablet computer, a little-known judge did for Apple what the company couldn’t do on its own: She shut down the competition. The stunning move by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh to temporarily order Samsung’s tablets off the shelves last month rippled across the tech industry because her decision came as sales of the devices are surging. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was one of the few 10-inch screen tablets that could go toe-to-toe with Apple’s iPad. “If she wasn’t known before, she is now,” said Florian Mueller, an intellectual-property analyst who runs the patent blog FOSS Patents. “Her decisions on these cases will be cited a lot going forward.” For Judge Koh, the reason for the sales ban was clear. “Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products,” Judge Koh wrote in her opinion. She said Apple would be “irreparably harmed” if sales of the Galaxy Tab continued. Now, as the case heads to a jury trial this month, all eyes are on the 43-year-old judge. On the one hand, Judge Koh is the ideal person to review such suits. She is an expert on intellectual-property law, having practiced patent litigation for about a decade in private practice. On the other hand, she is a rookie judge who was appointed by President Obama in 2010. In just one year, she has taken on hundreds of cases, and she now grapples with the massive attention the tablet and smartphone patent suits have drawn from the captains of the high-tech industry. It’s a baptism by fire.
benton.org/node/129951 | Washington Post
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
DIGITAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN UZBEKISTAN
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Sarah Kendzior]
The 2011 uprisings in the Middle East have prompted speculation about whether digital technology can and will be used to foment similar uprisings in former Soviet authoritarian states. This paper examines the relationship between political activism and internet freedom in Uzbekistan. It argues that while the internet is a critical tool for political expression, its utility as a tool for activism is challenged both by threats from the government and by fear and apathy among Uzbek internet users. It further discusses how the Uzbek government has responded to these technologies and the problems Uzbeks face when using them for political purposes. Laws and regulations on the internet in Uzbekistan have been changed in reaction to political events especially the 2005 violence in Andijon. As a result the national security services now play a large role in internet regulation and changes made to the legal code and state technological infrastructure ensure centralized control. As of 2012, Uzbekistan has the most severe restrictions on internet use in Central Asia. The government uses filters, monitoring, intimidation, and violence to keep people from freely accessing the internet, and justifies these policies under the pretext of protecting national values. Ordinary citizens in Uzbekistan are wary of using the internet for political purposes and practice self-censorship online. Yet despite the efforts of the government to control user activity, the internet serves a valuable purpose for Uzbeks willing and able to circumvent state prohibitions.
This paper makes several key policy recommendations aimed at encouraging freedom of expression in Uzbekistan and similar societies. These include encouraging circumvention efforts, developing safe spaces for online discourse, and translating, copying, and preserving Uzbek online media.
benton.org/node/129921 | New America Foundation
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