Danny Schechter, ‘News Dissector’ and Human Rights Activist
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015
Today’s super-busy agenda https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-03-24
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Next Steps in Delivering Fast, Affordable Broadband - White House press release
Commerce Department to Co-Chair Broadband Opportunity Council - Dept of Commerce press release
National Broadband Map has Helped Chart Broadband Evolution - NTIA press release
NTIA Announces Second Phase of Funding for State and Local Implementation Grant Program - press release
USDA Announces Funding for Broadband Projects in Arkansas, Iowa and New Mexico - press release
Life in the slow lane - op-ed
Did the National Broadband Plan spur innovation? - Larry Downes op-ed
Time for Special Access - AT&T press release [links to web]
Google Fiber: Oregon tax bill would make gigabit Internet 'extremely unlikely' in Portland [links to web]
Municipal broadband would boost Erie County's economy, advocates claim [links to web]
Community broadband debate centered in Wilson [links to web]
High fiber choice: EPB of Chattanooga attracts 45 percent of homes with telecom services [links to web]
From AT&T to Shentel: Which is America's cheapest (and most expensive) broadband Internet provider? [links to web]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Here are the first lawsuits to challenge the FCC’s network neutrality rules
Cable lobby eyes opening to rewrite telecommunications law
The FCC’s Net Neutrality Order Protects Internet Freedom by Restoring the Law - Free Press op-ed
Network neutrality rules let FCC police future ISP conduct
OWNERSHIP
California Public Utilities Commission delays vote on Comcast-TWC deal
New Streaming TV Services Could Weirdly Help Comcast - analysis
Comcast Said to Plan Web Video Service, Merger Opponent Says
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
FCC inches toward reforming airwave auction discounts [links to web]
Wireless Stakeholders Defend Against Alleged TV White Spaces Database Flaws [links to web]
LTE-U and Wi-Fi: What Carriers Need to Know [links to web]
AT&T makes progress on 700 MHz interoperability, likely benefiting T-Mobile [links to web]
TELEVISION
NFL to Suspend TV Blackout Policy [links to web]
NFL to Broadcast a Game Nationally Via Internet Only [links to web]
Google Fiber TV now delivers ads based on your viewing habits [links to web]
FCC Plans Maximum Fine Against WDBJ For Broadcasting Indecent Programming Material During Evening Newscast - press release [links to web]
PRIVACY/SECURITY
Silicon Valley spars with President Obama over 'backdoor' surveillance [links to web]
When Cybersecurity Meets Geopolitics [links to web]
Rep Schiff: Congress Won’t Tackle NSA Reform Before Cybersecurity [links to web]
CONTENT
NSF unveils plan to make scientific papers free [links to web]
What you don’t know about Internet algorithms is hurting you. (And you probably don’t know very much!) - analysis [links to web]
Facebook May Host News Sites’ Content [links to web]
Facebook testing out 'Phone,' but this time it's an app [links to web]
NFL to Broadcast a Game Nationally Via Internet Only [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Sen Cruz enters race for White House with website challenge [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Agencies Need Broadband Today – Why Wait for NS2020? - op-ed [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
The FTC beefs up technology investigations with new office [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
NEXT STEPS IN FAST BROADBAND
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Press release]
In January, the President traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa to announce his plan to promote “Broadband that Works,” a public-private effort to help more Americans, in more communities around the country, get access to fast and affordable broadband. On March 23, the Administration announced progress since January and new steps in that effort, including:
Reaching the National Goal of Providing 98 Percent of Americans with Access to High-Speed, Mobile Broadband.
Initiating the Most Successful Mobile Spectrum Auction in American History.
Continuing to Free Up Wireless Spectrum.
Expanding Access to Broadband in Rural and Underserved Areas.
Standing up the Broadband Opportunity Council: President signed a new Presidential Memorandum making good on his promise in Cedar Falls to stand up a new Council singularly focused on increasing broadband investment and adoption.
The Council, co-chaired by the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, includes over twenty-five different government agencies and components, all united around clear policy objectives to:
Engage with industry and other stakeholders to understand ways the government can better support the needs of communities seeking broadband investment;
Identify regulatory barriers unduly impeding broadband deployment or competition;
Survey and report back on existing programs that currently support or could be modified to support broadband competition, deployment or adoption; and
Take all necessary actions to remove these barriers and re-align existing programs to increase broadband competition, deployment, and adoption.
The Council will report back to the President, within 150 days, with the steps each agency will take to advance these goals, including specific regulatory actions or budget proposals.
Building on the FCC’s Landmark Decision to Promote Local Choice.
Continued Support to Communities & Competitors Expanding Broadband Offerings.
Department of Agriculture is announcing a total of $35 million in broadband infrastructure loans in Arkansas, New Mexico, and Iowa to deliver enhanced services to help attract and grow businesses, as well as to improve educational and health care services. Time and again, studies show that affordable broadband offers increased economic opportunities in rural areas, which is why Rural Development is committed to delivering high-speed Internet service to these communities.
Announcing the Community Broadband Summit. To carry forward the momentum, help communities leaders learn from one another, and report out the progress of our broadband initiatives, the White House will in June host the Community Broadband Summit.
benton.org/headlines/next-steps-delivering-fast-affordable-broadband | White House, The
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BROADBAND OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce, AUTHOR: Press release]
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced that the Commerce Department (along with the Department of Agriculture) will co-chair the Broadband Opportunity Council, a new federal government initiative aimed at increasing broadband investment and reducing barriers to broadband deployment and adoption. Secretary Pritzker designated Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling to serve as Commerce’s representative on the Broadband Opportunity Council. The Council will build on Commerce’s interagency work, which has promoted greater coordination on broadband policies and sharing best practices to promote broadband infrastructure and adoption funding. The Broadband Opportunity Council includes 25 federal agencies and departments that will engage with industry and other stakeholders to understand ways the government can better support the needs of communities seeking broadband investment. It will also help identify regulatory barriers unduly impeding broadband deployment or competition, and take steps to remove such barriers.
benton.org/headlines/commerce-department-co-chair-broadband-opportunity-council | Department of Commerce | more from Commerce | USDA | The Hill | telecompetitor | CNet
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NATIONAL BROADBAND MAP
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Anne Neville]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released updated broadband map data, current as of June 30, 2014. The most significant finding from the latest data is that the United States has met the President’s goal of ensuring 98 percent of the country has access to wireless broadband at a speed of at least 6 megabits per second (Mbps) down/1.5 Mbps up. Other key findings from the June 30, 2014 dataset include:
As we have seen in every data release since our first in February 2011, broadband speeds continue to increase. The rate at which we are seeing speeds increase, however, is slower at every national speed threshold that we track.
At lower speeds, Internet access is widely available across both rural and urban areas. The latest data shows that 99 percent of the country has access to advertised broadband speeds at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) through either wired or wireless services, and 93 percent have access to this speed through wired service alone.
Nearly 85 percent of the country has access to wired broadband at a speed of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up, which is the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new benchmark level for broadband speeds. Cable provides 82.69 percent of the U.S. population with speeds of 25 Mbps or more, while fiber to the premises serves about one in four Americans (24.20 percent) at that speed.
However, there is still a big gap between urban and rural areas when it comes to access to broadband at 25 Mbps. The latest data finds that only 55 percent of those in rural communities, and 32 percent of tribal lands have access to broadband at 25 mbps compared with 94 percent of urban areas.
NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative (SBI), which funded grants to collect the data used in the Broadband Map, is coming to a close. This data is the last set of data that states will collect under this program. NTIA is transitioning the broadband map to the FCC which will collect data as part of its 477 data collection program.
benton.org/headlines/national-broadband-map-has-helped-chart-broadband-evolution | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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SECOND PHASE OF GRANTS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Press release]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it will be releasing the second phase of previously-awarded grant funding for states and territories to begin collecting data necessary to plan for the nationwide public safety broadband network being developed by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 authorized the creation of FirstNet, which is developing a nationwide network to enable first responders to better communicate and save lives. The law also directed NTIA to develop a grant program, the State and Local Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP), to assist states and territories in planning, education and outreach as they consult with FirstNet on the deployment of the broadband network. In 2013, NTIA awarded grants to 54 states and territories. The first phase of funding, totaling about $58 million, has helped states conduct outreach with public safety and state and local officials to determine their needs, gaps and priorities for public safety wireless broadband and to prepare for formal consultations with FirstNet, which is an independent authority within NTIA. This second phase of SLIGP funding ($58 million) will allow states to collect data identifying and prioritizing where public safety broadband coverage is needed, identifying potential users and their capacity needs, and detailing current providers and procurement mechanisms. NTIA also announced that states and territories will be able to use some funding from phase one on data collection in order to help the grantees meet a July 31 target date set by FirstNet to provide initial data related to states’ coverage needs.
benton.org/headlines/ntia-announces-second-phase-funding-state-and-local-implementation-grant-program | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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USDA GRANTS
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA has funded three rural telecommunications infrastructure projects that will improve broadband service in portions of rural Arkansas, Iowa and New Mexico. Southwest Arkansas Telephone will receive a $25 million loan to upgrade portions of a fiber network and convert the remaining portions of a copper system to fiber to improve service for subscribers. In New Mexico, Mescalero Apache Telecom will receive a $5.4 million loan to upgrade portions of its system and provide fiber service to approximately 50 percent of its territory. This is the first loan that USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has made under the Substantially Underserved Trust Area provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill. These provisions amended the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to make funding available to areas that historically have had difficulty receiving federal assistance. RUS has held a series of outreach workshops around the country in the past year to help Tribal communities access RUS broadband programs. Iowa's Minburn Communications has been selected to receive a $4.7 million loan to upgrade its copper network to fiber, and to provide subscribers with voice, broadband and video service. USDA is providing a total of $35 million in broadband infrastructure loans in today's announcement. In 2014, the Rural Utilities Service awarded $228 million to improve telecommunications service for 83,000 rural customers.
benton.org/headlines/usda-announces-funding-broadband-projects-arkansas-iowa-and-new-mexico | Department of Agriculture
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LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Bob Blumenfield]
[Commentary] Internet in Los Angeles is slow, and you’re paying more for it. That assumes, of course, that you’re not one of the more than 34 percent of Angelenos without access to broadband at home or who cannot afford it. Those numbers will significantly worsen with the Federal Communications Commission's decision to raise the definition of broadband "bandwidth" to speeds in excess of 25Mbps, up from 4Mbps. While the standards for Internet service keep accelerating, we in LA have been stuck in the slow lane. We can and must do better. In response, I have been joined by the City Council and Mayor to launch CityLinkLA, an effort to expand broadband access to every home and business in the city. In 2015 and beyond, access to information must be a right, not privilege. Universal access to high speed broadband will increase global competitiveness and educational achievement while paying dividends in closing the digital divide, boosting job creation, and enhancing resiliency in the face of terrorism or natural disasters, including and especially the next major earthquake. It’s time to put Los Angeles in the Internet fast lane.
[City Councilmember Blumenfield has represented los Angeles’ Third Council District since 2013]
benton.org/headlines/life-slow-lane | Hill, The
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NBP AND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Larry Downes]
[Commentary] How has the US done on broadband deployment and adoption since the release of the National Broadband Plan in 2010?
Deployment – The plan’s audacious goal of encouraging private investments to provide 100 million homes access to the Internet at speeds of 100 Mbps by 2020 now appears to be a foregone conclusion.
Mobile – The Plan called on the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Commerce and the White House to allocate an additional 300 MHz of capacity by 2015 and 500 MHz by 2020. Those projections have proven conservative, requiring even more aggressive measures to feed the continuing mobile revolution.
Adoption – The plan called for significant progress towards the long-term goal of getting all Americans connected to the broadband Internet, especially minority communities, lower-income households, and older and rural Americans, all of whom lagged significantly in getting online. Today, neither price nor availability of broadband are the factors that most determine why some groups are still behind the adoption curve. Instead, research has consistently shown that over the last five years non-users are more likely to identify a perceived lack of relevance of broadband Internet in their lives as the main reason not to adopt.
Government applications – The plan, however, focused on broadband services that could improve governmental and regulated services, calling on entrepreneurs to use Internet technologies to kick start the transformation of health care, education, energy and public safety. The results here have been disappointing.
[Downes a project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy.]
benton.org/headlines/did-national-broadband-plan-spur-innovation | Washington Post
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
NET NEUTRALITY COURT CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
USTelecom -- a group that includes some of the nation's largest Internet providers -- and Alamo Broadband, a small, Texas-based Internet provider, are among the first to mount a legal challenge to the federal government's new network neutrality rules. USTelecom’s suit was filed in Washington (DC), while Alamo Broadband sued the FCC in New Orleans. The court filings kick-start a legal effort to overturn the FCC's regulations, passed in February, that aim to keep Internet providers from speeding up, slowing down or blocking Web traffic. "We do not believe the Federal Communications Commission’s move to utility-style regulation invoking Title II authority is legally sustainable," USTelecom President Walter McCormick said. "Therefore, we are filing a petition to protect our procedural rights in challenging the recently adopted open Internet order.” In its petition, Alamo alleges that the FCC's net neutrality rules apply onerous requirements on it under Title II of the Communications Act, the same law that the FCC uses to monitor legacy phone service. "Alamo is thus aggrieved by the order and possesses standing to challenge it," the company's lawyers wrote. In a separate legal challenge filed March 20 in Cincinnati, Tennessee sued the FCC over its February decision to block the state's restriction on city-run Internet service. "The FCC has unlawfully inserted itself between the State of Tennessee and the State's own political subdivisions," the challenge alleges.
benton.org/headlines/here-are-first-lawsuits-challenge-fccs-network-neutrality-rules | Washington Post
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COMMUNICATIONS ACT REWRITE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Cable and telecommunications industry lobbyists are launching an effort to convince lawmakers to support new legislation that replaces the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality regulations. Republican lawmakers will have to find Democrats willing to undermine President Barack Obama by supporting weaker protections than the ones he called for four months ago. Without those Democrats, any GOP-led effort would be dead in the water, unable to withstand a near-certain veto from the President. Republicans will also need a bipartisan bill to make up for the losses they are likely to suffer on their own side, from conservatives who oppose any notion of federal oversight of the Internet. “I think [lawmakers’] staffs have to go through the process of reading the order and doing their own analysis,” said Alan Roth, the senior executive vice president for the US Telecom Association. “I think it’ll be up to us, in part, to have our lawyers do that analysis and go up and talk to them about what the legal weaknesses are and what the arguments are going to be that we’re going to be making in court,” he added. Roth’s organization has previously said it would go to court over the FCC’s new rules. The path is very much uphill.
benton.org/headlines/cable-lobby-eyes-opening-rewrite-telecommunications-law | Hill, The
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RESTORING THE LAW
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Derek Turner, Matt Wood]
[Commentary] “So, are there any surprises?” That’s the No. 1 question we’ve been asked since the Federal Communications Commission released the text of its order reclassifying broadband access as a common-carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act -- the step needed to provide real Network Neutrality protections for Internet users. And after a close read, the answer is no. We cover the highlights of the few pages of new rules the FCC issued, as well as the order text supporting those rules. That text -- the legal analysis, the history of the issue, the chronology of the decision-making process, and the procedures the agency followed along the way -- comprises the vast majority of the 400-page order. The rules themselves are a little less than eight pages long. There are no “surprises” in these rules or in the order because the FCC did what it said it would do, both in the Feb. 4 fact sheet it released leading up to the Feb. 26 vote, and then in the detailed answers and explanations Chairman Wheeler and FCC staff offered at the open meeting on the 26th. And the most important thing the FCC did is the easiest to explain. Above all else, the FCC restored the rule of law. It returned to the will of Congress as written into the Act, and as updated on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis in 1996. To keep access networks open, the FCC began treating broadband as an essential communications service again. But it did that without bringing Internet content under the agency’s jurisdiction.
benton.org/headlines/fccs-net-neutrality-order-protects-internet-freedom-restoring-law | Medium
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POLICE FUTURE ISP CONDUCT
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The Federal Communications Commission’s new network neutrality rules allow the agency to police future network management practices and business models rolled out by broadband providers, raising concerns among critics that an activist commission will inject itself into ISP board rooms. The so-called future conduct standard in the FCC’s new rules leave questions about what ISP practices the agency will allow, critics say. Following the FCC’s publication of the new rules, the future conduct standard has raised perhaps the most objections, other than complaints about the agency’s decision to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service. The future conduct standard will create questions about investing in the broadband market, Sen Deb Fischer (R-NE) said. “How can any business that’s trying to innovate have any kind of certainty that they’re not going to be regulated by the FCC under what I view as a very vague rule?” she said.
benton.org/headlines/network-neutrality-rules-let-fcc-police-future-isp-conduct | IDG News Service
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OWNERSHIP
CA PUC DELAYS COMCAST-TWC DECISION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
The California Public Utilities Commission has delayed until May 7 its vote on Comcast's proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable. The PUC also rescheduled a hearing in Los Angeles to receive public comment on the proposed media consolidation. The four-hour meeting now is scheduled for April 14 in the auditorium of the Public Utilities Commission's building at 320 West 4th St. in downtown Los Angeles. California's PUC is involved because it must approve the transfer of licenses to Comcast from Charter and Time Warner Cable. Already, an administrative law judge, who is advising the PUC, has recommended that the commission approve Comcast's takeover -- but with a lengthy list of conditions. State officials would like Comcast to aggressively expand its program of providing low-cost broadband Internet service to low-income families. Comcast offers a $9.95-a-month Internet Essentials program to eligible low-income families. The Philadelphia giant says more than 350,000 families participate in the program in its current service footprint. One proposed PUC condition would ask Comcast to sign up 45% of the targeted low-income homes within two years after absorbing Time Warner Cable systems.
benton.org/headlines/california-public-utilities-commission-delays-vote-comcast-twc-deal | Los Angeles Times
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CAN STREAMING HELP COMCAST
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
News that Dish’s new Sling online TV service had already attracted more than 100,000 subscribers (at least on a trial basis) would seemingly be a bad thing for Comcast and other cable companies, which have been fighting to stem the flow of cord-cutters. Weirdly, that’s not actually the case, at least for Comcast. The cable giant needs all the competition it can get these days, as it tries to convince regulators to approve its $45 billion deal to acquire Time Warner Cable. Sling and other so-called over-the-top streaming TV services from Sony and Apple could be just what Comcast needs. Comcast’s main argument for why the deal should be approved is that it doesn’t compete with Time Warner Cable in any markets. That’s true, mostly because cable operators get franchises from local governments to offer service and that has kept cable companies from competing directly with each other. Streaming TV services like Sling or Sony’s new Vue service offer consumers tired of high cable bills a new source of competition (although they still have to buy high-speed Internet service -- most likely from their local cable operator).
benton.org/headlines/new-streaming-tv-services-could-weirdly-help-comcast | Revere Digital
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COMCAST WEB VIDEO SERVICE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Comcast plans to offer Internet video programming to compete with cable TV services, undermining its argument that buying Time Warner Cable won’t reduce competition, merger opponents told California regulators. The California Office of Ratepayer Advocates, in urging the $45.2 billion deal be rejected, cited Comcast documents it recently obtained. Asked for comment, Comcast referred to documents it filed with US regulators saying it has considered and rejected such a service. The ratepayer advocates, California’s independent consumer-advocacy office, asked the state’s Public Utilities Commission to consider the documents containing Comcast’s online video plans before voting on the merger, which may be as early as May 7. The documents were found among millions of pages submitted by the companies to US regulators. Comcast has argued that the merger won’t reduce competition because it serves different areas than Time Warner Cable. A Comcast online video service might compete for Time Warner Cable customers in such cities as Los Angeles, the second-largest US TV market, the ratepayer advocates said in a March 17 filing.
benton.org/headlines/comcast-said-plan-web-video-service-merger-opponent-says | Bloomberg
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