BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2016
FCC budget, broadband competition, and, well, nerds on today’s agenda https://www.benton.org/calendar/2016-04-05
INTERNET/BROABAND
FCC Unveils Consumer Broadband Labels to Provide Greater Transparency to Consumers - public notice
Daniel Lyons: The FCC and the no good, very bad day in court [links to American Enterprise Institute]
Editorial: Broadband grants deserve priority in Minnesota [links to Minneapolis Star Tribune]
Poor residents were promised Wi-Fi service. The Los Angeles Times found they didn't get it [links to Benton summary]
The Next Wave in the Internet’s Evolution
PRIVACY
Can The FCC Protect Internet Subscribers’ Online Privacy? - analysis
FTC Announces Second PrivacyCon; Publishes Call For Presentations - press release
Sen Wyden: let’s fix “third-party doctrine” that enabled NSA mass snooping [links to Ars Technica]
Robert Levin op-ed: What Hulk Hogan’s Gawker Lawsuit Means for Our Privacy [links to New York Times]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
New Report Outlines Possible Roadmap to Further Sharing of the 3.5 GHz Band - NTIA
Google files for experimental license to test in 2.5 GHz band in California [links to Benton summary]
Smartphone Penetration Reaches 80%; Mobile Subscriber Satisfaction is Low, Accenture Finds [links to telecompetitor]
Texting-while-walking bans are missing the point about smartphone use [links to Washington Post]
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE/COMMUNICATIONS
Broadband Subsidies Important But More Data Needed to Inform FCC Policy Decisions - op-ed
MIT Website Seeks to Make Government Data Easier to Sift Through [links to New York Times]
ACCESSIBILITY
Library services for Those with Disabilities: Additional Steps Needed to Ease Access to Services and Modernize Technology [links to Government Accountability Office]
TELEVISION
TV Content Ratings System Has Failed Children For 20 Years, Parents TV Council Says In New Study [links to Deadline]
Is there anything you can’t say on TV anymore? It’s complicated. [links to Washington Post]
You may scoff at ‘American Idol’ now, but it changed pop culture forever [links to Washington Post]
Town halls are the new cable news hit of the 2016 campaign [links to Los Angeles Times]
Nielsen and Dish Network Reach Deal on Set-Top-Box Data [links to New York Times]
Miriam Gottfried: Why Nielsen’s TV Data Just Got Harder to Beat [links to Wall Street Journal]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
6 Talk Radio Hosts, on a Mission to Stop Donald Trump in Wisconsin [links to New York Times]
Town halls are the new cable news hit of the 2016 campaign [links to Los Angeles Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
The independence and diversity of Europe’s media is under threat from political interference and concentrated ownership
European Union is “advancing” its probes into whether Google is abusing its dominance with its Adsense advertising service and its Android mobile-operating system [links to Wall Street Journal]
FTC Welcomes Revised OECD Guidelines for E-commerce - press release [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROABAND
BROADBAND LABELS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release, Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission announced new broadband labels to provide consumers of mobile and fixed broadband Internet service with easy-to-understand information about price and performance. These labels should help consumers make informed decisions about the purchase of broadband service. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, joined by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, unveiled the new broadband labels at an event attended by members of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. This committee, composed of consumer group and industry representatives, made a unanimous recommendation of the labels’ framework. The consumer broadband labels will provide consumers with more information on service speed and reliability and greater clarity regarding the costs of broadband service, including fees and other add-on charges that may appear on their bills. The FCC’s Open Internet transparency rules require broadband Internet access service providers to disclose this information to consumers in an accurate, understandable and easy-to-find manner. These formats, while not mandated by the agency, are recommended by the Commission and will serve as a “safe harbor” to meet those requirements. The Consumer Broadband Labels will include:
Price: Price points, including various charges that seem confusing to consumers like overage, equipment, early termination and administrative fees.
Data Allowances: This is the carrier-defined plan limit after which consumers will face some consequence, such as additional charges or slowed data speeds.
Performance: Broadband speed and other performance metrics.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-unveils-consumer-broadband-labels-provide-greater-transparency-consumers | Federal Communications Commission | Public Notice
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
THE THIRD WAVE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Steve Case]
[Commentary] New startups are reimagining how we learn, eat, stay healthy and get around. This is only a start, as the Third Wave of the Internet gains strength. The First Wave was about building the Internet. This phase peaked around 2000, setting the stage for the Second Wave, which has been about building apps and services on top of the Internet. The Third Wave? Over the next decade and beyond, the Internet will rapidly become ubiquitous, integrated into our everyday lives, often in invisible ways. This will challenge industries such as health care, education, financial services, energy and transportation—which collectively represent more than half the US economy. Third Wave innovators will need to learn the lessons of the First Wave: the importance of partnerships, policy and perseverance. They won’t be able to go it alone; they’ll need to go together. They’ll need to engage with governments, as regulators and often as customers. And they’ll need to recognize that revolutions often happen in evolutionary ways. Success will require many alliances, as well as constructive dialogue with regulators. The Third Wave of the Internet is also converging with trends toward regional entrepreneurship and impact investing.
[Case is the chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, an investment firm based in Washington, DC]
benton.org/headlines/next-wave-internets-evolution | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PRIVACY
FCC BROADBAND PRIVACY PROCEEDING
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman]
[Commentary] On March 31, on a party-line 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission proposed to adopt new rules designed to provide privacy protections for customers of Internet service providers (ISPs). The FCC’s wide-ranging Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) asks hundreds of questions as to how it should shape these requirements. There has already been considerable news coverage concerning the scope and details of these rules, and there will be much more debate as the Commission’s inquiry proceeds over the coming months. However, there has been less discussion about the underlying legal issues which made it necessary for the FCC to initiate this proceeding and the questions about whether the FCC can, indeed, adopt the rules it has proposed.
[Andrew Jay Schwartzman is the Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation.]
https://www.benton.org/blog/can-fcc-protect-internet-subscribers-online-...
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
PRIVACYCON II
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Trade Commission has announced the second edition of the research conference, PrivacyCon, will take place Jan. 12, 2017, and has published a call for presentations. The call for presentations asks a number of specific questions to stimulate further research. In addition to expanding upon the previous research presented, the FTC hopes to explore areas that it was not able to focus on at this year’s event, such as:
the harms caused by privacy violations;
attack vectors and trends by which attackers may compromise privacy;
how often consumers are using ad blocker tools, and;
the costs of malware to consumers and businesses.
benton.org/headlines/ftc-announces-second-privacycon-publishes-call-presentations | Federal Trade Commission | FTC blog
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Keith Gremban]
As we work to meet the President’s goal of making 500 megahertz of additional spectrum available for commercial wireless broadband, it has become clear that spectrum sharing will need to be part of the solution to meeting spectrum demand. Accordingly, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is examining ways to improve the technology that would enable greater spectrum sharing between federal and nonfederal users. In a new report, engineers from NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) and Office of Spectrum Management (OSM) propose a simple and robust method to implement spectrum sharing between commercial communications systems and federal radar operations in the 3550-3650 MHz (3.5 GHz) band. The report, Using On-Shore Detected Radar Signal Power for Interference Protection of Off-Shore Radar Receivers, outlines a potential approach to ESC monitor configuration that would send the associated SAS a simple “go/no-go” signal based on a predetermined threshold of detected radar power level. Once such a signal is sent, the SAS could adjust CBSD channel assignments to protect radar receivers. The method proposed in this report, which will require further research, allows for new commercial uses while protecting the security and integrity of military radars. It also builds on our efforts to maximize use of spectrum while ensuring that federal users can continue to carry out vital missions for the American people.
benton.org/headlines/new-report-outlines-possible-roadmap-further-sharing-35-ghz-band | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | read the report
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
FCC NEEDS MORE DATA
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Eszter Hargittai]
[Commentary] My colleague Ashley Walker and I have found that people who are more concerned about privacy are less likely to be Internet users based on data from the Federal Communications Commission’s 2009 national survey of Americans’ Internet uses. While plenty of prior work has considered demographic and socioeconomic factors in who goes online, this important factor has not been included in existing studies of Internet diffusion. It turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, that those who are more concerned about their personal information being stolen online are significantly less like to be Internet users. But FCC should spend some of its resources collecting high-quality data about Americans’ Internet uses regularly, data that go beyond basic access statistics. Without such data, it is hard to devise sound policies. Gathering nationally-representative detailed data of Americans’ attitudes about and experiences with the Internet is not cheap. But any related costs are a drop in the bucket compared to the $2 billion dollars the FCC will spend on its Lifeline program.
[Hargittai is Delaney Family Professor, Communication Studies Department, Northwestern University]
benton.org/headlines/broadband-subsidies-important-more-data-needed-inform-fcc-policy-decisions | Huffington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EUROPEAN MEDIA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Spence]
The independence and diversity of Europe’s media is under threat from political interference and concentrated ownership. “No EU member state is today free from risks to media pluralism,” the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute in Florence said after conducting a detailed examination of media plurality across 19 European Union member states. Across the entire group, the major area of concern was media ownership. Control of media outlets often resides in the hands of only a few players, giving them outsized power, while in some places it’s unclear who TV channels or newspapers are owned by. That lack of transparency means citizens can’t “gauge the extent of potential bias in the information that is provided by a media outlet,” it said. Five countries were graded as being at high risk on ownership: Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, and Spain. Eight others were rated a medium risk: the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden. The report also raised concerns about political independence.
benton.org/headlines/independence-and-diversity-europes-media-under-threat-political-interference-and | Politico | read the report
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top