Jan 5, 2009 (Richardson Withdraws)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY JANUARY 5, 2009
Today in DC -- Reforming the Federal Communications Commission. See http://benton.org/calendar
THE TRANSITION
Richardson Won't Pursue Cabinet Post
DC's Kinetic Tech Czar
Inauguration Spotlights Cellphone Opportunities
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Surfers should pay congestion charges
Broadband Stimulus Package Should Include Funding for State Data, Says Massachusetts
China cracks down on 'vulgar' Internet content
TELEVISION
Digital TV subsidy program running out of money
Early converter buyers get more channels now
Cable flips channel on public access TV
Consumer Choice Saves 'Dora the Explorer'
Internet-Ready TVs Usher Web Into Living Room
THE TRANSITION
RICHARDSON WON'T PURSUE CABINET POST
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sheryl Gay Stolberg]
Gov Bill Richardson (D-NM), President-elect Barack Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrew from consideration for that job on Sunday, saying a pending investigation into whether his administration gave lucrative contracts to a political donor would have "forced an untenable delay" in his confirmation. President-elect Obama said he accepted "with deep regret" Gov Richardson's decision to bow out. People familiar with discussions between the two men said that while the president-elect did not press Richardson to step aside, neither did Obama try to talk him out of it. The announcement, just days before the Senate is to begin confirmation hearings for some of Mr. Obama's cabinet selections, was a setback for the president-elect, who has assembled his cabinet in near-record time. It raises questions about the thoroughness of Mr. Richardson's vetting, deprives the Obama administration of a prominent Hispanic — Mr. Obama has, however, named two other Latinos, Representative Hilda L. Solis of California and Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, to cabinet posts — and leaves a hole in the new White House economics team at a critical juncture.
http://benton.org/node/20271
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DC'S KINETIC TECH CZAR
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
A look at Vivek Kundra, the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia. Kundra has introduced popular consumer tools to bureaucratic processes, runs his office like a tech start-up and works by the mantra that citizens are "co-creators rather than subjects." His ideas have caught the eye of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team and landed him a role as a tech policy adviser to the new administration. His approach could serve as a model for how a federal chief technology officer, a new position Obama has pledged to appoint, might operate. Kundra has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the job.
http://benton.org/node/20268
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INAUGURATION SPOTLIGHTS CELLPHONE OPPORTUNITIES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
Wireless carriers are expecting an explosion of cellphone traffic on Jan. 20, when millions of visitors pour into Washington to welcome the new president. So many calls, text messages, photos and video clips hitting the airwaves at the same time can choke communication networks and result in delayed messages and dropped calls. While carriers are erecting extra cell sites to boost capacity, two local companies are also trying to help traffic move along. Wireless operators are urging people to avoid making calls and instead send text messages because they take up less bandwidth.
http://benton.org/node/20267
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
SURFERS SHOULD PAY CONGESTION CHARGES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Does it make sense to ban businesses from charging higher prices to some customers for giving them preferential treatment over others? That idea lies at the heart of Barack Obama's promised policy towards Network Neutrality on the Internet, a medium that had more than a passing role in his election to the White House. It is a proposal that should be dropped from the new administration's agenda as soon as decently possible. Other countries where the issue has started to raise its head, such as the UK, should also tread carefully before attempting their own regulation. The issue in question is a central one for the information age. It concerns the rights and obligations of the companies that run the communications networks which, collectively, make up the Internet. Should they be permitted to charge higher prices for giving priority treatment to some of the traffic they carry? And conversely, should they be allowed to downgrade the importance of other, lower-paying traffic, or even refuse to carry it? A better option would be for politicians to leave well alone, particularly since legislation in such a fast-changing area could have unintended consequences. Some safeguards may well be needed in two important areas, but these should be left to regulators like the Federal Communications Commission in the US and Ofcom in the UK. One is to prevent network operators from deliberately slowing or blocking the traffic of particular Internet services. A second area for regulatory attention will be to ensure that the quality of the Internet's "slow lane" does not deteriorate.
http://benton.org/node/20270
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BROADBAND STIMULUS PACKAGE SHOULD INCLUDE FUNDING FOR STATE DATA, SAYS MASSACHUSETTS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
Congress and the incoming administration of President Obama should include broadband-related investment in the pending legislation designed to promote economic stimulus, and the federal government needs to begin with better data about broadband availability, said a top Massachusetts government official. In particular, Congress should fully fund the Broadband Data Improvement Act, S. 1492, which passed last October without any appropriated or authorized funding levels. Prior to passage, an earlier version of the bill had included language authorizing $40 million for the Commerce Department to allocate to state-led broadband mapping efforts. "Full funding of the Broadband Data Improvement Act through the economic recovery package would be a wise investment that would quickly jump-start efforts to stimulate broadband availability," wrote Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Daniel O'Connell, in a letter last week to the chairs of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. O'Connell also urged flexibility in the way that states structure their individual broadband programs, extending stimulus funds to spur broadband demand among the poor, and recognizing that some forms of communication, like satellite service, are inferior methods of delivering broadband.
http://benton.org/node/20269
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CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON 'VULGAR' INTERNET CONTENT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
China's government has accused the country's leading Internet search engines and web portals, including Google, of threatening public morals by carrying pornographic and vulgar content. While Beijing regularly launches web censorship campaigns, the new crackdown is the first in which the government has targeted heavyweight companies such as Google and Baidu, the local rival that leads the Chinese search market. During the last campaign about a year ago, the authorities listed only small and little-known websites as responsible for spreading unhealthy content. The 19 Internet sites cited by the government on Monday included Sina, Sohu, Tencent and NetEase, among the country's biggest web portals and each run by overseas listed companies, and blog hosting websites and discussion forums such as Tianya. The move comes as the political leadership faces a raft of challenges, many of them organized through the Internet. Government censors are currently busy blocking reporting and debate about Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reform which has attracted signatures from hundreds of prominent intellectuals. Other forms of dissent, such as the voicing of demands for compensation in China's poisoned milk scandal, have also been organized through the Internet.
http://benton.org/node/20260
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TELEVISION
DIGITAL TV SUBSIDY PROGRAM RUNNING OUT OF MONEY
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Joelle Tessler]
The Feb. 17 transition from analog to digital television broadcasts looms and as many as 8 million households are still unprepared, but the government program that subsidizes crucial TV converter boxes is about to run out of money. People who still rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air signals — whether it is through rabbit-ear aerials on TVs or antennas on the roof — will see their screens go dark when the changeover happens. To avoid that, those people have to switch to cable or satellite TV, buy a television set with a digital tuner or buy a converter box that can translate digital signals from the airwaves into analog. To subsidize the converter boxes, most of which cost $40 to $80 and can be purchased without coupons, the government has been letting consumers request up to two $40 coupons per home. But any day now, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the arm of the Commerce Department in charge of administering the coupon program, expects to hit a $1.34 billion funding ceiling set by Congress. Now the agency is warning that unless lawmakers step in quickly with more funding or new accounting rules, it will have to create a waiting list for coupon requests. That would mean it could send out additional coupons only as unredeemed ones expire, freeing up more money for the program.
http://benton.org/node/20266
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EARLY CONVERTER BUYERS GET MORE CHANNELS NOW
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
As consumers start hooking up converter boxes in anticipation of the nation's big switch to digital TV next month, one thing is becoming crystal clear: TV pictures. People who switch to digital TV now are getting a nice surprise in the form of clearer pictures and more channels. The improvements owe to the nature of digital TV technology, which has superior characteristics compared with traditional analog technology. About 93% of the USA's 1,759 full-power TV stations are already broadcasting in digital, the National Association of Broadcasters says. The upshot: Many consumers who hook up converter boxes now can enjoy the benefits of digital TV right away, says Shermaze Ingram, an NAB spokeswoman.
http://benton.org/node/20265
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CABLE TV FLIPS CHANNEL ON PUBLIC ACCESS TV
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Reed Johnson]
A new California law allows Time Warner to close 12 studios that provided community programming in Los Angeles. Critics say a valuable 1st Amendment platform is lost. A provision of a law passed by the Legislature in 2006, which took effect Thursday, allows cable television providers the option of dropping their long-standing obligation of providing free studios, equipment and training to the public. In return, providers must pay a substantial annual fee and continue to provide a minimal number of public education and government channels. The new law is designed to make it easier for phone companies to enter into the lucrative cable market by relieving them of certain money-draining contractual obligations.
http://benton.org/node/20264
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CONSUMER CHOICE SAVES 'DORA THE EXPLORER'
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L. Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] The New Year got off to a happy start last week when media goliaths settled a dispute that had terrified toddlers and rattled their parents. The Viacom network had threatened to pull its 19 channels, including Nickelodeon with its "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoons, from the 13 million subscribers to the Time Warner Cable system. This short-lived fight is a timely reminder for the new regulators coming to Washington that their best course of action is often to do nothing. Even in cases like this, in which consumers were intentionally put in the middle of a commercial dispute, it turns out they have plenty of power. Regulators increasingly can count on new technology to give consumers the protections they need. Broadcasting remains a deeply regulated industry, reflecting its early days when regulators assumed that the airwaves would always be a scarce resource. Even cable operators are sometimes considered "natural monopolists," since there's a limit to how many companies will invest to dig cable in any city. But in this battle between the owner of distribution networks and the owner of the content, it turned out that the party holding the winning hand was the consumer. Both Time Warner Cable and Viacom had to bow to the power of consumer choice and the digital technologies that give customers access to programming in many new ways.
http://benton.org/node/20263
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INTERNET-READY TVs USHER WEB INTO LIVING ROOM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield, Don Clark]
After more than a decade of disappointment, the goal of marrying television and the Internet seems finally to be picking up steam. A key factor in the push are new TV sets that have networking connections built directly into them, requiring no additional set-top boxes for getting online. Meanwhile, many consumers are finding more attractive entertainment and information choices on the Internet -- and have already set up data networks for their PCs and laptops that can also help move that content to their TV sets. On Monday, Netflix Inc. is expected to announce a deal with Korea's LG Electronics Inc. that will make a Netflix online-video service available on a new line of high-definition TV sets from LG due out this spring. The online service offers 12,000 movie and television titles. Amid other developments pegged to this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Yahoo Inc. and Intel Corp. plan to announce support from several major consumer-electronics companies to sell TV sets that come with software, dubbed widgets, that make it easier to call up Web content on TV sets using ordinary remote controls rather than computer keyboards.
http://benton.org/node/20261
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