July 10, 2009 (Globally, Broadband Continues to Grow)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY JULY 10, 2009
Yes, it is mid-July, but no one from DC gets to go to the beach this summer ... a full plate of events next week -- see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-07-12--P1W
INTERNET/BROADBAND
State of the Internet: Globally, Broadband Continues to Grow
Carter and Reding call for all Europeans to have universal access to wired and wireless broadband by 2013
EU plans overhaul of Internet download rules
An Internet for rural India
Consumer Groups Push FTC For Broader Broadband Oversight
Internet Privacy Push Persists
THE STIMULUS
House Agriculture Committee Skeptical on RUS' Ability to Manage Funds
FCC faces steep challenge in developing national broadband policy
North Carolina starts making its case for broadband stimulus funds
FAQ: What the smart grid means to you
HEALTH & MEDIA
Where's the Health Information Technology in health care reform?
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Venezuela Sets New Restrictions on Cable TV
In Honduras, One-Sided News of Crisis
More Web attacks, North Korea suspected
OWNERSHIP
Plan for Olympics channel generates controversy
ADVERTISING
Ad Collapse in Television, Radio and Magazines is Permanent
Malone Says 'It May Be Too Late' for Media Companies
Hearing on Minority Media Ownership Focuses on Advertising
MORE ONLINE
News Corp firestorm over phone allegations
AT&T Stresses Need for Wireline Home Phone
Ericsson to manage Sprint network in $4.5-$5bln deal
NCTA Says Now is No Time to Change Low-Cost Waivers for Set-Tops
Odes to the Walkman and Billy Mays
... and now for something really important ...
INTERNET/BROADBAND
STATE OF THE INTERNET: GLOBALLY, BROADBAND CONTINUES TO GROW
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
Akamai, a company that has built a content delivery network that spans the globe, will soon be releasing the latest edition of its "State of The Internet" report, which looks at some of the key Internet developments, including growth in network speeds, actual connections and the number of web sites. Akamai observed a nearly 5 percent increase (from the fourth quarter of 2008) globally in the number of unique IP addresses connecting to its network. In the first quarter of 2009, one-fifth of the Internet connections around the world were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps, up 5 percent from the prior quarter and nearly 30 percent higher than the first quarter of 2008.
WiMAX is gaining traction around the planet. Many of us focus on Clearwire in the U.S. and often overlook the growth of WiMAX in emerging economies such as Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Africa. Plans for four new submarine cables were announced that would bring more bandwidth to the African continent, which is also seeing a massive mobile phone boom, thus driving the need for more bandwidth. Fiber networks to consumer homes and businesses are growing at a rapid speed in places such as Europe and Asia.
http://benton.org/node/26395
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CARTER AND REDING CALL FOR ALL EUROPEANS TO HAVE UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO WIRED AND WIRELESS BROADBAND BY 2013
[SOURCE: Telegraph.co.uk, AUTHOR: Emma Barnett]
Lord Carter -- the UK Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting -- and Viviane Reding -- the EU Commissioner for Technology and Broadcasting -- want to create a digital Europe. They write: "Firstly, we must ensure that Europe has a world class digital infrastructure, wired and wireless. We should set a goal for Europe to have high performing fixed and wireless broadband infrastructures which reach all Europeans by 2013. And to deliver on that wireless goal, across the EU we need to push ahead faster on the switchover from analogue to digital TV to release the necessary spectrum for new and emerging pan European wireless services." They are calling for a new debate on the inclusion of broadband internet into "universal service rules" to be placed high on the common EU agenda and urged immediate action to prevent a future digital divide.
http://benton.org/node/26393
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EU PLANS OVERHAUL OF INTERNET DOWNLOAD RULES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Marcin Grajewski]
The European Union needs new rules for Internet downloads that would make it easier for people to access music and films without resorting to piracy, Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding said Thursday. Mapping out priorities of the EU's executive arm for the next five years, Commissioner Reding said it should consider new laws that would reconcile the interests of intellectual property owners and Internet surfers. Current laws are ill-devised, she said, because they appear to force people, especially the young generation, to become Internet pirates, or download content illegally.
http://benton.org/node/26392
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AN INTERNET FOR RURAL INDIA
[SOURCE: Fortune Small Business, AUTHOR: Malika Zouhali-Worrall]
India, famous for its bureaucracy, is where entrepreneur Sriram Raghavan intends to prove that the world's billion-plus rural poor can be a lucrative market for online services. Raghavan, 36, once built software for U.S. corporate clients. Now, backed by U.S. venture capital and undeterred by acts of violence against his outlets, he is succeeding where others failed: providing Internet services that villagers actually need and making a profit from their micropayments. "We're democratizing information services," he says.
http://benton.org/node/26382
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CONSUMER GROUPS PUSH FTC FOR BROADER BROADBAND OVERSIGHT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing July 8 on the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Consumer groups including Consumer Federation of America and US PIRG used the hearing to take aim at broadband pricing information and behavioral advertising. The groups want the Federal Trade Commission to address "truth in broadband advertising," saying companies should be required to disclose their access and usage terms in plain English. "Consumers should be able to choose providers based on truthful information detailing speed and quality of service," they say. They want those disclosures to include bandwidth levels, latency (delay), any limits on access to content and any content getting "preferential treatment. On the behavioral marketing, which is the subject of a bill in the communications subcommittee, they want the FTC to investigate online marketing practices, "expose" ones that compromise privacy, issue injunctions on some current practices they say "abuse" consumers and adopt principles for "technology neutral fair information practices."
http://benton.org/node/26385
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INTERNET PRIVACY PUSH PERSISTS
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Despite self-regulatory guidelines announced last week by major marketing industry trade associations, advocacy efforts persist for stronger Internet privacy legislation. Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said the trade groups' initiatives make passing legislation more challenging, but that there's momentum in the House for such laws. One indicator of their fate "will be how quickly Congress enacts legislation for Obama's financial regulatory agency," Chester said, since that debate will make clear the congressional appetite for ramping up consumer protections. He also thinks the potential agency would have a regulatory role in future Internet privacy laws. The silver bullet for Web privacy regulation could be the prospect of portraying them as crucial to consumers' financial well-being. An individual's bank account, loan ratings, and other financial data are among materials that can be viewed online, Chester said.
http://benton.org/node/26400
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THE STIMULUS
HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE SKEPTICAL OF RUS' ABILITY TO MANAGE FUNDS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Ryan Womack]
Members of Congress on Thursday questioned the efficacy of the grant criteria set out last week by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service. During a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture, representatives expressed skepticism over ill-defined criteria in the joint Notice of Funds Availability the agencies released last week. Mark Seifert, Senior Advisor to NTIA administrator Lawrence Strickling, said the NOFA "set up a fairly stringent system" for determining which areas are most in need, but will be flexible in allowing applications to be made efficiently and give all stakeholders a fair shake. NTIA and RUS will simultaneously evaluate applications in order that there will be "no lag-time," he said. And if an applicant doesn't meet the criteria for one agency's program, Seifert said that would not exclude an applicant from the other program if judged more appropriate. The unique process of creating a joint NOFA has allowed NTIA and RUS to "leverage our collective experience," he said. And RUS Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook said the effort has been a "significant interagency work." Cook and RUS assistant administrator David Villano assured the committee — specifically Ranking Member Michael Conaway, R-Texas — that RUS was up to the task of distributing between $7 and $9 billion in loans this year, compared to RUS' previous budget of $1.2 billion. And while Villano remained confident of RUS' ability, Conaway sharply reminded him that "every nickel of this stimulus money is borrowed."
http://benton.org/node/26394
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FCC FACES STEEP CHALLENGE IN DEVELOPING NATIONAL BROADBAND POLICY
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Doug Adams]
[Commentary] In seeking input towards a national broadband strategy, the Federal Communications Commission drew more than 1,800 responses from a wide range of players including telecoms, cable companies, think tanks, advocacy groups, and individual cities. It's not surprising there was little common ground on nearly every issue, from whether the government should protect net neutrality, to whether cable companies and telecoms should lease their lines to competitors, to whether the FCC should back local cities and towns that want to build their own broadband networks. Many reformers, including the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, are asking the FCC to reaffirm its commitment to an open Internet - open for both competition and content. If the FCC obliges, many ISPs would need to reverse their practice of managing congestion by occasionally prioritizing traffic it deemed "time sensitive," while slowing down other, less urgent material. The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is most interested in ensuring the broadband stimulus investment serve as the foundation for helping our communities and our nation be globally competitive while providing enhanced services to our citizens. Our position is that each broadband stimulus project: Be based on an open and neutral network; Serve a broad range of community stakeholders and applications; Enhance America's ability to compete on the global marketplace; Lessen the burden of government, healthcare and basic social services; Create a digital town square and effective e-Democracy mechanism; and Deliver high-speed, high capacity, and low cost services. The FCC recently extended the reply comment deadline for its national broadband plan to July 21. There's still time for your opinions to be heard. The future of America as a nation that fosters innovation and leads the global economy depends on the actions we take today.
http://benton.org/node/26388
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NORTH CAROLINA STARTS MAKING CASE FOR BROADBAND STIMULUS FUNDS
[SOURCE: The News & Observer, AUTHOR: John Murawski]
North Carolina lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a statewide broadband mapping project that shows 92 percent of households have broadband access already. The map, created by a telecom consortium called Connected Nation, includes data from 35 Internet service providers. It shows that faster Internet speeds are spotty in the state's western and eastern regions and along the state's northern rim. Areas limited to slow dial-up connection speeds are seen as increasingly behind in competing for new businesses and in job creation. The map also shows areas with Wi-Fi access and mobile high-speed access. The online feature can zero in on neighborhood blocks and is searchable by home address. The project has been a year in the making as competing telecoms sought guarantees from Connected Nation that the precise location of equipment and other sensitive information would remain confidential. In past years, the Internet service providers had reluctantly provided information to the e-NC Authority, an agency established in this state in 2000 to track Internet access. But after the industry created Connected Nation, many telecoms stopped providing data to e-NC.
http://benton.org/node/26407
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FAQ: WHAT THE SMART GRID MEANS TO YOU
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Martin LaMonica]
Building the smart grid means adding computer and communications technology to the existing electricity grid. With an overlay of digital technology, the grid promises to operate more efficiently and reliably. It can also accommodate more solar and wind power, which are inconsistent sources of energy that can become more reliable with better controls. Much like computers and routers manage the flow of bits on the Internet, smart-grid technologies use information to optimize the flow of electricity.
http://benton.org/node/26406
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HEALTH & MEDIA
WHERE'S THE HIT IN HCR?
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: Bruce Merlin Fried]
[Commentary] Congress took a big step toward a digital health care system by including the health information technology provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But if we are to have real health care reform, a greater health IT effort is required than what was accomplished in ARRA. Let's make a serious effort at projecting the intersection of new technologies and evolving health needs. How can IT keep people healthier and more independent longer? How can IT help individuals, families and clinicians care for those with illnesses? What technologies from other sectors can be brought to bear in health care? What new uses can be found for the volumes of data we have and the oceans of data we will be acquiring? Some see the confluence of biologic/genetic data and clinical data. What can we do with this information to predict and prevent disease? What opportunities are there to re-engineer the process of medicine and the delivery of care once health IT is ubiquitous? How does a small but highly connected physician practice change its work flow, re-architect its office and clinical space? What about virtual examinations? With new generations of sensors and connected devices, is the standard physician office necessary? What will be the most efficient, highest quality way to deliver care, taking advantage of the health IT that lies over the horizon? How does a digital health system support effective and efficient knowledge transfer? It is generally accepted that the quality and flow of new empirical knowledge is too great for any clinician to keep current. What tools, data flows, and decision support technologies can be developed and delivered to allow clinicians to make the best judgments about the right care for each patient?
http://benton.org/node/26397
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
VENEZUELA SETS NEW RESTRICTIONS ON CABLE TV
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
President Hugo Chávez's government is imposing new regulations on cable television while revoking the broadcast licenses of more than 200 radio stations. The new regulations will soon require cable television companies that use largely locally produced content to comply with Venezuelan laws for broadcasters, said Diosdado Cabello, the country's top telecommunications official. Cabello, who is also the public works minister, said in a speech to the National Assembly that "the revolution hasn't touched this sector at all, and the time has come for us to get a handle" on it. He said that cable channels with at least 30 percent of their content produced abroad would be exempt, but that other channels using primarily Venezuelan-produced programming would need to comply. Venezuela's strict broadcast laws include a measure requiring all broadcasters to carry Chávez's speeches when he says so. Cabello said the new rules would start on Friday.
http://benton.org/node/26405
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IN HONDURAS, ONE-SIDED NEWS OF CRISIS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Juan Forero]
It was the biggest story in Honduras in years -- soldiers burst into the president's bedroom, dragged him off in his pajamas and bundled him onto a plane out of the country. Hours later, his foes announced the formation of a new government. Several countries condemned the events of June 28 as a military coup. But in Honduras, some of the most popular and influential television stations and radio networks blacked out coverage or adhered to the de facto government's line that Manuel Zelaya's overthrow was not a coup but a legal "constitutional substitution," press freedom advocates and Honduran journalists said. Meanwhile, soldiers raided the offices of radio and TV stations loyal to Zelaya, shutting down their signals. Alejandro Villatoro, 52, the owner of Radio Globo, said soldiers broke down doors and dismantled video surveillance cameras. Such allegations underscore the one-sided nature of the news that has been served up to Hondurans during the crisis.
http://benton.org/node/26404
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MORE WEB ATTACKS, NORTH KOREA SUSPECTED
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jack Kim]
A fresh wave of cyber attacks that slowed US and South Korean websites this week hit more targets on Thursday. The impact of the attacks, aimed so far at dozens of sites including the White House and the South's presidential office, was seen as negligible, experts said, but served as a reminder that North Korea has been planning for cyberwarfare. The attacks will likely be regarded by the North's leadership as a victory for Kim Jong-il -- even if Pyongyang was not behind them -- because they hurt the country's traditional foes, adding a new dimension to the threat level posed by the reclusive state. The attacks saturated target websites with access requests generated by malicious software planted on personal computers. This has overwhelmed some targeted sites and slowed server response to legitimate traffic.
http://benton.org/node/26390
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OWNERSHIP
PLAN FOR OLYMPICS CHANNEL GENERATES CONTROVERSY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
The International Olympic Committee, the governing body that organizes the Games, on Thursday scolded the U.S. Olympic Committee for moving forward with plans to launch its own cable channel next year in partnership with cable TV giant Comcast. The IOC made clear that it was lashing out, in part, to protect dealings with its powerful broadcast partner, NBC Universal. NBC's parent, General Electric Co., is a major sponsor of the Games, and the network has agreed to pay $2.2 billion for the rights to broadcast the Olympics next year and in 2012. NBC Universal separately owns a minority interest in another cable channel, Universal Sports, which showcases Olympic events. "The proposed channel raises complex legal and contractual issues and could have a negative impact [on] our relationships with other Olympic broadcasters and sponsors, including our U.S. TV partner, NBC," the IOC said. The IOC knew that the U.S. Olympic Committee, which coordinates the U.S. teams that compete in the biannual events, had been working on plans for several years to launch its own channel. "But we had assumed that we would have an opportunity to discuss unresolved questions together before the project moved forward," the IOC said, adding that it was "disappointed that USOC acted unilaterally and, in our view, in haste by announcing their plans before we had had a chance to consider together the ramifications."
http://benton.org/node/26403
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ADVERTISING
AD COLLAPSE IN TELEVISION, RADIO AND MAGAZINES IS PERMANENT
[SOURCE: Forbes.com, AUTHOR: Dirk Smillie]
A new study from private equity fund Catalyst Investors says mainstream media's advertising meltdown is the "new normal" for the ad business. Plummeting consumer spending and the Web's ability to eat away at the pricing power of traditional media has driven the declines. In the magazine sector, for example, the drop in ad dollars is fueled in part by the move to "just-in-time spot ads vs. advance ad purchasing." The Internet's unlimited content and ability to measure ad impact broke "the oligopolistic pricing power that traditional media enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s." A further dip in ad spending as a percent of GDP will occur over the next two to three years, predicts Catalyst.
http://benton.org/node/26384
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MALONE SAYS 'IT MAY BE TOO LATE' FOR MEDIA COMPANIES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News, AUTHOR: Brett Pulley, Andy Fixmer]
Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone said television, film and publishing companies must find a way to charge Internet users for content they provide. "The Internet is moving too fast, too far.... Clearly advertising revenue is going to be insufficient as a sole source of revenue. It may be too late" for some companies, he said, citing the newspaper industry as an example. Newspapers "are dropping like flies," Malone said. "Just changing the ownership doesn't solve the problem." Without new pay models, the Internet will drain profits at media conglomerates, as it has at newspapers, he said .
http://benton.org/node/26383
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HEARING ON MINORITY MEDIA OWNERSHIP FOCUSES ON ADVERTISING
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: ]
The House Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing Thursday on "Trends Affecting Minority Broadcast Ownership." But Radio One, the largest U.S. minority-owned media company, caught the most heat in its absence. CEO Alfred Liggins explained that he did not want to testify at a hearing that would further bash broadcasters for opposing the Conyers performance rights legislation. Had the session focused solely on slipping advertising revenue and other challenges facing his industry, he might have been on board.
http://benton.org/node/26402
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DIGITAL EYES WILL CHART BASEBALL'S UNSEEN SKILLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alan Schwarz]
Finally, a useful use of digital technology: baseball scouting and fantasy baseball. As baseball's statistical revolution marches on, the last refuge for the baseball aesthete has been the sport's less quantifiable skills: outfielders' arm strength, base-running efficiency and other you-won't-find-that-in-the-box-score esoterica. But debates over the quickest center fielder or the rangiest shortstop are about to graduate from argument to algorithm. new camera and software system in its final testing phases will record the exact speed and location of the ball and every player on the field, allowing the most digitized of sports to be overrun anew by hundreds of innovative statistics that will rate players more accurately, almost certainly affect their compensation and perhaps alter how the game itself is played.
http://benton.org/node/26398
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