Aug 7, 2009 (Broadband and Civic Engagement)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2009

The President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee meets next week and there's 3 more FCC Broadband Workshops, too. See http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-08-09--P1W/

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC Looks at Broadband and Civic Engagement
   FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's Remarks at eGovernment and Civic Engagement Workshop
   Internet Protection Fight Starts in Washington -- Don't Just Sit There
   When Is A Community Fully Served By Broadband?
   The Smart Path to Broadband Mapping
   Columbia to Conduct Independent Review of Telecom Capital Expenditures to Assist FCC
   Twitter, a Service of Few Words And Many Followers, Goes Silent

WIRELESS
   Should the FCC force Apple to sell Google's apps?
   Behind Eric Schmidt's Apple Resignation
   The Big Phone Companies' Hypocrisy
   Carriers embrace WiFi
   AT&T pays Sprint $59M in spectrum swap

HEALTH & MEDIA
   Many Fault Media Coverage of Health Care Debate
   Health Care Providers Slow To Invest in Health IT Systems, Experts Say
   Preparing to Implement HITECH: A State Guide for Electronic Health Information Exchange
   Watching TV: Even Worse for Kids Than You Think

POLICYMAKERS
   Senate confirms Sotomayor, first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
   Obama Taps Kennard for EU Ambassador

MORE ONLINE...
   Iraq mulls website ban, fuels censorship fears
   Is The Future of TV Viewing Through the Internet and Then Onto a TV, Computer or Mobile Device?
   Blogs Chew Over Food and Health while Iran Surges on Twitter
   Things Are Not Going to Get Worse in the Internet Ad Industry
   News Corp. looks to pay strategy for salvation
   GAO: Postal Service in financial disarray

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC LOOKS AT BROADBAND AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang, Cecilia Garcia]
On Thursday August 6, the Federal Communications Commission kicked-off a series of workshops on devising a National Broadband Plan will a meeting focused on broadband, electronic government and civic engagement. The aim of the workshops is to facilitate a frank, very public discussion about broadband policy. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski echoed the complaint that the first round of comments on the FCC's national broadband plan did not advance the ball far enough, and was looking for input that would "meet the moment" and that tackles "the hard questions." The goal of the first broadband workshop was to evaluate how broadband can improve the performance of government specifically in terms of transparency and citizen participation and more generally in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Universal broadband access is critical to civic participation as the public square is increasingly online, panelists told the Commission.
http://benton.org/node/26966
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FCC CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI'S REMARKS AT E-GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Here's the challenge: nearly 40% of all Americans do not have broadband in the home. And if you are earn less than $50,000 a year, or you are a minority or you live in a rural area, chances are better than 60 percent that you are on the wrong side of the digital divide. That is why President Obama and the Congress have taken two important actions to extend broadband's benefits to more Americans. First, they included $7.2 billion for broadband deployment in the Recovery Act. Second, they have charged the FCC with developing a National Broadband plan. We set out a series of goals for this project. We said that the process for developing the National Broadband Plan would be: 1) The most open ever at FCC, 2) The most participatory ever at FCC, 3) The most data driven ever at FCC, and 4) The most innovative ever at FCC, encouraging experimentation to find solutions and make sure the Commission meets this moment. To help advance each of these goals, we made the unprecedented decided to host a series of 22 workshops. This is the first one. Since we will be trying new things, we expect mistakes. This hearing is being streamed live online. It is a real-time experiment in American democracy. Something will surely go wrong. We will recognize our mistakes and learn from them. For our first workshop, I am pleased that we have chosen eGovernment and civic engagement as the topic.
http://benton.org/node/26965
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INTERNET PROTECTION FIGHT STARTS IN WASHINGTON -- DON'T JUST SIT THERE
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] The Obama Administration has been talking about an open Internet for months. Before that, the Obama campaign made it a centerpiece of a technology platform. Now, finally, the idea is getting some traction, and it's about time. Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has only been in office since June 29, and in that time he's mostly been busy choosing heads for the Commission bureaus and finding senior staff while sorting through the responsibilities Congress gave the Commission to come up with a broadband plan. So it's a great sign of things to come that one of the first actions of the Genachowski era that the Commission took of its own accord was to call some official attention to the fact that Apple was keeping Google's new Google Voice application off the shelves of the iPhone App Store. The fact that the Commission is making inquiries about the Apple exclusion should send the proper signal through the industry that a new day is starting to dawn, albeit slowly, at the FCC. Take advantage of the summer and spread the message. This is not simply about the Internet-activist Netroots. This is about students and businessmen and musicians and artists and writers and mechanics in small towns and urban centers, and everyone else who wants and need a free and open Internet. Now is the time to start speaking up.
http://benton.org/node/26964
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WHEN IS A COMMUNITY FULLY SERVED BY BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
One of the hottest topics related to the broadband stimulus is how to define what it means for a community to be underserved. But there's been a huge piece missing from that conversation as we have yet to address the question of: when is a community fully served by broadband? When can we say that a community has enough and doesn't need government intervention to get more connected? Based on the government's definition of underserved, a community's served if half of it can get terrestrial facilities-based broadband at 768Kbps down and 200Kbps up or if any wireless provider advertises service at 3Mbps down. Apparently that's what it means to be fully served by broadband in today's America. But Daily argues a rural community is fully served once it has an open fiber network in place. If we are to craft an effective national broadband strategy, we have to have some sense for what we're shooting for, what our goals should be. We can't afford to muddle around only worrying about who's not served. We also need to be defining a clear sense for when a home is fully served, and then base our actions on plans that can help all homes get to that status. Because only then can we ensure that all American homes are fully served by broadband.
http://benton.org/node/26960
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THE SMART PATH TO BROADBAND MAPPING
[SOURCE: Fighting the Next Good Fight, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] A strategy for getting better maps faster, and for a much more reasonable cost than the alternative, Connected Nation. Drew Clark, president of Broadband Census believes any broadband map that's worth its pixels and the price tag has to sufficiently represent SPARC data ­ Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition. You want to start with a good map of census blocks for your area. Gather data from and about carriers in your proposed service area, keeping in mind you want as much SPARC information as you can pull. This is tedious since the largest carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner want to give you as little as possible, while the smaller ones are hard pressed to put enough people and time to the task.
http://benton.org/node/26959
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COLUMBIA TO CONDUCT INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF TELECOM CAPITAL EXPENDITURES TO ASSIST FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) based at the Columbia Business School in New York will serve as an outside expert in reviewing projected deployment of new and upgraded networks to help inform the FCC's efforts in developing the National Broadband Plan. CITI will provide an analysis of the public statements of companies as to their future plans to deploy and upgrade broadband networks as well as an historical evaluation of the relationship between previous such announcements and actual deployment. "Broadband has the power to improve the lives of all Americans by creating jobs, spurring innovation and investment, and enhancing public safety," Chairman Julius Genachowski said. "As we begin the tremendous task of creating a National Broadband Plan, high-quality data on the state of broadband networks will help to inform and enlighten the activities of the agency. CITI's external review of network deployments will help provide the foundation for smart, data-driven decision-making. I appreciate CITI's assistance and look forward to seeing the results." Eli Noam, the Director of CITI and a Columbia Business School professor, said, "Too often, the debates over Internet policy have been driven by narrow agendas, with facts used selectively as ammunition rather than enlightenment. By focusing on data analysis -- of investment plans and deployment figures of upgraded broadband infrastructure, especially in this century -- CITI looks forward to helping the FCC to change the past culture and develop a National Broadband Plan grounded in facts."
http://benton.org/node/26958
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TWITTER, A SERVICE OF FEW WORDS AND MANY FOLLOWERS, GOES SILENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Emily Steel]
Across the globe, millions of Twitter users found themselves suddenly robbed of the ability to broadcast their innermost thoughts. Twitter said a cyberattack took down the service for about two hours. Users couldn't even get the site's oft-seen "fail whale" -- a rendering of a cetacean lifted by tiny birds that indicates the site is overloaded. A year ago, few beyond Silicon Valley had heard about the site, which lets users send 140-character messages called tweets to followers who sign up for updates, from the quotidian (what they are wearing) to the momentous (a birth). Thanks in part to celebrity endorsers like Ashton Kutcher, Twitter's popularity has exploded. The service doesn't disclose how many users it has. But Twitter.com had more than 44.5 million world-wide visitors in June, according to comScore, compared with just 2.9 million in June 2008. Its skyrocketing user growth means that more people feel the pain of disruptions.
http://benton.org/node/26968
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WIRELESS

SHOULD THE FCC FORCE APPLE TO SELL GOOGLE'S APPS?
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
The iPhone runs on public networks and therefore falls under government jurisdiction. At the very least, the regulators have a duty to ensure fair competition on wireless networks -- and by arbitrarily blocking rivals from its device, the iPhone's software platform simply isn't fair. We would never accept its rules in other contexts: Imagine if Apple were building cars instead of phones and one day decided that everyone who'd bought an iCar would be banned from listening to any music not purchased from iTunes. Or say that Apple banned all Mac users from downloading Firefox because the browser duplicated the functionality of Safari. Such restrictions sound ridiculous; they wouldn't pass the barest scrutiny of regulators or consumers. So why should we allow Apple to do the same thing with the iPhone?
http://benton.org/node/26963
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BEHIND ERIC SCHMIDT'S APPLE RESIGNATION
[SOURCE: TheBigMoney, AUTHOR: Chris Thompson]
Apple and Google may genuinely dislike each other now. It's all about China, says FT reporter Kathrin Hille. According to Hille's new report, Google and Apple are gearing up for a massive war to control the mobile smartphone market in China. In Google's corner: China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the world, which plans to launch a new Android-powered 3G OPhone. In Apple's corner: the smaller China Unicom, which is reportedly about to finalize a deal with Apple to launch the iPhone in the Middle Kingdom. "A deal with Apple would give China Unicom a powerful tool to poach young mobile users from the market leader," Hille writes.
http://benton.org/node/26962
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THE BIG PHONE COMPANIES' HYPOCRISY
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Kate Aishton]
[Commentary] Exclusive deals by the largest phone companies are generating controversy in the communications world, and they should have you worried, too. In TV, the big cable companies use their power to strike exclusive deals for cable TV channels to keep new pay TV services offered by other companies from getting off the ground. Since AT&T and Verizon are hoping to offer those new pay TV services through their UVerse and FiOS networks, they say that these exclusive deals need tight government regulation to promote competition and protect consumers. In the wireless world, however, AT&T and Verizon sing a different tune. They use exclusive deals for popular handsets like the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm to keep customers from switching to other wireless services. Since AT&T and Verizon benefit from these exclusives, they want to convince the public that these deals are also great for competition and consumers. No need for government regulation, they say, nothing to see here. Whether they limit access to TV content or network options for wireless handsets, exclusive deals by dominant companies mean less choice for consumers. So what's the difference between these arrangements for cable channels and for wireless networks, according to AT&T and Verizon? They don't say. But what's a little hypocrisy when corporate profits are at stake? Here's the bottom line: When the phone companies mix their messages about exclusive deals, consumers get more than gossip ­ they get screwed.
http://benton.org/node/26961
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CARRIERS EMBRACE WIFI
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Sarah Reedy]
In the past year, WiFi has exploded on smartphones and in hot spots across the country. This unlicensed spectrum used to be a pain point for many wireless operators keen on keeping subscribers on their cellular networks, but given the momentum, they have been forced to embrace WiFi and ­ in some cases ­ even require it. According to Ovum's latest data, out of the 77 smartphone models released by key manufacturers between the second quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009, 49 had WiFi built in. It was a feature that spanned nearly all smartphones, not just high-end models, and is moving into the feature-phone market, as well as across operators' triple-play product lines, according to Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the WiFi Alliance. Carriers may still be adjusting to the notion that WiFi is increasingly necessary as too much traffic and bandwidth-intensive applications and services tax their network.
http://benton.org/node/26954
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AT&T PAYS SPRINT $59M IN SPECTRUM SWAP
[SOURCE: FierceWireless, AUTHOR: Mike Dano]
AT&T Mobility will pay Sprint Nextel $59 million for spectrum in parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Florida and elsewhere. AT&T said "the additional spectrum will enable AT&T to increase its system capacity to enhance existing services, better accommodate its overall growth, and facilitate the provision of additional products and services to the public in the areas of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. ... The additional spectrum will also facilitate AT&T's continued deployment of GSM/EDGE and HSDPA/UMTS technologies." Interestingly, the deal includes spectrum in Oklahoma City, a market where AT&T was forced to divest spectrum not once but twice--first as a condition of its merger with Cingular Wireless four years ago and then in 2007 as part of its acquisition of Dobson. AT&T argued that the FCC should approve its acquisition of the Oklahoma City spectrum from Sprint because neither its merger with Cingular nor its acquisition of Dobson contained "a prohibition on re-acquisition of divested spectrum," and because of what AT&T said was robust wireless competition in the Oklahoma City market. The carrier pointed out that Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, US Cellular and Clearwire all own spectrum in Oklahoma City.
http://benton.org/node/26952
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HEALTH & MEDIA

MANY FAULT MEDIA COVERAGE OF HEALTH CARE DEBATE
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, AUTHOR: Andrew Kohut et al]
As the fight in Washington over health care reform continues to dominate public attention and media coverage, most Americans are critical of the way news organizations are explaining key elements of the debate. News about proposed health care legislation was the most closely followed story of last week, just as it had been the prior week. More than a third (36%) say they followed news about the debate more closely than any other major story. And when people are asked what news story they are talking about with friends, the most frequent response is health care (also 36%), far outpacing mentions of other stories, including the economy. The latest News Interest Index survey, conducted July 31-August 3 among 1,013 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, finds that the public gives news organizations low marks for their coverage of health care. More than seven-in-ten say the media has done either a poor (40%) or only fair (32%) job explaining details of the various proposals. Just 21% offer a positive rating of this coverage: 4% excellent and 17% good.
http://benton.org/node/26951
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HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS SLOW TO INVEST IN HEALTH IT SYSTEMS, EXPERTS SAY
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: ]
Industry experts say health care providers are weighing their options before investing in electronic health record systems and other health IT tools. Eric Brown, research director at Forrester Research, said most hospitals and physicians plan to adopt EHR systems. However, he predicts that demand for health IT tools will grow gradually because many health care providers are conservative in their investments. Chris O'Neal, director of corporate reporting at research firm KLAS, said many health care organizations are conducting intense research into health IT systems before making decisions about adoption.
http://benton.org/node/26950
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PREPARING TO IMPLEMENT HITECH
[SOURCE: State Alliance for E-Health, AUTHOR: ]
A guide to help states comply with the health IT provisions of the federal economic stimulus law. The report calls for state officials to prepare for the new federal health IT requirements by: Creating a state office to manage health data exchanges; Designing a communications strategy; Developing a business model for health information networks; Enacting privacy and security safeguards; Encouraging participation from state agencies; Launching health IT training and education initiatives; Soliciting stakeholder input; and Updating state plans on implementing health information exchanges.
http://benton.org/node/26949
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WATCHING TV: EVEN WORSE FOR KIDS THAN YOU THINK
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: Alice Parker]
It's no secret that sedentary behavior contributes to obesity and chronically poor health. But not all sedentary behaviors are created equal, according to a new study that examines the link between blood pressure in children and their choice of inactive pastimes, including watching TV, using the computer and reading. Researchers in the U.S. and Spain collaborated on the study of 111 children ages 3 to 8 and found that of all the forms of inactivity they examined, television-viewing was the worst. It was linked to significantly higher blood pressure in children — the more TV kids watched, the higher their blood pressure — and the effect held true regardless of whether a child was heavy or at a healthy weight. What's more, other sedentary behaviors, like using a computer, were not associated with similar blood-pressure hikes, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
http://benton.org/node/26948
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POLICYMAKERS

SENATE CONFIRMS SOTOMAYOR, FIRST HISPANIC SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: J. Taylor Rushing]
The Senate on Thursday sent Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court with a modest display of bipartisan support, making her the first Hispanic justice and only the third woman to serve on the high court. The 68-31 vote held few surprises, as a small band of Republicans joined Democrats in confirming her 72 days after President Barack Obama nominated the former prosecutor and judge. Her confirmation paves the way for Sotomayor to begin assembling her staff and prepare for the court to convene in October. At the White House, President Obama said he was "pleased and deeply gratified" with the confirmation and "very happy" with the margin. She is not expected to significantly tilt the court's philosophical balance.
http://benton.org/node/26945
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OBAMA TABS KENNARD FOR EU AMBASSADOR
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate former Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard to be Representative of the United States of America to the European Union, with the rank of Ambassador. Currently, Kennard is Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. While FCC chairman, Kennard advanced policies that brought the Internet to a majority of American households, greatly expanded investment in new wireless and broadband networks, and made digital technologies more available to schools, libraries, low-income communities and people with disabilities. Before becoming FCC Chairman, he served as the FCC's General Counsel and as a partner and member of the board of directors of the law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand (now DLA Piper). Kennard currently serves on the boards of directors of The New York Times Company, Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., and Insight Communications; in addition, he is a board member of several nonprofit organizations, including the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, One Economy Corporation, Common Sense Media, Year-Up Inc. and the Yale University Council.
http://benton.org/node/26967
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