Aug 24, 2009 (Apple-Google-AT&T)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY AUGUST 24, 2009

** Planning a communications-related course? See http://benton.org/headlines_in_the_classroom to learn how Headlines might help. **

WIRELESS
   Apple Denies It Rejected Google Application for iPhone
   AT&T can block cheap net calls on iPhone
   Critics call shenanigans after Apple, AT&T letters to FCC
   Can AT&T Meet iPhone Network Demands?

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   After Going to Washington, Now What?
   Broadband Opportunities for Disadvantaged Businesses
   Broadband Stimulus: A View from the Trenches
   Is Three Weeks Enough Time For NTIA/RUS To Pick Winners?
   Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts
   Retailers, States Eye Online Sales Taxes

TELEVISION/RADIO
   FCC Sued Over DTV Transition Info
   Cable Accounts for 95% of Alcohol Ads on TV
   Network radio's fate has some lessons for today

HEALTH & MEDIA
Health IT Standards Panel Approves Work Group Guidance on EHR Systems
Electronic medical records grants face challenges

JOURNALISM
   Few Americans Seem to Hear Health Care Facts
   FTC to Assess Business of News
   Slate Replaces Newspaper Roundup With News Updates

ADVERTISING
   In 'Hillary: The Movie' case, Supreme Court considers major shift in election law
   Milestone: Local online tops traditional.
   Google helps advertisers predict hot search topics

TRANSITION
Obama's Team Is Lacking Most of Its Top Players

MORE ONLINE ...
Time for Science Research Stimulus
Tribune Sells Cubs, Wrigley for $845 Million

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WIRELESS

APPLE DENIES IT REJECTED GOOGLE APPLICATIONS FOR IPHONE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
Apple told the Federal Communications Commission on Friday that it did not reject an iPhone application submitted by Google and that it was still studying it, in part because of privacy concerns. Google Voice offers users free domestic telephone calls, deeply discounted international calls and SMS messages. Apple told the FCC that Google Voice duplicated the functions of the iPhone, which uses the AT&T network in the United States, and might confuse users. The application "appears to alter the iPhone's distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone's core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voice mail," the company wrote. Apple also raised concerns that Google Voice copied all of the information about a user's contacts onto Google's servers. Apple said that it had not discussed the Google Voice application with AT&T and that in most cases its contract with the wireless carrier gave it the sole authority to decide whether to accept applications. AT&T filed its own letter, asserting that it was not consulted by Apple on the Google voice application. It defended the restriction on voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, service as important to preserving the revenue it needed to offset the subsidized price of the iPhone. Apple and AT&T, it said, "required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone." In Google's letter to the commission, it said it did not screen applications for its Android cellphone operating system, but that it did reject apps that contained pornography or other objectionable material.
http://benton.org/node/27310
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AT&T CAN BLOCK CHEAP NET CALLS ON IPHONE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
The terms in AT&T's exclusive US contract to provide connections for Apple's iPhone give the telecommunications giant the power to veto online store applications that use AT&T to launch cheap calls through the Internet, the companies disclosed late Friday. So far, the alliance has limited the use of approved Voice over Internet Protocol applications, including Skype's, to WiFi hotspots, so as not to undercut AT&T's model of charging for calls. But AT&T said "We plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G networks." As it had previously, AT&T told the FCC the company had no general authority over applications in the App store. But it can and has become involved over a couple of other issues, including the use customer information and where "there were concerns that the application might create significant network congestion." That's why some applications that would stream live video have been limited to WiFi locations, AT&T's filing said, and why the Pandora music streaming service required some changes to the streaming technology being employed.
http://benton.org/node/27312
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CRITICS CALL SHENANIGANS AFTER APPLE, AT&T LETTERS TO FCC
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
[Commentary] Why is it bad if consumers opt for some other voicemail service besides Apples'? And what does the company mean by "replace"? The software development kit that Apple offers third party vendors "does not make it possible to 'replace' the iPhone's core anything," argues Kevin Duerr of Riverturn, whose VoiceCentral app has also been put on hold by Apple, according to its letter to the Federal Communications Commission. "This is simply a very specific solution for Google Voice Users to utilize that distinct and separate service. It has to be accessed just as any other App does and it does not a replace a thing." Duerr also puzzles at the section of the Apple response that implies that Google Voice somehow messes with the "core functionality" of the iPhone, citing "the 'Phone' icon that is always shown at the bottom." "I guess so," he wrote, "that is unless a user chooses to put something else in their dock as Apple allows." So what exactly are Apples' standards for "replacement," developers are wondering. That head-scratcher, however, pales in comparison with the question du jour—who made the decision to kick Google Voice down to observational purgatory? Apple or its partner AT&T? Or both?
http://benton.org/node/27311
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CAN AT&T MEET IPHONE NETWORK DEMANDS?
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Peter Burrows]
When AT&T cut the deal that made it the exclusive US distributor of Apple's iPhone, the carrier bet correctly it would attract millions of new subscribers. What it didn't bargain for: the huge demands the device would impose on AT&T's network. Thanks largely to the iPhone's ability to surf the Web, play videos, and run all manner of software-based tools called apps, by some estimates AT&T now handles more than twice as much smartphone traffic as any other U.S. carrier. Or mishandles, as the case may be. In areas where the devices are most common, such as San Francisco and New York, the iPhone often drops calls or fails to deliver Web access at speeds implied in Apple ads. The shortcomings leave AT&T under pressure to make its network iPhone-ready or risk losing its edge in smartphones.
http://benton.org/node/27313
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AFTER GOING TO WASHINGTON, NOW WHAT?
[SOURCE: Fighting the Next Good Fight, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Let's talk about the upside of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan workshop series. Our national broadband policy could put us on track to transform millions of lives and businesses in hundreds of communities. Or it could be great mental gymnastics that many look back on one day and wistfully ponder what could have been. Settles leans toward the former with a couple of cautions. In the past, lobbyists descend upon Congressional and agency's policy makers to conduct backroom meetings and create directives that benefit the few more than the many. Though the workshops created some grumbling early on about being weighted heavily toward technologists, the panel Settles was on and the ones following have become more representative of the constituencies that broadband - and the lack thereof - impacts the most. Here are two things that will elevate these workshops from being good public policy stepping stones to becoming great cornerstones of an effective national strategy that pulls the country from its sad broadband standing in the world. First, the workshops need a big dose of participation by the people who actually own the problem, who feel the pain. The value of the workshops to date will be doubled or tripled if the FCC brings the people with the pain into the needs analysis process. But you have to go to them. Second, don't let the workshops be co-opted by the typical DC lobbyist machine. At some key points in the development of effective national broadband, the best interests of the those who need better broadband will not align with incumbents' perceptions of their best interests.
http://benton.org/node/27323
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BROADBAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DISADVANTAGED BUSINESSES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Thomas Reed]
On August 18, the Federal Communications Commission conducted its Broadband Workshop on "Opportunities for Disadvantaged Businesses, which examined whether small and disadvantaged businesses are ready to take advantage of new and existing broadband technologies. The first panel consisted of representatives from various Chambers of Commerce, from the Small Business Administration, and from business leaders familiar with the broadband needs of rural communities. These panelists discussed what is currently known about broadband technology in their constituent communities, and how they can assist small and disadvantaged businesses in their effort to increase broadband adoption. The small and disadvantaged business community requires services developed with a focus on local communities. Although broadband technology represents an additional cost for small businesses, without these technologies, their businesses may be unsustainable in the modern marketplace. The second panel consisted of small business leaders who are in the technology solutions business. These panelists discussed the various ways they help businesses grow by using broadband technology. They stressed the need for digital literacy and how we must make broadband relevant in the daily lives of people in unserved and underserved communities and not just for entertainment purposes. The third and final panel consisted of entrepreneurs who currently own and operate small businesses that use broadband technology to remain competitive in their industries.
http://benton.org/node/27309
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BROADBAND STIMULUS: A VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Geoff Burke]
[Commentary] Calix is the largest communications equipment supplier focused solely on access solutions for broadband service delivery. And nearly 100 of Calix's wireline Internet service provider customers have applied for broadband stimulus funding. These proposals have ranged in size from a few hundred thousand dollars to more than half a billion dollars. Average proposal size? Well over $10 million. From a technology perspective, the choice has been clear: Deploy fiber. Fiber to the premises (FTTP) architectures have dominated the proposals, showing up in more than 90 percent of them. Many of the proposals come from small, rural operators and, based on Calix's calculations, aim to address more than half a million homes. [Geoff Burke is the senior director of corporate marketing at Calix.]
http://benton.org/node/27308
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IS THREE WEEKS ENOUGH TIME FOR NTIA/RUS TO PICK WINNERS?
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
Is three weeks enough for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service to read all the broadband stimulus fund applications? While some, including Daily, were frustrated with how long it took NTIA and RUS to issue rules for their broadband award programs, now he's worried that the next steps may be rushed.
http://benton.org/node/27307
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MINING THE WEB FOR FEELINGS, NOT FACTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alex Wright]
Computers may be good at crunching numbers, but can they crunch feelings? The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users. An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world's unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data. This is more than just an interesting programming exercise. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.
http://benton.org/node/27322
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RETAILERS, STATES EYE ONLINE SALES TAXES
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
A diverse coalition including retailers, real estate firms and state governments this fall is set to renew its decade-long push to require collection of online sales tax on out-of-state purchases. Aides to Sen Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) said they are working on revamped versions of measures they introduced in the 110th and previous Congresses, although there is no timeline for introduction. Sources said they expect the "Main Street Fairness Act" to be unveiled as early as September.
http://benton.org/node/27316
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TELEVISION/RADIO

FCC SUED OVER DTV TRANSITION INFO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in US District Court for the District of Columbia in an attempt to compel the Federal Communications Commission to turn over documents related to the digital television transition. Judicial Watch filed its first FOIA request in February following a press report claiming a telecom adviser to President Obama's transition team stood to benefit from the delay of the transition. The delay, it was stated, would slow up Verizon's rollout of a new broadband network that would compete with existing service Clearwire. Clearwire is backed by strategic investors that include Intel Capital, Comcast, Sprint, Google, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. In its lawsuit, Judicial Watch says the FCC provided highly redacted documents related to the decision to delay the transition (essentially comprising a series of status reports), withheld other documents and provided no communications with the White House concerning the delay. While the FCC did not comment, a copy of the commission's May 8 response to Judicial Watch does indicate the FCC's justification for the timing and nature of the material it did release. The document also includes a promise to supplement the response after it had checked with the White House about what privileges, "if any," it would assert.
http://benton.org/node/27306
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CABLE ACCOUNTS FOR 95% OF ALCOHOL ADS ON TV
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Between 2001 and 2006, alcohol ads on cable increased with the percentage of teens in the audience, according to a study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) and UCLA to be published in the American Journal of Public Health. Cable accounts for about 95% of alcohol advertising on TV, according to the group. The study does not assert advertisers on cable were targeting youth, but it says self-regulations don't appear to be working. Advertisers strongly disagree.
http://benton.org/node/27305
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NETWORK RADIO'S FATE HAS SOME LESSONS FOR TODAY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Terry Teachout]
[Commentary] The digital apocalypse continues to blight the lives of television producers, music-industry executives and newspaper publishers, all of whom are scrambling to figure out how to reconfigure their business models in such a way as to allow them to make an honest buck. They're trying to second-guess the future—so why not look back at the past? Today's new-media revolution, after all, is not the first time that technological change has laid waste to the best-laid plans of the old media. The same thing was happening 60 years ago. Everybody in America was talking about TV early in 1949, though comparatively few Americans owned a set of their own. Network radio was still the dominant mass entertainment medium. If you wanted to listen to Bing Crosby or "The Quiz Kids," you tuned in to their radio programs. While there were roughly 85 million radios in use throughout America, there were 1.3 million TV sets, 750,000 of which were on the East Coast. Television was still a pricey toy. A console set with a 16-inch picture tube cost $695 in 1949—half the price of a new car. Every TV station in the country was operating in the red, and NBC ran its fledgling TV network at a loss of $13,000 a day, $116,000 in today's dollars. But on Jan. 11 of that year, television in America turned a technological corner when eight stations on the East Coast and seven Midwestern stations were linked via the first long-distance coaxial cable. All at once it was possible for a significant slice of the American public to watch network TV programs live.
http://benton.org/node/27318
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HEALTH & MEDIA

HEALTH IT STANDARDS PANEL APPROVES WORK GROUP GUIDANCE ON EHR SYSTEMS
[SOURCE: iHealthBeat, AUTHOR: ]
On Thursday, the Health IT Standards Committee endorsed various recommendations from its work groups. The committee's clinical quality work group recommended quality measures that health care providers and vendors could include in electronic health records. The work group called for EHRs to feature: Body mass index and asthma management documentation by 2011; Harmonized clinical measures across age groups and settings; and Identification of diagnoses according to the Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms, or SNOMED-CT.
http://benton.org/node/27302
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ELECTRONIC MEDIA RECORDS GRANTS FACE CHALLENGES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
Medical technologists and lobbyists say a number of challenges stand in the way of the healthcare industry's move toward widespread use of electronic medical records, despite a billion-dollar commitment from President Obama for the effort. Policy makers must figure out the standards by which doctors and hospitals will be eligible for the money, as well as how to protect the privacy of patients as sensitive data is shared between facilities. The grants, which were announced Thursday, include $598 million to set up around 70 health information technology centers to help healthcare institutions purchase electronic record systems. Another $564 million will go toward developing a nationwide system of health information networks.
http://benton.org/node/27315
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JOURNALISM

FEW AMERICANS SEEM TO HEAR HEALTH CARE FACTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.
http://benton.org/node/27321
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FTC TO ASSESS BUSINESS OF NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Pradnya Joshi]
The Federal trade Commission is planning two days of workshops in December — titled "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" — to examine the state of the news industry. A report will be issued after the workshops that may make recommendations to lawmakers on changes in policies on anything ranging from taxation of news organizations to copyright issues, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. He said no specific issues had been chosen. Though some may be uncomfortable with government oversight of any aspect of journalism, the FTC seems to be "attempting to play a facilitating and public educational role in gathering together various disciplines and perspectives to talk about the crisis in mainstream journalism," said Neil Henry, a professor and dean at the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. "The government's willingness to raise the profile of this issue, and to help explain why it is important for a national conversation, I think in general is welcome."
http://benton.org/node/27320
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SLATE REPLACES NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP WITH NEWS UPDATES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Is no one reading the papers anymore? Slate is retiring "Today's Papers," one of the original aggregators of the Web, 12 years after it started its beloved once-a-day summary of the nation's news pages. In its place comes a new recap of the news, one that acknowledges that the news cycle has, well, sped up quite considerably since "Today's Papers" started in 1997. That is why the "Slatest," the name of the new feature that comes online Monday morning, will collect the world's news three times a day. Jack Shafer, the media columnist for Slate, observed that the news cycle had three distinct parts: an overnight shift led by newspapers, a daytime phase when other news media entities react to the overnight news, and an afternoon phase when "the day's news events break and are digested."
http://benton.org/node/27319
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ADVERTISING

SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS ELECTION LAW
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Savage]
President Theodore Roosevelt campaigned as a trust-busting reformer, but was embarrassed by revelations that his 1904 campaign had received secret contributions from New York insurance companies. At his urging, Congress passed a law to keep corporate money out of political races. Now, that century-old ban stands in danger of being overturned by the Supreme Court's conservative majority, on the basis of an equally venerable principle: free speech in politics. The justices signaled the prospect of a profound shift in election law by scheduling an unusual special argument for Sept. 9. At issue will be whether to overturn two rulings that limit corporate spending in elections.
http://benton.org/node/27317
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MILESTONE: LOCAL ONLINE TOPS TRADITIONAL
[SOURCE: Inside radio, AUTHOR: ]
For the first time, digital media use exceeds that of radio, newspaper, television and other traditional media among small and medium-sized businesses. BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor study shows 77% of local businesses are doing some form of digital marketing. At the same time, traditional media usage slips to 69%.
http://benton.org/node/27314
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GOOGLE HELPS ADVERTISERS PREDICT HOT SEARCH TOPICS
[SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, AUTHOR: ]
Google has developed a formula to predict hot online search topics in what promises to be a boon for businesses eager to target ads that accompany Internet search results. Engineers in Google's lab in Israel came up with a forecasting model while studying whether past and current search patterns hold reliable clues to what people will seek online in months to come. More than half of the most popular search queries at Google are predictable as far as a year ahead, with a margin of error of about 12 percent, according to the Israel lab engineers.
http://benton.org/node/27303
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TRANSITION

OBAMA'S TEAM IS LACKING MOST OF ITS TOP PLAYERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Peter Baker]
As President Obama tries to turn around a summer of setbacks, he finds himself still without most of his own team. Seven months into his presidency, fewer than half of his top appointees are in place advancing his agenda. Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious after several nominations blew up last spring, a Senate that is intensively investigating nominees and a legislative agenda that has consumed both. While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, President Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.
http://benton.org/node/27324
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