Sept 3, 2009 (Spectrum Key to Internet Buildout)
"[I]f we cast aside narrow self-interests, dig deep into the data, and approach the problems in a new way, we can propose a plan that will capture those externalities, build that foundation and make our country better and stronger."
-- FCC's Blair Levin
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
Blair Levin: Spectrum Key to Internet Buildout
Levin: Broadband Record Still Lacking
How State and Local Governments are Addressing Broadband Deployment and Adoption
Broadband Plan Shaking Up Communications at FCC
WIRELESS
How the iPhone Is Driving a Wireless Bandwidth Boom
Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T
THE STIMULUS
Stimulus offers messy test of public/private telecom models
Broadband: Stimulus needed in Mississippi
DIGITAL CONTENT
FCC Asked To Examine 'TV Everywhere'
Why Not Merge TV And Internet?
Nielsen: Viewers hunger for Web and TV at same time
Amazon Objects to Google's Books Pact
Studios Want Decision From FCC On Cable Waiver For HD Movies
Only Half Of Travelers Use Web To Get There
Kindle Friendlier to Environment Than Print Books
Friends, not editors, shape Internet habits
JOURNALISM
The Real Town Hall Story
For TV, an Image Shift
Knight News Challenge Competition Offers up to $5 million for Community News Innovation
MORE ONLINE ...
Experts debate expansion of president's cybersecurity powers
US, Mexico Sign Telecomm Agreement
Government 2.0: Under the Hood
Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank Has Plans for a Digital City
Schools get help in using Web 2.0 tools
How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0
HHS health IT meetings will focus on privacy, security
Tech transfers to developing world needed for sustainability
DHS needs to plug some cybersecurity holes, audit finds
Cable companies seeking a new tax on satellite TV
BLAIR LEVIN: SPECTRUM KEY TO INTERNET BUILDOUT
[SOURCE: Dow Jones, AUTHOR: Fawn Johnson]
Blair Levin, who is leading the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan effort, said Wednesday current spectrum holders will have to justify their holdings or risk losing some to make room for suppliers of high-speed Internet. Companies and agencies that hold licenses to frequencies tend to want to hang onto it, but Levin warned that licensees should be prepared to justify their ownership. "I want you to be worried," he told telecom executives and lobbyists at their regular Udwin Breakfast Group. "I'm worried. My way of coping with it is to make other people worry. That's actually the intellectual process we should go through." Levin said there's a consensus in the FCC's public record the making more spectrum available for wireless broadband is a necessity. It isn't clear where the needed airwaves will surface. The US government, namely the Defense Department, holds a sizable chunk. Industry insiders say the government's airwaves could be more efficiently used in the private sector. Legislation is pending in Congress to catalogue how all the wireless airwaves are being used.
http://benton.org/node/27592
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LEVIN: BROADBAND RECORD STILL LACKING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
According to Blair Levin, the Federal Communications Commission still does not have the information it needs to meet its Feb. 17, 2010 congressional deadline for a National Broadband Plan. Levin had criticized the public and industry input on the national broadband plan in an earlier speech as too aspirational at the expense of practical solutions, and of being "analytically weak" and lacking in serious purpose." But he said Wednesday he needed to clarify that. Levin said he did not want to stifle creativity, but that the commission needs more data to support all the policy arguments it has been hearing. He said the Commission's North Star should be about "unleashing a process rather than reaching an arbitrary goal." The FCC's North Star, he said, should be "freeing up underutilized assets." Levin concluded, "[I]f we cast aside narrow self-interests, dig deep into the data, and approach the problems in a new way, we can propose a plan that will capture those externalities, build that foundation and make our country better and stronger."
http://benton.org/node/27591
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HOW STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ARE ADDRESSING BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT AND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Christopher Naoum]
On September 1, state and local telecommunications officials gathered at the Federal Communications Commission to discuss their roles in a National Broadband Plan. The FCC wanted to hear from state and local governments that have proactively addressed broadband deployment and adoption issues in their communities. On the table for discussion: identifying gaps in existing broadband policy, developing necessary infrastructure, securing support from key stakeholders, encouraging adoption, funding broadband initiatives and evaluating the effectiveness of enacted policies.
http://benton.org/node/27590
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BROADBAND PLAN SHAKING UP COMMUNICATIONS AT FCC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
The Federal Communications Commission is using the power of the Internet to boost public participation in devising a National Broadband Plan. Inside the agency, we are hard at work processing the public input we are getting from our many workshops. The hours of discussion by workshop participants, along with comments that have already been filed at the FCC, have prompted us to draft new Public Notices about the plan. Over the coming weeks, you will see several of them issued. The new comments we receive will be filed in the official record for the plan. And of course, the transcripts that are being made of each workshop will also be part of the record.
http://benton.org/node/27587
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WIRELESS
HOW THE IPHONE IS DRIVING A WIRELESS BANDWIDTH BOOM
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
The mobile Internet is one of the most dynamic parts of today's technology ecosystem. But most of the mobile companies are using older-generation technologies — a handful of T-1 connections that pump 6-10 megabits per second of bandwidth capacity into cell towers that turn around and share it with tens of thousands of users. But the popularity of new 3G devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry 3G has increased the use of data, putting the backend networks under strain. And from that perspective, today's 3G networks are like glittering skyscrapers built on a foundation of matchsticks. The current buildout of wireless networks is mirroring that of the wired Internet in the late 1990s and early part of this decade. Back in the day, every time you pulled down a track from Napster, you put an enormous strain on the network, which, in turn, led to the rise of bandwidth providers such as Qwest and Level 3, along with a series of hardware makers. Today that problem is magnified manifold, mostly because the number of mobile users is so much higher than PC users accessing the Internet.
http://benton.org/node/27589
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CUSTOMERS ANGERED AS IPHONES OVERLOAD AT&T
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jenna Wortham]
Slim and sleek as it is, the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones. It's a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user. The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T's cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers. Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say. AT&T says that the majority of the nearly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will be diverted into upgrades and expansions to meet the surging demands on the 3G network. The company intends to erect an additional 2,100 cell towers to fill out patchy coverage, upgrade existing cell sites by adding fiber optic connectivity to deliver data faster and add other technology to provide stronger cell signals. As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers. Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.
http://benton.org/node/27596
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THE STIMULUS
STIMULUS OFFERS MESSY TEST OF PUBLIC/PRIVATE TELECOM MODELS
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
[Commentary] As broadband stimulus funds flow into public/private partnerships, they are sure to reveal cracks that still exist in our understanding of how to balance public and private interests in telecom successfully. The city council in Provo, Utah is considering whether to grant a request to reduce monthly payment obligations from Broadweave Networks, which acquired the city's struggling fiber-to-the-home network last year. Broadweave argued it could turn the fiber operations around by replacing its open, wholesale-only model with one in which it played both the role of service provider and network operator. It's not clear yet that the strategy will be successful. Now Broadweave wants to merge with one of the service providers on the network, Veracity Communications, using the temporary break in payments to the city — $1.5 million over two years - to get the combined operation up to speed. And that plea for financial help is raising concerns.
http://benton.org/node/27588
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BROADBAND: STIMULUS NEEDED IN MISSISSIPPI
[SOURCE: Clarion Ledger, AUTHOR: ]
Mississippi has chosen One Economy/BroadMap as its partner in the effort to map broadband availability in the state. Additionally, the state has received 58 proposals for broadband stimulus funds to review. Mississippi lags behind much of the rest of the nation in terms of access to high-speed Internet technologies. A 2007 Census report indicated that Mississippi was at that time worst in the nation with only 46 percent of its citizens able to access broadband.
http://benton.org/node/27569
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DIGITAL CONTENT
FCC ASKED TO EXAMINE 'TV EVERYWHERE'
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Public Knowledge said today that it intends to ask the Federal Communications Commission to scrutinize TV Everywhere as well as limits on bandwidth consumption that could limit people's ability to watch video on the Web. "The commission should closely examine any practice that discourages users from viewing Internet video, to the advantage of an ISP's own video offerings," Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said. She adds that TV Everywhere "could discourage innovation if it requires, encourages or allows programmers and content providers to sign exclusive deals with cable companies."
http://benton.org/node/27583
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WHY NOT MERGE TV AND INTERNET?
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Michael Kokernak]
[Commentary] Internet video distribution today seems like the inevitable path media companies are going to take in order to ensure their content gets to consumers. But big media needs to figure out a way to operate (for at least the next five to seven years) with one foot firmly planted in today's TV distribution platform, while incubating their Internet audiences. Once the digital transition fog lifts and the industry looks at the current distribution ecosystem, we might find that TV Everywhere and Hulu (to just name two) should technically be integrated with the digital spectrum and cable distribution. We, for instance, should probably be concentrating our efforts on how to combine the Internet and the digital television experience so consumers get content delivered through one seamless "platform." Cross-platform technologies could satisfy everyone, including the consumer, while also building revenue streams that are integrated across both TV and the Internet. After all, wouldn't you like to be able to click your TV remote control and move the TV show you are watching to the Internet without missing a punch line?
http://benton.org/node/27585
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NIELSEN: VIEWERS HUNGER FOR WEB AND TV AT THE SAME TIME
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alex Dobuzinskis]
US television viewers are increasingly turning on the Web, tuning into television and not missing a beat on either, as simultaneous TV and Internet use continues to rise, research firm Nielsen said on Wednesday. Nielsen said in a report that 57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers. As the heightened importance of the Web changes the way Americans watch TV, industry executives and marketers are considering ways to adjust their broadcast shows and play into viewers' simultaneous use of the Internet.
http://benton.org/node/27584
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AMAZON OBJECTS TO GOOGLE'S BOOKS PACT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: ]
Lawyers for Amazon.com blasted Google's copyright settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers as an anticompetitive agreement that would increase how much consumers pay for digital books and undermine Congress's role in amending copyright law to address changes in technology. Amazon filed a legal brief late Tuesday with the US District Court in New York, formally intervening in the settlement that has drawn a wide range of critics and supporters from across the publishing industry. Others, including Sony Corp. have expressed their intention to file briefs in support of the settlement .In its 41-page brief, Amazon said, "Because such a resolution would fly squarely in the face of Congress's constitutionally delegated role to legislate changes to the copyright law, it must be rejected." Google responded, saying "the Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition."
http://benton.org/node/27595
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STUDIOS WANT DECISION FROM FCC ON CABLE WAIVER FOR HD MOVIES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Movie studios are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to make a decision on granting them a waiver that would allow them to deliver high-definition, digital versions of movies to cable subscribers in advance of their DVD release, a move that concerns independent producers and fair use activists. Fair use fans Public Knowledge and other public-interest groups early on asked the FCC to deny the waiver, saying it would "frustrate consumer expectations regarding their home-theater equipment and will give movie studios unprecedented and undesirable control over the design and use of home electronics equipment." Also opposed is the Independent Film & Television Alliance, which said not long after the waiver request was made that allowing the major studios to "remotely shut off a particular output on a program-by-program basis" would harm program diversity by diminishing access to independent films like those of their members. Theater owners are also concerned that the studios are shortening their distribution windows and migrating their movies to other distribution platforms -- like cable and satellite--that they can more easily control.
http://benton.org/node/27582
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ONLY HALF OF TRAVELERS USE WEB TO GET THERE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Karl Greenberg]
Americans are traveling despite the economy, but only about half are using the Internet to research and make travel arrangements. About 117 million Americans -- or about 52% of U.S. adults -- have taken at least a two-day trip in the last two years. But only 47% of them used to Internet to research travel services. And 39% of recent travelers say online media actually influenced their choice of travel services, with hotel/bed and breakfast Web sites having the most influence. The data is per Westerville, Ohio-based Ad-ology Research's study on media influence on consumer choice in travel services. The firm says online content also influenced 34% to visit local attractions and events, like amusement parks, zoos, and concerts. Traditional media influenced 27% of travelers and 32.7% of those visiting local attractions. Cost and value are the most important considerations, per the study, which suggests that the most-researched topics are airfares and hotel/motel rates. Thirty-four percent used the Internet to search for flights; 31% to search for hotels.
http://benton.org/node/27576
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KINDLE FRIENDLIER TO ENVIRONMENT THAN PRINT BOOKS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joseph Galante]
Amazon's Kindle and rival electronic reading devices will do more to curb pollution from the production of printed books than publishing industry efforts such as recycling, according to Cleantech Group. By 2012 the carbon-emission benefits from using e-readers will outweigh by more than twofold the environmental damage caused by manufacturing, electricity and battery disposal associated with the devices.
http://benton.org/node/27573
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FRIENDS, NOT EDITORS, SHAPE INTERNET HABITS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
With social media on the rise, traditional Internet portals such as Yahoo and AOL, once the front doors to the online world, are being spurned in favor of social sites, where users are discovering a new, more personal filter to the infinite world of the Internet. This behavioral change has forced content providers to adapt quickly. Rather than assuming that users will seek out their content, media organizations - from the big international newspaper groups, down to the small local publications - are now actively promoting their content on social networks, and encouraging readers to distribute links to their friends. It is de rigueur for news websites to be embedded with devices that automatically publish articles to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and to content sharing websites such as Digg and StumbleUpon.
http://benton.org/node/27572
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JOURNALISM
THE REAL TOWN HALL STORY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: E J Dionne Jr]
[Commentary] Health-care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town-hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change. But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt? There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view "boring") encounters between elected representatives and their constituents.
http://benton.org/node/27594
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FOR TV, AN IMAGE SHIFT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter, Brian Stelter]
Diane Sawyer will succeed Charles Gibson as the anchor of ABC's "World News." The arrival of Sawyer will comprehensively alter the long-established image of an avuncular male nightly news anchor. With Katie Couric, who took the CBS anchor position in 2006, two of the three main network news voices will be female, a role that in the past has punished others, like Barbara Walters and Connie Chung. For Sawyer, the promotion is the culmination of years of waiting. She took the morning job on a temporary basis, then stayed for 10 years, reviving ABC's morning franchise. But she was passed over twice for the evening anchor job.
http://benton.org/node/27597
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KNIGHT NEWS CHALLENGE COMPETITION
[SOURCE: Knight Foundation, AUTHOR: Press release]
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The deadline for applications is Oct. 15. This year, applicants can enter in one of two categories. In the "open" category, submissions are available to the public for viewing and commenting. These entries can use others' comments to revise and submit their application or proposals. In a separate "closed" category, solely Knight Foundation staff and contest reviewers will see applications. Applicants who aren't ready to share their ideas publicly can use this category.
http://benton.org/node/27570
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