Nov 9, 2009 (Rockefeller warning on broadband plan)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
On Tuesday, BroadbandCensus.com's Breakfast Club hosts Setting the Table for the National Broadband Plan: The Environment and Telecommuting http://bit.ly/3p3dyE
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
Sen Rockefeller warns FCC over direction of broadband plan
Broadband Mapping Awards for More States
Balancing Broadband Supply and Demand in Quest to Stoke High-Speed Internet Adoption
Broadband Adoption Is About Value More Than Price
MMTC: Wireless Policy Must Promote Innovation By All
Wireless Industry: Give Us More Spectrum
See also: NAB Answers CEA on Spectrum
Cash-For-Spectrum A 'Pipe Dream'
Net Neutrality and the Spectrum Quest
Wireless Business Model is Unsustainable
Copps, McDowell speak at Broadband Hearing focused on Disability Access
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Network neutrality required to spur innovation
Network Neutrality: In Indie Studios' Interest
Genachowski Answers Hutchinson's Network Neutrality Concerns
Net Neutrality and the Spectrum Quest
LEGISLATION
Boucher and Lee Jump Start Universal Service Fund Reform Debate
Bill Would Replace Key Federal Literacy Programs
OWNERSHIP
Owning Up
Skype Settlement Winners & Losers Scorecard
Intense Review Is Expected for NBC Deal
See also:Could Comcast/NBC rival ESPN?
MORE ONLINE ...
Can Gordon Smith Save Broadcasting?
Broadband Goals Proposed In Minnesota
News Erupts, and So Does a Web Debut
China's government must deal with online criticism as blogs ignite furor
TIP Seeks Input on Critical National Needs
Rotten Apple coverage
The Internet Invades the Automobile
Mapping $641M in classroom technology
Protecting kids or free speech: Where to draw the line?
Experts: Copyright law hinders scholarship
Alec Ross on Technology for Diplomacy
Voice is Cable's Secret Weapon for Growth
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
SEN ROCKEFELLER WARNS FCC OVER DIRECTION OF BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller has a blunt message for the Federal Communications Commission: Don't submit a national broadband plan to Congress early next year that's complicated, esoteric, filled with grandiose ideas and dependent on protracted rulemaking to implement. "I want to see concrete action on the day the plan is delivered," Chairman Rockefeller said recently, referring to the blueprint ordered by Congress to extend broadband service to underserved and unserved areas, boost adoption among the 33 percent of citizens who choose not to subscribe and dramatically increase the speed and capacity of broadband networks. "A mere menu of options for the FCC and the Congress with far-off time frames isn't going to cut it," the senator added. Sources this week described Rockefeller as worried the FCC has been lowering expectations about the plan by signaling it could be a work in progress, with additional details to be filled in as more data becomes available. In an interview Thursday, Blair Levin, the FCC official overseeing the effort, said he's received the message and hopes to deliver to Congress a clear set of recommendations, some of which would fall outside the agency's parameters and require approval elsewhere in the Obama administration.
benton.org/node/29523 | CongressDaily
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BROADBAND MAPPING AWARDS FOR MORE STATES
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded grants to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in Alabama, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming under NTIA's State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. The program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will increase broadband access and adoption through better data collection and broadband planning. The data will be displayed in NTIA's national broadband map, a tool that will inform policymakers' efforts and provide consumers with improved information on the broadband Internet services available to them. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/29522 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | B&C
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ITIF ON BROADBAND ADOPTION
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Christina Kirchner]
Panelists at a Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event on Friday agreed that price and digital literacy have created a barrier to broadband demand that can affect more than just broadband adoption. James Prieger, associate professor of public policy at Pepperdine University's school of public policy, cited another barrier to adoption: the price of broadband service is just too high. Creating subsidization programs for broadband, or lowering taxes that pertain to broadband might be additional possibilities, he said. Prieger said that Canada had used tax credits to subsidize broadband, which could be a possibility for the United States, too. But Prieger cautioned, "Just because you have a plan, doesn't mean that it is going to work." According to panelists, another problem for broadband adoption is that consumers may not recognize that all of the pieces of technology connected to broadband are not for now all going to use a single platform. The event included the release a report written by Robert Atkinson, president of ITIF, "Policies to Increase Broadband Adoption at Home." The report says that although 92 to 94 percent of Americans have the opportunity to subscribe to broadband, only 65 percent have chosen to do so. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/29501 | BroadbandCensus.com | ITIF | IDG News Service
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BROADBAND ADOPTION IS ABOUT VALUE
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
A look at the Hiawatha Broadband Communications, a broadband provider in rural southeastern Minnesota. They operate a legacy HFC network, but their buildout nowadays is focused on fiber-to-the-home, bringing it to rural communities, some of which have less than 1,000 people. Talking to policymakers, HBC asserts that while they're not the low price provider in any market they serve, they're the dominant provider in every community they're in. When asked to explain how they've become the dominant provider without having the cheapest services, they cited a number of reasons. Number one is customer service. The third piece of the puzzle of their value proposition is the quality of the service they deliver. Their networks are more reliable than their competitors on multiple levels: they fix any issues faster, they have fewer issues in the first place because of fiber's fewer moving parts, and they do a better job of actually delivering the bandwidth their customers pay for.
benton.org/node/29515 | App-Rising.com
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MMTC: WIRELESS POLICY FOR ALL
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: David Honig]
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council tells the Federal Communications Commission that it must encourage investment and innovation in wireless by all by removing entry barriers and allowing small businesses an opportunity to create a more diverse wireless landscape that serves the needs of previously deprioritized populations. MMTC suggests a focus on demand and user innovation such as allowing Universal Service Fund low-income support for wireless services. The Commission should also encourage adoption programs that demonstrate the value of wireless broadband in minority communities, MMTC says. The group also identifies flat rate broadband pricing as a barrier to closing the Digital Divide and asks the FCC to favor business models that provide flexible broadband pricing based on consumption.
benton.org/node/29500 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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WIRELESS INDUSTRY: GIVE US MORE SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
CTIA, the lobbying arm of the wireless industry, told the Federal Communications Commission that innovation is flourishing across the wireless "ecosystem" but that the "virtuous cycle" of investment and innovation has outgrown its plot of spectrum. Wireless needs at least 800 mHz more spectrum below 3 GHz within the next six years. The industry has asked the government to look hard at its own spectrum holdings, as well as those of broadcasters and satellite operators. "We urge the commission to take a hard look at the spectrum use of the U.S. broadcast industry," it said, labeling broadcasters "highly inefficient" and echoing the FCC's labeling of broadcasters' spectrum holdings as beachfront property" for mobile broadband. "If the public interest in providing over-the-air television to the fraction of U.S. households without cable or satellite television has not already been overtaken by technological changes, it is rapidly becoming so," it said.
benton.org/node/29499 | Broadcasting&Cable | CTIA
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NAB ANSWERS CEA ON SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Gordon Smith]
[Commentary] New National Association of Broadcasters CEO Gordon Smith makes four point that, he says, "rise above the rhetoric." 1) Broadcasting is a public trust and a public service because it offers " subscription-less news, information and entertainment available to all Americans when they want it, when they need it and in emergency situations. 2) Television broadcasters' transition to digital-only broadcasting is a testament to their " flexibility, adaptability and strategic vision." 3) The opportunities afforded to TV stations by digital TV are astonishing -- high-definition TV is the centerpiece, mobile DTV delivered to handheld devices is the future. 4) We are "living in an era of blended media convergence." He concludes: "[T]he best solutions will flow from our collaborative efforts, not from a TV spectrum raid that only deepens the digital divide and leaves millions without the free service offerings provided by America's original wireless industry — local broadcasters."
benton.org/node/29498 | TVNewsCheck
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NET NEUTRALITY AND THE SPECTRUM QUEST
[SOURCE: Technology Marketing, AUTHOR: Tom Wheeler]
[Commentary] If the idea of Network Neutrality is to assure networks are open to all comers, then those entrants will further increase the pressure on the existing airwaves and the need for more spectrum. Smartphone apps alone average 30 times the throughput demand of a feature phone. With smartphones projected to soon constitute half of all phones sold and with a "ya' all come" policy of open access, it doesn't require a math major to divine the spectrum consequences. So, in a world where spectrum licensees are unwilling to part with their assignments and the spectrum agency wants to help while at the same time increasing demand, why isn't net neutrality an opportunity for the wireless industry? Viewing the current spectrum and net neutrality issues holistically rather than in isolation just might be an opportunity for both the wireless industry and the Administration.
benton.org/node/29497 | Technology Marketing
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WIRELESS BUSINESS MODEL IS UNSUSTAINABLE
[SOURCE: Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, AUTHOR: ]
A coalition of public interest groups tells the Federal Communications Commission that it is impractical, inefficient and ultimately anti-consumer to attempt to meet the growing demand for mobile data consumption primarily through traditional reallocations of exclusively-licensed spectrum by auction. The current commercial wireless business model based on exclusive licensing, tower-based hub/spoke channelization, centralized infrastructure and metered billing -- is not sustainable in the long term, they argue. They suggest a market evolution toward these more spectrum-efficient and cost-effective "hybrid" or "heterogeneous" wireless broadband networks. Freed from carrier control, the groups predict, wireless device innovators will be motivated to offer consumers hybrid devices that can determine on the fly what connectivity is most economical for the consumer at a given time and place. They offer four foundational principles during the historic period that lies just ahead: 1) More unlicensed and opportunistic access to the public airwaves; 2) fully flexible licensing that remains subject to public interest obligations; 3) a proactive competition and consumer protection policy; and 4) complete transparency, particularly with respect to an inventory of the airwaves
benton.org/node/29496 | Public Interest Spectrum Coalition
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COPPS AND MCDOWELL AT BROADBAND FIELD HEARING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps]
Speaking at the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan field hearing at Gallaudet University, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps stressed the importance unlocking the doors of opportunity by making broadband services more accessible for people with disabilities. He noted that "Just as telecommunications providers shouldn't be designing equipment for people with disabilities without including people with disabilities in their planning and development, neither should the FCC be writing a broadband plan for people with disabilities without including people with disabilities from start to finish."
benton.org/node/29516 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
NETWORK NEUTRALITY REQUIRED TO SPUR INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Nicholas Economides]
[Commentary] For the first time in history, the majority of the Earth's population is connected by a global communications network. Unlike traditional information networks, such as newspapers, radio and TV, however, the Internet is based on interactive communication. It has allowed for a revolutionary real-time participation of users. With almost a billion connected computers and now so deeply embedded in our lives, the most surprising aspect of the Internet may be that it is so new a commercial life of just 15 years. Its amazing success has been based on its openness, ubiquity, and non-discrimination. Its non-discrimination dubbed "net neutrality" means that content from anyone and of any type is treated equally on the Internet. Its open and public standards and the fact that no one ever had to ask permission from the network to innovate have led to one of the greatest periods of economic growth in history.
benton.org/node/29519 | Financial Times
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NET NEUTRALITY AND INDEPENDENT STUDIOS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A Q&A with Independent Film & Television Alliance president Jean Prewitt. She says that content protection and network neutrality are not mutually exclusive. In Washington recently, Prewitt was helping educate the Hill and Federal Communications Commission about her members' concerns with potential vertical integration on the Internet — including raising some red flags about a potential melding of Comcast and NBC Universal — and to draw distinctions between her constituency and the major Hollywood studios. Here she talks about the importance of the network neutrality proposal to the future of her members, who produce and distribute independent TV and films.
benton.org/node/29526 | Multichannel News
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GENACHOWSKI ANSWERS HUTCHISON'S NET NEUTRALITY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
In mid-October, Sen Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to raise concerns about the concept of network neutrality. The concerns were focused in four areas: necessity of intervention, impact on investment, unintended consequences, and fair application. She write: "Whether the Commission currently possesses sufficient authority to enforce the open Internet principles announced several years ago by the Commission is an important threshold issue. If the Commission has legal authority to take enforcement action, as it recently told an appellate court, I question whether it is then necessary to conduct a rulemaking on the subject, particularly one which would simultaneously announce additional principles with uncertain implications for investment and innovation." Chairman Genachowski has now released a letter in reply to Sen Hutchison dated Oct 21. He writes that "the goal of the [FCC's rule making proceeding "NPRM"] is to preserve the free and open Internet and its extraordinary benefits, including the ability of entrepreneurs, small businesses as well as network operators to innovate without seeking permission from any central authority, public or private. The NPRM is intended to launch a process by which all viewpoints and concerns, including questions about rural investment and wireless services, will be reviewed and examined."
benton.org/node/29518 | Federal Communications Commission | Sen Kay Bailey Hutchinson
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LEGISLATION
BOUCHER AND LEE JUMP START USF REFORM DEBATE
[SOURCE: House of Representatives, AUTHOR: Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA), Rep Lee Terry (R-NE)]
Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Lee Terry (R-Nebraska) released a discussion draft of legislation entitled the "Universal Service Reform Act of 2009." The bill proposes to improve the Universal Service Fund (USF) and ensure its continued viability by broadening the base of contributions into the USF and controlling distributions from the fund. The legislation would also allow use of the Fund for broadband deployment. The proposed bill will also control costs by directing the FCC to adopt a competitive bidding process to determine which wireless carriers will receive universal service support, and will cap the total amount of universal service support and changes the calculation methodology for the non-rural, high-cost portion of the fund from geographic to wire center averaging. The bill also proposes to direct the FCC to establish and implement performance goals for each universal service fund program and to determine the appropriate methodology for audits of universal service fund recipients. A legislative hearing on the Boucher-Terry discussion draft is scheduled on Tuesday, November 17.
benton.org/node/29521 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | Read the bill | Read an overview | Read a summary | www.broadcastingcable.com | WashPost
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OWNERSHIP
OWNING UP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] To hear some of the public interest groups tell it, the near-economic collapse and ensuing financial fallout, with millions of jobs lost and many broadcast and print outlets operating on life support, is merely a cyclical downturn. There is no cause, they say, for taking a fresh look at rules that keep some broadcasters from creating a multiplatform model that is likely the future of journalism. This posture in fact exposes these groups' single-minded determination to make broadcasters pay for the sin of being stuck with too much debt when the economy tanked and their business model was turned on its head by the Internet. In their eyes, the recessionary steamroller becomes merely a cycle when the alternative might provide a legitimate argument for deregulation. Forget "might": The FCC needs to throw out the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. It is an artifact of a world that has utterly changed. Some consolidation foes say, with a straight face, that the Internet does not represent a sea change in the media model, and that broadcasters are just using that ruse to get the deregulation they want. Even if that were the motive, it would not change the fact that the Internet has fragmented the audience to the extent that the model for making broadcast journalism work is in trouble. The reason the FCC is so concerned about localism and diversity in broadcasting is because broadcasting is so important to meeting the local information needs of the community.
benton.org/node/29513 | Broadcasting&Cable
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SKYPE SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
eBay and private investors led by Silver Lake Partners have struck a deal with Skype founders and JoltID, the technology company controlled by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. They are also transferring the ownership of intellectual property needed to make sure that Skype works as an Internet telephony service. More than 500 million Skype subscribers can breathe a sigh of relief. Skype founders will be making an investment in the new entity and will get a 14 percent stake in the company. The deal is likely to close in the fourth quarter.
benton.org/node/29493 | GigaOm | LATimes
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INTENSE REVIEW FOR NBC DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
The Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, has already called the potential union of Comcast and NBC Universal "the equivalent of Godzilla swallowing Rockefeller Center." Comcast's plan to gain control of NBC Universal, which is expected to be announced in the weeks ahead, barring any unforeseen developments, is likely to be the first major test of the Obama administration's media regulators. As a candidate, President Obama called for closer inspection of media mergers and said Bush-era media consolidation had diminished the diversity of information available to TV viewers. Given its scope, analysts and public interest groups anticipate that the deal will undergo intense government scrutiny. Comcast and General Electric, which owns 80 percent of NBC Universal, are close to a deal that would give Comcast a stake of about 51 percent in NBC. After weeks of wrestling, both sides have agreed to value NBC Universal in the neighborhood of $30 billion. The programming arms of both companies could be spun out into a separate venture. The venture would create a media behemoth. Comcast is the biggest cable system operator in the United States. NBC Universal owns broadcast networks and a portfolio of popular cable channels. Bernstein Research has estimated that the combined entity "would be calling the shots for one out of every five viewing hours in the United States." In part, government action may hinge on whether Comcast intends to sell NBC Universal's 33 owned-and-operated television stations, 16 of which are NBC affiliates and 17 of which are Telemundo affiliates.
benton.org/node/29527 | New York Times | WSJ | FT
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