Nov 10, 2009 (Firms Urge FCC To Enforce Telecom Act Rules)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2009
Headlines will return on Thursday, November 12. We hope you enjoy Veterans Day.
BROADBAND/TELECOM
Broadband "ditch-digging bill" gains support
Firms Urges FCC To Enforce Telecom Act Rules
Broadband Growth Will Come From New Tech, Not New Adds
People With Disabilities Need Minor Modifications for Broadband to Work
Satellite Companies Pitch Their Spectrum to the FCC and Eventually Carriers
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
The myth of interference: bad science created the broadcast industry
NTIA Comments on Requests for Waiver of the FCC's Rules in the 700 MHz Band
Public Safety Grant Extension Signed Into Law
FCC Seeks Comments on Bulk Texting
Apple Still Not Allowing VoIP Calls Over 3G
Google, Verizon Deepen Ties
CONTENT
New Google books settlement delayed to Friday
ACTA Treaty 'Anti-Consumer and Anti-Innovation' Groups Tell Congress
The computer gets more like the TV every day
JOURNALISM
GOP senators want to query attorney general on reporter-shield legislation
OWNERSHIP
FCC likely to keep media rules strict
Public interest groups rail against a Comcast and NBC merger
Google to buy mobile ad company AdMob
Why Google Is Buying AdMob
Hollywood's antipiracy charm offensive has FCC in crosshairs
BROADCASTING/CABLE
Networks Seek Their Cut Of Retrans
HEALTH
Telemedicine: Good Innovation Hampered by Outdated Policies
Social media explored as tool for health experts
MORE ONLINE ...
Lawmaker to Verizon: new cancellation penalty is anti-consumer
Sending a Message, Again and Again
Far From a Lab? Turn a Cellphone Into a Microscope
Milestones for Improving Learning and Education
Murdoch could block Google searches entirely
FCC's Steve Waldman: Point man for fixing the news business
Free Press, NHMC Join in Call for More Civilized Network Neutrality Debate
What Will Fox News Say About the Comcast-NBC Universal Merger?
Stimulus for tech and telecom $3B, but jobs still guesswork
Net Neutrality Step Aside, Carbon Neutrality Is Moving In
BROADBAND/TELECOM
BROADBAND "DITCH-DIGGING BILL"
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
The Broadband Conduit Deployment Act, introduced in May by Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA), has gained the backing of the Department of Transportation and Federal Communications Commission for the proposal to dig trenches for broadband fiber as part of the construction of new roads and highways. The legislation would direct the Dept of Transportation to require the installation of broadband channels--which could be filled with fiber later--while the ground is already being torn up for federally funded highway construction and other transportation projects. As a result, Internet companies can simply install the fiber lines when they build out new networks.
benton.org/node/29563 | Hill, The
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ENFORCE THE TELECOM ACT, FCC TOLD
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Yo, FCC, how about you try to enforce the law, eh? A coalition of communications companies that compete with the old Bell companies filed a petition Monday calling on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules that supporters say are aimed at boosting competition in the telecommunications and broadband markets. The coalition maintains that the FCC has been too lax in enforcing rules put in place by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requiring the Bell operating companies to open their networks to competitors. At the same time, they say the federal courts have barred the states from addressing the problem. The Bells "have taken advantage of this vacuum," said Genevieve Morelli, a partner at the Kelley Drye & Warren law firm who spoke on behalf of the coalition. She said the Bells have essentially ignored their obligations in recent years to provide competitors with access to the Bells' networks at just and reasonable rates. The petition provides "a framework to remedy the situation."
benton.org/node/29562 | CongressDaily
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BROADBAND GROWTH WILL COME FROM NEW TECH
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Broadband growth in the U.S. has slowed considerably in the last two years and future growth for online access technologies will come less from people adopting broadband for the first time and more from people upgrading from one technology to another, according to a report out today from Forrester. In addition to new technologies, Americans will also see speed boosts — even those on the slower service tiers — as providers attempt to offer more value on the low end rather than lower prices. For many, the elimination of the 768 kbps or 1.5 Mbps connection options will go unnoticed, but for those that really only use email, a price decrease for barely broadband speeds will be welcome indeed — it could even spur a few laggards holding out on broadband because of pricing to step up. However, the big takeaway of the report is that most of the U.S. — at 80.9 million homes — has some access to broadband, and that such access will continue to improve.
benton.org/node/29561 | GigaOm | Forrester
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FCC BROADBAND FIELD HEARING ON ACCESS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Christina Kirchner]
Panelists at the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan field hearing on Friday agreed that there should be a plan to make high-speed Internet connections accessible to everyone, including those with hearing, visual and other disabilities. With the speed increase that broadband offers vis-à-vis dial-up services, and with appropriate technology, people with disabilities are able to work from home and attend class at home. That can be useful when there are no educational facilities adaptable to students with disabilities. However, the issue of getting the technology is not the only challenge that needs to be overcome. Educating the people using the technology is another problem.
benton.org/node/29558 | BroadbandCensus.com
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SATELLITE COMPANIES PITCH THEIR SPECTRUM TO THE FCC
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has been talking with Qualcomm and Skyterra in the last few weeks about an effort to use a combination of satellites and a terrestrial network known as ATC (Ancillary Terrestrial Component), which could make 100 MHz of spectrum available for mobile broadband. Given that both the wireless industry and the FCC are unified in calling for more spectrum for mobile data services, the satellite companies are setting themselves up for a potential payday.
benton.org/node/29569 | GigaOm
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
THE MYTH OF INTERFERENCE
[SOURCE: Salon.com, AUTHOR: David Weinberger]
[Commentary] There's a reason our television sets so outgun us, spraying us with trillions of bits while we respond only with the laughable trickles from our remotes. To enable signals to get through intact, the government has to divide the spectrum of frequencies into bands, which it then licenses to particular broadcasters. NBC has a license and you don't. Thus, NBC gets to bathe you in "Friends," followed by a very special "Scrubs," and you get to sit passively on your couch. It's an asymmetric bargain that dominates our cultural, economic and political lives -- only the rich and famous can deliver their messages -- and it's all based on the fact that radio waves in their untamed habitat interfere with one another. Except they don't. "Interference is a metaphor that paints an old limitation of technology as a fact of nature." So says David P. Reed, electrical engineer, computer scientist, and one of the architects of the Internet. If he's right, then spectrum isn't a resource to be divvied up like gold or parceled out like land. It's not even a set of pipes with their capacity limited by how wide they are or an aerial highway with white lines to maintain order. Spectrum is more like the colors of the rainbow, including the ones our eyes can't discern. Says Reed: "There's no scarcity of spectrum any more than there's a scarcity of the color green. We could instantly hook up to the Internet everyone who can pick up a radio signal, and they could pump through as many bits as they could ever want. We'd go from an economy of digital scarcity to an economy of digital abundance." So throw out the rulebook on what should be regulated and what shouldn't. Rethink completely the role of the Federal Communications Commission in deciding who gets allocated what. If Reed is right, nearly a century of government policy on how to best administer the airwaves needs to be reconfigured, from the bottom up.
benton.org/node/29555 | Salon.com
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NTIA COMMENTS ON 700 BAND WAIVERS
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration filed comments at the Federal Communications Commission on the potential implementation of various petitions for waiver pending before the Commission proposing to deploy 700 MHz public safety broadband networks, without regard to the merits of the waivers themselves or ongoing regulatory proceedings in the 700 MHz band. As a threshold matter, the Administration believes that the Commission should first resolve the open policy questions raised before deciding these petitions. If the Commission nevertheless decides to act on the waiver requests, it should explicitly reaffirm the existing rule that the Public Safety Broadband Licensee (PSBL) has discretion to approve Federal agency use of public safety broadband channels.
benton.org/node/29557 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT EXTENSION NOW LAW
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
On Friday, President Barack Obama signed into law the a bill that extends the Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) grant program established under the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005. Funds will remain available until expended through fiscal year 2012. The PSIC grant program provides funding for state projects that arm public safety personnel with interoperable communications equipment and the necessary training for system users.
benton.org/node/29556 | Broadcasting&Cable | Senate Commerce Committee
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BULK TEXTING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On August 25, 2009, Club Texting, Inc. filed a petition requesting a declaratory ruling regarding the Federal Communications Commission's rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Specifically, Club Texting asks the FCC to clarify that, consistent with the treatment of fax broadcasters, text broadcasters are not senders of text messages under the TCPA. The FCC requests public comment on the proceeding on or before November 30, 2009 and reply comments may be filed on or before December 7, 2009.
benton.org/node/29539 | Federal Communications Commission
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APPLE STILL NOT ALLOWING VOIP OVER 3G
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
A month has passed since AT&T announced support for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) over its third generation (3G) wireless network. But VoIP applications still don't work on the iPhone. "Apple actually did not approve the 3G calling — so they completely broke their promise of allowing VoIP calls on 3G," says one VoIP company spokesperson.
benton.org/node/29546 | GigaOm
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GOOGLE, VERIZON DEEPEN TIES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Niraj Sheth, Jessica Vascellaro]
When Verizon Wireless and Google set out to challenge the iPhone, they started from less than scratch. They stood on opposite sides of major industry issues and had never worked closely together. Now they're counting on an unlikely but growing friendship between their chief executives, Eric Schmidt of Google and Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless, to pave the way forward. On Friday, Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone, started selling two phones that are the network's first to run on Google's Android software. Verizon is putting the muscle of its largest marketing campaign ever behind the Droid from Motorola, one of the two new devices.
benton.org/node/29567 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
NEW GOOGLE BOOKS DEAL FRIDAY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: ]
Judge Denny Chin, of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York granted Google and authors and publishers an extension until Friday to file a revised settlement to their dispute over the online giant's plan to digitize millions of books. The parties have been in discussions with the Department of Justice prior to and following a hearing last month. The revisions will be submitted to a federal court conducting a fairness review of the deal. And the move will mark the latest step in a near four-year battle that has raised new questions about online copyright, e-commerce competition, and the future of publishing and libraries. After comments are submitted, the Justice Department will weigh in with their views. Critics of the deal, including the heirs of John Steinbeck and e-commerce firms like Amazon, will likely protest the deal if not significantly revised, they say.
benton.org/node/29565 | Washington Post | Cecilia Kang | Reuters
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ACTA TREATY 'ANTI-CONSUMER AND ANTI-INNOVATION'
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Press release]
A treaty being negotiated by the U.S. government dealing with intellectual property issues appears to have included parts of prior agreements "most favorable to groups of intellectual property holders" while leaving out those elements "most favorable to consumers," Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Public Knowledge told Congressional leaders. In a letter sent to Congress earlier today the two organizations, among the most active in the debate over the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), said that while they have in the past expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the negotiations, this letter deals with the substance of the agreement as gleaned from press reports and "credible leaked documents." The groups said that it appears that the proposed agreement "implicates changes to international intellectual property norms far broader than its name suggests," incorporating elements of the World Trade Organization's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreements.
benton.org/node/29544 | Public Knowledge | Read the letter | CongressDaily
Also see: The ACTA Internet provisions: DMCA goes worldwide
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THE COMPUTER GETS MORE LIKE THE TV EVERY DAY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
If online video services and traditional television programming are growing more similar than ever, so, too, are the viewing habits of the people who use them. In other words, the fall TV season is also prime time for online video. More than 168 million Web users in the United States watched video over the Internet in September, via services such as YouTube and Hulu. That's a new record, according to ComScore, up by more than 7 million from the preceding month and up from a total of 146 million for the same month last year. With such numbers, it's become popular for pundits to speculate that folks are moving from cable subscriptions over to free online services. Last year, I personally knew of one person who used online video and other services rather than pay for a cable subscription; this year it's up to four. But evidently, that switch isn't a trend just yet outside my circle. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, said in a recent quarterly financial filing that it has 46.8 million subscribers, an increase of more than 3 percent over last year.
benton.org/node/29549 | Washington Post
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JOURNALISM
GOP AND THE SHIELD LAW
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to question Attorney General Eric Holder Jr about his support of a compromise reporters' shield law before they vote on it, according to congressional sources. On Wednesday, AG Holder sent a letter to Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee's chairman, outlining his views of the new version of the legislation. The proposed bill worked out with Senate sponsors, would provide varying levels of protection for journalists who use confidential sources when writing about criminal and national security matters. In his letter, AG Holder urged that "no further amendments be adopted to this carefully crafted compromise." "Republicans eagerly await the opportunity to question the attorney general about the true impact of this legislation on our ability to keep Americans safe and protect our most vital classified information," said Stephen Miller, press secretary for Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL), the ranking Republican on the committee. "The attorney general's two-page views letter was woefully short and left many questions unanswered," he added.
benton.org/node/29564 | Washington Post
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OWNERSHIP
FCC LIKELY TO KEEP MEDIA RULES STRICT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan, John Poirier]
Newspaper publishers and other struggling media companies want the US government to help them survive the toughest times they have ever known, mainly by easing rules on how big they can get.They will be lucky if they get any aid at all. The Federal Communications Commission held meetings this week with policy experts and consumer groups to see if it should change rules that define how many people newspapers, television and radio stations can reach and that limit their size to protect free speech and allow for healthy competition. But other more pressing concerns on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration, and the threat of lawsuits to thwart any changes to the rules, are muffling enthusiasm. "Nobody cares," said Jonathan Knee, a media banker at investment firm Evercore Partners. "Nobody is willing to spend political capital over it."
benton.org/node/29554 | Reuters
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PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS RAIL AGAINST COMCAST-NBC DEAL
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
If Comcast buys NBC Universal, public interest groups warn that there would be too much media concentration in the hands of the nation's largest cable service operator. The union could also shape the future of online video -- a migration of television and movie to the Web that cable and satellite operators are scrambling to control, they say. "Comcast/NBC will have an incentive to prioritize NBC shows over other local and independent voices and programs, making it even harder to find alternatives on the cable dial," Free Press wrote in a report last Friday.
benton.org/node/29553 | Washington Post
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GOOGLE TO BUY ADMOB
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Nancy Gohring]
Google plans to buy mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million stock. AdMob is a leader in mobile advertising and already serves ads for some applications running on Google's Android mobile operating system. The deal fills a hole for Google, which has mainly focused on mobile search ads, it said on Web pages that it put up to offer further details about the acquisition. AdMob has largely focused on display ads and in-application ads. The acquisition indicates how serious Google is about mobile and about display advertising.
benton.org/node/29535 | IDG News Service | CNNMoney
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WHY GOOGLE IS BUYING ADMOB
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Robert Hof]
If approved, the acquisition of AdMob would provide Google with a key set of technologies to expand its advertising business beyond search-related text ads that make up the bulk of revenue. "Google could have built this itself, but this gives them a head start," says mobile analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. "It will thrust Google into the forefront of mobile display ads." Google has already pushed into the wireless market by backing the development of Android, an operating system used in smartphones such as Motorola's new Droid, carried by Verizon Wireless. Google's third-largest acquisition to date, AdMob would give its new owner the ability to serve display ads, the pictorial banners that are the chief revenue source for most Web sites, to cell phones and other mobile devices. Google last June introduced a program called AdSense for Mobile in a bid to land display ads on mobile phones, akin to its AdSense program, which places ads on conventional Web sites. But AdMob has richer advertising formats, especially ads inside mobile apps. These mini-programs have become enormously popular, and developers have concocted more than 100,000 of them for the iPhone.
benton.org/node/29568 | BusinessWeek
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HOLLYWOOD'S ANTIPIRACY CHARM OFFENSIVE HAS FCC IN CROSSHAIRS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Hollywood's new campaign for government permission to police the Internet for copyright theft began this month with a segment on, of all places, CBS's Sixty Minutes. Viewers expecting another of the shows' self-described "hard-hitting investigative reports" watched a feature called The Movie Pirates, in which a shocked Leslie Stahl disclosed what was apparently a revelation to her—that people go into multiplexes with camcorders, record the movie, then package and sell it on the street. "Mobsters have moved into the piracy business, and it's bleeding Hollywood to the tune of billions of dollars a year," Stahl warned her viewers. What Sixty Minutes only hinted at during the show was the extent to which the trade association that doubtless cheered this segment—the Motion Picture Association of America—is also pressing for the deployment of a wide variety of techniques to put "speed bumps" on the 'Net, as one of the program's interviewees called them. The piece came in the wake of a reshuffling of MPAA staff, reportedly in response to studio complaints that the group's anti-piracy efforts have not been effective so far. Even the group's boss Dan Glickman is stepping down. The Friday before that program, MPAA sent the Federal Communications Commission a 32-page filing submitted as part of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which the agency must submit to Congress by mid-February. The statement called for the Internet to be "governed by laws, standards and rules, just like the real streets and communities inhabited all across America." The FCC and Congress "cannot let the anonymity of the Internet become a cloak behind which people think that unlawful conduct can continue unabated," MPAA warned.
benton.org/node/29570 | Ars Technica
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
Networks Seek Their Cut Of Retrans
NETWORKS SEEK THEIR CUT OF RETRANS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
Retransmission-consent fees paid by cable operators to broadcasters continue to climb, reflected in station groups' earnings and in moves by broadcast networks to get in on that revenue stream. Several broadcast-station groups said networks like News Corp.'s Fox, CBS and ABC have been pressuring them to pony up a portion of their own retrans dollars and, in some cases, are reaching out to individual distributors asking for separate fees. News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey said that retransmission deals for Fox owned-and-operated and affiliated stations roll off in the next two to three years. Retransmission cash for the O&Os — something News Corp. had passed up in prior years to secure carriage for its cable networks — is beginning to look very attractive, he said. People familiar with the situation said News would likely seek retransmission dollars for its O&Os — about 27 stations in major markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Boston — and would take the lead in negotiating retransmission payments for affiliated stations.
benton.org/node/29548 | Multichannel News
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