December 2008

How an Obama FCC will deal with major telecom issues

With new leadership soon to take over at the Federal Communications Commission, observers say the FCC is likely to be more skeptical of big telecom mergers and to embrace network neutrality rules. Although President-elect Barack Obama has yet to nominate anyone to chair the FCC when he takes office next year, telecom analyst Jeff Kagan says that a Democratic-led FCC is going to be reminiscent of the Clinton FCC in the 1990s, when government was more willing to intervene in the telecom market. Similarly, Brookings Institute senior fellow Robert Crandall says that the FCC under an Obama administration is likely to be "more populist and more concerned about concentration in media." On a practical level, this makes it likely that major mergers comparable to the AT&T-Bell South merger of 2007 and the Verizon-MCI merger of 2006 will face more intense scrutiny and will be less likely to go through without more stringent conditions. Free Press policy director Ben Scott, however, thinks that the Obama administration must not only be wary of new telecom mergers, but also be active in promoting new competition within the industry. "If you have a national broadband policy whose primary goals include promoting competition, then permitting vertical and horizontal mergers would be completely counterproductive," he says. "Were I on the FCC, I would start with an examination of what other nations have done to make their markets more competitive than ours. Particularly, I'd look at whether more spectrum can be opened up to create a new broadband pipe."

TIA Gives Congress Ideas for Broadband Deployment

Talk of a national broadband policy is gearing up as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office. Obama, arguably the most tech-savvy presidential candidate in history, has made no secret of his intent to revolutionize health care with electronic medical records, create a CTO cabinet position and work toward ubiquitous broadband access. To that end, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) on Thursday asked federal lawmakers to consider specific broadband deployment and adoption incentives in the economic stimulus bill the House and Senate will debate during the 111th Congress. TIA proposes "targeted incentives" to stimulate investment across wireless and fixed broadband platforms. The idea stems from a Communications Workers of America (CWA) plan that would create 97,500 direct jobs and 2.5 million jobs throughout the country with every $5 billion investment, according to CWA estimates. TIA builds on that by suggesting the inclusion of new tax incentive tiers that apply to fixed and wireless broadband, satellite broadband and broadband core and backbone transport.

Infrastructure needs worth loosing up pursestrings

[Commentary] In the wake of the recent electoral rout, we conservatives must redefine ourselves. The world has changed, and one new reality is the imperative that our government modernize America's aging infrastructure. Many conservatives are uneasy with such talk - clinging to the notion that government investment is anathema to Reagan orthodoxy and other core conservative beliefs. They fear the creation of another permanent bureaucracy, foresee a strain on the budget and argue that such spending is an ineffective economic stimulus. These legitimate worries miss the bigger point: Our infrastructure needs are at a critical juncture. Like the maintenance of a strong military - investment that protects prosperity - investment in key infrastructure is consistent with Reagan principles. Moreover, such "expansion" would promote several conservative ideals: economic growth, energy independence, national security and US competitiveness.

GAO says Congressional Action Needed to Ensure Agencies Collaborate on Public Safety Network

The Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) was intended to be a collaborative effort among the Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS), and the Treasury to provide secure, seamless, interoperable, and reliable nationwide wireless communications in support of federal agents and officers engaged in law enforcement, protective services, homeland defense, and disaster response missions. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which the three departments are developing a joint radio communications solution. IWN is no longer being pursued as a joint development project. Instead of focusing on a joint solution, the departments have begun independently modernizing their own wireless communications systems. GAO recommends Congress should consider, given the critical importance of improving radio communications among federal agencies, requiring that DOJ, DHS, and the Treasury employ key cross-agency collaboration practices to develop a joint radio communications solution. (GAO-09-133)

Internet access still a wish for many in rural areas

Millions of Americans in sparsely populated areas deemed unprofitable by large communications companies remain without broadband Internet access. California would see a gain of 1.8 million jobs and $132 million in payroll over 10 years if broadband Internet use among adults is increased by 3.8 percent annually, according to a report prepared last year for the Sacramento Regional Research Institute.

AT&T raises dividend despite job cuts

On Friday, AT&T raised its quarterly share dividend by 2.5 percent to 41 cents a share, despite recent job cuts and a plan to cut spending in 2009 due to a slower economy. The announcement comes a week after AT&T said it will eliminate 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its workforce, to deal with a decline in traditional phone sales as well as a weaker economy. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said in a statement that the dividend reflects the board's confidence in its financial strength.

The Elements of Information Control

Fifty-five powerful media and telecommunications companies own over 540 TV stations, 2000 radio stations, 430 newspapers, 230 magazines, and 80 major cable channels in the United States. They provide paid TV service to approximately 52 million subscribers and broadband Internet service to over 57 million subscribers. They're the bottlenecks through which our news, our entertainment, and our political discourse must travel. What they want to promote becomes prominent; what they suppress stays out of the mainstream. As such, these companies are the elements of information control.

Obama's chief tech duties

[Commentary] One decision yet to be made by Obama is carrying out his promise to appoint the country's first chief technology officer. Considering how important the implementation of new technology is for carrying out Obama's vision for future economic development, global competitiveness, transparency, citizen engagement and saving money on government operations, Obama would do himself and the country a huge favor by making sure this position has Cabinet-level status.

Once appointed, Obama should give the CTO the following mandates:

1) Internet evangelist;

2) study of all the benefits of achieving universal, high-speed wireless access to the Internet, including economic and energy efficiencies, environmental benefits, and improvements in transportation, health care and safety;

3) developing a government-wide online platform — call it Citizen.gov if you like — for civic engagement that connects Americans to each other to identify and solve problems;

4) ensure that the Obama administration is the most open, honest and accountable in history by overseeing the creation of a government data commons that pulls together lobbying reports, ethics records, campaign finance filings, regulatory interventions, earmarks, contracts, grants, subsidies — all the ways that outside actors attempt to influence government;

5) encouraging all government agencies, as well as the legislative branch, to make maximum use of new communications technologies to make the processes of government more accessible and participatory;

6) develop a process by which all government agencies are working to reboot themselves in light of newly available technological capacities.

(Micah L. Sifry and Andrew Rasiej are, respectively, editor and founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, an online magazine and annual conference on how technology is changing politics.)

McCain Campaign Sells Info-Loaded Blackberry to TV Reporter

Private information at bargain prices. It was a high-tech flub at the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters in Arlington (VA) when a local TV reporter bought a Blackberry device containing confidential campaign information: 50 phone numbers for people connected with the McCain-Palin campaign, as well as hundreds of emails from early September until a few days after election night.

Broadcasters Need to Get on Board with Obama

[Commentary] Broadcasters have a reputation among Washington Democrats of being takers. They take spectrum and they take other government benefits like must carry, but they give little back. Recognizing that a smooth digital television transition is in its own self interest, the National Association of Broadcasters has also poured several million dollars into its DTV awareness efforts, including a five-person DTV office, a four-person "road show" that has logged 95,000 road miles carrying the DTV message to community events across the country and a speakers' bureau that can deliver a DTV expert to any Rotary or Lions Club meeting on short notice. But if the incoming Obama Administration wants more "broadcasters need to dig deep into their reserve fund to come up with extra cash to fund calls centers" because "it will buy badly needed goodwill with the administration and the next FCC chairman in the coming policy battles."

Benton

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