May 2009

Colorado town fights Qwest to bridge a digital divide

Silverton is the only county seat in Colorado that is not connected to the rest of the state by fiber optics, causing problems for businesses running credit cards at the height of the tourist season, students trying to take classes and town leaders trying to attract new investment. The cables that bring high-speed digital access to the state's 63 other counties stop 16 miles south of Silverton, where Coal Bank Pass pitches steeply to the heart of the rugged San Juan Mountains. Disgruntled Silverton residents have been protesting that digital snub for more than five years. Now, they're ratcheting up their complaints. A $37 million contract that Colorado has with Qwest to link every county seat with reliable high-speed Internet expires next year, and Qwest is admitting that it has no plans to string cable to the only municipality in one of the smallest, poorest and most remote counties in Colorado. Instead of an information highway, Silverton has a road. Qwest has installed a microwave radio relay system to deliver cellphone and computer access. Qwest spokeswoman Johnna Hoff said that system is fast, has plenty of capacity and can be upgraded to accommodate growth. John Conley, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Information Technology, said it appears from old documents that state officials decided the microwave system fulfilled the requirements that all counties be connected. But Silverton residents learned in 2005 that the microwave system is not as reliable as fiber optics. An avalanche took out a relay tower on Coal Bank Pass, and for about 24 hours, the town had no phone or Internet link.

DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act Introduced In Senate

Sens Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced the DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act, a bill that would allocate $125 million to help pay for digital repeaters or translator towers to fill in areas where a weak signal means no signal at all (the cliff effect). The money would be available through 2012 from a newly created Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Fund. The bill would also require that those translators serve double duty to help out with the rollout of broadband service, saying that the equipment "shall reasonably facilitate the collocation of any wireless communications or broadband equipment," with the stipulation that the requirement would not apply if there is "clear evidence" that co-location would create interference issues.

FCC Proposing Multiple National Soft DTV Tests May 21

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the 1,000-plus TV stations that have not pulled the plug on analog conduct a series of three national soft DTV transition tests May 21, targeted at local news time periods. The FCC is looking for broadcasters to simulate pulling the plug on analog during multiple time slots during the day, 7:30 am, 12:30 pm and 6:30 pm (which would be in local news time periods on stations with local news). The tests would be five minutes apiece so viewers would be able to check out the status of their TV signal in advance of the June 12 date, when those stations will be pulling the plug for real. The test would be preceded and followed by a "consistent" national DTV education message that the FCC says it would work with industry to develop. It would also coordinate the test with cable operators and other MVPDs to insure that their customers were not confused about whether or not they needed to take action. The test would include voice-overs for the blind and coordinate the test with its existing DTV call center so it would be ready for an influx of calls. The FCC is said to be looking for feedback from the industry within the next couple of days. Broadcasters are currently considering the proposal.

EU set to adopt big reform of bloc's telecom rules

The European Parliament is set to adopt a major reform of EU telecoms rules on Wednesday to increase consumer protection, competition and investment in new networks. EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, who drafted the reform, said it would have a big impact on two ways. "The first one is by getting rid of the last barriers of fragmentation in the EU telecoms market and reinforcing competition in the telecoms industry," Reding said. "It also gives new rights to users and reinforces their rights in the Internet world," Reding said. The reform updates existing EU telecoms rules that were drawn up before the big surge in broadband, Wifi and mobile phone usage as the bloc's 495 million citizens increasingly operate in a digital world. Consumers will get stronger, clearer rights when it comes to contracts they sign with telecom operators. Privacy will also be protected such as by forcing Websites to notify an user before it places a "cookie" on a person's computer, a step industry groups challenged.

$50 Million to Identify and Expand Effective, Innovative Non-Profits

President Barack Obama, in his FY2010 budget, will ask Congress to provide $50 million in seed capital for the Social Innovation Fund to identify the most promising, results-oriented non-profit programs and expand their reach throughout the country. Many solutions to our nation's most challenging social problems are being generated outside of Washington; the Social Innovation Fund will identify what is working in communities across the country, provide growth capital for these programs, and improve the use of data and evaluation to raise the bar on what programs the government funds. The Social Innovation Fund was authorized in the recent Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The Fund will focus on priority policy areas, including education, health care, and economic opportunity. It will partner with foundations, philanthropists, and corporations which will commit matching resources, funding, and technical assistance. The White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation will coordinate efforts to enlist all Americans -individuals, non-profits, social entrepreneurs, corporations and foundations - as partners in solving our great challenges.

Senate Moves To Adopt XML Format

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) and ranking member Bob Bennett (R-UT) took a large but simple step this week toward modernizing the way the chamber provides information about roll call votes by instructing the Secretary of the Senate to embrace XML format. The change will allow the public to use computers to search, sort, and visualize Senate voting records in new ways and the costs associated with the transition are minor, said Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has championed the effort. By moving forward on XML, Sens Schumer and Bennett are helping to increase Senate transparency and accountability, Sen DeMint said

How Media Will Pay for Poor Warning on Financial Collapse

The media miss stories all the time, always have, always will, and there's nothing to be ashamed about in that -- you can only do so much, especially in a time of slashed newsroom staffs. But to miss the financial collapse, a story of this enormity, with consequences that will echo (like Iraq) for decades, only adds weight to the warnings of doom for the "old" media. [Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher.]

Recession forces new focus in e-commerce marketing

Online retailers are shifting their marketing from traditional advertising to less expensive tools like Facebook.com and Twitter and e-mail as they seek market share or just work to retain customers, according to Forrester Research. The survey found that merchants believe online business is better suited to withstand an economic downturn than physical stores or catalogs, though they acknowledge challenges for both. The companies reported scaling back hiring and their increasingly expensive search marketing programs, which include paying for top billing in the results consumers see for their Web searches. Online merchants whose business is beating expectations will likely fuel much of the e-commerce investments in the coming months, the survey found.

Baucus touts HIT as key to healthcare reform

Sen Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and responsible for leading healthcare reform efforts, said Monday that health IT will be key in containing costs to pay for reform. Sen Baucus said Congress wants to reduce costs internally through delivery system reform, and he highlighted health IT and comparative effectiveness as prime examples. He emphasized savings would come over the long haul, up to 12 years, after initial investments in health IT.

Chicago TV stations pooling news coverage

In Chicago, NBC-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5, Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32, CBS-owned WBBM-Ch. 2 and WGN-Ch. 9, which is owned by Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., announced Monday that they have joined forces to establish an independently run local news service that will share newsgathering resources to provide pool coverage of non-exclusive events. It will be up to each rival station how or if the shared video is incorporated into its respective newscasts and Web site. ABC's WLS-Ch. 7, the market's No. 1 station, was the lone holdout among commercial broadcast news outlets. Participants say it is a more cost-effective use of manpower and equipment, although some rank-and-file at the stations fear it may make it easier to reduce staffing. "It has never quite made sense to me that you have a podium with a cluster of mike flags on it," Channel 2 boss Bruno Cohen said. "I've always been thinking, as a former news director, what are we doing? What is the point of this?" Tony Capriolo, a WMAQ sports producer, has been selected as managing editor of the service, which will be based at WBBM's headquarters across from Daley Plaza but separate from Channel 2's news operation. Said Pat Mullen, Channel 32 boss, "It's a more efficient method of gathering news video at a time when we have to look for every efficiency we possibly can."

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