June 2009

Broadband and the Stimulus:
A Unique Opportunity for Philanthropic Investment

GFEM's Media Policy Working Group Presents a Briefing Call
Wednesday, June 10, from 12 - 1 p.m. EST

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Congress allocated an unprecedented $7.2 billion to bridge the digital divide via buildout of high-speed Internet service, or broadband, to unserved and underserved communities.

Notably, two types of entities are specified as eligible to apply for these funds:
(1) state and local governments and (2) non-profit organizations. Though projects can obtain up to 80% of their budget through this Federal program, each must demonstrate a 20% match up front.

How might the philanthropic community leverage resources for maximum impact?

Please join us on Wednesday, June 10th, for a briefing call to explore this question and the opportunities for innovative investment to secure Internet equity.

Participation in this call is open to any funder.

Presenters:

Drew Clark - Executive Director and Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
Bernadine Joselyn - Director of Public Policy, The Blandin Foundation
Joaquin Alvarado - incoming Senior VP for Diversity and Innovation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting

RSVP: Jeff Perlstein jperlstein@gfem.org



FCC Has Final DTV Transition Checkup Meeting

The Federal Communications Commission's monthly meeting for June focused on, what else, the transition to digital-only television broadcasting on June 12. The FCC says it is far readier than it would have been for the Feb. 17 date, but that concerns remain. "This is not a drill," said Acting Chairman Michael Copps, who said there would be no delaying this date, though he also said had Congress and the President not moved the date initially, the transition education effort would have been a "debacle that makes New Coke look like marketing genius." Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, who is heading up the coupon box program at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said she believed there would be enough money to send out the DTV-to-analog converter box coupons, while Christopher McLean of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, said there would be enough boxes on store shelves. In fact, he said there would likely be an overall surplus. But there will be disruptions, said FCC acting Chairman Michael Copps, saying that the FCC could not accomplish in four months what should have been done in the past four years.

FCC Says 35 Stations To Go Dark June 12

The Federal Communications Commission announced that 35 full-power television stations that have been broadcasting in analog have said they will be ceasing operation entirely on or before June 12 -- meaning they won't start digital operations after they pull the plug on analog. Seventeen of these stations are having technical difficulties and the FCC said it expects them back by year's end. Eighteen of the stations are owned by one company in bankruptcy, Equity Media, while seven of the 35 stations are affiliates of a major network. The FCC said it would try to reduce the number that would go dark, pointing out that some of the Equity signals would still be available on the multicast channel of another digital station.

FCC Asks for, Gets $10 Million More For DTV Transition Call Centers

According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has approved almost $10 million in additional digital television transition funding for the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC asked for the money Tuesday to make sure it had enough operators manning the phone banks for the June 12 DTV transition date and beyond. An FCC staffer had said Wednesday that there was enough money to have the maximum 4,000 operators through June 16, but not afterwards. Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said at the FCC's DTV briefing Wednesday that he would rather be overprepared than under, and that it was important to have the additional funding, saying that didn't mean the FCC would spend all of it if it didn't need to.

Cable Industry Criticized for Trying to Up-Sell Services During DTV Transition

At the Federal Communications Commission's meeting on the digital television transition Wednesday, the cable was 1) praised for its cooperation with broadcasters to help educate viewers about the switch and its coordination with broadcasters on technical issues and 2) criticized because some operators are trying to use the transition to up-sell their service, promising low-cost basic as a way to gain customers, then trying to sell them more expensive service rather than clearly laying out their options.

US grapples with how to retaliate in cyber attacks

In the murky world of computer espionage, the US faces hard choices on how to retaliate when government or privately owned networks come under cyber attack, senior military and intelligence officials said Tuesday. As the administration grapples with how best to defend its computer networks, debate is raging over how far the U.S. can go in pursuit of cyber criminals, and even what constitutes a digital act of war. The most immediate challenge is identifying the hacker, terrorist or enemy nation that launched the attack in vast and anonymous cyberspace, officials said. That hurdle is complicated by privacy debates over how deeply the government can wade into privately owned systems to investigate threats, and how it should handle attacks against a company, as opposed to a federal agency.

Securing New Infrastructure Will Require Watchful Eye, Experts Say

Balancing privacy and security will require a delicate approach as the Internet becomes more pervasive in the lives of everyday Americans, said a panel of national security policy experts on the first day of the Computers Freedom & Privacy conference at George Washington University. The curtain is the most privacy enhancing technology in the world, said panel moderator Ryan Singel, but it also allow citizens to do what they want without being watched, and this decreases security, "but there's no law against curtains." This is a balance between individual privacy rights and the government's rights to come into your house, he said. There is "a lot more transparency" between today's government and the people when it comes to privacy in today's political environment, said BT chief security technology officer Bruce Schneier. But increased transparency does not always come with a fair exchange, he warned. While increased access to government data can promote liberty, Schneier added that voluntary disclosure of information can allow more government control - requiring a delicate balancing of both parties' interests. "Security is liberty plus privacy," he said.

Are Broadband Caps Inevitable?

Craig Moffett, cable and telecom analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., says Time Warner Cable's setback with capping broadband usage is only temporary: "Look, there's a real argument for some form of consumption-based billing, and it's going to happen. Time Warner got the pricing wrong, it got the PR wrong, but this is not some kind of stealth price increase. They've been clear -- they don't want to discourage the use of the [broadband] product, but they have be able to manage the increased use of bandwidth that goes with Web-based video." Karl Bode responds: "Keep in mind that Moffett also thinks network upgrades are unnecessary, has declared the wire-
less industry is collapsing, and enjoys slamming Verizon's investment in fiber whenever possible. There's no real debate that metered billing would be great for investors and carriers, but the fact remains these new pricing models may not be good for consumers -- a contingent Moffett and other investors could care less about."
Market 'still sorting out' cable's future, analyst says

An Incremental Approach To Broadband Mapping

[Commentary] What's the right way to do broadband mapping? Instead of trying to have one entity attempt do all the mapping in one fell swoop, we should focus on an incremental methodology that starts with establishing a baseline of data and then encourages others to add to it. Start with the most basic question of, "Where's broadband?" Produce maps like Virginia's that show where broadband -- or symmetrical service over 768Kbps -- is available on as granular a level as possible. Then make this data available to the public to build additional layers of data on top. Arguably even more important than these supply-side metrics would be the opportunity to layer on data related to adoption and usage. By layering on data showing takerates for broadband we can identify areas where it's available but not being adopted so we can target demand-side programs. Also, if we start collected more hard data about the actual usage of broadband we can figure out which communities are gaining the most benefit from using broadband in order to learn from them about what's working so we can share those lessons with other communities. Building on this idea, we could also start layering on data about demand for bandwidth comparing it to how much supply is available, with areas where there's a gap between demand and supply clearly showing which markets are underserved by market forces alone. Trying to collect all this data at once would be a monumental challenge. Not every mapping entity has expertise in all these areas, and by spreading out the work it can be done more efficiently.

Gore Backs ICANN On Eve Of Hearing

On the eve of a congressional hearing to examine the future of the government's relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, former-Vice President Al Gore has joined with Vint Cerf in acknowledging the success of the group's multi-stakeholder, bottom up governance. Gore led an interagency panel 12 years ago that was charged with coordinating the US government's electronic commerce strategy, which led to the creation of ICANN.