July 2009

The Irksome Cellphone Industry

[Commentary] There are some valid arguments against banning exclusivity deals altogether. First of all, there are two different cell network types in this country: the AT&T/T-Mobile type (called GSM) and the Sprint/Verizon type (called CDMA). Creating a Verizon iPhone isn't just a matter of signing a few papers. It requires new engineering. It takes time and resources. Second, you could argue that exclusivity arrangements are actually good for innovation. Look at Visual Voicemail, which displays your voicemail list so you can get to them in any order, without being held hostage to your carrier's prompts. That's a very cool iPhone breakthrough that required Cingular (the iPhone's original carrier) to make special changes to its network — collaboration that probably wouldn't have happened if Cingular hadn't had the incentive of exclusivity. Above all, though, you've got to wonder why, if Congress has time for things like cellphone gripes, it's barking up this particular tree. Frankly, there are many other, much more whopping things that are broken, unfair and anticompetitive in the American cellphone industry -- text-messaging fees, double billing, phone subsidies, international calling...

For New Leader of the Arts Endowment, Lessons From a Shaky Past

Although it may be hard to remember now, there was a time when the National Endowment for the Arts seemed to be on solid footing, both financially and politically, and could spend its days quietly financing artists and arts groups at its discretion. After the Republican sweep of Congress in 1994, it was only a matter of time — just about a year — before the N.E.A.'s overall budget was cut by 40 percent, to $99.5 million for 1996, from $162.3 million, and its ability to finance potentially divisive artists (with the exception of some literary writers) was eliminated. For a while there, it seemed as if the agency might not survive. But it did, thanks partly to the efforts of successive leaders, partly to the gradual fading of the culture wars from public consciousness. And now, as the NEA's chairman-designate, Rocco Landesman, awaits his confirmation (his proposed nomination is expected to be approved before the Congressional recess in August), he looks likely to start the job on firmer ground than any of his recent predecessors. In June a House subcommittee approved a $170 million budget for the endowment for next year, an increase of $15 million from the current budget and $9 million more than President Obama, widely considered an avid arts supporter, had requested.

Keeping cellphones out of cellblocks a challenge for prisons

Cellphones in prisons have become a big problem, with inmates devising ever more exotic ways of smuggling them in. So federal prison officials have a new plan: If you can't beat 'em, jam 'em. The proposed Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 would allow prisons to install wireless jamming systems that would make cellphones useless behind bars. Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) added her support to the bill this week, saying in a statement, "We know that inmates use these phones to conduct criminal business on the outside, including directing gang hits, controlling drug trafficking operations and even conducting credit card fraud." While House and Senate versions of the bill languish in committee, smugglers are finding new ways to get the phones into prisons, including, reportedly, using slingshots to propel them over the walls.

Verizon Wireless proposes roaming rule change

Apparently, Verizon Wireless would be willing to make a compromise on roaming service agreements with smaller mobile operators. The company said it was proposing a new rule in response to lawmakers' concerns that current roaming regulations put small service providers at a disadvantage. When phone users travel outside the coverage area of their own service provider's network, roaming agreements allow them to use another carrier's network. Currently, wireless providers are not required to offer roaming services to rivals in areas where those rivals own wireless airwaves but have yet to build network coverage. But the company said that it would support a new law requiring it to provide rivals with roaming services in places it is not currently obliged to offer such services.

Mobile Internet Use on the Rise

An April 2009 survey shows that 56% of adult Americans have accessed the Internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player. The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this. The report also finds rising levels of Americans using the Internet on a mobile handset. One-third of Americans (32%) have used a cell phone or Smartphone to access the Internet for emailing, instant-messaging, or information-seeking. This level of mobile Internet is up by one-third since December 2007, when 24% of Americans had ever used the Internet on a mobile device. On the typical day, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Americans use the Internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11% level recorded in December 2007. That's a growth of 73% in the 16 month interval between surveys. African Americans are the most active users of the mobile Internet. Nearly half (48%) of African Americans have at one time used the Internet on a mobile device, and on the average day 29% go online with a handheld - both figures are half again the national average. Moreover, the growth in mobile handheld online use on the average day since 2007 for African Americans is twice the national average - 141% for African Americans versus the 73% average.

Vote for FCC Nominees Delayed

DC holds its collective breath waiting for a Senate vote on the nominations of Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Attwell Baker to be Federal Communications Commission commissioners. A vote was expected July 22 or 23, but Senate sources now say the vote will have to wait.

Seoul Media Bills Pass After Brawl

The National Assembly passed three bills to modernize South Korea's media industry, including allowing companies to own both broadcast and print properties. The voting, which took place Wednesday amid fistfights and shouting matches among lawmakers, capped months of acrimony over the measures. The bills -- which must be signed by President Lee Myung-bak to become law -- set the stage for the government to privatize its media properties, which include three of the nation's four broadcast television networks, the Yonhap news agency and 24-hour cable news channel. The government hasn't announced sale plans. Opponents of the measures focused particularly on the bill that permits media property cross-ownership, a practice that is common elsewhere but that may reshape political influence in South Korea because journalists here are openly partisan in their reporting and newspapers and TV networks are politically divided. Media reform has dominated South Korea's politics for more than a year and spawned clashes among lawmakers during debates in December and February. On Wednesday, lawmakers from minority parties blocked doors and brawled on the floor of the assembly hall to prevent the parliamentary leader from introducing the bills.

Buyer's E-Morse: 'Owning' Digital Books

Buying electronic books on the Internet is easy -- but so is taking them away. That became clear last week when Amazon.com Inc. used its wireless technology to reach into customers' Kindle e-readers and deleted some e-books written by George Orwell. Amazon, which returned the cost of the e-books, said it made the move when it realized that the publisher didn't have the proper rights to sell the book in the US. The incident raises some difficult questions about what it means to "own" books in the digital age. The same legal conundrums came up with music. Consumers raised on sharing records and CDs suddenly found themselves challenged in court by music companies for violating intellectual-property rights when doing the same thing through computers. Books have a more entrenched culture of sharing -- libraries exist for lending dog-eared volumes -- raising potentially knottier legal issues. Some experts say that, barring a creative industry solution, these matters can only be remedied by passing new laws that clearly define digital ownership.

Murtha, 12 Colleagues Back a Murky $160 Million Request

Tucked into the voluminous congressional plan for US military spending next year is $160 million intended to help Mexico's police buy US-made first-responder radios. It is a major purchase that one radio manufacturer got rolling, 12 members of Congress formally requested and a powerful defense appropriations chairman championed, according to records and congressional staff members. But details of the plan to pump Pentagon money into Mexico's crime-fighting efforts are cloaked in vaguely worded language in the House defense bill. The program is one of many congressional requests in the measure, which also includes 1,080 projects worth $2.7 billion tacked on at lawmakers' request.

Concerns Rise Over 2010 Census

As if the US Census Bureau did not already have enough challenges, its new director has now identified another: the agency's impending brain drain. Director Robert M. Groves warned colleagues Wednesday that almost half of the bureau's top managers will be eligible for retirement next year. He said he will seek "every legal way possible" to attract qualified replacements but urged employees of all ages to start swapping war stories. "Take a little time to pass on your experience to those that you're going to leave behind," he told older employees considering retirement. As for the younger ones, "seek out those wise elders," he said. "Listen to them, ask them about their experiences, learn from them actively. Be proactive on this. Invite them to lunch." Groves spoke to employees at a ceremony where Commerce Secretary Gary Locke swore him in as the agency's 23rd director. Seven former directors of the bureau attended the event. The possibility of losing 22 of the bureau's top 50 managers threatens to complicate the upcoming decennial headcount, which faces a host of other challenges. In the next six months, the bureau will begin mobilizing the largest temporary civilian workforce in U.S. history to help complete the 2010 Census. Next year's count, which is expected to cost at least $14 billion, will help reshape congressional districts in time for the 2012 elections.

Benton

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