October 2009

A Vigorous Push From Federal Regulators

With much of Washington focused on efforts to revamp the health-care system and address climate change, a handful of Obama appointees have been quietly exercising their power over the trappings of daily life. They are awakening a vast regulatory apparatus with authority over nearly every U.S. workplace, 15,000 consumer products, and most items found in kitchen pantries and medicine cabinets. The new regulators display a passion for rules and a belief that government must protect the public from dangers lurking at home and on the job -- one more way the new White House is reworking the relationship between government and business. The regulators will face significant hurdles if they want to dramatically expand government's reach. Most proposed regulations have to be vetted by a central White House office headed by another new appointee, Cass Sunstein, whose embrace of cost-benefit analyses may mean he will discourage expensive new rules. Some efforts to expand regulation are sure to face legal challenges from industry. And the private sector is likely to assert that new regulations would be an additional burden in a weak economy.

Ericsson unit to cut purchasing costs 50%

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson's Networks division will slash purchasing costs by 50 percent in the next five years to keep up with competition from China. The Networks division makes up about two-thirds of Ericsson's sales. For Ericsson, the world's biggest supplier of cellphone network equipment, this will mean using fewer client-specific products and more standard components. It will also require that each component offers more functions, and that the company reduces the number of platforms and continues its transition from hardware to software.

Coming to a Computer Near You: ECFS 2.0!

The Federal Communication Commission has "upgraded and enhanced" its Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) and will present the changes at a public forum at FCC Headquarters on Friday, October 23, from 9:30 to 11:00 AM. The presentation will be held in the Commission Meeting Room. With the 2.0 upgrade, ECFS will including many new features, including fully Section 508 compliance; the ability for users to file multiple documents to multiple rulemakings in a single submission; advanced search and query of rulemakings; ability to extract comments; RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds; and the ability to export data results to Excel or PDF formats. The FCC will hold a public presentation on Friday, October 23, from 9:30 to 11:00 AM in the Commission Hearing Room to provide information about the upgraded system and to give citizens an opportunity to discuss the future uses and capabilities of the FCC's comment filing system. The presentation will be conducted by Bill Cline, Chief of the Reference Information Center.

FCC Continues EEO Audits

On October 14, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission mailed the third set of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters for 2009. This mailing was sent to randomly selected multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs). The FCC annually audits the EEO programs of randomly selected broadcast licensees and MVPDs. Each year, approximately five percent of all broadcast stations and MVPDs are selected for these random EEO audits.

Spectrum Experts Release Guide to 'WiMAX Band' Before October 27 Auction

Strength-to-Strength Develop-Ed, LLC on Tuesday released a comprehensive report on who holds what licenses and lease rights in the "WiMAX Band" the 2.5 GigaHertz band used by the Broadband Radio Service (BRS) and Educational Broadband Service (EBS). This band is home to WiMAX giants Clearwire and Sprint. The report, "The 'WiMAX Band' (2.5 GHz): Characteristics, Technology, Major Spectrum Holders in the BRS-EBS Service and Prospects for Auction 86," comes on the eve of the next FCC auction in the band, scheduled for October 27, 2009. The report, by Gregory Rose and edited by Harold Feld, is based on an extensive study of the FCC's spectrum database and industry trends, concludes that Clearwire appears to be avoiding both the most rural areas and the most competitive markets, such as New York City. This should create opportunities for smaller companies such as Utopian Wireless and Xanadoo, said Rose, which focus on rural markets avoided by Clearwire. The report also describes how these trends will play out in the auction.

FTC Puts Onus On Marketers, Not Bloggers

First of all, bloggers, you're safe from the Federal Trade Commission -- at least for now. Marketers -- you may want to be careful, however. That's the upshot of further clarification provided by Mary Engle, associate director of advertising practices for the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, during a call with reporters Wednesday morning regarding the newly released guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials, which go into effect on Dec. 1. The guidelines call for advertisers and bloggers to disclose payment or receipt of goods or services in exchange for promotion. The onus for this disclosure will be on the marketers -- not on individual bloggers, who would be realistically hard to track, Engle said. "We will be focusing our efforts on advertisers, not on individual bloggers," she said. "We know there are hundreds of thousands of blogs, only a fraction of which are involved in marketing anyway. We're not going to be patrolling the blogosphere."

AT&T Missouri Agrees to Settle False Claims Act Lawsuit Involving E-Rate Program

AT&T Missouri (formerly known as Southwestern Bell Telephone L.P.) has agreed to pay the United States $1.4 million as part of a settlement of a civil lawsuit alleging that the company violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program. The United States contended that AT&T Missouri provided false information to the E-Rate program and otherwise violated the program's requirements by engaging in non-competitive bidding practices for E-Rate contracts. The United States further alleged that AT&T Missouri employees colluded with officials in the Kansas City, Mo., School District to award contracts to the company, extended contracts in violation of E-Rate rules and provided meals and other inducements to school district employees.

Which Consumers Will Pay For Content, And When

The big question looming over the newspaper and publishing business, is how to get consumers to pay for content online. PHD Media -- a division of media and ad giant Omnicom Group and Ipsos Mendelsohn -- says consumers are reading more print content online, but the only way they'll pay for it, is if they perceive a real value and when comparable free content isn't readily available. That takeaway may not be a huge shocker, but the data behind it is surprising. For one thing, reading a print version doesn't mean you'll read an online version: just small a fraction of the 2,400 adults polled, read both the print and online versions of the same publication. And nearly a quarter of online readers only read the online version of a publication. And consumers don't care about the brand, they care about the content. Over half the respondents say they would be "very or extremely unlikely" to pay for content in the future.

The war on Beck

Fox News has taken a relatively cautious line toward the White House attacks on the network, leaving the real fireworks to Glenn Beck, who Monday accused the White House of being "more worried about the war on Fox than the actual war in Afghanistan." The charge prompted one source with too much time on his hands to send over the results of a Nexis search of Beck's program since it began on Fox in January. The frequency of the words used offers a clue to its themes. And unsurprisingly, the Taliban (38 mentions) just isn't in the same league as some domestic threats, notably ACORN, which tops the list at 1,224 mentions. It's a remarkable shift, indeed, for Fox, which dwelled heavily on terrorism during the Bush administration but which, like the conservative movement, has turned toward a sharply domestic focus this year.

Senior House lawmaker urges Obama to appoint cybersecurity czar

Rep Yvette Clarke (D-NY) -- the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Subcommittee -- is calling on President Barack Obama to quickly appoint a cybersecurity coordinator. She said it was important to have a cybersecurity official in the White House with access to the president to ensure computer defense efforts are coordinated and disciplined.

Benton

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