Dec 10, 2009 (More Money for Broadband? Universal Service Reform)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY DECEMBER 10, 2009
Broadband, broadband, broadband at events today http://bit.ly/7QmsPM
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Why an Open Government Matters
Health IT cited as evidence for importance of new open government directive
Data.gov Heads For Overhaul
Public Access to Federally-Funded Science and Technology Research
BROADBAND/INTERNET
More Federal Money For Broadband?
Americans consume 3.6 zettabytes of data, most of it pixels
Bandwidth Hogs Are Real, They're Just Misunderstood
UK agrees tax to back broadband
Rep Watson Wants Broadband Strategy to Create 'Global Students'
Changes Require New Thinking
UNIVERSAL SERVICE REFORM
Harnessing Competitive Forces to Foster Economical Universal Service
Texas researchers tell FCC to use USF for broadband
CTIA: USF Reform Needed to Achieve Universal Broadband
Big Telecom Users want USF Reform, too
TIA: Transition USF to Broadband
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
An Internet open to all, but controlled by none
McSlarrow: Open Internet Rules Could Threaten Openness, Content & Applications
OWNERSHIP
Ownership Deregulation Looks Like Uphill Climb
Comcast and NBC meet with FCC, Say Deal Won't Hurt Consumers
Should Consumers Fear the Comcast Deal?
McSlarrow: Comcast/NBCU Merger Won't Change Big Cable's Approach To Retrans
WIRELESS
Carriers Get a Wake-up Call
The misleading new cell phone ads from AT&T and Verizon
AT&T moves closer to usage-based fees for data
Group rallies to allow cellphone use on planes
HEALTH
Obama announces $88 Million for health IT
ONC names privacy, security workgroup members
MORE ONLINE
$1 Billion Spent On Political Ads in 2009
Facebook redraws site's privacy boundaries
US-Mexico Cooperation on Communications Issues
Public Knowledge Sponsors First World's Fair Use Day
PUC Commissioner Chong's bid for second term rejected
Web audience grows for arts groups
Video games take bigger role in education
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OPEN GOVERNMENT MATTERS
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Norm Eisen, Beth Noveck]
Openness promotes accountability by enabling journalists, researchers, government officials, and the public to scrutinize, question, and ultimately improve how government works. But, as with many aspects of Democracy, openness must evolve. The Progress Report on Open Government to the American People describes how the Administration is doing just that. Recently, for example, the Obama Administration began to publish online the names of everyone who visits the White House offices; provide online access to White House staff financial reports and salaries; disclose and limit lobbyist contacts; publish the membership of Federal advisory committees in downloadable form; and create unprecedented ways to track how the government spends taxpayer dollars. Advancing that trend, yesterday the White House released an historic Directive requiring all agencies to adopt aggressive open government policies that will further promote the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration. This new degree of openness is enabled in part by 21st century technology, which makes it possible for government to open its doors and databases more than ever before. From online listening tours and chats to web-based brainstorming by government officials with the American public, the White House and federal agencies are opening up the way they work to improve accountability in government and deepen our democracy. But creating an open government one that is committed to transparency and civic engagement does more than promote accountability. Working in the open fosters collaboration between government, private industry, and the public to improve the lives of Americans in their communities.
benton.org/node/30444 | White House, The
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HEALTH IT CITED AS EVIDENCE OF IMPORTANCE OF OPEN GOVERNMENT
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
Health IT programs were cited as evidence of potential gains to be made when federal agencies make heir data more accessible. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has already started adopting some elements of open government through health IT efforts called for under the stimulus law, an accompanying report on the state of agency transparency pointed out. It cited ONC's health IT blog as an example of seeking the public's participation about how to advance the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs).
benton.org/node/30443 | GovernemntHealthIT | HHS
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DATA.GOV OVERHAUL
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: J. Nicholas Hoover]
In documents circulating among federal agencies and released to the public on Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget has laid out plans to move Data.gov out of "beta" phase and into "government-wide execution," as federal CIO Vivek Kundra put it in an interview last week. Released at the same time as the Obama administration's wider Open Government Directive, a memo and draft concept-of-operations document encourage agencies to post more data on Data.gov, with an eye toward ensuring data is machine-readable, high-quality, and useful while also protecting privacy and security interests. "Our key principles focus on making sure that we democratize as much data as possible and that that data is targeted towards high-value datasets," Kundra said. The White House has repeatedly held out the government data portal as a hallmark of its open government strategy. Until now, though, while broadly written policy missives from President Obama and the Office of Management and Budget have encouraged federal agencies to be more open, there's been little formal guidance on exactly how federal agencies should use Data DOT gov as a forum for their transparency. In many ways, it shows.
benton.org/node/30442 | InformationWeek
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PUBLIC ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
[SOURCE: The White House]
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is requesting input regarding enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from research funded by Federal science and technology agencies. This RFI will be active from December 10, 2009 to January 7, 2010.
[more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/30441 | White House, The
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BROADBAND/INTERNET
MORE FEDERAL MONEY FOR BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: The White House]
Speaking at the Brookings Institution Tuesday on jobs creation and economic development, President Barack Obama indicated the government will make additional efforts in broadband infrastructure. He proposed a boost in investment in the nation's infrastructure beyond what was included in the Recovery Act, to continue modernizing communications networks. Even though Recovery Act broadband network projects will not be ramping up for a couple of months, the President there are many more worthy projects than there were dollars to fund them. He said "the need for jobs will also last beyond next year and the benefits of these investments will last years beyond that. So adding to this initiative to rebuild America's infrastructure is the right thing to do." The White House indicated support for merit-based infrastructure investment that leverages federal dollars. The Administration supports financing infrastructure investments in new ways, allowing projects to be selected on merit and leveraging money with a combination of grants and loans.
benton.org/node/30440 | White House, The | White House fact sheet
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AMERICANS CONSUME LOTS OF DATA
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: John Timmer]
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have produced the latest in a series of reports entitled "How Much Information?" The goal of the work is to provide some estimate of the amount of content that a typical US consumer goes through in a given year, in this case 2008. When expressed in terms of raw bytes, the report's authors estimate a staggering 3.6 zettabytes, which works out to 34GB a day per consumer. But that figure counts everything, including pixels that are rendered and thrown onto the screen by gaming consoles. When considered in terms of words delivered to the actual human consumers, games barely register. The report involved collecting a large number of estimates of various forms of media consumption: hours spent gaming, number of newspapers sold, etc. These were combined with estimates of the amount of information content of each of these, such as the number of words in a typical newspaper, and (when necessary), converting that into bytes. As such, there are undoubtedly significant error bars on most of these estimates, although they're not provided with the numbers in the report. Still, some of the differences are pronounced enough that it's fair to say that even large errors wouldn't change many of the overall conclusions. The other caveat is that past studies of this sort, produced primarily at UC Berkeley (in part by Hal Varian, who's now with Google), have focused on unique content. As a result, they're not directly comparable to the current figures. The only prior study that is directly comparable dates from 1980, which is ancient history in digital terms. The numbers are broken down in three ways.
benton.org/node/30433 | Ars Technica | GigaOm
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BANDWIDTH HOGS ARE REAL
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] It used to be that no one used their broadband connections much. Broadband providers counted on this minimal usage so they could oversubscribe their networks. They also offered unlimited service to gain another competitive edge over dialup Internet access. And this all worked fine so long as no one was consuming that much bandwidth. But over the last few years the demands on these networks have risen dramatically. This increase stems from the dual factors of power users having more ways to use more bandwidth than ever--like P2P video sharing, Hulu and YouTube, hosted applications, and the use of broadband to enable telecommuting--and more people finding reasons and ways to become power users. This growth in demand is straining traditional broadband business models, forcing operators to invest in increasing capacity without necessarily adding any new revenue to offset this cost. This reality is what's leading operators to explore options like metered bandwidth, so they can recapture their investments and drive additional profits from their heaviest users. This is also what's leading operators to use things like traffic shaping and application blocking.
benton.org/node/30432 | App-Rising.com
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UK BROADBAND TAX
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Steve Clarke]
A $10 levy on fixed phone lines to fund the roll-out of high-speed broadband networks was greenlit Wednesday by the UK government. The tax will be used to ensure that 90% of the population has access to next-generation broadband by 2017. Announcing the move, the government's Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said, "We are modernizing the U.K.'s digital infrastructure and, in the process, creating thousands more skilled jobs." However, critics of the tax, announced in summer's "Digital Britain" report, said rolling out broadband to remote areas of Blighty should be left to the market and not subsidized by the public.
benton.org/node/30430 | Variety | Guardian | BBC
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CHANGES REQUIRE NEW THINKING
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Wednesday that given the dramatic changes that the Internet has undergone in the 10 years since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development first released its e-commerce guidelines, government officials must re-evaluate how they think about policymaking. He spoke at an OECD conference at the FTC on consumer protection in the digital age which is the start of a process launched by the OECD to update the organization's 1999 guidelines to reflect the dramatic technological changes that have occurred in the last decade. In describing some of the changes in the last decade, Sec Locke noted that Google didn't begin providing keyword-based ads until 2000, now "hundreds of thousands of advertisers use Google's AdWords." He added that in 1999 only one company offered a "dedicated" Web service for cell phones, while in 2008 more than 160 million Internet-connected smart phones were sold.
benton.org/node/30428 | CongressDaily
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE REFORM
HARNESSING COMPETITIVE FORCES TO FOSTER ECONOMICAL UNIVERSAL SERVICE
[SOURCE: University of Florida Public Policy Research Center, AUTHOR: Sappington]
This paper reviews a key issue that the Federal Communications Commission face while considering universal service reform the distribution of support to competing carriers and explains how the FCC can structure this support to achieve key universal service goals while harnessing the proven benefits of industry competition. This paper offers three principal recommendations. First, the competitive process, not regulatory pre-selection of a single universal service provider, is the best means to ensure the delivery of supported telecommunications services at minimum cost to consumers. Among the many benefits of competition is its ability to constantly motivate industry suppliers to reduce their operating costs over time, and thereby limit the total support required to ensure the delivery of high quality services at affordable rates. Second, because regulators unavoidably lack access to the enormous amount of information required to implement asymmetric per-line support and to continually administer such support efficiently, symmetric per-line support policies should be adopted. Symmetric support policies will ensure that the most efficient suppliers deliver supported services, so that industry costs and support levels will be minimized on an ongoing basis. Excessive support also can be avoided by eliminating duplicative support and, if necessary, by capping total support. Third, arguments advanced by some parties in favor of asymmetric per-line support can be better addressed by defining supported services appropriately, by de-averaging support across relevant geographic regions, and by implementing a reasonable sharing of any true burdens that arise from any asymmetric carrier-of-last-resort obligations.
benton.org/node/30417 | University of Florida Public Policy Research Center
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TEXAS RESEARCHERS TELL FCC TO USE USF FOR BROADBAND
[SOURCE: University of Texas School of Law, AUTHOR: Lowell Feldman, Gary Chapman, Kenneth Flamm, Sharon Strover, Jeff Andrews, Ted Rappaport]
In comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission, a group of University of Texas researchers strongly supports the development of broadband and an evidence-based approach to policy that continually evaluates and assesses the impacts of ongoing programs, that collects the data needed by researchers and analysts involved in this effort, and that provides to government policymakers scientifically validated research that ultimately will assist in the design of improved programs and policies. More specifically, we believe that the billions of dollars pouring into the Universal Service Fund each year should be transitioned into support for expansion of broadband and related services to communities that have historically been "red-lined" by broadband build-out projects, and users who are too poor to afford the monthly cost of broadband service. Access to the Internet is no longer a luxury in America; it is a necessity for daily survival, and therefore should be regarded as a fundamental right.
benton.org/node/30416 | University of Texas School of Law
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
AN INTERNET OPEN TO ALL, BUT CONTROLLED BY NONE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
The Internet has long adhered to one basic principle: Nobody's in charge. That hallmark owes to the Internet's grand design. It's basically a global confederation of unrelated computers, making it impervious to hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. Hackers regularly attack, but can't shut it down. Governments, try as they might, also can't control it. That doesn't mean the Internet is meddle-proof. Its Achilles' heel: Internet service providers, or ISPs. They control the on-off ramps used by millions to enter and exit the World Wide Web each day. Access is typically provided by phone and cable TV companies, via upgraded phone lines and high-speed cable-TV modems. Currently, the only thing stopping ISPs from abusing their control are four "Internet principles" — voluntary guidelines, which are subject to interpretation. Now, the Federal Communications Commission wants to turn those guidelines into hard rules and extend them to wireless, and that's creating a heated debate across the USA about "net neutrality" — the idea that all Internet service providers should treat all traffic on their networks the same. The goal: to preserve the Internet as a free and open communications platform that's open to all but controlled by none. That was the original goal of the Internet's creators more than 40 years ago.
benton.org/node/30435 | USAToday
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OPEN INTERNET COULD THREATEN OPENNESS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow told the Media Institute that "Internet service providers do not threaten free speech." "[W]hen all the dire warnings of the net neutrality proponents are stripped away, there really are no signs of actual harm," he said, but countered there could be real harms from network neutrality rules that forced speech. Weighing in on what he conceded was the "seemingly endless" debate over network neutrality, he took aim at what he called "the strongest and loudest voices for net neutrality rules [who] often cloak their agenda as advancing the First Amendment or, just as frequently, First Amendment 'values.'" The FCC is currently considering expanding and codifying its existing open Internet guidelines, and McSlarrow wants it to think hard about whether those rules can be justified under First Amendment standards. "What is fascinating, and frankly disturbing, however, is how often in recent years that First Amendment principles have been turned upside down in an attempt to advance agendas that themselves threaten true First Amendment rights," he said. He said network neutrality rules could actually restrict speech in a number of ways.
benton.org/node/30434 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
OWNERSHIP DEREG ON HOLD
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Kim McAvoy]
Julius Genachowski's career stop as a broadcast executive and as an advocate for media ownership deregulation a decade ago suggests that he might consider an additional measure of relief. But no one is counting on it. In fact, the consensus among broadcasters and others interested in the issue is that the Federal Communications Commission is unlikely to provide any relief anytime soon, despite the congressionally mandated proceeding. Even if he were so inclined, broadcast lobbyists and lawyers say, it would be tough for FCC Chairman Genachowski to toss out structural media regulations strongly supported by congressional Democrats and liberal advocacy groups. Supporters of ownership restrictions are not taking Genachowski for granted. "I don't think there is any predisposition on the part of the chairman and his circle with respect to these ownership issues," says Andy Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. "I accept that we are going to have to convince Julius Genachowski that we're right in saying that the commission should not be relaxing these," Schwartzman says. "We're treating this as a jump ball."
benton.org/node/30438 | TVNewsCheck
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COMCAST AND NBC MEET WITH FCC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts this week tried to allay concerns that the $30 billion deal between his cable company and NBC Universal would lead to less choice in programming and a retreat from local broadcasting. Roberts and NBC Universal chief executive Jeff Zucker met Tuesday with Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC. They also met with Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn and Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell. Comcast and NBC Universal executives want the deal to be viewed as a straight transaction between a cable company and media giant. What they don't want, according to the executives who visited The Washington Post last week, is for regulatory reviews to get muddled in murkier discussions about how the merger will impact the future of television since more viewers get their shows over the Internet. Roberts and Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said debates over online video distribution shouldn't be tangled in a regulatory review of the merger. Cohen has said the deal should be viewed as a straight vertical merger, where exclusionary concerns are already largely addressed by program-access rules already in place for the cable industry.
benton.org/node/30448 | Washington Post
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SHOULD CONSUMERS FEAR THE COMCAST DEAL?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Adam Thierer, Gigi Sohn, Jim Harper, Christopher Rosen]
[Commentary] Dueling banjos debate the merits of the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger. Schwartzman says the deal "poses a genuine threat to free expression and diversity of speech in our democratic society." Thierer writes, "The media merger worrywarts should cool the Chicken Little rhetoric and give markets a chance to evolve." Sohn believes consumers have every right to expect that a big merger like Comcast-NBC Universal will produce some benefits — more choice in programming, some lower prices — to justify regulatory approval of this marriage. But, she cautions, the great danger is that just the opposite will happen — less choice in programming and higher prices, particularly in the online world. Harper says chances are low that a large Internet service provider like Comcast can use its position to milk super-normal profits from the desirable content of its new acquisition. Rosen posits that even if Comcast forces viewers to start paying for NBC content, so be it, if it gives us the complete viewing freedom we've long desired.
benton.org/node/30437 | New York Times
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MERGER WON'T CHANGE CABLE APPROACH TO RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow says that the Comcast/NBCU merger (Comcast is an NCTA member) isn't going to change the association's approach to the issue of retransmission consent, which is that it should be a voice in the debate. Asked that question following a speech at the Media Institute Wednesday, McSlarrow pointed out that when he first came on board, NCTA had a position of "just not playing in retransmission consent." He said his view was that "we are always safer on the side of letting the marketplace work and that retransmission consent is actually a very highly regulatory regime that ought to be reformed." He has often pointed out the must-carry is a government thumb on the scale of what ought to be a free market negotiation.
benton.org/node/30436 | Broadcasting&Cable
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WIRELESS
CARRIERS GET A WAKE-UP CALL
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Carriers are rapidly losing their power in today's mobile ecosystem, and don't seem entirely aware of that fact. Companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple have already stripped carriers of some of their power by setting up their own billing relationships with consumers, delivering GPS data outside of the carriers' own data — even by building application stores. All the carriers are left with are their pipes and their relationships with a large number of consumers. Carriers need to stop grasping at the past and move forward by acting as a broker among the various constituencies that want network access.
benton.org/node/30427 | GigaOm
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THE MISLEADING NEW CELL PHONE ADS FROM AT&T AND VERIZON
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
If you were choosing a cell-phone provider based on TV ads alone, you'd have to pick Verizon. During the last couple months, the company has pummeled AT&T with a series of clever commercials that highlight its larger 3G network coverage area—Verizon's coverage map of America is bathed in red, while AT&T's is mostly empty. AT&T's response has been pretty lame: a lawsuit (since dropped) claiming Verizon's ads are misleading, a press release that claims to "set the record straight" but that really just offers a lot of unrelated spin, and a series of counterattack ads in which a chubby Luke Wilson spouts the same unrelated spin. AT&T doesn't directly dispute the claim that Verizon offers 3G coverage in more places. Instead, the company says that it offers cell service of some kind in 97 percent of the country. AT&T also claims that in places where it offers 3G service, its network is faster than Verizon's—well, at least according to studies that AT&T itself commissioned. So which company's commercials should you believe? Neither.
benton.org/node/30426 | Slate
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AT&T MOVES CLOSER TO USAGE-BASED FEES
[SOURCE: Computerworld, AUTHOR: Matt Hamblen]
AT&T is moving even closer to charging special usage fees to heavy data users, including those with iPhones and other smartphones. On Wednesday, Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, came the closest he has so far in warning about some kind of use-based pricing. "The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data and...we're improving systems to give them real-time information about their data usage," he said. "Longer term, there's got to be some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the [heavy] users." AT&T has found that only 3 percent of its smartphone users -- primarily iPhone owners -- are responsible for 40 percent of total data usage, largely for video and audio, de la Vega said. Educating that group about how much they are using could change that, as AT&T has found by informing wired Internet customers of such patterns.
benton.org/node/30431 | ComputerWorld
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HEALTH
OBAMA ANNOUNCES $88M FOR HEALTH IT
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Philip Elliott]
President Barack Obama announced almost $600 million in funding to build community health centers and to make medical records easier to find. As much as $88 million will go to health care facilities to transfer their medical records to electronic format and to upgrade technologies.
benton.org/node/30439 | Associated Press
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