January 2010

When its legislature convenes this year, Kansas will consider banning motorists from sending text messages. South Carolina will, too, and debate whether to prohibit drivers from using phones altogether, or requiring them to use hands-free devices when they call. New Jersey lawmakers have proposed banning drivers from manipulating a navigation system in a moving car. In all, lawmakers have already proposed 200 bills to curb distracted driving, and policy analysts expect to see dozens more in the coming months. "It's the hottest safety issue in the states right now by far," said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies. The flurry of state activity — coupled with intensifying action by federal legislators and regulators, and by the cellphone and auto industries — is putting renewed focus on the risks of using phones behind the wheel, according to policy analysts. They acknowledge that there is no certainty of how many of the bills will become law, and say that the number of bills is running just slightly ahead of last year's tally. But they assert the proposals are being met with less resistance than in years past from legislators, and are enjoying newfound industry support. For example, cellphone and auto companies have joined lobbying efforts for legislation to ban texting while driving. (1/1)

[Commentary] There's no question that 2010 is going to be a big year for Google's Android operating system, which means it's also going to be competing with Apple's iPhone for developer attention. Apple's iPhone ecosystem so far has an advantage. Google has some teething problems it needs to resolve. Recently, there's been slight uptick in the number of Android development jobs. iPhone seems to be holding its own. Another data point to note: There are 2,071 iPhone developers listed on oDesk vs. 624 Android developers. (12/26)

The staff of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has released its most recent Monitoring Report on Universal Service on December 31. This report reflects information on the telephone industry filed with the Federal Communications Commission through August 2009. This report, with a few exceptions, reflects data filed with the FCC by the telephone industry for the year 2008 and prior years, and projections for 2009. The report released today addresses the various universal service support mechanisms, which amounted to about $7 billion in 2008. In 2007, disbursements among the four categories of universal service mechanisms were: 63.0% for high-cost support; 24.8% for schools and libraries support; 11.5% for low-income support; and 0.7% for rural health care support. The report presents data in nine categories:

1) Industry Revenues and Contributions - Total industry revenues for telecommunications services provided to end users in 2008 were about $235 billion, compared to about $240 billion in 2007. Revenues for fixed local service providers increased to about $78 billion from about $75 billion, while wireless service providers' revenues increased to about $118 billion, from about $116 billion, and toll service providers' revenues decreased to about $39 billion, from about $49 billion.

2) Low-Income Support - Total low-income support decreased to about $819 million in 2008, from about $823 million in 2007.

3) High-Cost Support - In 2008, total high-cost support amounted to about $4.5 billion, an increase from about $4.3 billion in 2007. This increase is due to support to competitive carriers (CETCs) increasing from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2008.

4) Schools and Libraries Support - Schools and libraries support disbursements in 2008 was about $1.8 billion, relatively unchanged from 2007.

5) Rural Health Care Support - Rural health care support disbursements increased to $49 million in 2008 from $37 million in 2007.

6) Subscribership and Penetration - According to the Current Population Survey, the percentage of households subscribing to telephone service increased to an average of 95.2% in 2008, from 94.8% in 2007.

7) Rates and Price Indices - The price index of overall telephone rates increased 2.9% in 2008, compared to the general rate of inflation of 0.1% for all goods and services.

8) Network Usage - Interstate toll usage for customers of incumbent local exchange carriers declined to 316 billion minutes in 2008, from 349 billion minutes in 2007.

9) Quality of Service - The data show noticeable differences in the quality of service among carriers. For example, complaints per million residential access lines in 2008 ranged from 30 to 1118 for different carriers.

The Federal Communications Commission has amended its rules to extend the good faith requirement in retransmission consent negotiations until March 1 or longer if Congress moves a related sunset date. That provision [325(b)(3)(C)(ii) of the Communications Act for those scoring at home] prevents broadcasters "from engaging in exclusive contracts for carriage or failing to negotiate in good faith." It is not exactly clear what the FCC defines as good faith, but the issue has been heating up of late due to retrans fights between Fox and Time Warner and Sinclair and Mediacom, respectively. The good faith/nonexclusive bargaining rule had been expected to be extended, along with the satellite copyright license to import distant network TV station signals, as part of the reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA). But a revised satellite bill got hung up and Congress extended the SHVERA bill until March 1 as a stop-gap measure. That came as an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act, which only passed Dec. 19. The FCC then needed to move the retrans bargaining sunset date to March 1 or it, too, would have expired. (12/29)