February 2010

THE STIMULUS

ARRA ANNIVERSARY REPORT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Alec MacGillis]
The White House is releasing its first annual report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Wednesday, summarizing its progress on the first anniversary of President Obama's signing of the massive, politically contentious economic stimulus package. Independent arbiters such as the Congressional Budget Office agree that it helped end the recession and added several percentage points to GDP growth, and that it created or saved at least 2 million jobs. But with job losses far deeper in 2009 than the administration expected, the stimulus has not kept unemployment from climbing to 10 percent. Republicans have seized on job-creation tallies reported by stimulus recipients, questioning their reliability. At the same time, Republicans who voted against the bill, as well as Democrats, have touted stimulus spending in their districts. The package was divided into three main categories: 1) Tax cuts (including $800 for both 2009 and 2010 for most families). 2) Payments, including fiscal aid to states and expanded safety net assistance (such as unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies and food stamps). 3) Investments in, for example, public infrastructure, energy efficiency upgrades and broadband access.
benton.org/node/32353 | Washington Post
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SECOND BROADBAND STIMULUS WINDOW OPENS
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Andy Opsahl]
The second and final funding window for broadband stimulus applications opened Tuesday, Feb. 16. Applicants have until March 15 to complete their submissions, which preparers are working feverishly to align with the latest broadband stimulus eligibility requirements. Given that the federal government is still holding workshops on how best to craft applications, expect a rush of submissions near the end of this funding period. Applications will go either to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) or the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), the two agencies disbursing $7.2 billion set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for broadband projects.
benton.org/node/32330 | Government Technology
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SENATE GOP CRITICIZES ARRA-SUPPORTED RESEARCH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the stimulus package, Senate Republicans pointed out a particularly egregious expense: using federal dollars to study Facebook. A Duke University assistant professor of computer science was awarded a $500,000 grant through the National Science Foundation to study "social networks like Facebook." The research project aims to examine the privacy implications of social networks and to look for an alternative way of storing personal information.
benton.org/node/32328 | Hill, The | www.sciencedaily.com
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NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN

BROADBAND: OUR ENDURING ENGINE FOR PROSPERITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
Speaking at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference in Washington (DC), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski set an ambitious target to deliver 100 megabit per second Internet connections to more than 100 million households calling it the "100 Squared" initiative. He said that the goal should evolve over time as technology and use patterns develop, and the plan will have milestones for ongoing review and updating. Other countries with broadband plans have universality goals ranging from 1 to 2 megabits. Our goal for universal service will be higher. He set the adoption goal at 90 percent -- up from today's 65 percent -- and said every child in America must be digitally literate by the time he or she leaves high school. The National Broadband Plan, Chairman Genachowski said, will set a course for a once-in-a-generation transformation of the Universal Service Fund -- cutting waste, driving efficiencies, and converting it over time to broadband support so that all Americans can enjoy the benefits of 21st century communications networks. The plan will also include:
A recommendation for improving the highly successful E-Rate program -- which made Internet connections in America's classrooms and libraries a reality -- so that kids and teachers can have a 21st century educational experience that is the envy of the world.
A recommendation to modernize the FCC's rural telemedicine program to connect thousands of additional clinics and break down bureaucratic barriers to a telehealth future.
A recommendation to take the steps necessary to deploy broadband to accelerate a smart grid.
A recommendation to develop public/private partnerships to increase Internet adoption, and ensure that all children can use the Internet proficiently and safely -- with programs like NCTA's new A+ program playing a helpful role.
A recommendation to free up a significant amount of spectrum in the years ahead for ample licensed and unlicensed use.
A recommendation for lowering the cost of broadband build-out -- wired and wireless -- through the smart use of government rights of way and conduits.
A recommendation for creating an interoperable public safety network to replace the currently broken system.
benton.org/node/32298 | Federal Communications Commission | thehill.com | Reuters | WashPost | ars technica | B&C | GigaOm | Bloomberg
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BROADBAND PLAN AND RIGHTS-OF-WAY
[SOURCE: National Association of Counties, AUTHOR: Press release]
The National Association of Counties and other local governments fear the Federal Communications Commission will use the National Broadband Plan to take significant rights-of-way (ROW) management authority away from local governments or threaten county budgets at a time that local governments are suffering layoffs. Presently, the FCC is considering whether to change the ROW fee structure to only consider "cost recovery." Under the Communication Act, local governments are entitled to "fair and reasonable compensation" for right-of-way access. NACo believes that setting ROW compensation at only cost-recovery would be a windfall to private telecommunications companies that would not result in any increased broadband deployment instead, it would only result in decreased costs to these companies and possible layoffs of county employees or losses of services. NACo holds that the FCC has no legal authority over local ROW permitting or fees, and rejects any argument that "fair and reasonable compensation" is limited only to cost recovery. To support these claims in a filing with the FCC, the National Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) included detailed economic and academic studies which showed that limiting local compensation for ROW fees would not lead to increased broadband accessibility but would instead result only in increasing the "digital divide."
benton.org/node/32342 | National Association of Counties
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BROADBAND REFORM AND JOBS
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Stuart Brotman]
[Commentary] When it comes to broadband, we Americans are a bit like Maverick and Goose in Top Gun. We feel the need for speed -- download speed, that is. No one is denying that download speeds matter. But too heavy an emphasis on megabits and gigabits per second threatens to obscure a more pressing issue during a period of high unemployment: how broadband can be harnessed to create jobs. The Agriculture and Commerce departments should target broadband stimulus projects that can quickly reach displaced workers. There also need to be more funds made available to, and a greater focus on, public institutions, such as libraries, community centers, job training facilities, and adult education sites, where broadband spending may have the largest impact on jobs. Greater broadband competition, which the FCC recognizes is essential to promote more infrastructure development and more varied pricing, also will be helpful. So, too, will be more efficient use of our spectrum resources, particularly those that have been controlled by colleges, schools, and other educational institutions for decades.
benton.org/node/32339 | BusinessWeek
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

NET NEUTRALITY: A COMPLEX TOPIC MADE SIMPLE
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Matt Hamblen]
What is Network Neutrality'? At its core, the Net neutrality movement in the US refers to efforts to keep the Internet open, accessible and "neutral" to all users, application providers and network carriers. In theory, this means, for example, that one carrier would not be allowed to discriminate against an application written by a third party by requiring its users to rely on the carrier's own proprietary voice applications. A carrier's walled-garden browser, which allows access to only certain Web sites, is also not seen as neutral by many neutrality proponents. The term Net neutrality is clearly politically laden. It isn't used that much by the Federal Communications Commission in its deliberations on the matter. Traditional carriers don't use the term that much either, since they often argue there is nothing wrong with the openness of the Internet, something Google and a variety of public interest groups dispute.
benton.org/node/32336 | ComputerWorld
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ACI QUESTIONS FREE PRESS NETWORK NEUTRALITY STUDY
[SOURCE: American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research, AUTHOR: Stephen Pociask, Dr Larry Darby]
The American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research sent a letter to FCC Commissioners to respond to recent comments filed by parties that cite a study by S. Derek Turner of the Free Press entitled "Finding the Bottom Line: the Truth about Network Neutrality & Investment." ACI said the Free Press study is flawed in its analysis and is, in many places, at odds with generally accepted principles of economics, accounting, and corporate finance. ACI attached Dr. Larry F. Darby's analysis of the Free Press study. Darby is a former FCC Common Carrier Bureau Chief, Chief of its Economic Division
benton.org/node/32332 | American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research | Dolby analysis
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CITIZENS UNITED AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Aparna Sridhar]
[Commentary] In the wake of Citizens United, preserving an open, neutral Internet may be our best hope for counterbalancing the deluge of corporate money that will now influence elections. With low barriers to entry, an open Internet can enable all sorts of political speech -- it can provide room for lively political debate, help individuals connect and mobilize around causes, and allow small donors to aggregate their funds. But phone and cable companies, emboldened by the blowout corporate victory in the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, are saying that the landmark case confirms that Net Neutrality -- the rule that says phone and cable companies can't block your e-mails or slow down your favorite Websites -- violates their First Amendment rights. In the words of Michael Wendy, formerly with the US Telecom Association, the Supreme Court's ruling should "put the FCC on guard."
benton.org/node/32331 | Huffington Post, The
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MORE ON BROADBAND

NEW NTIA REPORT: DIGITAL NATION
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a new report taking a first look at data collected through the Internet Usage Survey of more than 50,000 households, commissioned by NTIA and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in October 2009. Since 2007, the data show that while virtually all demographic groups have experienced rising broadband Internet access adoption at home, historic disparities among particular demographic groups overall continue to persist. Highlights include: 1) Broadband Internet access at home continues to grow: 64 percent of households have broadband access compared to 51 percent in October 2007. 2) Notable disparities between demographic groups continue: people with low incomes, seniors, minorities, the less-educated, non-family households, and the non-employed tend to lag behind other groups in home broadband use. 3) While the digital divide between urban and rural areas has lessened since 2007, it remains significant. In 2009, two-thirds (66 percent) of urban households and only 54 percent of rural households accessed broadband Internet service, compared to 54 percent of urban households and 39 percent of rural households in 2007. 4) Overall, the two most commonly cited reasons for not having broadband Internet access at home are that it is perceived as not needed (38 percent) or too expensive (26 percent). Besides these value and affordability concerns, Americans also cite the lack of a computer as a major factor. In rural America, however, lack of broadband availability is a more frequently-cited major reason for non-adoption than in urban areas (11 percent vs. 1 percent). 5) Households without any type of Internet access at home most commonly cite insufficient value, or no need, as the reason. In contrast, households that have dial-up access to the Internet as well as Americans who do not use the Internet in any location most frequently cite cost as the reason they do not have broadband access at home. 6) Despite the growing importance of the Internet in American life, 30 percent of all persons do not use the Internet in any location.
benton.org/node/32297 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | The Hill | B&C | ConnectedPlanet
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TRACKING BROADBAND DATA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Sharon Gillett, Paul de Sa]
[Commentary] Something that's become increasingly clear as we've been drafting the National Broadband Plan is the need for good data on broadband: Where is it available? From how many providers? At what speeds? How many people subscribe? How robust is the competition? We've tried to gather and analyze all the data we can get our hands on, which has made us increasingly aware of the shortcomings of the data historically collected by the Commission. As a result, the Plan will include recommendations on improving FCC data collection, analysis, and reporting going forward. Good data practices will help policymakers meet the Plan's goal of robust broadband access for everyone, as well as giving researchers and consumers more of the information they want. This brings us to the FCC's latest report on broadband service, known as the High-Speed Report. The FCC has published this report twice annually for the past decade, based on data that carriers must submit using Form 477. Released on Friday, the report uses much better data now than in the past, reflecting improvements made by the Commission in 2008. However we recognize that the Form 477 data could still be improved. To take one example, the current report does not provide sufficient information to assess competition. The FCC collects its data with a promise of confidentiality for provider-specific data, which requires that the data be aggregated for reporting purposes. Therefore today, in some of the maps in the Report, a provider is depicted as serving a census tract even if it has only a single customer there or serves only a small portion of a geographically large census tract. Because of this aggregation, the reported counts of "number of providers" cannot be interpreted as the number of competitors among which consumers can choose their broadband service. And even if they are available to the same customers, some of the offerings may not effectively compete consumers may not view 768kbps DSL service as a close substitute for 6 Mbps cable modem service. Furthermore, in some places in the report, high-speed connections are defined for historical reasons as 200 kbps - not really broadband by any current standard. Although this threshold has been chosen to be consistent with past reporting practices, it makes some of the report's maps showing ubiquitous coverage overly optimistic. Finally, although we will be sharing as much data as we can with state regulators and mapping entities, as well as posting information online for researchers and the public, we recognize that the confidentiality requirements necessary for comprehensive data collection to some extent limit the analyses that third parties may be able to conduct.
[Sharon Gillett is Chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau and Paul de Sa is Chief of the FCC's Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis]
benton.org/node/32296 | Federal Communications Commission
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DATA SHOWS BAD ECONOMY COULDN'T STOP BROADBAND GROWTH
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
The Federal Communications Commission's new status report for high-speed Internet services indicates that broadband adoption in the United States grew in 2008 by ten percent, to a total of 77 million fixed-location broadband connections. That's in contrast to 2007, when fixed broadband subscribership rose by 17 percent. You can read 2008's slower pace as a sad commentary on the nation's oft-lamented rate of broadband penetration. Or you can interpret it as good news, considering that consumers kept buying relatively fast Internet connections through a year when the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, well, didn't grow, to put it politely. GDP began at a tepid 2.1 percent in January of '08 and dropped to 5.4 degrees below zero by January '09, then got even worse in the next fiscal quarter. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate began its unpleasant march from 4.8 percent in March to 7.4 percent in December of that year, then got even worse (as you doubtless noticed). So it's a testimony to how much people want broadband that they kept their subscriptions or bought a new one through those scary months. Plus at the year end of 2008, 25 million mobile device owners had a high-speed data plan for their laptop or smartphone, the FCC reports. That's out of 86 million people who bought some kind of mobile gadget that could send and receive broadband data. We don't know whether that figure represents net growth, because 2008 is the first year that the Commission has set up a coordinated count for the mobile cohort.
benton.org/node/32341 | Ars Technica
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DIVERSITY

GROUPS SCOLD FCC'S CIVIL RIGHTS RECORD
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: David Honig]
The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and 22 other groups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski criticizing the FCC's 2009 record on civil rights issues. The groups note that the FCC failed to: 1) vote on any of the dozens of pending proposals to advance minority ownership and participation in the industries the Commission regulates, including proposals endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age, 2) deliver a report to Congress on "identifying and eliminating...market entry barriers for entrepreneurs and other small businesses....", 3) adopt any of the two dozen 4) proposed noncontroversial initiatives that would give minority businesses an opportunity to acquire FCC-licensed assets, 5) restore minimal enforcement of the broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Rule, and to assign a compliance officer to the 2007 Advertising Nondiscrimination Rule which, if it were enforced, could restore to minority broadcasters the approximately $200 million every year that they forego because of racial discrimination by advertisers, 6) hold a hearing on Arbitron's "Portable People Meter" (PPM) audience measurement technology, 7) act on the Spanish Radio Association/United Church of Christ/MMTC petition to provide for the multilingual broadcasts of emergency information, 8) repeal the 2006 Designated Entity rules that have decimated minority wireless ownership: of the $19 billion fair market value of licenses sold in Auction 73 last year, minorities acquired $5 million, or less than three-hundredths of one percent of the total value of those licenses, 9) include even a mention of minorities or minority business enterprises in the December 2009 National Broadband Plan Framework ignoring the transcripts from four staff
workshops and two field hearings at which the witnesses focused on minority cyberpreneurship, and 9) support the only remaining federal initiative aimed at promoting minority and women media and telecom ownership the Telecommunications Development Fund.
benton.org/node/32343 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

TRANSPARENCY AND TRUST IN GOV
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The first-ever quantitative assessment of online open government efforts has concluded that the perceived transparency of federal Web sites drives trust in government. ForeSee Results, a market research firm, conducted the study, which was slated to be released publicly on Tuesday. Nextgov was briefed on the results by ForeSee Results. Over the past year, many organizations have tracked the amount of previously undisclosed information that agencies are posting online. Earlier this month, the White House began tracking compliance with the president's open government directive. But no one has measured the effects of Web-based disclosure on American public opinion. The longstanding approach to quantifying transparency has been, "well let's measure how much data they put out there," said Larry Freed, ForeSee Results' president and chief executive officer. "To me, that's not measuring transparency. That may be measuring confusion." Freed opted instead to survey citizens on their reactions to government Web sites, using the model of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, for which ForeSee Results also collects data. Researchers asked users questions related to how thoroughly the sites disclosed information about what the agency is doing, how quickly information was made available online and how accessible that information was on the sites. The answers were then run through the ACSI statistical engine to generate a score on transparency.
benton.org/node/32303 | nextgov
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CONTENT

COPYRIGHT REFORM ACT
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Press release]
Saying that, "We need a bolder vision that starts to break down the barriers to free culture that starts to break the vise grip the few and powerful have on ownership," Public Knowledge President and Co-Founder Gigi B. Sohn announced a new five-part Copyright Reform Act. Sohn said the discussion draft for the model legislation proposes five changes that "are to intended update copyright law for the digital age and in doing so tip the balance back in favor of the constitutional mandate that copyright protection 'promote the progress of science and the useful arts.'"
The general topics for copyright change are to:
1) strengthen fair use, including reforming outrageously high statutory damages, which deter innovation and creativity; 2) reform the DMCA to permit circumvention of digital locks for lawful purposes; 3) update the limitations and exceptions to copyright protection to better conform with how digital technologies work; 4) provide recourse for people and companies who are recklessly accused of copyright infringement and who are recklessly sent improper DMCA take-down notices; and 5) streamline arcane music licensing laws to encourage new and better business models for selling music.
benton.org/node/32302 | Public Knowledge | TheHill
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS

A WELCOME FIX
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] "Hi. I'm the C.E.O. of (Fill in the Blank) Corporation, and I approved this message." If Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen have their way, you'll be hearing those sorts of disclosures in political ads for November's Congressional elections. It is a sensible way for voters to find out which businesses, or unions, are using their treasuries to promote which candidates. And it has become absolutely necessary since the Supreme Court's disastrous ruling last month in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Schumer-Van Hollen bill is expected to be introduced later this month. Congressional leaders should put it on a fast track so it can be in place in time for this year's midterm elections. It could help keep special interest money in check until the real solution comes: a Supreme Court ruling reversing the deeply antidemocratic Citizens United decision.
benton.org/node/32349 | New York Times
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February 2010

US seeks examiner for Tribune bankruptcy

Google content-filter patent about copyright, not censorship

ARRA Annual Report

Is There a Master Metric for Evaluating Public Media?

Facebook Defeats Yahoo to Become America's Second Most Popular Website

Department of Defense pursues Net Generation for IT workforce

Feb 17, 2010 (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act one year later)