March 16, 2010 (Day 1 of the National Broadband Plan)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010
Watch the unveiling of the National Broadband Plan http://reboot.fcc.gov/live
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN RELEASE
Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan
National Broadband Plan Details Actions for Connecting Consumers, Economy with 21st Century Networks
FCC Unveils Broadband Plan
FCC plan would greatly expand broadband Internet connections
Broadband Plan Faces Hurdles
US is falling behind in being digitally literate
FCC Wants 120 MHz Back From TV (updated)
See also: Broadcasters Wary Of Broadband Plan's Spectrum Proposal
FCC Wants Cable Industry to Adopt Gateway Device to Replace Set-Tops
FCC Suggests Federal Approach To Taxing Online Digital Goods, Services
See also:US e-commerce grows by more than 400 percent during last decade
ANALYSIS OF THE BROADBAND PLAN
FCC's Broadband Plan: The Role Of Competition
Will the FCC get tough or play nice with broadband providers?
FCC's National Broadband Plan: 'The Second Wave of Electricity'
One day before National Broadband Plan release: Six questions still unanswered
What Matters Most About Our National Broadband Plan: Bandwidth
Cap and Trade for the Internet
REACTION TO BROADBAND PLAN
Congress Backs National Broadband Plan
Getting Started: Reducing Digital Exclusion, Promoting Digital Evolution
Day 1 of the National Broadband Plan
Public Knowledge Praises National Broadband Plan
MAP Gives FCC an A+
National Broadband Plan Signals Progress But Hard Choices Ahead
Media & Democracy Coalition Pleased with Broadband Plan
Wireless Industry Pleased with Broadband Plan
USTelecom Responds to Broadband Plan
MORE ON BROADBAND
Klobuchar, Gillibrand, Begich introduce bill to release more broadband data to public
County Stuck In Information Superhighway Slow Lane
High-Speed Wireless Transforms a Shipyard
New Zealand Government outlines rural telecommunications plan
Charter's Stimulus Plan: Free Broadband to Low-Income St. Louisians
British Internet Legislation Causes Rising Tension
What's up with Riverside's citywide Wi-Fi network?
TELECOM
Is the recession really over for telcos?
Telstra Shares Rise After Australian Senate Delays Vote on Split
WIRELESS
New computing tools threaten the role of the PC
Google says it's betting big on mobile
Google Wireless Study Identifies Smartphone Features Most Influential
New Appointments at Google, Apple, Show Depth of Enmity Between the Two
TELEVISION
5 Ways to 'Fix' Retransmission Consent
Comcast and DirecTV finally strike deal for sports channel Versus
OK, Networks, No More Excuses
A Plea From Couch Potatoes Everywhere: TV Service Providers, Stop Screwing Up TV!
America's Great Escape Ticket
HEALTH
A Key Step Toward Nationwide Health Information Exchange
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Google hopes to protect other business interests in China
Google's China Internet License May Expire This Month
China Says Google's Possible Shutdown Must Meet Rules
Berlusconi, Probed for Threats to Regulator, Denies Wrongdoing
State Department Launches New Discussion Site
Bill Would Speed Up FOIA Responses
Iran hacks opposition Web sites, arrests cyber activists
E-gov spending to continue declining in 2010
New House chair oversees Dept of Defense cybersecurity
JOURNALISM
Bad News | Exploring the News Frontier
PRIVACY
Tracking Electric Use Could Allow Utilities to Track You, Too | Google gives Buzz users more control over their inbox
MORE ONLINE
Fending Off Digital Decay, Bit by Bit | C-Span Puts Full Archives on the Web | Virginia Budget Cuts Public Broadcasting
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN RELEASE
CONNECTING AMERICA: THE NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
Here's the final version of the National Broadband Plan.
benton.org/node/33277 | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC TO RELEASE BROADBAND PLAN TUESDAY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission will send "Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan" to Congress. About half of the Plan's recommendations are addressed to the FCC, while the remainder are for Congress, the Executive Branch, state and local government, working closely with the private and nonprofit sectors. The Plan's call for action over the next decade includes the following goals and recommendations:
Connect 100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service, building the world's largest market of high-speed broadband users and ensuring that new jobs and businesses are created in America.
Affordable access in every American community to ultra-high-speed broadband of at least 1 gigabit per second at anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and military installations so that America is hosting the experiments that produce tomorrow's ideas and industries.
Ensure that the United States is leading the world in mobile innovation by making 500 megahertz of spectrum newly available for licensed and unlicensed use.
Move our adoption rates from roughly 65 percent to more than 90 percent and make sure that every child in America is digitally literate by the time he or she leaves high school.
Bring affordable broadband to rural communities, schools, libraries, and vulnerable populations by transitioning existing Universal Service Fund support from yesterday's analog technologies to tomorrow's digital infrastructure.
Promote competition across the broadband ecosystem by ensuring greater transparency, removing barriers to entry, and conducting market-based analysis with quality data on price, speed, and availability.
Enhance the safety of the American people by providing every first responder with access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable public safety network.
benton.org/node/33234 | Federal Communications Commission | Executive summary of the Plan | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC UNVEILS BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
The Federal Communications Commission released it long-awaited national broadband plan Monday -- a 360-page document that agency officials dubbed a "call to action" for extending low-cost, high-speed Internet service to all Americans by 2020. The technology blueprint, required by last year's economic stimulus package, outlines six long-term goals, including superfast connectivity to 100 million households and transforming the U.S. into a world leader in mobile broadband use and innovation. The plan recommends the development of standardized cable set-top boxes that would enable Internet surfing on televisions, and suggests the idea of a free, advertiser-funded wireless broadband service available regionally or nationwide. During a news conference Monday, FCC officials said the plan would require dozens of new commission rulemakings, but only limited congressional action, for implementation. That action would include allocating $12 billion to $16 billion to create a nationwide wireless broadband network for public-safety officials.
benton.org/node/33261 | CongressDaily | CNet | LATimes | The Hill
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PLAN WOULD EXPAND BROADBAND CONNECTIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The National Broadband Plan outlines dozens of policy recommendations aimed at raising the portion of people with high-speed Internet connections to 90 percent, from the current 65 percent, over the next decade and significantly increasing the connection speeds of homes with such service. Mandated by last year's stimulus legislation, the plan will be presented to Congress on Tuesday and is widely expected to set the FCC's agenda for years to come. It would move the commission squarely into the age of the Internet, creating a federal mandate for installing thousands of miles of new fiber-optic cable and erecting many cellphone towers. Many of the FCC's proposals are short on details, and lawmakers and the agency can accept or reject any number of the ideas. Mid-size broadband providers, such as TW Telecom and Cbeyond, are shaping up to be the plan's biggest beneficiaries, gaining access to more subscribers and the rights to federal funds to expand their networks. Makers of network equipment, such as Cisco, and creators of Web-based content, such as Google, could also experience significant boosts in their business. And cellphone carriers could reap big gains from a proposal to allocate a large chunk of airwaves for the next generation of smartphones and portable devices. Major providers, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications, would gain broader subscriber bases, but they could be forced to share their wireless and fixed-wire networks with smaller rivals.
benton.org/node/33276 | Washington Post
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BROADBAND PLAN FACES HURDLES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
As the National Broadband Plan is released today, the more important aspects of the plan may have to do with how the Federal Communications Commission could soon propose to use its regulatory powers to generate more competition for the existing broadband networks run by big phone and cable companies. Consumer groups have been pressing the agency to propose rules that would require companies to open up their networks to rivals. But the plan doesn't specifically call for broadband providers to share their networks under so-called open-access rules, a win for the telecommunications industry. "A lot of the hardest questions have been moved down the road," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a public-interest group. "How will we get those higher broadband speeds and how will we get lower prices?" The other critical issue for the broadband and Internet industries will be how the agency and Congress propose to auction off unused airwaves—electromagnetic real estate valued at billions of dollars.
benton.org/node/33275 | Wall Street Journal | Christian Science Monitor | Los Angeles Times | Bloomberg | Financial Times
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FCC WANTS 120 MHZ BACK FROM TV
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
The National Broadband Plan will call for the reallocation of more than one-third of the spectrum currently devoted to broadcast television -- 120 MHz of 300 MHz -- for wireless broadband access within the next five years. The plan calls for the Federal Communications Commission to free up 36 MHz from the broadcast spectrum band by "repacking" the band and obtain the balance of the 120 MHz by encouraging "voluntary" channel sharing among stations. The recovered spectrum would be auctioned to wireless broadband access operators and, with the blessing of Congress, the proceeds would be shared with the broadcasters. The plan also says that if authorized by Congress the FCC should consider imposing spectrum fees on commercial, full-power TV stations. And, it adds, Congress should consider using those fees as well as some of the spectrum auction proceeds to fund an "endowment" for noncommercial media. The timeline for freeing spectrum: the FCC issues a band-reclamation order by next year, holds an auction in the 2012-2013 time-frame, and clears broadcasters off the band in 2015
benton.org/node/33232 | TVNewsCheck | Broadcasting&Cable
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A GATEWAY DEVICE TO REPLACE SET-TOP BOXES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the cable industry to adopt an open-standard, "gateway" device to replace current set-tops by the end of 2012, and in the meantime make a bunch of fixes to its CableCARD regime by next fall, according to a copy of the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The cable industry has warned against a one-size-fits-all approach to set tops. The FCC wants the new "gateway" to be a standard interface that "bridges" conditional access, tuning and reception functions, with no additional functionality. The FCC says it should be cheap and allow consumer electronics companies to sell network-neutral devices that can access content independent of any particular MVPD or third party, allowing those consumer electronics companies to design to a common interface, and to open standards. The device will also need to pass through content protection flags from cable operators. The FCC proposed interim milestones to make sure operators were gearing up for the switch, and penalties for those who are not installing the gateways in all new homes, or all box replacements, by Dec. 31, 2012.
benton.org/node/33258 | Broadcasting&Cable
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BROADBAND PLAN INCLUDES APPROACH TO TAXING ONLINE GOODS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
As part of the National Broadband Plan, the Federal Communications Commission wants the federal government to look into establishing a "national framework" for taxing digital goods and services. According to the FCC, one of the impediments to increasing the benefits of broadband, and in particular e-commerce, is the "current patchwork" of state and local laws and regulations on taxes of services like ringtones and digital music. It says that patchwork quilt of requirements is of little comfort to entrepreneurs, who may lack the resources to "understand and comply" with the various tax regimes. "Recognizing that state and local governments pursue varying approaches to raising tax revenues, a national framework for digital goods and services taxation would reduce uncertainty and remove one barrier to online entrepreneurship and investment."
benton.org/node/33257 | Multichannel News
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ANALYSIS OF THE BROADBAND PLAN
THE ROLE OF COMPETITION
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] We finally know how the Federal Communications Commission plans to treat the issue most responsible for the current state of broadband in the U.S. — the lack of competition. The FCC has proposed collecting more data, which is good, but what matters is how it uses that data, which isn't outlined in the plan. If the FCC uses the data it hopes to collect as a means to rule and impose conditions on mergers, as well as enforce certain polices around special access reform or sharing fiber, then that's going to have an impact. Taken together, better information about broadband speeds and pricing, special access reform, making it easier to build out municipal fiber, and open set-top boxes will likely have the greatest impact on consumers, while the ability to get better data on services could have the most far-reaching effect if the FCC decides to use that information to promote competition.
benton.org/node/33254 | GigaOm
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WILL FCC GET TOUGH?
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC Broadband Initiative, have performed a Dance of the Seven Veils over the last several months, disclosing tantalizing tidbits about the problems they perceive and potential ways to address them. Don't be surprised to hear about efforts to empower consumers -- for example, making it easy to access and control medical records, to connect to broadband at schools and libraries, and use the Web to learn about government information and services. But the media and tech worlds want to know: Will the FCC propose other bold changes that might antagonize large companies, including broadband giants Comcast and Verizon, or will it try to accommodate them with relatively moderate reforms? Some public interest groups have urged the FCC to get tough, for example, by including provisions that would promote net neutrality, fight Internet hate speech and encourage competition.
benton.org/node/33256 | USAToday
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THE SECOND WAVE OF ELECTRICITY
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Karen Wilkinson]
In what some say is akin to "the second wave of electricity" in America, the Federal Communications Commission wants to expand and increase high-speed Internet access nationwide while encouraging competition among service providers. "This is a breath of fresh air from the last eight years, when [the FCC] was chasing after porn," said Public Technology Institute Executive Director Alan Shark. "Finally we're looking at the most important thing for the success of the economy going forward." The U.S. needs to bring its broadband capabilities up to speed to retain a level of competitiveness. In doing so, "broadband gaps" need to be filled so that all populations, most notably the disabled, Native Americans, students and the unemployed, are connected, the FCC said. Also lacking is the nation's ability to harness "broadband's power to transform delivery of government services, health care, education, public safety, energy conservation, economic development and other national priorities," the FCC press release said. Just how the recommendations will play out on the state and local levels remains unclear. FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said the plan's recommendations are directed at the federal level, and best practices would eventually trickle down to the state and local levels.
benton.org/node/33246 | Government Technology
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SIX UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The telecommunications industry is eager to learn answers to several questions that have not been addressed in information about the National Broadband Plan released to date: 1) The definition of broadband. 2) How will we get to "100 squared?" 3) Will the FCC call for the full-scale phase out of traditional telephone service? 4) What will access charge reform look like? 5) Interim access charge solutions. 6) The classification of broadband as a communications, rather than information service.
benton.org/node/33231 | Connected Planet
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WHAT MATTERS MOST -- BANDWIDTH
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Finally, ten years into the 21st century, America will have a plan for encouraging the deployment, adoption, and utilization of broadband. But how are we to judge the merit of the plan when it's made public? How will we know if as a whole it does enough to help our country realize its full digital potential? While there are many specific issues that are serious and contentious, there's one thing above all else that the plan must accomplish: making sure that Americans have access to bandwidth that's ever bigger, better, and less expensive. Bandwidth is what broadband delivers, the capacity to transfer data to be able to use all that the Internet has to offer in the way of content, services, and applications. Think of bandwidth as electricity, and broadband as the electric cables Americans need to their houses to get service.
benton.org/node/33230 | App-Rising.com
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CAP AND TRADE FOR THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: George Gilder]
[Commentary] Under Chairman Julius Genachowski, Al Gore's old friends at the Federal Communications Commission are out to reinvent the Internet. In the name of a bogus crisis in broadband deployment, the FCC is today lathering on an array of network stimuli and subsidies as part of a new "National Broadband Plan" that will transform this current font of U.S. economic growth into a consumer of taxes and a playground for pettifogs. This subsidy plan comes on top of previous ill-defined "network neutrality" requirements that would bar carriers from charging different prices for different forms of Internet content. Whether spam, TV programs, pornography, stolen video, movie downloads, streaming games, cyberwar intrusions or sensitive voice services, carriers of Internet packets could not discriminate among them. The FCC's new regulatory regime amounts to a kind of cap and trade for the Internet: It will cap Internet growth and restrict Internet trade. The likely winners are lawyers and special interests leeching off the telecom and Internet industries. A 2007 study by the Brookings Institution's Robert Crandall, William Lehr and Robert Litan estimated that every one percentage point increase in broadband subscriptions by U.S. households yields nearly 300,000 new jobs. Do we really want to jeopardize this industry's cornucopia of growth?
benton.org/node/33274 | Wall Street Journal
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REACTION TO BROADBAND PLAN
CONGRESS BACKS NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Rep Edward Markey (D-MA) on Monday praised the Federal Communications Commission's forthcoming broadband report as a "visionary, far-reaching plan." He later heralded that document as a set of "specific strategies and goals to help our country compete and win in the fiercely competitive global economy." "The National Broadband Plan will unleash a tidal wave of new investment and innovation," said Rep Markey, who chiefly drafted the provision in the 2009 federal stimulus that commissioned the FCC's report. "This plan will lower and remove barriers to new competition in services, networks and devices," he said in a statement. "And it will enable state-of-the-art, high-speed access to educational opportunities, improved healthcare, increased energy efficiency and other national priorities."
House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) said, "The Plan will be a critically important tool as Congress looks to the challenge of utilizing fully the transformative power of broadband. I look forward to exploring the recommendations in more detail and in the bipartisan manner we have traditionally addressed communications and technology issues." He announced a House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology hearing on the plan March 25. The chairman of the that subcommittee, Rep Rick Boucher, identified four areas in which the Commission's plan addresses key priorities: 1) The transition of the Federal Universal Service Fund to support broadband. 2) Achieving 100 megabits per second Internet access during the coming decade. 3) Working with television broadcasters to identify spectrum that could be reallocated for wireless commercial purposes. 4) The auction the D block of the 700 megahertz spectrum and potentially apply the proceeds to financing the build-out of communications capabilities for public safety, including fire, police and rescue departments nationwide.
Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA) applauded the plan in no small part for adopting as a recommendation a proposal in legislation she introduced (HR 3646). The plan includes expanding "Lifeline/Link-up" for universal broadband adoption in its proposed reforms to Universal Service Fund.
benton.org/node/33260 | Hill, The | Rep Markey | Chairman Waxman | The Hill - Boucher | Chairman Boucher | The Hill - Matsui | Rep Matsui | Broadcasting&Cable
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GETTING STARTED: REDUCING DIGITAL EXCLUSION, PROMOTING DIGITAL EVOLUTION
[SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America, AUTHOR: Dr Mark Cooper]
Over the course of the past year the Consumer Federation of America has urged the Federal Communications Commission to take a pragmatic, real world approach to the urgent national problem of making a world-class broadband network truly universal in America. With one-third of U.S. households now three generations behind in technology adoption and the U.S. lagging other advanced industrial nations, achieving universal service would not only be an immense benefit to those households, it would provide a powerful boost to the economy.
We see today's National Broadband Plan report to congress as a significant first step in the right direction. It strikes a good balance between what needs to be done in the long-term and what can be done in the immediate future. Given the complete absence of policies to address the digital divide and promote competition in broadband in the past decade, this is an ambitious agenda and a good starting point for responding to the challenge confronting the U.S. communications network.
The fact that the Federal Communications Commission intends to quickly launch dozens of proceedings to implement these first steps is good news. In a democracy of 300 million people we must live by the rule of law. To change society, we must change the rules. To change the rules, we must have rulemakings that comply with the Administrative Procedures Act. Above all, that means the public should have the chance to comment on the actual rules that will be implemented. It would have been inappropriate for the FCC to present detailed policy prescriptions without a full hearing record developed in individual proceedings. There will certainly be lots of devils in the details, but the more rulemakings and the sooner they get started, the better.
benton.org/node/33247 | Consumer Federation of America
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DAY 1 OF THE NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Charles Benton]
[Commentary] For weeks, the National Broadband Plan team at the Federal Communications Commission has operated under a clock counting down the days to today. But today, for all of us, is Day 1 of the National Broadband Plan. We will all scurry to absorb the conclusions and recommendations of the plan. And, tomorrow, we will -- we must -- roll up our sleeves to make sure we all enjoy the promise of truly universal, affordable broadband. The promise of the plan is broadband access for all Americans, affordability, and maximum use of broadband to improve consumer welfare, civic participation, public safety and homeland security, community development, health care delivery, energy independence and efficiency, education, worker training, private sector investment, entrepreneurial activity, job creation and economic growth. I am thrilled to read the FCC's plan. But as relieved as I am that the FCC has delivered the plan -- and fully cognizant of the incredible work done inside and outside the Commission to get us here -- let me be among the first to identify our new challenge: we must implement this plan - quickly - while evaluating our investments in broadband to inform our next national broadband plan.
http://www.benton.org/node/33235