March 25, 2010
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
Verizon calls on Congress to rethink Internet oversight, could take away power from FCC
Republicans Signal Major Concerns Over Broadband Plan
National broadband dreamin'
Providers register mixed reactions to FCC's broadband plan
NTCA's take on the National Broadband Plan
OPASTCO asks for quick steps before longer USF, ICC reform
A conversation with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski
Two ISPs In A Market Does Not Mean There's Competition
CDT's Harris asks FCC about protections for innovators
UK Budget 2010: Darling puts emphasis on broadband for all
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
At stake for Google in China: Smart phone empire
Google asks White House for help in fight over censorship with China
GoDaddy to stop offering Web addresses in China
Google China Exit a U.S. Plot, State Researcher Says
China Unicom ditches Google on mobiles
Censorship fears over China spam curb
Brin Drove Google's Pullback
China's instructions on reporting on Google
Google's good deed in China
China vs. the Internet
Net diplomacy
MORE ON BROADBAND
First-Ever National Study: Millions of People Rely on Library Computers for Employment, Health, and Education
For those about to submit...
How 1Gbps fiber came to Cleveland's poorest, free of charge
Which is more "doomed": cable TV or Internet video?
Shooting the Messenger
Do wireless networks merit different network neutrality than wired networks?
FTC seeks to update online privacy protection laws for children
European privacy battle looms for Facebook, Google
Internet agency approves domains in native scripts
YouTube Used in UK Vote as Parties Follow Obama
CYBERSECURITY
Senate Commerce Committee Approves Cybersecurity Act, FCC Technical Assistance Bill
WIRELESS
Data traffic outstrips mobile voice calls
Catholic Charity and Sprint Tangle Over Texting
Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message
iPhone App to Sidestep AT&T
Microsoft Sees Billion Users for Phone, Web Programs
China Mobile launches CMMB mobile TV - for 88 cents a month
MORE ONLINE
Groups Ask Targeted Enforcement for Intellectual Property
IT measures scattered through reform law
Social Networks a Lifeline for the Chronically Ill
Media Access Project Announces New President Tyrone Brown
EC Launches New Drive for EU/US Bank Data-Sharing Agreement
Nepal Telecommunications Authority proposes pilot project on telecom infrastructure sharing
Advertisers Show Interest in iPad
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
VERIZON AND INTERNET REGULATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Verizon Communications is calling on Congress to rethink the way the federal government oversees Internet services, with recommendations that could take away power from the Federal Communications Commission just one week after it unveiled a decade-long plan to bring broadband Internet to the nation. Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke said at a tech policy event sponsored by the New Democrat Network on Wednesday that the authority of the FCC over broadband is "at best murky." It was the most forceful statements yet by Verizon in a growing debate over the FCC's oversight of broadband services. A court challenge by Comcast has raised fresh doubts about the agency's authority over those services, prompting some interest groups to push the FCC to reclassify broadband services more concretely under its control. But as the Internet quickly evolves, Tauke proposed Congress look at whether the federal government should retool its approach. Instead of a regulatory agency making rules for the Web, he said, Congress should consider itself or an agency as an enforcement body - determining bad players who violate consumer protections, for example, on a case-by-case basis. That would supplant the FCC's rule-making approach to oversight, where it currently issues competition, consumer protection and access rules for communications services providers. "In my view, the current statute is badly out of date. Now is the time to focus on updating the law affecting the Internet," Tauke said in his speech. "To fulfill broadband's potential, it's time for Congress to take a fresh look at our nation's communications policy framework."
benton.org/node/33730 | Washington Post | The Hill | Broadcasting&Cable
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REPUBLICANS SIGNAL MAJOR CONCERNS OVER BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Republicans have signaled their major concerns, and likely lines of questioning, about the national broadband plan in a briefing memo to Republican congressional members and staff in advance of the March 25 broadband oversight hearing with the five Federal Communications Commission commissioners. While a broadband hearing in the Senate had to be cancelled at the last minute earlier this week, the House Communications Subcommittee hearing is expected to go off as planned/ In the memo, the Republicans suggest the broadband plan essentially confirms the success of a free market that has resulted in 95% broadband penetration, and two-thirds adoption. "By continuing our deregulatory policies, we can beat the new plan's goal of making 100 Mbps service available to 100 million homes by 2020," says the memo. They said that doesn't mean they don't like some elements of the plan, including efforts to "cut waste" in the Universal Service Fund, and freeing up more spectrum. The Republicans argue that if the Democrats had not defeated their efforts to target broadband stimulus bucks to unserved areas, rather than include underserved as well, broadband deployment might have been "even further down the road by now." As to the FCC plan to free up 500 MHz of spectrum by 2020, the Republicans say that could advance broadband while generating needed revenue, but only if the FCC does not "give the spectrum away or rig auctions with conditions."
benton.org/node/33731 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NATIONAL BROADBAND DREAMIN'
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: John Celentano]
[Commentary] The National Broadband Plan is a challenge for our industry. Some are calling it a dream. In my opinion, the NBP is a document of substance, of immense importance and one that should serve as the vision and blueprint for this nation's broadband-enabled future. The NBP's authors put it into context right from the beginning. The NBP asserts that broadband is the first 21st century national infrastructure play, on par the with grand projects of the 19th and 20th centuries -- the transcontinental railroad, rural electrification, universally available telephone, radio and television services, and the interstate highway system. Even more significant are the NBP's overarching long-term goals -- and how these goals will challenge service providers, their customers and their vendors. The NBP is an American dream. Its challenges are daunting, but its promise is a grand vision of a broadband future for this country. Ten years out, we're hoping that the plan becomes a dream fulfilled.
benton.org/node/33729 | Connected Planet
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PROVIDERS REACTION TO BROADBAND PLAN
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The National Broadband Plan contains many good ideas, but it also leaves the door open to new regulations of broadband providers, representatives of providers said Tuesday. The broadband plan recognizes that private investment will largely pay for the broadband networks of the future, including the goal of bringing 100Mbps of broadband service to 100 million U.S. homes by 2020, said James Cicconi, senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs at AT&T. But the plan does not, in an outright manner, reject calls from some consumer-focused groups to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers, subject to a broad set of regulations from the Federal Communications Commission. The facts in the plan show a major "success story" for broadband deployment in the United States, but the tone of the plan suggests that the FCC believes more government intervention is needed, said Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
benton.org/node/33727 | IDG News Service
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A CONVERSATION WITH FCC CHAIR GENACHOWSKI
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Molly Wood]
An interview of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski -- mainly concerning the National Broadband Plan. Chairman Genachowski seemed confident that, at a minimum, simply giving consumers access to data--how fast their broadband connections actually are, where there are dead spots, and what other ISPs around the country are charging--will prove to be a powerful tool in spurring competition (I tend to agree). He very strongly reiterated his commitment to a neutral and open Internet, which was reassuring.
benton.org/node/33724 | C-Net|News.com
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TWO ISPs DOES NOT MEAN COMPETITION
[SOURCE: dslreports.com, AUTHOR: Karl Bode]
[Commentary] According to the National Broadband Plan, 78% of the public already has the choice of two providers. Of course a duopoly doesn't mean there's competition. In duopoly markets, massive phone and cable incumbents essentially stare at each other waiting for the next opportunity to raise broadband or TV prices, jack up early termination fees, or impose the latest absurd fee. Sure, you'll see some competition on things like channel counts, but this "competition" is usually based largely on superficial perceptions of value, not price. Carriers also lag on network upgrades if their sole competitor agrees an area isn't worth upgrading.
benton.org/node/33723 | dslreports.com
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
AT STAKE IN CHINA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Pierson]
In its public wrangling with the Chinese government, Google not only risks losing access to millions of personal computers in China but also its toehold in the world's largest cellphone market. The American Internet giant has been providing handset manufacturers its Android operating system for free in hopes of penetrating a country where, soon, more people are expected to access the Internet on mobile phones than on desktop computers. Although it is a distant second on computer searches, Google is nearly tied for first with Baidu Inc. for market share in China's nascent mobile-search sector. But the company's ambitions are in jeopardy now that Google has raised the ire of Beijing by redirecting Internet users in China on Tuesday to an uncensored search engine in Hong Kong. Analysts say the Chinese government could pressure partners to sever ties with the company. And Google has acknowledged the possibility that its products could be blocked any day by censors.
benton.org/node/33721 | Los Angeles Times
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GOOGLE ASKS ADMINISTRATION FOR HELP
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has asked the White House for help in Google's fight with China. Brin on Wednesday called on the White House to take action in the dispute between the search engine company and China over Beijing's strict Web censorship rules. Ultimately, Brin described that standoff on Wednesday as a "human rights issue." He implored the Obama administration in an interview with The Guardian to make the dispute a "high priority," much as "trade issues ... are high priority right now." However, the Obama administration signaled this week it plans to steer mostly clear of Google and China's recent row. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on March 23 that Google's move is strictly a "business decision." And while Crowley later implored China to "seriously consider the implications" of Google's policy shift, he nonetheless suggested the State Department did not plan to press China on the matter. His tone seemed to contrast with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's guarantee last year that global Internet freedoms would be a top department priority in 2010.
benton.org/node/33720 | Hill, The
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GODADDY LEAVING CHINA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
US-based GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name service, announced Wednesday it will no longer register new Web sites in China. The move arrives in response to China's new website ownership rules, which require holders of .cn domains to provide their personal information -- including photographs of themselves -- to the Chinese government, according to the company.
benton.org/node/33719 | Hill, The
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GOOGLE EXIT IS US PLOT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Michael Forsythe]
Google's decision to redirect mainland users to an uncensored Hong Kong site is a "deliberate plot" to promote the "intrusive strategy" of the U.S. under the guise of supporting a free Internet, a researcher affiliated with China's Cabinet wrote. "The search engine leader's exit from the Chinese mainland is a deliberate plot," Ding Yifan, a researcher at the Development Research Center under China's State Council, wrote in an editorial in today's English-language China Daily. "Google's case is in essence part of the U.S. Internet intrusive strategy worldwide under the excuse that it advocates a free Internet." Ding said the withdrawal was a part of "Washington's political games with China."
benton.org/node/33749 | Bloomberg
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UNICOM DITCHES GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille, Justine Lau]
China's second-largest mobile operator has announced it will remove Google's search function from new handsets developed with the US company in the first concrete fallout of the clash with Beijing over Internet censorship. China Unicom said the Google search function would not be provided on phones using the US company's Android-based operating system. Unicom said the handsets' manufacturers would choose which search engines to use instead. "We are willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law... we don't have any co-operation with Google currently," said Lu Yimin, Unicom's president.
benton.org/node/33748 | Financial Times
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CENSORSHIP FEARS OVER CHINA SPAM CURB
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
IBM has developed a system for the detection and analysis of spam text messages for China Mobile that would help the world's largest mobile operator track social networking groups and their messaging habits. The initiative comes in response to a large-scale government campaign to root out SMS spam and increase monitoring of text messaging flows. Although IBM said the tool's purpose is to fight spam, analysts expressed concerns that its design could also make it yet another instrument for censorship. It is revealed just a day after Google confronted the Chinese government over censorship by redirecting Chinese users to its uncensored Hong Kong website. Thomas Li, chief technology officer at IBM Greater China and director of IBM Research in China, said China Mobile's new programme relied on the analysis of messaging patterns instead of content filtering.
benton.org/node/33747 | Financial Times
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BRIN DROVE GOOGLE'S PULLBACK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro]
Google co-founder Sergey Brin pushed the Internet giant to take the risky step of abandoning its China-based search engine as that country's efforts to censor the Web and suppress dissidents smacked of the "totalitarianism" of his youth in the Soviet Union. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Brin, who came to the U.S. from Russia at the age of 6 in 1979, said the compromises to do business in the world's largest Internet market had become too great. Finally, a cyberattack that the company traced to Chinese hackers, which stole some of Google's proprietary computer code and attempted to spy on Chinese activists' emails, was the "straw that broke the camel's back." China has "made great strides against poverty and whatnot," Mr. Brin said. "But nevertheless, in some aspects of their policy, particularly with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents, I see the same earmarks of totalitarianism, and I find that personally quite troubling."
benton.org/node/33746 | Wall Street Journal
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MORE ON BROADBAND
MILLIONS RELY ON LIBRARIES
[SOURCE: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AUTHOR: Press release]
Nearly one-third of Americans age 14 or older-roughly 77 million people-used a public library computer or wireless network to access the Internet in the past year, according to a national report. In 2009, as the nation struggled through a recession, people relied on library technology to find work, apply for college, secure government benefits, learn about critical medical treatments, and connect with their communities. The report, Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries, is based on the first, large-scale study of who uses public computers and Internet access in public libraries, the ways library patrons use this free technology service, why they use it, and how it affects their lives. It was conducted by the University of Washington Information School and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Low-income adults are more likely to rely on the public library as their sole access to computers and the Internet than any other income group. Overall, 44 percent of people living below the federal poverty line used computers and the Internet at their public libraries. Americans across all age groups reported they used library computers and Internet access. Teenagers are the most active users. Half of the nation's 14- to 18-year-olds reported that they used a library computer during the past year, typically to do school homework.
benton.org/node/33732 | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | tascha.washington.edu | WashPost
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FOR THOSE ABOUT TO SUBMIT
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service are offering tips to organizations planning to submit applications for the second round of broadband stimulus funding. 1) Allow enough time to submit well BEFORE the application deadline. 2) Check CCR (Organization Information and Authorization) as soon as possible, and at least TWO DAYS PRIOR to submission. 3) Make sure uploaded documents are not password protected. 4) If you do lose connection on your computer, immediately close your Internet browser (all browser windows) and log back in to Easygrants to get a brand new session. 5) Set worksheet to Normal View. 6) For applicant's to NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), be sure to read the instructions for excel spreadsheets and using Macintosh Computers. 7) Mind your spacing and document size. 8) Know your Easygrants ID. 9) Avoid the crowds...submit during non-peak hours:
benton.org/node/33718 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | NTIA
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CASE WESTERN NETWORK
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
In the middle of one of America's poorer cities, residents are about to get an unexpected gift: one gigabit per second Internet access over fiber optic cables courtesy of Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University. According to the school's vice president for Information Technology Services, Lev Gonick, 72 percent of the homes around campus have no Internet access of any kind; 60 percent are on food stamps. "On a national scale, neighbors of the University have as much Internet access as Panamanians or Vietnamese," he wrote last year in a blog entry announcing the school's new project. That's slowly changing as the university embarks on an ambitious research project to roll out 1Gbps Internet access to the immediate neighborhood, possibly extending this testbed network to 25,000 total Cleveland residents in total. While most of the US has to live without any fiber at all, residents near University Circle are getting two strands apiece. How much will it cost the residents? Nothing. The project is a research-driven attempt to find out if broadband can deliver more than e-mail and Web browsing. Can it provide what the community truly needs -- public safety, more educational opportunities, and better medicine? Case Western Reserve doesn't yet know, but within a year, it plans to find out.
benton.org/node/33717 | Ars Technica
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CABLE VS INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Which economic model works better for consumers: cable or Internet TV? A recent Atlantic Monthly article has spawned a debate over how long cable television is going to last. The answer to that question involves looking at markets and consumer preferences, but it also has a lot to do with government.
benton.org/node/33716 | Ars Technica | see original article
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SHOOTING THE MESSENGER
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Robert Atkinson]
[Commentary] In the last few years a troubling development has emerged in U.S. telecom and Internet policy. Network policy didn't used to be highly partisan; emblematic of this is the fact that the 1996 Telecommunications Act was passed along bipartisan lines. Increasingly, however, the dialogue over networking policy has become shrill, partisan and divorced from reality. Nowhere is this more evident than in the network neutrality debate. To listen to the advocates of strong net neutrality regulation, the incumbent ISPs can't wait to block "objectionable" content, impose mandatory charges on all web sites to reach ISP customers, and manage their networks to favor their own video and voice services over services like Netflix and Skype. The fact that there has only been one case of this sort of abusive behavior in the United States. If we want both wireline and wireless broadband networks to function effectively, particularly in an environment with more diverse kinds of applications than the Internet has seen in the past, ISPs will need to continue to engage in reasonable network management. Engineers and serious policy analysts know this, but that doesn't deter net neutrality advocates from calling for "dumb pipes" that have never existed in the Internet and never will.
benton.org/node/33714 | Huffington Post, The
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WIRELESS AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: University of California Irvine, AUTHOR: Prof Scott Jordan]
A paper on whether differences between wired and wireless network technology merit different treatment with respect to network neutrality. The paper found wireless networks differ substantially from wired networks at the network layer and below, and that wireless networks often require different traffic management practices at these lower layers. However, since the differences are confined to these lower layers, the author argued net neutrality in both wired and wireless networks can be effectively accomplished by requiring an open interface between network and transport layers. Prof Jordan also sent two other papers on the definitions of "managed services" or "reasonable network management."
benton.org/node/33713 | University of California Irvine | Scott Jordan
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FTC REVIEWING COPPA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
The Federal Trade Commission is seeking comment on whether a decade-old online privacy protection law should be updated to include new forms of digital marketing, such as wireless communications, social networks and interactive TV or gaming. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) went into effect in 2000 and requires Web site operators or online service providers aimed at children under 13 years of age to get parental permission before collecting or using personal information from children. The rule is reviewed every five years; it went unchanged in 2005. But the FTC now believes that changes to the online environment since then, including children's increasing use of mobile technology to access to the Internet, warrant reexamination of the law. A few of the questions posed by the FTC: Should online operators be able to contact specific individuals using information collected from children online? Should parents have the right to review or delete personal information collected from their children? Can mobile geo-location data be collected from children?
benton.org/node/33712 | Hill, The
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EUROPEAN PRIVACY BATTLE LOOMS FOR FACEBOOK, GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Frank Jordans]
European regulators are investigating whether the practice of posting photos, videos and other information about people on sites such as Facebook without their consent is a breach of privacy laws. The Swiss and German probes go to the heart of a debate that has gained momentum in Europe amid high-profile privacy cases: To what extent are social networking platforms responsible for the content their members upload? The actions set the stage for a fresh battle between American Web giants and European authorities a month after an Italian court held three Google executives criminally responsible for a user-posted video. Any changes resulting from the investigation could drastically alter the way Facebook, Google's YouTube and others operate, shifting the responsibility for ensuring personal privacy from users to the company.
This headline is presented in partnership with:
benton.org/node/33706 | Associated Press
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NATIVE SCRIPT DOMAIN NAMES
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
Four countries and two territories have won preliminary approval to have Internet addresses written entirely in their native scripts as early as this summer. Since their creation in the 1980s, Internet domain names such as those that end in ".com" have been limited to 37 characters: the 10 numerals, the hyphen and the 26 letters in the Latin alphabet used in English. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet addresses to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use only those 37 characters. With the addition of non-Latin suffixes, Internet users with little or no knowledge of English would no longer have to type Latin characters to access Web pages targeting Chinese, Arabic and other speakers.
benton.org/node/33735 | Associated Press
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CYBERSECURITY
SENATE COMMERCE APPROVES TWO BILLS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday voted to approve the Cybersecurity Act (S. 773), which would take steps to modernize and coordinate public/private efforts to protect networks and information in a broadband world filled with online threats at home and abroad. The Committee also passed the FCC Commissioners' Technical Resource Enhancement Act (S. 2881) which would allow each Federal Communications Commission commissioner to appoint an electrical engineer or computer scientist to provide the commissioner technical consultation.
The cybersecurity bill, co-sponsored by Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would "significantly raise the priority of cybersecurity throughout the federal government and streamline cybersecurity-related government functions, authorities and laws; Protect civil liberties, intellectual property and business proprietary information; promote cybersecurity public awareness, education, and research and development; and foster market-driven cybersecurity innovation and creativity to develop long-term technology solutions and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals," according to the committee. Among the bill's specific provisions are a government-industry effort to identify what systems need to be classified as "critical infrastructure." "Unlike physical critical infrastructure such as chemical plants and airports," says the committee outline of the bill, "it is not obvious where the "critical" aspects of IT systems begin and end." For its part, the FCC as part of the broadband plan said that within six months of the March 16 release of the plan, the FCC and the administration should have teamed on a "cybersecurity roadmap" identifying the top five cybersecurity threats and establishing a two-year time frame for yet another broadband plan for the FCC, this one a cybersecurity plan with performance milestones. The bill would also provide security clearances for key private industry players so they could have access to classified information on threats to their networks.
benton.org/node/33715 | Broadcasting&Cable | Senate Commerce Committee | Commerce Committee press release | Chairman Rockefeller
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WIRELESS
DATA OUTSTRIPS VOICE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ward]
Data traffic has exceeded the volume of voice calls across the world's wireless networks for the first time, highlighting the challenge facing mobile phone operators as they struggle to adapt to surging demand for mobile Internet services. The crossover occurred in December when 140,000 terabytes of data content, such as e-mails, music and video, was handled by mobile carriers, surpassing voice traffic, according to measurements by Ericsson, the world's largest network equipment vendor. "This is a significant milestone with some 400m mobile broadband subscriptions now generating more data traffic than the voice traffic from the total 4.6bn mobile subscriptions around the world," said Hans Vestberg, Ericsson chief executive. Ericsson said global data traffic nearly tripled in each of the past two years and forecast that it would double annually during the next five years as more people sought mobile Internet access via laptop computers and smartphones. Ericsson highlighted social networking websites, such as Facebook, as one of the biggest sources of mobile data. The rapid shift from voice to data is transforming the telecommunications landscape as operators scramble to maximize revenues from mobile Internet services, while trying to stem decline in the voice revenues that still represent the biggest part of their business. The surge in data traffic is also placing a strain on network capacity in some areas, causing deterioration in service quality as operators struggle to cope with the rising number of bandwidth-hungry mobile Internet users.
benton.org/node/33741 | Financial Times
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CHARITY AND TEXTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
When the earthquake devastated Haiti, Catholic Relief Services tried to gather contributions for its efforts using the hottest trend in giving: donations via cellphone. But the charity wanted to try a twist on the technology: when people sent a text message to donate, they got a reply offering to connect them via phone to the charity's call center. The group hoped that the calls could build a stronger bond with donors, and garner larger contributions as well. But just three days into the effort after the Jan. 12 earthquake, the charity got word that Sprint Nextel was demanding that the "text-to-call" effort be shut down. The charity had 40 days to abandon the feature or lose access to millions of Sprint customers. Sprint's original motivations are murky; it said that an intermediary company had failed to properly fill out a form to verify that it was dealing with a legitimate charity. The conflict underscores a problem that public interest groups asked the Federal Communications Commission to address more than two years ago: the hazy legal status of text messages, which are controlled by telephone companies without any real government oversight. The laws that prohibit phone companies from interfering with voice calls do not apply to text messages, a fast-growing medium.
M. Chris Riley, who serves as policy counsel for Free Press, a media policy and advocacy group in Washington that participated in the 2007 filing, suggested that Sprint might be legitimately concerned about people using the text-to-call method to flood consumers with unwanted calls or messages. However, he said, problems emerge for legitimate organizations like Catholic Relief Services when the telephone company, with its control over the market, "is being insufficiently flexible or categorically eliminating a range of communications because sometimes they result in spam." Harold Feld, legal director for Public Knowledge, a public policy group in Washington that also joined the 2007 filing, said that even though customers of other carriers would not be directly affected by a Sprint shutdown, companies and nonprofits would be reluctant to lose access to so many potential recipients of their messages. The effect, he said, is that "you discourage anyone from innovating." Both groups are planning new filings based on this conflict.
benton.org/node/33738 | New York Times
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