June 2010

Orange misled customers with claims that it had the largest 3G network in the UK, the advertising regulator has ruled.

The decision is likely to prevent any mobile operator from making similar assertions in their advertising in future, because each measures their coverage in different ways. Mobile network quality has become a hot topic as smartphones such as Apple's iPhone proliferate. A regional press advertisement for Orange mobile broadband, run in October last year, said: "The Orange 3G network covers more people in the UK than any other operator." This statistic was repeated in subsequent ads, but is no longer part of Orange's marketing. Three, the network owned by Hutchison Whampoa, challenged the claim, insisting that their network covered the largest population.

Rep David Wu (D-CA) called on Congress and private companies to support Google as it faces legal troubles in China, commending the company as the private sector's "strongest" anti-censorship voice.

Google's struggles with Beijing, which has threatened to revoke the search company's license to operate there, show that "even the biggest company's cannot effectively take on a nation state," Rep Wu said. The episode reveals that "the seduction" of dealing with stable authoritarian regimes can, in the end, have consequences, Wu said. Rep Wu commended Google for finding a way to stay in China -- where "if you listen to Chinese users, it's clear they all want continued access." The new strategy marks a continued effort to stand up to censorship, according to Rep Wu. "Yes this involves an extra click, but freedom is worth an extra click," he said.

Contrary to popular opinion, newer teachers aren't any more likely to use technology in their lessons than veteran teachers, and a lack of access to technology does not appear to be the main reason why teachers do not use it: These are among the common perceptions about education technology that new research from Walden University's Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership appears to dispel.

Prepared by Grunwald Associates based on a 2009 survey of more than 1,000 teachers and administrators conducted by Eduventures Inc., the study argues that the more K-12 teachers use technology, the more they recognize its potential to help boost student learning and engagement and its connection to developing key 21st century skills. There is still considerable disparity in the amount of time that teachers spend using technology as an instructional tool, the study says. Twenty-two percent of teachers reported frequent technology use (31 percent or more of their class time using technology to support learning), 17 percent said they were moderate users (21 to 30 percent of their class time using technology), 26 percent were sporadic users (11 to 20 percent of their class time using technology), and 34 percent were infrequent users (10 percent or less of their time). Elementary school teachers were much less likely than secondary teachers to be frequent technology users; 15 percent of elementary teachers were frequent users and 43 percent were infrequent users, compared with 27 percent and 29 percent of secondary teachers, respectively. Among secondary teachers, social studies teachers were most likely to be frequent technology users (33 percent), while English teachers were least likely (16 percent).

Free Press is celebrating the first anniversary of Julius Genachowski's chairmanship at the Federal Communications Commission by, what else, grading him.

Research Director S. Derek Turner said, "The Commission has appeared active, but very little of this activity has yet to produce actual policy changes that positively affect the public. At the one-year mark, Free Press is giving the chairman a grade of 'Incomplete, needs improvement' across the board. Genachowski needs to be willing to pursue critical policies that protect consumers, even if the largest telecommunications companies don't like those policies. Thus far, the agency has largely failed to adopt policy changes that are not widely supported by the industries it oversees. There have been no efforts to address the real problems of our broadband market -- high prices and slow service due to a lack of meaningful competition -- and instead the Commission has seemed preoccupied with focusing on policies that will benefit the major wired and wireless companies. The public needs a champion willing to challenge those entrenched interests."

Turner compares Chairman Genachowski to his predecessors: "The first-year contrast between Genachowski and his two Republican predecessors is stark. Former Chairmen Kevin Martin and Michael Powell quickly pursued the Bush administration's policy agendas during their first year in office. In Martin's first few months, he deregulated wireline broadband by classifying it as an information service, resulting in the FCC's current existential crisis, and approved the massive Verizon-MCI and SBC-AT&T mergers. Those misguided actions forever closed the door on the last vestige of the 1996 Telecommunications Act's promise of competition and changed the political dynamic in a way that has entrenched the cable and telecom industry's dominance over our broadband marketplace, leaving consumers with few choices, poor service and high prices. It's not too late to turn things around. Chairman Martin eventually pursued a few public interest strategies at the end of his term, including the white spaces order and the enforcement against Comcast's Internet blocking practices. To his credit, Genachowski has laid some of the groundwork needed to enact meaningful change, but now he must follow through with decisive action."