April 26, 2011 (Public Interest Spectrum Use Inventory)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2011
The FCC is talkin' spectrum this morning http://benton.org/calendar
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Groups Seek FCC Public Interest Spectrum Use Inventory
AT&T Takeover of T-Mobile Is Beyond The Fringe - editorial
It's time for a consumer-oriented FCC - op-ed
Sprint enlists army of lobbyists to fight T-Mobile-AT&T merger
Sprint Seeks Peek at Confidential AT&T Filings in T-Mobile Deal
AT&T starts selling 'cell tower in a suitcase'
Automatic Wi-Fi Offloading Coming To U.S. Carriers [links to web]
PRIVACY
Apple Accused in Suit of Tracking IPad, IPhone User Location
Chairman Franken asks Apple, Google to testify at May 10 privacy hearing
House Commerce Committee Questions Mobile Device Companies About Tracking of Phone Users’ Locations
What Does Your Phone Know About You? More Than You Think
The Really Smart Phone
New York case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers [links to web]
FCC REFORM
Technical Advisory Committee's Advice for the FCC - analysis
DIVERSITY
Comcast Merger Brings Hope for Minority Ownership - editorial
A Lifeline to Avoid Digital Divide - op-ed
HEALTH
Chicago to develop largest metropolitan HIE in the nation
STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
BBC, Under Criticism, Struggles to Tighten Its Belt [links to web]
In Slovakia, News Outlets Take Cue From Cable [links to web]
China to punish Baidu for illegal music downloads [links to web]
Canadian Voters Threatened by Old Law [links to web]
Iran Discovers New Cyberattack [links to web]
Lenovo to export its rural expertise [links to web]
Middle East Unrest Leads the News - research [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Kundra takes on federal IT reform [links to web]
Media agencies make mark as content creators [links to web]
3D printers give engineering classes a boost [links to web]
Making Food Fit for the Web - analysis [links to web]
A Vision Of Our Shopping Future [links to web]
Kentucky proposes using remote monitoring of patients [links to web]
Netflix to Become Largest Subscription Entertainment Business in US [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
PUBLIC INTEREST SPECTRUM INVENTORY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
While broadcasters have called on the Federal Communications Commission to do a spectrum use inventory before trying to reclaim broadcast spectrum for broadband, an alliance of public interest groups is advising the FCC to conduct a broadcast spectrum public interest inventory before proceeding to reclamation. The groups -- the Campaign Legal Center, NOW, Benton Foundation, Media Alliance and the National Hispanic Media Coalition -- told the FCC in comments that there is not enough evidence on either side of the argument over the future of broadcasting spectrum. Specifically, the groups want the FCC to use its already-approved new reporting form (355), which requires broadcasters to list the type and number of hours of programming on primary streams and multicasts. "Armed with this information, the Commission will be able to determine whether or not broadcasters are using their digital channels and if they are airing programming responsive to the public." If they are not, the FCC should be free to repurpose it, they say. "If television broadcasters are using their spectrum and serving the public, then a diminution of spectrum could threaten the viability of these services." But either way, that accounting should come before the FCC starts re-auctioning spectrum. "Before the Commission moves forward with its proposals, which could negatively affect the viability of broadcast public services, it should substantiate these differing claims of spectrum efficiency by implementing Form 355," the groups argue.
benton.org/node/57059 | Broadcasting&Cable
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BEYOND THE FRINGE
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] The only feasible explanation for AT&T's filing at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on April 21 to take over T-Mobile is that somehow the AT&T from the "other side" leaked through to this world, with the resultant confusion. This world's AT&T is a colossus. It spends about $2 billion a year on ads to persuade everyone to "rethink possible" with its fabulous 4G network on which "sparks fly faster." The company's commercials boast that it covers 97 percent of all Americans. Its financials are as solid as a company's financials can get. Look at their first quarter numbers. The company made 57 cents per share, contrasted with 41 cents a year earlier. It collected $31.2 billion in revenues, up $700 million from the first quarter a year ago. There were "best ever" increases in wireless customers, smartphone sales, device adds, while the revenue per subscriber keeps going up and up for the ninth straight quarter. Wireless revenue was up almost 24 percent, which translates into about $1 billion. Broadband connections are up, business revenue is up. Dividends are getting paid. Yet the AT&T depicted in the FCC filing seems to be another company entirely. It faces "a growing capacity crunch." AT&T continued: "Absent a solution to this problem, AT&T’s customers would face a greater number of blocked and dropped calls as well as less reliable and slower data connections. And in some markets, AT&T’s customers would be left without access to more advanced technologies." This dire state of affairs is made more mysterious because AT&T declined to make public where it is having the most difficulty.
benton.org/node/57044 | Public Knowledge
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PRO-AT&T|T-MOBILE COMMENTARY
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Mark Lowenstein]
[Commentary] AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA will shine a light on the Federal Communication Commission's view of the wireless industry's "state of competitiveness." Given the rapidly changing communications landscape, it might also be a good time to consider what the role of the FCC should be over the next decade. If the FCC were to ask consumers what they want, the answer would be pretty simple: anytime, anywhere high-speed network access, from any device, at an affordable price. Is today's FCC, in focus and approach, aligned with these needs? Let's look at this across three key criteria.
Wireless Industry Structure: Isn't it better to have fewer, really good networks than a larger number of mediocre ones? I'd bet consumers would give up choice for "better network, sooner."
Spectrum Policy: The FCC has failed to define, with any level of precision, how much, how soon, to whom, and by what process, more spectrum will become available. AT&T/T-Mobile is a strong statement that if the FCC won't move the discussion, then the market will. Spectrum auctions remove dollars from wireless investment and send them to the US Treasury.
Service Pricing: How many complaints has the FCC really received about mobile Internet pricing? It would be presumptuous for the FCC to assume that the merger will lead to higher prices.
Lowenstein concludes: "I'd encourage the FCC to balance consumer demands for "more network, sooner," against the needs for a healthy industry structure and strong U.S. competitive position, in a time where the market has given us the most innovative period in communications industry history, with more to come."
benton.org/node/57041 | Fierce
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SPRINT VS T-MOBILE/AT&T
[SOURCE: Kansas City Star, AUTHOR: Scott Canon]
Sprint Nextel Corp. is taking the battle against AT&T Inc.’s proposed merger with T-Mobile USA to Washington. It’s signing up lobbyists to man its barricades and standing in alliance with consumer groups. Why fight so hard when conventional wisdom sees regulators ultimately giving the deal an OK? Perhaps to sway the terms of whatever fusion that regulators might approve. The ramped-up lobbying charge would serve Sprint in two ways even it fails to stop the merger. First, lobbyists could push regulators to demand a larger sell-off. Second, it could give Sprint insight about, and perhaps influence over, what clusters of subscribers and spectrum land on the auction block. AT&T spent more than $15 million on federal lobbying last year and nearly $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2011, although the company’s interests roam wider than Sprint’s narrower focus on the wireless industry. What’s more, seven members of Congress own more than $100,000 in AT&T stock. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) owns more than $1.2 million. No one in Congress owns more than $65,000 of Sprint stock.
benton.org/node/57011 | Kansas City Star | The Hill
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SPRINT SEEKS ACCESS TO FCC FILING
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Sprint Nextel asked the Federal Communications Commission to grant it access to confidential documents filed as part of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion purchase of Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA. Sprint, the third-largest US wireless provider, has sought to block the merger, saying it would stifle competition and prevent smaller companies from getting access to the best mobile phones and other devices. In a document filed April 25 with the FCC, outside attorneys for Sprint signed confidentiality agreements in advance of possibly gaining access to filings that won't be available to the public. In public copies of its April 21 application filed with the FCC, AT&T omitted information it considered confidential, such as details of its service limitations and geographical market share. Sprint wants to be able to view the complete filings available to FCC staff.
benton.org/node/57068 | Bloomberg
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REMOTE MOBILITY ZONE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
AT&T is selling the Remote Mobility Zone -- small, portable cellular antennas that will allow corporate and government customers to provide their own wireless coverage in remote or disaster-struck areas. Usually, cellphone companies have to restore service after disasters like hurricanes by sending in their own trucks that act like mobile cell towers. But AT&T's new product would let first responders such as police and emergency workers immediately control where they have coverage. One of AT&T's options is a unit that packs into a suitcase, with a satellite dish carried separately. The unit requires outside power, such as a generator, to work. The Remote Mobility Zone can handle 14 simultaneous calls, and data at less-than-broadband speeds. Coverage extends up to half a mile from the unit. The "portable cell tower" can also be mounted in a car or truck. The Remote Mobility Zone would be able to be used with any AT&T phone. The cost of the units will range from $15,000 to $45,000 plus some monthly fees.
benton.org/node/57008 | Associated Press
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PRIVACY
NEW APPLE PRIVACY SUIT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Karen Gullo]
Apple was accused of invasion of privacy and computer fraud by two customers who claim in a lawsuit that the company is secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users. Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, sued April 22 in federal court in Tampa (FL) seeking a judge’s order barring the alleged data collection. The complaint cited a report last week by two computer programmers claiming that Apple’s iOS4 operating system is logging latitude-longitude coordinates along with the time a spot is visited. The programmers said Apple devices are collecting about a year’s worth of location data. Apple hasn't commented on the matter since the April 20 report was released. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) asked to meet with Apple and Google Inc. executives to discuss reports that their products collect information about users’ locations. AG Madigan wrote to both companies asking what information they store, its purposes and for how long. French, German, Italian and South Korean regulators are investigating the alleged location collection feature on Apple devices.
[The case is Ajjampur v. Apple Inc., 11-cv-00895, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa)]
benton.org/node/57057 | Bloomberg
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SENATE MOBILE PRIVACY HEARING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Senate Privacy Subcommittee Chairman Al Franken (D-MN) has invited representatives from Apple and Google to testify at a May 10 hearing on protecting consumers' privacy while using mobile devices. “Recent advances in mobile technology have allowed Americans to stay connected like never before and put an astonishing number of resources at our fingertips,” Franken said. “But the same technology that has given us smartphones, tablets, and cell phones has also allowed these devices to gather extremely sensitive information about users, including detailed records of their daily movements and location. This hearing is the first step in making certain that federal laws protecting consumers’ privacy — particularly when it comes to mobile devices — keep pace with advances in technology," he added.
benton.org/node/57054 | Hill, The
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HOUSE COMMERCE MOBILE PRIVACY LETTERS
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
Leaders of the House Commerce Committee sent letters to several developers of mobile device operating systems seeking more information on whether these devices are tracking, storing, and sharing users’ locations and the implications of such tracking for individual privacy and federal communications policy. The letters come on the heels of recent media reports that certain operating systems are tracking and storing information on users’ locations. The letters, which were sent to Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Research in Motion, and HP, ask about location data that is tracked, used, stored, or shared by mobile device operating systems. Included in the inquiries are the following questions, along with several others:
How is that data accessible and who can access it? Is the data automatically transferred to your company or to other devices, or to third parties? If so, how and why? Is there any other manner in which the data can be transferred to or obtained by your company, or by other devices, or by third parties and, if so, how and why?
Is the user informed of, or given an opportunity to prevent, such tracking, use, storing, or sharing of data and, if so, how? Can the end-user disable the tracking, use, storing, and sharing of such data? Can the user delete the data?
benton.org/node/57053 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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WHAT DOES YOUR PHONE KNOW ABOUT YOU?
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Alexis Madrigal]
[Commentary] I plugged my phone into my computer and opened an application called Lantern, a forensics program for investigating iPhones and iPads. Ten minutes later, I'm staring at everything my iPhone knows about me. About 14,000 text messages, 1,350 words in my personal dictionary, 1,450 Facebook contacts, tens of thousands of locations pings, every website I've ever visited, what locations I've mapped, my emails going back a month, my photos with geolocation data attached and how many times I checked my email on March 24 or any day for that matter. Want to reconstruct a night? Lantern has a time line that combines all my communications and photos in one neat interface. While most of it is invisible during normal operations, there is a record of every single thing I've done with this phone, which also happens to form a pretty good record of my life. Figuring that I've got nothing to hide or steal, I'd always privileged convenience over any privacy and security protocols. Not anymore. Immediately after trying out Lantern, I enabled the iPhone's passcode and set it to erase all data on the phone after 10 failed attempts. This thing remembers more about where I've been and what I've said than I do, and I'm damn sure I don't want it falling into anyone's hands.
benton.org/node/57051 | Atlantic, The
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THE REALLY SMART PHONE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Robert Lee Hotz]
Apple and Google may be intensifying privacy concerns by tracking where and when people use their mobile phones—but the true future of consumer surveillance is taking shape inside the cellphones at a weather-stained apartment complex in Cambridge (MA). For almost two years, Alex Pentland at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has tracked 60 families living in campus quarters via sensors and software on their smartphones -- recording their movements, relationships, moods, health, calling habits and spending. In this wealth of intimate detail, he is finding patterns of human behavior that could reveal how millions of people interact at home, work and play. Through these and other cellphone research projects, scientists are able to pinpoint "influencers," the people most likely to make others change their minds. The data can predict with uncanny accuracy where people are likely to be at any given time in the future. Cellphone companies are already using these techniques to predict -- based on a customer's social circle of friends -- which people are most likely to defect to other carriers. The data can reveal subtle symptoms of mental illness, foretell movements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and chart the spread of political ideas as they move through a community much like a contagious virus, research shows.
benton.org/node/57016 | Wall Street Journal
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FCC REFORM
TAC RECS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Tom Wheeler]
The Federal Communications Commission created its Technical Advisory Committee last fall and charged the committee with coming up with recommendations to enhance innovation, create jobs and increase competition that the FCC could put in place without requiring a rulemaking. On April 25, the committee released what it calls a “mid-term report” that includes eight recommendations aimed at streamlining broadband deployment by eliminating red tape and encouraging government entities to adopt modern communications technology.
Municipal Race-to-the-Top program: Recognize municipalities that have expedited broadband deployment, with the goal of encouraging other municipalities to adopt the same approach.
Broadband Infrastructure Executive Order: Ask the White House to issue an order to expedite the approval process for deploying infrastructure on federal land and in federal buildings.
Advocacy for Rapid Tower Siting: Use the FCC’s “leadership pulpit” to encourage states and municipalities to create a faster procedure for adding equipment to existing infrastructure, such as cell towers.
Best Practices/Technology Outreach to State and Local Governments: Go on the road with a series of workshops to help educate municipalities about new technologies for deploying broadband such as micro-trenching, distributed antennas on light poles and directional boring.
Model an Online Deployment Coordination System: Create a “white label” web site that would be freely available to any local government to use to disseminate information about planned telecom and utility company construction projects so that companies in other industries can consider deploying their own infrastructure in the same trenches to reduce construction costs and minimize disruptions.
New Metrics to Measure Broadband Network Quality: Establish new metrics to measure broadband network quality other than speed.
Highlight Stranded Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Investments: Highlight concerns about devices designed to work with traditional phone networks such as alarm systems, automatic teller machines and point of sale terminals that could become stranded assets as networks increasingly shift toward IP.
Promote Small Cell Deployment: Work with federal agencies to encourage more efficient use of spectrum by, for example, installing small cell sites in and on commercial and government buildings.
benton.org/node/57048 | Federal Communications Commission | Connected Planet
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DIVERSITY
COMCAST AND MINORITY OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: David Honig]
[Commentary] Last summer, Comcast announced that, pending the approval and completion of its merger with NBC Universal (NBCU), it would allocate $20 million to finance the early stages of digitally-focused minority businesses. Comcast’s pledge outlined ways in which the company intended to expand its commitment to diversity and minority involvement in the development of “new media content and applications.” The letter also explained how Comcast planned to use the new venture capital fund to create a minimum of 10 new digital networks with African American majority ownership, as well as provide support for training, internship, and mentoring programs for minority students. The company also promised that within six months of closing the Comcast-NBCU merger, which officially occurred on January 28, it would extend its carriage of African American-oriented programming and services. With the transaction now complete, Comcast can now begin rolling out all of the various diversity programs and initiatives that it pledged to undertake last year. Ultimately, this merger is a win for all Americans, especially minority and low-income consumers who have largely been left out of the digital equation. With the creation of new minority-owned networks and more minority-based programming, the media landscape will finally begin to reflect the true racial composition of our great nation.
benton.org/node/56995 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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LIFELINE LINKUP
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor Tate]
[Commentary] Prepaid wireless providers have demonstrated a commitment to finally providing economical communications services along with consumer value while encouraging the adoption of innovative new services by our most needy citizens. Prepaid wireless will also likely be a very positive force in deploying broadband over wireless services in the future. Lifeline and Linkup may be the last best hope to truly connect all Americans in the digital age and insure no one is left on the other side of the digital divide.
benton.org/node/56994 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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HEALTH
CHICAGO HIE
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: ]
The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC) announced plans to develop the MetroChicago Health Information Exchange (HIE), which is expected to be the largest metropolitan HIE in the nation, serving more than 9.4 million people. The new exchange will use Microsoft, CSC and HealthUnity technologies to drive quality care improvements and cost efficiencies for Chicago healthcare consumers. The MCHC recognizes the potential for HIEs to improve individual care and population health through selected technologies that support both goals. By enabling the flow of data across healthcare organizations, the MetroChicago HIE expects positive outcomes due to more comprehensive views of patient information. These include decreased costs from fewer redundant tests across care settings, reduction in time spent gathering information about patients and greater efficiency in identifying patients requiring ongoing ambulatory care. The MetroChicago HIE will use Microsoft Amalga, an enterprise health intelligence platform, to aggregate and present a unified view of patient medical history data at the time and point of care, and CSC will provide project management, implementation, hosting and support services. Software components from HealthUnity will work in combination with Amalga to provide foundational HIE services and continuity of care document exchange services. These technologies will give the MetroChicago HIE a powerful engine to quickly aggregate and analyze data across patient cohorts and populations, enabling care transformation.
benton.org/node/57067 | HealthcareITNews
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