June 2011

Health IT Can Energize National Prevention Strategy

The Obama Administration has made several health IT-related recommendations in its National Prevention Strategy that call for expanded use of electronic health records (EHRs), social media tools, and mobile phone applications to help promote health and wellness.

The strategy was developed by the National Prevention Council, which is composed of 17 federal agencies who consulted with outside experts and stakeholders. The 122-page document is a comprehensive plan to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life. The plan cites several recommendations that entail the use of technology to meet its objectives.

Taking the Pulse on Health IT Exports

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting a roundtable to discuss opportunities and challenges relating to the export of Health Information Technology (Health IT) products and services. This emerging sector is one of several that are important for the success of the National Export Initiative, announced by President Obama in February 2010 with the goal of doubling exports in five years.

Held in conjunction with the Manufacturing & Services unit of the International Trade Administration and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, our roundtable featured dynamic conversations among a broad array of industry leaders, including representatives from healthcare providers, software and hardware vendors, and consulting firms.

Together we addressed opportunities in this rapidly globalizing sector that embraces a wide array of participants and can benefit from innovation both at home and abroad. The discussion was focused on three primary topics: 1) barriers to increased exports; 2) HIT services and international partnerships; and 3) standards and interoperability. Input provided by the group was helpful in identifying current and potential future obstacles and ensuring that our domestic innovation is informed by the reality of global markets.

Along with my co-hosts Assistant Secretary of Commerce Nicole Lamb-Hale and National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, I would like to personally thank the talented health, technology, and professional services representatives who took time out from their schedules to ensure that our Health IT sector remains competitive both at home and abroad.

Letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Waxman About AT&T Merger Claims

Free Press sent a letter to House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA) disputing claims by AT&T that its proposed merger with T-Mobile would bring broadband to rural Americans more quickly. FP says AT&T's promises exaggerate any minimal benefit associated with the merger.

First, even if AT&T does not merge with T-Mobile, competitive pressure will force to AT&T to serve these areas with its own LTE network. According to public statements, Verizon’s LTE network will cover these areas in the next several years.2 If AT&T fails to offer the fastest speeds to consumers, there is no doubt that it will lose significant market share to Verizon. Thus, AT&T cannot afford to delay significantly its deployment of LTE.
Second, all of these areas will be served by AT&T’s “4G” HSPA+ service by the end of 2012. The HSPA+ service will delivers speeds exceeding 7 megabits per second. At that point, the incremental value of the transition to LTE will be negligible: real world speed tests indicate that the difference in downstream speed between 4G HSPA+ and 4G LTE is not particularly significant, and studies suggest that consumers may not perceive significant value in moving from one 4G technology to another.
Third, even if AT&T never builds out its LTE network to 97% of the population, Verizon’s network will reach those citizens, so they will still have the opportunity to subscribe to LTE service. Thus, the merger is clearly not necessary to bring next-generation broadband to all Americans.

National Broadband Plans

This report surveys national broadband plans (NBP) across the OECD area, providing an overview of common elements and goals in those plans. An annex to this report contains references and links to the plans.

OECD countries have previously-agreed key areas of broadband policies, which have been incorporated into NBPs, notably the 2004 Council Recommendation on Broadband and the 2008 Declaration of the Seoul Ministerial for the Future of the Internet Economy.

Policy makers have been updating NBPs, taking into account the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC). The communications industry has emerged relatively well from the GFC, partly due to the experience of the “dot-com bubble”. There has been continued growth in demand for broadband services, at a time when many other sectors experienced a decline. Some governments injected funds, either directly or through support for loans, to help the geographic expansion of broadband access networks, the upgrading of existing networks to higher speeds and also through measures to encourage adoption amongst social and economic groups with limited use of broadband. Governments assessed these interventions based on their costs, benefits and effects on markets.

The benefits of NBPs are expected to be extensive across economies and societies. This has required co-ordination amongst many ministries and agencies, in order to identify realistic targets and to ensure that processes are in place to monitor their achievement.
Given the high profile of broadband policies, headline goals are increasingly likely to be found in formal government programmes. At the same time, NBPs are, in most countries, adopted by an individual ministry or by the council of ministers, giving them less standing than legislation and often leaving them outside formal processes for assessment and review. This also provides flexibility for adjustments when these are required.

With more targets requiring adoption of high-speed broadband, rather than availability, broadband plans are increasingly found to contain a wider range of mechanisms, supplementing the traditional focus on economic interventions.

In many countries there are complex co-ordination mechanisms between the broadband activities of different levels of government: federal, state or provincial and municipal. There is also co-ordination between ministries, to ensure appropriate targets and outcomes for e-inclusion, e-government, e-health, plus contributions to the creation of jobs and to economic growth.

Why The AT&T/T-Mobile Deal Is Illegal

[Commentary] There are several ways AT&T’s attempted purchase of T-Mobile could be illegal, the most obvious of which is if the Department of Justice (DoJ) concludes that the deal is “substantially likely to lessen competition” in violation of the antitrust laws. The next most likely way would be for the Federal Communications Commission to find that transfer of the licenses would be contrary to “the public interest, convenience, and necessity.”

But there is a third way: AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile violates Section 314 of the Communications Act. This rather obscure and wordy section so rarely applies that, unless you are the kind of total telecom wonk without a life who actually reads through the entire Communications Act to see what’s in it, you've probably never heard of it. However, for reasons I shall explain below, I am fairly confident it ought to apply to this particular case and, if I am right, it creates an absolute prohibition to the FCC granting permission for Deutsche Telekom to transfer T-Mobile USA to AT&T. The question is: does the merger impact the actual transmission of common carrier traffic flowing into and out of the United States?

A number of foreign carriers, like Vodafone and Japan Communication, as well as a New Zealand ministry, and a few others (such as the Rural Telecommunications Group, MetroPCS/NTelos, and the International Users Group (INTUG)) have all squarely raised the international roaming question and protested that losing T-Mobile means going from 2 national GSM-based networks down to 1. Even if we adopt AT&T’s standard of only looking at local markets, ignoring national markets, and assuming all carriers are equal, you still have many local markets where you drop from 2 GSM-based carriers networks to just AT&T. And in the markets where you have another local GSM-based carrier, the number drops from 3 to 2. Why does that matter? Because GSM is the standard for almost every other country in the world. To do international roaming with most of the world, at least until we have broader LTE deployment here and in other countries (where LTE deployment is even slower than here), you need a GSM-based partner. So the presence of Sprint, Verizon, or any other CDMA-based carrier is irrelevant to the impact on international roaming. Post merger, in most markets, it’s either AT&T or no one.

What Does The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Mean For You?

[Commentary] If you are Latino, and you subscribe to T-Mobile cell phone service, you are in the norm. Nearly 25% of T-Mobile’s 34 million customers are Latino. Why are we such big fans of T-Mob? Probably because it is more affordable than all of the other national cell phone service providers. Or maybe because it has flexible plans that suit our diverse needs. Or perhaps because it has good customer service. For some time now T-Mob has been a maverick in the cellular market, inspiring a competitive spirit that keeps all of our phone bills lower than they would be without its presence, whether we connect through T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Cricket, Metro PCS, or some other provider.

Countless Latinos stand to lose their jobs as a result of AT&T’s plans to “reduce redundancies” between the two companies. In the past decade, both AT&T and T-Mobile have hired large numbers of Latinos to staff and manage their retail stores and to provide billingual customer service for billing and other issues. Now, AT&T is proposing that if it is allowed to buy T-Mobile that it would consolidate retail stores and billing systems, leading to layoffs and eliminating opportunities for new employees to get their feet in the door.

AT&T Turns to Airwaves to Sell Public on T-Mobile Deal

The next wireless ad war is brewing over AT&T's bid to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion.

AT&T has launched its first ad touting the network improvements that would result from the deal. The recent TV spot claims: "The planned combination of AT&T and T-Mobile will deliver a next-generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more Americans, many in small towns and rural communities." That refers to the swath of the country that would gain access to AT&T's high-speed 4G wireless Internet service if the now-No. 2 U.S. carrier owned T-Mobile's infrastructure. AT&T isn't the first carrier to use ads to sway public opinion on the acquisition, which is hotly contested, considering it would result in the new U.S. wireless-market leader. Four carriers now control 86.2% of the U.S. wireless market. If AT&T and T-Mobile become one, only three companies would control the vast majority of mobile service.

Sprint, the most vocal opponent to the merger of two main competitors, has been running print ads for weeks against the deal. If AT&T is turning to ads to convince consumers and businesses that the deal makes sense, Sprint could very well be outspent. AT&T is the second-biggest US ad spender, with a 2010 budget of nearly $3 billion -- that's behind only Procter & Gamble. Compare that to Sprint's $1.4 billion in ad spending last year, which was down 6.7% from the year prior.

Six GLAAD board members resign amid AT&T flap

Six board members of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have resigned amid the fallout over the organization's letter in support of AT&T’s proposed bid for wireless rival T-Mobile.

Some board members were said to have resigned because of concerns that GLAAD failed to adhere to its conflict of interest standards and to protest GLAAD's failure to protect its president, Jarrett Barrios, who submitted his letter of resignation to the group amid a growing backlash in the gay blogosphere over the group's AT&T stance. GLAAD board member Gary Bitner confirmed that he had resigned. Five other board members — including Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers — also have submitted their resignations. The six former board members submitted a joint statement that said they resigned from the organization's board for “various reasons,” but declined to comment on those reasons because they say "there's been too much unfair and false information spread about GLAAD" recently.

Media Companies Spending Big on Lobbying

Big media companies are opening their wallets wider and wider to lobby the federal government on issues in which the companies have a vested interest.

The biggest spender in the first quarter of this year was Comcast, which spent a whopping $5.7 million in the first quarter of the year lobbying the government for the go-ahead to close its deal to acquire NBCUniversal. That's almost double the $3.1 million it spent on lobbying during the same period last year.

News Corp. spent $1.57 million on lobbying last quarter, up from $1.08 million year over year. Fox runs 27 TV stations in the United States and will be affected by the possible auctioning off of the stations’ unused spectrum.

Disney, home of 10 TV stations and their unused spectrum, came in not too far behind News Corp. It, too, spent some cash lobbying on the auction legislation. But Disney's total lobbying bill didn't go up much: It doled out $1.4 million in the first quarter of this year, compared to $1.25 million in the same period last year.
Viacom spent $1.1 million on first quarter lobbying efforts, up from $890,000. One issue that the home of MTV and VH1 threw its money behind was a review of the Comcast/NBCUniversal merger and its impact on independent programming.

Consumers aren't clamoring for 4G and aren't sure what it is anyway

Nearly half of consumers can't identify the benefits of 4G, while 60 percent said they weren't willing to pay more for those benefits, according to a June report from Morpace Research & Consulting.

Additionally, two-thirds of those surveyed said they weren't willing to upgrade their contracts for 4G, and married people are less likely than unmarried people to pay more for 4G. However, nearly 60 percent of those with 3G service said the expansion of 4G networks would likely affect the purchase of their next phone. In short, people seem to think 4G is probably important, don't really know much about it, and are ultimately led by their purse strings.

Benton

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