June 2011

181 of ComScore's Top 200 Advertisers Have Not Adopted Digital Privacy Code

The ad industry's push to adopt more stringent codes around how it targets advertising to people online has been gaining wider acceptance. A coalition of trade groups announced that 100 companies have agreed to comply with a program to self-regulate their digital tracking practices. The roster of participating companies include major online advertisers AT&T, Verizon, Dell and Bank of America, as well as most of the major ad networks, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and ValueClick. Ad companies Cobalt, MiG and Omnicom Group are also listed as taking part in the effort. Contradicting earlier reports that only a small number of advertisers had signed on, the coalition claimed that adoption of the program was increasing every month. So far, the DAA says 2 trillion ads have featured the opt-out icon since the program launched last November, based on reporting from the three vendors providing the icon, Evidon, Truste and DoubleVerify. But that number doesn't correlate with ComScore's figures, which say that only 1.99 trillion ads were served online in U.S. during the same period.

Despite the increased adoption of the icon, a significant portion of the largest advertisers have not yet signed into the program. Of the top 200 advertisers as measured by ComScore, 181 have not taken part in the industry effort, including the second largest online advertiser, Experien Interactive, which markets sites such as Free Credit Report and Price Grabber. Other big advertisers currently not participating include Progressive, Groupon, Netflix and Weight Watchers. It's not clear, however, how actively engaged these companies are in behavioral targeting.

GroupM Adopts Anti-Piracy Stance for Digital Buys

GroupM is going after digital pirates with a tough new buying policy to prevent marketers’ ads from appearing on websites that support piracy or distribute illegally obtained content. Effective immediately, the WPP media company is including aggressive ant-piracy language into all future contract terms and conditions with publishers and ad networks. GroupM has created a list of more than 2,000 U.S. offenders, which will be regularly updated, and has also asked content-producing clients to share their own lists of offending sites. A link to GroupM’s list will be included in all contracts and insertion orders.

Would you like home surveillance with your broadband?

Comcast unveiled a home security product in six markets -- Philadelphia (PA); Portland (OR); Jacksonville and Sarasota/Naples (FL); Chattanooga and Nashville (TN). The service, which starts at $39.95 a month, was first unveiled in Houston in mid 2010.

The Comcast Xfinity Home Security service offers traditional home security components with 24/7 monitoring as well as the ability to adjust digital thermostats, turn lights on or off and watch secure live streaming video from wireless cameras while away from home. So there’s a security and an energy savings component here. And like any hot new service, it also comes with an iPhone (app, so customers can monitor and control their home settings on the go. The service works over Comcast’s wired network and has a cellular component (presumably tied to Clearwire and Sprint which are Comcast’s partners on the wireless side). The connected nature of the product offers the ability for consumers to watch their home surveillance cameras via the web, but also to get alerts via email or text when a window opens or something occurs. I remember sitting with the CEO of a startup back in 2003 pitching the same idea only to watch as that company spent millions of venture dollars and eventually failed, in part because broadband wasn't as widespread and also because the video quality sent over DSL and older cable networks wasn't as high as it is now. Additional markets will be introduced on a rolling basis.

Follow the mobile money

[Commentary] Mobile money is just one element of the next wave of opportunity that confronts a telecoms market that is predicted by Analysys Mason to grow from its current level of $1.8 trillion to $2.4 trillion in just three years time. Smartphones already account for 65% of mobile traffic, according to Informa, which also predicts that usage will increase by 700% by 2015. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) predicts that the number of smartphones will quadruple from 500 million today, to 2 billion by 2015. Adding up those three statistics brings tears to the eyes. Meanwhile in emerging markets alone, there will be 709 million mobile money users, with transactions worth $215 billion – again by 2015, this according the Berg Insight.

Yet mobile money itself is a complex topic. The most extraordinary variety is simply the use of a mobile phone to transfer credit. This is revolutionizing the lives and economies of emerging countries. Based on good old fashioned SMS, it provides a money transfer system to people who have no access to banks or credit. This simple concept is creating an opportunity and a step on the ladder to wealth that has never been seen before. It cuts out the need not only for banking infrastructure but also the need for a fixed telephone network. It allows richer people in towns and cities to transfer money to poorer relatives in the country – at the very least it cuts out the need for people from the country to walk two or three days to town. Internationally, it allows workers in one country to transfer money home, and to use the differences in currencies and wage rates to create relative but real wealth at home. It drives growth in the form of access to micro capital, for example, which together with access to the internet is enabling innovation and growth that is remarkable. In more mature markets, mobile money is really mobile commerce and this is equally exciting -- and more cut-throat. This is the arena where banks potentially meet telecom carriers face to face, and in which telecom, finance companies and handset manufacturers are all investing heavily and watching each other closely.

Meaningful-use work group recommends extra time for Stage 2

A work group of the federally chartered Health Information Technology Policy Committee is calling for a one-year delay in the scheduled implementation of Stage 2 meaningful-use criteria for healthcare organizations that will comply with the Stage 1 requirements this year. In a 12-page draft letter to Dr. Farzad Mostashari, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and chairman of the Health IT Policy Committee, the meaningful use work group states that sticking to the original timeline of implementing Stage 2 by 2013 "poses a nearly insurmountable timing challenge for those who attest to meaningful use in 2011."

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, hospitals, office-based physicians and other eligible professionals can receive federal incentive payments if they demonstrate that they are meaningfully using certified electronic health-record systems according to federal criteria. Hospitals and eligible professionals began receiving payments from the program this year under Stage 1 criteria.

In the letter, the work group supports the original concept of an "escalator" in the criteria for Stage 2 to ensure that "the (meaningful use) bar continues to rise over time in order for the country to realize the full benefits of health IT and to support the information needs of health reform.” But the escalator's pace and the speed with which the industry can adapt to new criteria became an issue, according to the work group. The group's final Stage 2 recommendations were based on seven public hearings, testimony from nearly 100 people and 422 submissions of public comments.

OPM reports telework progress 6 months after law

Federal agencies faced their first deadline June 7 under the Telework Enhancement Act that was signed in December, and an official with the Office of Personnel Management said that “nearly all” agencies have met the law’s requirements so far.

The law’s first deadline required agencies to determine telework eligibility for all employees and to communicate eligibility status to employees in writing. Justin Johnson, OPM’s deputy chief of staff, said during a briefing that as far as OPM could tell, agencies were complying with the law. However, Johnson didn't provide more specifics and acknowledged that there will be a few agencies that “go through the cracks.”

Newhouse School Announces Winners In Fifth Annual Mirror Awards

The Newhouse School presented seven awards at the fifth annual Mirror Awards luncheon honoring excellence in media industry reporting.

The winners, chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators, are:

Best Single Article, Traditional Media: Gabriel Sherman, “Chasing Fox” (New York Magazine) -- The examined how the News Corp-owned network has affected the journalism at CNN and MSNBC.
Best Single Article, Digital Media: Jim Hopkins, “All Shook Up” (Gannett Blog)
Best Profile, Traditional Media: Ken Auletta, “The Networker” (The New Yorker)
Best Profile, Digital Media: Joel Meares, “The Biggest Fish in Albany?” (Columbia Journalism Review)
Best Commentary, Traditional Media: James Wolcott (Vanity Fair)
Best Commentary, Digital Media: Eric Alterman (Center for American Progress) -- Alterman disturbed the air of industry self-congratulations by urging the audience to "stop treating Fox News as though it's news. It's not." Applause was mixed with disapproving murmurs after he added that those who take Fox seriously "allow it to corrupt the news ecosystem."
Best In-depth Piece, Traditional Media: Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, “Paper Money” (Milwaukee Magazine) -- She showed how the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel impoverished many of its employees by encouraging them to buy its stock -- which lost nearly 98% of its value after the company went public in 2003. "They hired a PR director to handle me," she said. "It's a sad commentary on the priorities of this particular business."

In addition, the school honored Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, with the Fred Dressler Achievement Award, and Dennis Crowley ’98 and Naveen Selvadurai, co-founders of Foursquare, with the i-3 award for impact, innovation and influence. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc., presented the Dressler Award. Ralph Roberts, founder of Comcast and chairman emeritus of its board of directors, accepted the award on Brian Roberts’ behalf.

Clay Shirky, new media expert and author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations,” presented the i-3 award.

Verizon wants to swap spectrum with US Cellular

In an unusual spectrum swap, Verizon Wireless is asking the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to swap some of its 700 MHz spectrum licenses with US Cellular in exchange for certain 1900 MHz PCS licenses. The transfer, if approved, could help US Cellular expand its forthcoming LTE network.

According to the filing, Verizon is requesting that it be allowed to swap 13 lower 700 MHz B-Block licenses and five lower 700 MHz C-Block licenses in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington. In exchange, US Cellular would give Verizon two 10 MHz PCS licenses in Illinois and Indiana. The PCS licenses cover 14 counties in five cellular market areas, or CMAs, and the 700 MHz licenses cover 95 counties in 18 CMAs.

Verizon, which paid $4.7 billion for its 700 MHz spectrum in 2008, said the PCS licenses will help it expand capacity and improve service, and U.S. Cellular said the 700 MHz frequencies will help it expand into new markets and improve capacity and service. The transfer is notable because of U.S. Cellular's accelerated LTE deployment plans. The company, which had originally planned to deploy the next-generation technology in 2012, said in May it will deploy LTE in 24 markets by November, covering approximately 25 percent to 30 percent of its total subscriber base. The company will outfit around 1,250 cell sites with LTE.

More effective competition and better regulation needed to cut high mobile data roaming costs

Regulators and policy makers should boost competition among mobile telephone operators to cut the high prices being charged for international data roaming, according to a new OECD report.

Analysis of pricing plans at 68 operators in the 34 OECD countries points to a strong case for new consumer protection and empowerment measures. “Current pricing levels indicate that there is, in general terms, either insufficient retail or wholesale competition,” says the report.

The OECD compared a variety of data roaming plans based on the amount of data users could send or receive when abroad. For 1Mb of data, for example, the equivalent of sending 10 photos, the average price by country across the OECD is USD 9.48 (based on purchasing power parity). Canadians travelling abroad pay the most (USD 24.61), followed by Americans (USD 22.06) and Mexicans (USD 19.85). Greeks abroad pay the least (USD 4.17), followed by people from Iceland (USD 4.42) and Luxembourg (USD 4.46). The wide difference in prices, according to the report, can be explained by Greek mobile phone companies being charged less by wholesale operators than Canadian operators and passing those savings onto customers. Or it could reflect greater competition in the Greek retail roaming market than in Canada.

FCC clarifies interconnection obligations of rural carriers and role of state commissions

Telecommunications carriers are required to interconnect, directly or indirectly, with the facilities and equipment of other telecommunications carriers. Congress said so, in Section 251(a) of the Communications Act. In addition to fostering competition as much as possible, the goal is to assure that our telephone calls are all completed no matter which carrier we use to make the call or which carrier serves the destination number. A couple of subsections later, though, in Section 251(f)(1) Congress created a limited exemption from some, but not all, interconnection-related obligations. The so-called “rural exemption” is available to rural local exchange carriers (LECs) under certain circumstances. It exempts eligible LECs from, among other things, the obligation (contained in Section 251(c)) for incumbent LECs to negotiate in good faith the terms of interconnection agreements.

But if you aren't required to negotiate, how can you be expected to reach agreement on interconnection arrangements? If exempt rural LECs don't have to negotiate interconnection agreements, does that relieve them of the obligation to interconnect at all? The Commission has recently answered that question in a Declaratory Ruling, and the answer is: No way.

Benton

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