August 2011

Twitter emerges on Washington front line

Twitter has become a front line of the debate on raising America’s debt ceiling, as the official account of President Barack Obama on July 29 began sending out the Twitter names of every Republican member in Congress.

Frustrated citizens have also used the social media service to vent their frustration with Washington, even as politicians rally supporters with regular tweets. A typical message from @BarackObama on Friday read: “Utah voters: Tweet @OrrinHatch and @SenMikeLee and ask them to compromise on a balanced deficit solution.” The messages went to the presidential account’s more than 9.3m followers. However, there were mixed indications about the campaign’s effectiveness. According to one Twitter user who claimed to have monitored the account, the president lost at least 10,000 followers during the course of the day.

The waiting game pays off for Vodafone

The waiting game is finally over. Seven years after Vodafone last received a dividend from Verizon Wireless, the leading US mobile phone operator, the UK telecoms group will get a new pay-out in 2012. And it is not a small dividend.

Vodafone, which has a 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, its joint venture with Verizon Communications, will get a $4.5 billion pay-out from the US mobile operator in January. Vodafone will respond by paying a £2 billion special dividend to its shareholders in February. The resumption of cash distributions by Verizon Wireless is a coup for Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s chief executive, and Sir John Bond, the outgoing chairman. They faced down pressure from some shareholders for the UK group to sell its Verizon Wireless stake, instead insisting on playing a waiting game. Why were Mr Colao and Sir John so confident that their patience would be rewarded? And why did Verizon Wireless’ dividend payments stop in 2005? The answers can be found in how the balance of power inside Verizon Wireless has shifted over the years between its two shareholders. The joint venture’s parents have had a temptestuous relationship, but, for the moment at least, Vodafone has come out on top. The $4.5 billion payment by Verizon Wireless should increase Vodafone’s free cash flow by at least 30 per cent in 2011-12. The only real surprise in the announcement late on Thursday that Verizon Wireless would pay a $10 billion dividend to its parents in 2012 was the timing. Most investors were expecting a statement at the end of this year, rather than now

Sources: FCC Approves Program Carriage Standstill

The Federal Communications Commission has finally voted out its program carriage order, which provides for granting interim carriage during the adjudication of cable-network program-carriage complaints, or true-up payments for nets that have never been carried, and sets deadlines for dealing with those matters.

Such a mechanism currently does not exist, and it can take years for complaints to grind through the regulatory sausage-making process. The standstill provision is not retroactive and would not apply to the Tennis Channel and Bloomberg program carriage complaints, both against Comcast, even if they were not ruled on until after the rules took effect and either were decided in favor of the plaintiff. The order also better defines what type of complaints are, or are not, likely to have merit, and setting up shot clocks for FCC action.

FCC Democrats all supported the order, while Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell is expected to have dissented in part, the part being the standstill agreement portion.

FCC Rebuffs Grassley On LightSquared

The Federal Communications Commission says it doesn't have to provide Sen Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) with information on LightSquared's contentious bid to build a nationwide wireless network.

In the latest letter from FCC, Chairman Julius Genachowski argues that the agency only has to comply with information requests from the leaders of congressional committees that have oversight authority for the FCC. "I regret that some misunderstandings seem to have arisen as a result of several staff-level conversations, and thus welcome the opportunity to clarify the points that the FCC staff sought to convey and to make clear that, far from seeking to stifle congressional oversight, the agency is simply following long-standing practice consistent with Congress's own guidance..." the letter states. But Sen Grassley says it isn't a matter of misunderstanding so much as the FCC trying to hide something.

LightSquared sees no obstacles left blocking LTE network

After the July 28 announcement of a network sharing deal with Sprint, LightSquared chief marketing officer Frank Boulben said all the pieces have fallen into place for the launch of its long-term evolution launch in the fourth quarter -- all of the pieces save one. LightSquared still needs final Federal Communications Commission approval to move forward with its terrestrial network plans. That’s no minor obstacle.

Opposed to LightSquared stands the might of the GPS industry, which has provided substantial evidence that the operators LTE network would cause massive interference problems with GPS receivers. If the millions of devices and applications that depend on GPS signals for their location data were in jeopardy, the FCC would have a difficult time approving LightSquared’s plans. But Boulben said LightSquared has done its due diligence before the regulators. Though it didn't win the support of GPS vendors, LightSquared has demonstrated that it can field a network that won't harm the vast majority of GPS receivers; the interference issues that remain with high-precision filters can be solved with retroactive filters, Boulben said. The public comment period will be contentious, but Boulben said LightSquared is confident that the FCC will green-light its plans in mid-December, paving the way for its initial deployment next quarter and a commercial launch next year.

PBS Plans a British Outlet

PBS, known as the American television outlet for many British programs produced by the BBC and others, is looking to turn the tables by starting a digital channel in Britain. The channel, which would be distributed via cable and satellite, would show both older and current PBS programs for which it is able to secure the rights. PBS officials declined to discuss specific shows, or the details of where the channel would be available, saying that plans were not final.

Progress Hits Snag: Tiny Chips Use Outsize Power

For decades, the power of computers has grown at a staggering rate as designers have managed to squeeze ever more and ever tinier transistors onto a silicon chip — doubling the number every two years, on average, and leading the way to increasingly powerful and inexpensive personal computers, laptops and smartphones. Now, however, researchers fear that this extraordinary acceleration is about to meet its limits.

The problem is not that they cannot squeeze more transistors onto the chips — they surely can — but instead, like a city that cannot provide electricity for its entire streetlight system, that all those transistors could require too much power to run economically. They could overheat, too. The upshot could be that the gadget-crazy populace, accustomed to a retail drumbeat of breathtaking new products, may have to accept next-generation electronics that are only modestly better than their predecessors, rather than exponentially faster, cheaper and more wondrous. Simply put, the Next Big Thing may take longer to arrive.

Media Blackout in China After Wreck

After days of growing public fury over last month’s high-speed train crash and the government’s reaction, Chinese authorities have enacted a virtual news blackout on the disaster except for positive stories or information officially released by the government.

The sudden order from the Communist Party’s publicity department, handed down late Friday, forced newspaper editors to frantically tear up pages of their Saturday editions, replacing investigative articles and commentaries about the accident that killed 40 people in eastern China with cartoons or unrelated features. Major Internet portals removed links to news reports or videos related to the crash near Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, in which 192 people were also hurt. The government’s decision to muzzle the media followed a remarkable outpouring of online criticism of the government over the July 23 accident. For many in China, the train wreck has crystallized concerns about whether the government is sacrificing people’s lives and safety in pursuit of breakneck development and is cloaking its failures in secrecy or propaganda.

China’s Low Roaming Fees Won't Be Matched Soon

China Mobile, the world’s largest operator, with 617 million customers, recently cut its international roaming rates, following similar cuts by its domestic rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom.

While Europeans and Americans traveling abroad still face steep roaming charges, travelers from mainland China can call home for as little as it costs to make a local call in that market. In part, that reflects the growing global clout of the Chinese mobile phone industry, where the three big operators, with a combined 889 million customers, are able to negotiate less expensive roaming deals for their users with international operators. As a result, one should not expect the lower roaming prices paid by travelers from the mainland to come soon to consumers in Europe, the United States or other parts of the world. In part, that is because European and U.S. operators do not compete directly with their counterparts in China for mobile customers, so they have little financial incentive to match the lower prices.

Media groups eye reporters’ Twitter fans

Twitter and other social media sites are creating new tensions in traditional newsrooms as broadcasters and newspapers grapple with individual reporters’ attempts to use the web to create a personal brand.

The question of who owns a professional Twitter or Facebook account was highlighted when Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s chief political correspondent and enthusiastic Twitter user with a loyal following of more than 60,000 people, was poached by ITV News. Within days her Twitter account’s name had switched from BBCLauraK to ITVLauraK, taking her large audience and Internet credibility with her to a rival broadcaster.