November 2011

Recap: FCC Nominations Hearing

The Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony from Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Varadaraj Pai, President Barack Obama’s nominees to serve as commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission.

The nominees were pushed by Committee members to go on the record about some of the most contentious issues in telecommunications. Instead, the nominees toed the line between showcasing their expertise and avoiding answers that could box them in on issues they may soon regulate. Asked about the FCC’s release of a staff report on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, Rosenworcel said, "I believe it's within [the FCC chairman's] statutory authority, but I will acknowledge it's probably unprecedented.” Pai said he would "view the discretion [of the FCC] as one that should be exercised very carefully" but added he wasn't apprised on the issue. "To the extent [releasing the document] aggravates people in industry and on the Hill, that's something I would take into account," he said. But the nominees didn't shy away from clear positions divisive topics, generally reflecting the mainstream views of their respective parties.

Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said the chances for confirmation are good for both nominees, but an obstacle remains. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reaffirmed his commitment to holding up the process unless the FCC releases certain documents about LightSquared, a wireless startup mired in regulatory problems because its service may interfere with GPS devices.

Sen Hutchison Backs House Spectrum Auction Bill

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), co-sponsor of S. 911, the Senate incentive spectrum auction bill, said she thinks that the House Republican version of a spectrum bill introduced this week would complement that Senate bill, and said she would work to incorporate it into S. 911, which has already passed the Senate Commerce Committee.

"I'm very glad that the House Energy & Commerce Committee is placing a priority on providing our nation's first responders with the spectrum they need to build a robust nationwide public safety wireless network," she said. "While there are some differences between our bills, I believe the House's JOBS Act is complementary to the bipartisan bill Chairman Rockefeller and I have passed in the Senate Commerce Committee, S. 911." She said she wanted to get a spectrum bill to the president "sometime this winter." That might be an acknowledgement that a spectrum bill won't pass this year. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicated there would not be a vote on the standalone S. 911 before next year, according to S. 911 co-sponsor Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V). But Sen Rockefeller has not given up on passage attached to some must-pass bill before the end of the session.

PBS Stations Testing Mobile Emergency Alert System

PBS has announced that four public stations around the country are participating in a pilot project to delivery emergency alert information over mobile digital TV signals.

The Mobile Emergency Alert System (M-EAS) pilot project will test the delivery of video, maps, photos, audio and text to mobile devices using mobile DTV signals. The project is being funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and LG Electronics. The four participating PBS stations are: WGBH Boston, Vegas PBS (KLVX) in Las Vegas, and Alabama Public Television stations WBIQ (Birmingham) and WAIQ (Montgomery). Mobile emergency alert systems using broadcast signals played an important role in delivering emergency information in Japan during the tsunami and earthquake earlier this year when cellular systems were not working. The participants in the pilot project believe that a system based on U.S. ATSC standards will ultimately be an important tool for delivering information during disasters when cell phone systems might not work. While public broadcasters are initially testing the system, the M-EAS system is designed to be used by both commercial and public over the air broadcasters.

Chicago Workers Sue Comcast Claiming Race Discrimination, Fetid Working Conditions

Eleven former and current Comcast employees in Chicago have filed a federal lawsuit against the cable giant, claiming it discriminated against African-American workers and subjected them to rat-infested conditions, according to several published reports.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 28 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Comcast discriminated against technicians at its South Side Chicago facility, calling them derogatory names and forcing them to work in deplorable conditions. The suit alleges that equipment and cable boxes at the South Side facility were infested with cockroaches and that employees were instructed to install defective and roach-laden cable boxes at homes in the predominantly African-American section of the city because supervisors allegedly claimed "they'll only have cable for a month; they won't pay bills." Comcast has vehemently denied the allegations. The suit claims that the South Side facility had a leaky roof, was not temperature controlled and was rife with hazards including high stacks of boxes, exhaust fumes, ceiling tiles that fell on working employees and did not have a functioning parking lot or training room. In contrast, Comcast North Side and Suburban Chicago facilities, which did not employ a majority of African American workers, were significantly better maintained, according to the suit. The workers are seeking lost wages, including back pay, front pay and lost benefits and compensatory and punitive damages.

The Internet of things: creating the health care of the future

This paper provides a preliminary overview of the landscape of opportunities and drivers in the current health and health care environments and highlights some of the challenges that remain.

By 2020 it is estimated that 20–50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. Many of these devices will be collecting health data or will be connected to health and medical devices in the home, the hospital or the wider environment. Many of these devices can be implanted in the body or worn in clothing to monitor vital signs or essential biological processes that enable more-continuous monitoring of patients or even animal health. The growth of the Internet of things is likely to open new disruptive business opportunities for services that add value to the data collected. It will involve supply chain management, disease management for chronic diseases, public health services in areas such as air quality or the traceability of products in the food chain for food safety.

Study: Most Popular Cable Nets Not Highest Rated

Cable consumers' favorite channels aren't always the highest rated.

Beta Research demonstrates this point with its 2011 cable subscriber evaluation study, naming Discovery Channel, Food Network, and History the top three favorite networks recently. Beta Research's says the percent of total cable subscribers mentioning five favorite channels gave Discovery a 24% top score; Food Network and History both had a 22% number. Next are some higher-rated cable networks -- ESPN , 21%; TNT , 21%; and USA Network , 21%. Syfy follows at 19%; A&E ,16%; and Comedy Central , 16%. Viewers do give some high-priced networks -- those that cost cable networks the most money -- big value. Beta says ESPN gets a $1.47 value from cable subscribers; ESPNU, $1.37; History is at $1.36; Disney Channel , $1.35; Disney XD , $1.34; ESPN2 ,$1.31; Food Network , $1.30; Discovery Channel , $1.29; and CNN , $1.25.

For first time in history, TV ownership declines

Nielsen, the TV ratings people, are out with the 2012 edition of their Television Audience report, and amidst all the charts and graphs, two stunners:

The total number of U.S. households with TV sets declined year to year for the first time since Nielsen started counting TV ownership.
The number of households with no TV at all is at its highest level since 1975. Three percent of homes are TV-free.

The decline was not trivial, either — from 115.9 million TV households in 2011, Nielsen estimates that only 114.7 million homes in the U.S. will have a TV set in 2012. That’s a decline of almost 1 percent at a time when the number of U.S. households continues to grow.

Brookings Institution
Thursday, December 08, 2011
2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

With smart phones now outnumbering personal computers, there has been a sea change in the way people access and share information. Powerful mobile devices and sophisticated digital applications enable users to build businesses, access financial and health care records, expand educational opportunities, conduct research and complete transactions anytime, anywhere.

On December 8, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will launch a new mobile economy project, which will examine and document the impact of the mobile revolution on the economies of developed and developing countries, with a forum exploring how mobile technology can ease the everyday lives of Americans. Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies, will moderate a discussion with Chris Dede of Harvard University and Allan Friedman of the Brookings Institution. Peggy Johnson, director of Global Market Development at Qualcomm, will provide opening remarks.

Introduction and Moderator
Darrell M. West
Vice President and Director, Governance Studies

Opening Remarks
Peggy Johnson
Executive Vice President and Director, Global Market Development
Qualcomm

Panelists
Chris Dede
Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Graduate School of Education
Harvard University

Allan A. Friedman
Fellow, Governance Studies

Read more about How Mobile Technology is Reshaping the Global Landscape

Is your phone telling the carrier everything you do?

After you buy a smartphone and the required mobile broadband service, what you do with the device is your business, right? Maybe not. Earlier this month, the XDA-Developer site noticed that a preinstalled mobile app, named CarrierIQ, was logging all smartphone activities with no way to opt out. A new video demonstration surfaced that demonstrates exactly what the CarrierIQ software does. And it’s disturbing, especially when you consider more than 141 million handsets have the software installed.

CarrierIQ captures:

Logging of keystrokes; nearly every button — hardware or software — is noted when pressed. I noticed the keystrokes for input were based on ASCII standard codes, which are fairly universal. That means the keylogging feature can easily work across nearly all devices.
Text of incoming SMS messages. Don’t expect privacy of what you’re sending or receiving on a phone with CarrierIQ installed.
Web browsing information through what are supposed to be encrypted transactions.

FCC’s AT&T/T-Mobile Order

On November 29, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief granted AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s request to withdraw their applications to allow AT&T to acquire T-Mobile spectrum licenses.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said, “Competition is the engine of our free market economy and a cornerstone of the FCC’s mandate. Our review of this merger has had a clear focus: fostering a competitive market that drives innovation, promotes investment, encourages job creation, and protects consumers. These goals will remain the focus if any future merger application is filed.”

“Given the overwhelming mass of competitive concerns raised in the Department of Justice suit against the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, “and the possibly even greater public interest harms identified in the FCC’s Staff Report, I welcome withdrawal of this application.” He continued: “This agency’s charge under the Communications Act is to look at not just the competitive effects but also the broader public interest implications of an acquisition. Despite repeated claims that this transaction will be a significant job creator, the staff, after thorough review, could make no such finding. Here is something else worth highlighting: T-Mobile has built a business model targeting budget-conscious consumers. With lower-income consumers increasingly thinking of mobile as their only broadband service, and with no guarantee the new entity will continue to serve this population, many consumers may find themselves priced right out of broadband. That is not a direction the country can afford to go. While I welcome withdrawal of this application, I would like to think we will no longer be expending significant FCC resources to examine this paradigm-shifting and complex transaction. I would hope the withdrawal is not a strategic gambit along the road to resubmission of this or a similar application in the months ahead. That would not strike me as a good route to travel. The significant resources the Commission has spent over these last seven months analyzing this proposed acquisition—and so many other consolidations that have come our way during my ten years here—would have been much better spent furthering the goals of competition, consumer protection and the public interest.”

“The staff Analysis and Findings concludes that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition whether reviewed at the local market or national market level, and there are substantial questions whether the claimed public interest benefits would occur,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Benton

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