December 2011

India's Techies Angered Over Internet Censorship Plan

India has the world's largest democracy, and one of the most rambunctious. Millions of its young people are cutting edge when it comes to high-tech. Yet the country is still very conservative by Western standards, and a government minister recently said that offensive material on the web should be removed.

The way it was reported in India, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal started the whole row by assembling the heads of social networking sites at a meeting in his office in New Delhi. At the time, he was reported to have asked companies, like Google and Facebook, to devise a system to filter through and edit out objectionable material before it could make its way online. In an interview with the Indian cable channel CNN-IBN, Sibal pointed to offensive religious content that could cause ethnic or inter-communal conflict.

US Considers Combating Somali Militants’ Twitter Use

The United States government is increasingly concerned about the Twitter account of the Shabab militant group of Somalia, with American officials saying that they were “looking closely” at the militants’ use of Twitter and the possible measures to take in response.

American officials would not disclose what action they were considering. But some American officials said the government was exploring legal options to shut down the Shabab’s new Twitter account, potentially opening a debate over the line between free speech and support for terrorism. Over the past two weeks, the Shabab, brutal Islamists known for chopping off hands and starving the famine-stricken populace, have been firing off pithy Twitter messages referring to their attacks and taunting the Kenyan military, which sent troops into Somalia in October to battle the Shabab.

What’s Next for T-Mobile?

The decision to end AT&T’s attempt to buy T-Mobile comes as a devastating blow to T-Mobile, which has seen steep declines in market share while its rivals AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint won customers with popular devices like the iPhone and Android phones, said Tero Kuittinen, an independent analyst that has followed the telecom industry for years.

Now that the merger has failed, it’s unlikely T-Mobile could court Verizon or Sprint as potential suitors because they use completely different cellphone technologies to service their phones, Kuittinen said. He said that T-Mobile must now explore more creative opportunities — for instance, seeking partnerships with media giants like Amazon, Facebook or Google. T-Mobile’s spectrum, not its customer base, is its most valuable asset. “T-Mobile is probably going to be profoundly damaged by this,” Kuittinen said. “They should have done some strategic rethinking instead of chasing this mirage, this dream of a merger. Now they’ve lost a lot of time.”

Apple wins small victory over HTC in smartphone patent battle

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on the first definitive case of the smartphone patent wars, handing a narrow victory to Apple.

The commission ruled that HTC devices that use “data tapping” technology in a specific way will be hit with an import ban starting April 19, 2012. The technology, as outlined by patent expert Florian Mueller in his blog, allows devices to look at phone numbers in unstructured data formats such as e-mail and allows other applications — such as a dialer app — to process that kind of data. The ban applies only to devices that use the technology and, Mueller said, if Google and HTC can create a workaround in the Android system, the ban won’t apply to any HTC devices. “If Google can implement this popular feature, which users of modern-day smartphones really expect, without infringing on the two patent claims found infringed, this import ban won’t have any effect whatsoever,” Mueller said. If Apple can claim more small wins like the “data tapping” patent, Mueller said in his post, it could advance its case against Android feature by feature.

Sens Herb Kohl and Mike Lee call for Google antitrust probe

The chairman and top Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee have asked regulators to investigate Google's search practices, saying they were concerned the company was biasing results to favor its own products. Sens Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) -- sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, which already is conducting a broad antitrust investigation into Google's business practices, including search and advertising.

Sens Kohl and Lee questioned Google Chairman Eric Schmidt at a contentious hearing in September. Schmidt's answers, along with testimony from two Google competitors, raised questions that should be explored by regulators, the senators said in their letter to FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz. "We believe these allegations regarding Google's search engine practices raise important competition issues," they wrote, whose committee has been conducting its own review of Google. "We are committed to ensuring that consumers benefit from robust competition in online search and that the Internet remains the source of much free-market innovation."

NTSB chief backs cellphone ban in cars even if policy is ‘not popular with folks’

The chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board defended the agency's proposal for a nationwide ban on all cellphone use while driving, saying the NTSB was not beholden to public opinion. The transportation board has been criticized for its announcement last week that it was recommending all states enact laws banning everything other than devices “used for driving tasks,” like a GPS, while driving. In an interview, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the agency was set up to be insulated from political and public pressure.

Lawmakers want to include holiday greetings in mail to constituents

Reps. Joe Walsh (R-IL) and Mike Ross (D-AR) circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter to lawmakers claiming the Franking Commission should not be enforcing “political correctness.”

“Over the weekend, you may have heard from your constituents or fellow colleagues that the House Franking Commission will not allow Members to include holiday greetings, such as ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ on their mail pieces and franked email newsletters,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Franking Commission should not be in the business of limiting Members from addressing their constituents in the manner they chose,” they added. “To address this matter, we are sending a bipartisan letter to Speaker [John] Boehner [R-Ohio] and Minority Leader [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] along with Chairman [Dan] Lungren [R-Calif.] and Ranking Member [Robert] Brady [D-Pa.] of the Committee on House Administration asking them to revise these unnecessary rules.” According to the pair's letter, the mail “policy prevents Members of Congress from addressing their constituents in the manner in which they feel is best and is just one more way political correctness is slowly dismantling the meaning of the Christmas and Hanukkah season.”

APTS Praises Washington for Preserving Noncommercial TV Funding

The Association of Public Television Stations gave the White House and Congress a shout-out for preserving noncom funding in the FY2012 appropriations bill that was approved over the weekend and signed by President Barack Obama.

That funding had been under fire, including from a bipartisan panel advising the administration on budget cuts, but in the end the Corporation for Public Broadcasting got $445 million for FY2012, it is forward-funded to try to insulate it from politics, plus preservation of that forward-funding mechanism, which some Republicans wanted to phase out. The bill also retains $27.2 million for Ready To Learn, the curriculum-based early learning program that has been in Republican sites since its somewhat-less-curriculum-based days of the Postcards from Buster controversy.

LightSquared running out of cash

LightSquared could run out of money during the second quarter of 2012, according to the company's financial statement. LightSquared, which registered a $427 million net loss during the first nine months of this year, may not be able to "continue as a going concern" unless it can raise additional capital and financing, the statement reviewed said. "There is a need to raise substantial capital beyond the beginning of the second quarter of 2012 in order to have sufficient liquidity," the company's statement said.

Verizon, Cablevision Settle Suit Over Internet-Speed Ads

Verizon Communications, the second-biggest U.S. phone company, and Cablevision Systems settled a lawsuit over ads that Cablevision claimed misrepresented its Internet speeds.

Cablevision, the fifth-largest U.S. cable-television provider by subscribers, sued Dec. 6 claiming Verizon was using outdated information. The ads ran their course Dec. 17 and Verizon will have new ads sometime in the future, company spokesman William Kula said. “Cablevision and Verizon have reached an agreement to resolve the dispute without further need for litigation,” Kula and James Maiella, a Cablevision spokesman, said. They declined to disclose terms of the settlement. A hearing had been scheduled for Dec 19 before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert in Central Islip, New York, on Cablevision’s request to force New York-based Verizon to pull the ads. The TV, radio, direct-mail and Internet spots running in the New York area claimed that a “just released” Federal Communications Commission study shows Bethpage, New York-based Cablevision delivers at most 59 percent of its advertised speeds during peak hours, according to the complaint. The FCC report from August referred to tests performed in March, and Cablevision said it has upgraded its system since then. On Dec. 5, the FCC said in a blog post that Cablevision’s results in the report were outdated and its performance had improved.