January 31, 2012 (Verizon Crosses Web Lines)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Verizon Crosses Web Lines
Fastest Internet? It's Complicated
FCC Commissioner McDowell Concerned About ITU Governance of Internet
Senate cybersecurity bill sparking concerns about government control [links to web]
Stimulus grants left power grid vulnerable to cyber attacks
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Is the spectrum crisis a myth?
AT&T View Change Shows It Wants Dish Spectrum, Analysts Say
Facebook adds former RNC aide to campaign team [links to web]
How Siri is ruining your cellphone service - analysis
Siri is not a bandwidth hog and users are not the problem - analysis
How Americans used their phones to assist with purchasing decisions this holiday season - research
LightSquared asks FCC to exempt GPS receivers from protection
PRIVACY
US cautions EU against costly online data privacy rules
House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Presses Google on Privacy Changes - press release
Google responds to privacy policy concerns
Google forges ahead with search, privacy changes despite regulatory scrutiny [links to web]
How To Claw Back Privacy Under Google's New Policy [links to web]
Carrier IQ concerns prompt disclosure bill from Rep Markey
Google, Facebook, Twitter Execs Grilled By UK MPs On Privacy [links to web]
CONTENT
Twitter’s country-specific censorship tool prompts user protest
In censorship, Twitter fails to defend free speech - editorial
European parliament’s ACTA monitor quits in protest
The Bookstore’s Last Stand [links to web]
As Goodreads Ends Sourcing From Amazon, Users Fear Lost Books [links to web]
Facebook Pads Its Lead Over Yahoo in Online Display Ads With 28% of Market [links to web]
Megaupload Users Face Possible Deletion of Data [links to web]
TELEVISION
Noncoms Seek Carve-Out From Station Reporting Proposals
Comcast’s bet on NBCU begins to pay off
ESPN Trumps All Cable Fees, CPMs [links to web]
LOBBYING
Millions in SOPA lobbying bucks gone to waste
AGENDA
The Coming Tech-led Boom
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
President Obama finds virtual end-around to bypass the White House press [links to web]
Obama and Romney Campaigns Adopt Square for Funding [links to web]
In Nonstop Whirlwind of Campaigns, Twitter Is a Critical Tool [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Aneesh Chopra leaving the White House, likely to run for Virginia lieutenant governor
AT&T names Stankey as chief strategy officer
Information Technology Industry Council hires White House communications aide [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Mexicans overcharged billions for phone, web: study
European Commission opens proceedings against Samsung - press release
Google, Facebook, Twitter Execs Grilled By UK MPs On Privacy [links to web]
EU Seeks Joint National Cloud-Computing Purchases for Growth [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Tribune's bankruptcy bill: $231 million and counting [links to web]
Study: Only 1% of Facebook 'Fans' Engage With Brands [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
VERIZON CROSSES WEB LINES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anton Troianovski, Thomas Catan, Shalini Ramachandran]
As Verizon Communications pushes for more cable-television and high-speed Internet subscribers, a new competitor is emerging: its own subsidiary, Verizon Wireless. This month, Verizon Wireless stores in Seattle and Portland (OR) began offering home Internet, cable and telephone service from Comcast as part of a new joint marketing deal between the cellphone provider and several cable companies. Verizon doesn't offer its competing FiOS broadband and TV service in those markets, but the marketing deal may eventually encroach into FiOS territory, people familiar with the deal say -- setting up an awkward clash within the telephone giant. The joint effort with cable companies was unveiled by Verizon Wireless last month as part of a $3.6 billion deal to buy spectrum licenses from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. The Justice Department is investigating whether the deal will hurt competition and raise prices for cable customers, people familiar with the matter said. The deal surprised the telecom industry because it appeared to signal a truce between longtime rivals. Verizon is spending more than $20 billion rolling out FiOS to compete with cable, and cable companies -- already competing in the telephone market with their own landline products -- had amassed spectrum to potentially get into the wireless business. It also raised questions among union leaders and consumer advocates about Verizon's commitment to FiOS. Verizon insists it's committed to FiOS, a fiber-optic-cable-based service that reaches about 14% of U.S. households. But for longtime observers of the rivalry between Verizon and cable providers, the companies' marketing moves in past weeks may have prompted some double-takes.
benton.org/node/111981 | Wall Street Journal
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FASTEST INTERNET?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shalini Ramachandran]
Many Internet service providers have laid claim to the title of "fastest" broadband speeds over the years. But who's right? By most standards, it's hard to argue with Verizon Communications Its FiOS service offers faster Internet service than other major providers -- up to 150 megabits per second, compared with the highest advertised from a cable operator of 105 Mbps offered by Comcast. Probably more important, Verizon consistently delivers more than it advertises, according to a study conducted by the Federal Communications Commission published in August. Last spring the FCC compared Internet speeds advertised by 13 broadband providers to the actual speeds experienced by a set of about 6,800 users for both upstream and downstream traffic. Upstream traffic describes actions like uploading pictures to Facebook, and downstream traffic measures the speed at which content like video is pulled off the Internet. FiOS's service operated at about 115% its advertised speed over a 24-hour period, the study found, whereas broadband services operated by most cable operators as well as the slower DSL service offered by Verizon and other phone companies fluctuated through the day.
benton.org/node/111978 | Wall Street Journal
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ITU INTERNET GOVERNANCE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell said that his number one concern is the prospect of the International Telecommunications Union becoming an international Internet governance body. Commissioner McDowell and fellow Commissioner Mignon Clyburn were speaking at a commissioners' breakfast at the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Broadband and Social Justice Summit in Washington. Commissioner McDowell had just returned from the World Administrative Radio Conference, where he said he tried to talk to as many people as possible about the problems with that prospect, which he said could create a divide between the countries that signed on and those that opted out. He said the move was being pushed by countries like China and Russia.
benton.org/node/111957 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CYBERSECURITY AND THE SMART GRID
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
The Department of Energy's rush to award stimulus grants for projects under the next generation of the power grid, known as the Smart grid, resulted in some firms receiving funds without submitting complete plans for how to safeguard the grid from cyber attacks, according to an inspector general's report. "Officials approved cyber security plans for Smart Grid projects even though some of the plans contained shortcomings that could result in poorly implemented controls," states the report. "We also found that the Department was so focused on quickly disbursing Recovery Act funds that it had not ensured personnel received adequate grants management training." According to the report, 36 percent of the grant applications submitted were lacking one or more elements in their cybersecurity plans. Three out of the five cybersecurity plans reviewed by the IG were incomplete, and often didn't address weaknesses previously identified by the Energy Department.
benton.org/node/111965 | Hill, The
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
IS SPECTRUM CRISIS A MYTH?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
Mobile operators like AT&T and Verizon Wireless have used many a financial call and speech to spell out the impending doom that awaits us once they use up their precious frequency resources. They insist we are fast approaching a mobile datapocalypse where their networks will no longer be able to meet the enormous demands for mobile broadband. But are these claims of a spectrum crisis all red herrings? A couple of telecom industry commentators think so, and they’re calling out the carriers, claiming they are using scare tactics to justify their recent consolidation sprees. DSLPrime and Fast News Net’s Dave Burnstein pointed out that AT&T’s yearly mobile data growth is only 40 percent, far lower than the 92 percent to 120 percent figures predicted by Cisco Systems, research firms and the FCC. Burnstein said that operators are raising the specter of higher data growth rates to scare regulators and lawmakers into giving them more airwaves and placing fewer restrictions on how they use them.
benton.org/node/111946 | GigaOm
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AT&T AND DISH
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Scott Moritz, Todd Shields]
AT&T’s change of view on Dish Network’s request for a spectrum waiver from U.S. authorities signals the phone company is eager to buy airwaves from the satellite-TV provider, Credit Suisse Group AG said. There should be no “restrictions on the transfer and/or leasing” of the spectrum, AT&T wrote in comments to the Federal Communications Commission on Jan. 26. The letter is a “change of heart” for AT&T, Stefan Anninger, a Credit Suisse analyst, said in a note. AT&T also urged the agency to require a fast-track network buildout, a stipulation that could make it difficult for Dish to keep the spectrum, Anninger said. “AT&T wants the spectrum,” Jonathan Chaplin, a Credit Suisse analyst, said in an e-mail. “Previously AT&T was pushing for a more extensive review of the waiver request. Now they seem to be supportive of an expedited review.”
benton.org/node/111970 | Bloomberg
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AT&T’S CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICIER
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Paul Taylor]
AT&T, the largest US telecommunications group, has named senior executive John Stankey to the newly created position of group president and chief strategy officer. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call with investors last week, Randall Stephenson, chief executive, hinted that AT&T might sell off its directories business noting “that’s one area that we’re going to obviously take a very hard look at, and while I don’t want to give any indication on M&A activity, it’s one of these areas that we’re going to have to decide, do we keep it, do we restructure it, as we move forward.” Stankey, a 27-year industry veteran who was previously the president and chief executive of AT&T Business Solutions, will be responsible for “developing the road map to maximize future growth opportunities, including corporate development, addressing long-term wireless-capacity needs, capital allocation strategies and identifying the best strategic paths for low-growth and non-strategic assets.” His appointment is a further indication that AT&T is considering the sale of some of its older, slow growing assets including perhaps some of its fixed-line telephone operations or its directories business.
benton.org/node/111969 | Financial Times
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SIRI RUNING SERVICE?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
[Commentary] Siri’s dirty little secret is that she’s a bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a 10-miles-per-gallon Hummer H1. To make your wish her command, Siri floods your cell network with a stream of data; her responses require a similarly large flow in return. A study published this month by Arieso, an Atlanta firm that specializes in mobile networks, found that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S uses twice as much data as does the plain old iPhone 4 and nearly three times as much as does the iPhone 3G. The new phone requires far more data than most other advanced smartphones, which are pretty data-intensive themselves. In all, Arieso says that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S “appears to unleash data consumption behaviors that have no precedent.” Under most circumstances, this would seem to be someone else’s problem. Cellphone contracts are “tiered” so that those who use a network more than others pay more for the privilege. You want to ask Siri silly questions? Go to town — but you will get the bill at the end of the month. By the same logic, a customer who wants better service on an airline can pay for it by buying a first-class ticket. The marketplace provides. Except on the data skyway, it’s not that simple. Cell and data networks are like any common resource; they have limits. And once they hit their limit, regardless of which group is using its share and then some, there’s no more to go around.
benton.org/node/111933 | Washington Post
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SIRI NOT BROADBAND HOG
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] If you think Siri is somehow responsible for the data overload, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Siri is the first generation of interfaces that will make is seamless and easy us to surf the Web from anywhere, and on any device or vehicle. Siri consumes very little data in sending your voice back to the servers to figure out what you want the phone to do, but what it does is make it that much easier to surf the web. Farhi seems to understand this, but his first characterization is blatantly false. Siri isn’t guzzling data, she’s making it easier for us to do so. We’re the guzzlers.
Stop listening to the carriers, who actually do have spectrum they can deploy if they want to work a little harder and spend a little more, and start thinking about how Wi-Fi or white spaces broadband (Super Wi-Fi) can play a role in taking congestion off over the air data networks. Passing a spectrum bill that allows for more unlicensed airwaves would be a start, as would leaving the Federal Communications Commission to deal with the highly technical issues surrounding spectrum auctions. Pushing the FCC to investigate special access fees would also help, as it might lower the rate of bringing a fiber pipe out to areas so ISPS can support large-scale Wi-Fi or White Spaces networks. But first we have to have the understanding of how the wireless and cellular networks work, so we can propose viable solutions, instead of blaming applications that make our lives better for congesting our network. And since many of those solutions will require action (or inaction) from Congress and the FCC, the Washington Post missed a golden opportunity to educate its readers about possible solutions and push the debate forward with mobile operators about using Wi-Fi more strategically, making it possible for rural areas to use unlicensed airwaves to create broad coverage areas without paying an arm and leg for a gigabyte and helping Congress understand how the industry actually works.
benton.org/node/111935 | GigaOm
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MOBILE BROADBAND AND SHOPPING
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Aaron Smith]
More than half of adult cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during the 2011 holiday season to seek help with purchasing decisions. During a 30 day period before and after Christmas:
38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making
24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store
25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else
Taken together, just over half (52%) of all adult cell owners used their phone for at least one of these three reasons over the holiday shopping season and one third (33%) used their phone specifically for online information while inside a physical store—either product reviews or pricing information.
benton.org/node/111937 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
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LIGHTSQUARED REQUEST
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Berwin]
On Jan 27, one year and a day after the Federal Communications Commission told startup broadband wireless carrier LightSquared it could not begin operations until it demonstrated its network did not cause interference with Global Positioning System receivers, the agency kicked off a review process requested by the company to determine whether GPS receivers are entitled to such protection. On Dec. 20, 2011, LightSquared filed a petition with FCC seeking a ruling that commercial GPS receivers fit the commission's description of unlicensed Earth stations or unlicensed wireless systems such as Wi-Fi networks and hence "are not entitled to interference protection from LightSquared operations." FCC initiated a public comment period on the petition, with replies due March 15. The agency said LightSquared "in essence" seeks a declaratory ruling that if its terrestrial network operates "in accordance with the commission's technical parameters, commercially available GPS devices are not protected against harmful interference" caused by those operations.
benton.org/node/111943 | nextgov
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PRIVACY
CAUTION ON DATA PRIVACY
[SOURCE: AFP, AUTHOR: ]
Philip Verveer, the US coordinator for international communications and information policy, said the United States will closely examine the European Commission's online privacy legislation and wants to ensure it will not be too costly for companies to do business. He welcomed European Justice Commissioner Viviane Redding’s focus on this area, but said her plans raised "quite complex" issues. "What is very important I think is to try to avoid a situation where there are requirements that may unnecessarily add to compliance costs or administrative costs that will diminish the efficiency with which services can be rendered," he added. One "noticeable aspect" of Reding's proposal is the powers it would give to national data protection authorities, he said, adding that the United States wants "to understand it better." The commission proposal would give such authorities the power to investigate and impose fines on companies of up to one million euros or 2.0 percent of global annual turnover, which could be expensive for giants like Google. The US government, which will soon release its own proposals to enhance data privacy protections for American consumers, will keep contact with EU officials to try to get "mutual recognition" of each initiative, he added.
benton.org/node/111929 | AFP | National Journal
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GOOGLE PRIVACY
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Ranking Member G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) sent a letter to Google requesting a briefing on the company’s recently announced privacy changes. Members have concerns over how the changes will impact Google’s users, specifically users’ ability to opt out of information sharing and data collection.
“We applaud the move toward a shorter, simpler, streamlined policy, and believe that easier-to-understand terms of service are in the best interest of consumers. We are concerned, however, with other changes to Google’s privacy policy, particularly with how a user’s data will be collected, combined, archived, and used across services. These changes might not otherwise be troubling but for one significant change to your terms of service: Google will not permit users to opt out of this information collection and sharing across platforms and devises. While Google’s announcement suggests the company gives users ‘meaning choices about how [user information] is used’, denying users an option to opt out of sharing their information across platforms or devices that they may otherwise strive to keep separate (e.g., work computer versus personal Android phone) appears to significantly reduce the spirit and substance of ‘meaningful choice,’” wrote Reps Bono Mack and Butterfield.
The committee leaders requested a Google representative meet with members of the subcommittee no later than February 3, 2012, to discuss the recent changes to Google’s privacy policy and practices.
benton.org/node/111949 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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GOOGLE RESPONDS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
Google is pushing back against complaints about its new privacy policy, saying users can still prevent the company from linking all the data it collects about them by turning off their search history, by skipping some of Google’s offerings or by using different Google accounts at different times. In a letter to lawmakers who have raised questions about the new policy, the company says users will have plenty of ways to control how their personal data is collected and used — even though they can’t opt out of the privacy changes altogether. “The main change in the updated privacy policy is for users signed into Google Accounts,” Pablo Chavez, director of public policy for Google, said in the letter. “Individuals don’t need to sign in to use many of our services including Search, Maps, and YouTube. If a user is signed in, she can still edit or turn off her search history, switch Gmail chat to off the record, control the way Google tailors ads to her interests using our Ads Preferences Manager, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72197.html
Changing our privacy policies, not our privacy controls (Google)
benton.org/node/111952 | Politico | Google
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DISCLOSURE BILL
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
In response to the controversy over Carrier IQ and its eponymous tracking software, Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) released a discussion draft of a bill that would require companies to disclose when they’ve installed monitoring software on a mobile phone, what that software collects and who can read that data. According to a draft of the Mobile Device Privacy Act, the legislation would also require that companies obtain customer consent before the software can begin collecting or transmitting data. Carriers, manufacturers and operating system makers such as Apple and Google will be required to disclose this software when the customer buys the phone, when software is pushed to the phone, or if a customer downloads an app that contains monitoring software. Any third-party companies that gather the information must also have policies in place to protect the data. “Consumers have the right to know and to say no to the presence of software on their mobile devices that can collect and transmit their personal and sensitive information,” Rep Markey said. “Today I am releasing draft legislation to provide greater transparency into the transmission of consumers’ personal information and empower consumers to say no to such transmission.”
benton.org/node/111974 | Washington Post | The Hill
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CONTENT
TWITTER PROTEST
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Some Twitter users say they will stop using the service on Jan 28 in protest of the company’s new rule that allows for content to be blocked in specific countries. Posting messages with the hashtags “#TwitterBlackout” and “#TwitterCensored,” users vowed to let the company know that they opposed the new policy. Several of the tweets were in Arabic. The policy will enable the company to block specific tweets on a country-by-country basis when the content runs afoul of local laws. Several global companies, including Google and Facebook, already have similar policies to remove content to comply with individual countries’ laws regarding speech — one of the most commonly cited examples of a law like this is Germany’s prohibition against pro-Nazi content. Critics worry that Twitter’s policy will destroy its capability to work as a platform for impromptu social movements, a role it played so prominently during the Arab Spring.
benton.org/node/111932 | Washington Post
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TWITTER FAIL
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Twitter's decision to start censoring tweets at the request of repressive governments represents a regrettable retreat from the free-flowing ethos that has made it such an essential social networking site. Our preference, in 140 characters or fewer, would have been for Twitter to just say no to censorship. Instead, Twitter is trying to make a good-faith effort to uphold the values of transparency and free speech while complying with the laws of countries that have no respect for either. It's a difficult balancing act, to say the least. Some might call it a fool's errand. Despite its anything-goes image, Twitter all along has been removing content that violate copyright or child pornography laws when it gets complaints. But there is something qualitatively different about having an enterprise that was founded on the principle of free expression bowing to any government's demand to suppress what should be the most basic right of any citizen to speak his or her mind. Twitter's policy is nuanced and sensitive on a matter that called for defiance and boldness.
benton.org/node/111968 | San Francisco Chronicle
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ACTA REACTION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
The European Parliament’s independent monitor for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) resigned Jan 27 in protest after 22 European Union member states signed the anti-piracy treaty the day before. Kader Arif said that he condemns “the whole process which led to the signature of this agreement: no consultation of the civil society, lack of transparency since the beginning of negotiations, repeated delays of the signature of the text without any explanation give, reject of Parliament’s recommendations as given in several resolutions of our assembly.”
benton.org/node/111973 | Washington Post
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TELEVISION
NONCOMS AND TRANSPARENCY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Public broadcasters have asked the Federal Communications Commission to exempt them from any new "burdensome" reporting requirements, arguing that their delivery of programming of interest to their communities is self-evident. In comments on the FCC's proposal to require online reporting of station information, including potentially additional information about what types of programming they are airing, CPB, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) said that any new programming disclosure rules should include a safe-harbor for CPB-qualified TV station licensees who submit relevant portions of the studies and surveys they already have to conduct and submit to CPB. "We support the Commission's effort to standardize information about their public interest programming and activities," said Lonna Thompson, executive VP and general counsel of APTS, in a statement. "However, we strongly encourage the Commission to exempt public television licensees from burdensome reporting requirements given public television licensees' demonstrated success in delivering upon their mission to provide programming that addresses the needs and interests of their local communities."
benton.org/node/111959 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NBC-COMCAST
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
When cable operator Comcast bought 51 per cent of NBCUniversal, the television and film group, many in the media industry doubted the marriage would be a happy one.
Valuing NBCU at $30bn as it was separated from General Electric, the deal represented a bold bet by Comcast that it could successfully unite content and distribution. If it did so, it would succeed where its peers had failed, transforming the buttoned-down Philadelphia cable guys into bona fide media moguls. But critics worried the two companies had impossibly different cultures, with Comcast’s numbers-oriented discipline contrasting with NBCU’s creative culture. Analysts were wary of the acquisition, which made the enlarged company more complicated to assess. The deal, which closed a year ago this week, is still in its early stages. Yet there are already signs Comcast is applying the same strategic acumen to its new content assets that helped make it the largest cable operator in the US. It has invested in new original programming, with shows such as The Voice, in an effort to turn round the struggling broadcast network. It secured critical sports rights at a cost of billions of dollars a year. And it has shown a willingness to redouble investment in businesses with which it was unfamiliar, such as films and theme parks.
benton.org/node/111972 | Financial Times
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LOBBYING
MILLIONS GONE TO WASTE
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: David Goldman]
The controversial anti-piracy bills that attracted tens of millions of dollars of lobbying for and against the proposed laws ironically were killed by free publicity. "Old" media companies spent huge sums of money in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Those opposed -- Internet and "new media" companies -- lobbied hard and spent gobs too, though far less than their more organized rivals. But Silicon Valley had a trick up its sleeve that trumped the millions of dollars more in lobbying muscle and the more established Washington presence of the old media guard: They reached out directly to their users for free. It helped that the two bills were an issue that the public cared about. The opposition movement was trending on Twitter, and thousands of protesters joined in New York and San Francisco on Jan. 20 in opposition of the bills. "When you have an issue that is salient, and the public cares about it, the money matters less," said Lee Drutman, data fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization. "Money matters more when it's a behind-closed-doors issue that hasn't faced much public scrutiny."
benton.org/node/111928 | CNNMoney
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AGENDA
COMING TECH-LED BOOM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mark Mills, Julio Ottino]
Information technology has entered a big-data era. Processing power and data storage are virtually free. A hand-held device, the iPhone, has computing power that shames the 1970s-era IBM mainframe. The Internet is evolving into the "cloud"—a network of thousands of data centers any one of which makes a 1990 supercomputer look antediluvian. From social media to medical revolutions anchored in metadata analyses, wherein astronomical feats of data crunching enable heretofore unimaginable services and businesses, we are on the cusp of unimaginable new markets. The second transformation? Smart manufacturing. This is the first structural shift since Henry Ford launched the economic power of "mass production." While we see evidence already in automation and information systems applied to supply-chain management, we are just entering an era where the very fabrication of physical things is revolutionized by emerging materials science. Engineers will soon design and build from the molecular level, optimizing features and even creating new materials, radically improving quality and reducing waste. Devices and products are already appearing based on computationally engineered materials that literally did not exist a few years ago: novel metal alloys, graphene instead of silicon transistors (graphene and carbon enable a radically new class of electronic and structural materials), and meta-materials that possess properties not possible in nature; e.g., rendering an object invisible—speculation about which received understandable recent publicity.
benton.org/node/111980 | Wall Street Journal
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POLICYMAKERS
CHOPRA DEPARTURE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe, Anita Kumar]
Aneesh Chopra, tapped to serve as the first White House chief technology officer, is stepping down and is widely expected to announce that he will run for lieutenant governor in Virginia, according to Democrats familiar with his plan, but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Chopra, who has kept his home in Richmond, has flirted with running for statewide office in Virginia for years, building up support among Democratic activists and serving on President Obama’s transition team in 2008. The timing of his resignation allows Chopra to campaign this year for his two former bosses — former governor Tim Kaine (D), who is running to replace retiring Sen. James Webb (D-VA) this year — and Obama, who will face a tough fight in the swing state of Virginia. He is expected to attend Virginia Democrats’ biggest fundraiser of the year, the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, Feb. 11 in Richmond, where those who are looking to run statewide host parties and mingle with more than 1,500 activists.
In a statement released by the White House shortly before the news of his planned campaign surfaced, President Obama said Chopra “did groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century. Aneesh found countless ways to engage the American people using technology, from electronic health records for veterans, to expanding access to broadband for rural communities, to modernizing government records. His legacy of leadership and innovation will benefit Americans for years to come, and I thank him for his outstanding service.”
benton.org/node/111940 | Washington Post | The White House
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
MEXICANS OVERCHARGED BY SLIM
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Patrick Rucker, Krista Hughes]
Mexicans have been overcharged $13.4 billion a year for phone and internet services as the industry dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim gouges customers and keeps the economy from growing. Mexico, the second-largest economy in Latin America, cannot reach its growth potential until the cost of phone and internet access comes down and more people have easy access to telecom services, a report from the Organization for Co-operation and Development said. From 2005 to 2009, Mexican consumers paid $13.4 billion a year excess for phone and internet services, with high fees disproportionately hitting the poor, according to the report. In total, overcharging cost the economy $129 billion over the five-year period, the report found, nearly 2 percent of the country's economic output.
benton.org/node/111956 | Reuters
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EC AND SAMSUNG
[SOURCE: European Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively, and in contravention of a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules. The opening of proceedings means that the Commission will examine the case as a matter of priority. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States' courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards. The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honor its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The Commission will examine whether such behavior amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).
In line with the Commission's Guidelines on standardization agreements, standard setting organizations, including ETSI, require the owners of patents that are essential for the implementation of a standard to commit to license these patents on FRAND terms. This commitment serves to ensure effective access to the standardized technology. Such commitments were given to ETSI by many patent holders, including Samsung, when the third generation ("3G") mobile and wireless telecommunications system standards were adopted in Europe.
benton.org/node/111939 | European Commission
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