January 2012

Hulu Plus reaches 1.5 million paying subscribers

Hulu Plus -- the online video subscription service owned by major broadcast networks ABC, Fox and NBC -- reached a new milestone at the end of the year with 1.5 million paying subscribers a little more than a year after its formal launch. Its CEO, Jason Kilar, also brought in the new year with a comment Hulu's broadcast TV owners might not want to hear: that he believes online viewing will ultimately surpass TV as the main way people watch their shows.

Telcos to halt mobile network spending spree

Telecom operators globally are expected to cut spending on their networks this year, hitting equipment makers that were only just beginning to recover from intense price wars and the last economic downturn.

European operators are likely to be more cautious as recession looms and consumers are less willing to splash out on high-end smartphones, while carriers in China and the United States slow their frenetic pace of mobile investments. The shift will pressure long-struggling mid-sized gear makers like Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia Siemens Networks, which are more vulnerable than market leader Ericsson or low-cost Chinese player Huawei.

Lawmakers press Homeland Security on Internet monitoring

Leaders of a congressional subcommittee are urging the Department of Homeland Security to extensively monitor social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to detect "current or emerging threats."

The top Republican and Democrat on a House counter-terrorism subcommittee last month sent a letter to Homeland Security's intelligence chief encouraging department analysts to pore over huge streams of social media traffic. Reps Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) said in the letter to Caryn Wagner, undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis, that they "believe it would be advantageous for DHS and the broader Intelligence Community to carefully parse the massive streams of data from various social media outlets to identify current or emerging threats to our homeland security."

Newt: 2012’s Candidate with TV Policy Chops

[Commentary] At first glance, the lineup of Republican presidential candidates doesn't yield anybody who can discuss broadcast ownership limits or media content regulation with any authority. The exception may be Newt Gingrich, and we have good idea of his thinking on broadcasting and cable matters, at least as it was nearly 17 years ago. In a 1995 B&C interview, the then-House Speaker demonstrated a strong grasp of communications issues as well as the technological changes that were driving policy.

FTC Said to Expand Antitrust Probe to Add Google+ Service

The Federal Trade Commission is expanding its antitrust probe of Google to include scrutiny of its new Google+ social networking service, according to two people familiar with the situation. The competition issues raised by Google+ go to the heart of the FTC’s investigation into whether the company is giving preference to its own services in search results and whether that practice violates antitrust laws, said the people, who declined to be identified because the probe isn’t public.

Google this week introduced changes to its search engine so that results feature photos, news and comments from Google+, naming the new function “Search, Plus Your World.” Users who opt for Google+ see personal information about their friends included from the social networking service when they enter a query. The changes sparked a backlash from bloggers, privacy groups and competitors who said the inclusion of Google+ results unfairly promotes the company’s products over other information on the Web.

Telcos Ask FCC to Reconsider USF Reform Proposal

On January 12, the Federal Communications Commission released a list of parties that had petitioned the FCC for reconsideration of its Universal Service Fund reform order.

Verizon, Sprint and USTelecom are among them. The USF reform order already faces court challenges from AT&T (a USTelecom member) and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. AT&T was particularly unhappy with the VoIP true-up, suggesting that terminating circuit-switched traffic was a lot more involved than interconnecting VoIP. Those opposed to the petitions have 15 days from publication of the notice in the Federal Register -- that usually takes a week or so -- to respond, with replies to those oppositions due 10 days after that 15-day window has closed. Among those also petitioning the FCC for reconsideration were MetroPCS, OPASTCO (Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies) and the Western Telecom Alliance.

Study: UK, US Wield Most 'Cyber Power'

The United Kingdom and United States lead other developing countries in their ability to withstand cyberattacks and develop strong digital economies, according to a new study by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The U.K. tops the rest of the Group of 20 nations, including the U.S., in the "Cyber Power Index." The European Union, considered the 20th member of the G20, was not included. The index, which put the U.S. in the No. 2 spot, rates the countries on their legal and regulatory frameworks; economic and social issues; technology infrastructure; and industry.

Has Google broken its promise to users?

[Commentary] There’s been a lot written about the benefits and disadvantages of Google’s new personalized search, which the web giant calls “Search plus Your World.” Some say they appreciate social results in their searches, while others say Google is just cluttering up its results with useless content, so they are turning to alternatives like Microsoft’s Bing. But as author Steven Levy notes in his analysis of Google’s new features, the real point is that by favoring results from its own Google+ social network over content from competing networks such as Twitter and Facebook, the company is dangerously close to reneging on its original promise to provide unbiased links to those searching for information.

Soon cell towers will start following you

Intucell is working with an unnamed North American operator to build a new kind of self-aware cellular network.

The Israeli-startup’s self optimizing network (SON) technology will turn what has hitherto been a static cellular grid into a dynamic system of constantly expanding and shrinking cells that can follow customers as they move throughout the network. In the near term, that means more customers getting faster speeds more often and dropping fewer calls. But long-term SON techniques like Intucell’s will become foundational technology for the future heterogeneous network.

New Law Lets Canadians Blog And Tweet Election Results

Bowing to the reality of modern technology, Canada said it is changing a 1938 law that forbids broadcasting election results before polls close. This means no more fines like the one levied in 2000 against a Vancouver man who blogged about election results he obtained by satellite from the eastern part of the country. The purpose of the news black-out was to ensure that election reports from the east didn’t distort voting intentions in the west. It would be like forcing CNN to hold off reporting on the outcome of New York’s presidential vote until the polls closed in California. Americans might find the law ridiculous or a free speech violation but the Canadian Supreme Court upheld it in 2007, saying the law had an overall positive effect that justified the speech restrictions.

Benton

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