January 2012

Meet the spectrum bosses

The Yankee Group has prepared a nifty graphic that details the current spectrum holdings of the big boys in the top 10 markets as well as what Verizon could gain by buying up the cable operators licenses.

The operator with the biggest spectrum chest isn’t Verizon or AT&T, but Clearwire, which has spent several years consolidating 2.5 GHz licenses across the country. It doesn’t have a 150 MHz in every market, but it has those quantities in the largest cities where they’re the most useful. With more spectrum, Clearwire can launch much higher-capacity networks without building more towers. What’s more, Clearwire’s frequencies are all earmarked for 4G, while most of AT&T and Verizon’s spectrum is in the cellular (850 MHz) and PCS (1900 MHz bands), which are tied up in their CDMA, GSM and HSPA+ networks.

Verizon has the clear advantage in 700 MHz and AWS (1700/2100 MHz) with an average of 57.2 MHz in the top 10 cities – all of which it can devote to LTE. AT&T has less than 40 MHz in those same markets, which is a good indication why AT&T wanted T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum so desperately. Plus, if Verizon succeeds in buying SpecrtumCo and Cox’s licenses it will add considerably to its lead over AT&T.

Subscribers watch about an hour of Netflix a day

Netflix announced that members watched more than 2 billion hours of video on its streaming video service in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Let’s do some back-of-the-envelope math and figure out what that really means. Dividing 2 billion hours by the roughly 24 million subscribers that Netflix has tells you that on average, each watched about 83 hours of video during the quarter. Divide that by the 92 days between October and December and you find that the average account streamed about 54 minutes of Netflix video each day. While that’s still just 20 percent of the five hours that the average viewer spends watching traditional TV, according to Nielsen, it tells you a little something about where the industry might be headed.

State Of Media: TV Deemed Most Valuable

Against all media and entertainment services, U.S. consumers consider cable TV and satellite TV programming services the most valuable.

According to Deloitte’s sixth annual edition of the “State of the Media Democracy," the survey says 44% have DVR capability. That means a growing business for cable and satellite companies to sign up millions of other U.S. media consumers. “This represents a potential opportunity for cable and satellite TV providers,” stated Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and U.S. media and telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte LLP. He called the DVR an "underutilized service" that could potentially "serve as a value-add for new and existing subscribers at minimal cost to cable and satellite TV companies.” But at the same time, Deloitte noted that 9% of people have already cut the cord. Plus, 11% are considering doing so "because they can watch almost all of their favorite shows online."

Which E-Books Are Most Borrowed From Libraries, And Why?

OverDrive released its lists of the most-downloaded e-books from libraries in December 2011. These lists look pretty different from the current New York Times e-book bestseller lists.

Santorum surge story comes true

If momentum in presidential politics is something that builds on itself, then Rick Santorum's last-minute surge to finish in a virtual tie for first with Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses benefited from the narrative in the news media.

The subject of momentum, indeed, was the biggest component of the coverage in the last two weeks before Iowa citizens voted, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. More than a quarter of all the coverage across the country (27%) was focused on polls, strategy and momentum-much of it about dark horse Santorum dramatically gaining ground in the waning days of the Iowa campaign, even though few late polls showed Santorum actually ahead. "Santorum is surging. A CNN poll of registered Iowa Republicans released Wednesday puts Santorum in third place with 16 percent of the vote-his highest share yet," said the Weekly Standard magazine on December 29. The December 29 Des Moines Register declared that "Signs that Rick Santorum is suddenly a contender in the race for the Republican nomination for president were all over Iowa on Thursday." A final average of Iowa polls going into the voting had shown Romney with a razor thin lead over Paul and Santorum a highly competitive third.

Isn’t It Ironic? FCC’s New Website Comes Short on Communication

In an irony perhaps only lawyers can appreciate, the Federal Communications Commission’s newly revamped, state-of-the-art website has, according to one expert, a major communications flaw: Information on the agency’s rule-making is as buried as a pirate’s treasure.

The online location of FCC rules under consideration is simply “not obvious to the nonspecialist,” says University of Pennsylvania law professor Cary Coglianese, who authored a study about federal agencies’ use of electronic media in the rule-making process. Similarly, proposed air pollution rules—the subject of recent controversy for the Obama administration—were “nowhere to be found” on the website of the Environmental Protection Agency. Although we’re long past the days of lawyers and other interested parties dusting off the Federal Register to comment on proposed regulations, it remains just as hard for ordinary citizens to participate in the process because, according to Coglianese, federal agencies bury details of proposed rules in obscure places online.

Removing the legal eye patch

[Commentary] For too long, the solution to Internet piracy has been to “round up the usual suspects.’’ While the US economy loses billions because of copyright infringement every year, it seems the only people held responsible are stray hackers and unlucky college students who downloaded one song too many from their dorm room. The Stop Online Piracy Act currently before Congress would finally give law enforcement the tools to crack down on the websites that enable Internet piracy. Currently, one can use Google to quickly jump to a site that offers pirated HBO shows or bootlegs of the latest hit album, or go on YouTube and watch television shows or music videos uploaded illegally, actions for which neither website faces repercussions.

Free speech and fair use can co-exist. While the anti-piracy bill still needs further refinement to ensure that its legal wording precisely matches its legislative intent, online piracy is a major problem that imposes real economic costs. Congress needs to take action to protect American jobs from piracy. Although the proposed legislation may be imperfect, it is a strong and decisive step in the right direction.

No Warrant Needed for GPS Monitoring, Judge Rules

A Missouri federal judge ruled the FBI did not need a warrant to secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to a suspect’s car to track his public movements for two months.

The ruling, upholding federal theft and other charges, is one in a string of decisions nationwide supporting warrantless GPS surveillance. The decision comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue within months in an unrelated case. The ruling from Magistrate David Noce mirrored the Obama Administration position before the Supreme Court during oral arguments on the topic in November. In short, defendant Fred Robinson, who was suspected of fudging his time sheets for his treasurer’s office job for the city of St. Louis, had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his public movements, Magistrate Noce said.

Judge not convinced by Apple's trade secrets argument, unseals docs

A judge has denied Apple's request to keep certain court documents sealed in its copyright infringement case against Mac clone maker Psystar.

US District Judge William Alsup ordered that portions of the parties' summary judgement be unsealed and filed publicly without any redaction. The ruling came after another judge's comments in September, who argued that Apple had failed to articulate specific reasons for the documents to remain sealed. Apple and Psystar have been engaging in a legal battle since July of 2008, with Apple arguing that Psystar was violating Apple's copyrights by selling non-Macs with Mac OS X installed. Psystar attempted to defend itself by arguing that the OS X licensing agreement was an "unlawful attempt to extend copyright protection to products that are not copyrightable." Apple eventually won its copyright case, as well as an appeal from Psystar, but Apple maintained that its summary judgements should stay sealed for fear of publishing trade secrets about OS X's functionality.

Belarus puts restrictions on foreign internet sites

A new law in Belarus will restrict access to foreign websites and force internet clubs and cafes to report users visiting sites registered abroad.

The law, which takes effect on Friday, says anyone selling goods or services to Belarus citizens on the web must use the .by Belarusian domain name. That would make it illegal for firms like Amazon or eBay to sell goods to customers in Belarus. Fines for breaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles (£77; $120). The law says people offering internet services to the public - whether at a cafe, club or in their own home - will face fines if their customers visit foreign websites and such visits are not properly recorded and reported. Anyone found accessing "extremist" or "pornographic" websites will also be fined, the law says.

Benton

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