February 2012

Congress isn’t killing white spaces broadband before it’s born

Congress has reached a compromise on key wireless spectrum issues that had the potential to put the kibosh on innovation and competition when it came to both mobile broadband and unlicensed spectrum.

The House and Senate had proposed language in a bill that interfered with the FCC’s ability to set the terms of a proposed auction for a portion of the digital TV spectrum, and also prevented the agency from allocating unlicensed spectrum that could be used for white spaces broadband or even more airwaves for Wi-Fi. But legislators reached a compromise that ensures that the FCC will be able to set spectrum auction rules, which means it will have the freedom to ensure that AT&T and Verizon don’t walk away with the lion’s share of the new spectrum (after it sets a public rulemaking). Of course, the rules that are currently being proposed for that auction still leave the value of those airwaves for mobile broadband in doubt. From a tech perspective it’s the compromise on unlicensed spectrum that’s the most important. The law will acknowledge that the FCC will have the authority to designate spectrum as unlicensed in the TV band and beyond — meaning Congress can’t demand that if the FCC gets airwaves it has to auction them the highest bidder. Yes, such an action ensures more money for the U.S. Treasury (and presumably a boon to taxpayers), but it also means that technologies that could rely on unlicensed airwaves may never come to fruition. And, those technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and others arguably offer consumer, business and economic benefits that offset the loss to the U.S. Treasury.

The legislation also sets aside a portion of spectrum and provides funds for a nationwide broadband network for first responders. The public safety network, which would help first responders from different agencies communicate during emergencies, is one of the last outstanding recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report.

The compromise removes a provision from Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would have barred the FCC from imposing network neutrality conditions on wireless companies that buy the spectrum licenses at auction. The FCC's controversial net-neutrality rules prohibit Internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to legitimate websites.

FCC Measuring Broadband Service in the United States

The Federal Communications Commission is continuing its efforts to improve the availability of information describing broadband performance in the US.

A key part of the FCC’s Consumer Empowerment Agenda will be expanding the Measuring Broadband project this year, including publishing two reports in 2012, and expanding the study to include more technologies, extending the study into new regions of the country, and planning to publish more kinds of data. The first round of testing will begin in March. Interested consumers are again encouraged to volunteer to be a part of this important effort to provide detailed and accurate measurements of consumer broadband performance on a national level. Once again, the Measuring Broadband project will develop real data to evaluate ISP broadband performance claims and provide consumers with the ability to compare ISPs in meaningful ways.

FCC Budget Hearing

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, FCC Inspector General David Hunt, and Universal Service Administrative Company CEO Scott Barash testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on the FCC’s budget.

For FY2013, the FCC requests an increase in its appropriated budget to $432 million, including $85 million from auction receipts and $347 million from regulatory fees. This proposal represents a net $7 million increase from FY2012 funding levels, with $10.6 million for new programs; $5.1 million to maintain existing programs; $1.1 million to replace aging radio-direction-finding vehicles; $300,000 to improve the consultation abilities of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy; and savings of $10.2 million based on a one-time appropriations adjustment and reductions to rent, contracts, and other expenses. The Commission estimates that it will have 1,917 employees for FY2012, and its request for FY2013 would maintain that number. Of the $10.6 million in new programs, $3.6 million would be used to implement the Administration’s cloud initiative, host the FCC’s services at distributed data centers with improved cybersecurity capabilities, upgrade the ability to change service providers without affecting public use of the FCC’s online services, and produce potential long-term savings. The FCC requests $2.5 million to consolidate two data centers in Washington, D.C., as well as elements of a redundant site at the FCC’s Gettysburg facility. The FCC requests another $2.5 million to buy new radio-direction-finding equipment for the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau; this equipment is used to determine the source and significance of harmful interference to radio broadcasters and receivers. The FCC requests $1 million to develop the technical capabilities of supporting interoperable public safety communications in the 700 MHz spectrum, $500,000 for the FCC’s test facility to support new wireless technologies including spectrum sensing equipment, and $500,000 for a study on the link between the ownership and employment practices of communications providers and content they air.

Twitter + Robots = Instant Stories, No Humans Required

Hey, how’s Newt Gingrich doing on Twitter? You could try answering this question yourself by combing through Twitter and looking at what Newt says there, and what people are saying about Newt there. But that would take time and effort. Much easier to have a computer track this down for you — and then ask the computer to write up a story about it, too. That’s what Narrative Science, the start-up that specializes in robot-written stories, did earlier this week. The result isn’t elegant, but it gets the job done, in a brute force sort of way.

Gnip Will Be First Authorized Reseller of Historical Twitter Data

Social media is all about real-time conversation in the present, but people seem to have finally started remembering that there’s a value to the past. On the consumer side, there are things like Facebook Timeline and the clever Timehop emails. On the business side, Gnip said it will now be the first official vendor of historical Twitter data feeds. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves; by “historical,” Gnip means the past 30 days. Most of Twitter’s history is still locked in the vault.

What are the next, big trends in broadband?

What’s the next big technology for connecting an increasingly data-hungry world to the Internet? While cable remains a solid, wired solution for connecting to the Internet in many places, its adaptation has stumbled outside of the U.S. where a shaky infrastructure produced poor wireline connections. DSL came along after cable, and quickly became known as high-speed DSL as customers used more data faster, ever pushing the capacity of their phone lines. In rural areas, satellite often remains the only player in the game. However, more and more, the only phrase on the lips of services, companies, and customers alike has been optical fiber. Fiber seems up to that challenge, boosting data rates and extending reach over copper fiber. The current goal of providers is to offer what is referred to as a triple-play (voice, data and video over one network) but as fiber’s use and popularity increases, expect to see them branch out to building fixed access or wireline Internet with wireless access technologies in order to provide networks that will offer always-on broadband services on a constant basis.

At hearing, Sens. McCain and Lieberman clash over cybersecurity measure

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) accused Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) of trying to ram through a flawed cybersecurity bill at a hearing.

"Unfortunately, the bill introduced by the chairman and ranking member has already been placed on the calendar by the majority leader without a single markup or any executive business meeting by any committee of relevant jurisdiction," Sen McCain said. "My friends, that’s wrong." "To suggest that this bill should move directly to the Senate Floor because it has ‘been around’ since 2009 is outrageous," McCain said. "First, the bill was introduced two days ago. Secondly, where do Senate Rules state that a bill’s progress in a previous Congress can supplant the necessary work on that bill in the present one?" Sen McCain said he is concerned the bill will duplicate cybersecurity efforts by the Defense Department, grow the budget deficit and impose burdensome regulations on businesses.

Telcos want higher network charges in EU

Telecoms providers should be able to raise prices charged to rivals for using their networks to help spur investment in faster fiber optics, said the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), whose members include Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and Telefonica.

EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes said last year she might tell telecoms companies to cut access charges to their copper-based networks to force them to invest in fiber optics. The suggestion, which could still be modified, is part of the Commission's plan to speed up the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband across Europe to boost jobs and businesses. The EU executive will unveil its proposals later this year.

Intellectual Ventures sues three US mobile telcos

Intellectual Ventures, a privately held patent holding company co-founded by a former Microsoft executive, sued three of the four top US mobile providers for patent infringement.

The company accused AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA of fifteen counts of infringements of patents related to their wireless network services in a lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court of Delaware. It said that the operators had infringed on its patents either alone or in conjunction with each other through their interoperability agreements including those involving swapping of multi-media messages between their customers.

Is Megaupload "a lot less guilty than you think?"

Jennifer Granick, a Bay Area attorney blogging for Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, has risen to Megaupload's defense, calling the site "a lot less guilty than you think."

Granick focuses on an issue that didn't come up much in our earlier discussion: the distinction between civil and criminal law. Traditionally, copyright enforcement has largely been a civil matter—that is, it focused on private disputes between copyright holders and infringers. But in recent years, Congress has increasingly made copyright infringement a criminal matter, getting the federal government directly involved in prosecuting alleged infringers.

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