February 2012

Hundreds of nonprofit groups and companies, including Google and Microsoft, urged Congress to not restrict the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) authority to structure proposed auctions of airwaves, known as spectrum.

"We reiterate our strong belief that compromise legislation should include language that gives the FCC clear flexibility to make appropriate spectrum allocation decisions that will raise revenue, support vibrant wireless competition and technological innovation, and promote rural broadband deployment," the groups wrote. "We urge Senate and House negotiators to include provisions that preserve the FCC’s existing authority to respond to changes in this continually evolving and dynamic market." The letter was also signed by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Public Knowledge, the Free Press Action Fund and the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication.

“2012 is going to be a huge year in terms of innovation—not just with respect to being able to leverage location to contextualize the types of advertising and offers that a consumer receives, but also then to turn the corner on that and turn it into actual commerce in the physical world,” said Walt Doyle, CEO of the location-based service Where.

And geotargeting doesn’t stop with the widely cited example of a free cup of Starbucks. While often accused of not living up to its promise, we likely will see the day, and soon, when location-based technology redefines behavioral targeting as we know it, when a consumer packaged-goods company recognizes that a shopper is in the cereal aisle and sends a Wheaties coupon to her phone. What’s more, in the not-so-distant future, a marketer could use technology like that of Where to track a person’s daily routine so precisely that it knows when she’s on her way to the office, the gym or home for the evening. To be sure, the future of location-based marketing is about more than just check-ins.

This report details the Federal Communications Commission’s progress toward fulfilling its strategic goals and meeting its performance commitments. The purpose of the Annual Performance Report is to increase our agency’s accountability by making detailed performance information transparent and accessible to all citizens. The FY 2011 Annual Performance Report looks retrospectively and so it reports on the FCC’s strategic goals for FY 2011. The FCC detailed those goals in the FCC’s FY 2011 Annual Performance Plan issued in February of 2010 as part of the FCC’s FY 2011 budget submission to Congress.

Critics say allowing Department of Homeland Security to determine requirements in consultation with the private sector could water down security provisions.

The leadership of the Senate Homeland Security Committee will introduce a comprehensive cybersecurity bill on Feb 14 that would allow firms to appeal whether new security regulations should apply to their sector. The legislation would task the Department of Homeland Security with determining which sectors of the economy would be covered by new cybersecurity regulations, after risk assessments in consultation with the private sector, the intelligence community and others. But designated sectors would have the right to appeal whether the regulations apply to them. Several groups representing portions of the private sector considered part of the critical infrastructure have expressed concern about the impact of the regulations on both security and the bottom line.