February 2012

Glimmer of hope for Mexican telecoms

When rumours spread recently that Mexico’s antitrust body would block a media group’s purchase of a 50 per-cent stake in a small telecoms operator, it seemed that the door had slammed shut on the country’s highly-concentrated telecoms market, which is dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim and his Telcel group. Last week though, that door edged open a little.

The Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco) denied Televisa’s $1.6bn acquisition of Iusacell, which has about 5 per cent of the mobile market. However, it did say that it might approve the deal on appeal if the two companies could provide solutions to several of its concerns. The ruling keeps alive the possibility of fostering more competition in Mexico’s $35bn a year telecoms sector, long considered bereft of powerful companies to take on 72-year-old Mr Slim, who dominates the industry with 70 per cent of the mobile market through Telcel. Movistar, owned by Spain’s Telefónica, is a distant second with about 20 per cent of the market.

Protests erupt across Europe against web piracy treaty

Tens of thousands of protesters took part in rallies across Europe on Feb 11 against an international anti-piracy agreement they fear will curb their freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage Internet surveillance.

More than 25,000 demonstrators braved freezing temperatures in German cities to march against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) while 4,000 Bulgarians in Sofia rallied against the agreement designed to strengthen the legal framework for intellectual property rights. There were thousands more - mostly young - demonstrators at other high-spirited rallies despite snow and freezing temperatures in cities including Warsaw, Prague, Slovakia, Bucharest, Vilnius, Paris, Brussels and Dublin. Opposition to ACTA in Eastern Europe is especially strong and spreading rapidly. Protesters have compared it to the Big Brother-style surveillance used by former Communist regimes. Downloading films and music is also a popular way for many young Eastern Europeans to obtain free entertainment.

Google tells FTC of progress on privacy

Amid controversy over its plans to combine user data from search to YouTube, Google told the Federal Trade Commission in a self-assessment report that the upcoming changes in its privacy policy are fully in compliance with the company’s settlement with the federal government last year.

The report — delivered to the FTC in January — lays out the steps the company has taken internally to make sure it complies with the FTC’s consent decree finalized in November over the firm’s privacy policies. Google says the efforts represent “exceptional lengths” by the company to keep users informed how the Internet firm collects, uses and shares information. Part of Google’s settlement involving its now-defunct Buzz social network includes 20 years of assessments of the firm’s privacy policies from an outside auditor. In the document, Google said it has hired PriceWaterhouseCoopers to provide the assessments, which will be made every other year starting this summer. "Google's report makes clear that the company failed to comply with the obligations set out in the consent order, particularly with respect to the changes announced on Jan. 24, 2012. It is clear that the Federal Trade Commission will need to act,” said Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg.

Apple sues Motorola Mobility over Qualcomm license

Apple sued Motorola Mobility in a US court in an attempt to stop Motorola from asserting some patent claims against Apple in Germany, according to the lawsuit.

The suit, filed in a San Diego federal court, argues that Motorola's German lawsuit against Apple breaches terms of a patent licensing agreement between Motorola and Qualcomm. Apple accused Motorola of pursuing an aggressive international campaign of litigation that "flies in the face" of its promise to license standards essential patents on fair and reasonable terms. "Despite owning scores of standards essential patents, Apple has never asserted a standard essential patent in litigation," it said. Apple says that as a Qualcomm customer, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of Motorola's agreement with Qualcomm. Under that agreement, Motorola's rights under certain patents are exhausted, Apple argues. The case in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California is Apple Inc. and Apple Sales International v. Motorola Mobility Inc., 12-cv-355.

BlackBerry out at U.S. climate agency, iPhone in

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphone has struggled to win over U.S. consumers but the Canadian company has long been able to rely on the loyalty of corporate and government clients who depend on its secure email. No more.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S. federal agency that studies climate and the environment, plans to replace some of its employees' BlackBerrys with Apple iPhones and get rid of the servers that power RIM's smartphones by June. "It all comes down to economics," Joe Klimavicz, NOAA's chief information officer, said. "I've got a lot of pressure to cut our operating costs." RIM charges a fee for use of its servers and data centers, which compress and encrypt email and other sensitive data. The company's early success was due to a reliance on BlackBerry smartphones by lawyers, bankers, politicians and bureaucrats. But with budgets under pressure and competitors improving their security bone fides, BlackBerry is no longer the only game in town.

Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad 2s

The U.S. Air Force may buy as many as 18,000 iPad2s in what would be one of the military’s biggest orders of computer tablets, accelerating Apple’s inroads into the federal government.

The service’s Air Mobility Command plans to issue a request for proposals to buy between 63 and 18,000 “iPad 2, Brand Name or Equal devices” to lighten the load of flight crews, according to a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website. The goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts weighing as much as 40 pounds that are carried by pilots and navigators, said Captain Kathleen Ferrero, a spokeswoman for the command. “The airline industry is way ahead of us on this,” she said in a telephone interview. “Most, if not all of the major airliners are already switching to tablets.”

Intel settles NY antitrust case for just $6.5 million

Intel Corp agreed to pay just $6.5 million to resolve an antitrust lawsuit in which New York's attorney general accused the world's largest chipmaker of threatening computer makers and paying billions of dollars of kickbacks to maintain its market dominance.

The settlement ends a November 2009 Delaware case brought by Andrew Cuomo, then New York's attorney general and now governor. Eric Schneiderman, the current attorney general, took over the case when he succeeded Cuomo in that position. Intel's $6.5 million payment represents less than five hours of profit for the Santa company, based on reported net income of $12.94 billion for 2011. The lawsuit lost much of its punch when U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark said the state could not seek triple damages, and was allowed to pursue claims over just three years of computer purchases, not four or six as it had sought.

Petitioners demand Comcast carry Al-Jazeera nationally

Grassroots activists are going to deliver a popular online petition asking Comcast Cable to carry Al-Jazeera English nationally to Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia on Feb 13. The petition, launched by Rethink Progress on change.org, has already attracted more than 23,000 signatures.

Madonna slams MIA's Super Bowl finger gesture

Madonna has slammed British rapper MIA's offensive finger gesture during her Super Bowl show as juvenile, negative and out of place.

Madonna said she had no idea MIA made the gesture after joining the pop superstar on stage during the halftime show, which was watched on television by more than 114 million Americans. "I didn't know about it until I left. I was really surprised. I didn't know anything about it," she said, adding that she was not happy. "I understand it's punk rock and everything, but to me there was such a feeling of love and good energy, and positivity. It seemed negative. It's one of the those things, it's such a teenager, irrelevant thing to do ... what was the point? It was just out of place," she added. The watchdog group Parents Television Council protested, blaming both the NFL and NBC for hiring performers "who have based their careers on shock, profanity and titillation."

BTOP Case Study Five: Bill Callahan, Connect Your Community Project Director, OneCommunity

OneCommunity, a non-profit broadband provider in Northeast Ohio, is using Recovery Act funding to expand innovative broadband adoption work it is doing in Cleveland and replicate the program in seven other communities in Ohio and four other states.

The Connect Your Community (CYC) project provides computer classes and broadband training, as well as low-cost equipment and help finding affordable Internet access, to get low-income households online. One key to the program is the CYC Corps, a team of staffers hired in each community to teach computer and Internet basics to others, who are using those skills to look for jobs or even start their own businesses online. Working with eight local partners, OneCommunity says it is on track to produce 26,000 new broadband adopters. (OneCommunity is also using another Recovery Act award to upgrade and expand its fiber-optic network, which connects anchor institutions in Northeast Ohio).

Benton

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