April 24, 2012 (Obama announces sanctions for tech used in human rights abuses)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012
A busy day in wonkland http://benton.org/calendar/2012-04-24/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Obama announces sanctions for tech used in human rights abuses in Iran and Syria
Obama hits back at online spying - editorial [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Microsoft and Facebook Align Further With Patent Deal
SiriusXM snubs Liberty Media's takeover attempt – again
Apple sued in California over touch patent
That $1B for Instagram? It’s 23M Shares of Facebook + $300M in Cash
Oracle Presses Case With Google E-mails
Tech firms behaving badly
TELEVISION/VIDEO
Sunlight Foundation Disses Broadcaster Political File Compromise
Broadcasters Unite Over Political File Counter-Proposal
As users flock to iTunes, Hulu and Netflix, TV stations struggle to survive
Will the Senate please ask ISPs to justify their wireless caps?
Google targets $20 billion local TV ad market
Why is PBS as male-centered as Disney or Pixar? - op-ed [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
On Tribal Lands, Digital Divide Brings New Form Of Isolation - op-ed
Universities as Hubs for Next-Generation Networks - research
Measuring the Broadband Bonus in Thirty OECD Countries - research
Why Internet/GDP Ratios Make No Sense - analysis
Broadband Investment Continues to Hold Steady in 2011 - press release
Tablets and clouds to displace the PC, report says
Amazon Cautions Congress About Data Caps, Specialized Services
Network Neutrality Suit Players Agree to Briefing Schedule
Netflix Not Buying Comcast Excuse about Xfinity Data
CBO: House cyber e-gov bill would cost $710 million
White House pushes for privacy safeguards in cybersecurity bill [links to web]
Cybersecurity costs for business fall [links to web]
Conservative groups slam House cybersecurity bill [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Verizon/SpectrumCo: The Spectrum Concentration Gap v. The Spectrum Crunch - analysis
Mobile Ad Firms Seek New Ways to Track You
The Two-Horse Smartphone Race
Contracts With Apple Should Blunt Any Carrier Push-Back on iPhone Subsidies
T-Mobile: Verizon doesn't need AWS spectrum it's trying to buy, because it hasn't used the AWS spectrum it already owns
Bloated website code drains your smartphone's battery [links to web]
HEALTH
Health records lost, stolen or revealed online [links to web]
LABOR
Who's teleworking? Government doesn't really know.
LOBBYING
Google’s Q1 Federal Lobbying Receipt: $5 Million [links to web]
Netflix hires more lobbyists for push on video rental law [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
Murdoch discussed BSkyB bid with PM
For Results, Twitter Gets Out Early Word, in Code
China tightens online pirated content laws [links to web]
BBC gives the word to AudioBoo [links to web]
Indian Regulator Proposes Open Telecom Auction [links to web]
Kenya Prepares to Block Fake Mobile Phones [links to web]
Cybersecurity costs for business fall [links to web]
Internet Hall of Fame Inductees - press release
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
IT AND HUMAN RIGHTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Scott Wilson]
President Obama issued an executive order that allows US officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies, including cellphone tracking and Internet monitoring, to help carry out grave human rights abuses. Social media and cellphone technology have been widely credited with helping democracy advocates organize against autocratic governments and better expose rights violations, most notably over the past year and a half in the Middle East and North Africa. But authoritarian governments, particularly in Syria and Iran, have shown that their security services can also harness technology to help crackdown on dissent — by conducting surveillance, blocking access to the Internet or tracking the movements of opposition figures. Obama’s executive order, which he announced during a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, is an acknowledgment of those dangers and of the need to adapt American national security policy to a world being remade rapidly by technology, according to senior administration officials familiar with the plans. Although the order is designed to target companies and individuals assisting the governments of Iran and Syria, they said, future executive orders could name others aiding other countries through technology in crackdowns on dissent. Under the order, the administration announced new sanctions, including a U.S. visa ban and financial restrictions, against a range of Syrian and Iranian agencies and individuals.
benton.org/node/121028 | Washington Post | read the Executive Order | letter to Congress | Fact Sheet | Politico | LATimes | NextGov | The Hill
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OWNERSHIP
MICROSOFT-FACEBOOK PATENT DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield]
Less than two weeks after Microsoft paid America Online more than $1 billion for a trove of patents, Microsoft is selling or licensing those same patents to its online ally, Facebook, for $550 million. The deal allows Facebook to bulk up its intellectual property portfolio ahead of the social networking company’s initial public offering, expected next month, and it is a further sign of the growing importance of stockpiling patents in the arsenal of any big technology company. It also shows how Microsoft and Facebook have gravitated increasingly closer to each other in large part because of a common enemy: Google. The deal could give Facebook additional ammunition in an escalating patent feud with Yahoo. Yahoo sued Facebook earlier this year, claiming violations of Yahoo patents, many of them related to online advertising. Facebook subsequently countersued Yahoo, in a pattern that is playing out again and again in different parts of the technology business, especially the mobile phone market.
benton.org/node/121027 | New York Times | WSJ
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SIRIUSXM-LIBERTY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Alex Pham]
Sirius XM Radio Inc. delivered a counterpunch to Liberty Media's hostile takeover attempt in a brief it filed with federal regulators. Liberty Media in March threw the first punch by asking the Federal Communications Commission to give it control over SiriusXM's operating licenses. Liberty argued that its 40% stake in SiriusXM gave it "de facto" control over the satellite radio company. It refined its argument further last Thursday, arguing that its stake, and control over five of the 13 seats on the Sirius board is "more than sufficient to determine the outcome of matters submitted to a vote of shareholders." SiriusXM took umbrage over the characterization. In a brief filed with the FCC, SiriusXM scoffed at Liberty's argument that "40 is the new 50." "There is no support for the remarkable proposition that a ... 40% minority interest, standing alone, is sufficient to bestow control of a public company," wrote SiriusXM's attorneys, who urged the agency's commissioners to dismiss Liberty's request.
benton.org/node/121024 | Los Angeles Times
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APPLE SUED OVER TOUCH PATENT
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Loek Essers]
Apple products using touch technology infringe on a patent owned by the Pennsylvanian company FlatWorld Interactives, the company alleged in court documents filed on April 20. FlatWorld asked for a permanent injunction that Apple stop infringing, and for sufficient compensation for the infringements, the company's attorneys said. The Pennsylvanian designer of touchscreen systems for use in museum displays alleged that Apple knowingly infringed on its patent, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said. The infringing products are said to include the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. FlatWorld said Apple's infringement has been on a massive scale and has caused it irreparable harm. The company demanded a permanent injunction enjoining Apple from continued infringement plus an unspecified amount of damages to compensate for Apple's infringement. The company is seeking a jury trial.
benton.org/node/121009 | IDG News Service
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FACEBOOK-INSTAGRAM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kara Swisher]
From Facebook’s S-1 filing on the Instagram acquisition: “In April 2012, we entered into an agreement to acquire Instagram, Inc., which has built a mobile phone-based photo-sharing service, for approximately 23 million shares of our common stock and $300 million in cash. Following the closing of this acquisition, we plan to maintain Instagram’s products as independent mobile applications to enhance our photos product offerings and to enable users to increase their levels of mobile engagement and photo sharing. This acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the expiration or early termination of all applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of 1976, as amended (HSR), and is currently expected to close in the second quarter of 2012. We have agreed to pay Instagram a $200 million termination fee if governmental authorities permanently enjoin or otherwise prevent the completion of the merger or if either party terminates the agreement after December 10, 2012.”
benton.org/node/121086 | Wall Street Journal
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ORACLE-GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Letzing]
The Google executive in charge of its Android mobile phone software at the heart of the company's legal dispute with Oracle was confronted in court by a series of internal e-mails he wrote years earlier cautioning the search company against an "uncharacteristically" aggressive use of outside intellectual property to develop the technology. Andy Rubin, Google's senior vice president of mobile, was shown during his testimony at a trial in San Francisco a series of e-mails he wrote about six years ago advising others at Google that the company should buy the right to use Sun Microsystems' Java technology in Android. An Oracle attorney pressed Rubin on statements he had made in his emails, including doubts that Google could safely and legitimately develop its own version of Java for Android without paying Sun for the privilege -- as others in the technology industry have.
benton.org/node/121084 | Wall Street Journal
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TECH FIRMS BEHAVING BADLY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wasserman, Michelle Quinn]
What’s Silicon Valley’s latest export? Try corporate misbehavior. In the past two weeks, Google has been spanked for obstructing federal regulators, Apple was slapped with a Justice Department suit for conspiring to drive up e-book prices, and seven tech companies were told they’ll go on trial for allegedly colluding to stop employees from jumping from one to the other. It’s a major turn of events for an industry that once held itself up as a “don't be evil” alternative to old-school corporate greed. And suddenly, consumers, courts and regulators are having a hard time seeing tech titans in a different light than any other industry or even the robber barons whose actions gave rise to antitrust laws they’re now accused of breaking.
benton.org/node/121066 | Politico
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TELEVISION/VIDEO
SUNLIGHT RESPONDS TO BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Sunlight Foundation has written the Federal Communications Commission to ask that it not accept broadcasters' compromise proposal for posting political files online, arguing that it creates a two-tiered regime that does not satisfy congressional intent for political file reporting and undercuts broadcaster arguments that online posting of all political file info would be unduly burdensome. Top broadcast group execs have met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Media Bureau staffers over the past several weeks to make a last-ditch pitch for their proposal to put aggregated political ad totals from candidates online, rather than individual ad buys, which would still be available in paper form in local station files. In the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Sunlight Foundation, which promotes government transparency and online access to info, says that placing all the public file political info online is fundamental to satisfying the congressional directive per campaign reform law.
benton.org/node/121016 | Broadcasting&Cable
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TV STATIONS STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
As the audience for free television fades, federal regulators are wrestling over the future of the government-mandated broadcasts, which were originally intended to knit the nation’s disparate communities together. Today, only 10 percent of the nation relies on free, over-the-air TV, which was created by the Telecom Act in the 1930s. To get a license, broadcasters had to offer local, educational and political programming, and to make it widely available to rich and poor alike. Now, that viewing audience is becoming fragmented once again, social scientists say. On the Web, where users pick and choose what they want to watch, it’s harder to ensure public broadcasting, local news and political debates will reach the bulk of American households. With options such as iTunes, Hulu, YouTube and Netflix — which can be accessed on TVs and mobile devices alike — communities are no longer bonded by watching the same evening news and prime-time shows. And as fewer people rely only on broadcast television, stations around the nation are struggling to survive even as some rural residents, elderly and the poor continue to rely on free TV.
benton.org/node/121026 | Washington Post
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WILL SENATE ADDRESS WIRELESS CAPS?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The Senate is investigating video competition during a hearing on April 24 and public interest groups are using it as an opportunity to ask tough questions on broadband caps. Such caps, which are in place on over half of the wireline broadband connections in this country, are justified by the idea that they prevent folks from overusing shared broadband networks. However, most outsiders view such caps as a way for broadband providers to protect their existing pay TV products. So as the Senate gets ready to meet, Public Knowledge, Free Press, the New America Foundation and Consumers Union sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee asking it to quiz ISPs about their caps. The letters essentially ask why such caps are necessary given that caps are a bad way to deal with network congestion (rate limiting during times of peak demand is a better option). They also asked what I think of as the Comcast question:
Recently, Comcast began offering an Internet-enabled streaming service through Microsoft’s Xbox device, for customers that subscribe to both Comcast’s monthly cable television package and its monthly broadband service. This online video offering will not count against consumers’ monthly broadband data caps, even though the service is provisioned over the very same networks that Comcast claims are so prone to congestion. This development casts additional doubt on the justification for data caps. That two identically sized data streams traveling over the same infrastructure could produce such disparate outcomes for the consumer provides an indication of the true motivation for these caps: discouraging consumers from using the online video services that compete with Comcast’s monthly cable package.
benton.org/node/121015 | GigaOm |
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GOOGLE TARGETS LOCAL TV AD MARKET
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Daniel Frankel]
Google, which is already making a play for the TV dollars spent by big national brands with investments into what it calls premium video, is now targeting small- and medium-sized video advertisers, too. It’s adapting its popular do-it-yourself AdWords platform to video ads made for its YouTube video portal. Google AdWords for Video, which soft-launched in September, has a basic framework similar to Google’s text-based AdWords. The program enables a company to bid on keyword searches, so that their ad shows up when relevant YouTube searches are conducted. They can also choose to have their ad embedded into relevant YouTube video categories, much as they would place their commercial during relevant linear TV programming. AdWords for Video purchasers pay only when their spot is actually viewed, and also get various data on when, how and where the ads were consumed. Google has posted a short video that explains how the new program works. The company has also gathered the testimonials of some early adopters to help promote the product.
benton.org/node/121010 | paidContent.org
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BROADCASTERS’ COUNTER-PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Broadcasters on April 20 presented a united front on a compromise proposal to post political ad info online. According to a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, the National Association of Broadcasters, the stations groups owned by ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision and Fox joined with TV station groups that had proposed the compromise and a number of state broadcaster associations to present the proposal before the sunshine period triggered for the planned April 27 vote on online disclosure of TV station public files, including political files. Station groups pitching a compromise had indicated more groups might be willing to sign up. The unified broadcaster proposal includes a schedule for updating the information. The broadcasters say they are OK with phasing in the requirement by starting with about 200 stations in the top markets, as the FCC has proposed to help test it.
benton.org/node/121074 | Broadcasting&Cable
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
TRIBAL DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Gerry Smith]
[Commentary] Native Americans have long experienced disconnection from the rest of the country -- their reservations are generally placed on remote lands with little economic potential, separated from modern-day markets for goods, as well as higher education and health care. The dawn of the Internet was supposed to bridge this gap, according to the promises of prominent public officials. Fiber optics cables along with satellite and wireless links would deliver the benefits of modernity to reservations, helping lift Native American communities out of isolation and poverty. But the rise of the web as an essential platform in American life has instead reinforced the distance for the simple reason that most Native Americans have little access to the online world. Less than 10 percent of homes on tribal lands have broadband Internet service -- a rate that is lower than in some developing countries. By contrast, more than half of African Americans and Hispanics and about three-fourths of whites have high-speed access at home, according to the Department of Commerce. Without reliable access to the Internet, many Native Americans find themselves increasingly isolated, missing out on opportunities to secure jobs, gain degrees through online classes, reach health care practitioners, and even preserve native languages and rituals with new applications that exploit the advantages of the web.
benton.org/node/121012 | Huffington Post, The
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UNIVERSITIES AS HUBS FOR NEXT-GEN NETWORKS
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Benjamin Lennett, Sarah Morris, Greta Byrum]
Based on a request for information (RFI) submitted to The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project (Gig.U), the paper describes a model for universities to develop next generation broadband infrastructure in their communities. In our view universities can play a critical role in spurring next generation networks into their communities through use of their physical infrastructure to extend high-speed Internet access and sharing their expertise and resources to support engagement and participation by community members, businesses, and institutions.
We propose a network model that integrates both high-capacity fiber deployments to community anchor institutions along with community-driven wireless mesh deployments, a device-as-infrastructure network architecture that operates using commonly available Wi-Fi equipment, to create connectivity for local neighborhoods. The model enables universities and communities to 1) provide affordable, scalable broadband access to end-users; 2) empower and engage community members through a collaborative deployment process; and 3) create a sustainable ecosystem of connectivity to further drive community development. In addition to expanding next-generation high-speed Internet access, the model allows for the creation of a community-wide intranet to develop local applications and serve as a platform for community data collection and research to better understand challenges relating to mobility, health, safety, urban management, and education. The paper also provides recommendations for universities to engage and identify local stakeholders and needs, build and finance network infrastructure, and for engaging community members in the build-out of wireless mesh networks.
benton.org/node/121002 | New America Foundation
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BROADBAND BONUS
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: Shane Greenstein, Ryan McDevitt]
This paper provides estimates of the economic value created by broadband Internet using measures of new gross domestic product and consumer surplus. The study finds that the economic value created in 30 OECD countries correlates roughly with the overall size of their broadband economies. In addition, price and quality data from the United States suggest that widespread adoption of broadband Internet has occurred without a dramatic decline in prices, which reflects an unobserved increase in broadband quality that conventional government statistics do not capture.
benton.org/node/120999 | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
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INTERNET/GDP RATIOS
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Felix Salmon]
[Commentary] The Economist reprinted a chart from a BCG report, which purported to show the contribution of “the internet” to the total GDP of various different countries. Britain comes out on top, with an internet-to-GDP ratio of 8.3%; it’s followed by Korea, China, Japan, USA, India, and Australia. After the UK, the highest-ranking European country is Germany, on just 3.3%, while Canada lags far behind the US. All of this was rather puzzling to me, so I spoke to BCG’s Paul Zwillenberg, one of the authors of the report. And the main thing I wanted to know, of course, was how on earth you could turn “the internet” into an annual dollar amount divisible by national GDP. “It’s like electricity. It’s part and parcel of the fabric of daily life,” Zwillenberg said, almost before I could ask my question. “It’s touching every part of the economy.” I’m inclined to agree — but you’d never dream of measuring different countries’ electricity-to-GDP ratios. So what’s he doing here? Zwillenberg did say that in ten years or so, “you won’t need to measure the internet economy because it will be totally pervasive.” But for the time being, he’s determined to measure the internet. And the way he’s doing it is very web 1.0. It seems to me that BCG’s not really measuring the internet here — it’s not measuring the hours spent watching YouTube, or interacting with friends on Facebook and Tumblr, or spreading news on Twitter, or even checking your stock portfolio or updating your billing information somewhere. It’s measuring e-commerce, primarily, which is an interesting subset of the internet, and one of the oldest, but ultimately just a fraction of what it can be. And when you’re measuring e-commerce, you’re measuring lots of things which aren’t really internet-related at all.
benton.org/node/120998 | Wired | BCG Report | The Economist
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USTELECOM RESEARCH
[SOURCE: USTelecom, AUTHOR: Press release]
The broadband industry invested nearly $66 billion in the nation’s information infrastructure in 2011, with wireline providing the largest portion of capital, according to USTelecom. Data from this 2011 research updates a data series published last year which documents the amount of capital broadband providers have invested since 1996. Through 2011, broadband providers have invested approximately $1.2 trillion. In 2011 wireline broadband providers invested nearly $27 billion, according to the study. From 1996 through 2011, wireline broadband providers invested approximately $640 billion in broadband infrastructure. Also, wireline contributed the largest portion of industry capital in 2011: 41 percent, compared to 40 percent for wireless and 19 percent for cable. High-speed fixed access and fiber core networks are essential to carry the large volume of data traffic, which has grown from the equivalent of 8.3 million DVDs per month in 2000 to more than 1.4 billion DVDs per month in 2010, and is expected to triple again over the next five years.
benton.org/node/120994 | USTelecom | read the research
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TABLETS, CLOUDS WILL DISPLACE PC
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michelle Maltais]
A paradigm shift may be coming to the digital lifestyle. Instead of the PC being the center of the personal computing universe, consumers will be opting for tablets as their primary computing device and relying on cloud storage to access their content across their devices, according to a new report. "This burgeoning market is set to disrupt the personal computing device and OS markets," according to a new report from Forrester Research on the future of computing. Instead of serving as a supplement to a desktop or laptop computer, the report said, these burgeoning cloud services will play such an integral role in the connected future that consumers will first choose a service, then the compatible device as the focus shifts from device to personal content storage services. And tablets such as iPad will become the conduit between consumers' digital devices such as smartphones and PC and the cloud-stored content. The computing platform will also make its way more solidly into the office, the report said. Even though the same functionality is heading to the PC, the form factor and mobility of tablets give them a clear edge over PCs, the report says.
benton.org/node/121022 | Los Angeles Times
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AMAZON CAUTIONS CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Amazon exec Paul Misener plans to tell Congress that while bandwidth pricing is OK, unreasonable caps are not and neither are specialized services that disadvantage competition. According to a summary of Misener's written testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee April 24, Misener says that "although subscribers should pay for the bandwidth they use immutable or unrealistically priced data caps could hinder or prevent competitive products and services made possible by online video." He also warns that so-called specialized services -- ones that do not travel over the public Internet and are not subject to Federal Communications Commission network neutrality rules -- need to be watched carefully to insure they don't "impede" the growth of online delivery and are not offered on unequal terms. He says that inequality would be more pronounced in rural areas where alternative choices are more limited.
benton.org/node/121072 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY BRIEFING SCHEDULE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
It looks like the legality of the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules will likely be debated through the end of the year in federal court filings. The parties to the Verizon/MetroPCS/Free Press challenges to FCC network neutrality rules, which have been consolidated into a single case, have agreed on and submitted to the court a schedule for briefs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. If the court agrees, the first briefs will be filed July 2 and the final briefs not until Nov. 21 (Thanksgiving is Nov. 22). The parties have asked that Verizon, Free Press, and MetroPCS be allowed to file separate briefs, even though they have all challenged the rules. That is because Verizon and MetroPCS are on opposite sides in a separate challenge to FCC data roaming rules (though the two also want to file a joint brief as well). In that challenge, Verizon and MetroPCS disagree over the FCC's authority to regulate wireless broadband, which is also at issue in the network neutrality rules challenge. Free Press wants to file separately because it is challenging the rules because it thinks they don't go far enough, not because they go too far, as the others contend. In addition, the parties say there need to be separate briefs for the pro-FCC interveners in Free Press' challenge to the rules. That is because CTIA, the intervenor in the Free Press, is supporting the FCC's decision not to impose its rules fully on mobile broadband and is not addressing or defending the FCC's regulatory authority, while the pro-FCC intervenors in the Verizon/MetroPCS challenge support the FCC's statutory authority to adopt the rules, which the cell companies are challenging.
benton.org/node/121070 | Multichannel News
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NETFLIX AND COMCAST
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Greg Sandoval]
In a letter to investors, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings suggested that Comcast was competing unfairly in the streaming-video sector. As part of his company's first-quarter earnings report, Hastings wrote that Comcast was providing the company's Xfinity Web-video service a competitive advantage not offered to Netflix or other competitors. "Comcast caps its residential broadband customers at 250 gigabytes per month," Hastings wrote. "On the Xbox the Netflix app, the Hulu app, and the HBO GO app, are all subject to this cap. But Comcast has decided that its own Xfinity Xbox app is not subject to this 250 gigabyte cap. This is not neutral in any sense." Hastings has begun to regularly complain in public about Comcast's decision not to count Xfinity's data against the company's cap. Netflix doesn't typically criticize competitors in public so this is likely a sign that the issue is important to the Web's top video service.
benton.org/node/121069 | C-Net|News.com
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COST OF CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
A government anti-hacking bill slated for a House vote this week would cost an additional $710 million to implement, according to an independent federal agency. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R. 4257, bipartisan legislation to automate many requirements under the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act, would not violate House pay-go rules requiring offsets for mandatory spending. Much of the money doled out between 2013 and 2017 would cover salaries, expenses and equipment.
benton.org/node/121067 | nextgov
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM CONCENTRATION VS THE SPECTRUM CRUNCH
[SOURCE: Tales of the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Verizon has clearly studied everything AT&T did wrong last year when it tried to acquire T-Mobile. That includes staying alert for early signs of trouble and taking preemptive moves to keep the course of approval running smoothly. It also includes showing grace under fire rather than trying to browbeat the Federal Communications Commission into submission. To head off concerns about the growing “spectrum gap” between Verizon (and AT&T) and its competitors, Verizon has offered to sell its Lower 700 MHz A&B block licenses in a private auction if the FCC grants the application to transfer the AWS-1 spectrum to it from SpectrumCo. At the same time, Verizon also insists that it is doing this of its own free will and not because the FCC is making it do so or because it has run into any trouble. As I will explain, I believe Verizon is telling the truth. The 700 MHz A&B block licenses Verizon promises to auction to competitors is not nearly as useful to it as the AWS-1 spectrum it will get from SpectrumCo and Cox. Given that everyone has extolled the virtues of the 700 MHz spectrum as the most important, game changing super-duper useful for mobile broadband spectrum in the entire universe, and since the licenses in question do cover some major markets, that no doubt comes as a surprise to many. Indeed, rather like the stereotypical used car salesman offering to swap your beat up lemon for his hardly ever driven luxury cream puff, this offer looks too good to be true. Why would Verizon want to swap Magic Elixir 700 MHz spectrum for Totally Awesome But Not Magic AWS-1 spectrum?
benton.org/node/121008 | Tales of the Sausage Factory | Part II
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MOBILE AD FIRMS TRACKING YOU
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Tom Simonite]
Few smart-phone users realize it, but mobile ad companies track them as they use many free apps. They do this in order to fine-tune the ads the users see. But now that Apple has started to restrict a common way of tracking users, ad companies are scrambling for alternatives, and hoping to "teach" consumers to appreciate the targeted ads that support free apps. Alarge consortium of mobile ad firms launched a new technical approach to tracking users of free apps. The consortium says the new method protects users' privacy, and will allow people to opt out if they prefer not to have their behavior logged. That opt-out mechanism would be modeled on those offered by online-ad companies for people who do not want their browsing history used to tailor ads.
benton.org/node/120995 | Technology Review
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SMARTPHONE RACE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Evan Ramstad]
Apple and Samsung should make it abundantly clear this week that the smartphone industry is increasingly dividing into the haves and have-nots. The two companies are expected to report record earnings for the first three months of the year, largely on the strength of smartphone sales. They together ship nearly half of all smartphones, pushing aside weakened competitors such as Nokia, HTC Corp., and Research In Motion. Yet Apple and Samsung—two rivals separated by about 5,000 miles—have climbed to the top using very different playbooks. Apple, the world's most valuable company, sells just one phone, the iPhone. The company emphasizes design and profitability over sales. It also invests heavily in its consumer brand and its tightly controlled retail stores, and it benefits from a strong ecosystem of software and apps. Meanwhile, Samsung, the world's largest tech company by revenue last year, goes for scale. The South Korean company is a fast-follower that places its bets broadly, creating multiple versions of myriad products such as its Galaxy smartphones to suit partners' needs. It maximizes profits by controlling its own manufacturing. Their divergent paths are proof that vastly different models can prevail. Apple and Samsung are each close to commanding 25% of the global market share of smartphone unit shipments, according to research firm IDC, which estimates the smartphone market will reach $219 billion in sales in 2012.
benton.org/node/121085 | Wall Street Journal
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IPHONE SUBSIDIES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Paczkowski]
The possibility of a decline in carrier subsidies for Apple’s iPhone has been top of mind for investors recently and partially responsible for the tumultuous few weeks the company’s shares have recently suffered. Question is: Will it happen? And according to a new analysis from CLSA, the answer is probably no — at least for the next 18-24 months. Because, CLSA argues, the structure of Apple’s carrier agreements will prevent it from occurring. “We believe these are multiyear agreements which tend to stipulate subsidy policies up front,” CLSA analyst Avi Silver explains. “For the major carriers, we believe these agreements have most favored nation clauses so any offering from Apple to one carrier would have to be offered to the other. During the length of these multiyear agreements, we believe U.S. carriers would need permission from Apple to alter subsidy levels.” And if that’s the case, they’re obviously going to have a difficult time getting it. More to the point, that hypothetical most favored nation clause — if it exists — is going to make it tough to trim iPhone subsidies for a while.
benton.org/node/121082 | Wall Street Journal
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T-MOBILE’S NEW CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Chris Ziegler]
At a meeting last week with Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan, T-Mobile pointed out that Verizon already owns AWS spectrum that it has never used since acquiring it several years ago. By all appearances, it's an attempt to undermine the company's talking point that it uses spectrum more efficiently than any other tier-one carrier in the country, and T-Mobile execs are bolstering their argument by pointing out that they'd make sure SpectrumCo's licenses were put to good use "immediately." Additionally, T-Mobile noted to Kaplan that Verizon's offer of a 700MHz sale in exchange for approval of the SpectrumCo acquisition has several problems, "including a lack of a national footprint in what Verizon is offering, interference from adjacent high-powered broadcasters, and lack of equipment and interoperability with the rest of the 700 MHz band." In many ways, this battle is shaping up to be the AT&T / T-Mobile acquisition of 2012, and ironically, T-Mobile is leading the opposition this time around.
benton.org/node/121062 | Verge, The
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LABOR
WHO’S TELEWORKING?
[SOURCE: Government Computer News, AUTHOR: William Jackson]
In 2010, the Office of Personnel Management set an aggressive goal of increasing the level of telework among federal employees by 50 percent, but officials don’t know how well they’re doing with it because of shortcomings in the way data about telework is collected, according to a recent report. OPM plans to test an automated system to gather telework data from agencies this year to get more complete and consistent data, rather than relying on agency estimates as in the past. But these changes also will make it difficult to compare the data with that from previous years, as required by the Telework Enhancement Act, according to the Government Accountability Office. “OPM officials have noted that this could limit OPM’s ability to report agency progress in its first report to Congress,” GAO said. It likely will be several years before there can be meaningful measurements of progress in moving federal workers out of the office.
benton.org/node/121001 | Government Computer News
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:
MURDOCH TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fenton]
James Murdoch discussed with David Cameron the government’s attitude to News Corp’s proposed £8.3bn bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting at a critical moment, he told the Leveson inquiry. The prime minister has previously said he did not discuss the bid with the former chairman of BSKyB when the two met at a dinner party at the home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, on December 23, 2010. Two days earlier, Cameron had stripped Vince Cable of regulatory oversight of the proposed bid, which had attracted huge controversy, after the business secretary told two undercover reporters he had “declared war on Mr [Rupert] Murdoch.” James Murdoch told Cameron in a “tiny, side conversation” before they sat down to a dinner with about a dozen others that he hoped the handling of the bid would now be appropriate and legal and fair. Earlier in his evidence, the deputy chief operating officer of News Corp said Cable’s remarks showed “acute bias.” His words are likely to provoke calls for an inquiry of the prime minister’s insistence he had not discussed the proposed bid. Cameron has been accused of being too close to the Murdochs in the past.
benton.org/node/121080 | Financial Times | NYTimes
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FOR RESULTS, TWITTER GETS OUT EARLY WORD, IN CODE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott Sayare]
In France on Sunday, the flan was decidedly in the oven, while the tomato was surprisingly green. By the same token — according to Twitter, at any rate — the temperature in Budapest hovered near 25 degrees. French law prohibits the publication, by the media or any Internet-connected citizen, of voting results or estimates before 8 p.m. on election days in the presidential race. The best-laid plans could not stop Twitter, though, whose users skirted regulations with offbeat code words and communicated tallies ahead of the appointed hour on April 22. The flan stood for François Hollande, the Socialist favorite, who finished the evening in the lead, with about 28 percent of the votes in the first of two rounds of voting. (Before losing weight for his presidential bid, the jovial Mr. Hollande had been known in some circles as “Flanby,” a brand of jiggly French custard.)
benton.org/node/121060 | New York Times
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INTERNET HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES HONORED
[SOURCE: Internet Hall of Fame, AUTHOR: Press release]
The names of the inaugural Internet Hall of Fame inductees were announced at the Internet Society’s Global INET 2012 conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Internet pioneers and luminaries from around the world gathered at the conference to mark the Internet Society’s 20th anniversary, and attend an Awards Gala to honor the 2012 inductees including:
Recognizing individuals who were instrumental in the early design and development of the Internet: Paul Baran, Vint Cerf, Danny Cohen, Steve Crocker, Donald Davies, Elizabeth Feinler, Charles Herzfeld, Robert Kahn, Peter Kirstein, Leonard Kleinrock, John Klensin, Jon Postel, Louis Pouzin, and Lawrence Roberts.
Recognizing individuals who made outstanding technological, commercial, or policy advances and helped to expand the Internet’s reach: Mitchell Baker, Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Van Jacobson, Lawrence Landweber, Paul Mockapetris, Craig Newmark, Raymond Tomlinson, Linus Torvalds, and Philip Zimmermann.
Recognizing individuals from around the world who have made significant contributions to the global growth and use of the Internet: Randy Bush, Kilnam Chon, Al Gore, Nancy Hafkin, Geoff Huston, Brewster Kahle, Daniel Karrenberg, Toru Takahashi, and Tan Tin Wee.
benton.org/node/121063 | Internet Hall of Fame
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