May 2012

Academics warn of £1 billion broadband shortfall

Academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) have warned of a billion-pound shortfall in funding for superfast broadband if the government is to meet its aim of providing the “best” Internet infrastructure in Europe.

The LSE’s department of media and communications found that funding for broadband from public sources, including the government’s £150 million pledge to help create 20 “super-connected cities”, totaled £1.3 billion, in a report commissioned by Convergys, a customer-management software provider. That left a £1.1bn funding gap to be filled by the private sector, the LSE said, which risked Britain lagging behind other countries and missing the economic benefits. A 10 percent increase in broadband penetration leads to an increase of 0.9-1.5 percent in gross domestic product a head, the report said, citing University of Munich research.

Report: More African-American homes using broadband

A new report says a narrowing broadband adoption gap between African-Americans and whites can be further closed by focusing on a new Federal Communications Commission initiative connecting broadband with jobs. The report released by the National Urban League policy institute shows the overall broadband adoption gap narrowing.

While the home broadband adoption gap between black and white Americans formerly stood at 19 percent in 2009, it had dropped to 8 percent by 2010, according to the report. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called the report "a good sign that we can continue to make progress together" on the broadband adoption gap. Nonetheless, he noted that one-third of Americans still don't have broadband service at home. "Having this many on the wrong side of the digital divide is not good for our country, our economy or our ability to compete," Chairman Genachowski said.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell also praised the report, though he admitted "more needs to be done" and promised that "more will be done." Citing a Pew Center study, Commissioner McDowell noted that more and more Americans are choosing to "cut the cord" from traditional broadband services — and minorities in particular are more likely to rely on mobile devices. "The Internet is going mobile, and minorities are leading the way. "This is promising," Commissioner McDowell said.

Rep Langevin defends CISPA, points to 'rigorous privacy requirements'

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) defended his vote for a controversial cybersecurity bill, saying the measure includes "rigorous privacy requirements."

The White House has threatened to veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) over concerns that it would lead companies to hand over their customers' private information to government spy agencies. In a speech at a cybersecurity symposium in Rhode Island, Rep Langevin said CISPA would help private companies protect their computer networks from hackers. "CISPA creates a voluntary information sharing network, with rigorous privacy requirements in place, that will provide private sector and many critical infrastructure entities with classified threat information to allow them to better secure their networks," Rep Langevin said. "It will also permit those entities to provide limited threat information back to the federal government, helping to provide situational awareness, or 'radar,' that we so desperately need to better understand the nature of the increasingly sophisticated threats arrayed against U.S. interests in cyberspace."

Mozilla breaks ranks with Silicon Valley, comes out against CISPA

Mozilla, a nonprofit foundation that makes the popular Firefox Web browser, has come out against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), citing concerns over privacy. The announcement puts Mozilla on the opposite side of the issue from many Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Symantec. Trade associations TechAmerica and the Information Technology Industry Council also back the bill. "While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security," Alex Fowler, head of Mozilla's global privacy and public policy team, said in a statement. "The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation."

FCC Sides With Bloomberg in Comcast/Neighborhooding Complaint

The Federal Communications Commission granted in part a complaint filed by Bloomberg claiming that its 24-hour business news channel, Bloomberg Television, is an “independent news channel” covered by the “news neighborhooding” condition adopted in the Comcast-NBCU Order. The FCC construes the terms of that condition and directs Comcast to carry Bloomberg consistent with the requirements of this order.

FCC Launches First-of-its-Kind Mobility Fund auction to Accelerate Delivery of 3G & 4G to Close Gaps in Mobile Coverage

The Federal Communications Commission announced the competitive bidding procedures for Phase I of the Mobility Fund, the first-ever reverse auction for Universal Service support, which will accelerate delivery of advanced mobile services to tens of thousands of road miles that currently lack 3G or 4G service. Winning bidders must deploy either 3G service within two years or 4G service within three years of the award. The Mobility Fund will award up to $300 million that was reserved out of savings from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) reforms. The auction is a market-based, fiscally responsible policy innovation to generate the greatest impact for every universal service dollar.

In this reverse auction, bidders will indicate the amount of one-time support they need to deploy service meeting rigorous performance standards in unserved areas within the required timeframe. Bidders will compete not only against other carriers that may be seeking support in the same areas, but also against carriers bidding for support in other areas nationwide. Support will be awarded based on the lowest bid amounts submitted, but will not be awarded to more than one provider per area. Successful bidders will be awarded support for an area at the price they bid.

The FCC’s Wireline and Wireless Bureaus released a Public Notice, which details the procedures for the Mobility Fund Phase I auction, designated as Auction 901, including pre-auction and post-auction requirements, determining the census blocks eligible for support, and establishing the window for parties to file applications to participate.

After considering filings made by parties in response to the Auction 901 Comment Public Notice, this public notice:

Establishes a window for the filing of short form applications that opens June 27, 2012, and closes at 6 p.m. July 11, 2012;
Identifies the final list of census blocks eligible for Mobility Fund Phase I support;
Makes support possible for 98 percent or more of the total road miles in eligible census blocks in
every state and territory;
Provides that Auction 901 will be a single round, sealed bid auction;
Provides for bidding on a census tract basis, except in Alaska, where bidding will be permitted on individual eligible census blocks; and
Requires that each winning bidder provide coverage, consistent with the performance requirements of the rules adopted in the USF/ICC Transformation Order, to a minimum of 75 percent of the road miles in each census tract for which it wins support, calculated as the total of the road miles in the eligible census blocks in the tract.

FCC Seeks Comment on Petition by AT&T to Make 800 MHz Cellular Base Station Power Rules Consistent With Rules for Other Mobile Broadband Services

On February 29, 2012, AT&T filed a petition for expedited rulemaking and request for waiver asking the FCC to modify its current rules for cellular base station Effective Radiated Power (“ERP”) in Section 22.913 of the Commission’s rules to make them consistent with other mobile broadband services. With this Public Notice, the FCC seeks comment on AT&T’s petition for expedited rulemaking.

Sen Rockefeller Asks British Panel for Phone Hacking Information

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) sent a letter to Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who is currently leading a special judicial investigation into phone hacking and other alleged illegal activities by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. The letter asks Lord Leveson if his inquiry has uncovered any new information suggesting that News International’s conduct involved US citizens or violated US laws.

As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen Rockefeller has jurisdiction over media and communications issues in the United States. Chairman Rockefeller raised questions about the extent of News Corp’s phone hacking last July when the allegations were broadly reported in the US. The new request for information comes as the Leveson Inquiry and other British investigations are disclosing large volumes of new information and documents about News International’s widespread misconduct.

NBC Universal NewFront Pitches Digital as Complement to TV

The NewFront digital upfront presentations were conceived to mimic the traditional television upfronts, where networks try to interest advertisers in buying huge amounts of ad inventory for the coming year. But NBC Universal didn't want its digital upfront to step on its traditional presentations either, so its pitch for 60 digital properties included no show screenings, relatively few celebrities and lots of concepts. Instead, NBCU used its pitch as an opportunity to explain to advertisers how they can use digital to complement their TV buys. And unlike pure digital players such as Yahoo and AOL, whose upfronts implied that web video could take the place of some TV buys, NBC Universal was careful to emphasize that its new platforms and online content wouldn't be possible without its portfolio of broadcast and cable networks.

European privacy police say Google "duped" them over Street View

In light of the recent Federal Communications Commission report on Google outlining the fact that the company had deliberately captured people's Wi-Fi payload data with its roaming Street View cars, European privacy regulators now say that they feel misled by Google.

"Well, deceived is a big word—maybe somewhat duped," wrote Ulrich Kühn, a spokesperson for the Hamburg data protection authority, in an e-mail to Ars. The Hamburg DPA has led the investigation in Germany, since Google's German corporate headquarters are located there. "Google always admitted just as much as they were forced to by hard evidence," Kühn added. Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the European privacy panel and the chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, said that many of his colleagues "feel misled by Google," adding that Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, spoke about the incident in the Netherlands back in 2010. "At this hearing, Peter Fleischer made it pretty clear in his oral statement and in writing that it was the mistake of one single guy working at Google who had made a stupid mistake," Mr. Kohnstamm said. "But apparently, it wasn’t a mistake at all."

Benton

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