June 2012

Providing transparency in how consumer data is handled by mobile applications – this is the first topic for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s for the privacy multistakeholder process.

On July 12, NTIA will convene the first meeting for stakeholders to begin developing a code of conduct that applies the Transparency principle in the Consumer Bill of Rights to mobile apps. The NTIA proposed this as an initial topic because it is a privacy challenge that affects many consumers yet is discrete enough to be addressed in a reasonable period of time. Many of you agreed. The NTIA expects the stakeholder experience in developing a code of conduct on this topic will inform future efforts to develop codes that address other privacy issues. When codes of conduct are developed and implemented, consumers will have clearer protections and businesses will have greater certainty. And maintaining consumer trust in the Internet will help ensure that it remains an engine for American innovation and economic growth.

Something funny happened on the way to this year's upfront. Advertisers who were expected to demonstrate their love for TV by again committing to spend even more money there wound up distracted by a competing concern: a shaky economy.

The gyrating stock market and disappointing employment figures gave TV's biggest sponsors an urge to keep their money in their pockets, where they knew it would be safe, rather than agreeing to use it on TV-network ad time -- at least for now. Yes, it's true, advertisers committed a staggering amount of wampum to this year's upfront, that annual process through which the big TV networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for the upcoming season. And they agreed to increases in ad rates. But they didn't let their overall dollar commitments surpass those agreed to last year. This year, the five English-speaking broadcast networks won a total of between $8.8 billion and $9.3 billion, depending on whose fuzzy math you use. And while that sounds like a lot, it's about the same amount secured last year by the Big Four-And-A-Half (The CW is too small a revenue generator to make a Big Five). More telling, perhaps, the amounts secured this year fall short -- once again -- of the $9.5 billion attracted by six networks (CW had yet to form from the ashes of WB and UPN) in 2004, re-energizing that old debate, the one about whether marketers will maintain their devotion to the TV set when new technology creates such a dizzying array of new media venues to examine.

Americans are living longer and becoming increasingly dependent on a constantly-changing telecommunications environment for health care services, access to public and private services, and staying in touch with family and friends. One of our greatest challenges as a nation is ensuring that low-income seniors become actively engaged in navigating the 21st Century telecommunications infrastructure – the Internet. The Benton Foundation and Connected Living hosted a conference on May 22, 2012, bringing together evaluators, practitioners and policymakers to exchange ideas and offer best practices, and explore how to continue working on this issue in a post-federal stimulus era. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided funding for partnerships and projects that focused on bringing unserved and underserved communities online through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

In advance of the G20 financial summit in Mexico, The International Telecommunications Union's Broadband Commission for Digital Development has set universal broadband targets for developed and developing countries. The G20, which represents some of the world's top economies, was advised by the commission to treat broadband as they would other essential utilities, like water, roads and electricity, by "mak[ing] the necessary investments to enable their citizens to participate in and benefit from the digital economy and global innovation -- or risk exclusion."

The commission's broadband targets are that, by 2015:

• All countries should have a national broadband plan or strategy or include broadband in their Universal Access/Service Definitions.
• Entry-level broadband services should be made affordable in developing countries through adequate regulation and market forces (amounting to less than 5% of average monthly income).
• Forty percent of households in developing countries should have Internet access.
• Internet user penetration should reach 60% worldwide, 50% in developing countries and 15% in LDCs (least developed countries).

"We therefore ask the G20 leaders to consider the vital contribution that broadband and broadband-enabled applications and services can make to global and sustainable social and economic development and recognize broadband as a key enabling framework," said the commission.