December 2012

Sen Lautenberg Calls for More Consideration of Ownership Rules

Veteran News Corp. critic Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is the latest legislator to ask Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to rethink his media ownership proposal.

The chairman has circulated an item loosening the newspaper/TV cross-ownership rules and lifting limits on newspaper/radio and TV/radio cross-ownership, which has upset a number of longstanding consolidation critics, including minority groups who say the FCC has not sufficiently gauged the rule change's impact on diversity, as a federal court instructed it to do. "I urge the FCC to carefully review, in an open and transparent manner, the full impact of any such revisions before enacting them," he wrote. In a letter, Sen Lautenberg renewed his criticisms of News Corp.'s WWOR-TV Secaucus, which the senator says "has not lived up to its obligations to serve the people of New Jersey." News Corp. disputes that characterization. He asked the FCC to review the revisions before voting them.

Will Appeals Court Overturn “Network Neutrality” Rules?

A US Court of Appeals finally will hear a Verizon challenge to Federal Communications Commission network neutrality rules. How the court rules could lead to big changes for the broadband access business. Specifically, if the court sustains the network neutrality rules, it is possible the “best effort only” rules that now apply to fixed access providers likely will be extended to mobile service providers as well. It is conceivable that new rules could be considered that extend FCC rules over terms and conditions of service, including such items as prices or data caps.

The case, which is before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is Verizon’s challenge to the FCC’s controversial network neutrality rules. There is much at stake. If the Appeals Court overturns the network neutrality rules, fixed and mobile network high-speed access services with quality of service features could be created and sold, either directly to consumers or to third party application providers. On the contrary, if the rules are sustained, some think the rules will be extended to mobile networks that arguably need quality of service mechanisms to maintain end user experience. Up to this point, the legality of the network neutrality rules as applied to mobile service providers has been unclear, as the FCC has said it has the authority to apply net neutrality rules, but simply has avoided doing so.

Why the battle over Network Neutrality isn’t getting settled anytime soon

The most pressing issue at the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) is not the frequently misreported ‘plot’ to take over the Internet. No, the really dangerous proposal, coming from the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), covers the banning of network neutrality around the world.

Thankfully others, such as the European Parliament, have different ideas on the matter. With perfect timing, on December 11 the EP passed two resolutions – one on the ‘digital single market’ and the other on a ‘digital freedom strategy in EU foreign policy’ – that both backed network neutrality. The first of those two even called for new European legislation to protect the concept. But that’s the European Parliament, which had already voted in favor of network neutrality just over a year ago. For those unfamiliar with the EU legislative process, the EP does not propose legislation: that’s the role of the unelected European Commission.

Netflix loves Google Fiber, thinks Uverse is too slow for its own good

It’s official: Google Fiber is Netflix’s favorite ISP.

The video service published the first in what it promises will be monthly ISP rankings, revealing the average speed of Netflix streams for each service provider. Google Fiber unsurprisingly captured the first spot, with viewers achieving an average speed of 2.55 Mbps. Verizon FIOS is on second place with 2.19 Mbps, and ranked third is Comcast with 2.17 Mbps. Netflix VP of Content Delivery Ken Florance specifically called out AT&T’s Uverse service in a blog post, pointing out that it “shows quite poorly” compared to FIOS. Uverse was ranked 11th by Netflix, with a mere 1.94 Mbps.

There Is No Internet Freedom Without Internet and Broadband Competition

[Commentary] The unknown history of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in America is an ugly tale of government intervention, not free market enterprise. Most reporters and pundits today call AT&T, Verizon and Comcast et al "Internet Service Providers". They are not. AT&T and Verizon (and Centurylink) are the incumbent telecommunications utilities that have taken control of the wires as have the cable companies.

In fact, they were able to get the government to protect their businesses to keep monopoly controls over the wires. In most of America, customers are stuck with one or two wired providers. Customers have more choices in deodorant or toothpaste than they do of Internet or broadband providers as the incumbent wires are controlled by the cable or phone company. And with AT&T and Verizon having announced they are not going to upgrade most of their territories, or worse, that they plan to abandon whole areas of their wired customers, it's more like an Internet prison for customers. And now, with the new threats by AT&T, working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, to close down the entire telecommunications networks and obligations on both a state as well as federal level, it is time to stop these movements and start by bringing America real "Internet freedom", not simply freedom for the companies from regulation.

Top Jindal aides use personal e-mail to strategize

Top officials in Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R-LA) administration used personal e-mail accounts to craft a media strategy for imposing hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid cuts — a method of communication that can make it more difficult to track under public records laws despite Jindal's pledge to bring more transparency to state government.

E-mails reviewed by The Associated Press reveal that non-state government email addresses were used dozens of times by state officials to communicate last summer about a public relations offensive for making $523 million in health care cuts. Those documents weren't provided to AP in response to a public records request. The practice folds into a national debate over the use of personal email accounts by government officials to discuss official business.

The Government Plans An Internet Of Networked Cars

Could the Internet of Things arrive on our roadways sooner than we imagined? If Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has his way, it just might. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a proposal that would require all automakers to install ERDs--Electronic Recording Devices--in their vehicles by 2014. The requirement would let the NHTSA’s team of researchers dip into a massive well of data concerning how and why car crashes happen. But these proposed requirements are only a hint of what the NHTSA is planning. Sec LaHood and his team are convinced that ubiquitous computing could make us hugely safer drivers. More specifically, they think it could reduce crashes by over 80%, by enabling our cars to interface with each other over a Wi-Fi network.

How Google’s Designers Are Quietly Overhauling Search

Google’s product teams are built to be nimble and quick, but creating a unified design vision requires a top-down push. Google CEO Larry Page provided that push. And while the design of Google Search in 2000 looked almost the same as it did in 2010, the service--along with Maps, Gmail, and Calendar--got the biggest redesign of its history in 2011. After that, Search kept evolving.

New “knowledge graph” results popped up as photos and Wikipedia-like factoids to the right of results. Answers weren’t always presented as links. Putting a math problem in the search box, for instance, now returns a calculator. The search-options bar has migrated from its traditional post on the left-hand side of the search-results page to the top. Your average user may not have noticed anything different, but in the context of Google Search’s history, this is radical stuff. Google’s recently uncaged designers are looking at search differently.

Amazon will begin collecting taxes in Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick says

Amazon, the huge online retailer, will begin collecting Massachusetts sales tax on purchases made by Bay State customers, starting next fall, Gov Deval Patrick’s office said.

“I value the contributions large and small employers alike make to Massachusetts’ economic vitality, and this agreement captures that,” Gov Patrick said (D-MA). “We are thankful Amazon was willing to come to the table and we will continue our conversations with them about creating jobs here. This agreement is a win for all sides, and I am pleased it promises to generate millions in long-term revenue for the Commonwealth.” Patrick’s press release included a statement from Paul Misener, Amazon vice president of global public policy. “We appreciate Governor Patrick’s commitment to Massachusetts jobs and investment and his support for legislation now before Congress that would provide a final resolution to the sales tax issue,” Misener said. “We look forward to creating hundreds of high tech jobs in Massachusetts and continuing to work with Governor Patrick, state leaders, retailers, and Congress to pass federal legislation permitting interstate sales tax collection. Federal legislation is the only way to level the playing field for all sellers, the only way for states to obtain more than a fraction of the sales tax revenue that is already owed, and the only way to fully protect states’ rights.” The Patrick administration had been pressing Amazon.com to begin collecting sales taxes from Massachusetts customers, arguing it is no longer exempt under federal law from charging the tax.

Access Denied

[Commentary] There is deep irony in the desire of nations to seek more control over cyberspace. Dictators have abused their existing abilities to restrict access in efforts to chill dissent.

Hosni Mubarak shut down the Internet in just such an attempt. But he failed, because the Egyptian masses had been using cyberspace to share their anger and gather their courage for many months before the regime struck at the Net. Indeed, the shutdown was the signal to the people that it was time to go to Tahrir Square. Bashar al-Assad seems to have tried something similar over a week ago, when the Net went down briefly in Syria. He too will fail.

In the end, UN efforts to control cyberspace, aided and abetted by all too many nations, will fail as well. The virtual world is a vast wilderness - artificial, but beautiful and complex, and growing in size and direction in ways that almost surely lie beyond the ability of governments to control. The sooner this is realized, the better. It will save the world from a costly global struggle between balky nations and nimble insurgent networks. There are better things for the United Nations to focus on if it wishes to play a productive role in the information age. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, whose video address at the opening of the Dubai conference spoke of a desire to foster openness and Internet freedom, should act on his own words and reject the role of regulator. Instead, he should lead his organization as a negotiator, fostering behavior-based forms of cyber arms control -- as there is still time to head off an age of "mass disruptive" cyberwars.

[Arquilla is professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School]

Benton

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