December 2012

VoIP Changeover Brings Need for New Consumer protections

[Commentary] Telephone communications have changed dramatically but the regulatory framework has not kept pace. Long gone are the days of monopoly service provided over circuit-switched copper lines. Today, at least half of U.S. households use wireless or an Internet application such as VoIP (voice over the Internet) or Skype or text messaging to communicate with others. But despite the changes in technology, many consumer protections - including universal service obligations - apply only to the local phone company's circuit-switched network. It's time to update our regulatory framework for an all IP world. AT&T has opened this discussion with a petition at the FCC to trial a deregulatory framework. Speed Matters is eager to join the discussion. We recognize that a multiplicity of tech choices doesn't mean everyone can get a working phone line. For reasons such as geography and income, many people are at risk of being cut off. And it's the position of Speed Matters that we need a regulatory framework that protects consumers and affordable universal service regardless of the technology.

Price Cap Carriers, Small Cablecos Tussle Over CAF Cost Model

The nation’s largest price cap carriers and the American Cable Association have been waging a war of words over the cost model that the price cap carriers proposed for phase 2 of the Connect America Fund, the broadband Universal Service program.

Several of the nation’s largest price cap carriers have been working together for a couple of years now as the ABC Coalition, a coalition formed specifically to enable those carriers to develop consensus about Universal Service reform and to speak with a common voice on those reforms. (Initial members included AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint, Frontier, Verizon, and Windstream.) At issue is the cost model that will be used to determine the level of support that price cap carriers will be offered to help cover the costs of bringing broadband to areas of their service territories that are costly to serve and that cannot get broadband today. The price cap carriers submitted a cost model which has come under attack by the ACA, which argues that the model would direct more money than merited to the price cap carriers.

A broadband solution to fiscal crises

[Commentary] After Congress and the White House close the gap between the Democratic and Republican approaches to the “fiscal cliff”, there is another gap that they need to bridge: the gap between how the worlds of technology and government approach the future.

The opportunities for top-line, technologically driven growth – funded primarily by the private sector -- are huge. According to Forbes Magazine, the $3.9 trillion education market -- $1.3 trillion in the United States alone -- is about to be radically transformed by a new breed of venture-backed disruptors. Almost half of the education venture deals in the last decade have closed in the last two years. Investments in digital healthcare start-ups in 2012 are up 73% from last year. Healthcare start-ups exceeded all other sectors, including software, as the largest recipient of angel investments. Our carriers have raced to deploy high-speed mobile and fixed broadband networks. On these new platforms, e-education, e-health ventures and all manner of e-services based on government data can proliferate. The principal role of government in driving this growth is to remove obstacles to for-profit investment.

[Reed Hundt was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997. Blair Levin oversaw the creation of the National Broadband Plan and is now a fellow at the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program.]

Libraries can't use stimulus-funded fiber network in West Virginia

Librarian Sheila Thorne wishes the 10 computers at the Clay County Public Library wouldn't bog down during busy afternoons, but it's not like the slow Internet speeds can be blamed on a shortage of new technology. There's a new $7,800 high-speed fiber connection in the library's basement -- enough capacity to serve dozens of libraries. And there's a $22,600 Internet router capable of serving hundreds of computers. But the Clay County library isn't using the technology -- paid for by the federal stimulus. It costs too much. Across West Virginia, more than 160 libraries have new routers and fiber connections, but the fiber sits coiled up, unused, shut off. Nobody has stepped up to shoulder the blame for the snafu -- an apparent combination of project mismanagement, poor planning and bureaucratic bungling.

Cable Operators Continue To Lose Video Subscribers

US cable operators in 2012 have continued to lose video subscribers at around the same rate as a year ago. But the future could prove more problematic. For 2012 U.S. cable subscribers are on pace to lose 3% of their subscribers to 56 million, down from 58 million in 2011. This compares to a 2.8% loss in 2011 from 2010, per IHS Screen Digest Television Intelligence Report. The reasons? A rise in over-the-top (OTT) digital video services, siphoning of business to telco TV/video operators, a still-weak economy. Plus, cable operators' year-long consumer promotions are set to expire at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.

For cable, the lines keep blurring

The story of 2012 for cable was just as much a story for broadcast. The lines between the two continue to blur, in terms of ratings, ad dollars and viewer perception. While that line will not disappear entirely in 2013, it will fade even further.

Events that have traditionally aired on broadcast, such as the Bowl Championship Series and Wimbledon, will continue to migrate to cable. Though broadcast still dominates the top 50 programs of the week, more cable shows will win their timeslots over the Big Four in key demographics, following the lead of programs like A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” and MTV’s “Jersey Shore.” And for the third time in as many years, cable networks will receive more dollars than broadcast during the upfront, increasing the gap between the two to a record margin. “Television is becoming more blurred,” says Marc Morse, senior vice president, national broadcast buying, at RJ Palmer. “Over the past five, 10, 15, 20 years we’ve seen broadcast ratings go down and cable come up. At some point we’ll reach a crossing point, though we’re not there yet. I think less and less they’re being talked about as two different things than one and the same.” The outlook for cable over the next few years is very cheery, one of the few media with healthy growth prospects coming out of the long recession.

PBS Names Beth Hoppe as Programming Chief

PBS has a new head of programming. Beth Hoppe, who joined PBS in August 2011 as a vice president in the programming department, has been promoted to the top programming job.

Hoppe previously worked at Discovery Studios, the production arm of cable’s Discovery network, and at WNET, the New York public television station. Her new title will be chief programming executive and general manager, general audience programming. She replaces John Wilson, who is moving to a new job as senior vice president, pledge strategy and special projects, where his role will be to “reinvigorate pledge programming,” those shows that PBS stations use to solicit viewer donations. Wilson has worked in the PBS programming department since 1994.

Silicon Valley Straps on Pads

Led by team president and co-owner Gideon Yu—a former Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo executive—the San Francisco 49ers have been quietly plucking from the neighboring tech world to fill their top jobs.

Rather than pursuing the normal Silicon Valley routine of bouncing between startups and hoarding stock options, the nucleus of tech veterans in the team's executive offices focuses on everything from streamlining the draft scouting process to finding out how fans in different parts of the stadium can organize chants with their smartphones. They are, as Yu puts it, "fundamentally trying to rethink everything about live sports." Asked why football is attractive to some of the tech world's brightest lights, 49ers CEO Jed York put it this way: "Because they made a lot of money, they did a lot of cool things before they turned 40 years old and they don't want to go play golf six days a week."

Google CEO Larry Page: Can’t We All Say Kumbaya?

When it started at universities, the Internet was designed to be interoperable. But now that it’s controlled by companies, it’s a shame that their services don’t work together.

That’s the position of Google CEO Larry Page, as articulated when he was asked about competition with Apple, Amazon and others by Fortune’s Miguel Helft. “It would be nice if everybody would get along better and the users didn’t suffer as a result of other people’s activities,” Page said. Sometimes, he added, Google is not “allowed” to make its products available as widely as it would want.

By 2020, there will be 5,200GB of data for every person on Earth

During the next eight years, the amount of digital data produced will exceed 40 zettabytes, which is the equivalent of 5,200 GB of data for every man, woman and child on Earth, according to an updated Digital Universe study.

To put it in perspective, 40 zettabytes is 40 trillion gigabytes -- estimated to be 57 times the amount of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. To hit that figure, all data is expected to double every two years through 2020. The majority of data between now and 2020 will not be produced by humans but by machines as they talk to each other over data networks. So far, however, only a tiny fraction of the data being produced has been explored for its value through the use of data analytics. IDC estimates that by 2020, as much as 33 percent of all data will contain information that might be valuable if analyzed.

Benton

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