January 28, 2013 (Verizon Wireless, AT&T Announce Spectrum Deal)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2013
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
No Single Person Can Build the Roads and Networks... - analysis
See also: Technology firms holding out hope for high-skilled immigration reform [links to web]
New Broadband Acceleration Initiative Actions - press release
Google Fiber provides faster Internet and, cities hope, business growth
College Station council hears pitch for high-speed Internet
Misuse of Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service [links to web]
Disruptions: A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal [links to web]
Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Announce Spectrum License Transactions - press release
AT&T and Verizon Double-Dare FCC To Stop Spectrum Consolidation - analysis
NTIA 5 GHz Report - research
Spectrum Relocation Final Rule on Technical Panel and Dispute Resolution Boards - public notice
NAB: Current FCC Band Plan Needs Fixing
AT&T: Opportunity in the 600MHz Band - press release [links to web]
Smartphone industry set for slower growth [links to web]
The app-driven life: How smartphone apps are changing our lives [links to web]
Clearwire Investors Use Dish to Demand Sprint Raise Offer [links to web]
Perspective on Apple amid the clamor - op-ed [links to web]
PRIVACY
What Google's Transparency Report doesn't tell us
Facebook, e-mail providers say they require warrants for private data seizures
TELEVISION
Rising TV Fees Mean All Viewers Pay to Keep Sports Fans Happy
CEA, CCIA, Internet Association File Amicus Brief Supporting Dish’s Ad-Skipping DVR [links to web]
HEALTH
Tracking for Health - research
LOBBYING
Silicon Valley's 'Suicide Impulse' - editorial
POLICYMAKERS
Sen Lautenberg assumes power over financial agency, FCC budgets [links to web]
Al Gore on How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think [links to web]
Barack Obama is Not Pleased [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
US firms, officials resisting Europe’s push for stronger digital privacy rules [links to web]
EU seals pact with firms in bid to fill 700,000 tech jobs [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Unlocking new cell phones to become illegal on Jan 26, 2013 [links to web]
Federal IT Priorities in Obama's Second Term [links to web]
How to use your iPhone, iPad or Mac to borrow e-books from the library [links to web]
Davos Forum Considers Learning’s Next Wave [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
THE INAUGURATION AND THE AGENDA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] The single biggest story this week, of course, is the story you already know: On January 21, 2013, at 11:55 AM Eastern Time, President Barack Obama delivered his Second Inaugural Address from the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The address called on the nation to work together to meet the challenges we all face -- the cost of health care and the size of our deficit, climate change and transitioning to sustainable energy sources, ending wars and winning the peace, ensuring civil rights and personal safety, and creating a path to citizenship for new Americans. But our focus today are a few lines that perked the ears of many an observer of our nation’s telecommunications policy and the technology sector.
http://benton.org/node/144092
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NEW BROADBAND ACCELERATION INITIATIVE ACTIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced new actions as part of the Broadband Acceleration Initiative, a comprehensive effort to remove barriers to broadband build-out, including streamlining the deployment of mobile broadband infrastructure, such as towers, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. The fcc defined and clarified a technical provision in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 regarding local review of requests to modify an existing wireless tower or base station. This provision will accelerate deployment and delivery of high-speed mobile broadband to communities across the nation. This action will create greater certainty and predictability for providers that today invest more than $25 billion per year in mobile infrastructure, one of the largest U.S. sectors for private investment.
The FCC also launched a proceeding to expedite placement of temporary cell towers – cells on wheels (COWs) and cells on light trucks (COLTs) – that are used to expand capacity during special events, such as the Inauguration or the Super Bowl. Chairman Genachowski also announced actions in the coming months to further streamline DAS and small cell deployment; examine whether current application of the tower siting shot clock offers sufficient clarity to industry and municipalities; and begin developing model facility siting rules for localities. Each of these actions would contribute to faster, more efficient deployment of wireless infrastructure.
benton.org/node/144113 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel | B&C
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GOOGLE FIBER IN KANSAS CITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Smack in the middle of the nation, Kansas City (KS) is about as far as possible from the hubs of high-tech innovation on both coasts. An effort last spring to excite new Web entrepreneurs in a place better known for cattle drives and barbecue sauce turned up just a dozen people. Three months into Google’s much-publicized, high-speed Internet experiment, signs of new business life have emerged. Just as the move from dial-up modems to higher-speed Internet connections helped launch Netflix, Facebook and YouTube, policymakers and Google hope this next leap forward will breed a whole new slate of innovations.
benton.org/node/144127 | Washington Post
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COLLEGE STATION AND GIG.U
[SOURCE: The Eagle, AUTHOR: Allen Reed]
The College Station (TX) City Council entertained a proposal to allow business and residents access to cheaper high-speed Internet connections that could allow for virtual reality simulations, real-time genomic sequencing, ultra-high definition video streaming and other applications in the not-too-distant future. Blair Levin, executive director of nonprofit Gig.U, delivered a presentation to the council during its workshop session. Levin, who was the Federal Communications Commission chief of staff during the Clinton presidency, called upon the councilmembers to consider policy changes that could bring more gigabit-per-second speed Internet connections to town -- roughly 20 times as fast as what's available to most residential phone and cable subscribers, proponents said. The proposal, and Levin's visit, were organized by freshman councilman James Benham, owner of a technology company in Downtown Bryan. Benham's business, along with the others downtown, already has access to the gigabit speeds, but he said he wants to see the service expanded to benefit residents, the business community and to attract businesses.
benton.org/node/144124 | Eagle, The
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CYBERSECURITY WORKFORCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold to bolster the nation’s ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries, according to US officials. The move, requested by the head of the Defense Department’s Cyber Command, is part of an effort to turn an organization that has focused largely on defensive measures into the equivalent of an Internet-era fighting force. The command, made up of about 900 personnel, will expand to include 4,900 troops and civilians. Details of the plan have not been finalized, but the decision to expand the Cyber Command was made by senior Pentagon officials late last year in recognition of a growing threat in cyberspace, said officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the expansion has not been formally announced. The gravity of that threat, they said, has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data a from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer.
benton.org/node/144139 | Washington Post | NYTimes
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
VERIZON WIRELESS-AT&T SPECTRUM DEAL
[SOURCE: Verizon Wireless, AUTHOR: Press release]
Verizon Wireless announced today it has signed agreements to complete a number of spectrum license transactions, including license sale, purchase and lease agreements. The agreements cover the following transactions:
Verizon Wireless will sell 39 lower 700 MHz B Block licenses to AT&T in exchange for a payment of $1.9 billion, and the transfer by AT&T to Verizon Wireless of AWS (10 MHz) licenses in certain western markets, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fresno and Portland, Oregon.
Verizon Wireless will sell lower 700 MHz B Block licenses covering the Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham markets in North Carolina to Grain Management, a Sarasota, Florida-based private equity firm that invests in the telecommunications sector, in exchange for a payment of $189 million.
Verizon Wireless will lease from Grain Management an AWS license covering Dallas, Texas, which Grain is acquiring from AT&T.
The transactions are subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). In April, Verizon pledged to sell off two 12MHz blocks of mobile spectrum in the 700MHz band, including the B block, if U.S. regulators approved its purchase of spectrum from a group of cable providers.
benton.org/node/144109 | Verizon Wireless | IDG New Service | Bloomberg | Reuters | The Hill | WSJ | NYTimes | ars technica | LATimes
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AT&T-VERIZON SPECTRUM DEAL
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Rarely do you see companies double-dare the Federal Communications Commission to back up their brave talk about promoting competition. That is, however, what AT&T has just decided to do – with a little help from Verizon. After gobbling a ton of spectrum last year in a series of small transactions, AT&T announced earlier this week it would buy up ATNI, which holds the last shreds of the old Alltel Spectrum. To top this off, Verizon just announced it has selected the purchaser for the 700 MHz spectrum it promised to sell off to get permission to buy the SpectrumCo spectrum. And guess what? The purchaser of the bulk of Verizon’s 700 MHz licenses, which Verizon promised to divest to promote competition – is AT&T! Mind you, this was exactly the anti-competitive scenario many of us predicted when Verizon made the offer to sell off its 700 MHz licenses in order to bulk up on its AWS footprint. Nevertheless, the FCC refused to impose a condition prohibiting the sale of the licenses to AT&T on the grounds that it could wait to see who purchased the licenses before acting. Well, now we know, and the FCC has the “hypothetical” transaction it did not want to consider last summer squarely before it today.
benton.org/node/144111 | Public Knowledge
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NTIA 5 GHZ REPORT
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Acting Sec Rebecca Blank, Lawrence Strickling]
Through this report, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) presents the results of its initial study on the potential use of up to 195 megahertz of spectrum in the 5 gigahertz (GHz) band by Unlicensed-National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices. Pursuant to Section 6406(b)(1) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Tax Relief Act), NTIA, in consultation with the Department of Defense and other impacted agencies, assessed known and proposed spectrum-sharing technologies. This study also evaluated the risk to federal users if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allows U-NII devices to operate in the 5350-5470 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands.
benton.org/node/144121 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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SPECTRUM RELOCATION RULE
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Lawrence Strickling]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration adopted regulations governing the Technical Panel and dispute resolution process established by Congress to facilitate the relocation of, and spectrum sharing with, U.S. Government stations in spectrum bands reallocated from Federal use to non-Federal use or to shared use. This action is necessary to ensure the timely relocation of Federal entities' spectrum-related operations and, where applicable, the timely implementation of arrangements for the sharing of radio frequencies. Specifically, this action implements certain additions and modifications to the NTIA Organization Act as amended by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (the Tax Relief Act). As required by the Tax Relief Act, this rule has been reviewed and approved by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
benton.org/node/144120 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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NAB INCENTIVE AUCTION COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters says there are parts of the Federal Communications Commission's proposed band plan that are unworkable from an engineering perspective, but it has an alternative as it works to ensure that broadcasters who don't sell out spectrum aren't, in turn, sold out by an unworkable auction framework hurriedly erected to meet an artificial timetable. NAB held true to its word, signaling in comments on the FCC's incentive auctions that its concern was for TV stations that remain in business. According to top NAB execs, its comments do not even address the auction portion (or channel-sharing by those who give up spectrum), but rather focus on the key issues of international coordination, station repacking and the band plan, or as the new wireless BFF, NAB, puts it, "the neighborhood" they will share with their "wireless friends." The NAB also repeated association concerns that the FCC’s plan to hold its incentive spectrum auction next year may be overly ambitious — and they vowed to protect the rights of the vast majority of the nation’s more than 1,700 TV stations that choose to remain in broadcasting after the auctions are completed.
benton.org/node/144107 | Broadcasting&Cable | TVNewsCheck
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PRIVACY
GOOGLE TRANSPARENCY REPORT
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Jaikumar Vijayan]
Google's Transparency Reports, released every six months, are interesting not just for what they reveal about government requests for Internet user data, but also for what they do not reveal. Google's transparency reports do not include requests for user data made by the government under the U.S. Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendment Act or through the use of National Security Letters (NSLs). Most of the requests made via these statutes are tied to national security issues and often compel providers to disclose far more data than Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) subpoenas and court orders permit. Google has said that it will try to release more information about such requests in the future. But how it will do so remains to be seen, because companies that receive NSLs and requests under the Patriot Act and FISA are not allowed to publicly disclose the requests. As a result, it's unclear how many more requests Google might have received from the government, how intrusive those requests were or how many people might have been impacted by the requests, said Trevor Timm, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
benton.org/node/144122 | ComputerWorld
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WARRENTS AND DATA SEIZURES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Facebook and the three largest email providers told The Hill this week that they require police to obtain a search warrant before accessing their users' private online communications. The policies of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook go beyond the privacy standards of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a 1986 law that only requires police to obtain a subpoena, issued without a judge's approval, to read emails, instant messages and other forms of digital communication that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is pushing legislation that would update ECPA to require police to obtain a warrant before seizing electronic messages, regardless of how old they are. He argues the law is badly out of date and fails to protect Internet users' privacy. But the four Web companies said they all already refuse to turn over their customers' communications unless the police have a warrant. The companies argue that the Fourth Amendment provides more legal protection to their users than ECPA does.
benton.org/node/144126 | Hill, The
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TELEVISION
CABLE TV FEES AND SPORTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
For a glimpse of how out of control sports bidding wars have become, look no further than your cable television bill. Time Warner Cable subscribers in Southern California will eventually see their monthly bills increase thanks to an impending $7 billion deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, believed to be the most lucrative for any sports team in history. DirecTV, the country’s most popular satellite service, and Verizon FiOS have started adding a $2 to $3 monthly surcharge in markets like New York and Los Angeles to pay for regional sports networks. Per-subscriber fees for sports networks keep going up: ESPN, the granddaddy of them all, passed the $5-a-month mark last year. The eye-popping price tags have restarted debate about a topic near and dear to sports fans, fairness: many TV customers never watch the mightily expensive channels at all, yet almost all must pay. There was a shudder in the industry when John Malone, the business tycoon who helped create the modern-day cable system, said in November that “runaway sports rights” costs amounted to “a high tax on a lot of households that don’t have a lot of interest in sports.” The only short-term fix, he said, was government intervention.
benton.org/node/144128 | New York Times
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HEALTH
TRACKING FOR HEALTH
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Susannah Fox, Maeve Duggan]
The question that has remained unanswered up until now is: How many people are tracking their health on a regular basis? In 2010, Pew Internet began to explore the phenomenon of tracking for health, limiting our questions to those who use online tools. We found that 15% of internet users tracked their weight, diet, or exercise routine online and 17% of internet users tracked any other health indicators or symptoms online. Fully 27% of adult internet users said yes to either question, which translates to about one in five U.S. adults who use some form of technology to track a health indicator. In this study, based on a national telephone survey fielded in August-September 2012, Pew Internet widened the scope of the questions to include all adults and all forms of tracking, not just online. Fully 60% of U.S. adults say they track their weight, diet, or exercise routine. One-third of U.S. adults track health indicators or symptoms, like blood pressure, blood sugar, headaches, or sleep patterns. One-third of caregivers — people caring for a loved one, usually an adult family member – say they track a health indicator for their loved one. When looking at this last group as a segment of the total population, 12% of U.S. adults track a health indicator on behalf of someone they care for. Added together, seven in ten U.S. adults say they track at least one health indicator.
benton.org/node/144137 | Pew Internet & American Life Project | New York Times
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LOBBYING
SUICIDE IMPLULSE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] It's a measure of how far Silicon Valley has strayed from its entrepreneurial roots that a top regulator is calling on technology companies to do less lobbying and more competing. In a letter to the editor responding to a report in this column on how Google spent $25 million lobbying to stop an antitrust case against it, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz wrote that companies should not draw the lesson that lobbying pays. Instead, he urged: "Stop! Invest your money in expansion and innovation." Chairman Leibowitz asserted in his letter, published Jan. 18, that "Google's lobbying expenses had no effect on the care, diligence or analysis of the agency's incredibly hard-working staff or the decisions reached by any of the FTC's five commissioners." Tech executives should think twice before again lobbying government to get involved in their industry.
benton.org/node/144140 | Wall Street Journal
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