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January 2013

In-store Mobile Commerce During the 2012 Holiday Shopping Season

Nearly six in ten cell owners used their phone inside a physical store for assistance or guidance on a purchasing decision this holiday season. In the 30 days preceding our early January 2013 survey (the final weeks of the holiday gift-giving season):

  • 46% of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to call a friend or family member for advice about a purchase they were considering.
  • 28% of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to look up reviews of a product to help decide if they should purchase it or not.
  • 27% of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to look up the price of a product, to see if they could get a better price elsewhere.

Taken together, 58% of cell owners used their phone for at least one of these reasons, with young adults and smartphone owners leading the way — 78% of cell owners ages 18-29 and 72% of smartphone owners did at least one of these with their phones this holiday season. The 46% of cell owners who called someone for advice about a purchase represents a significant increase from the 38% of cell owners who did so during last year’s holiday shopping season.

Exploring All Available Tools

AT&T is pleased to have recently joined into an agreement with our fellow carriers, Verizon and T-Mobile, and the U.S. Department of Defense to test the viability of sharing 95 MHz of spectrum that is currently used by DoD and other federal agencies.

This spectrum is located in the 1755 to 1850 MHz spectrum band, which the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has analyzed in great detail for potential clearing and sharing opportunities. Over the next couple months, spectrum monitoring, sharing and simulation activities will be conducted within the band to determine whether existing federal use of this spectrum is negatively impacted by the introduction of commercial mobile broadband services in the band, and conversely how the incumbent DoD system would affect mobile broadband services. Spectrum will be monitored at five DoD-specified locations. The actual sharing of spectrum will be evaluated between low power mobile broadband uplinks (base station receivers) and four uses identified by NTIA, including air combat training systems, aeronautical mobile telemetry, satellite command and control, and small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Chicago Pilot Aims to Enhance STEM Education

In an effort to better prepare students for careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Chicago has launched a pilot program that will offer Web development courses at local high schools and city colleges.

Chicago Public Schools, the City Colleges of Chicago and local startup The Starter League will work together on the pilot, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Monday, Jan. 28. The Starter League — formerly called Code Academy — teaches beginners how to code, design and ship Web applications. The league will craft a training program for educators, and work with the schools and colleges to design Web development courses for students. This summer, 10 teachers from Chicago Public Schools and six from the City Colleges of Chicago will go through training. In fall 2013, these teachers will then lead Web development courses for students at five Early College STEM high schools, the Technology Magnet Cluster high schools and the City Colleges.

BSkyB to offer sports channels for £9.99 'day rate'

BSkyB has traditionally used top-tier sports such as Premier League football and Formula One racing to persuade viewers to sign up for one of its subscriptions, which cost £42.50 a month for access to all six sports channels. However, television viewers will soon be able to dip in and out of its sports coverage on an ad-hoc basis by buying a £9.99 “day pass” which will give them unlimited access to all of Sky’s sports coverage for 24 hours.

Emergency Access Advisory Committee

Federal Communications Commission
Friday, March 1, 2013
10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (EST)
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db0131/DA-1...

The agenda for the March 2013 EAAC meeting will include discussion of reports from the EAAC subcommittees and other activities needed to ensure access to 911 by individuals with disabilities.


Workshop on Small Cell and Spectrum Sharing Concepts in the 3.5 GHz

Federal Communications Commission
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
9:00AM
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db0131/DA-1...
Second Public Notice: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db0307/DA-1...

A workshop to further explore the concepts and proposals to make 100 MHz of spectrum available for shared small cell use in the 3550-3650 MHz band (3.5 GHz Band). The goal of the workshop is to bring together top innovators and thinkers in the small cell, database management, and spectrum sharing fields to discuss technological developments. The workshop will explore small technology in the context of the 3.5 GHz Band as well as database and dynamic spectrum sharing technologies that could be utilized to manage access to the Band.

Tentative Agenda

9:45am Opening Remarks
Julius Knapp, Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology

10:00am Panel #1: Small Cell Technology, Network Design, and the 3.5 GHz Band

  • Leo Cloutier, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Brighthouse Networks
  • Prakash Moorut, Senior Research Specialist, Nokia Siemens Networks
  • Dr. Jeffrey Reed, Director, Wireless@VirginiaTech, Virginia Tech
  • Dan Lubar, WhiteSpace Alliance
  • David Gurney, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Motorola Solutions

Moderators: Paul Powell, Attorney Advisor, Mobility Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Robert Pavlak, Senior Electronics Engineer, Office of Engineering and Technology

11:15pm Brief Remarks of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski

11:30pm Conversation: Addressing Spectrum Challenges through Spectrum Sharing and Small Cell Technology

  • Tom Power, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications, Office of Science and Technology, White House
  • Mark Gorenberg, Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Member, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
  • Peter A. Tenhula, Senior Advisor, Department of Commerce, NTIA

Moderator: John Leibovitz, Deputy Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau

12:00pm Lunch Break

1:00pm Panel #2: The Spectrum Access System – Innovative Approaches to Dynamic Spectrum Sharing

  • Vanu Bose, President and CEO, Vanu
  • Durga Malladi, VP, Engineering, Qualcomm Research
  • John P. Malyar, Chief Architect, iconectiv (formerly Telcordia Interconnection Solutions)
  • Dr. Preston Marshall, Deputy Director, Information Sciences Institute, Computational Systems and Technology Research Professor, University of Southern California
  • Peter Stanforth, CTO, Spectrum Bridge

Moderators: Mark Settle, Deputy Chief, Policy and Rules Division, Office of Engineering and Technology and Robert Sole, Chief of the Spectrum Engineering Branch, NTIA Office of Spectrum Management

2:15pm Small Cell Technology Overview

  • Milind Buddhikot, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs

2:30pm Technology Exhibition

Featuring small cell and spectrum access technologies from iconectiv (formerly Telcordia Interconnection Solutions), Nokia Siemens Networks, Qualcomm, and Spectrum Bridge.

3:30pm Adjourn


January 31, 2013 (Locked into your phone)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

Health and Broadband are on FCC’s agenda today while NTIA tackles Mobile Privacy http://benton.org/calendar/2013-01-31/

VIOLENCE AND MEDIA
   Sen Grassley: Voluntary ratings for violent video games not enough

OWNERSHIP
   So, What is the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing? - analysis
   Breaking down 2012 tech acquisitions by the numbers
   Who were the top ed tech acquirers in 2012? [links to web]
   NBC Affiliates To FCC: JSA's Benefit Public [links to web]
   FTC/DOJ Amicus Brief Supports Right of Private Parties to Pursue Relief Under the Antitrust Laws - press release [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Locked into your phone - editorial [links to web]
   White House petition aims to overturn ban on unlocked cell phones [links to web]
   AT&T Trial Shows Small Cells Bring Nearly Perfect Coverage to Problem Areas
   On 3rd Try, South Korea Launches Satellite Into Orbit [links to web]

LABOR
   Can Obama's immigration reform stop Silicon Valley's brain drain? [links to web]
   Tech companies claim more H-1B visas will fill IT labor gap [links to web]
   Wanted: Geeks to help fight Pentagon’s cyberwar [links to web]

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   How super PACs succeeded in 2012 [links to web]

EDUCATION
   Standards for technology-enabled learning - research [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Senators look to extend ban on Internet taxes [links to web]

CYBERSECURITY
   Hagel stresses importance of cybersecurity
   Wanted: Geeks to help fight Pentagon’s cyberwar [links to web]
   Hackers in China Attacked The New York Times for Last 4 Months

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS/CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
   Just Putting Bills Online Doesn’t Tell You What They Mean - analysis
   Is Government Abusing Personal Information? [links to web]
   Online activists fret over extremism [links to web]
   White House petition aims to overturn ban on unlocked cell phones [links to web]

AGENDA
   FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For February Open Meeting - press release

COMPANY NEWS
   Why Apple is the stumbling block in Amazon’s e-book transition [links to web]
   Tipping point: Facebook's daily activity now bigger on mobile than desktop [links to web]
   Facebook Is a ‘Mobile Company,’ But Is That a Good Business? [links to web]
   Clearwire Falls After Dish Says It Won’t Block Sprint [links to web]
   YouTube About to Find Out If A La Carte Works - analysis [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Chris Vein Leaves White House for the World Bank [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   TV Still Tops, But Multiscreen Viewing Commonplace [links to web]
   Telework Group Expands into Broader Mobility Issues [links to web]

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VIOLENCE AND MEDIA

VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
On Jan 30, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine the causes of gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown (CT). Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested that violent video games can lead to real-world violence. "There are too many video games that celebrate the mass killing of innocent people — games that despite attempts at industry self-regulation find their way into the hands of children," he said. Sen Grassley pointed to evidence that a mass killer in Norway had played the popular "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" game and had referred to the game as part of his "training simulation." "Where is the artistic value in shooting innocent civilians?" Sen Grassley asked. "I share Vice President Biden’s disbelief of manufacturer denials that these games have no effect on real-world violence," Sen Grassley said. Grassley's comments, which came in his opening statement, were some of the only mentions of violent video games during the hearing, which focused mostly on gun control proposals.
NRA spokesman Wayne LaPierre, in suggesting the problem was larger than guns, also suggested one of those other factors was "incredibly violent video games." Captain Mark Kelly, Rep Gabby Giffords' husband, told the committee that they both supported Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research into gun violence, which the White House has indicated will include research into the impact of entertainment violence on societal violence. "Remove the limitations on the CDC and other public health organizations on collecting data and conducting scientific research on gun violence," Kelly told the committee. "As a fighter pilot and astronaut, I saw the value of using data to achieve our military and scientific objectives. We wouldn't have gotten to the moon or built the International Space Station without robust use of data to make informed decisions. It is simply crazy that we limit gun violence data collection and analysis when we could use that knowledge to save lives."
benton.org/node/144365 | Hill, The | Multichannel News | ars technica
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OWNERSHIP

3D PRINTING AND COPYRIGHT
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Michael Weinberg]
[Commentary] Public Knowledge is happy to announce a new whitepaper: What's the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing? This paper is something of a follow up to our previous 3D printing whitepaper It Will Be Awesome if They Don't Screw It Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology. Unlike It Will Be Awesome, which focused on the broad connection between intellectual property law and 3D printing, What's the Deal? takes a deeper dive into the relationship between copyright and 3D printing. A lot has changed since we released It Will Be Awesome. News outlets have discovered 3D printing. Rightsholders are issuing takedown notices. And Congress has started to take a look. At the same time, a lot has stayed the same. People are continuing to innovate to make home 3D printers better. Creators are pushing the limits as they design even more intricate 3D printed objects. And we are beginning to see the beginnings of physical remix artists. But throughout this, people seem to keep coming back to copyright.
benton.org/node/144341 | Public Knowledge | read the whitepaper | NYTimes
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2012 TECH ACQUISITIONS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Eliza Kern]
A new report from CB Insights breaks down the acquisitions of 2012, taking a look at the 2,277 private tech companies that were acquired, and examining some trends in mergers and acquisitions:
Of the companies that were acquired, 76 percent had not raised any investment and instead obtained funds through other avenues,
Facebook and Google made the most acquisitions last year, doing 12 acquisitions each, with Facebook making acquisitions primarily for talent,
Out of all the companies acquired, just eight were acquired for more than $1 billion. Those eight companies amount to less than 3 percent of all acquisitions in 2012. 80 percent of companies were acquired for less than $200 million, and more than 50 percent were acquired for less than $50 million, and
California saw the most acquisitions, but New York saw the highest percentage of acquisitions of internet companies.
benton.org/node/144347 | GigaOm | CB Insights
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

AT&T SMALL CELL TRIAL
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Christina Bonnington]
AT&T is constantly fighting to improve bandwidth on its overcrowded network, which has seen mobile data usage explode 30,000 percent between 2006 and 2012. The carrier has found a solution in small cells, which can bring nearly perfect usability to areas prone to dead zones and dropped calls. AT&T tested small cells in Crystal Lake Park, Missouri and Waukesha, Wisconsin. In Crystal Lake Park, where the technology was used in a highly populated neighborhood, the small cell increased traffic by 17 percent and also boosted outdoor areas to nearly 100 percent usability. Waukesha was a test in an enterprise environment, specifically a large building dotted with dead zones. The addition of small cells gave the area almost 100 percent coverage and virtually eliminated dropped calls. AT&T did not, however, specify what happened to download speeds after small cells added all those users to the network.
benton.org/node/144350 | Wired
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CYBERSECURITY

HAGEL AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez, Brendan Sasso]
Former-Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said deterring future cyberattacks will be a "continued key challenge" for the United States and he will ensure the Defense Department provides "strong support" toward efforts to defend the country from hackers if he is confirmed as secretary of Defense. In response to a slate of questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hagel said defending the country from cyberattacks should "involve the full range of tools at the disposal" of the U.S., but he didn't specifically say whether that will require the use of offensive and defensive cyber forces. However, he said one of the tools the U.S. should employ is "any authorized military operations," as well as diplomacy and law enforcement. Hagel provided few clues about what his cybersecurity strategy would be as head of the Defense Department. Hagel said he will carefully consider various cyber challenges facing the department and consult with other military officials and agencies before making decisions that will affect the country's cybersecurity policy.
benton.org/node/144372 | Hill, The
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NEW YORK TIMES HACKED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicole Perlroth]
For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees. After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defenses to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in. The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings. Security experts hired by The Times to detect and block the computer attacks gathered digital evidence that Chinese hackers, using methods that some consultants have associated with the Chinese military in the past, breached The Times’ network. They broke into the e-mail accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the reports on Mr. Wen’s relatives, and Jim Yardley, The Times’ South Asia bureau chief in India, who previously worked as bureau chief in Beijing.
benton.org/node/144373 | New York Times | FT
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

JUST PUTTING BILLS ONLINE DOESN'T TELL YOU WHAT THEY MEAN
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
Reading through proposed legislation can be mind boggling, especially for a novice. The average proposed law is full of instructions to strike this, add that and amend to read thus. The natural way to make proposed bills more accessible to the public would be to employ smart software that allowed citizens to toggle back and forth between the current version of the law and a new “redlined” version with all the proposed changes, said Harlan Yu, a technology consultant and open government advocate. The result would look something like tracked changes in a Microsoft Word document. The problem, Yu said, is that for about half the U.S. Code, Congress hasn’t specified exactly where new legislation should be placed. In those cases, non-partisan staff in the House of Representatives’ Office of the Law Revision Counsel fits new legislation in where they think it makes most sense. While the language in those sections carries the full force of law, the organization of the sections does not, so it’s impossible to create an authoritative redlined version.
benton.org/node/144351 | nextgov
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AGENDA

FCC MEETING AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, 2013:
Improving Wireless Coverage for Consumers Through the Use of Signal Boosters: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to significantly enhance wireless coverage for consumers, while protecting wireless networks from interference by adopting new technical, operational, and registration requirements for signal boosters.
Increasing the Amount of Spectrum Available for Unlicensed Devices in the 5 GHz Band: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to substantially increase the amount of
unlicensed spectrum available to accelerate the growth and expansion of new Wi-Fi technology offering consumers faster speeds and less network congestion at Wi-Fi hot spots.
benton.org/node/144364 | Federal Communications Commission
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Locked into your phone

[Commentary] Cellphone users know that when they sign a contract with a mobile phone company, they're locked into that network for the duration of the deal. What they may not know is that their phone is digitally locked to that network forever. And as of this week, they may no longer have the legal right to unlock it, even after the contract has expired.

It's just the latest example of how companies have stretched copyright law to deter competition and innovation, not protect the creators of copyrighted works. At issue is Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bars people from circumventing a "technological measure" — e.g., a digital lock — that restricts access to a copyrighted work. Recognizing how sweeping the prohibition was, Congress instructed the Librarian of Congress to grant exemptions every three years for circumventions that enabled non-infringing uses of locked works. The government granted exemptions for mobile phone unlocking in 2006 and 2010 but not last year, ruling that consumers who wanted an unlocked phone could buy a new one or seek permission from their phone company. That's not what copyright law is for. Yet that's how companies have repeatedly tried to use it in the digital era, when so many services and devices can claim copyright protection based on the software they rely on. The courts have turned back some of the more egregious efforts, such as the attempt by a printer manufacturer to use the anti-circumvention law to block a rival supplier of ink cartridges. But the government's flub on the cellphone issue shows that it's time for Congress to clarify that companies will have to find a more appropriate tool than copyright law to enforce their business models.

White House petition aims to overturn ban on unlocked cell phones

If you unlock your cellphone - that is, alter it so that it will work on a network other than that of the carrier from which you purchased it - you could be breaking the law. The rule change comes not from Congress, per se, but by fiat of the Library of Congress, which decided in October to close an exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that had made the practice legal. Now Sina Khanifar, a 27-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco, is trying to galvanize the backlash with a petition on We The People: "Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal." From the petition:

Consumers will be forced to pay exorbitant roaming fees to make calls while traveling abroad. It reduces consumer choice, and decreases the resale value of devices that consumers have paid for in full. The Librarian noted that carriers are offering more unlocked phones at present, but the great majority of phones sold are still locked. We ask that the White House ask the Librarian of Congress to rescind this decision, and failing that, champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal.

Senators look to extend ban on Internet taxes

Sens Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced legislation that would extend a law banning federal, state and local governments from taxing Internet access.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act, originally enacted in 1998, is set to expire in November 2014. The bill from Sens Ayotte and Heller would extend the ban indefinitely. The Internet Tax Freedom Act bans taxes on Internet access and Internet-only services like email, but it does not prohibit sales taxes on online purchases. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and others are pushing legislation that would allow states to tax online purchases from other states.

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