March 2013

Lifeline phone service goes wireless

Two companies are now offering free cell phones and service to anyone in California who can prove that his or her annual income is less than $14,702.

The program is part of the federally funded Lifeline effort, which until now in California provided only landline phone service to the poor. The state Public Utilities Commission expanded Lifeline to cell phones, allowing those who qualify to receive free phones and monthly plans for 250 talk minutes and 250 text messages. Advocates for the homeless - including the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness and Bevan Dufty, the city's head of homeless initiatives - have been pushing the commission to approve the program for three years. They pointed out that, with landline usage plummeting and cell phones becoming more the norm, cell-phone Lifeline plans have already been approved in most other states.

Report: IRS approach to nonprofit journalism needs to be modernized

The Internal Revenue Service’s ground rules on giving news organizations tax-exempt status need to be modernized, a new report found. The report from the Council on Foundations (COF) found that local news media groups seeking to become tax-exempt have faced delays and even rejections in recent years, something the study says could stifle local coverage of important issues.

According to the new analysis, the IRS’s approach to distinguishing between for-profit and nonprofit media groups has not kept up with the changes in technology and how news is distributed or consumed. The report says, for instance, that nonprofit media groups must distribute their content in a way that is different from “ordinary commercial publishing practices.” The problem with this approach, the Council on Foundations said, is that “the distribution methods for all forms of media, whether for profit or nonprofit – newspapers, magazines, television, radio, charitable and private — have converged and may be identical.”

Democrats want T-Mobile to promise not to lay-off workers

Dozens of House Democrats urged the Federal Communications Commission to force T-Mobile to accept job-protection conditions as part of its purchase of MetroPCS.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the 62 Democrats said they will not support "another consolidation of two companies that leads to the reduction of American jobs." They expressed concern over the fact that T-Mobile and MetroPCS have said they expect to achieve $6-7 billion in post-merger "efficiencies" and "transaction-specific savings." They noted that both MetroPCS and T-Mobile have closed customer call centers and shipped them overseas in recent years. They said the FCC, which is currently reviewing the deal, should force T-Mobile to commit to "preserving U.S. jobs" to receive approval.

Gun, pot bills attract the most attention online

It’s a Top 10 list that will never make David Letterman’s show, but it reveals that people are very interested in guns and marijuana. A relatively new feature on the Library of Congress THOMAS site is a Top 10 list of bills searched on Congress’s official website. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) measure to ban assault weapons has the top spot with Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OR) bill to allow states to legalize medical marijuana in second place. Other bills that are in the Top 10 tackle freezing pay for federal employees, postal reform and North Korea. The healthcare bill from the 111th Congress registers at No. 8.

FCC Launches White Spaces Database Test March 11

The Federal Communications Commission announced the opening of public testing for a TV white spaces database being administered by Key Bridge Global LLC. The database will identify the so-called white spaces between TV channels so that unlicensed devices accessing the database can use them.

A 45-day test period starts March 11, and is intended to allow the public to access the database to insure that it has correctly identified open channels, correctly identifies transmitters entitled to protection. The FCC wants testers to provide feedback to Key Bridge, as well as comment at the FCC at the end of the test.

Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion

The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared the results of national polls to the tone of tweets in response to eight major news events, including the outcome of the presidential election, the first presidential debate and major speeches by Barack Obama. At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that stands out. Much of the difference may have to do with both the narrow sliver of the public represented on Twitter as well as who among that slice chose to take part in any one conversation.

The Impact of broadband on Global Access to Education

A new report titled – Technology, Broadband and Education: Advancing the Education for All Agenda – developed by the Broadband Commission for Digital Development highlights strategies for leveraging high-speed networks to realize the goal of providing education for all.

The report is the result of collaborative input from a large number of Commissioners and their organizations, including Alcatel-Lucent, the Connect-to-Learn partnership (The Earth Institute, Colombia University/Ericsson/Millennium Promise), Intel, the Inter-American Development Bank, Broadband Commissioners Suvi Lindén, Jasna Matić and Ivo Ivanovski, and Special Advisor to the Commission, Paul Budde. Broadband networks have the potential to radically alter the education landscape, creating new centers of learning in the developing world, extending access to distance learning programs to outlying communities, and helping poorer countries retain high-performing students who can help lift their nations out of poverty. Distance learning strategies can not only help nations educate children and adults living in remote communities, but broadband-based education programs could also become a source of income for those national higher education institutions that succeed in designing compelling, world class curriculums tailored to the needs of the billions living in the developing world.

Qatar and Kuwait to back Gulf web project

Qatar and Kuwait have thrown money behind an ambitious project to build a new Gulf internet cable network, to help combat the growing risk of cyber-sabotage in a politically tense region that has already seen some high-profile attacks.

The new fiber optic network – set to go live next week – passes through Iraq and Turkey in an effort to give Gulf telecoms operators an alternative web traffic route to Europe, reducing the risk of connection disruptions. The system, part-financed by the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Kuwait, is part of a broader plan by Gulf telecom operators to account for booming demand for the web while at the same time bolstering their defenses against sabotage or unintended damage. There is also the danger that cables running through the Strait of Hormuz could be vulnerable to any escalation of tension with Iran.

Google controls too much of China's smartphone sector: ministry

Google has too much control over China's smartphone industry via its Android mobile operating system and has discriminated against some local firms, the technology ministry said in a white paper.

The white paper, authored by the research arm of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said China had the ability to create its own mobile operating system. The paper said Google had discriminated against some Chinese companies developing their operating systems by delaying the sharing of codes. Google had also used commercial agreements to restrain the business development of mobile devices of these companies, it added.

As User Interaction on Facebook Drops, Sharing Comes at a Cost

Something is puzzling on Facebook. Early last year, soon after Facebook instituted a feature that let people subscribe to others’ feeds without being friends, I quickly amassed a healthy “subscriber” list of about 25,000 people. Every Sunday morning, I started sharing my weekly column with this newfound entourage. Those posts garnered a good response. For example, a column about my 2012 New Year’s resolution to take a break from electronics gathered 535 “likes” and 53 “reshares.” Another, about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, owing me $50 after the company’s public offering, quickly drew 323 likes and 88 reshares. Since then, my subscribers have grown to number 400,000. Yet now, when I share my column, something different happens. Guess how many people like and reshare the links I post? If your answer was over two digits, you’re wrong. What changed? I recently tried a little experiment. I paid Facebook $7 to promote my column to my friends using the company’s sponsored advertising tool. To my surprise, I saw a 1,000 percent increase in the interaction on a link I posted, which had 130 likes and 30 reshares in just a few hours. It seems as if Facebook is not only promoting my links on news feeds when I pay for them, but also possibly suppressing the ones I do not pay for.

Benton

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