April 2013

Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn announced the departure of Angie Kronenberg and the appointment of Rebekah Goodheart as Acting Wireline Legal Advisor. Kronenberg has been serving as Clyburn’s Wireline Legal Advisor since December 2009 and has provided advice on a wide variety of wireline, broadband, disabilities access, and universal service matters.

Rebekah Goodheart has worked at the Commission since January 2008, most recently serving as Deputy Director of the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force and Associate Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau. She previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, developing many of the recommendations in National Broadband Plan. She also served as Assistant Division Chief in the Industry Analysis Division of the Media Bureau. Prior to joining the Commission, Rebekah served as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section, and was an associate at the law firm Wiley Rein LLP. Rebekah holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a B.S.F.S., cum laude, from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

[Commentary] For all the concerns over mobile phone logs, video footage and other data collection that could potentially be used to survail American citizens, it’s times like this that I think we see their real value. According to a Los Angeles Times article about the bomb attack at the Boston Marathon, the FBI has collected 10 terabytes that it’s sifting through in order to seek out clues about what exactly happened and who did it. Maybe I’m just a techno-optimist, but I find this very reassuring. It’s reassuring because I’ve spoken with so many smart people over the years who can do amazing things with data. Ten terabytes isn’t a huge data set by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s plenty to work with if it’s of high quality. It’s very possible there are some needles in that haystack of call logs, and I’m optimistic the analysts within the FBI — possibly with some outside help — will be able to find them.

The amount of time subscribers spent watching free video on demand television fare soared in 2012, according to the latest findings from measurement company Rentrak.

According to the "Rentrak State of VOD Report 2012," which reflects four years of platform analysis from Rentrak’s OnDemand Essentials Service, the total amount of time subscribers spent viewing free-on-demand TV content grew 40% in 2012 from 2011’s level. Moreover, the report found that the total number of free-on-demand TV programs watched went up 29% from the prior year. Relative to broadcast network shows, the percentage gains were even greater, as there was a 60% uptick in total time spent viewing those programs and a 47% advance in the number of those shows watched from the prior year.

Shortly after the horrific explosions that interrupted the Boston Marathon, the Associated Press reported that the government had shut down cellphone service in the area. That wasn't true—but it's not impossible.

"No one in Washington or in any statehouse or bunker anywhere can press a button and shut down phone service," explains Harold Feld, vice president at Public Knowledge, an advocacy group focused on communications and technology policy. But although there's no physical kill switch, there is Standard Operating Procedure 303, a secret agreement between telecommunications giants and the government that outlines "a shutdown and restoration process for use by commercial and private wireless networks during national crises," according to a government report on the subject. The government can shut down cellphone service—but it didn't do so in Boston. Because SOP 303, also known as the Emergency Wireless Protocols, is classified, the public doesn't know under which specific conditions a shutdown could occur. But in 2006, the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), a group of major telecom company executives and government officials, issued a report that revealed some details about SOP 303. The committee's report explained that the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications (NCC), an emergency telecom coordination body set up by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, would serve as a clearinghouse for requests to shut down wireless networks "within a localized area, such as a tunnel or bridge, and within an entire metropolitan area."