April 2013

Google Formalizes Settlement Offer to EU in Antitrust Probe

Google submitted a formal set of remedies to the European Union that will soon be shown to rivals and customers as part of settlement talks to end a two-year probe into claims its search results discriminate against competitors.

The EU’s goal is to “secure legally binding commitments” from Google as part of the settlement negotiations, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told reporters in Washington. European users should have the “widest possible choice in search,” he said. A settlement would allow the Mountain View, California-based company to avoid possible fines for abusing its dominance. “Google has a lot more market power in Europe than in the U.S., more than 90 percent,” Almunia said. “To avoid abuse we need to guarantee that users of the search engine have a choice and that search results have the highest possible quality.”

Google Sued Over Searches as European Probes Advance

Google was sued in London by a U.K. Internet company for promoting its own maps over those of competitors in what it claimed was “Google’s cynical manipulation of search results.”

Streetmap, a provider of Internet maps, filed a complaint in London March 15, according to court records. Google’s actions have made its products “harder to find,” the U.K.-based company alleged. It’s at least the second such lawsuit filed against Google since June. Streetmap said its complaint mirrors an antitrust probe by the European Union into whether Google favors its own services over competitors in search results.

Antitrust complaint against Android is an attack on open source

[Commentary] Fairsearch -- an anti-Google group that counts Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia, and about a dozen other Google competitors as members -- filed a formal complaint with the European Commission about the search giant's "predatory distribution of Android at below cost." Apparently, Fairsearch believes that it's "predatory" for a company to gain market share by giving its software away for free.

The argument should alarm anyone who benefits from free software—which is to say everyone who uses the Internet. Apparently, Fairsearch believes that it's "predatory" for a company to gain market share by giving its software away for free. That stance would have sweeping implications for the software industry because so many software companies distribute software for free. Competition laws are supposed to benefit consumers, not a company's competitors. It's easy to see how Microsoft and Nokia might have been harmed by Google's decision to price its mobile operating system at zero. But there's no reason to think the strategy is harmful to consumers. To the contrary, consumers benefit greatly from the low price and broad selection of Android handsets. And despite those low prices, Android faces competition from mobile operating systems made by Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion, Mozilla, and others.

Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video

Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network. Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters conference here yesterday, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam said that the company's investment in its LTE network is what is making the delivery of that video possible. "With 3G you have video clips but there is buffering. With 4G you can stream video," he said.

Judge says no monopoly on in-flight Internet prices, tosses case against GoGo

A federal judge threw out an anti-trust case brought by airlines passengers who accuse internet provider GoGo of illegally raising the price of in-flight service to rates as high as $17.95. In a decision issued in San Francisco, US District Judge Edward Chen ruled that GoGo, despite supplying 85% of all internet-equipped airplanes in the US, does not have a monopoly.

The company’s customers include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, US Airways, and Virgin America. In throwing out the case, Chen accepted GoGo’s argument that it doesn’t have dominant market share because it covers only 16% of all US airplanes, and it’s possible for the remaining planes, which do not offer Internet, to sign up with a competing service provider. The Internet contracts are sold on airplane-by-airplane basis, and not across entire airlines. The passengers sued GoGo in October, claiming that competitor Row44 charges only $5 for an entire flight of internet service but that airlines can’t drop GoGo because of ten-year contracts that lock them in. They also argue that GoGo’s internet technology is inferior because it relies on ground-to-air tower transmission rather than the satellite service offered by Row44 and Jet Blue’s ViaSat service.

Google Fiber, Aereo and why you’re going to love the gigabit future

The gigabit future is going to bring about an Internet that is at least three times faster than anything available today, and that could be good news for innovators everywhere. This goes well beyond being able to stream more movies, download more music and play more games. Technology innovators could fully realize entirely new uses for a faster Internet — ideas that are only in their infancy today, impacting areas ranging from health care and infrastructure to online learning. Faster Internet speeds create new opportunities for upstart companies to break up legacy business models in other industries.

Take Aereo, for example, which is taking live television signals and delivering them over the Web, further blurring the line between traditional and Internet TV. Thanks to a bit of technological wizardry, the company is able to offer things you might expect from your cable company, such as the ability to record live TV for later viewing — all without a cable subscription or even a television. The whole TV-over-the-Internet concept works because members of what Nielsen Co. has dubbed the "Zero TV" generation think of shows as just another form of online video. It’s hard not to see how faster connectivity speeds would give new momentum to the “Zero TV” movement and open up new opportunities for gigabit broadband providers. The big caveat in a gigabit future, though, is that it’s expensive to build out all the necessary fiber connections.

What it means to get a gig: Austin sees more productivity and better Netflix

Austin learned that it would get a gigabit network provided by Google with the first customer getting online around the middle of 2014. One of the best parts for the startup community is that Google will also have a small business option, meaning that entrepreneurs will have a chance to get their hands on a gig as well. Judging by an informal survey of locals, most can’t wait.

GOP senators urge FCC to avoid new disclosure rules

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and a dozen of his Republican colleagues have asked the Federal Communications Commission to resist implementing new rules targeting the makers of political advertisements in the absence of Congress passing new disclosure legislation.

“Political issues should be left to Congress," the senators wrote in a letter dated April 10. "If [the FCC] were to attempt to establish through rulemaking what Congress has declined to act upon, it would seriously undermine the integrity of the Commission and imperil its independence." The new letter, which was also signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) calls the yet-to-be-passed DISCLOSE Act "one of the most politically charged, partisan issues in recent Congresses." It criticizes the legislation for raising "grave Constitutional concerns for speech protected by the First Amendment." The letter also admonishes the FCC not to become an arm of the Democratic Party.

Outcome-Based Measures Would Assist DHS in Assessing Effectiveness of Cybersecurity Efforts

Members of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office to (1) identify the roles of and actions taken by key federal entities to help protect the communications networks from cyber-based threats, (2) assess what is known about the extent to which cyber-incidents affecting the communications networks have been reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and (3) determine if the Department of Defense’s (DOD) pilot programs to promote cybersecurity in the defense industrial base can be used in the communications sector.

Within the roles prescribed for them by federal law and policy, the Federal Communications Commission and the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Commerce have taken actions to support the communications and information technology sectors’ efforts to secure the nation’s communications networks from cyber attacks. However, until DHS and its sector partners develop appropriate outcome-oriented metrics, it will be difficult to gauge the effectiveness of efforts to protect the nation’s core and access communications networks and critical support components of the Internet from cyber incidents. While no cyber incidents have been reported affecting the nation’s core and access networks, communications networks operators can use reporting mechanisms established by FCC and DHS to share information on outages and incidents. The pilot programs undertaken by DOD with its defense industrial base partners exhibit several attributes that could apply to the communications sector and help private sector entities more effectively secure the communications infrastructure they own and operate. As DHS develops procedures for expanding this program, considering these attributes could inform DHS’s efforts. To help assess efforts to secure communications networks and inform future investment and resource decisions, we recommend that the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the appropriate officials within DHS to collaborate with its public and private sector partners to develop, implement, and track sector outcome-oriented performance measures for cyber protection activities related to the nation’s communications networks.

[GAO-13-275]

MLB.com: America's pastime is higher tech than you think

Baseball, with its passion for tradition, is more tech-savvy than you think. Major League Baseball is now working with wireless engineering company Qualcomm to let people have a better smartphone experience while crammed together at the ballpark. The company has also worked over the last decade to insure that things go smoothly for people who pay to watch games online. MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman says things were different in the early, herky-jerky days of streaming. "Way back when in 2002 when we first started streaming, our fans got herky-jerky, buffering, dark minutes, and they were paying subscriptions so they weren't really happy about that," Bowman says. Thanks to breakthroughs in the years since, fans can now stream live baseball on their computer, cellphone, or tablet without all the bumps and breaks.

Benton

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