June 27, 2013 (Reclaim Your Name)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2013
Busy day: FCC and FistNet open meetings; spectrum/wireless hearing; and cybersecurity all on the agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-06-27/
PRIVACY
FTC Commissioner Brill Starts ‘Reclaim Your Name’ Campaign for Personal Data
Can Reclaim Your Name Resonate Like Do Not Track? - analysis
Telecom Firms Form Privacy Coalition
How you invade your own privacy - op-ed [links to web]
TELECOM
FCC Seeks More Data Sought On Extra Fees Levied On Inmate Calling Services - public notice
FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force Acting Director Sean Lev Remarks at TIA Network Transition Event - speech
Copper Based Broadband Decline is Accelerating, Sort Of
Fight With Verizon Over Ending Landline Service Has New Front: Catskills
TELEVISION
Video Marketplace: Competition Is Evolving, and Government Reporting Should Be Reevaluated - research
What's the Cost of Not Having a Retransmission Agreement? $2.25 Million - analysis
One Speech, Many Different Approaches
Bloomberg Wants FCC Action on Comcast Neighborhooding Compliant [links to web]
Sinclair’s Smith: Adopt Next TV Standard Now [links to web]
WIRLESS/SPECTRUM
Dish walks away from Clearwire, leaving Sprint with the prize [links to web]
Fight With Verizon Over Ending Landline Service Has New Front: Catskills
What’s Next in the Mobile Browser War? Actual Revenue. - op-ed [links to web]
ACCESSIBILITY
Group finalizes treaty to expand book access for world’s blind community
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NSA takes surveillance fact sheets off website
A Few Agencies Use Internal Apps to Boost Mobility, Collaboration [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Penny Pritzker Sworn in as 38th Secretary of Commerce - press release [links to web]
FCC’s Rosenworcel Stumps for E-Rate [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Jordan Accused Of Targeting Online Dissent
Facebook: We have not given user data to Turkish authorities
Europe's broadband 25 percent slower than ISPs promise
European TV Wants to Channel U.S. Profits
Verizon in Talks to Buy Into Canadian Telecoms
MORE ONLINE
San Francisco paper Sues Rival Over Low Ad Rates [links to web]
Pentagon Signs $5 Million Deal for Cyber Battleground [links to web]
PRIVACY
RECLAIM YOUR NAME
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Singer]
Federal Trade Commission member Julie Brill has proposed an industry-wide initiative to give consumers access to their own records held by data brokers. She envisions an online portal where data brokers would describe their data collection practices and their consumer access policies. Commissioner Brill has come up with a handy nickname for her proposed effort: “Reclaim Your Name.” “Reclaim Your Name would empower the consumer to find out how brokers are collecting and using data; give her access to information that data brokers have amassed about her; allow her to opt-out if she learns a data broker is selling her information for marketing purposes and provide her the opportunity to correct errors in information used for substantive decisions – like credit, insurance, employment, and other benefits,” Commissioner Brill said in a speech at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Washington. Participation in a voluntary “Reclaim Your Name” program of the kind Commissioner Brill proposed might help the industry mitigate government efforts toward greater regulation.
benton.org/node/154541 | New York Times
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RECLAIM YOUR NAME
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
What's in a slogan? To the Federal Trade Commission, which is trying to goad an industry into adopting voluntary guidelines on data privacy issues, a catchy phrase might offer a lot of value. Take Do Not Track. The FTC made a lot of headway when it coined the term—a riff off Do Not Call—to advocate for stricter online privacy laws. Faced with new regulation, the advertising industry acted preemptively, and worked with the FTC to develop its self-regulatory online ad program that gives consumers the ability to opt-out of targeted ads. Now FTC Commissioner Julie Brill has come up Reclaim Your Name, the slogan of her ongoing, year-old campaign calling for data brokers to give consumers access to their own data on a centralized website. It remains to be seen if a simple slogan can help Commissioner Brill convince that industry to follow her lead. Perhaps the press will help her in her cause?
benton.org/node/154553 | AdWeek
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21 ST CENTURY PRIVACY COALITION
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
As privacy and data security heat up on Capitol Hill in the wake of news over the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, a group of the nation's largest telecommunications companies formed the 21st Century Privacy Coalition. The coalition will be co-chaired by two big-name Washington insiders familiar with privacy and data security issues: former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz of Davis Polk & Wardwell and former Rep Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) of FaegreBD Consulting, who took on privacy and data security policy when she served as chairwoman of the House subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing and trade. Founding members of the new coalition include AT&T, Comcast, CTIA-The Wireless Association, Directv, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and the U.S. Telecom Association. The coalition will concentrate on updating U.S. privacy and security laws.
benton.org/node/154550 | AdWeek
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TELECOM
MORE DATA SOUGHT ON EXTRA FEES LEVIED ON INMATE CALLING SERVICES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks additional comment on certain fees related to inmate calling services (ICS). Comments in the record in the above-referenced proceeding indicate that ICS providers may charge ICS account holders fees that appear ancillary to making calls, such as account setup fees, account replenishment fees, account refund fees, and account inactivity fees. The Bureau requests that parties provide data and information about such fees. Specifically, the Bureau request that parties identify any Ancillary ICS Fees that ICS providers charge in connection with the provision of interstate ICS, the level of each fee, total amount of revenue received from each fee, and cost of providing the service for which the fee recovers. The Bureau also requests that parties identify any portion of ancillary service costs that are shared or common to provision of other services, and explain how these costs, and recovery of them, are apportioned among the services to which they are shared or common. To evaluate how costs associated with providing ancillary services relate to ICS providers’ overall costs, the Bureau requests additional service provider cost data, discussed below.
The Bureau also notified the public that certain publicly-available inmate calling services (ICS) contracts may be considered as part of the record in this proceeding.
Comments are due July 17, 2013; reply comments due July 24, 2013.
benton.org/node/154549 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC
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TECHNOLOGY TRANSITIONS POLICY TASK FORCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Sean Lev]
To state the obvious, we are in the midst of a significant shift in the communications landscape. Simply put, these are exciting changes with enormous potential to improve lives. Among other things, the new technologies can deliver higher quality voice and broadband services to more Americans, at higher speeds and with the increased bandwidth necessary for the essential applications of today and tomorrow. IP-based networks also make it easier to deploy feature-rich next-generation 911 systems and create significant opportunities for individuals with disabilities, for example. At the same time, we are mindful that these developments are disruptive, and there is no guarantee that all of the services consumers and businesses rely on today will continue to be available in the same form, if at all, in the future. Simply put, these developments have important policy implications. For instance, what is the consumer’s experience when he or she is transitioned from a wireline to a wireless service? Will a consumer be able to reach a 911 call taker as readily and will the 911 system be as reliable as it has been in the past? Will consumers continue to have access to services that we tend to take for granted today, such as alarm monitoring and, especially for small businesses, credit-card confirmation? Will a consumer’s phone work when the power goes out? How will competition in serving small and mid-size businesses be affected if incumbent carriers are no longer offering TDM-based access services? These are just a few of the policy questions that regulators are facing -- and will face -- over the next several years.
benton.org/node/154532 | Federal Communications Commission
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COOPER IN DECLINE
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Bernie Arnason]
While still the dominant method for broadband access across the world, the decline in copper based broadband connections is accelerating, according to a recent Point Topic report. That’s not surprising news, especially here in the U.S. where the two largest incumbent DSL providers, Verizon and AT&T, have been hemorrhaging millions of basic DSL subscribers for the past couple years. The rise in fiber and hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) broadband connections are coming at copper’s expense. Point Topic reported that copper based broadband connections had declined for the first time in 4Q12, with 415K copper based broadband subscribers lost. They now report an acceleration in that trend, with over 2.77 million copper based broadband connections lost in the first three months of 2013. Despite my reference to AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., Point Topic points to rapid declines for copper based broadband in Asia as playing a major role in this trend. The U.S. is somewhat unique in the world, given the strong position of cable MSOs with respect to broadband connections. No other region in the world comes close to the percentage that cable holds for broadband, which Point Topic pegs at 50% for the “Americas” region.
benton.org/node/154536 | telecompetitor
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VOICE LINK AND THE CATSKILLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Patrick McGeehan]
The battle between Verizon and its unionized workers over a new device that turns a standard home phone into a kind of tethered cellphone shifted from Fire Island to the Catskills. On June 25, the New York State attorney general’s office asked utilities regulators to prevent Verizon from “illegally installing” the device, known as Voice Link. The company has been pressing customers to switch to the new service instead of having their traditional phone lines fixed. In May, the company received permission from state regulators to offer Voice Link as the only option for home phone service in parts of Fire Island, the vacation area east of New York City. Hurricane Sandy destroyed many of the wires that carried phone calls out to the western end of the island. But state regulators postponed a decision for a few months on Verizon’s request to be granted the authority to decide where else in New York State it might want to substitute Voice Link for what it calls “plain old telephone service.” Members of the union that represents Verizon’s technicians, the Communications Workers of America, sounded an alarm when they saw “a pallet-load of Voice Link devices” being delivered to Verizon’s installation center in Monticello in the Catskills region. Keith H. Gordon, an assistant attorney general, said that some Verizon customers in that area had reported that Voice Link was presented to them as their only option. “Only if a customer repeatedly insists and says, ‘No, I don’t want wireless,’ are they fixing the line,” Mr. Gordon said.
benton.org/node/154556 | New York Times
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TELEVISION
GAO REPORT ON VIDEO MARKETPLACE
[SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: Mark Goldstein]
Technological advances have ushered in a wave of new products and services, bringing online distribution of video to consumers. Federal laws and regulations have sought to foster competition in the video programming and distribution marketplace, but many such laws were adopted prior to the emergence of these advances. The Government Accountability Office examined (1) how competition has changed since 2005 (when GAO last reported on video marketplace competition); (2) the increased choices that consumers have in acquiring video programming and content; and (3) stakeholders' views on how the government's regulations, reports, and other activities have kept pace with changes in the industry. GAO reviewed relevant literature and reports; interviewed agency officials, industry stakeholders, and experts; and analyzed prices and service offerings in 20 randomly sampled zip codes (the prices and services offerings reflect conditions in the 20 zip codes and are not generalizable to all zip codes).
Since GAO reported on competition in 2005, competition among video content producers is little changed, while competition among distributors has increased. According to data cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seven companies' broadcast and cable networks accounted for about 95 percent of all television viewing hours in the United States. Further, ownership of broadcast and cable networks changed little from 2005 through 2012. Alternatively, the introduction of video service provided by telephone companies, such as Verizon's FiOS service, has brought additional competition to video distribution. At year-end 2010, roughly 1 in 3 households could choose among 4 or more subscription video distributors: typically a cable company, 2 satellite companies, and a telephone company. With technological advances, companies are increasingly distributing video online. Online video distributors (OVD) are developing a variety of business models, including free and subscription-based services. However, online viewing and revenues represent a small portion of overall media viewing hours and revenue.
The GAO recommends that the FCC should study the advantages and disadvantages of different reporting frequencies for its cable industry price and video competition reports and transmit the results of its analysis to Congress.
benton.org/node/154534 | Government Accountability Office
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RETRANSMISSION FINE
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Scott Flick]
[Commentary] We now know what the per-subscriber fee for cable systems lacking retransmission agreements with local broadcast stations is, and it isn't "free."
Section 76.64 of the Federal Communications Commission’s rules requires cable systems to have a written retransmission agreement in place before retransmitting the signal of a station that elected retransmission consent status. Because the law is clear on this point, there have been few cases where the FCC has had to address complaints of illegal retransmission. In the first of these cases, the FCC found the cable system violated its obligation to negotiate in good faith with the broadcaster and ordered retransmission to cease until an agreement was in place. Two later cases for a pair of 34-day violations against one cable system operator resulted in base fine calculations of $255,000 each, but the FCC reduced the fines to $15,000 each based upon the cable system operator's inability to pay. Now the FCC upped the ante, proposing a fine of $2.25 million for TV Max and related parties for retransmitting six local TV stations to 245 multiple dwelling unit buildings in Houston without a retransmission agreement.
benton.org/node/154535 | CommLawBlog | FCC press release | see the Order
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CABLE AND THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH
[SOURCE: Mediabistro, AUTHOR: Alex Weprin]
On June 25, President Barack Obama delivered a big speech on the issue of climate change. The speech ended up making clear the filters through which the cable news channels approach a news item. When the President began speaking shortly after 1:45 PM ET, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and, yes, The Weather Channel, were carrying the speech. Bloomberg and Fox Business also carried it. Weather, FBN and Bloomberg were the only channels to carry it in full (or in the case of Bloomberg almost full), without talking over the President. The proposals are definitely a big business story, so it is not surprising that FBN and Bloomberg covered (and it is surprising that CNBC chose not to). CNN, MSNBC and Fox News tended to focus on the politics, with MSNBC noting the challenges the President faces, CNN noting that his proposals were “generating controversy” among Republicans and FNC focusing on the politics of climate change, barely touching the proposals.
benton.org/node/154533 | MediaBistro
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ACCESSIBILITY
BOOK ACCESS FOR SIGHT DISABLED
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama, Tom Hamburger]
Negotiators at the World Intellectual Property Organization have finalized terms on a copyright treaty that would provide more book access to the world’s blind and visually impaired. The treaty makes it legal to make copies of copyrighted material accessible to the blind community by converting it to formats such as Braille books, audio recordings or large-print books without first having to seek permission from copyright holders in every instance. Advocates for the visually impaired say that fewer than one percent of all the world’s books are accessible in these formats. The treaty would make it possible for converted texts in a given language to be available in multiple countries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/group-finalizes-treat...
Victory for Access to Books for the Blind (Public Knowledge)
benton.org/node/154545 | Washington Post | Public Knowledge
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NSA SURVEILLANCE FACT SHEET
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
Following a complaint from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), the National Security Agency has removed from its website two fact sheets designed to shed light on and defend a pair of surveillance programs. Users now trying to access the documents detailing surveillance under legal authorities known as Section 215 and Section 702 receive an error message when they try to load the fact sheets. "After reviewing your letter, I agree that the fact sheet that the National Security Agency posted on its website on 18 June 2013 could have more precisely described the requirements for collection under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act," said NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander.
benton.org/node/154537 | Politico
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
JORDAN AND ONLINE DISSENT
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Deborah Amos, Nabih Bulos]
Jordan's King Abdullah vowed to make the desert kingdom a "free Internet" country as he began his rule more than a decade ago. On June 2, when local Internet providers were ordered to block hundreds of news websites across the kingdom, Web publishers protested the broken promise and international media watchdog organizations charged censorship. The protests are getting louder in Amman, as websites go dark across the kingdom, more than 300 in all. Government officials say the new law protects citizens against slander and blackmail on unregulated websites. The controversial new requirements include a government license; a member of Jordan's press council on staff, a group that excludes electronic media journalists; and site owners being responsible for all content, including commentary posted in open discussions.
benton.org/node/154531 | National Public Radio
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FACEBOOK AND TURKEY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Facebook said that it has not provided user data to Turkish authorities despite the requests it has received from the government for information related to protests in the country. The social network said it rejects all government requests for data from Turkish authorities, and encouraged the country to submit these requests to international law enforcement structures. "More generally, we reject all government data requests from Turkish authorities and push them to formal legal channels unless it appears that there is an immediate threat to life or a child, which has been the case in only a small fraction of the requests we have received," the company said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been criticized for violently cracking down on protesters rallying against the government in recent weeks.
benton.org/node/154544 | Hill, The
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EUROPEAN BROADBAND
[SOURCE: ZDNet, AUTHOR: Jo Best]
It's been long known that advertised broadband speeds rarely match up to the reality, but it turns out the disparity across Europe is in the region of 25 percent. Consumers across the continent get on average three-quarters of the "up to" headline broadband speed advertised by their ISP, according to figures released by the European Commission. The EC survey involved more than 9,000 users in the 27 EU member states, as well as Croatia, Iceland and Norway, in March last year. It found that cable broadband offers the real-world download speeds that are closest to the advertised speeds, at 91.4 percent, while fiber users are likely to get speeds that are 84.4 percent of ISPs' headline speeds. xDSL subscribers however fare the worst, getting speeds around 63.3 percent of their provider's maximum.
benton.org/node/154530 | ZDNet
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EUROPEAN RETRANSMISSION CONSENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Jannarone]
European television networks often find creative inspiration in the U.S. Now, they also want to cash in on TV the American way. A lucrative strategy among U.S. free-to-air broadcasters has been to charge "retransmission" fees to pay-TV companies for the right to air their content. The broadcasters have leverage because roughly 90% of Americans have cable or satellite TV, where they often watch free-to-air channels through set-top boxes. Some free-to-air broadcasters, therefore, argue their content should come at a price. Unfortunately, European broadcasters have had a tougher time squeezing retransmission fees from cable and satellite companies. A key reason: It is hard for most broadcasters to restrict access to their content. But things may be about to change, thanks to increasing demand for high-definition, or HD, channels. Broadcasters have gained negotiating power by offering HD versions of their content that isn't always available via antenna. Pay-TV companies need such channels to entice customers to pay for HD packages.
benton.org/node/154552 | Wall Street Journal
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VERIZIN IN TALKS FOR CANDADIAN WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Carolyn King, Ben Dummett]
Verizon Communications is in talks to acquire one, and maybe two, struggling Canadian mobile-phone carriers, as it mulls a push north of the border. Verizon has signed a nondisclosure agreement with Mobilicity, a small upstart wireless carrier in Canada, in preparation for talks over a possible deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. This person said Verizon executives have told Mobilicity that any talks with the company would be contingent on separate discussions now under way about a possible acquisition by Verizon of Wind Mobile, another small carrier in Canada. It is unclear how Verizon would structure any deal with either company, or what valuation it is putting on either or both privately held companies. A previous expression of interest for Wind, reported earlier this year by The Wall Street Journal, valued the company at about 500 million Canadian dollars ($476 million.)
benton.org/node/154551 | Wall Street Journal
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