October 2013

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For November 2013 Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 14, 2013.

Foreign Investment in Broadcast Licensees: The Commission will consider a Declaratory Ruling to clarify the agency’s policies and procedures in reviewing broadcast applications for transfer of control, or requests for declaratory ruling, pursuant to section 310(b(4) of the Communications Act of 1934.
Improving 911 Reliability: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to improve the reliability and resiliency of 911 communications networks nationwide.
Status of Universal Service Reform Implementation: The Wireline Competition Bureau, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Office of Native Affairs and Policy will present an update on universal service reform implementation.
Promoting Digital Literacy though Public-Private Partnerships: The Commission will hear an update on the multiple public-private initiatives seeking to boost broadband adoption and digital literacy. The presentation will include updates on the state of these broadband adoption programs and their future impact. By leveraging the power of broadband and private-sector expertise, the Commission seeks to develop and promote innovative approaches to a range of opportunities in fields such as education, healthcare, public safety, cybersecurity, broadband adoption, and digital literacy.

FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn on Increasing Access to Capital for the Broadcast Industry

Today, I circulated a declaratory ruling that clears the way for increased access to capital and potential new investors for the broadcast sector. Approval of this item will clarify the Commission’s intention to review, on a case-by-case basis, proposed transactions that would exceed the 25 percent benchmark that restricts foreign ownership in companies holding broadcast licenses. I look forward to working with my colleagues toward a final Commission vote next month.

How Many TV and Radio Stations Are There? (Sept 2013)

If you’re scoring at home, the Federal Communications Commission announced the following totals for broadcast stations licensed as of September 30, 2013:

Full power radio stations – 15,330
Full power television stations – 1,783
Low power radio stations – 788
Low power TV stations – 1,935

Why give away OS X Mavericks for free? Because it makes Apple more money

One of the biggest changes to OS X Mavericks from the previous version of Apple's operating system is its price -- it’s free.

Sure, it’s not entirely unheard of for operating systems to be free. Windows 8.1 was a free upgrade for Windows 8 users, for example. And Linux has always been free. But Apple has historically charged money for its new operating systems, ranging from $129 (for the original OS X 10.0) to $29 (OS X 10.7 Lion) to $19.99 (OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion). Given that smartphone OS upgrades (for both Android and iOS) have always been free, are we seeing the end of paid OS upgrades? It sure seems likely, at least for Apple, and perhaps even Microsoft will follow, too. Mavericks' pricing further confirms what we’ve seen in recent years: traditional PC sales are on the wane, and Apple is a company that makes money off hardware devices and online services rather than its operating systems. It appears that Apple now wants to encourage upgrades as a way to push users not only to buy new hardware, but also to spend more money on iCloud, iTunes Match, and making App Store purchases.

75% of AT&T customers now own smartphones and they’re buying a lot more data

[Commentary] You would think AT&T is getting close to smartphone saturation. As of the end of the third quarter, three out of every four of its contract customers now owns a smartphones, and the large majority of its new activations are replacing older smartphones on its network. But AT&T continues to grow its smartphone base. It added 1.2 million smartphone connections in the third quarter. 178,000 of them were new customers coming from other carriers, but the remaining 1 million were all current customers upgrading from feature phones.

AT&T added the same number of net new smartphone subscribers in the second quarter as well, and given the refresh of the iPhone line and the usual holiday spurt, we’ll likely see even more smartphone net adds in the fourth quarter. When will the growth stop, or at least slow down? At 90 percent saturation would be a good guess. For the last several quarters, AT&T has pretty consistently sold nearly nine smartphones for every one dumb-phone sold. There are still millions of people who still want feature phones, but they only account for about 10 percent of AT&T’s contract subscriber base. Of course, many of those feature phone users are likely moving to AT&T and other carriers’ prepaid services where costs are much cheaper, but smartphones are also making tremendous gains among prepaid subscribers as well. AT&T added 190,000 prepaid subscribers in the third quarter compared to 363,000 net postpaid additions.

Privacy activists get second shot at Facebook PRISM investigation in Ireland

The Irish High Court has granted the activist group Europe v Facebook a judicial review of an earlier decision by the country’s data protection commissioner, who refused to launch an investigation into Facebook’s alleged transfer of customer data to the US National Security Agency.

Europe v Facebook (EvF) is, as the name suggests, a thorn in the social network company’s side. Founded a couple of years ago by a group of Austrian law students, the group generally targets Facebook in Ireland. EvF has seen real results, too, having forced Facebook to alter its policies around photo-tagging in Europe, for example.

A la Apple, Samsung apologizes in China after state media criticism

Months after Apple apologized to consumers in China, Korean rival Samsung is doing the same after the country's state media criticized the vendor for failing to fix glitches in several of its phone models.

"We welcome the scrutiny from the media," Samsung posted to its China website. "Due to problems with management that brought inconvenience to our customers, the company expresses its sincerest of apologies." Earlier in the week, the country's state-controlled China Central Television aired a 30-minute segment that put a spotlight on flaws found in Samsung phones. The affected models include handsets that are part of Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note 2 product line. According to CCTV's report, a software glitch in the phones can permanently damage a memory chip within the device's motherboard. This can cause the phone to frequently crash, from 20 to 30 times a day, according to one Galaxy S3 owner interviewed in the segment.

Will Facebook’s new teen privacy settings keep younger users safer?

Steve Woda, CEO of uKnow.com -- a firm that provides social media monitoring of kids’ accounts -- shared these pointers for teens and their parents to keep everyone cyber safe:

Insist on transparency: Parents should help their teens set up their accounts including choosing settings.
Remember to block and ignore: Woda suggests that children be taught to ignore such posts and block anyone who continues negative campaigns such as recruiting others to become cyber bullies.
Remember, it’s not just your kid: Although most kids are not cyber bullies and don’t knowingly post inappropriate content, they may be swayed by others. That’s why it’s imperative for parents to understand the workings of the social media sites.

TiVo Lights Up Out-of-Home Streaming

TiVo has launched out-of-home streaming of live and recorded video via the recently launched TiVo Roamio Pro and TiVo Roamio Plus DVRs. The addition “combines the functionality of a DVR, Apple TV, Roku and Slingbox,” TiVo said, noting that the new feature will come via an automatic software and mobile app update.

Officials Aren’t Counting The Growing Cost Of Online Obamacare Fraud

Don't ask the federal government how much money citizens are losing to Obamacare Internet scams. Tracking the dollars stolen through fake exchanges and other sites that prey on insurance applicants apparently is not under the Administration's jurisdiction.

The criminals are on top of it though. Even before the $400 million official HealthCare.gov marketplace opened on Oct. 1, 2013, potentially fraudulent sites had reserved various incarnations of "Obamacare" for their homepage name, according to Web researchers. Now there are about 700 copycat sites, said John Bambenek, who watches abnormal online activity for the nonprofit Internet Storm Center. The expectation is that some of these webpages are for hosting bogus insurance marketplaces. “The real fraud is so-called fake exchanges . . . entities that set up what appear to be exchanges, but are not, with a link to provide your personal data and/or payment,” said Mark Rasch, former head of the Justice Department’s computer crime unit. Soon, “phishing” emails, trick text messages and sham phone calls will direct you to online forms where you essentially enroll your personal information with identity thieves. But the FBI, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Health and Human Services each say following the money is not their agency’s responsibility. While unable to provide any fraud data, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did provide instructional materials on how to avoid being conned. One flier advises citizens to be suspicious of anyone charging a fee to enroll. A separate announcement promotes a new fraud hotline reachable by phone.

Benton

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