October 2013

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

On Friday, Headlines will arrive in your In Box a tad late. But still before lunch. Promise.

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Obama says NSA has plenty of congressional oversight. But one congressman says it’s a farce.
   Intelligence oversight has some limits in Congress
   Hostile Takeover: Now the NSA Wants to Snoop on Wall Street, too - analysis
   In speech to telecom industry, NSA’s Alexander criticizes coverage of surveillance
   Sen. Wyden vows to battle 'skin deep' NSA reforms
   Patriot Act author preps Freedom Act to rein in NSA
   Cybersecurity hinges on surveillance understanding, NSA director says
   Could A New "Privacy Generation" Change Our Surveillance Politics? - analysis

PRIVACY
   The upside of PRISM: At least we’re talking about data privacy — or the lack thereof
   Monitoring Your Every Move - editorial
   Mugged by a Mug Shot Online
   What's your Internet privacy personality?
   3 essential techniques to protect your online privacy [links to web]

THE SHUTDOWN/BUDGET
   Shutdown Puts Spectrum Auctions, Cellphone Approvals and Other FCC Projects in Peril
   FCC Will Face Massive Backlog on Reopening - analysis
   GOG Promises Free Videogames for Furloughed Government Workers [links to web]
   CPB appropriation arrives despite federal shutdown [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   AT&T: The Internet is awesome, so let’s get rid of phone regulations - analysis
   The Only 5 Charts You Need to Understand What’s Happening to the US Telecom Market - press release
   US share of Internet traffic grows - op-ed
   What happens in Vegas will now happen at gigabit speeds [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   TWC Research Report: Enormous Need For Wi-Fi Spectrum
   The Evolution of Verizon’s Higher Bid for Its Wireless Unit
   T-Mobile to Make It Cheaper to Make Calls While Abroad [links to web]
   Comcast-Backed Cell Tower Firm Lands Financing, Buys Five Towers [links to web]
   In a room with no cell service, Verizon works on the future of mobile [links to web]

TELEVISION
   Broadcasters to ask Supreme Court for early Aereo ruling [links to web]
   Comcast Hopes to Promote TV Shows in Twitter Deal [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   ISS urges vote against Murdoch at Fox's shareholder meeting [links to web]
   The Evolution of Verizon’s Higher Bid for Its Wireless Unit

HEALTH
   Rep Blackburn to introduce mobile health bill [links to web]

EDUCATION
   For-Profits Dominate Market for Online Teacher Prep [links to web]

AGENDA
   Telecom laws need 'substantial overhaul,' Rep Blackburn says

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Analysis: Canada veto complicates BlackBerry, telecom deal making
   Vodafone Faces Fivefold Spectrum-Fee Jump in Proposed UK Rules

MORE ONLINE
   Mobile Advertising Begins to Take Off [links to web]
   Personal computer industry continues to decline [links to web]
   A Novel Prompts a Conversation About How We Use Technology [links to web]

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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

OBAMA SAYS NSA HAS PLENTY OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT. BUT ONE CONGRESSMAN SAYS IT’S A FARCE.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
Defenders of the National Security Agency's domestic spying have argued that Congress had full knowledge of the agency's programs, so if you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at them. "These programs were originally authorized by Congress," President Barack Obama said shortly after Ed Snowden made his initial revelations. "They have been repeatedly authorized by Congress. Bipartisan majorities have approved them. Congress is continually briefed on how these are conducted." But Rep Justin Amash (R-MI), a vocal opponent of NSA spying programs, says that congressional oversight of intelligence programs is "broken." While the Senate Intelligence committee sent out briefing information about the programs to members of the upper chamber, Rep Amash says the House Intelligence Committee "decided it wasn't worthwhile to share this information" with members of the House. Instead, he says, the committee offered members an opportunity to attend some classified briefings and review the documents in the committee chamber. Rep. Amash describes those briefings as a farce. And his account of trying to get details out of those giving the briefings sounds like an exercise in frustration: “So you don't know what questions to ask because you don't know what the baseline is. So you have to start just spitting off random questions: Does the government have a moon base? Does the government have a talking bear? Does the government have a cyborg army? If you don't know what kind of things the government might have, you just have to guess and it becomes a totally ridiculous game of 20 questions,” Rep Amash said.
benton.org/node/161818 | Washington Post
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INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
The White House insists members of Congress knew full well about the National Security Agency’s almost unabridged ability to scan phone logs and Internet chats for terrorist threats — and the potential that Americans’ communications could be caught in the fray. But evidence of the NSA’s many privacy missteps wasn’t widely shared on Capitol Hill, even during crucial moments when Congress voted to reauthorize the government’s controversial surveillance powers. One Obama Administration report provided to lawmakers last year, for example, only opaquely referenced the NSA’s unlawful collection of thousands of Americans’ emails. The document, declassified this fall, didn’t mention that a secret court had rebuked the agency for its misleading statements. Adding to the trouble, House leaders possessing the oversight report didn’t explicitly advertise it to members, and some lawmakers in both chambers who did see it weren’t allowed to take notes out of the room, according to documents and congressional staffers. Both the House and Senate still later in 2012 reauthorized some powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), one of the laws in question in light of leaks from Edward Snowden. At a time when Congress is rethinking the rules that govern the NSA — and whether or how to tighten them — the Hill’s previous lapses raise as many questions about the intelligence agency as they do about congressional oversight.
benton.org/node/161832 | Politico
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NSA AND WALL STREET
[SOURCE: Foreign Policy, AUTHOR: Shane Harris]
[Commentary] You might think that Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, would be looking to lower his agency's profile after a stream of embarrassing leaks about its surveillance activities. Instead, he's doubling down, asking for new powers to secure the U.S. financial industry -- and using some rather suspect arguments to support his demands. Gen Alexander said that eventually, and likely in the midst of a crisis, policymakers will have to decide under what conditions the NSA can take action to stop a major cyberattack on US businesses or critical sectors of the economy. "That's where we're going to end up at some point," he said. Using the financial services sector as an example, Gen Alexander said, "You have to have the rules set up so you can defend Wall Street." Drawing an analogy to how the military detects an incoming missile with radar and other sensors, Gen Alexander imagined the NSA being able to spot "a cyberpacket that's about to destroy Wall Street." In an ideal world, he said, the agency would be getting real-time information from the banks themselves, as well as from the NSA's traditional channels of intelligence, and have the power to take action before a cyberattack caused major damage. The analogy was a stretch.
benton.org/node/161834 | Foreign Policy
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NSA AND MEDIA COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency and the military’s Cyber Command, asked the telecommunications industry to help set the record straight on what he believes is a media mischaracterization of government surveillance programs. Gen Alexander said that the programs, first revealed in reports from The Washington Post and The Guardian, have strict oversight and are vital to preventing future terrorist attacks. In a speech at the Telecommunications Industry Association conference, Alexander said that the revelations about surveillance programs run by the NSA have badly hurt the foundation of trust that the agency needs to do its work, and provided valuable information about the country’s security programs to the country's enemies. Gen Alexander said that he agreed with public statements from the director general of Britain’s Security Service, Andrew Parker, who said that the leaks were a “gift” for terrorists. He added that the leaks, have “impacted that foundation of trust that industry has with NSA, and that the NSA has with the American people.”
benton.org/node/161833 | Washington Post
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SEN. WYDEN VOWS TO BATTLE 'SKIN DEEP' NSA REFORMS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) vowed to battle legislative proposals that would institute only superficial reforms to National Security Agency surveillance. He warned that the goal of senior intelligence officials and their allies in Congress is to ensure that any reforms in the wake of leaks by Edward Snowden are only "skin deep." "They will pull out all the stops to try to hold off real reforms," Sen. Wyden said. He argued that proposals that would ratify the NSA's programs would actually empower the agency's ability to peer into people's private lives. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved the collection of US phone data in secret and has imposed certain restrictions on the NSA's handling of the phone data. For example, analysts must have a “reasonable articulable suspicion” that a phone number is associated with terrorism before searching the database. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) bill would codify many of those existing restrictions into law. But Sen. Wyden warned that such legislation would make the "constitutionally-flawed" NSA program more permanent. He argued that the framers intended the Fourth Amendment to prohibit the kind of indiscriminate record collection the NSA is now conducting.
benton.org/node/161804 | Hill, The
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FREEDOM ACT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso, Kate Tummarello]
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the original author of the USA Patriot Act, plans to introduce legislation in the "next few days" to restrict the National Security Agency's surveillance power. His bill, which is co-authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), will be titled the USA Freedom Act. The legislation would end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. phone records, strengthen prohibitions against targeting the communications of Americans and require the government to more aggressively delete information accidentally collected on Americans. The bill would also create a special advocate's office tasked with arguing in favor of stronger privacy protections before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In a speech at the Cato Institute, Sensenbrenner argued that the Patriot Act's "relevance" requirement was meant to prevent the kind of bulk collection the NSA is now conducting. Rep Sensebrenner argued that legislation from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the heads of the Intelligence committees, is "a way to provide a fig leaf" to continue the surveillance programs unchanged.
benton.org/node/161821 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
The effort to protect the US from cyberthreats requires a better public understanding of government surveillance, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander said during a conference hosted by the Telecommunications Industry Association. “We’ve got to change the rhetoric on media leaks and fix the trust factor,” he said, referring to this year’s leaks about the U.S. government collecting phone data and electronic communications. “We’re not going to move much forward with all of that hanging out there,” he said. Gen Alexander called for cybersecurity legislation that would allow the government and the private sector to share information about cyberthreats. He said he wishes the intelligence community could be more transparent. “I would love to be transparent, if only the good guys would come into the room,” he said, but "we don't have a way of doing that."
benton.org/node/161820 | Hill, The
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COULD A NEW "PRIVACY GENERATION" CHANGE OUR SURVEILLANCE POLITICS?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Stan Alcorn]
[Commentary] The United States needs to strike a balance between respecting individual freedoms and protecting national security, says everyone from the director of national intelligence to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It’s the standard reaction to the stream of revelations about the extensive security state, a stream that may not end any time soon. The fact that younger people are more apt to be anti-surveillance state may not contradict the conventional wisdom of the Internet as much as it (apparently) does that of political scientists. But whether or not its catalyst is 9/11, the generational divide does seem to suggest that the way our politicians balance privacy and security will shift as the under-40s take control. The arc of history is long, but it bends toward the youngs.
benton.org/node/161807 | Fast Company
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PRIVACY

THE UPSIDE OF PRISM: AT LEAST WE’RE TALKING ABOUT DATA PRIVACY — OR THE LACK THEREOF
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Barb Darrow]
Some shrug off the notion of government data collection as the price we pay for security; others worry about how much we still don’t know about what happens with our data. Thanks to National Security Agency whistleblowers up to and including Edward Snowden and his PRISM revelations, government data mining of personal information is the topic of cocktail party chit chat. And it’s not just the government. Recent research shows that consumers distrust Facebook more than the NSA. Different perp, same problem. So how worried is the public? Well, it’s not panic time, but concern is growing as evidenced by Pew Internet Research and other studies, according to Kate Crawford, principal researcher with Microsoft Research. Ari Gesher, senior engineer with Palantir Technologies, said the upside of all this PRISM drama is it brings the topic to a broader audience.
benton.org/node/161800 | GigaOm
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MONITORING YOUR EVERY MOVE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] You may have even less privacy than you thought. Most Internet users know that Web sites and advertisers monitor what they do online and use that information to pitch products and services. What’s not as well known is that these companies can track individuals as they move between devices like personal computers, cellphones and tablets. This type of “cross-device” tracking raises significant privacy concerns because most users are simply unaware that it is taking place. This makes it harder than ever for users to escape the gaze of private companies. At some point, the makers of computers, phones and software may devise new tools that allow people to protect themselves from sophisticated forms of tracking. But they will always be one step behind firms that are in the business of collecting information. The best solution is for lawmakers to pass legislation that sets clear rules that would regulate and limit how businesses collect personal information, what they can use it for and how long they keep it.
benton.org/node/161831 | New York Times
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MUGGED BY A MUG SHOT ONLINE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Segal]
The ostensible point of a handful of for-profit Web sites, with names like Mugshots, BustedMugshots and JustMugshots, is to give the public a quick way to glean the unsavory history of a neighbor, a potential date or anyone else. That sounds civic-minded, until you consider one way most of these sites make money: by charging a fee to remove the image. That fee can be anywhere from $30 to $400, or even higher. Pay up, in other words, and the picture is deleted, at least from the site that was paid. To millions of Americans now captured on one or more of these sites, this sounds like extortion. Mug shots are merely artifacts of an arrest, not proof of a conviction, and many people whose images are now on display were never found guilty, or the charges against them were dropped. But these pictures can cause serious reputational damage
benton.org/node/161806 | New York Times
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WHAT'S YOUR INTERNET PRIVACY PERSONALITY?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Why are some of us content to share more online while others are more comfortable keeping a low profile? It has everything to do with personality, according to a recent study from MasterCard that found that traditional demographics such as age, gender and race are actually poor indicators of individual attitudes toward online privacy. Theodore Iacobuzio, MasterCard’s vice president in charge of “global insights,” said that demographics are really secondary in gauging how people feel about online privacy and that the main indicator lies in users’ motivations for going online. Based on MasterCard’s research, Iacobuzio and his team defined five privacy online personality types: passive users, proactive protectors, solely shoppers, open sharers and simply interactors. For merchants, he said, there’s also value in identifying certain types of people based on their activity, such as “open sharers” or “solely shoppers.” Those two personality types alone make up around 40 percent of all online shoppers, he said, and if companies can identify those users, then they can make their ads more focused and efficient.
benton.org/node/161805 | Washington Post
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THE SHUTDOWN/BUDGET

SHUTDOWN PUTS SPECTRUM AUCTIONS, CELLPHONE APPROVALS AND OTHER FCC PROJECTS IN PERIL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
Like many government buildings in Washington (DC), the normally bustling Federal Communications Commission headquarters has become something of a ghost town since the government shutdown began Oct. 1. Prior to the shutdown, the FCC had a full plate, preparing for the first-ever incentive spectrum auctions, the first major standard spectrum auction in years, reviewing several mergers and processing the thousands of applications from tech companies that want to introduce new wireless gear. Companies typically get approval for such devices a bit ahead of time, but the FCC’s okay is necessary before any new wireless-equipped product can be sold. Roughly 16,000 such applications now come in annually — up 400 percent from a decade ago. Also on the FCC’s plate: The agency’s first auction in a generation for new low-power FM airwaves. A window for applications for new low-power FM airwaves was set to open Oct. 15, paving the way for nonprofits and other local groups to operate their own hyperlocal radio stations in urban areas. The agency is also scheduled to finally start holding new spectrum auctions in 2014, allowing wireless companies to bid for bandwidth badly needed for high-speed mobile services.
benton.org/node/161812 | Wall Street Journal
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FCC FACES BACKLOG
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Mitchell Lazarus]
[Commentary] With the Federal Communications Commission shutdown now halfway through its second week, we have been thinking about the start-up procedure when the shutdown finally ends. We don’t like how that looks. Everything that would have come due during the shutdown instead will all be due on the same day: not the day the FCC reopens, but the day after that. Filings due on the day of reopening are likewise put off till that same next day. Set aside the problem of the FCC websites being down, which makes it is impossible to do the needed research for some of those filings. We will have to squeeze that all of that into the one day between the reopening and the due date.
benton.org/node/161829 | CommLawBlog
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AT&T: THE INTERNET IS AWESOME, SO LET’S GET RID OF PHONE REGULATIONS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
[Commentary] If there's one thing AT&T loves to talk about, it's how government regulations designed to protect consumers are really annoying. In particular, the company says that century-old rules designed to spread phone service to all Americans should be eliminated as the country moves from traditional phone lines to all-IP (Internet Protocol) networks, a transition AT&T wants to see happen by 2018 or 2020. The company's latest attempt to sway public opinion toward its anti-regulation views comes in the form of research by the Internet Innovation Alliance, which is bankrolled in part by AT&T and consistently pushes AT&T's agenda. The group previously extolled the "positive effects" for consumers of an AT&T/T-Mobile merger, a deal blocked by the federal government's antitrust authorities. The group pushed out a report titled "Telecommunications competition: the infrastructure-investment race," by Georgetown professor Anna-Maria Kovacs. The report's findings are proof that regulation is bad for the broadband market, the Alliance argued. Most US consumers "rely on the use of smart wireless devices, cellphones, wired Internet-enabled VoIP services, and over-the-top Internet-enabled applications (i.e., Skype), far more than on traditional telephony to stay connected in today’s digital age," the alliance continues. More than half the $154 billion spent on communications networks between 2006 to 2011 went to "maintaining fading legacy networks, leaving less than half to upgrade and expand their high-speed broadband networks," the report concluded. The upshot is that "outdated regulations are unnecessarily diverting investment from broadband." The AT&T-funded group's report comes down heavily on copper-based networks, saying the regulations designed for them are often "technologically inapplicable" to fiber-based IP networks. Expanding fiber access is a worthy goal, of course. But many Americans still rely on copper-based DSL for Internet access, and telecoms have proven themselves uninterested in replacing copper with fiber in all parts of the country.
benton.org/node/161811 | Ars Technica
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THE ONLY 5 CHARTS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THE US TELECOM MARKET
[SOURCE: Verizon, AUTHOR: Libby Jacobson]
Dr. Anna-Maria Kovacs, author of a new report from the Internet Innovation Alliance on how can America spur more investment in broadband infrastructure finds that regulatory requirements on some companies to maintain and operate aging -- and often redundant -- networks divert much-needed investment from new infrastructure. While this conclusion won’t come as a shock to anybody, some of the statistics that appear in the report offer a stark illustration of some of the biggest trends in the communications industry over the last decade-plus. For instance:
The number of plain-old-telephone-service (that’s POTS, or the old legacy copper network) residential lines has declined by two-thirds since 1999.
Today only 5% of US households rely on POTS as their only voice service. In 2002 this portion was 88%.
Fiber-based broadband subscriptions are growing steadily, but slowly. Dr. Kovacs attributes this to the requirements on telcos to maintain their copper networks, which limits their investing in fiber.
The number of overall fixed broadband connections has been growing over the last decade. It was still growing in 2012, but the growth in mobile connections is absolutely crushing all fixed-line competitors, including cable and fiber.
In fact today 65% of all broadband connections in the US are mobile connections.
benton.org/node/161810 | Verizon
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US INTERNET TRAFFIC
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Bret Swanson]
[Commentary] Cisco’s Visual Networking Index for traffic estimates and Internet user figures from the International Telecommunications Union suggest the US digital economy, and its broadband networks, are healthy and extending their lead internationally. If we look at regional comparisons of traffic per person, we see North America generates and consumes nearly seven times the world average and around two and a half times that of Western Europe. Looking at individual nations, and switching to the metric of traffic per user, we find that the U.S. is actually pulling away from the rest of the world. In our previous reports, the U.S. trailed only South Korea, was essentially even with Canada, and generated around 60-70 percent more traffic than Western European nations. Now, the US has separated itself from Canada and is generating two to three times the traffic per user of Western Europe and Japan. Perhaps the most remarkable fact is that the US has nearly caught up with South Korea.
[Swanson is president of Entropy Economics]
benton.org/node/161830 | American Enterprise Institute
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

TWC RESEARCH REPORT: ENORMOUS NEED FOR WI-FI SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A report, "Solving the “Spectrum Crunch: Unlicensed Spectrum on a High-Fiber Diet," compiled by the New America Foundation's Michael Calabrese and published by Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications says that to meet the need for mobile device connectivity -- specifically Wi-Fi -- an "enormous" increase in licensed and unlicensed spectrum is required. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, of which TWC is a member, has been pushing the Federal Communications Commission to open up plenty of unlicensed wireless when it reclaims spectrum from broadcasters in the incentive auction, as well as to free up more in the 5 GHz band already used by cable operators for hundreds of thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots. The report makes three recommendations:
The FCC's incentive spectrum auction should free up at least 30-40 MHZ of spectrum for unlicensed use in every market, including using channel 37 and the two channels that have been reserved for wireless microphones.
The government needs to open underutilized government spectrum for unlicensed use.
The FCC needs to move quickly on its proposal to expand use of the 5 GHz band and loosen some restrictions on its use, subject to interference protections.
benton.org/node/161808 | Multichannel News
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VERIZON AND VODAFONE’S DANCE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
It was never a secret that Verizon Communications wanted to buy back Vodafone‘s 45 percent stake in their enormous wireless joint venture. But just how badly Verizon wanted full ownership was disclosed in its preliminary proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The initial offer for the 45 percent stake was $95 billion. It eventually paid Vodafone $130 billion. The apparent ease with which Verizon raised its offer by a whopping 37 percent over the span of eight months highlights the strategic importance it ascribed to having full control of Verizon Wireless, the nation’s biggest cellphone operator with 100 million customers. It is also a striking reminder of just how big of a deal this was. Though Verizon had long considered buying back Vodafone’s 45 percent stake, the transaction started to gain momentum in June 2011, when Lowell C. McAdam, Verizon’s chief executive, who was chief operating office at the time, made a presentation to the company’s board suggesting that the deal go ahead. In January 2013, McAdam traveled to London to meet Vodafone’s chief executive, Vittorio Colao. At that meeting, McAdam made an initial offer of $95 billion for the company’s stake. Colao wasted no time in saying that offer was inadequate, and also suggested a full-blown merger between the companies might be an option. By June, the Verizon board had let go of the idea of a full merger and authorized executives to go ahead with a bid for the stake totaling $120 billion. Just more than a week later, Vodafone countered: It wanted $135 billion after taxes, plus cash adjustments. The total amount would be closer to $140 billion. On July 9, the two sides were still $20 billion apart on price.
benton.org/node/161828 | New York Times | Financial Times
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AGENDA

TELECOM LAWS NEED 'SUBSTANTIAL OVERHAUL,' BLACKBURN SAYS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
The Federal Communications Commission has a “regulatory addiction and ... penchant for picking winners and losers” and the laws governing the agency need a “substantial overhaul,” House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said. The agency is hurting the telecommunications industry and crowding out private investment because it “is fixated on growing its jurisdictional footprint and expanding its influence in other areas,” Rep Blackburn said, speaking at a Telecommunications Industry Association event. Rep Blackburn pointed to the FCC’s “so-called net neutrality regulations” and its Lifeline program, or what has been called the “Obamaphone welfare,” program. The agency needs “better transparency and a better process” so that it steps in “only when true harms and market failures are accurately quantified,” she said.
benton.org/node/161809 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Analysis: Canada veto complicates BlackBerry, telecom deal making

ANALYSIS: CANADA VETO COMPLICATES BLACKBERRY, TELECOM DEAL MAKING
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Euan Rocha, Alastair Sharp]
When Canada blocked the sale of a fiber optic network to a company backed by an Egyptian telecommunications tycoon, it telegraphed its resolve to make national security paramount when considering whether to allow a foreign firm to acquire what it considers a strategic asset. That warning may effectively limit the pool of would-be buyers of BlackBerry, or foreigners interested in Canada's telecommunications industry. It could also rule out all but a few well-established players based in North America, industry executives, lawyers and analysts say. The Canadian government's ruling was a blow to Manitoba Telecom Services, which wanted to sell its Allstream fiber optic network to Accelero Capital Holdings, controlled by Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris. But for BlackBerry, the embattled smartphone maker, Ottawa's decision may not make much difference as primarily North American companies appear to be interested in acquiring the parts of the company that would raise security concerns.
benton.org/node/161816 | Reuters
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UK SPECTRUM FEES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Amy Thomson]
Vodafone Group, Telefonica SA and others may have to pay bigger fees to the UK for rights to use spectrum after regulators increased the amount based on money raised in recent airwave auctions. Under the proposed rules, fees for Vodafone and Telefonica’s O2 unit will increase fivefold. They’ll owe 83.1 million pounds ($132.4 million) per year for rights to use the 900 megahertz and 1800 megahertz spectrum bands, up from 15.6 million pounds previously, regulator Ofcom said. The new rules are expected to take effect next year, pending a consultation period that ends in December, Ofcom said. The British government asked Ofcom to recalculate the fees to reflect “full market value” after carriers spent billions on new licenses worldwide. This year, the UK raised 2.34 billion pounds in a spectrum auction for airwaves that would carry high-speed mobile Internet traffic.
benton.org/node/161822 | Bloomberg
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