A privacy advocacy group is suing the Justice Department for access to reports on a National Security Agency program that collected Internet records in bulk. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act for the semiannual reports, which contain statistics on the now-discontinued surveillance program.
[Commentary] Executives at the world's largest technology firms called on the US government to respect Internet privacy rights, dial back its intelligence gathering and make spying programs more transparent. Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and AOL jointly signed the open letter. Those companies have hardly acted as great privacy defenders. Google, Facebook and Twitter have all settled with the Federal Trade Commission after the government accused them of violating users' privacy. Yahoo and Google opposed the framework for the Obama administration's Do Not Track initiative for Web browsers. It's one of the great ironies of tech: Companies have a checkered history when it comes to customers' privacy. But they argue that reform needs to come from government -- not them.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has launched an online campaign, The Hole Saga, promoting the value of its video and broadband offerings by suggesting life is literally incomplete without it. The campaign consists of a website with video -- also posted on YouTube -- featuring four interactive scenarios focusing on the possible negative consequences of not being connected to cable, using the image of someone with a hole in their middle--like a human doughnut.
Lowell McAdam, CEO and chairman of Verizon, put another nail into the FiOS expansion idea, saying that the carrier will continue to focus on expanding service availability in existing markets.
"The point for us is that there might be a couple of things on the fringe going in and digging up yards and deploying fiber in a lot of new markets isn't in the cards," McAdam said. "More and more things are going mobile and I think there are more opportunities to partner out of market with companies that are there vs. us going in and deploying FiOS." Unlike its RBOC brother AT&T, which can leverage its existing local franchise agreements to deploy its hybrid copper/fiber U-verse service, Verizon does not have the same luxury outside of its established FiOS footprint. Although it is not expanding into new markets, the telco is seeing potential to expand its subscriber base in existing markets such as Texas.
Verizon has been "fortifying" its wireless network in New York city and addressing the coverage problems there, according to CEO Lowell McAdam.
"We're now back to where we want to be," he said. McAdam, however, specifically referred to the issues in New York, which he called "its own beast" of a market. The company identified 49 cell sites in the New York area that have been overwhelmed with the traffic. So far, Verizon has addressed 42 of those problematic sites and begun deploying additional spectrum, which will ease the capacity constraint and likely yield higher speeds. "We have a plan to stay ahead of that," he said of the expected growth in wireless traffic. "I think it's a short-term blip."
AT&T is staking the claim of the first US operator to offer international 4G LTE roaming through a deal with Rogers Canada. A partnership between the two will allow AT&T's LTE customers to roam on to Rogers Communications's LTE network, which currently covers about 70% of the country. AT&T already has roaming deals in place with other carriers in Canada, but only for its 3G network. This is its first international LTE roaming deal, and a first among US operators. Roaming will continue to be an expensive proposition on LTE, however. AT&T offers roamers Data Global Add-on plans that give its customers only 120MB of data for $30 per month and up to 800MB of data at $120 per month. It says that 42% of its customer base is currently using an LTE device.
There's no industry quite like the summer beach industry in Santa Cruz County, where tourism is an unrivaled economic driver generating an estimated $500 million in direct travel spending annually. Now, Santa Cruz County policymakers are exploring a new strategy to diversify the local economy: Expand Internet access and capacity to attract and keep would-be entrepreneurs, consultants and satellite offices for Silicon Valley tech companies. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend is pushing a comprehensive broadband policy overhaul that he hopes will catalyze both regulatory streamlining and new infrastructure.
Sacramento is watching his progress closely for insight on a potential broadband-driven statewide economic development model. As part of this pursuit, the Santa Cruz County board of supervisors in November approved an eight-month timeline to overhaul its broadband infrastructure plans and regulations. Specific areas of focus include permitting fee reductions and a proposed “dig once” ordinance that would make it easier to install new fiber optic cables during other work on area roads or utilities lanes. One particularly large broadband infrastructure project currently awaiting a decision from the California Public Utilities Commission is a 90-mile fiber “backbone” network that would run from Santa Cruz to Soledad. Companies including AT&T have also proposed broadband expansion projects in the region, which could be made easier with reform.
We launched Netflix in the Netherlands three months ago and have always known that the Dutch have great broadband. That's now confirmed by the Netflix ISP Speed Index: with a country average of 3.16Mbps the Netherlands takes a firm lead compared to the other nations in the index. No other country crosses 3Mbps, but runners up Sweden and Denmark come close with 2.83Mbps and 2.8Mbps, respectively. Looking at the bottom rankings, Mexico ranks last, just below Ireland and the US.
[Commentary] Internet access has been identified by the United Nations as a basic human right. And as more everyday tasks, social interactions and economic activity move online, high-speed Internet is a public necessity. Unfortunately, far too many mountain communities cannot use the Internet to its potential because of lack of network infrastructure, accessibility and affordability.
The private sector is not providing the Internet services we need. With few providers, competition that could drive technological investment and lower prices is lacking. The giant telecommunications corporations that control much of the market are investing primarily in metropolitan areas where they can maximize profits. AT&T and Verizon are actually pushing bills in the legislature that would eliminate their responsibility to provide basic landline phone service throughout the state without any enforceable commitment to invest in new, equally affordable technology. This would be another blow consumers and businesses in places like East Kentucky and the remote Appalachian region.
The Central Appalachia Regional Network, of which Appalshop is a part, surveyed telecommunications policies proposed and enacted in six Appalachian states and made a number of recommendations that could improve access:
[Pickering directs Appalshop's Community Media Initiative]
The September 11, 2001 attacks prompted a national effort to improve how federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies share information. Federal money poured into police departments so they could fulfill their new, unfamiliar role as the “eyes and ears” of the intelligence community. These funds helped create a network of special intelligence and counterterrorism units, including Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), which investigate terrorism cases, and data “fusion centers.”
To learn how state and local agencies are operating in this new intelligence architecture, the Brennan Center surveyed 16 major police departments, 19 affiliated fusion centers, and 14 JTTFs in a new report, . What we found was organized chaos: A sprawling, federally subsidized, and loosely coordinated system to share information that is collected according to varying standards with little rigor and oversight. We do know, however, that the information sharing system built in the last decade has serious flaws. And these flaws may jeopardize both our safety and our civil liberties.
The Brennan Center has identified three major reasons the system is ineffective:
© 1994-2025 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.
