1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2014

January 2014

A new digital age Communications Act

[Commentary] As the House Commerce Committee begins a process to revamp US communications law, here are a few basic guideposts that, to my mind, are key to fashioning what I’ve called a new Digital Age Communications Act.

  • First, the new law should get rid of the so-called “silo” regime in which differential regulatory requirements are tied to various service classifications, such as “cable” or “telephone” service. In today’s digital environment, the saying “a bit is a bit is a bit” is now a reality. This means that telephone companies, cable operators, wireless providers, satellite operators, and fiber firms all compete against each other, utilizing their own different broadband platforms, to provide consumers with various mixes of voice, video and data services.
  • Second, the “public interest” standard, ubiquitous throughout the current statute, grants the Federal Communications Commission too much unconstrained discretion that enables too much regulatory micromanagement. A new law should replace this indeterminate, and, therefore, elastic delegation of authority with a competition standard grounded in antitrust-like jurisprudential principles.
  • Third, under a new law, the FCC should be required to favor narrowly tailored remedial orders over broad proscriptions developed in anticipatory rule-making proceedings.

[May is president of the Free State Foundation, an independent free-market-oriented think tank]

[Dec 29]

Wheeler to Deliver Policy Address While On West Coast

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler will appear at a town hall meeting in Oakland (CA) on Jan 9 to talk about the impact of media consolidation, and make a policy speech while on that West Coast swing.

Free Press, one of the sponsors of the event, announced the appearance. An FCC source confirmed Chairman Wheeler will be there, as well as confirming that the chairman would be making a policy speech at another, unnamed, venue. Chairman Wheeler has pledged to engage with groups outside of FCC headquarters and Washington, so that he can hear "the voices of the American people." The event cosponsors include the Center for Media Justice, Free Press, ColorOfChange and the National Hispanic Media Coalition, all part of the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition.

[Jan 2]

Updating the Federal Program That Connects Schools To The Internet

[Commentary] The 1996 Telecommunication Act tasked the Federal Communications Commission with proliferating Internet connectivity to schools and libraries through a program commonly known as E-Rate. Nearly 18 years later, the agency is beginning to reform the languishing program. E-Rate and policy changes at the state and federal level have enabled near universal Internet access at schools. Any reforms to E-Rate should be considered within the broader context of education reform. Schools have just begun adopting blended learning models that rely heavily on high-speed Internet access. The Common Core State Standards use computer-based assessments that require Internet access.

The following reforms to E-Rate program would help create the digital learning infrastructure necessary for a personalized learning revolution.

  • Congress should move E-Rate from the Universal Service Administrative Company, or USAC to a bureau within the Federal Communications Commission.
  • FCC should replace subsidies of antiquated technologies with next-generation teaching tools.
  • E-Rate should provide technical support to encourage districts to use free software instead of paying for expensive alternatives.
  • The National Center for Education Statistics should also collect data on school Internet connectivity and average speeds.
  • FCC should also negotiate the price of Internet service on behalf of districts and schools participating in E-Rate.

[Jan 2]

Brian Krzanich on Why He Pulled the Plug on Intel’s TV Dreams

Intel spent much of 2013 talking up its ambitious plan to launch an internet TV service -- but its grand plans eventually fell by the wayside. Now, we're hearing why: new CEO Brian Krzanich said that Intel's plans went up in smoke because it wasn't able to get the content it needed. Basically, Intel had good technology, but good technology without content means little in the media business, Krzanich said. "When you go and play with the content guys, it's all about volume," he said. "And we come at it with no background, no experience, no volume. We were ramping from virtually zero."

[Jan 2]

Happy News Year: 'The News Dissector' Looks Beyond The Top Stories of the Year to Examine the News System

[Commentary] There are two news systems in America -- the official parody of journalism that represents most of what the mainstream or what some call the "lame stream" media offers. And a growing counter-system offering more critical narratives.

These are the "products" an "official" news business, an industry now under growing pressure from within and without to maintain a semblance of credibility with a global audience that has so many other divergent sources to rely on or suck information from. A part of a global entertainment combine, the advertising-sponsored "news biz" also spends inordinate amounts of money marketing itself and referencing its own output. It is that system that has become one of the major pillars of established power like the institutions of government and the office holders it covers to a fault. Official news tells us what politicians say, and say about each other. Some of the stars of the news world move into politics while former politicians become our pundits and meaning makers. The system is interconnected and symbiotic. It looks diverse but US news operates in an ideological framework as surely as Chinese news. No wonder that critics now speak of a military-industrial-media complex.

[Schechter edits the media watchdog site, Mediachannel dot org]

[Jan 2]

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption

In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world. According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” -- a machine exponentially faster than classical computers -- is part of a $79.7 million research program titled, “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park (MD). The NSA appears to regard itself as running neck and neck with quantum computing labs sponsored by the European Union and the Swiss government, with steady progress but little prospect of an immediate breakthrough.

[Jan 2]

Google, Apple Forge Auto Ties

Google and Apple are about to expand their battle for digital supremacy to a new front: the automobile.

Apparently, Google and German auto maker Audi plan to announce that they are working together to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that are based on Google's Android software. They also plan to disclose collaborative efforts with other automotive and tech companies, including chip maker Nvidia, to establish Android as an important technology for future vehicles. The aim is to allow drivers and passengers to access music, navigation, apps and services that are similar to those widely available now on Android-powered smartphones. The coming announcements signal Google's response to an initiative launched last June by Apple to integrate iPhones and other devices running its iOS operating system with car makers' dashboard control panels. Apple so far has the support of BMW, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz division, General Motors and Honda.

[Dec 29]

NSA Scandal May Help Build Cyber-Barriers

[Commentary] The smooth flow of online communication and commerce between Europe and the US is at risk of interruption, thanks in part to naked opportunism on the part of European telecommunications giants. If the governments involved fail to keep online barriers between the continents low, the Internet’s potential to be an engine of global economic growth will be constrained. The snooping scandal at the National Security Agency may help Deutsche Telekom, the largest provider of high-speed Internet access and wireless services in Germany, grow even bigger.

T-Systems International GmbH, the company’s 29,000-employee-strong distribution arm for information-technology solutions, has been losing money selling systems-integration and data-processing services. Now, in response to customers’ loss of trust in American services, Reinhard Clemens, T-Systems’ chief executive officer, says he wants to refocus the company on providing cloud services. Deutsche Telekom has also proposed to help Europe avoid NSA surveillance by creating “Schengen area routing,” a network for the 26 European countries that have agreed to remove passport controls at their borders. Deutsche Telekom undoubtedly thinks that it will be able to collect fees from network operators in other countries that want their customers’ data to reach Deutsche Telekom’s customers -- and that the company has the market power to raise those tolls ever higher. With hundreds of lobbyists in Berlin, Deutsche Telekom can see to it that if any German legislator is asked what to do about the NSA problem, he or she will respond with “Secure routing of traffic.” Surely this secure Schengen area routing would be even smoother if Deutsche Telekom owned more of the telecommunications operators involved.

[Dec 27]

Beware a Public Debate About Data Privacy

[Commentary] The ready availability of data that consumers volunteer about themselves underpins many of next year's marketing plans. We should be prepared that it will not remain so readily available in 2014.

Our ability to watch, record, analyze and apply insights into consumer behavior and intent would make a mind-reader blush. Big data has changed the way we envision the very function of marketing, moving us away from trying to imagine what consumers want to focus on to what we know they will need and do. Data's ready availability -- especially online -- is what's driving the wildly optimistic monetization plans for social-media platforms. We don't explain how we're using their data; we obfuscate what we do say with lots of buzzwords and then point to the fact that confused consumers aren't opting out as proof they don't care. If they ever figured out what giving away all the free information about themselves gets them, even the most publicly exposed millennial might think otherwise. A number of events could precipitate this debate in 2014. The Federal Trade Commission's hearings on online ads aside, it recently issued a finding against an app that surreptitiously shared user data. There will be more regulation like this, especially if the industry continues to believe its own hype. More data breeches are likely, and having your credit card and password shared instead of pictures of your dog is a surefire way to make a distant issue into an immediate problem. Facebook, Twitter and the like are going to invent more clever ways to exploit consumer data, as if to dare people to pay more attention, and every Ed Snowden revelation about surveillance will prompt people to think about data privacy.

[Jonathan Salem Baskin is managing director of Consensiv, a reputation consultancy]

[Jan 2]

Samsung, Apple in talks to end patent battle, report says

Samsung and Apple are trying again to come together on a possible patent accord. Despite a two-year legal battle that appeared to have no end in sight, Apple and Samsung have started discussing the possibility of inking a royalties deal and putting an end to all of their litigation, an official at the Korea Fair Trade Commission told the Korea Times.

According to that official, the talks are in their "working-level" stage right now, and the companies are attempting to reduce "differences over royalty payments." The Korean regulator is also working with American and European antitrust watchdogs to aid in arriving at a deal. At this point, Apple and Samsung both believe the other company is being unfair in the dollar values they want to place on the overall settlement. Samsung is willing to enter into a "cross-licensing" deal with Apple, where both companies can get the intellectual property they need for a set price, sources told the Korea Times.

[Dec 30]

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