February 2014

The reason I’m leaving Congress

[Commentary] I announced that I will be retiring after having the honor of serving my Los Angeles constituents in Congress for 40 years. Immediately, speculation began that I am leaving because I am frustrated with a broken institution. But the exact opposite is true: I am leaving Congress with my conviction intact that the legislative branch can be a powerful force for good.

Denying climate change, voting over and over to repeal the Affordable Care Act, shutting down the government and threatening default are deplorable examples of the extremism of tea party Republicans. But even in this polarized environment, there are important opportunities to advance the public interest.

Two years ago, I worked with Rep Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and our Senate colleagues to write a landmark telecommunications law that will ease the looming shortage of wireless spectrum, create new Super Wi-Fi technologies and fund the long-overdue construction of a nationwide broadband network for police and firefighters. No question, it is hard to pass legislation in today’s Congress. But it has always been hard. Our system of checks and balances makes it simpler to stop bills than to enact them. In fact, the story of my career is that Congress can do tremendous good, but it never comes easily. I hope the lesson that the next generation of lawmakers will draw from my experiences is not cynicism about the legislative process, but optimism that progress is always possible with persistence and determination. Enacting laws that make America a better nation has never been easy. It won’t be easy in the future, but it will always be worth the fight.

From governor's mail room to utilities commission

Michael Picker, the newest member of the powerful Public Utilities Commission, has a long history with Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA): He worked in the governor's mail room during his first term from 1975 to 1977, during Brown's first term. "I delivered press releases," said Picker, 62, who moved to Sacramento from Echo Park a year after graduating from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles in 1974. Since then, Picker, has held a number of government jobs, most recently as an elected board member of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and as senior adviser on renewable energy for Gov Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA). The governor named Picker, a Democrat, to fill the last 11 months of the unexpired term of Commissioner Mark J. Ferron, who resigned. Picker must be confirmed by the state Senate within a year of his appointment. "Probably the reason he keeps me around is that I demonstrated that I can get things done," Picker said of Gov Brown.

News Giant in Japan Seen as Being Compromised

First, there was the abrupt resignation of the public broadcasting chief accused by governing party politicians of allowing an overly liberal tone to news coverage. Then, his successor drew public ire when he suggested the network would loyally toe the government line. Days later, a longtime commentator for the network angrily announced that he had resigned after being ordered not to criticize nuclear power ahead of a crucial election, unleashing new criticism.

These are hard times for the broadcaster, NHK, which is widely considered the country’s most authoritative television and radio news source and like its British equivalent, the BBC, has been troubled by scandal. But the current controversies at NHK have also stoked Japanese liberals’ fears about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his supporters, who critics believe are behind what they call the efforts to muzzle criticism amid a push to impose an expansive right-wing agenda.

India kicks off $1.8 billion spectrum auction

India’s struggling telecoms industry is due to kick off its latest round of spectrum auctions, after the nation’s Supreme Court rejected a last-minute petition from Vodafone and Bharti Airtel to delay the contest.

The court’s decision is a blow to India’s two largest telecoms operators by sales, both of which had filed petitions to stop the $1.8 billion re-auctioning of valuable spectrum they own in large cities, including Mumbai and New Delhi. Bharti and Vodafone will now have to rebid for these city licenses, which begin to expire later this year, in spite of claims from both groups that their contracts ought to allow them to reacquire the spectrum without competitive bidding.

Lenovo braced for CFIUS scrutiny over Motorola handset deal

As the largest Chinese technology deal in the US, Lenovo’s $2.9 billion purchase of Motorola’s handset business will be closely scrutinized by a US government committee that reviews transactions for national security concerns.

As part of the purchase from Google, Lenovo will assume 2,000 patents and receive a license to other Google smartphone intellectual property, which will be combed through by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). However, most of the valuable and sensitive patents are being kept by Google, while Motorola’s business that has government contracts is part of another company, people familiar with the matter said. The deal also involves hardware, not software, and Chinese-made handsets, like those manufactured by Huawei, are already sold in the US. As a result, Lenovo’s acquisition may not face major challenges though it may have to meet certain conditions requested by CFIUS to get approval, people familiar with the matter said.

FCC Says It Will Double Spending on High-Speed Internet in Schools and Libraries

The Federal Communications Commission will double the amount of money it devotes to adding high-speed Internet connections in schools and libraries over the next two years, in an effort to meet President Obama’s promise to provide broadband service for an estimated 20 million American students in 15,000 schools.

Financing for the new spending will come from restructuring the $2.4 billion E-Rate program, which provides money for “advanced telecommunications and information services” using the proceeds of fees paid by telecommunications users. The proportion that goes to broadband service in schools and libraries will increase to $2 billion a year from $1 billion. The changes will not require any additional taxes or assessments, according to an FCC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement was being planned. The commission’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, is expected to announce details of the plan on Feb 5 at an event for Digital Learning Day, which promotes the use of technology in education. Most of the redirected spending in 2014 will come from funds left over from previous years. Next year, much of the money will come from changes to the E-Rate program, including the elimination of programs that pay for outdated technologies, like paging services, dial-up Internet connections and email programs that are available free elsewhere. The spending will be used to increase available broadband speeds and provide wireless networks in schools, which are increasingly in demand for students using tablets and laptop computers.

President Obama on net neutrality: I wouldn’t be president without an open Internet

President Barack Obama spoke about the recent court decision that gutted the nation's network neutrality law, saying that he expects the Federal Communications Commission to take action to preserve the open Internet, which proved crucial in his presidential campaign.

"It's something that I've cared deeply about ever since I ran for office, in part because my own campaign was empowered by a free and open Internet and the ability for citizens all across the country to engage and create and find new ways and new tools to mobilize themselves," President Obama said. "A lot of that couldn't have been done if there were a lot of commercial barriers and roadblocks and so I've been a strong supporter of net neutrality." President Obama said he expects the FCC to do something, although he said he won't intervene directly.

Paying to Travel in the Internet’s Fast Lanes

For a subject that sounds mind-numbingly dull, “network neutrality” is the most important issue facing the Internet since, well, the Internet.

The idea behind net neutrality is that the web material we see on our laptops and smartphones, whether from Google or a tiny little blog, should flow freely through the pipes of the Internet, regardless of origin, destination or content. No one gets special treatment. But what if someone is willing to pay for her data to go faster? This is capitalism. Can’t the people who own the pipes charge more? The issue has come to the fore now that a federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission can no longer stand in the way of AT&T, Verizon and other Internet service providers that might want to create Internet express lanes. Count on it: This battle isn’t over yet. On Jan 31, President Barack Obama said the FCC was considering an appeal with the goal of maintaining “a free and open Internet.”

The question is, Has the Internet become so fundamental to our lives that it is, in essence, a utility that should be subject to regulation?

Charting a new path for network neutrality

[Commentary] Should the three-way deal come together between Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Charter, it could -- or at least in my view should -- open up a new chapter in the unfinished story of network neutrality.

The deal would come as the Federal Communications Commission is in the midst of formulating a new approach to enforcing net neutrality standards now that the court has vacated its formal net neutrality regulations. That convergence of circumstances offers an opportunity for the FCC and antitrust regulators together to take a more comprehensive view of net neutrality than the FCC’s previous rules would admit. Should a deal result in Comcast taking over Time Warner Cable’s systems in New York City, New England and North Carolina, as analyst Craig Moffett anticipates, Comcast would have something on the order of 25 million subscribers, on systems blanketing most of the East Coast of the US. That would be a very formidable hurdle for any over-the-top service to get over unless it was willing to play ball with Comcast. The merger review process, however, offers regulators an opportunity the impose some limits on how high Comcast and Charter could raise those hurdles, particularly since Comcast is already operating under a consent decree, giving the government a lot of leverage. [Paul Sweeting is Principal, Concurrent Media Strategies]

House Commerce Committee Gets Plenty Of Advice On Comlaw Revamp

The House Commerce Committee is getting a sense of what the Federal Communications Commission faces as it processes a boatload of comments solicited in the ongoing communications regulations rewrite initiative launched by Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR).

If the Broadband for America submission is any gauge, cable operators have a lot to say about revamping regulations, much of it about not presumptively applying legacy regulations to Internet protocol delivery and not singling out one stakeholder for special regulatory treatment. Here is a sample of the input coming into the committee, according to filings provided by the parties. The committee has not yet posted these and others on its site, but plans to. Broadband for America (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Charter are members) offers proposals such as: "A global Internet cannot be subject to balkanized regulation” and “technological differences are not an appropriate basis for regulatory or jurisdictional distinction.” Mobile Future and CenturyLink are also getting in on the act, offering advice, including “relying on dynamic competitive forces” and gearing legislation more toward public interest rather than detailed prescriptive regulation.

Benton

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