February 2014

Sen Al Franken (D-MN) is wondering: If Comcast failed to keep its promises in the NBCUniversal deal, why should it be trusted with Time Warner Cable?

Sen Franken is questioning whether Comcast has adequately complied with network neutrality, local content and unbundled access to Internet services -- promises it made as part of the NBC acquisition -- and has raised concerns that the Time Warner deal could raise cable prices. “I am concerned that the proposed acquisition could result in higher prices, fewer choices, and even worse service for consumers,” Sen Franken wrote in a letter sent to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. “To the extent that Comcast has a history of breaching its legal obligations to consumers, such history should be taken into account when evaluating Comcast’s proposal for future market expansion.”

Comcast disputes Franken’s suggestion that it hasn’t made good on its NBCU promises. “Comcast is proud of our track-record on complying with the conditions from our past transactions including NBCUniversal,” said the company. “We’ve gone above and beyond in compliance with most conditions, including our low-income broadband program, the amount of local news programming and investment in local stations, the amount of on-demand programming, especially children’s programming, and many more areas.”

Young Facebook users are sometimes exposed to ads inappropriate for them and the ads highlight Facebook's challenge in policing a social network that has more than a billion users and a million advertisers, by its count.

Facebook generated roughly $7 billion in Internet advertising last year, more than any other company except Google. One issue for the social network -- as well as for advertisers and for parents -- is that some young teens exaggerate their ages in their Facebook profiles. Thirteen is the minimum age to join Facebook. The situation is compounded by Facebook's social advertising system, in which users who click to "like" an ad can be featured as having "liked" it in future versions of the ad shown to their Facebook friends. And once they "like" an ad for a Facebook page, they will receive updates from that page. Advertisers on Facebook can set their ads to reach all users or narrow the focus. Facebook's website says it can help advertisers target consumers based on an array of user information it collects, such as age, gender, relationship status, politics and type of phone owned.

AT&T executives huddled with small groups of investors in Barcelona to discuss their willingness to own cable assets and stretch their balance sheet for big investments in mature economies like those in Europe, said people with knowledge of the matter.

AT&T, which is said to remain interested in acquiring Vodafone, started each meeting by saying that it wouldn’t be discussing Vodafone, due to UK takeover rules preventing it from bidding for five more months, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions were private. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said his company understands the cable business and knows how to integrate it with wireless phone services, said these people. He also said AT&T is willing to pursue large strategic deals, even if it means increasing leverage to afford a transaction and maintain the dividend, the people said. The name of Vodafone -- Europe’s largest telecommunications firm with a market value of 65 billion pounds ($108 billion) -- wasn’t mentioned again after the initial disclosure in the meetings at the Hotel Arts Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress, the people said.

President Xi Jinping is presiding over a new working group on cybersecurity and information security, a sign that the Communist Party views the issue as one of the country’s most pressing strategic concerns. The government said President Xi and two other senior leaders, Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Liu Yunshan, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, would help draft national strategies and develop major policies in a field that might include protecting national secrets and developing digital defenses, among other goals. “Efforts should be made to build our country into a cyberpower,” President Xi said.