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April 2014

Broadband network proved itself during ice storm

February’s ice storm was a brutal attack on the communications and utility services in Columbia County (GA). Power went out to most of the county. Lots of land phone lines froze or were knocked down by falling trees. Cellphone service was spotty and unreliable. One service never failed or faltered -- the county’s Broadband Utility network.

“It’s geared for public safety,” said Lewis Foster, Broadband Utility manager. “Our entire network is underground.” The network, which went live last fall, comprises 220 miles of buried fiber-optic cable and seven wireless communication towers. A federal $13.5 million grant paid for most of the $18 million network.

Digital divide: Just an hour from Gig City, rural residents live in broadband desert

In the shadow of “Gig City,” Chattanooga (TN), there are hundreds of people -- nearly all in rural areas -- who can't access even basic broadband Internet.

"It is a tale of two districts," said Corey Johns, executive director of Connected Tennessee, a statewide organization that tracks and works to improve broadband coverage in Tennessee. About 8 percent of Tennessee's households have no access to broadband, according to Connected Tennessee. In Northwest Georgia, about 5 percent of households are unserved, the Georgia Technology Association reports.

In a world where everything from college classes to paying bills is done online, the lack of access spells trouble for rural areas, Polk County Executive Hoyt Firestone said. "It's not a luxury," he said. "Broadband is a necessity in today's environment. It's today's pathway for economic development. Just like the highway improvement acts and the interstate system -- Internet service can do that for telecommunications. If we can't acquire the same service as the larger urban areas, we're going to fall way behind."

Yet despite potential customers who are practically begging for Internet providers to expand to their areas, the big players so far haven't pulled the trigger on very rural broadband. That's because it's hard to make a profit on rural lines, said Mark Wigfield, Federal Communications Commission spokesman.

Where's my gigabit Internet, anyway?

There is even a small but growing group of Americans for whom gigabit connectivity is already here. Municipalities from Texas to Minnesota, and from Vermont to Nevada, are all seeing gigabit providers sprout up like fibrous little buds.

Those, however, are mostly either local governments offering services only to their residents, or limited promotional deployments from companies like CenturyLink and CSpire. Google Fiber -- and, more recently, AT&T -- are the only major national players with active plans for gigabit residential services.

Google Fiber is currently available in Kansas City, with plans afoot for Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, and more expansion in the works. AT&T announced that it will offer gigabit service to the Triangle area of North Carolina. But those two may be it for the general public’s foreseeable future, as no other major US ISPs are planning home gigabit service.

New America Foundation in Collaboration with the MIT Information Policy Project
Tuesday April 29, 2014
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Technology is a powerful force in our daily lives and in the functioning of government and global markets. Yet today there are too few talented people with technical expertise in government and civil society. This talent gap hinders government from effectively serving its citizens, and has a negative impact on the quality of social debate and regulatory decision-making around technology policy.

Recent events such as the rollout of HealthCare.Gov and the ongoing debates about the limits of government surveillance have drawn attention to why we need more technology talent in government. Unfortunately, there has been little discussion of how to build and sustain such needed technological capacity.

Join the New America Foundation and the MIT Information Policy Project as we discuss the in-depth findings from a recent report commissioned by the Ford and MacArthur Foundations and authored by Freedman Consulting, LLC, which examines the underlying causes and possible solutions to address this technology talent gap. Our experts will discuss the implications of this technological deficit and consider recommendations for building a more robust talent pipeline to find, attract, and retain technically skilled people in our government and civil society.

Introduction:
Anne-Marie Slaughter
President and CEO of the New America Foundation
@SlaughterAM

Featured Speakers:
Susan Crawford
Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Former Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
@scrawford

Tom Kalil
Deputy Director for Policy of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Senior Advisor for Science, Technology and Innovation of the National Economic Council
@whitehouseostp

Ashkan Soltani
Independent Researcher and Technology Consultant
@ashk4n

Dan Tangherlini
Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
@DanGSA

Moderator:
Alan Davidson
Vice President for Technology Policy and Strategy and Director of the Open Technology Institute Co-founder of the MIT Information Policy Project
@abdavidson

To RSVP for the event:
http://newamerica.org/events/2014/the_technology_deficit

For questions, contact Kirsten Holtz at New America at (202) 735-2806 or holtz@newamerica.org

If you are unable to join us in person, please tune in to the live webcast of the event here. No sign up is required to view streaming video.

Join the conversation online by using #TechDeficit and by following @OTI


April 21, 2014 (Happy Patriots' Day)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2014

This week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2014-04-20--P1W/


OWNERSHIP
   Is Comcast-Time Warner Cable "In the Public Interest"? - Kevin Taglang analysis
   Comcast and Time Warner in talks to sell subscribers to Charter [links to web]
   7 Ways the Feds Can Make a Comcast-Time Warner Merger Less Terrible - Art Brodsky op-ed
   Comcast’s Real Repairman

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   5 States to Watch in the Community Broadband Fight

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Getting the Incentive Auction Right - Tom Wheeler press release
   Comcast's Hot Spot Signal for Sprint - analysis
   Can ‘Wi-Fi First’ Work?
   Tech industry pushing FCC for more Wi-Fi airwaves in 2015 spectrum auction
   US Promotes Network to Foil Digital Spying
   Google's Project Loon tests move to LTE band in Nevada
   Broadband Access Services for the Internet of Things Generates $3B in Revenue [links to web]
   Further adventures in international mobile innovation - AEI op-ed [links to web]
   MIT’s Alex Pentland: Measuring Idea Flows to Accelerate Innovation [links to web]

TELEVISION
   Supreme Court Allows Feds To Argue In Aereo Case Next Week [links to web]
   Aereo Case Will Shape TV’s Future - analysis [links to web]
   Aereo's TV Internet Broadcasts Are a Simple Case of Piracy - op-ed [links to web]
   Report links OTT on television with increase in cord cutting [links to web]
   Time Warner Cable, DirecTV need help to work out Dodgers TV deal - editorial [links to web]
   $250,000 Grant to Finance Website Tied to PBS Series [links to web]

CONTENT
   Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online
   Digital Public Library of America to add millions of records to its archive [links to web]
   Apple, Google Vie to Offer Exclusive Game Apps [links to web]
   Lying is free speech too - editorial [links to web]
   An Internet army of truth-tellers - editorial [links to web]

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   White House website allows collection of user data
   After another data breach, Congress pressed to act [links to web]
   The Heartbleed Bug Is Mostly Fixed, but Not Entirely [links to web]
   Police Grapple With Cybercrime [links to web]
   Students Deploy Riot-Ready Social Media [links to web]

LABOR
   In Silicon Valley Thriller, a Settlement May Preclude the Finale

JOURNALISM
   Gag Order From Israeli Court Raises Questions for NY Times - editorial [links to web]
   Why the Future of Media and Journalism Really Is Bright - op-ed [links to web]

HEALTH
   Consumers Circumvent Physicians When Using Mobile Health Apps [links to web]

EDUCATION
   5 steps to better early childhood tech use [links to web]
   Why The World's Largest Provider Of Online Courses Thinks It's The Answer To Getting Ahead In The New Economy - op-ed [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pushing a packed agenda
   FCC's Grimaldi Joins Pandora [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Washington on back foot in web negotiations
   What Somalia’s New Internet Looks Like From Silicon Valley [links to web]

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OWNERSHIP

IS THE MERGER IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] On April 8, 2014, Comcast announced that it and Time Warner Cable have officially filed their joint Applications and Public Interest Statement with the Federal Communications Commission. This kicks off the formal regulatory approval process for a proposal that has garnered lots of media attention. Comcast and Time Warner Cable argue that the proposed acquisition is “pro-consumer, pro-competitive, and will generate substantial public interest benefits. This week, we take a look at the companies’ claims. The FCC will approve a proposed ownership transaction if, after weighing “the potential public interest harms of the merger against any potential public interest benefits,” it concludes that, “on balance,” the transfer “serves the public interest, convenience and necessity.” The FCC will focus on “demonstrable and verifiable public interest benefits that could not be achieved if there were no merger.” So, does Comcast + Time Warner Cable = public interest? Here’s what the companies claim.
http://benton.org/node/180722
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COMCAST-TWC CONDITIONS
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] If the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger must go through, the Federal Communications Commission should impose the seven conditions on the deal:
The combined Comcast has to stop pushing state laws that restrict competition from municipal systems or commercial overbuilders, has to work for their repeal and will not contest any competition. TWC is the most obvious culprit, having fought its battle against municipalities in North Carolina. TWC, Comcast and others work also through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the shadowy group pushing anti-consumer legislation.
Comcast-TWC has to establish a fund of, say, $1 billion, to aid local governments in building their own systems.
The combined entity must agree to a stringent Network Neutrality policy. Off the table are the weak-tea rules negotiated by Verizon and Google, and put in place by the late and unlamented Julius Genachowski during his term at the FCC. This time, former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, the embodiment of the public interest, gets to write the rules.
No data caps. It’s been proven time and time again that caps have nothing to do with traffic management and everything to do with stifling competition.
If there are to be these ridiculous retransmission disputes, the channels stay on the systems until the issue is resolved.
The company shall not require direct connection to its network. Netflix gets its money back.
Independent programmers get the same treatment as those owned by Comcast and TWC pre-merger.
benton.org/node/180743 | Wired
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DAVID COHEN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Sokolove]
Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen is well known in Philadelphia from his time as chief of staff to former Mayor Edward G. Rendell in the 1990s, a six-year tenure that established his reputation as a master of big-picture strategy, fine detail and just about everything in between. “Whatever the issue is, David learns more about it than anyone, and he can keep it all in his head,” Rendell says. “With me, he knew all about municipal pensions, and he knew about picking up trash -- I mean the actual routes of the garbage trucks.” At Comcast, Cohen has extended his range of competencies by transforming himself into a supremely well-connected political player. President Barack Obama, at Cohen’s home in Philadelphia in 2013 to raise money for Democratic Senate candidates, joked, “I have been here so much, the only thing I haven’t done in this house is have Seder dinner.” Cohen oversees Comcast’s robust lobbying operation and sets the strategies to shepherd its acquisitions past antitrust questions and other regulatory concerns. It’s a big job -- and one that would fully occupy almost anyone else -- because Comcast’s appetite for expansion is large, and it needs to be fed with a frequency that some find alarming.
benton.org/node/180742 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

5 STATES TO WATCH
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Brian Heaton]
The battle between local governments and telecommunications providers over the right to establish community broadband networks heated up over the last several months, as a number of bills were introduced that could have significant impact on municipalities in five states. Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah and Tennessee were all in the spotlight earlier this year regarding everything from de-facto bans on community networks to funding and development issues. Some of the bills were pulled off the table, while others have continued through their respective states’ legislative processes. Government Technology took a closer look at the broadband concerns in those states and what public-sector technologists should keep tabs on moving forward.
benton.org/node/180741 | Government Technology
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

GETTING THE INCENTIVE AUCTION RIGHT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
The Incentive Auction is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the benefits of mobile wireless coverage and competition to consumers across the Nation -- particularly consumers in rural areas -- offering more choices of wireless providers, lower prices, and higher quality mobile services. Getting the Incentive Auction right will revolutionize how spectrum is allocated. By marrying the economics of demand (think wireless providers) with the economics of current spectrum holders (think television broadcasters), the Incentive Auction will allow market forces to determine the highest and best use of spectrum. In developing such an auction, we must also be guided by the rules of physics. Not all spectrum frequencies are created equal. Spectrum below 1 GHz – such as the Incentive Auction spectrum – has physical properties that increase the reach of mobile networks over long distances. As part of the Incentive Auction process, we will also make available on a nationwide basis spectrum for unlicensed use (think Wi-Fi). With the increased use of Wi-Fi, this spectrum has also become congested. Opening up more spectrum for unlicensed use provides economic value to businesses and consumers alike. Whether television broadcasters participate in the Incentive Auction will be purely voluntary, but participation in the Incentive Auction does not mean they have to leave the TV business. New channel-sharing technologies offer broadcasters a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an infusion of cash to expand their business model and explore new innovations, while continuing to provide their traditional services to consumers. We will ensure that broadcasters have all of the information they need to make informed business decisions about whether and how to participate. On April 17, I provided my fellow Commissioners a draft Report and Order that will determine many significant issues and policy decisions related to the Incentive Auction. The Commission will also make additional decisions to implement details pertaining to the Incentive Auction in the coming months.
benton.org/node/180733 | Federal Communications Commission | Multichannel News | Washington Post | Revere Digital | ars technica | GigaOm | AdWeek | TVNewsCheck
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COMCAST’S HOT SPOTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Gottfried]
[Commentary] Wi-Fi's signal may be getting stronger. That is seemingly Comcast's dream -- and one that may be shared by Sprint. As Comcast seeks regulatory approval to buy Time Warner Cable, the cable giant has been raising the idea of a wireless phone service using Wi-Fi hot spots for most of its voice and data traffic. Users would move onto a traditional wireless network only when Wi-Fi isn't available. Comcast has about a million hot spots deployed. But it says that without Time Warner Cable, it will be trickier to create a national competitor to existing wireless carriers. This may seem like pandering to regulators aiming for more competition in wireless. Skeptics say the same about Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son's recent touting of the reverse scenario -- a wireless competitor to fixed-line broadband -- as he may be attempting to woo regulators ahead of a potential bid for T-Mobile US. But, as with Sprint's plans, there are reasons to think Comcast is for real.
benton.org/node/180759 | Wall Street Journal
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CAN ‘WI-FI FIRST’ WORK?
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Jeff Baumgartner]
Cable’s history with mobile services is full of stops, starts and outright disasters. Now, many of the nation’s top cable operators have hitched their wagons to Wi-Fi, deploying hundreds of thousands of hotspots out on the HFC network coupled with roaming agreements, and an increasing use of in-home gateways as neighborhood hotspots. Although Wi-Fi has traditionally been a fixed wireless technology, we’re already seeing evidence of next-gen Wi-Fi networks that can enable seamless handoffs between those hotspots, with Time Warner Cable taking the lead with its announced widespread deployment of Hotspot 2.0 technology. As evidenced by Comcast’s TWC merger filing, Comcast has also been considering a so-called “Wi-Fi First” approach that would favor Wi-Fi over other connectivity options, namely cellular. But despite that important multiple service operator roaming partnership that remains limited to four card-carrying members (albeit large ones), Wi-Fi isn’t everywhere (yet), and there's still some doubt that it can offer mobility that is on par with cellular networks, so any notion of ubiquitous coverage still requires access to the cellular network. Cable doesn’t have one that it can call its own.
benton.org/node/180731 | Multichannel News
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WI-FI AND SPECTRUM AUCTIONS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
The technology industry is pressuring the Federal Communications Commission to set aside more free, unlicensed airwaves that help fuel Wi-Fi networks, a demand that will create tension as the government tries to also boost revenue-producing licensed airwaves. In 2015, the FCC will auction off airwaves worth billions to wireless companies. While the agency has pledged to set aside some unlicensed airwaves -- which fuel consumer electronic devices like garage door openers and Wi-Fi routers -- some fear the FCC may not reserve enough of the valuable airwaves as it tries to meet congressionally set revenue goals. The highly-anticipated 2015 auction will involve buying airwaves back from broadcasters and then selling new licenses for those airwaves to spectrum-hungry wireless companies looking to expand their networks. While most focus on the battle between wireless companies over the agency's plans to limit certain companies in the auction, the tech industry is watching to see how much of the available spectrum the FCC will set aside for unlicensed use. According to an FCC official, the exact amount of airwaves to be set aside for unlicensed use depends on how much spectrum broadcasters are willing to sell back, and cannot be determined precisely until the auction begins next year.
benton.org/node/180758 | Hill, The
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MESH NETWORKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Carlotta Gall, James Glanz]
The State Department provided $2.8 million to a team of American hackers, community activists and software geeks to develop a system, called a mesh network, as a way for dissidents abroad to communicate more freely and securely than they can on the open Internet. A mesh network is a physically separate, local network made up of cleverly programmed antennas scattered about on rooftops. One target that is sure to start debate is Cuba; the United States Agency for International Development has pledged $4.3 million to create mesh networks there. Pilot projects financed in part by the State Department proved that the mesh could serve residents in poor neighborhoods in Detroit and function as a digital lifeline in part of Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy. But just like their overseas counterparts, Americans increasingly cite fears of government snooping in explaining the appeal of mesh networks.
benton.org/node/180757 | New York Times
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GOOGLE'S PROJECT LOON TESTS MOVE TO LTE BAND IN NEVADA
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: Martyn Williams]
Google has expanded its Project Loon tests to the Nevada desert and, for the first time, into licensed radio spectrum. Google declined to comment on the secret trials, but a local official confirmed they are related to Project Loon, and government filings point to several recent balloon launches. Loon is an ambitious attempt by Google to bring Internet access to vast swathes of the planet that currently have little or no connectivity. The project was unveiled last June, and Google said at the time it was experimenting with balloons flying around 20 kilometers (65,000 feet) above the Earth, using radio links in an unlicensed portion of the spectrum at around 2.4GHz. Google’s application didn’t say exactly which wireless technology it planned to use, but it did disclose the broad type of signal: a class that includes LTE, WiMax and other point-to-point microwave data transmission systems. That clue, coupled with the use of paired spectrum, points to the likelihood of LTE.
benton.org/node/180717 | PCWorld
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CONTENT

FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE FOR SALE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
Whoever said, “Money can’t buy you friends,” clearly hasn’t been on the Internet recently. Retweets. Likes. Favorites. Comments. Upvotes. Page views. You name it; they’re for sale on websites like Swenzy, Fiverr and countless others. But many of your new friends may live outside the United States, mostly in India, Bangladesh, Romania and Russia -- and they may not exactly be human. They are bots, or lines of code. But they were built to behave like people on social media sites. Today’s bots, to better camouflage their identity, have real-sounding names. They keep human hours, stopping activity during the middle of the night and picking up again in the morning. They share photos, laugh out loud -- LOL! -- and even engage in conversations with each other. And there are millions of them. These imaginary citizens of the Internet have surprising power, making celebrities, wannabe celebrities and companies seem more popular than they really are, swaying public opinion about culture and products and, in some instances, influencing political agendas.
benton.org/node/180739 | New York Times
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE ALLOWS COLLECTION OF USER DATA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Rebecca Shabad]
An updated privacy policy for WhiteHouse.gov, its mobile apps and social media sites explains how the government can collect user data if it’s in the open domain. “Information you choose to share with the White House (directly and via third party sites) may be treated as public information," the new policy says, according to the Associated Press. The policy, however, doesn’t impose any significant changes. Instead, it aims to make it easier for online visitors to the White House to understand how their visits are documented. Information about how long and when people visit the site is recorded, for instance, as is the amount of data transmitted from WhiteHouse.gov to their computers. Emails that are opened, forwarded or printed from the website are also tracked.
benton.org/node/180721 | Hill, The
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LABOR

SILICON VALLEY LABOR
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Davis Streitfeld]
After years of legal skirmishes, four leading Silicon Valley companies are scheduled to go on trial next month on claims of conspiring to keep their employees down. Settlement talks have accelerated and people close to the case say that barring a last-minute snag, a deal is imminent. The antitrust lawsuit pits 64,613 software engineers against Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe. It accuses the companies of agreeing not to solicit one another’s employees in a scheme developed and enforced by Steven P. Jobs of Apple. In their drive for control, the companies undermined their employees’ opportunities to get better jobs and make more money, the court papers say. A 43-year-old programmer who helped set in motion a class-action lawsuit against the companies and became one of its five class representatives will not be present in the San Jose courtroom. He was shot and killed by the police last December. The programmer, Brandon Marshall, died in circumstances that remain murky. He was agitated and combative, escalating a confrontation with sheriff’s deputies by assaulting one, who shot him in the chest. Marshall’s death is just one of many ways in which the case has shaped up to be a Silicon Valley drama unlike any other.
benton.org/node/180756 | New York Times | WSJ
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POLICYMAKERS

WHEELER’S AGENDA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is determined to move the typically slow-moving agency into higher gear. He has a lot on his agenda. Among the major issues are deciding whether to allow Comcast to purchase Time Warner Cable, drafting new network neutrality rules governing how Internet providers run their networks, revising media ownership regulations and trying to persuade broadcasters to auction off some of their airwaves to allow for expanded wireless services. Chairman Wheeler said he's at the FCC to make things happen. "Of course there's risk in taking action. How many football coaches say, 'Oh, I wish we hadn't thrown that pass?'" said Chairman Wheeler. "But the fact of the matter is that your goal and your responsibility is to move things forward." Chairman Wheeler is decisive and self-assured, qualities he'll have to use carefully to find consensus on a five-member commission that often has been fractious, even downright dysfunctional. "He is going to be willing to make some people unhappy, and maybe it's going to be me," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest advocate at Georgetown University's Institute for Public Representation. "But he's going to be moving things forward." And he seems intent on carving out his own legacy.
benton.org/node/180761 | Los Angeles Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

INTERNET NEGOTIATIONS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters]
A meeting in Brazil this week will reveal whether Washington has succeeded in preventing international anger over the Edward Snowden revelations clouding discussions about future governance of the Internet. São Paulo is to host a two-day international meeting, starting on April 23, called by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, one of the international leaders who was a target of US surveillance. International unrest over US and British internet surveillance has weakened Washington’s ability to shape the debate about the internet’s future, according to people involved in the process. “The US has lost the moral authority to talk about a free and open internet,” said a former senior US government official. The São Paulo meeting had the potential to become deeply political and expose rifts between countries over future control of the internet, said Greg Shatan, a partner at law firm Reed Smith in Washington. “It was called under extraordinary circumstances, it’s a reaction to a perceived crisis,” he said.
benton.org/node/180745 | Financial Times
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pushing a packed agenda

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is determined to move the typically slow-moving agency into higher gear. He has a lot on his agenda.

Among the major issues are deciding whether to allow Comcast to purchase Time Warner Cable, drafting new network neutrality rules governing how Internet providers run their networks, revising media ownership regulations and trying to persuade broadcasters to auction off some of their airwaves to allow for expanded wireless services. Chairman Wheeler said he's at the FCC to make things happen. "Of course there's risk in taking action. How many football coaches say, 'Oh, I wish we hadn't thrown that pass?'" said Chairman Wheeler. "But the fact of the matter is that your goal and your responsibility is to move things forward." Chairman Wheeler is decisive and self-assured, qualities he'll have to use carefully to find consensus on a five-member commission that often has been fractious, even downright dysfunctional. "He is going to be willing to make some people unhappy, and maybe it's going to be me," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest advocate at Georgetown University's Institute for Public Representation. "But he's going to be moving things forward." And he seems intent on carving out his own legacy.

Comcast and Time Warner in talks to sell subscribers to Charter

Comcast and Time Warner Cable have entered negotiations to hive off cable assets worth up to $20 billion in a deal with Charter Communications that aims to allay Washington’s concerns about their proposed merger.

Comcast and TWC have held talks with Charter about a deal involving between 3m and 5m subscribers during recent days, according to people familiar with the matter. The options include the straight sale of subscribers and a scenario where Comcast and TWC spin off subscriptions into a new company and sell Charter a substantial minority stake. A combination of the two is also under consideration. The discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain, the people cautioned.

Comcast's Hot Spot Signal for Sprint

[Commentary] Wi-Fi's signal may be getting stronger. That is seemingly Comcast's dream -- and one that may be shared by Sprint.

As Comcast seeks regulatory approval to buy Time Warner Cable, the cable giant has been raising the idea of a wireless phone service using Wi-Fi hot spots for most of its voice and data traffic. Users would move onto a traditional wireless network only when Wi-Fi isn't available. Comcast has about a million hot spots deployed. But it says that without Time Warner Cable, it will be trickier to create a national competitor to existing wireless carriers. This may seem like pandering to regulators aiming for more competition in wireless. Skeptics say the same about Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son's recent touting of the reverse scenario -- a wireless competitor to fixed-line broadband -- as he may be attempting to woo regulators ahead of a potential bid for T-Mobile US. But, as with Sprint's plans, there are reasons to think Comcast is for real.

Tech industry pushing FCC for more Wi-Fi airwaves in 2015 spectrum auction

The technology industry is pressuring the Federal Communications Commission to set aside more free, unlicensed airwaves that help fuel Wi-Fi networks, a demand that will create tension as the government tries to also boost revenue-producing licensed airwaves.

In 2015, the FCC will auction off airwaves worth billions to wireless companies. While the agency has pledged to set aside some unlicensed airwaves -- which fuel consumer electronic devices like garage door openers and Wi-Fi routers -- some fear the FCC may not reserve enough of the valuable airwaves as it tries to meet congressionally set revenue goals. The highly-anticipated 2015 auction will involve buying airwaves back from broadcasters and then selling new licenses for those airwaves to spectrum-hungry wireless companies looking to expand their networks. While most focus on the battle between wireless companies over the agency's plans to limit certain companies in the auction, the tech industry is watching to see how much of the available spectrum the FCC will set aside for unlicensed use. According to an FCC official, the exact amount of airwaves to be set aside for unlicensed use depends on how much spectrum broadcasters are willing to sell back, and cannot be determined precisely until the auction begins next year.

US Promotes Network to Foil Digital Spying

The State Department provided $2.8 million to a team of American hackers, community activists and software geeks to develop a system, called a mesh network, as a way for dissidents abroad to communicate more freely and securely than they can on the open Internet. A mesh network is a physically separate, local network made up of cleverly programmed antennas scattered about on rooftops. One target that is sure to start debate is Cuba; the United States Agency for International Development has pledged $4.3 million to create mesh networks there. Pilot projects financed in part by the State Department proved that the mesh could serve residents in poor neighborhoods in Detroit and function as a digital lifeline in part of Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy. But just like their overseas counterparts, Americans increasingly cite fears of government snooping in explaining the appeal of mesh networks.

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