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June 2014

Worldwide Smartphone Usage to Grow 25% in 2014

Consumers around the world are rushing into the embrace of the smartphone market, according to new figures from eMarketer on mobile usage worldwide.

By the end of 2014, we expect 1.76 billion people to own and use smartphones monthly, up more than 25% over 2013. Just under one-quarter of the world’s total population will use smartphones in 2014 -- and by 2017, more than one-third of all people around the globe will be smartphone users. eMarketer’s estimates for smartphone users account for the number of individuals who own and use smartphones, regardless of the number of smartphones each of those individuals might have.

The total figure does not tell the entire story of global smartphone usage, and advanced handsets have already saturated more than half the population in many countries -- or will in the next few years. “By 2015, we project that 15 countries worldwide will have seen more than half their populations adopt smartphones,” said Monica Peart, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. “The embrace of this technology among the approximately 500 million people in these countries who will be using smart devices by the end of next year will have a significant influence on media usage, ecommerce and marketing.”

Microsoft Fights Government Demand for Customer Data Stored Outside US

Microsoft is opposing a US government demand for a user’s emails stored on company computers outside the country, in the latest example of tech companies’ willingness to challenge government information requests in the post-Snowden era.

Microsoft in a court filing dated June 6 said it opposed a search warrant for information on a user’s online emails stored in Microsoft’s Ireland data center.

“Congress has not authorized the issuance of warrants that reach outside US territory,” Microsoft wrote in the filing with US District Court in Manhattan.

Some legal experts said as a US company, Microsoft would have to comply with US court orders for emails or other customer information, whether data was stored in Seattle or Dubai. But Microsoft seems willing to test the patchwork of international laws on control of computerized information.

EU Probes Tax Affairs of Apple, Starbucks

European Union regulators said they have opened formal investigations into the tax practices of Apple Starbucks and a Luxembourg-based division of Fiat, as part of a broader probe into whether multinational companies have enjoyed sweeter tax deals than are permitted under EU law.

The European Commission, which acts as the region's central antitrust authority, said it would examine whether generous tax arrangements granted to global corporations in three EU countries -- Apple in Ireland, Fiat Finance and Trade in Luxembourg and Starbucks in the Netherlands -- amounted to illegal state aid.

“In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes," said EU antitrust chief Joaquín Almunia.

The commission has requested information from two other EU countries -- the UK, in relation to Gibraltar, and Belgium -- as part of the same broad investigation, Almunia said. At issue are so-called transfer-pricing arrangements, under which companies can redistribute profit within a group by charging for goods or services sold by one subsidiary to another, typically located in different countries. Experts say transfer pricing can help companies to minimize their tax bills.

Almunia said that such arrangements could violate EU rules on state aid if certain companies are allowed to engage in transfer pricing that doesn't reflect market terms.

Trans-Atlantic war over Google

Europe’s moves to rein in Google -- including a court ruling ordering the search giant to give people a say in what pops up when someone searches their name -- may be seen in Brussels as striking a blow for the little guy.

But across the Atlantic, the idea that users should be able to edit Google search results in the name of privacy is being slammed as weird and difficult to enforce at best and a crackdown on free speech at worst.

“Americans will find their searches bowdlerized by prissy European sensibilities,” said Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the US Department of Homeland Security. “We’ll be the big losers. The big winners will be French ministers who want the right to have their last mistress forgotten.”

Google says it’s still figuring out how to comply with the European Court of Justice’s May 13 ruling, which says the company must respond to complaints about private information that turns up in searches. Google must then decide whether the public’s right to be able to find the information outweighs an individual’s right to control it -- with preference given to the individual.

The judgment applies to all search engines operating within the European Union. But in practice that means Google, given that 90 percent of all online searches there use Google’s search engine.

Common Core, battered by midterm politics, gets higher-ed support. Too late?

A new coalition of Common Core supporters, this time from the higher-education community, announced itself. Its mission: to raise awareness about the importance of the standards and try to counter the spread of misinformation and the growing backlash against the standards.

It's a battle that has become central in the education world lately, and is spilling out into more general debate, as Common Core becomes a key issue in many midterm campaigns.

Recently, South Carolina and Oklahoma have joined Indiana in dropping the standards, bringing the number of states with Common Core down to 43.

Tea Party candidates and many Republicans have started using opposition to Common Core as a sort of litmus test, with many referring to it as "ObamaCore."

On the left, a growing number of educators have raised concerns over the standards for early-elementary grades, and have pushed for a slow-down on Common Core implementation and high-stakes accountability.

And a number of states have announced they no longer plan to use one of the two big assessments being developed to align with Common Core.

How to Use Tech Like a Teenager

[Commentary] Enough with complaining that young people these days are addicted to their phones. The question you should be asking is: What do they know that you don't? Believe it or not, there are advantages to using technology like a teen.

I asked a handful of 11- to 17-year-olds to tell me what apps and gear they couldn't live without. They taught me to question my own habits: Why do I use email to talk with friends? Why do I only share my best photos?

I found five practices that could change how you use technology.

  1. Only 6% of teens exchange email daily, according to the Pew Research Center. They reserve email for official communications, or venues like school where alternatives are banned. Instead, teens use a fragmented set of messaging apps based on the people they want to communicate with.
  2. There's also value in not having every single message stored on an email server. The idea is to just enable a regular conversation.
  3. Today, 91% of teens post a photo of themselves on social media sites, according to Pew. The lesson for adults is that you can express things in images that would be time-consuming to write out, or read.
  4. Adults assume that young people don't care about privacy. But look closer: Some 58% of teen social-media users say they cloak their messages, according to Pew, using inscrutable pictures and unexplained jokes to communicate in code. The lesson: You can be "public" without having embarrassing things on the permanent record.
  5. And the reason teens are such avid early adopters isn't that they have an innate knowledge of tech -- it's that they aren't afraid to break it.

Newspaper Ownership, Unions Divided Over Crossownership Ban

The newspaper unions and ownership are definitely of different minds on lifting the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. That is according to testimony for a June 11 House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the Federal Communications Commission's media ownership rules.

While Newspaper Association of America (NAA) senior VP Paul Boyle tells the subcommittee that the ban is outdated and hurts investment in local journalism, Bernard Lunzer, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, asks Congress to "maintain the status quo on Cross Ownership between print and broadcast" and says that claims that combinations will allow for more coverage is "just not the case."

The Promise of a New Internet

[Commentary] People tend to talk about the Internet the way they talk about democracy -- optimistically, and in terms that describe how it ought to be rather than how it actually is.

This idealism is what buoys much of the network neutrality debate, and yet many of what are considered to be the core issues at stake -- like payment for tiered access, for instance -- have already been decided. Internet advocates have been asking what regulatory measures might help save the open, innovation-friendly Internet.

But increasingly, another question comes up: What if there were a technical solution instead of a regulatory one? What if the core architecture of how people connect could make an end run on the centralization of services that has come to define the modern net?

It's a question that reflects some of the Internet's deepest cultural values, and the idea that this network -- this place where you are right now -- should distribute power to people.

In the post-NSA, post-Internet-access-oligopoly world, more and more people are thinking this way, and many of them are actually doing something about it. Among them, there is a technology that's become a kind of shorthand code for a whole set of beliefs about the future of the Internet: "mesh networking." These words have become a way to say that you believe in a different, freer Internet.

Method Journalism

[Commentary] With the launch of new site after new site in 2014, it's been a fascinating time to watch digital media try to figure itself out.

Amid the turmoil of disruption, buffeted by tech companies' control over information distribution, but aware of new fields of possibility, the past few years were filled with defending legacy brands.

There are some exciting sites and they're doing great work, and they are also making mistakes and doing weird stuff as they find their identities. But the more I thought about what's different in this era of media relative to earlier ones: none of these sites is focused on an area of coverage. They are, instead, about the method of coverage.

In a world where traditional beats may not make sense, where almost all marginal traffic growth comes from Facebook, where subscription revenue is a rumor, where business concerns demand breadth because they want scale… a big part of the industry's response has been to create sites that become known by how they cover something rather than what.

June 11, 2014 (Removing Barriers to Competitive Community Broadband)

Ding Dong, the wicked majority leader is…

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2014

Media Ownership in the 21st Century (preview below) on today’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2014-06-11/


OWNERSHIP
   FCC: Court Can't Review Public Notice on Sharing Deals
   Analyst: FCC Ownership Should Reflect Digital Competition
   NAB: FCC Shouldn't Review Media Rules on 'Unsupported Opinion'
   FCC's Lake Signals to Hill That Deals Have Been Getting Done
   House Commerce Democrats Call for Merger Hearings
   Don't Let Sprint Buy T-Mobile - Susan Crawford op-ed
   Google Pays $500M for Satellite Maker Skybox, for Photos and Eventually Internet Access [links to web]
   Moody’s questions benefits of telecoms mergers

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC Chief Plans Action on Wi-Fi in Schools
   Removing Barriers to Competitive Community Broadband - Tom Wheeler editorial
   Cisco: Broadband providers should not treat all bits the same
   IP Transition Hearing Emphasizes Consumer Protections and Title II
   Verizon bungled attempts to get fiber in NYC buildings, landlords say
   Winston-Salem Gigabit Network is a Key Win for AT&T [links to web]
   Announcing the Coalition For Local Internet Choice - press release [links to web]
   Surprise! Cisco data says we still use a lot of broadband - mostly for video [links to web]
   Wyoming’s State Broadband Gets Huge Speed Boost [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   FCC Seeks Comment on T-Mobile's Petition Regarding Data Roaming - public notice
   Report: US grabbed one-third of LTE smartphone market in Q1 [links to web]

TELEVISION
   Media groups call for crackdown on cable, satellite TV prices
   Local TV Broadcasters Deliver Front-Line Reporting in Emergencies - op-ed
   Chairman Leahy pushes ‘narrow’ bill to keep satellite TV from going dark [links to web]

CONTENT
   In win for libraries, court rules database of Google-scanned books is “fair use” [links to web]
   Study says Fox News may ‘harden conservative views’ of its audience [links to web]
   Music Industry Officials Agree on Need for Licensing Rule Changes, but Little Else [links to web]
   Twitter and Facebook hoping to ride World Cup wave [links to web]
   How Twitter Is Preparing For the World Cup [links to web]
   Google Chromecast usage waning, report says [links to web]

ACCESSIILITY
   FCC Launches Support Line for Consumers Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Using American Sign Language over Videophone - press release [links to web]

SECURITY AND PRIVACY
   Report: Cybercrime and espionage costs $445 billion annually [links to web]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Survey: Up To 70 Percent Of Government IT Staff Will Depart Within 5 Years [links to web]
   Survey Identifies Old IT Culprits As Top Barriers To More Open Government [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Supreme Court called into secrecy fight

POLICYMAKERS
   Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger, in Primary Upset [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Moody’s questions benefits of telecoms mergers
   EU-Mandated Switch to Pilot Texting Brings Risks [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Black girls take on tech's diversity woes [links to web]
   SmartAmerica Challenge: Harnessing the Power of the Internet of Things - press release [links to web]

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OWNERSHIP

FCC: COURT CAN'T REVIEW PUBLIC NOTICE ON SHARING DEALS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has told the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that it must dismiss the National Association of Broadcasters petition for review of the FCC's "staff-level" public on how the Media Bureau will vet TV station deals involving sharing arrangements. NAB says the guidance functions as a "categorical presumption" against such deals -- shared services agreements, joint sales agreements, and others -- which "adversely affects" NAB and its members by rendering such previously allowed deals invalid. The FCC says the guidance is to give broadcasters notice that TV station sales involving sharing agreements with associated financial arrangements like an option to purchase a station or guaranteed financing would get heightened and likely time-consuming reviews in case they wanted to rethink those given that guidance. Commission lawyers argue that the Media Bureau guidance issued in the March 12 public notice is not a final order -- NAB argues it is a final agency action -- and since the court's jurisdiction over FCC decisions extend "only to final orders," the court does not have jurisdiction to review it. “Congress did not intend that the court review a staff decision that has not been adopted by the Commission itself," the FCC said, quoting the DC court itself from a previous opinion. They also point out the appeals court has previously found that petitions for review filed after a bureau decision but before a final commission resolution are "incurably premature."
benton.org/node/185914 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ANALYST: FCC OWNERSHIP SHOULD REFLECT DIGITAL COMPETITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission should consider including pay TV (cable, satellite, telecommunications) and online video as relevant local market competitors to broadcasting. That is according to media analyst David Bank, a managing director at RBC Capital Markets, in prepared testimony for the June 11 media ownership hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee. He says that with broadcast TV controlling only about a third of the primetime audience, "it’s clear to us that broadcast TV regulation should probably consider a framework in which pay-TV in total as an ecosystem is a competitor to Broadcasting. This is the case in small and big markets alike." Then there is the Internet. "[T]he current regulatory framework was constructed in a media ecosystem that basically didn’t include the Internet. While it may have contemplated a broad PC-based Internet consumption environment, it certainly didn’t contemplate a Mobile application based ecosystem," he says.
benton.org/node/185893 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NAB: FCC SHOULDN'T REVIEW MEDIA RULES ON 'UNSUPPORTED OPINION'
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters plans to tell Congress that the Federal Communications Commission has failed to determine whether its media ownership rules service the public, and needs to base its review of those rules on evidence, not "unsupported opinion." That is according to the prepared testimony of NAB exec Jane Mago for the June 11 "Media Ownership in the 21st Century" hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee. Mago will argue that broadcasters are subject to old rules that distort competition, while less-regulated competitors like cable and satellite grab audience share and ad revenues. Mago also points out that the FCC itself has previously found the newspaper-broadcast crossownership ban to be unnecessary -- a bipartisan trio for former chairs has also admitted it was still on the books for fear of upsetting Congress -- but yet the ban remains in place. The NAB is also unhappy that the FCC failed to complete its 2010 quadrennial rule review as required by Congress.
benton.org/node/185878 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC'S LAKE SIGNALS TO HILL THAT DEALS HAVE BEEN GETTING DONE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau chief Bill Lake says that the FCC has granted the sale of 36 full-power TV stations, representing 12 different deals, since mid-March, which it issued guidelines about deals with associated sharing arrangements. That is according to Lake in prepared testimony for the June 11 media ownership hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee. Lake outlined various steps the FCC has taken regarding media ownership rules, including making TV joint sales agreements (JSAs) over 15% of ad time attributable as ownership interest, new processing guidance from the Media Bureau on processing TV station license transfers involving JSAs and other sharing agreements (broadcasters have sued the FCC over both those), and the decision to combine the congressionally mandated 2010 and 2014 media ownership quadrennial reviews into what will become a 2016 review -- June 30, 2016 is the target date for completion. As to why the FCC has yet to produce a quadrennial review report to Congress years past the initial deadline, Lake pointed out that the FCC, under a previous chairman, had a media ownership item responsive to the review teed up in 2012 that could never get three votes needed for approval -- Republicans opposed it and some Democrats were concerned that the FCC had taken the action without sufficiently gauging its impact on ownership diversity. He said that the new timetable of June 2016 will allow for more input on how the market has changed since then.
benton.org/node/185912 | Broadcasting&Cable
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HOUSE COMMERCE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR MERGER HEARINGS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Commerce Committee Democratic leaders have asked their Republican counterparts, who control the agenda, to hold hearings on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV mergers, and a Sprint/T-Mobile deal if that ever materializes. That request came in a letter from Reps Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the ranking members of the full committee and Communications Subcommittee, respectively, and Rep Doris Matsui (D-CA), to full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR).
benton.org/node/185940 | Broadcasting&Cable
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DON'T LET SPRINT BUY T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] For the same reason the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile US didn’t go through in 2011, a Sprint/T-Mobile joinder shouldn't be permitted either: No matter how the deal is conditioned, it will cause a reduction in competition. We already have a highly concentrated mobile-phone marketplace. It's a "duopoly with a fringe": Two behemoths, Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T, take home three-quarters of mobile revenue in the US. Their spectrum holdings, existing physical networks, powerful brands and lobbying heft create significant barriers to entry in an industry in which scale and scope are everything. Sprint, with about 16 percent market share, argues that combining with T-Mobile (13 percent) will create a viable third player. But if a Sprint/T-Mobile deal is approved, the combined entity will have less incentive to be disruptive and more incentive to raise prices than either of them have now as separate businesses. That matters even if you're not one of their customers. T-Mobile's aggressive marketing plans have driven Verizon Wireless and AT&T to act differently, offering better and cheaper family plans to some of their customers. [Crawford is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law]
benton.org/node/185911 | Bloomberg
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

WI-FI FOR SCHOOLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
Though the Federal Communications Commission spends $2.4 billion a year to provide schools and libraries with high-speed Internet connections, none of that has gone in recent years to pay for Wi-Fi connections -- something that is often available free in coffee shops, hotels and parks. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is said to want to change that. According to FCC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Chairman Wheeler is planning to offer his fellow commissioners a proposed regulatory change to promote Wi-Fi in schools. Wheeler’s aim is to get the issue on the agenda for the FCC’s July 11 meeting. FCC Commissioners from both parties have expressed support for reforming E-Rate. Ajit Pai, the senior Republican commissioner, said last month that the FCC should consider reforms that are as broad as possible.
benton.org/node/185960 | New York Times
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REMOVING BARRIERS TO COMMUNITY BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Ironically, Chattanooga is both the poster child for the benefits of community broadband networks, and also a prime example of the efforts to restrict them. Tennessee is one of many states that have placed limits on the deployment of community networks. Tennessee’s law is restricting Chattanooga from expanding its network’s footprint, inhibiting further growth. The mayor told me how adjoining communities have asked to join the network, but cannot also be served by a simple extension of the broadband network because of the state law. In some of these communities, there is no available broadband service whatsoever. Commercial broadband providers can pick and choose who to serve based on whether there is an economic case for it. On the other hand, Mayor Berke told me that Chattanooga believes that it has a duty to ensure that all of its citizens have affordable broadband Internet access. I understand that, like any venture, community broadband there hasn’t always been a success. But a review of the record shows far more successes than failures. If the people, acting through their elected local governments, want to pursue competitive community broadband, they shouldn’t be stopped by state laws promoted by cable and telephone companies that don’t want that competition. I believe that it is in the best interests of consumers and competition that the FCC exercises its power to preempt state laws that ban or restrict competition from community broadband. Given the opportunity, we will do so. Removing restrictions on community broadband can expand high-speed Internet access in underserved areas, spurring economic growth and improvements in government services, while enhancing competition. Giving the citizens of Chattanooga and leaders like Mayor Berke the power to make these decisions for themselves is not only the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.
benton.org/node/185959 | Federal Communications Commission
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CISCO: BROADBAND PROVIDERS SHOULD NOT TREAT ALL BITS THE SAME
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
All bits running over the Internet are not equal and should not be treated that way by broadband providers, despite network neutrality advocates' calls for traffic neutral regulations, Cisco Systems said. A huge number of Internet-connected devices with a wide variety of traffic requirements, including billions of machine-to-machine connections, will come online over the next four years, Cisco predicted in its Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption. Some Web-based applications, including rapidly growing video services, home health monitoring and public safety apps, will demand priority access to the network, while others, like most Web browsing and email, may live with slight delays, said Jeff Campbell, Cisco's vice president for government and community relations. “We really have a multiplicity of applications and services that are now running across the network, some of which require dramatically different treatment than others," he said. Some network neutrality advocates have objected to US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed rules that would allow broadband providers to engage in "commercially reasonable" traffic management. It's important that the FCC ensure an open Internet, but it's also important that "we have a robust network," Campbell said. The FCC should allow broadband providers to maintain quality of service "to ensure that some applications will run properly and effectively on the Internet," Campbell said. "That means using the intelligence of the network to ensure that those bits receive the quality of service they need."
benton.org/node/185898 | IDG News Service
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IP TRANSITION HEARING EMPHASIZES CONSUMER PROTECTIONS AND TITLE II
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Ethan Jeans]
Public Knowledge’s Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin recently testified before the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet in Washington. In a hearing entitled “Preserving Public Safety and Network Reliability in the IP Transition,” Jodie drove home the necessity of the fundamental values of the phone network carrying over to new technologies, as the IP transition moves forwards and underlying technologies continue to evolve in new and exciting directions. 100 million Americans still rely on traditional copper wire landlines; 85 million in said subset also have a mobile phone or other voice product. This can be interpreted one of two ways: either (a) political theorists have had it wrong all, and humans are fundamentally irrational to the point that they enjoy writing two checks, or (b) traditional phone services offer users in the marketplace a service they value. And yet, reports have surfaced indicating consumers are being forced off of legacy copper systems by providers, which heightens the need for more hardened protections in IP-based systems to ensure public safety. Ensuring that new technologies protect basic values with similar robustness to historic systems is critical, as is preventing rural and disadvantaged citizens from falling through the gaps during the transition process. As Senator Cory Booker highlighted in reference to the loss of services on Fire Island (NY) and in Mantoloking (NJ) following Hurricane Sandy, transitions have the potential to quite significantly impact consumers in ways not evident at the outset.
benton.org/node/185934 | Public Knowledge
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VERIZON BUNGLED ATTEMPTS TO GET FIBER IN NYC BUILDINGS, LANDLORDS SAY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
With Verizon struggling to bring FiOS to every corner of New York City as promised, the company has been arguing with landlords about gaining access to buildings where tenants might want to buy Verizon's fiber-based Internet, phone, and TV service. Verizon's fiber now passes buildings in "90 percent of the Bronx, 89 percent of Brooklyn, 94 percent of Manhattan, 90 percent of Queens and virtually the entirety of Staten Island," the company says. That's short of the 100 percent Verizon was supposed to achieve by June 30, 2014 according to its franchise agreement. And the percentage of buildings where residents can actually buy FiOS is lower. Verizon now blames Sandy but claimed it was "ahead of schedule" after the storm. "The various percentages refer to the amount of fiber in the streets and avenues, our obligation. The numbers have nothing to do with building penetration," Verizon spokesperson John Bonomo said. Verizon has been filing petitions with the State Public Service Commission to gain access to several hundred buildings in order to conduct pre-installation surveys and then wire up the buildings. In some cases these petitions have allowed Verizon access, but other attempts were plagued by miscommunications and mistakes.
benton.org/node/185909 | Ars Technica
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON DATA ROAMING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
On May 27, 2014, T-Mobile USA filed a petition for an expedited declaratory ruling that would provide guidance on the criteria used for determining whether the terms of a data roaming agreement meet the “commercially reasonable” standard set forth in the Federal Communications Commission’s data roaming rule (in Section 20.12(e)). Section 20.12(e) requires facilities-based providers of commercial mobile data services to offer roaming arrangements to other such providers on “commercially reasonable terms and conditions.” T-Mobile contends that providers need this guidance to evaluate the commercial reasonableness of terms offered in individual negotiations and to reach agreements. In this public notice, we seek comment on the Petition. Interested parties may file comments and reply comments on the above Petition on or before July 10, 2014. Reply comments are due August 11. All pleadings must reference WT Docket No. 05-265.
benton.org/node/185942 | Federal Communications Commission
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TELEVISION

MEDIA GROUPS CALL FOR CRACKDOWN ON CABLE, SATELLITE TV PRICES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
A coalition of media advocacy groups is pressing lawmakers to investigate the billing practices of cable and satellite companies. “Industry-wide practices, such as erroneous overbilling, equipment rental fees and inflated or unnecessary ‘extra’ charges, are the result of an uncompetitive market structure and all contribute to rising monthly cable and satellite TV bills,” the groups wrote to lawmakers. The letters -- signed by broadcast advocacy group TVFreedom along with Media Alliance and the Hispanic Institute, which advocate for media diversity -- were sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Communications and the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Communications. Lawmakers should examine the lack of competition in the television marketplace, which allows cable and satellite companies to charge high prices for television programming through difficult-to-understand bills loaded with unexpected charges, the groups said. “The marketplace has failed to adequately address significant annual increases in consumers’ monthly pay-TV bills,” the letters said. “As a result, consumer choice for video service across the country remains limited and family budgets must bear the heavy financial burden of ever-escalating monthly pay-TV bills.”
benton.org/node/185876 | Hill, The | B&C
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LOCAL TV BROADCASTERS DELIVER FRONT-LINE REPORTING IN EMERGENCIES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Robert Kenny]
[Commentary] Moore, Oklahoma. Joplin, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana. The names of these cities are crystallized in the minds of Americans as the sites of catastrophic destruction and loss of life due to natural disasters. However, in the dark cloud that hangs over the memory of these incidents, there is a silver lining: Many lives were saved because of the diligence, service, and sacrifice of local news stations in the face of dire circumstances. When Americans seek breaking news developments and real-time updates during times of crisis and emergency, they instinctively turn to their local broadcasters. They are a first line of defense for families, friends and neighbors when potentially life-changing weather events threaten their communities. Today, millions of Americans rely on cable TV’s lifeline “basic service tier” to access broadcast channels for their news, weather updates and emergency alerts. Currently, pay-TV providers are required to place broadcast networks on this basic tier, so that all subscribers -- regardless of how much they pay for a particular package -- will have access to their local news. However, pay-TV wants to strip this requirement in the reauthorization of a satellite TV bill -- a move that would force America’s cable TV subscribers into paying higher prices to access those same broadcast stations on more expensive, premium packages. This may leave some families without cable TV because they simply no longer will be able to afford it. Given the important role of local TV broadcasters as front-line reporters in emergencies and the reliance of TV viewers on those live emergency updates, alerts and warnings, Congress should do all it can to defend and preserve the lifeline basic service tier on cable TV systems for all Americans. [Kenny is the director of public affairs for TVfreedom.org, a coalition of local broadcasters, community advocates, network TV affiliate associations]
benton.org/node/185873 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SUPREME COURT CALLED INTO SECRECY FIGHT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
The Supreme Court is being called to weigh in on a years-long Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the high court to decide whether the Obama administration should hand over a secret memo allowing the FBI to obtain phone records without any judicial process. "The public has a fundamental right to know how the federal government is interpreting surveillance and privacy laws," EFF senior counsel David Sobel said. "If the [Justice Department’s] Office of Legal Counsel has interpreted away federal privacy protections in secret, the public absolutely needs access to that analysis. There is no way for the public to intelligently advocate for reforms when we're intentionally kept in the dark," he added. The disputed memo first came to light in a 2010 report from the department’s inspector general.
benton.org/node/185883 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

QUESTIONING MERGERS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
Moody’s, the rating agency, warned that the telecoms industry could see limited benefits from sector consolidation because of its need to address competition concerns. Mergers in the telecoms sector may not reduce competitive pressures on margins and profits as much as companies have hoped. Moody analysts point to the stringent competition remedies required to win EU approval of a merger between two telecoms groups in Ireland. High quality global journalism requires investment. Moody’s found that the requirement for Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa to sell part of its network capacity to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) meant that price competition was unlikely to ease after it acquired O2 Ireland. Instead, the analysts said that cable operator UPC, which is owned by Liberty Global, will be the main beneficiary as its agreement with Hutchison Whampoa will allow it to improve its product offerings and cross-sell mobile services to its customers.
benton.org/node/185949 | Financial Times
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