July 2014

Sen Markey Raises Broadband Bill Cramming Issue

The wireless cramming issue may be migrating to wired broadband bills in general, with a push from Sen Ed Markey (D-MA).

He asked the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission whether they were looking into cramming on bundled bills and whether that is an emerging problem, saying "cramming was scamming" wherever it occurred. FCC Acting Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said that crammers were predators and wherever consumers had bills they were likely to "pop up." He pointed out that to the extent the FCC was looking into wireless bills that included broadband, but Sen Markey pressed him about broadband bills in general, not just mobile. LeBlanc pointed out that the FCC had last week issued an advisory to ISPs about mobile and broadband network transparency and said the FCC was going to focus enforcement "in that area."

Senators push DOJ on online gambling ban

A group of senators want the Justice Department’s help to ban online gambling. Sens Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Department of Justice to support their bill that would reinstate a federal ban on online gambling. “We must act before we find virtual casinos making gambling pervasive in our society, invading living rooms, bedrooms, and dorm rooms across the country; a result we know the DOJ does not want to see,” the letter said.

The Dodgers blackout is bad, but let's not make a federal case out of it

[Commentary] The real problem here is stratospheric pricing.

Time Warner Cable paid a record $8.35 billion, according to valuations by the Dodgers, for the rights to distribute the team’s games through SportsNet LA, the Dodger-owned network. And before that, Guggenheim Baseball Management paid a record $2.15 billion to buy the Dodgers. All of these high-stakes sales are predicated on the idea that sports TV is so lucrative that the sky is the limit in terms of what the TV rights are worth. Well, Time Warner Cable may have just hit the sky. If the cable company has to lower its price to other providers, it may go back to the Dodgers to renegotiate its deal. And while the Dodgers' owners aren't commenting on that right now, they should be concerned. Their deal won't seem so great if Dodgers fans turn away from the team because the games aren't being aired on TV -- or if they have to pay significant increases in their cable fees to watch.

Keeping the fans happy is ultimately the bottom line for the Dodgers.

Kansas Democrats Turn to Data in Governor's Race

If Kansas Democrats can defeat Sam Brownback (R-KS) in November -- and that’s a big if, given the state’s conservative tilt -- they’ll need help from Republican voters to do it. How to find the persuadable voter cheaply?

Paul Davis (D-KS), the Democratic leader in the state House and Brownback’s opponent, has turned to computer modeling techniques made popular by then-Sen Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. Alongside the Kansas Democratic Party, his campaign wants to identify and reach the voters who might be willing to stray. Democrats see voter targeting as their best option to overturn a political operation that has cemented a conservative majority in the state. A Democratic victory in Kansas would strike a symbolic blow for data-driven campaigns at the state level, even if it was made possible only by Brownback’s earlier political success.

Another Avenue to Reach Policy Makers: Taxicabs

Advertising in a city’s taxis or transit system is hardly new. But a requirement by the District of Columbia Taxicab Commission that all of the city’s taxis have back-seat consoles gave political and advocacy groups a new way to reach the so-called influentials -- lawmakers, Capitol Hill staff members, government aides and lobbyists -- who help shape the nation’s policies and regulations.

Scripps, Journal Communications to Divvy Up Print, Broadcast Assets

E.W. Scripps and Journal Communications struck a deal to put their newspaper operations into one company and their broadcast assets into another, following in the footsteps of rivals.

The companies plan a series of spinoffs and stock-based mergers that would hand Journal Communications' local-television and radio stations to E.W. Scripps and E.W. Scripps newspapers to Journal Communications, whose flagship paper is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The broadcast company will retain the E.W. Scripps name, while the newspaper company will be called Journal Media Group.

Facebook to offer free, limited mobile Internet access in Zambia

Facebook will offer free, limited Internet access to mobile phone subscribers in the African nation of Zambia, as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative to introduce affordable online services in developing regions of the world.

Airtel phone customers in Zambia will be able to use Facebook and 12 other online services, including AccuWeather, Google Search and apps that focus on women's rights, health information and employment, without mobile data charges.

Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014
9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
http://shlb.org/events

Agenda

9:00 – 9:10 a.m. Welcome and Introductions

John Windhausen, Executive Director, SHLB Coalition
Don Means, Chairman of the Board, SHLB Coalition

9:10 – 9:40 a.m. Lev Gonick, CEO, OneCommunity

OneCommunity recently announced its "Big Gig" Challenge - an exciting grant opportunity for municipalities to build community-wide fiber networks connecting community anchor institutions, government facilities and business districts. OneCommunity is seeking to attract and develop the most innovative and entrepreneurial broadband services for the 21st Century. Municipalities must submit applications to OneCommunity no later than midnight October 3, 2014. Lev Gonick will provide an overview of this fabulous funding opportunity and discuss how other organizations across the country can build on this model.

9:40 – 10:05 a.m. Merle Gruesser, Indiana State Director, Education Networks of America (ENA), and Wendy Knapp, Indiana State Library

Indiana schools and libraries have historically worked together to support community needs and shared outcomes. This presentation will discuss high-level state collaborations as well as local school/library collaborations where broadband infrastructure and community resources are shared to support the needs of libraries and schools. This presentation will include insight into legislative efforts to help policy-makers understand the value of school/library collaboration.

10:05 – 10:20 a.m. Break

10:20 – 10:50 a.m. Doug Kinkoph, Associate Administrator, NTIA, and Sujeet Rao, Special Assistant, U.S. Department of Education

Moderator: TBD

These two key officials in the Obama Administration will discuss the Administration’s policies to promote broadband for schools, libraries and other community anchor institutions. Mr. Kinkoph will discuss the success of the BTOP program in connecting over 20,000 anchor institutions, and NTIA’s most recent efforts to promote community broadband. Mr. Rao will give an update on President Obama’s “ConnectED” Initiative.

10:50 – 11:10 a.m. Annie Norman, State Librarian of Delaware

One of the leaders in the field of libraries and technology, Annie Norman recently completed a very successful BTOP project in which the libraries worked closely with other state agencies to provide job training and placement services. Dr. Norman is also implementing an important trial of “White Spaces” wireless Internet access to serve the community. She is focused on compiling data to demonstrate effective decision-making, some of which she will share in her presentation.

11:10 – 11:30 a.m. John Harrington, CEO, Funds for Learning

Funds for Learning is one of the premier firms in the country providing research, analysis and consulting services around the Federal E-rate program. Mr. Harrington will provide examples of some of the best strategies he and his firm have encountered to deploy high-capacity broadband for schools and libraries through the E-rate program, and his views of the FCC’s recent E-rate Modernization Order, particularly regarding Internal Connections (now called Category 2).

11:30 – 11:50 TBD

11:50 – 12:30 p.m. Lunch

12:30 – 12:50 p.m. Elaine Williams, CEO, ConnectED Consulting Services LLC

In Illinois, Ms. Williams is currently developing models for two school district/library consortia pilots for E-rate funding year 2015. The first focuses on increasing program participation by eligible libraries and schools in more rural areas of northern Illinois. The second consortium focuses on school districts and libraries in urban and rural areas in southern Illinois.

12:50 – 1:10 p.m. Tony Wilhelm, VP-External Affairs, Affiniti Networks

Building on his past stewardship of the BTOP program, Mr. Wilhelm has recently joined Affiniti Networks, one of the leading firms in the country focused on rural broadband build-out. Mr. Wilhelm will talk about innovative public-private partnerships in which Affiniti developed broadband solutions for libraries in very rural communities across the country. For example, Affiniti has extended the reach of some BTOP-funded projects and aggregated resources through innovative consortia.

1:10 – 1:40 p.m. Patrick Halley, Associate Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC, and Lisa Hone, Deputy Chief, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, FCC

Moderator: TBD

Two of the key staff involved in drafting the E-rate orders and working with the variety of E-rate stakeholders will share their perspective on the July 2014 E-rate Modernization Order, activities since the order was adopted, and next steps in the E-rate modernization process.

1:40 – 2:00 p.m. Break

2:00 – 2:30 p.m. Joseph Sandri, Senior VP, FiberTower, and Tom Keller, CEO, Nexterra

FiberTower will describe how it provides local broadband operators with a variety of high-quality equipment and spectrum tools to build broadband to schools and libraries throughout a metropolitan area. Nexterra will explain how it selected some of these tools to offer a suite of services throughout the Baltimore area, including a case study deployment to the Digital Harbor Foundation, a magnet school in Baltimore.

Read more about School-Library Partnerships and Other Strategies for Anchor Institution Broadband Deployment

FCC to Verizon: Your throttling had better be about managing congestion, not cash

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler isn’t impressed with Verizon’s recently announced plan to throttle the speeds on its unlimited plans. Verizon’s stated reasons for the new policy is to help it manage its LTE network congestion, but Wheeler’s query indicates he’s pretty skeptical of Verizon’s justification.

In a letter to Verizon CEO Dan Mead, Chairman Wheeler asked Verizon to respond to three questions about the company’s plans:

What is your rationale for treating customers differently based on the type of data plan to which they subscribe, rather than network architecture or technological factors? In particular, please explain your statement that, "If you're on an unlimited data plan and are concerned that you are in the top 5% of data users, you can switch to a usage-based data plan as customers on usage-based plans are not impacted."
Why is Verizon Wireless extending speed reductions from its 3G network to its much more efficient 4G LTE network?
How does Verizon Wireless justify this policy consistent with its continuing obligations under the 700 MHz C Block open platform rules, under which Verizon Wireless may not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of end users to download and utilize applications of their choosing on the C Block networks; how can this conduct be justified under the Commission's 2010 Open Internet rules, including the transparency rule that remains in effect?

Think the Supreme Court protected your cellphone from warrantless searches? Think again.

A look at the ongoing debate about digital privacy and law enforcement just weeks after a major Supreme Court ruling held that police must obtain a warrant before accessing a suspect's cellphone. Border patrol agents have a nearly unlimited ability to perform warrantless searches of Americans' digital lives, based on little more than a hunch. "It truly is a suspicion-less search policy," said Catherine Crump, an assistant law professor at the University of California—Berkeley and a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "When you cross the border, the US government asserts the right to search for no reason at all."

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