August 2014

NSA surveillance reform: A tilt toward privacy over security?

[Commentary] In the last week of July, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), introduced a version of the USA Freedom Act that is far more restrictive on intelligence agencies’ operations than any other competing bill.

In explaining the distinct shift toward more privacy and transparency provisions in the competing bills, much weight has to be given to events occurring in the background: the slow drip of Snowden revelations, combined with more near-term political blunders by the intelligence agencies.

There is merit to the concerns that the new metadata process is so cumbersome and protracted that it may impair the ability to ward off future well-planned terrorist attacks. An open-minded, continuous assessment is thus in order. On the controversial change related to a public advocacy role before the FISA Court, however, there can be no doubt that ultimately the security agencies will reap a benefit.

One does not have to subscribe to the view that the FISA Court has been a “patsy” for the security establishment, to hold that an independent, internal “other pair of eyes” will enhance the credibility of future legal reviews of data requests.

FTC Approves iKeepSafe COPPA “Safe Harbor” Oversight Program

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved the Safe Harbor Program of iKeepSafe, also known as the Internet Keep Safe Coalition, as a safe harbor oversight program under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the agency’s COPPA Rule.

The FTC’s COPPA Rule requires operators of online sites and services directed at children under the age of 13 to provide notice and obtain permission from a child’s parents before collecting personal information from that child.

The COPPA safe harbor provision promotes flexibility and efficiency by encouraging industry members and others to develop their own COPPA oversight programs, known as “safe harbor” programs.

AT&T Says ‘GigaPower’ Is a Go For Greensboro, Houston

AT&T said it will offer broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps to parts of Greensboro (NC) and Houston (TX) through the deployment of its new fiber-based “GigaPower” network.

As it’s been with recent, similar commitments in other markets, AT&T said specific locations of availability and pricing for GigaPower services in the Greensboro and Houston markets will be announced at a later date.

Charter Bumps Biz Broadband Speeds In St. Louis

Charter Communications has raised the downstream speeds supported by its business-class broadband service for small- and mid-sized businesses in St. Louis, with its high-end tier now maxing out at 200 Mbps.

Charter Business said it is raising speeds for three of those business Internet tiers for no added cost:

Customers on the 60 Mbps tier are now getting 100 Mbps;
Customers on the 80 Mbps offering are now getting 150 Mbps; and
Customers on the 100 Mbps plan are now getting 200 Mbps.

Is Faster Always Better?

Perhaps there’s too much of a focus on raw speeds and the focus on megabits and gigabits. An initiative underway at CableLabs is lavishing some attention on milliseconds.

CableLabs is exploring the implementation of Active Queue Management (AQM), a technology that’s designed to reduce latency, buffering and packet loss – elements that can improve the overall performance of DOCSIS-delivered broadband services.

Posting big speeds will always provide grist for the marketing people, but CableLabs believes that an additional focus on latency can juice up the performance of broadband-fueled multiplayer gaming, video conferencing, video streaming and even the simple task of loading Web pages.

Mobile Broadband: The Single Greatest Opportunity

[Commentary] Mobile is particularly suited to connecting the unconnected in emerging markets where often remote and rural areas remain all but unreachable for meaningful fixed line deployment.

The distances are too great, the geographies too extreme, the potential customer base too unpromising from an average revenue per user (ARPU) point of view.

Mobile telephony has already proved the great facilitating technology in many such areas, bringing real change, creating economic ecosystems on a very local scale, enabling emerging markets to leapfrog developmental stages. Access to the Internet and its applications, services and products is, after all, is what broadband is about.

FCC Chairman Wheeler’s Statement On Competition In The Mobile Marketplace

Four national wireless providers is good for American consumers. Sprint now has an opportunity to focus their efforts on robust competition.

Why regulators are the big winners in the failed Sprint-T-Mobile deal

[Commentary] With so much riding on the upcoming auction of wireless spectrum -- an event Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has described as "once-in-a-lifetime" -- and with so few obvious competitive benefits of approving a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, it comes as no surprise that the FCC has opposed the deal.

Now that the merger has fallen apart, the FCC can turn its full attention to the other mergers on its plate, involving Comcast and Time Warner Cable on the one hand and AT&T and DirecTV on the other. "The big winner here is the FCC," said analyst Craig Moffett.

Analyst: No Sprint/T-Mobile Deal Helps Comcast/TWC, FCC

Bernstein Research says that if T-Mobile and Sprint drop their merger plans, as expected, it will benefit other potential merger partners Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV, as well as the Federal Communications Commission, the regulator faced with those two, already filed, deal proposals.

How a new Washington stifles a new political press

[Commentary] Friction between reporters and government is inherent in journalism. Yet it has reached a fever pitch in Washington, many journalists and experts say -- former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson in 2014 called the Obama Administration “the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering.”

Nearly three of four journalists who cover the federal government believe public information officers are tightening press controls. More than three quarters of local, state, and national political reporters, meanwhile, said the public is not getting the full truth because of it.

Benton

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