September 2014

Wireless companies: Don’t put ‘fast lane’ rules on us

CTIA-The Wireless Association is are pushing back against an effort to ban them from slowing or blocking people’s access to the Internet. CTIA head Meredith Attwell Baker sent a letter to members of Congress telling them to pressure the Federal Communications Commission not to extend its network neutrality rules to wireless.

Baker’s group includes phone giants AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile as well as device manufacturers, Dish Network and other companies. Their service has “physical limitations and policy constraints,” she wrote, which means that “mobile networks may need to subject different uses or users to differentiated treatment on a real-time basis to provide all consumers with the level of service they have come to expect."

Big Cable's "nightmare" scenario looks a lot like dealing with Comcast now

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association posted a hilarious tweet depicting Internet service providers (ISPs) waiting in line to ask the government for permission to increase speeds and offer new services. The problem is that to many people, it already seems like Comcast and other large broadband providers are acting like arrogant monopolies.

At the heart of the network neutrality debate is a disagreement about the relationship between regulation and monopoly. The liberal view is that big broadband providers are de facto monopolies, and that regulations are needed to prevent them from abusing their monopoly power. The conservative response is that regulations cause monopolies. More regulations will make the problem worse, while deregulation will promote competition and innovation.

Study: Cities with super-fast Internet speeds are more productive

A new study finds that access to next-generation Internet speeds may be connected to better economic growth.

According to a report by the Analysis Group, cities that offer broadband at 1 gigabit per second -- roughly 100 times the national average of 10 megabits per second -- report higher per-capita GDP compared to cities that lack those Internet speeds. Of course, all the normal caveats apply: It's hard to draw a causal inference from the study, and it's possible there's something else about the 14 gigabit cities that made them better off to begin with. Still, the paper's methodology seems relatively straightforward. Drawing from federal statistics, the Analysis Group identified 14 metropolitan areas where over half of the population had access to gigabit speeds in 2011 and 2012. Then the researchers compared those areas against 41 neighboring cities where gigabit Internet wasn't widely available. Cities with gigabit connections reported 1.1 percent higher per-capita GDP than their slower counterparts, the study found. That might not sound like much, but consider that per-capita GDP in the entire United States has been growing at a pace of one to two percent a year since the recession, according to the World Bank.

AT&T/DirecTV merger boosts incentive to kill copper service, opponents say

AT&T’s proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV will reduce competition for TV subscribers, increase AT&T’s “incentive to discriminate against online video services,” and give AT&T more reasons to neglect its aging copper network, consumer advocacy groups argue in a petition to deny the merger.

AT&T has claimed the merger would help it expand fiber buildouts to an additional two million locations, but this claim is unverifiable because AT&T hasn’t said how much fiber it will deploy if the merger is not approved, says the petition filed by Public Knowledge and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. In “markets where AT&T and other telecommunications companies have begun to offer fixed wireless service as an alternative to traditional telephone service, there have been customer complaints about the lack of maintenance to the copper network and reports of high-pressure sales techniques that push customers to a wireless product even though the wired product may suit their needs better,” the petition said.

Lawmakers want public data on political ads

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) are putting pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to require that more companies post their records about political advertising online.

The FCC is currently weighing a request to require cable, satellite and radio stations to put their records online so that people can easily see which campaigns and groups are buying political ads on their airtime. “The 2014 election is projected to be the most expensive midterm election cycle in U.S. history,” the lawmakers wrote to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Given this trend, it’s imperative that the FCC expand its online filing requirement to cable and satellite operators, as well as broadcast radio licensees.”

Microsoft Backs AT&T/DirecTV Deal

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, Microsoft said that the AT&T/DirecTV deal would help deploy broadband infrastructure critical to innovation.

Microsoft points out that AT&T has committed to increasing broadband deployment by boosting its fiber to the premises wireline service to two million more customer locations, and to deploying fixed-wireless local loop technology, boosting broadband speeds to 15-20 Mbps to 13 million mostly rural customers outside AT&T's current footprint or where current customers don't get the U-Verse bundle of broadband and video. And while Microsoft gave the FCC credit for advancing deployment through the Universal Service Fund and E-rate subsidies, it suggested the deal would be a good venue for expanding on that.

Will New AT&T Business Fiber Push Help Clarify Google Fiber Business Services Plans?

AT&T announced a renewed focus on business class services with AT&T Business Fiber, which will use fiber-to-the-building technology to offer symmetrical broadband speeds of 25 Mbps to 300 Mbps. Eventually, AT&T Business Fiber will offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps. It’s no coincidence that AT&T picked an Austin business to highlight their first AT&T Business Fiber service. AT&T’s rapid adoption of gigabit fiber services can certainly be attributed in part to the competitive threat from Google Fiber. They now appear to be aggressively trying to get to market first, with residential, and now business fiber services.

Sprint sells 900 MHz spectrum to firm led by Nextel co-founders

Pacific DataVision, led by former Nextel Communications co-founders Morgan O'Brien and Brian McAuley, acquired all of Sprint's 900 MHz licenses, giving it some 6 MHz of bandwidth nationwide for use in a push-to-talk radio network. The mobile workforce communications provider is also seeking Federal Communications Commission permission to launch a wireless broadband offering using its newly acquired spectrum.

Gov. Brown Signs California's Blockbuster TV, Film Tax Credits Into Law

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed California's new TV and film tax credit program into law in a ceremony in front of Hollywood's Chinese Theatre. The showy setting -- frequently the site of premieres for blockbuster movies -- seemed appropriate for approving the measure, which greatly enlarges and deepens the state's commitment to keeping one of its signature industries, which has been gutted in recent years. It provides $1.65 billion in incentives over the next five years, with $330 million going to producers annually, more than tripling the current level. It will allow many more projects to qualify for the subsidies, including big-budget features and TV pilots, and phase out the hugely over-subscribed lottery currently used to select applicants.

Interference on the Line

In May, the Federal Communications Commission issued a comprehensive incentive auction framework order that represented a substantial step toward a successful auction. While the order resolved many open issues, it also set the stage for a series of new ones and the published list of follow-on proceedings made clear that significant work remains to be done. We recognize that the FCC has yet to adopt the final technical rules that will govern the proposed unlicensed uses in the 600 MHz band and a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this issue just circulated for a vote. But I must be honest; we do not, at this time, share the FCC’s confidence that unlicensed devices in the duplex gap in the configuration and at the power levels identified in the order can operate without creating interference to the adjacent licensed allocations. Indeed, at least one technical analysis has concluded that a 600 MHz LTE device would be unable to properly receive if it was within 20 meters of an adjacent unlicensed device operating at 40 mWs.

Benton

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