September 2014

INTERNET/BROADBAND

WHERE THERE IS …
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Although network neutrality -- or Freedom Against Internet Restrictions, if you prefer -- grabbed many of the headlines this week, we’d like to highlight a September 4 speech by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler entitled “The Facts and Future of Broadband Competition.” To cut to the chase, Chairman Wheeler outlined an Agenda for Broadband Competition that establishes four principles for all of the FCC’s broadband activities.
http://benton.org/node/202435
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PEOPLE HATE CABLE
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
[Commentary] Why has the network neutrality debate proven so one-sided? I think the reason is simple: people hate their cable company. Internet service providers and cable television companies are the two least popular industries in the American economy, and the two biggest cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner, are the least popular companies in these industries. This means that any time the nation's biggest cable companies get involved in a policy dispute, the public instinctively takes the other side. Most people don't have an informed opinion on the merits of reclassification or the feasibility of forbearance. But many strongly believe, from personal experience, that cable companies will do anything to make a buck.
benton.org/headlines/big-cables-big-problem-net-neutrality-debate-everyone-hates-them | Vox
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RECLASSIFICATION SURVEY
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
CALinnovates -- whose members include broadband provider AT&T, VC firm SV Angel and online education service JobScout -- says more than two-thirds of US respondents in a new survey say that decades-old telephone regulations should not apply to the Internet, which suggests that the Federal Communications Commission should stay away from reclassifying broadband as a regulated public utility. Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed with a statement saying laws written decades ago for the telephone system aren’t adequate for dealing with the Internet. Only about one in four survey respondents said they believe that government policies can keep up with the pace of IT innovation, the group said. Still, when asked if there should be rules about broadband providers prioritizing traffic, 63 percent of respondents said all Internet traffic should be treated the same, or, if there is a preference, it shouldn’t happen because companies pay to get priority.
benton.org/headlines/new-survey-raises-questions-about-net-neutrality-regulation-advocacy-group-says | PCWorld
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NCTA ON TITLE II
[SOURCE: National Cable and Telecommunications Association, AUTHOR: Steve Morris, Jennifer McKee]
One of the primary misconceptions in the debate about how to regulate broadband is that “reclassifying” it as a Title II telecommunications service would be a simple correction of the Federal Communications Commission’s decisions to treat cable modem and DSL as information services rather than telecommunications services. The parties supporting Title II are not seeking to reinstate a longstanding regulatory regime, but instead they are advocating an entirely new, untested approach that entails significant legal risk for the FCC and tremendous potential for unintended consequences. The first question the FCC would have to confront with Title II is how to define the “telecommunications service” that is subject to Title II regulation.
benton.org/headlines/title-ii-reality-check-part-2-legal-risks-and-unintended-consequences | National Cable and Telecommunications Association
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CPUS ON TITLE II
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Turns out the California Public Utilities Commission proposal to endorse Title II in comments at the Federal Communications Commission did not pass after all. The item was first reported to have passed by a 3-2 vote Sept. 11, but Commissioner Carla Peterman rescinded her vote and the 2-2 item was put on hold at her request. According to a copy of the draft memo from the CPUC's assistant general counsel, it advises that the CPUC file comments at the FCC in support of enhancing the Open Internet/transparency rule, which is still in effect, but of using Title II to reinstate prohibitions on anticompetitive paid prioritization. "The commercially reasonable standard is inconsistent with an open Internet because it would allow ISPs to discriminate under an undefined and likely unenforceable standard," said the memo. "Accordingly, the CPUC would oppose FCC adoption of the proposed “commercially reasonable” standard, and argue instead adoption of the “no unreasonable discrimination” standard rooted in Title II.”
benton.org/headlines/california-puc-title-ii-comments-hold | Multichannel News
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FINDING A NEUTRAL PLATFORM
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
[Commentary] In the ongoing debate over Net neutrality regulations, all sides have agreed on one thing: Internet users, not broadband providers, should ultimately determine which sites and services succeed and which ones fail. Even those who don't want the government to impose any rules at all believe a free and open Internet is crucial to society and the economy. If you're looking for neutrality from the companies that use the Net, however, you should cut off the search now. As much as some companies try to maintain the posture of being open and non-judgmental, every operator of online platforms, services, communities and sites can't help but exercise at least some level of editorial control.
benton.org/headlines/even-net-neutrality-its-hard-find-neutral-platform | Los Angeles Times
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JOHN OLIVER MAKES PEOPLE DUMB
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] Does the Internet make people stupid? This column has been on the optimistic side: Surely humans can still find a way to focus on and understand complex topics. But that faith is being sorely tested by the abysmal Washington debate over "net neutrality." September 15 is the deadline for public comments on proposed Internet regulations to the Federal Communications Commission. More than one million comments have been posted, mostly sent by "clicktivists" and drafted by special-interest groups in Washington. As a sign of the confusion over the topic, many commenters say they want more Internet competition but then demand regulation that would stifle competition. Everyone favors an open Internet where no one needs permission to start a website or launch an app, and all content is distributed without censorship. But lobbying groups with Orwellian names like Free Press and Public Knowledge want to turn the Internet into a regulated utility, with bureaucrats setting prices and terms under rules written for railroads in the 19th century and the telephone monopoly in the 1930s.
benton.org/headlines/john-oliver-makes-people-dumb | Wall Street Journal
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

WIRELESS AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Federal Communications Commission Tom Wheeler and Google both seemed to come out in favor of holding wireless internet to the same network neutrality standards we hold the wired internet. This has long been the goal of net neutrality advocates. What’s changed? When the 2010 debate over network neutrality was raging, less than 30 percent of Americans had a smartphone, and they were using them very differently than they are using them now. During 2010, people in the US consumed an average of 350 MB/mo of data per month compared to 2013, when shared data plans and more devices helped push data consumption to 1.2GB per month. Plus if more than 20 percent of visits to the internet are coming from mobile phones, a significant amount of eyeballs access the net via wireless networks, which means that any unfair deals would affect one in five attempts to get online. And then there are the people themselves, who are changing how politicians view the debate. Thanks to John Oliver’s rant, the average consumer is far more engaged in the network neutrality debate than they were in 2010, and has told the FCC and her Congressmen what she thinks.
benton.org/headlines/why-google-and-fcc-are-bringing-wireless-back-net-neutrality-fight | GigaOm
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AUCTION RULES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition (EOBC) says it has been talking with broadcasters outside the coalition about the possibility of channel sharing, and says it has run across some problems with how the Federal Communications Commission set up the sharing system. In a petition filed with the FCC EOBC writes, "The Commission appears to have inadvertently erected barriers that could drive many broadcasters away from the auction at a time when the FCC needs to be enlarging -- not reducing -- the pool of interested broadcasters." According to EOBC executive director Preston Padden, the petition is not adversarial but was in fact invited by the FCC. EOBC says the rules should be changed so that parties to sharing agreements are free to negotiate for common contractual rights, should be able to enter into sharing agreements after the auction, should be allowed to determine the length of those agreements, and if a sharing station relinquishes its license, the shared spectrum should revert to the sharing partner(s), not the FCC.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-asked-rethink-tv-sharing-auction-rules | Broadcasting&Cable
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WHO’S IN THE AUCTION?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Gottfried]
The government is taking a wireless roll call. And the list of those present may tell a story of its own. September 12 was the deadline for applications to bid in the Federal Communications Commission's Nov. 13 auction for wireless spectrum. Sprint already has said it isn't bidding because the airwaves in question don't fit its needs. But AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all are expected to, along with spectrum heavyweight Dish Network. More notable would be the presence of a company like Google on the list of qualified bidders, which the agency will release in coming weeks. It doesn't have a wireless business now, but putting its name into the hat could signal future ambitions. Comcast says that it isn't bidding. Indeed, the presence of Google or another surprise player would be seen as positive for T-Mobile, whose majority owner, Deutsche Telekom, is thought to be interested in selling. For wireless investors, the list of bidders could prove a Rosetta Stone.
benton.org/headlines/auction-offers-investors-wireless-signal | Wall Street Journal
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SPRINT TO SKIP AUCTION
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields, Scott Moritz]
Sprint is the only major US wireless-service carrier intending to pass on an auction of frequencies designed to accommodate data-guzzling smartphones. A spokesman confirmed that Sprint won’t participate in the November sale, which the Federal Communications Commission expects to be the largest since a $19 billion auction in 2008. Verizon Communications., AT&T, and T-Mobile US all said they’re interested in bidding. “Sprint really has a lot more spectrum than its rivals, so they don’t have that pressing need to get more,” said John Butler, a senior telecommunications analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. In addition, Sprint doesn’t hold airwaves that would be easily compatible with the frequencies to be offered, he said.
benton.org/headlines/sprint-says-it-wont-take-part-us-airwaves-auction | Bloomberg
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SPECTRUM PLAN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Roger Sherman, Karl Nebbia]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issue this joint public notice to provide information about Federal/non-Federal coordination in the AWS–3 bands in which Federal incumbents have spectrum assignments. We jointly refine certain AWS–3 Protection Zones, reducing them from nationwide scope to more specific geographic areas. We provide information and guidance on the overall coordination process, as contemplated by the AWS–3 R&O, including informal pre-coordination discussions and the formal process of submitting coordination requests and receiving results from relevant agencies. Also, we provide refined Protection Zones for AWS–3 licenses for which proximity to certain Federal satellite uplink stations could potentially cause harmful interference into AWS–3 licensee base stations along with a streamlined option for satisfying this coordination requirement.

benton.org/headlines/fcc-and-ntia-coordination-procedures-1695-1710-mhz-and-1755-1780-mhz-bands | Federal Communications Commission
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OWNERSHIP

MERGER REVIEW QUESTIONS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
Sen Dean Heller (R-NV) has called into question how the Federal Communications Commission is reviewing the proposed acquisitions of pay-television companies Time Warner Cable by Comcast and DirecTV by AT&T. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sen Heller requested information regarding any confidential meetings the agency has had with media companies as part of its regulatory review of the deals. The letter, in response to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal disclosing that the FCC was offering the cloak of anonymity to companies concerned about Comcast and AT&T, asked the agency to justify the reasons for the meetings. While people or companies can express concerns about the two deals by filing public comments at the FCC, an agency spokeswoman has said offering confidentiality to concerned parties is "an established part of the FCC's rules." Such confidentiality is typically granted if a company fears that going public could lead to reprisals or retribution. Typically, companies that meet with FCC officials disclose such meetings in ex-parte filings.
benton.org/headlines/sen-heller-questions-fccs-review-pay-television-acquisitions | Wall Street Journal | WSJ – Aug 29 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AT&T-DIRECTV QUESTIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has requested a raft of additional documents from both AT&T and DirecTV as it vets AT&T’s acquisition. The information requests run to dozens of pages. For example, AT&T's letter includes 81 request. They include everything from regional sports network ownership, online video competition, and carriage negotiations, to the potential value to AT&T of DirecTV's Sunday Ticket package and just what benefits the deal will actually produce.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-seeks-data-drop-att-directv | Broadcasting&Cable
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COULD NETFLIX BENEFIT FROM COMCAST-TWC?
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields, David McLaughlin]
Comcast’s bid for Time Warner Cable may spare Netflix from having to continue paying for smooth display of content. Regulators weighing the merger asked Comcast about its February agreement with Netflix that requires it to pay for fast delivery over the cable provider’s service. The questions show officials are preparing to help Web video companies that have asked the regulators to prohibit such payments, said Craig Moffett, an analyst with MoffettNathanson in New York. “I don’t think there’s any question about it -- the big winner in the Comcast merger is Netflix,” Moffett said. Regulators can demand conditions as a price for approving the acquisition.
benton.org/headlines/netflix-could-get-smooth-cards-out-comcasts-merger | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION
SPORTS BLACKOUT RULE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Andrew Jay Schwartzman]
[Commentary] On September 30, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to repeal its sports blackout rules. The outcome is a forgone conclusion - the FCC will repeal the rules. The sports blackout rules benefit the professional sports industry and local TV stations. Pay-TV operators which might benefit from lifting them have their own deals with the sports leagues and thus have little incentive to challenge the rules. There is one other group of interested parties - the public, but, until recently, sports fans did little but complain a few times a year when games were blacked out. That changed when a new group called the Sports Fan Coalition (SFC) was created to give voice to those concerns. In November 2011 SFC filed a petition calling for repeal of the rules.
http://benton.org/node/202511
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DIVERSITY

TECH DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Caryl Rivers, Rosalind Barnett]
[Commentary] How do we explain the absence of high-level women in the technology business? The answers, from new social science research, may surprise you. Talented women run into land mines that make it hard for them to move up the corporate ladder in tech. Too often, the bias is invisible to everyone. It’s not that companies are trying to discriminate. It’s that the old scripts that both men and women unwittingly follow still have amazing power. New York University psychology professor Madeline Heilman and University of Massachusetts – Amherst’s Michelle Haynes have shown that credit for a team’s successful performance is far more often given to the male than the female. Female members are seen as less competent, less influential and less likely to have played a leadership role in the job at hand. Both men and women fall into the trap of giving higher marks to the male team member. A woman’s performance has to be at the top 20th percentile, and, in many cases, in the top 10th percentile, to be viewed on par with the average man’s performance.
benton.org/headlines/why-face-tech-remains-stubbornly-male | Revere Digital
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DIVERSITY STUDY
[SOURCE: Deadline, AUTHOR: David Robb]
A survey of 5,700 SAG-AFTRA members has found that more than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual performers “have heard directors and producers make anti-gay comments about actors” and that “53% of LGBT respondents believed that directors and producers are biased against LGBT performers.” The study was conducted by UCLA’s LGBT think tank Williams Institute and funded by the SAG-Producers Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund.
benton.org/headlines/study-suggests-hollywood-not-so-gay-friendly | Deadline | read the study
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GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

METADATA PROGRAM RENEWED
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
With a surveillance reform bill stuck in the Senate, the federal court overseeing spy agencies reauthorized the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of Americans' phone records. Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the NSA to continue to warrantlessly collect “metadata” in bulk about people’s phone calls. The records contain information about which numbers people called, when and how long they talked, but not the actual content of their conversations. “Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the Section 215 telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program,” the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement, referring to the section of the Patriot Act that authorizes the program.
benton.org/headlines/spy-court-renews-nsa-metadata-program | Hill, The
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TECH UNDER NSA CLOUD
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Revelations in the court records are damaging to technology companies, showing just how vulnerable they are to government demands, said American University law professor Stephen Vladeck. "Before this came out, we could only speculate about how much pressure the government was exerting on Yahoo, Facebook and Google behind the scenes. Now it's clear the lengths to which the US government has gone," Vladeck said. "And that's what's going to keep our friends overseas up at night."
benton.org/headlines/tech-companies-still-under-cloud-after-nsa-revelations | USAToday
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

TODAY’S THE DAY FOR BIG DATA
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Lesley Fair]
Big Data is a big deal for businesses, consumers, academics, and policymakers. There's no doubt it opens the door to more powerful analytical techniques that can advance medical research, education, transportation, etc. But some have voiced concerns about whether it may be used to categorize consumers in ways that may affect them unfairly, or even unlawfully. That's the topic on the table at an FTC workshop, Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?, and it's happening today, Monday, September 14, 2014.
benton.org/headlines/todays-day-big-data | Federal Trade Commission
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TECH CHIEFS IN PLEA OVER PRIVACY DAMAGE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters]
The US tech industry has failed to appreciate the mounting global concern over its record on online privacy and security and must act fast to prevent deeper damage to its image, Silicon Valley’s top executives and investors have conceded. The self-criticism, much of it aimed at consumer internet companies such as Google and Facebook, comes as some of the tech sector’s best-known names have been battered by a backlash over revelations of widespread US internet surveillance and concerns about their growing business and cultural dominance. Peter Thiel, a prominent start-up investor and Facebook director, said: “Silicon Valley is quite oblivious to the degree to which this crescendo of concern is building up in Europe. It’s an extremely important thing and Silicon Valley is underestimating it badly.” The backlash over privacy and security has started to ripple more widely through Silicon Valley, where young companies have typically raced to launch new technologies without making these issues an overriding priority.
benton.org/headlines/tech-chiefs-plea-over-privacy-damage | Financial Times
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SCHOOLS AND BIG DATA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Natasha Singer]
Technology companies are collecting a vast amount of data about students, touching every corner of their educational lives -- with few controls on how those details are used. Now California is poised to become the first state to comprehensively restrict how such information is exploited by the growing education technology industry. Legislators in the state passed a law in August prohibiting educational sites, apps and cloud services used by schools from selling or disclosing personal information about students from kindergarten through high school; from using the children’s data to market to them; and from compiling dossiers on them.
benton.org/headlines/tech-taking-over-schools-worries-rise | New York Times
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PRIVACY AND APPS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Lucian Constantin]
Many mobile apps request too many permissions and don't explain how they collect users' personal information, a study of 1,211 popular apps by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network has found. The majority of the apps reviewed did not adequately explain to users how they were collecting and using information, according to the study, carried out by 26 privacy enforcement authorities in 19 countries. It also found that a third of the tested mobile applications requested excessive permissions that were outside the scope of their functionality. Reviewers found that almost one in three tested apps provided no privacy information other than permission requests. An additional 24 percent provided some information, but didn't explain how the information is collected, used and disclosed.
benton.org/headlines/data-protection-authorities-find-privacy-lapses-majority-mobile-apps | IDG News Service
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EUROPEANS BRACING FOR NETFLIX
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Doreen Carvajal]
With Netflix poised to make its debut in six European countries, the expansion of that online streaming giant’s international territory is stirring a mix of anticipation, anxiety and political intrigue. The stakes are high. Europe’s unified market and high Internet use have created ripe territory for American technology companies like Netflix, Amazon and Google. But as their power and reach grow, companies like Netflix are also being assailed by European politicians and business rivals over issues like taxes and competition. The fiercest resistance to the company is emerging in France, where, so far, telecommunications operators like Orange are refusing to carry the service on popular television-top devices that enable Internet streaming because they have not settled on financial terms. Netflix is nonetheless available on tablets, computers and smartphones.
benton.org/headlines/europeans-bracing-netflix | New York Times
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Daily Digest

Analysis

September 2014

September 15, 2014 (Today’s the day for Big Data)

FCC Monday Morning Quarterbacks the Sports Blackout Rule

Today’s the day for Big Data

With Tech Taking Over in Schools, Worries Rise

Even with Net neutrality, it's hard to find a neutral platform

John Oliver Makes People Dumb

Tech chiefs in plea over privacy damage

Auction Offers Investors a Wireless Signal

In Latest Volley Against Amazon, Hachette’s Writers Target Its Board

Line by Line, E-Books Turn Poet-Friendly