November 2014

Use the Web? Congrats, you’re an environmentalist.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are part of a growing number of tech and other major companies that are entering into long-term "power purchase" agreements (PPAs) with wind farms to ensure a steady stream of power, at a fixed cost, over a period as long as several decades. What these deals have in common is that they involve purchasing clean energy in close proximity to the power hungry data centers that these companies operate -- data centers that in turn drive, searches, apps like Gmail, and much more.

Idaho PUC Commissioner Paul Kjellander Appointed to Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services

The Federal Communications Commission appoints Paul Kjellander, President of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, to serve on the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services which was convened in 1999 as part of the FCC’s ongoing efforts to ensure that advanced services are deployed as rapidly as possible to all Americans and serves as a forum for an ongoing dialogue among the FCC, state regulators, and local and regional entities regarding the deployment of advanced telecommunications capabilities.

The Joint Conference comprises representatives from state public utility commissions and from the FCC.

Commissioner Kjellander fills the position vacated by former Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission member Larry Landis.

Apps aimed at children collect a shocking amount of data

Apps aimed at kids tend to be the worst at invading privacy. That's one surprising takeaway from the results gathered by computer researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. They just launched PrivacyGrade.org, where every Android app is ranked on how it tracks you. All in all, the team analyzed just over 1 million apps. Nearly 1,000 got the worst rating.

Nation's capital has lessons for tech industry diversity

Silicon Valley may be the technology center of the high-tech world, but 3,000 miles to the east, the nation's capital has something that Silicon Valley can aspire to: a more diverse tech workforce.

Blacks hold about 17% and women hold 31% of tech-related jobs in the DMV, a metropolitan area that covers the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Those are among the highest percentages of tech diversity in the nation, according to Census data, and could serve as a model for Silicon Valley as it strives to improve the diversity of its workforce, which is overwhelmingly white, Asian and male. From Apple to Google, Silicon Valley companies are looking to include more women and minorities as they compete in a global marketplace. The DMV's edge: a more diverse population. Blacks and African Americans make up half of the population in the nation's capital and 25% in the metro region. And women are in the majority here, too, where they account for more than half of Washington's residents and 51% in the region.

Rumored network neutrality approach might break the Internet instead of saving it

[Commentary] If current leaks are correct, the Federal Communications Commission may be on the brink of not only undermining hope for strong, enforceable and legally sound network neutrality rules, but may also be taking steps that would ultimately disrupt the very principles that have governed the way the Internet has always worked.

We are fundamentally concerned about the collateral effects that a sender-side approach to network neutrality might have on the future of the Internet ecosystem. Recognizing a relationship between senders of traffic and last-mile broadband providers for the sole purpose of imposing network neutrality rules would recognize new privity among all websites around the world and all retail Internet access providers in the United States, making every website and content "sender" around the world a customer of every broadband provider in the US. There has never been this type of legally recognized relationship among all websites and broadband providers. Reclassification of retail broadband access as a Title II service remains the surest, clearest path forward for strong network neutrality protections, and it's the solution that millions of Americans have called on the FCC to implement.

[Morris is senior policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation]

The FCC Floats a Net Neutrality Trial Balloon

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is floating a “trial balloon” for his net neutrality rule. If reports are accurate, the proposal would ignore 3.7 million comments that almost unanimously urge the FCC to ban fast and slow lanes and to adopt straightforward, solid legal authority -- after losing twice in court for lack of authority. In addition to ignoring the public, it would also ignore dozens of senators and members of Congress in Wheeler’s own party, not to mention the president who appointed him.

The rule -- which will likely be adopted Dec. 11, with an internal draft circulated by Nov. 20 -- would permit fast and slow lanes on the Internet, in part because it rests on a new and exotic theory of legal authority that will almost certainly fail in court, for the third time -- even though judges and members of Congress keep pointing to an obvious, strong authority at the heart of communications law. While the actual proposal is not available to the public, the reports appear in line with what the FCC is telling stakeholders. Based on those reports, there are two major problems here -- the rules and the authority they rest on. Both are important.

[Ammori is a Future Tense fellow at New America]

AT&T head makes personal appeal on ‘fast lane’ proposal

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to discuss new network neutrality rules.

Stephenson urged Chairman Wheeler not to enact tough regulations on Internet service providers by reclassifying broadband Internet service to treat it like traditional phone lines. Taking that potentially controversial step would be “contrary” to the FCC’s precedent and “would negatively impact” companies’ ability to build out new high-speed broadband networks, Stephenson told Chairman Wheeler. Stephenson said that the FCC had all the authority it needed to ban “fast lanes” on the Internet without resorting to that step.

Why Is the Internet So Damn Slow?

A Q&A with Chris Mitchell, who heads the Community Broadband Networks Initiative.

Why do internet speeds vary so much between places like Los Angeles and, say, Kansas City?
“I think the main reason is that most communities only have a choice between one or two providers in a residential area for high-speed internet access. The reason for that is that those networks were typically built with monopoly protection. Basically, if you go back 100 years, the federal government said, "Telephones are going to be a monopoly, that way we can make sure that everyone will have access at reasonable prices." There were some cities that did not give a monopoly; they gave what's called a nonexclusive franchise. We're in a situation where we still don't have competition, but we don't have any legal force protecting a given provider from competition. It's just sort of developed that way because of the economics, which is that basically once you already have a network, it's really easy for you to drive out competition. And you do that typically by lowering prices; if there's anyone that's trying to build a network, you lower your prices long enough that they go out of business, and then you raise your prices back up to monopoly levels.”

Consumers and the IP Transition: Communications patterns in the midst of technological change

Americans today have a range of communications services with a variety of features that let them stay in touch with others, access information, and share their ideas and creativity with the world. Many people embrace the new, some do not, and a lot of some of both. Even “tech shy” people will send a text on a smartphone and stream video, while even the most ardent technophile might sometimes watch broadcast TV over the air after getting off a call on a landline phone. New technologies and services alter people’s communications habits, but they do not upend them completely. And they do not necessarily change the values -- universal service, reliability, and connection quality -- that people and society bring to the networks that enable communication.

This report explores how people use telephone services in today’s communications market and their views on the values that accompany something that is deeply embedded in our society’s fabric.

Here are the main findings:

Landline phones still have a strong foothold in online Americans’ phone calling patterns
Online Americans see the telephone as an anchor for household communications services and most believe that telephone service should support features such as emergency services, interconnection, and location-based services.

Comcast and AT&T Deals Put on Track for February Decision

The Federal Communications Commission will restart the informal, 180-day deadlines for deciding whether to let Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and AT&T’s purchase of DirecTV proceed.

The FCC paused its reviews of both mergers in October. Each transaction is also under review by the Justice Department. Comcast’s review has 95 days to run under the FCC’s non-binding “clock,” and AT&T’s has 104 days left. The FCC stopped Comcast’s clock Oct. 3, saying it needed more information from the company. The agency suspended reviews in both deals Oct. 22 to allow time to resolve disputes over who can see television programming contracts.

Benton

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