January 2015

NETWORK NEUTRALITY

GOP LAWMAKERS DEMAND FCC MAKE PROPOSED INTERNET REGULATIONS PUBLIC
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
GOP lawmakers in Congress want the public to see new network neutrality regulations before they become law. Currently, people aren't expected to see the Federal Communications Commission's new regulations for Internet service providers until the FCC's five commissioners vote on them at the Feb 26 meeting. “Given the significance of the matter and the strong public participation in the FCC’s proceeding to date, we believe the public and industry stakeholders alike should have the opportunity to review the text of any proposed order or rules prior to FCC action,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), House Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Limited access to information is beneficial to no one -- not to the consumers directly affected by FCC action, not to the industries regulated by the rules and not to the commissioners seeking to make information decisions taking public feedback into consideration," they added.
benton.org/node/211153 | Hill, The | press release | LA Times
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CABLE PUSHES TO EXCLUDE NETFLIX DEALS IN FCC NET NEUTRALITY RULE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Internet service providers led by Comcast are pushing to protect from federal regulations their ability to demand fees from high-volume data users such as Netflix. Netflix and middlemen such as Level 3 Communications and Cogent Communications Holdings have asked regulators to prevent Internet providers from charging for connections. The Federal Communications Commission has heard arguments to prohibit interconnection payments from Netflix, Cogent and the Comptel trade group of communications providers that includes Google’s Fiber project. The agreements allow the companies to have a more direct connection into the Internet service provider’s network at a data center to improve the quality of content delivery. Internet service providers have used Web congestion for “leverage in demanding tolls for delivering video traffic to their subscribers,” the companies and trade group told FCC officials in a Jan 9 meeting. Netflix said its videos flowed faster to customers after it paid Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon. Comcast said Netflix changed how traffic is carried in hopes of cutting out wholesalers, and to seek a more favorable arrangement.
benton.org/node/211148 | Bloomberg
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BLACKBERRY WANTS INTERNET RULES TO TOUCH NETFLIX, APPLE POLICIES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
BlackBerry is looking to expand the definition of network neutrality to force companies like Apple and Netflix to allow their applications to run on BlackBerry devices. The company's chief executive, John Chen, sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, saying that "not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality." "All wireless broadband customers must have the ability to access any lawful applications and content they choose, and applications/content providers must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer’s mobile operating system," Chen wrote in a blog post. "The carriers are like the railways of the last century, building the tracks to carry traffic to all points throughout the country," he said. "But the railway cars traveling on those tracks are, in today’s Internet world, controlled not by the carriers but by content and applications providers."
benton.org/node/211147 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

BETTER COMMUNITIES THROUGH BETTER BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Joanne Hovis, Jim Baller]
[Commentary] In ways that we have not seen in the past, policy makers in Washington now seem to understand that we live in the age of the gigabit. And it increasingly appears that those policy makers understand that the engagement of local communities in our collective broadband future is essential in this gigabit era. Local leaders recognize, too, that there are no simple off-the-shelf solutions that will work everywhere -- that every community has its own particular resources, needs, and priorities, and that aggressive, proactive leadership is essential to getting the best solution for their constituents. In some communities, collaborating with willing incumbents may work well. In other communities, a public-private partnership with a new entrant may be preferable. In still others, the community may find that it has to develop a network of its own. Buoyed by the efforts of Google and approximately 100 rural towns and cities that have deployed gigabit networks, local governments -- particularly in rural areas -- are concluding that they must take charge of their own futures, and that with so much at stake, they can no longer wait for unwilling or incapable incumbents to get around to them. As we look toward the states’ legislative sessions, we are hopeful that our elected officials will recognize the value of enabling, rather than impairing, their localities -- and that local Internet choice can serve as the key to innovation and next-generation networking.
[Joanne Hovis and Jim Baller our co-founders of the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC). Hovis also serves on Benton Foundation's Board of Directors]
http://benton.org/blog/better-communities-through-better-broadband-coali...
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BETTER BROADBAND FOR ALL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Todd O'Boyle]
[Commentary] There is a simple, vital step the Federal Communications Commission can take now to make affordable, dependable, high-speed Internet available to millions more Americans. A petition filed by local governments in Wilson (NC) and Chattanooga (TN) invites the FCC to set aside state laws that prevent municipally-owned broadband networks from expanding to serve willing customers in neighboring areas. By granting the localities’ request, the commission would introduce competition -- along with pressure to lower rates and improve services – into markets now controlled by a single Internet Service Provider. Clearly American consumers need a cop on the beat to restrain ISP malfeasance and let communities choose the broadband they need.
[O'Boyle is program director for Common Cause's Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.]
benton.org/node/211100 | Hill, The
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WHY OBAMA TOOK THE LEAD ON HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS POLICY
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama has always talked the talk on network neutrality and broadband access. But now he’s walking the walk. What happened? First, four million-plus comments in the Open Internet rulemaking at the Federal Communications Commission must have caught someone’s attention. Even if the insular world of telecommunications policy wonks still cares only about what the telecommunications executives have to say, there must be people in the Administration who are actually looking up and out. Second, the President isn’t running for office again. He can take on Comcast and Verizon with panache if he feels like it. He can suggest a “public option” for high-speed Internet access; in contrast, five years ago, the idea of a public option as part of the Affordable Care Act was a non-starter. Freed of the restraint of raising money for the next race, he can act like a leader rather than a politician and plan for the long-term public narrative of America. Third, the media alliances on high-speed Internet access issues have shifted. In 2015, networks and studios may now be a bit more worried about giving control over their destinies to giants such as Comcast -- a competitor as well as the nation’s biggest carrier.
[Susan Crawford is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.]
benton.org/node/211144 | Medium
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NCTA TO FCC: 25 MBPS SHOULDN'T BE MEASURE OF DEPLOYMENT
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association told the Federal Communications Commission that the commission should not up its Section 706 report definition of broadband to 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream. And that if it does, the FCC should make it clear that it has no regulatory "significance" outside that report. "The FCC should be particularly careful to clarify that it is not endeavoring to define a distinct product market for broadband services meeting the speed benchmark," NCTA said. One concern is that the new speed benchmark could be used against Comcast in the Time Warner Cable merger review since it would give the combined company a greater percentage of subscribers since they have a greater percentage of high-speed subscribers. The higher the speed definition in the report, the smaller the number of customers show up as having broadband, and thus the continued authority to regulate in the name of universal deployment if, as the FCC has interpreted it, the requirement won't be satisfied until "All Americans" have broadband.
benton.org/node/211140 | Multichannel News
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BUILDING AN INTERNET MOVEMENT FROM THE BOTTOM UP
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Tim Karr]
[Commentary] In the early days of the Arab Spring, Wael Ghonim declared, “If you want to liberate a society, just give them the Internet.” In retrospect Ghonim, a well-known Egyptian activist at the center of Cairo protests, should not have stopped there. Just giving a society the Internet isn’t enough to set it free. In the years since Ghonim’s enthusiastic remarks, communications for protest movements has evolved into a digital game of cat and mouse. Journalists and activists are devising ingenious new ways to get around digital blockades and filters, while authorities deploy new snooping technologies to turn the Web into a tool of repression. This uneasy balance serves as the backdrop for another battle. It’s a fight not playing out between smartphone packing protesters and security forces, but among the Internet governance community -- a globe-trotting tribe of non-governmental organizations (or NGOs), international agencies, world leaders and corporate CEOs. For as long as the World Wide Web has existed these groups have debated its control and administration. What rules should govern a network that transcends national boundaries to connect people everywhere? It’s a discussion -- replete with international agency acronyms and jargon (“multistakeholderism” anyone?) -- that leaves the rest of us scratching our heads. The Internet is simply an effective tool for connecting people. Whether the network becomes a force for good or evil is up to its users.
[Karr is Senior Director of Strategy at Free Press]
benton.org/headlines/building-internet-movement-bottom | Medium
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

GOOGLE, CABLEVISION AND WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ryan Knutson, Alistair Barr, Shalini Ramachandran]
Google and Cablevision Systems are preparing new cellphone services that would turn the wireless industry’s business model on its head, increasing pressure on companies already dealing with an intensifying price war. Google’s service would hunt through cellular connections provided by Sprint and T-Mobile US and Wi-Fi “hot spots,” picking whichever offers the best signal to route calls, texts and data, according to people familiar with the situation. Cablevision, meanwhile, will start offering a Wi-Fi-only mobile-phone service next month, making it the first US cable operator to introduce a service that others have discussed. The service, dubbed Freewheel, will include unlimited data, talk and text for $9.95 a month for the company’s broadband Internet subscribers and $29.95 for noncustomers. Both efforts face substantial challenges -- from stitching individual Wi-Fi hot spots into a reliable network to handling new customer-relations issues. And there is no guarantee the services would catch on with subscribers.
benton.org/headlines/google-cablevision-challenge-wireless-industrys-business-model | Wall Street Journal | WSJ – more on Cablevision plan | CSM
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ANALYSTS: AT&T COULD SPEND $20-22 BILLION IN AWS-3 AUCTION, MORE THAN VERIZON
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
New Street Research analysts wrote that AT&T will have $21.8 billion of liquidity and it will likely spend the "vast majority" of it on spectrum in the AWS-3 auction. "We believe AT&T is raising capital to fund spectrum purchases; however, they will also need $15 billion to close the DirecTV transaction, which they expect to do in May," the analysts wrote. "We expect the company will need to come to the market again to raise funds for the DirecTV transaction." The New Street analysts had previously assumed AT&T and Verizon would spend around $15 billion to $20 billion each in the AWS-3 auction, in which 65 MHz is up for grabs, including 50 MHz of paired spectrum. They also thought T-Mobile would spend $2 billion to $3 billion and Dish Network would spend $2 billion to $6 billion. However, they noted that based on AT&T's capital raise, "it looks like AT&T may purchase $20-22 billion" whereas Verizon may purchase less spectrum.
benton.org/node/211130 | Fierce
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

OBAMA ABANDONS TELEPHONE DATA SPYING REFORM PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Mark Hosenball, Warren Strobel]
President Barack Obama's Administration has quietly abandoned a proposal it had been considering to put raw US telephone call data collected by the National Security Agency under non-governmental control, several US security officials said. Under the proposal floated by a Presidential review panel, telephone call "metadata" generated inside the United States, which NSA began collecting in bulk after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, could instead be collected and retained by an unspecified private third party. The Obama Administration has decided, however, that the option of having a private third party collect and retain the telephone metadata is unworkable for both legal and practical reasons. "I think that's accurate for right now," a senior US security official said.
benton.org/node/211113 | Reuters
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

NEW STUDY OF BROADBAND STIMULUS IS NOT SO INDEPENDENT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Scott Wallsten]
[Commentary] The National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently released a study evaluating its implementation of its $4.7 billion broadband stimulus program (the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, or BTOP). The NTIA paid ASR Analytics $5 million to do the study, which it touts as "independent." A careful read of the report, however, shows that the most important part of the study was not at all independent: the choice of which BTOP awards to study. Here's the problem. The report evaluated only a sample of counties that hosted BTOP projects. That would be fine if the sample were random, but it wasn't. Instead, as ASR’s interim report says twice, "NTIA selected these projects for inclusion in the evaluation study at the beginning of the study." Not the independent evaluator, but the NTIA -- the very entity supposedly being evaluated. We still have little rigorous, empirical information about the effectiveness of the $7.2 billion the stimulus allocated to broadband. But we do have further evidence that self-evaluation is unlikely to yield a truly independent review, even if you call it "independent" in a press release.
[Scott Wallsten is Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]
benton.org/node/211135 | Hill, The
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LOBBYING

COZY WITH COMCAST: FRED UPTON, GREG WALDEN, ARCHITECTS OF GOP NET NEUTRALITY PLAN, RECEIVE BIG CABLE CASH
[SOURCE: International Business Times, AUTHOR: Christopher Zara]
Two of the architects of the Republican network neutrality plan -- House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) -- received more money from cable-industry interests than almost any other members of Congress, campaign finance records show. Chairman Upton received $44,500 from Comcast-related donors, including employees of the company and its political action committee. Meanwhile, records from the Federal Election Commission show that no fewer than 15 senior Comcast executives contributed $1,000 or more to Chairman Upton’s 2014 campaign. Of all 435 members of the US House of Representatives, Chairman Upton ranked No. 4 on the Comcast recipient list. No. 3 on the list was Chairman Walden, a coauthor of the draft legislation, who received $47,250 from Comcast-related donors during the most recent election cycle. And it isn’t just Comcast. Donors with an interest in Verizon and AT&T gave $35,200 and $20,000, respectively, to Chairman Upton’s most recent campaign. Both companies have voiced strong opposition to reclassifying broadband as a utility, which would impose stricter relations on providers.
benton.org/node/211155 | International Business Times
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January 2015

January 26, 2015 (Net neutrality; Community Broadband)

Building an Internet Movement from the Bottom-Up

Verizon’s Mobile ‘Supercookies’ Seen as Threat to Privacy

Reactionary Regulators vs. the Internet

Google, Cablevision Challenge Wireless Industry’s Business Model

The fight for smartphone owners is netting us all some pretty good deals

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