February 2015

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s Remarks at the 12th Annual NG9-1-1 Honor Awards Gala to Celebrate Heroes and Leaders in 9-1-1

We’re here tonight to recognize public safety heroes and leaders for their achievements during this past year. And I would like to congratulate all of tonight’s awardees, including Patti Davis; Angelia Dodd; David Furth; Hank Hunt; SNOPAC Everett, which is the 911 call center for Snohomish County (WA); and the Denco Area 9-1-1 District, which coordinates 911 services throughout Denton County (TX).

With the late-night help of David and others, we adopted indoor location accuracy rules in January. We’re now on a path to providing emergency responders with a “dispatchable location” -- that’s the room, office, or suite number where the 911 caller is located. And while there’s certainly more to be done on this and other 911 issues, all of tonight’s awardees are proof that much can be accomplished when we roll up our sleeves and get to work. So again: congratulations to all of you, thank you for your leadership on 911 issues, and thank you for inspiring all of us to continue working to advance public safety.

Local broadcast TV’s integral role in American culture

[Commentary] Imagine a world where your primary news source is dominated by national pay-TV networks. A consolidation and concentration of news eliminating the ability of television viewers in small town USA to turn to their trusted local TV broadcasters for breaking news, severe weather updates, school closings and emergency alerts and warnings. Could this possibly happen? That’s what’s at stake as Congress looks to modernize the nation’s communications laws for the 21st century.

As Congress moves forward with its media and video reform agenda, it’s crucial for lawmakers to factor in what’s needed to help advance the principles of localism for the benefit of America’s television viewers. After all, local TV stations rely not only on advertising sales to sustain their business, but revenue generated from programming deals reached with pay-TV providers to redistribute their content via retransmission consent. Are federal regulators prepared to set a bright regulatory line for their engagement in what today are otherwise recognized as highly successful private business negotiations between companies? For the sake of local communities across America, let’s hope not.

[Robert Kenny is director of Public Affairs for TVfreedom.org]

Want Fiber? Do more to get it, Google exec tells cities

Google has a tip for those who want more high-speed internet options: tell your town to get rid of its fax machine, touch up its maps and streamline the permitting process.

"If you make it easy, we will come. If you make it hard, enjoy your Time Warner Cable,” Milo Medin, Vice President of Access Services at Google Fiber, told a Washington (DC) audience. Medin cited byzantine permission processes (including a fetish for faxes) and an inability to provide accurate information about infrastructure as prime reasons that hurt some cities’ chances to attract new broadband services. It’s unclear though if bumbling bureaucracies are all that’s holding back Google, which has talked a big game about its Fiber networks, but has been slow to roll them out. The panel’s moderator tried to pin down Medin on Google’s position on imminent Title II rules, which will reclassify broadband providers as common carriers. But Medin, who ceded his role leading Google Fiber in 2014, wouldn’t bite.

Huawei/ Far Lane Deal Targets Rural Broadband

A telecommunications veteran who has considerable experience in rural deployments has started a company to pursue opportunities to serve smaller operators deploying broadband.

The company, known as Far Lane, is headed up by Bill Macfarlane, whose experience includes operating the Western Independent Networks fiber network in the Northwest US. Far Lane, announced that it will offer Huawei’s GPON equipment, multi-gigabit routers and other IP equipment and solutions throughout the US to incumbent local exchange carriers, rural electric cooperatives and other broadband service providers. The Huawei/ Far Lane deal calls for Far Lane to sell Huawei equipment nationwide but is not exclusive. Huawei Director of Corporate Communications Francis Hopkins said the relationship with Far Lane is the first of several that the company expects to establish to target smaller network operators.

Cord-Cutting Has ‘Accelerated Markedly’: Craig Moffett

MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a report that while the overall US pay-TV universe grew subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2014, it did not keep up with the rate of new household formation, meaning that he pace of cord-cutting is actually on the rise.

"On the surface, all is calm,” he wrote, noting that the total pay-TV subscriber base rose by 101,000 subscribers. It gets messy, he added, when those numbers are held against a surge in new household formation in the fourth quarter (1.3 million, according to the US Census Bureau) that typically “provides a tailwind for Pay TV subscribership.” While conceding that government occupied household data is “notoriously volatile and therefore slightly suspicious,” Moffett said the adjusted numbers indicate that cord-cutting (mixed with cord-nevers) “appears to have markedly increased.”

As 4G demand balloons, here come the "super" base stations

The 2015 Mobile World Congress kicks off in March, and this year network equipment makers seem particularly focused on building bigger, badder base stations -- the processing workhorses of any cellular network -- as demand for more LTE speed and capacity hits new highs around the world. But the mobile industry has started to question whether this constant cycle of cell site upgrades is really the best way to build a network.

Instead mobile infrastructure vendors have started looking to the data center as a model for future network design. Instead of building a huge amount of processing power into every cell site, they can put all of that baseband capacity in the cloud and divvy it out to cells as demand dictates. The concept is called Cloud-RAN (RAN standing for Radio Access Network) and carriers like China Mobile, SK Telecom and Telefónica are already testing it out with the help of Intel and many of many telecom equipment makers.

Apple Ordered to Pay $533 Million for Patent Infringement in iTunes

Apple has been ordered to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury found its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Texas-based patent licensing company Smartflash.

Though Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages, the verdict was still a costly blow for Apple. After deliberating for eight hours in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the jury said that Apple not only used the Smartflash patents without permission, but did so willfully. The patents are related to accessing and storing entertainment software. Apple suggested the outcome was another reason why reform is needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that do not make products themselves, such as Smartflash. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system,” an Apple spokeswoman said.

Comcast chief warns on new Internet rules

The Federal Communications Commissions proposed new regulatory regime for the Internet has "unnecessary risks" for Internet providers, according to Comcast's chief executive Brian Roberts. Roberts said Comcast was “absolutely for a free and open Internet” and agreed with President Barack Obama and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on many points. “But this agreement boils down to what legal authority the FCC should use to put in place these rules,” he said, pointing to the risks associated with “1930s-style regulation of something as dynamic as the Internet”. “We hope that when all is said and done there continues to be incentives to make new investments,” he added.

Putin’s propagandists prime Russians for fight

[Commentary] In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to be losing his grip on the public’s affections. Now he is reclaiming it, thanks in large part to TV programming portraying Russia as a nation under threat, and President Putin as the only leader who is capable of standing up to its enemies. And with support for the President comes support for the war in Ukraine and for confrontation with the west. The majority of Russians who lack the time or energy to engage seriously in foreign policy debates has, for a long time, been the “dark matter” of Russian politics -- silent, invisible, yet exerting a colossal gravitational force. Fifteen years of relentless TV propaganda have reshaped the constellation of public opinion.

[Andrei Ostalski is the former editor of the BBC Russian Service]

Europe Wants the World to Embrace Its Internet Rules

European policymakers feel crowded out by the rise of US Internet companies and are proposing a plan to give themselves a larger role: write a new rule book for the Web. Now putting finishing touches on its tough data-privacy regime, the European Union aims to establish a de facto standard that companies would have to embed to sell products in the giant European market. Their hope: As rules such as the right to remove Web links to personal information spread, European companies would get a leg up in the next era of Internet commerce.

There are plenty of hurdles. US technology firms worry that other regions won’t follow the tough EU model, leading to a Balkanized Internet, and some have pushed back against facets. China, which has more Internet users than any other country, is left out of the EU’s lobbying for its data-privacy rules. Still, said Jan Philipp Albrecht, chief negotiator for the European Parliament on the EU’s new data protection law, “If you can achieve…a standard [globally] that is somehow near…your own, then this is an advantage.”

Benton

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