April 2015

USTA Supports Net Neutrality, Except When It Doesn’t

[Commentary] As more legal filings now start to arrive in the net neutrality lawsuit, one filing called a Statement of Issues to Be Raised, from the US Telecom Association (USTA), sheds some light on what at least some Internet service providers really think about net neutrality. USTA has now filed its “Statement of Issues to Be Raised” in the DC Circuit, which broadly lays out why USTA is challenging the FCC’s recent decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a Title II telecommunications service and the Federal Communications Commission’s new open Internet rules. Unsurprisingly, USTA will argue that the FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet access and assert authority over interconnection was unreasonable and violated the First and Fifth Amendments, and that the FCC did not give enough notice in its agency proceeding.

But USTA’s Statement of Issues also includes one more Issue: “Whether the specific rules the FCC adopted, including but not limited to its Internet conduct standard, exceed the agency’s authority, are arbitrary and capricious, or otherwise contrary to law.” In other words, USTA is challenging the very net neutrality rules that it says it supports. So, for those of you keeping score at home, USTA: (1) “strongly supports open Internet rules,” and also (2) is directly targeting the open Internet rules in court. Even if USTA loses its arguments over procedural notice and FCC authority, it will still tell the court to overturn the net neutrality rules on their own merits. The revelation that USTA does not, in fact, support net neutrality rules, may not actually shock anyone who’s been paying attention. But it’s worth calling out companies who pay lip service to net neutrality but will go to federal court to make sure we don’t actually have strong, enforceable net neutrality rules.

A More Equal Internet: India’s Net Neutrality Hangs in Balance

[Commentary] A recent paper released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) threatens to seriously compromise net neutrality. Though still in a consultation stage, the paper suggests the Indian government may allow telecommunications operators to discriminate by allowing them speed up and slow down Internet traffic based on its source, ownership or destination. Such a policy would prevent the Internet from serving as the powerful empowerment and innovation tool it holds hope of becoming in a poor but economically rising democracy.

The business argument against net neutrality in India follows a similar pattern: it considers the services by telecom operators a technological investment that merits consistent returns; it labels Internet applications such as Skype as free-riders, who employ this technology to cannibalize their revenues; and lastly it suggests that the even greater profits companies stand to make by dividing the Internet is somehow necessary for continued innovation and for making the Internet more accessible to poorer citizens. In India’s case, these arguments are strikingly disingenuous. If the Internet is to assist the country’s development efforts and spur technological innovation as it has been able to do elsewhere, its neutrality must be scrupulously preserved. Before the Indian government then is a straightforward choice.

Public-Safety Broadband Network: FirstNet Should Strengthen Internal Controls and Evaluate Lessons Learned

FirstNet has not fully assessed its risks or established standards of conduct -- which is an important form of ethical guidance for its personnel. Given that FirstNet faces numerous risks to achieve its complex objectives, fully assessing risks could help FirstNet achieve its objectives and maximize use of its resources. Developing standards of conduct could also help FirstNet address any performance issues in a timely manner. To become self-funding, FirstNet is authorized to generate revenue through user fees and commercial partnerships. However, FirstNet faces difficult decisions in determining how to best utilize these revenue sources. For instance, widespread network coverage can attract more users and revenue, but is expensive to construct and maintain, especially in rural areas. FirstNet has taken steps to collect and evaluate information and lessons from the five “early builder projects” that are developing local and regional public-safety networks, but could do more to ensure that the lessons are properly evaluated. For example, FirstNet has asked the projects to report on the experiences of their networks' users and has assigned contractors to collect and log lessons. However, FirstNet does not have a plan that clearly articulates how it will evaluate those experiences and lessons.

Although FirstNet told GAO that it remains in close contact with early builder projects, GAO has previously found that a well-developed evaluation plan for projects like these can help ensure that agencies obtain the information necessary to make effective program and policy decisions. Given that the early builder projects are doing on a local and regional level what FirstNet must eventually do nationally, an evaluation plan can play a key role in FirstNet's strategic planning and program management, providing feedback on both program design and execution and ensuring FirstNet has not missed opportunities to incorporate lessons the projects have identified. FirstNet should complete its risk assessment, develop standards of conduct, and develop an evaluation plan for early builder projects. FirstNet concurred with the recommendations.

President Obama calls out media for coverage of Baltimore

With the backdrop of the Baltimore (MD) riots, President Barack Obama chided media coverage that he finds too narrow, focused on burning buildings and not the constructive protest that preceded the funeral of a 25-year-old Freddie Gray. President Obama used a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to launch into a lengthy six-point monologue on American racial relations, clearly prepared for a Baltimore question during a session that largely focused on a controversial and tentative Asian trade agreement. “We can’t just leave this to the police,” said President Obama, while arguing that once again one has seen American reluctance to deal with issues that “are not new.” “Some communities have to do some soul searching,” he said in the Rose Garden gathering.

“This is now new. It’s been going on for decades,” citing entrenched poverty and communities “stripped of opportunity.” “If we really wanted to solve the problem, we could,” he said. "The violence that happened yesterday distracted from the fact you’d seen multiple days of peaceful protest…that were constructive. And, frankly, they didn’t get much attention.” “The thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way have been lost in the discussion. The overwhelmingly majority in Baltimore have handled things appropriately.”

The uptick in racial tensions has far less to do with President Obama and far more to do with your smartphone

After months of protests and outcry over the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott and, now, Freddie Gray in Baltimore (MD), even impartial observers might wonder if something unique to President Barack Obama's tenure as president is inspiring more unrest. And the answer is yes -- but it doesn't have anything to do with President Obama. Social media is instantaneous. Twitter can be and has been used to inform, organize and inflame. Stories and photographs and videos created by people on the scene using the portable studios they carry in their pockets leap onto the Internet and spread in less time that it would have taken the man who filmed the Rodney King beating to rewind the video cassette.

These are innovations that happened largely while Barack Obama was president. President Obama has been the first social media president and the first iPhone president. And that, far more than President Obama's politics or his racial identity, has been why his second term has been heavy with unrest. If John McCain had won election in 2008 and been reelected, it's hard to believe that Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray would still be alive. And it's hard to believe that their deaths wouldn't similarly have gained international attention. Both the problems that led to their deaths and the ad hoc media network that informed us about them would still exist.

Baltimore Riots: Social Media and the Crisis on My Doorstep

[Commentary] The first I heard of April 27th’s riots here was on Facebook. In a parent group usually populated by requests for play dates, a mom posted that violence had broken out not less than a mile from my home. After days of peaceful protests, I was at first incredulous. I looked out my window at the sedate cafe across the street: Nothing out of the ordinary. But there on Twitter, my feed was lighting up from the moment the first rocks were thrown by teenagers, at police, in the Mondawmin area of Baltimore (MD). Why was this happening? How big would it get? What should I do and/or think about it?

That’s when I had a personal realization about the power of technology in a crisis: It’s easy to become jaded about the power of social media, but it is a colossal mistake to take it for granted. Yes, we’ve heard about the power of social media many times before -- from the Arab Spring to the documentation of police brutality all over America. But something unique is happening at this point in history, even at what feels like a relatively mature stage of the development of the technology. Mostly, it has to do with the sheer density of smartphones -- 64 percent of Americans now own one, and 85 percent of millennials do. The result is something that we thought we had before, but I am realizing we can never have enough of: Context.

Remarks of FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Before the 2015 Wireless Infrastructure Show

As you know, the wireless industry is experiencing an era of tremendous growth. Plans must be in place to ensure that we can keep pace with America's insatiable demand for mobile communications. I applaud PCIA for taking a leadership role in training the wireless infrastructure workforce of the future. Although much work has been done by the Federal Communications Commission, there is still much to do.

First, as recognized in the Infrastructure Order, further steps must be taken to facilitate the deployment of small cell and DAS networks. Second, the FCC should finally address the problem of "twilight towers." Third, the FCC should also work with industry and Native Nations to increase the efficiency of the historic preservation application and review procedures. In conclusion, I challenge the industry to be forward looking. What will the next generation of infrastructure look like?

The sexting scandal no one sees

Parents and educators expend a lot of energy trying to stop kids from sending each other nude photos of themselves. They run workshops on “digital citizenship.” They preach, frequently, about online reputation and good judgment and the long-forgotten value of “self-respect.” But they might be missing the real, and really dangerous, sexting scandal -- the one that few people, besides kids themselves, see. According to new research from Indiana University, as many as one in five sexters are actually coerced into sending sexual texts by threats or manipulation from their partner. The practice is so widespread among young people -- and so deeply traumatic -- that the developmental psychologist Michelle Drouin thinks it constitutes a new form of intimate partner violence.

“I think it is a surprising finding,” Drouin said. “Coercion into sexting caused more trauma, for both men and women … than coercion into actual physical sex.” “Because sexting is common among youth and young adults today, individuals may believe that sexting coercion is normal and even harmless,” Drouin’s paper concludes. And that, frighteningly, could not be further from the truth.

Ovum: Thanks to 4G, Carriers Could Shut Down 3G Before 2G

Wireless network carriers’ growing interest in, and deployment of, 4G LTE infrastructure, products and services raises the prospect of shutting down or ‘refarming’ GSM or CDMA spectrum to accommodate growing demand. Determining “the sweet spot” for network closure is challenging, however, according to a new market research report from Ovum. Wireless carriers need to consider the key revenues they derive from machine-to-machine (M2M), voice and roaming when deciding when to close legacy networks to make way for 4G LTE.

“The amount of 2G, 3G, and LTE spectrum an operator has can also affect timing,” Ovum Principal Analyst Nicole McCormick states. Ovum sees some wireless carriers shutting down 3G networks before 2G networks. “2G is still an important source of revenue,” McCormick notes. “LTE provides a better mobile broadband experience than 3G, and with VoLTE, LTE can handle the voice responsibilities of 3G. This points to the possibility that operators opt to close their 3G networks before they close 2G,” McCormick concludes.

T-Mobile CEO implies T-Mobile could someday merge with a cable company

Despite his company's failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has always maintained that consolidation in the wireless industry is inevitable. "In five years, we will think it comical that we thought about the industry structure as the four major wireless carriers," he said. But for the first time, Legere expanded on his thinking and raised some interesting -- and perhaps controversial -- possibilities for the future. "I've always said it's not a matter of if; it's when and how. And now I'm going to add and who."

As it turns out, that "who" could take the form of an existing cable provider. "As content and entertainment and social are moving to the Internet, and the Internet is moving mobile, these industries, the adjacent industries, are in the same game that we’re in," Legere said. "So whether it’s what you see Google doing, what you see the social media companies doing, or as you start to see cable players trying to move content -- Wi-Fi integration with mobile networks, et cetera -- these are individual customers that are looking at both offer sets. I think you need to think about the cable industry and players like us as not competitors, but potential partners and alternatives for each other in the future."

Benton

Search