May 2015

Court ruling on NSA spying can't wait, activist says

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman wants the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to rule in his case challenging the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection program before Congress acts on renewing the Patriot Act. “Further violations of the U.S. Constitution cannot be countenanced,” Klayman wrote in the five-page legal request. “After sixteen months on appeal, this court ... has a duty to issue its decision now.” Klayman argued his case before the federal court in November, after a lower court judge previously concluded that the NSA’s data-gathering was “almost Orwellian.”

At the time, the panel of three judges appeared reluctant to agree with that ruling, and instead seemed likely to declare the NSA within its legal and constitutional bounds. “This court is not an inferior branch of government to Congress and should not defer to what might happen,” he wrote. “Indeed, if the court ruled now it would aid Congress in fashioning future legislation.” Still, it seems unlikely the appeals court will heed Klayman's call.

Time to Update Universal Service for Rural Telecoms

[Commentary] As times change, it’s important that rules governing technology keep pace. While existing laws may contain timeless principles, if the regulations governing those principles do not evolve over time, they may begin to hinder progress. When it comes to providing access to high-quality telecommunications services to rural Americans, inaction in Washington has done just that: regulations written for the telephone era are governing a rapidly-evolving tech sector. And it’s time for a change. This is about giving rural consumers -- from every corner of the country -- the freedom to choose the advanced broadband communications they want, need, and deserve from their provider.

Today, rural consumers are being denied these choices because universal service rules force them to select services they may not want anymore (e.g. traditional landline telephones) in order to access services those consumers do want (e.g. high-speed broadband at an affordable rate). Consumers should absolutely have the right to buy traditional telephone services if they want them, but they shouldn’t be forced to buy traditional telephone services just to get affordable broadband. That’s what we’re working with lawmakers and regulators to change.

[Bloomfield is the CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association]

NIST Develops First ‘Roadmap’ for Public Safety Communications Research

The US Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the first “roadmap” for the next 20 years of research needed to establish seamless, broadband public safety communications networks across the United States. The new roadmap, the first of a planned series on relevant technologies, focuses on location-based services to improve situational awareness for police, firefighters, emergency medical services and other first responders. The roadmap was commissioned by NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program, which has been performing research, development, testing and evaluation, and creating standards to support first responder communications since 2002.

One of the PSCR’s goals is to enable broadband public safety data, video and voice communications across different agencies and jurisdictions. To that end, the PSCR operates a 700-MHz public safety broadband demonstration network and provides technical advocacy by gathering requirements and developing standards. The new roadmap offers a vision of what public safety communications might look like in 20 years. It identifies software, device and network R&D investments needed to achieve that vision. The roadmap points out opportunities for action by multiple stakeholders, including federal, state and local governments; academia; industry; and the public safety community. The document is based on ideas captured during a 2013 workshop involving 150 participants from both the public and private sectors. A number of technology trends potentially affect public safety communications, according to the report. Advances in wearable technologies and public safety applications for them are expected in 5 to 10 years, and convergence with the Internet of Things and full integration into public safety use is foreseen in 10 to 20 years. The current reliance on voice communications for public safety is expected to give way to primarily data communications in some environments in 10 to 20 years.

Commerce Department Hires Google Vet Alan Davidson

The Commerce Department has recruited former Google executive Alan Davidson for the newly created position of “director of digital economy.” Davidson is a well-known presence in Washington. In 2005, he left his post as associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a public advocacy group, to open up Google’s Washington office, becoming one of the first Internet company representatives taking part in day-to-day debates in the capital. He stayed at Google until 2011, and later went on to head the think tank New America’s Open Technology Institute. Davidson described his role at Commerce as giving “a greater voice to the Internet community on issues in this Administration.” “The Commerce Department is going to be playing a central role on some of the biggest issues that we’re going to be facing, from Internet governance to surveillance to privacy to patent reform,” he said, “There’s a whole set of issues where the department has a lot of work to do, and the idea here is to bolster that effort.” Davidson will also be a senior advisor to Pritzker and lead an existing agency team known as the Digital Economy Leadership Team, or DELT.

Charter vows to uphold network neutrality as it seeks Time Warner Cable deal

Tom Rutledge, who is Charter's current chief executive, pledged that New Charter would keep away from data caps and some of Comcast's unpopular business tactics. "Through Charter, we’ll offer consumers a broadband product that makes watching online video, gaming, and engaging in other data-hungry applications a great experience, including at peak times," said Rutledge. He also said that Charter will steer clear of paid prioritization -- even if the Federal Communications Commission's new network neutrality rules are ultimately defeated in court by broadband providers. Charter will "not block, throttle, or engage in paid prioritization of Internet traffic," Rutledge said.

Merriam-Webster adds 'net neutrality'

The Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary is adding a number of new tech terms to its latest edition, including "meme," "emoji," and finally "net neutrality" after a years-long fight over the concept at the Federal Communications Commission. Net neutrality is defined as “the idea, principle, or requirement that Internet service providers should or must treat all Internet data as the same regardless of its kind, source, or destination.”

The Time Warner Deal: Big Cable Is Coming for Big Wireless

The Charter-Time Warner Cable deal could result in some new competition in another arena dominated by a small number of companies that wield immense power: wireless. Cable companies and wireless companies haven’t traditionally infringed on each other’s territory. The cable industry has focused on pay television; the wireless industry was all about phone calls. Today the main business of both industries is selling access to the Internet.

Cable companies are developing their own wireless services in which people spend most of their time connected to Wi-Fi networks and fall back on cellular service to fill the gaps. Doing this requires some access to cellular spectrum. Both Comcast and Time Warner Cable sold Verizon their rights to wireless spectrum in a $3.6 billion deal in 2011 but maintained the ability to access Verizon’s network for their own services. Verizon was largely seen to have gotten a sweetheart deal at the time, says Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at New Street Research. But he doesn’t think Verizon would strike a similar deal today. “Nobody was talking about Wi-Fi-first wireless models,” he says. “Between then and now, though, a couple of these businesses were launched in Europe by cable companies and have been incredibly successful.” One of them, notably, was Telenet, a Belguim-based company owned by Liberty Global. John Malone is chairman of both Liberty Global and Liberty Media, Charter's largest shareholder.

Analysts: T-Mobile/Dish deal still the most likely M&A option for the carrier

T-Mobile is unlikely to strike a deal in the near term with any other cable or telecommunications providers aside from Dish Network, according to a report from Wall Street firm Macquarie Capital. In a research note assessing the impact of Charter Communications' proposed $56.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable, Macquarie analysts said that other potential suitors or partners for T-Mobile are unlikely to make a move. Those include French telecommunications group Altice, which unveiled plans to buy a $9.1 billion for a controlling interest in US cable operator Suddenlink Communications.

Comcast, which was thwarted by regulatory opposition in its own bid for Time Warner Cable, is also seen as a potential--if unlikely--suitor for T-Mobile. "For Comcast, an outright purchase of a wireless network is possible, but likely premature at this point; we believe the company is likely to focus on returning capital to shareholders in the near-term," the analysts wrote. The most likely scenario, the analysts wrote, is that T-Mobile will remain independent for the next year, or that Dish will strike a deal for T-Mobile at around $40 per share if it can persuade T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom on the financing of the deal.

Cable analysts: Altice's Drahi will target Cablevision, Cox, Mediacom

While European telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahi and his Luxembourg-based firm Altice SA could counter Charter Communications' proposed $56.7 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, at least one media investment analyst says it's far more likely that he'll turn his attention to another US cable property. "While it is still possible that Altice counters on TWC, we do not believe that it can match Charter [and backer John Malone's] funding firepower and will ultimately lose out," wrote Macquarie Capital's Kevin Smithen. "In our opinion, Altice is more likely to turn its attention to Cablevision or privately-held Cox or Mediacom, in an effort to gain more fixed-line scale in order to compete against Charter and Comcast."

Cablevision has seen its stock price steadily rise in recent weeks, with CEO James Dolan aggressively stating a desire for a takeover and investors seeing the company as ripe for M&A. Cablevision's trading price was up just over 2 percent to $25.52 a share as of late-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is up over 22 percent since May 19.

Developers: Ultrahigh-speed Internet isn’t just a luxury anymore, it’s a necessity

Ultrahigh-speed Internet such as Google Fiber still seems a bit fantastical to many people, but developers and real estate professionals say they can’t afford not to integrate the fastest speeds into new buildings any more than they could neglect to install plumbing. Google Fiber is preparing to roll out its gigabit-speed Internet service locally – an executive said the company hopes to “light up” its first houses in Charlotte in 2015 -- and competitors such as Time Warner Cable are boosting their speeds as well. “Reliable, fast Internet is a hot topic in the real estate community,” said Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble, at a forum in South End sponsored by the Urban Land Institute.

Benton

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