May 29, 2015 (A Lifeline for Low-Income Americans)
Michael King, Builder of a TV Empire
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015
Uncle Sam’s Broadband Plan: Which Way Forward for the New Interagency Broadband Council? https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-05-29
AGENDA
FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For June 2015 Open Meeting - press release
INTERNET/BROADBAND
A Lifeline for Low-Income Americans - FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler press release
Benton Welcomes Step to Make Broadband More Affordable - Benton Foundation press release
Reps Upton and Walden Comment on FCC Chairman Wheeler USF Plan - press release [links to web]
Public Knowledge Statement on FCC’s Plan to Extend Lifeline to Broadband - press release [links to web]
NHMC Supports FCC Lifeline Modernization, A Big Step In The Right Direction To Close Digital Divide - press release [links to web]
Free Press Welcomes Proposed Lifeline Reforms, Calls for Broader Effort to Close the Digital Divide - press release [links to web]
Universal Service in an All-IP World -- Public Knowledge research
How the FCC Will Wreck the Internet - Hal Singer op-ed
ISPs Say Title II Decision Is Ripe for Stay [links to web]
Here’s what the $56 billion Charter and Time Warner Cable merger is really about - analysis [links to web]
5 reasons your Internet bill keeps climbing [links to web]
Netflix now accounts for almost 37 percent of our Internet traffic
PRIVACY/SECURITY/ENCRYPTION
Reality Checks in Debate Over Surveillance Laws - analysis
If NSA surveillance program ends, phone record trove will endure
Let Patriot Act Provisions Expire - NYTimes editorial [links to web]
UN report: Encryption is important to human rights -- and backdoors undermine it
Today’s Internet users are still being hurt by ’90s-era US encryption policies [links to web]
All the personal data that Verizon FiOS uses to keep you from canceling [links to web]
Global Cybersecurity Index: Updated Report - press release [links to web]
ACLU: Feds should offer rewards for finding cybersecurity flaws [links to web]
NSA surveillance reform: Achieving a better balance - AEI op-ed [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Request for Information Regarding Online Platforms To Promote Federal Science and Technology Facilities, Products, and Services - NIST press release [links to web]
Congress.gov Continues… - Library of Congress press release [links to web]
China’s Publishers Court America as Its Authors Scorn Censorship [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
AT&T, DirecTV push back against restrictions on proposed merger
FCC Yet to Restart AT&T/DirecTV Shot Clock [links to web]
Altice owner says it wasn't ready for Time Warner Cable deal [links to web]
Here’s what the $56 billion Charter and Time Warner Cable merger is really about - analysis [links to web]
What a Combined Charter, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Footprint Would Look Like [links to web]
Should absence of harm be sufficient for merger approval? - The Hill op-ed [links to web]
Avago Agrees to Buy Broadcom for $37 Billion
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Noncommercial Broadcasters: FCC Obliged to Reserve Noncommercial Spectrum [links to web]
Here’s how badly we’re getting ripped off by our mobile phone providers [links to web]
AT&T keeps fighting to get FTC lawsuit over its data throttling thrown out [links to web]
Sprint's Claure: In 18-24 months, we'll be No. 1 or 2 in network performance [links to web]
Sprint CEO says unlimited data plans won't stay around forever [links to web]
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
There Are Options for Blocking Robocalls - Verizon press release [links to web]
TELEVISION
Charter, Netflix, and the new TV bundle - Medium op-ed [links to web]
Noncommercial Broadcasters: FCC Obliged to Reserve Noncommercial Spectrum [links to web]
DirecTV: Satellite Launches a Success [links to web]
Fritz: Time To Press FCC To Adopt ATSC 3.0 [links to web]
Backlash Brewing Against Binge TV as 'Orange Is the New Black' Creator Speaks Out [links to web]
ADVERTISING
AT&T keeps fighting to get FTC lawsuit over its data throttling thrown out [links to web]
EDUCATION
Giving every kid a computer and a connection [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
How Netflix Keeps Finding Itself on the Same Side as Regulators
Google lays out its ambitions for your phone, your home, your car and your wallet
Google Offers Users More Control Over Sharing Data with Android Apps [links to web]
Google Modifies Websites to Hasten Service [links to web]
Periscope CEO: We're working on combating piracy [links to web]
AGENDA
FCC RELEASES JUNE AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the June Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 18, 2015:
Direct Access to Numbers for Interconnected VoIP Providers: The FCC will consider a Report and Order that will facilitate innovative technologies and services by establishing a process to authorize interconnected VoIP providers to obtain telephone numbers directly from the Numbering Administrators, rather than through intermediaries.
Lifeline Reform and Modernization: In order to comprehensively restructure and modernize the Lifeline program to efficiently and effectively connect low-income Americans to broadband, strengthen program oversight and administration, and take additional measures to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, the Commission will consider a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Order on Reconsideration, Second Report and Order, and Memorandum Opinion and Order.
Protecting Consumers Against Unwanted Robocalls: The Commission will consider a Declaratory Ruling and Order reaffirming the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's protections against unwanted robocalls, encouraging pro-consumer uses of robocall technology, and responding to a number of requests for clarity from businesses and other callers.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-june-2015-open-meeting | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
A LIFELINE FOR LOW-INCOME AMERICANS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
The Lifeline program was established in 1985 to help low-income Americans afford access to vital communications. But as communications technologies and markets evolve, the Lifeline program also has to evolve to remain relevant. Today, we take the first step in that process. I am circulating new proposals to “reboot” Lifeline for the Internet age. First, we propose to make Lifeline more efficient and impactful by establishing minimum standards of service for voice and broadband, so both beneficiaries and those who pay into the fund can know that they are getting the best value. But establishing minimum service levels is not enough to ensure that this program is serving its core mission. We also propose an overhaul of the way we determine eligibility for Lifeline. Currently, Lifeline providers are responsible for ensuring eligibility, a situation that invites waste and fraud while burdening those providers who do want to comply. We also ask about ways to target the Lifeline subsidy to those low-income consumers most in need of the support, which is one of the reform principles advanced by my colleague Commissioner Michael O’Rielly. We also seek comment on how to encourage more providers to participate in the program, increasing competition and consumer choice on price and service offerings. Getting Lifeline reform right won’t be easy. Fortunately, Lifeline reforms adopted in 2012 put the program on stable footing and laid the foundation for a comprehensive overhaul. I look forward to working with my colleagues to resolve the difficult questions before us. In particular, I want to commend Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for driving the important effort to further eliminate waste in the program and re-focus the program to better serve those who need it most.
benton.org/headlines/lifeline-low-income-americans | Federal Communications Commission | FCC | LA Times | telecompetitor | Multichannel News | Associated Press | WSJ | The Hill
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BENTON WELCOMES STEP TO MAKE BROADBAND MORE AFFORDABLE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Amina Fazlullah]
The Federal Communications Commission’s January 2012 reforms of its Lifeline program have saved US ratepayers billions, strengthening oversight and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. With these reforms now implemented, the Benton Foundation welcomes today’s action by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to take the next step and modernize Lifeline to reflect the reality of 2015: home broadband service is no longer a luxury, but an essential service for education, public health, public safety, jobs and the economy. In 1996, Congress decided that “universal service” should be an evolving level of telecommunications services. Broadband services to the home are widely deployed and subscribed to by households that can afford them. Now is the time for the FCC to begin support for families that are not able to afford broadband. In addition to Chairman Wheeler, FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel have articulated the need to modernize the Lifeline program. Benton thanks them for their efforts.
benton.org/headlines/benton-welcomes-step-make-broadband-more-affordable | Benton Foundation
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE IN AN ALL-IP WORLD
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Jodie Griffin]
For more than 100 years, the United States has used a variety of policy tools to encourage and ensure ubiquitous, affordable basic communications service. Universal and accessible communications services have been the foundation upon which our economy, personal communications, and civic participation depend. The laws and rules used to achieve universal service, however, have evolved with new technologies and markets and now, as the network is in the midst of several new technology transitions, the question of how to achieve and measure universal service arises again. This article examines the basic question of what the “basic service” is in today’s world. For decades basic voice service provider offer the traditional copper network has been treated as the basic universal service. Voice service certainly continues to be critical to business, personal, and emergency communications, but the time has now come to also acknowledge that broadband Internet access service is itself a basic service. The days of treating broadband access as a luxury are gone, and our policies should reflect that. With that in mind, this article considers a variety of metrics by which policymakers should evaluate broadband and voice services, to determine whether new services being offered are a true step forward for everyone in the technology transitions. Additionally, this article reviews potential tools that policymakers could use to achieve universal, affordable broadband and voice service. In the past, Congress and the FCC have used tools like carrier of last resort policies, Universal Service Fund programs, and voluntary efforts by companies to increase network build-out and access. At this early stage policymakers should seriously consider all available options to determine what approaches work best for new technologies. The development of new voice and broadband access services hold great potential, but they will only live up to that potential if the United States can fulfill its promise to ensure everyone has a meaningful chance to the use the networks we have all contributed to. There are still many details to work out, but policymakers should not delay in updating universal service policies to continue to serve the public throughout and after technology transitions.
Universal Service in an All-IP World
benton.org/headlines/universal-service-all-ip-world | Public Knowledge
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HOW THE FCC WILL WRECK THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Hal Singer]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission injected a considerable amount of uncertainty into the high-tech sector in February when it reclassified Internet service providers (ISPs) as public utilities. If it is upheld by the courts, the Open Internet Order—which inserts the government directly into private dealings between ISPs and firms that generate or aggregate Internet content—will drag down investments in new networks and infrastructure and slow down innovation. I estimate that ISP capital expenditures will fall between 5% and 12% per year relative to 2014 levels—based on experience in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the last time telecommunications companies were subject to public-utility rules. This may not sound like much, but ISPs invested nearly $77 billion in 2014. A 5% drop means billions in network upgrades forgone. Thousands of jobs would also be lost—20 jobs for every million dollars of fiber investment, according to a paper I co-wrote with Jeffrey West in 2010. The losses won’t be limited to ISPs. Investment in new networks propels innovation everywhere, thanks to faster connections and greater capabilities. Everyone who cares about investment and growth in the high-tech sector, as well as net-neutrality protections, should refuse to accept the FCC’s flawed order as a fait accompli and demand that Congress find a better way.
[Singer is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute and a principal at Economists Incorporated]
benton.org/headlines/how-fcc-will-wreck-internet | Wall Street Journal | Progressive Policy Institute
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NETFLIX NOW ACCOUNTS FOR ALMOST 37 PERCENT OF OUR INTERNET TRAFFIC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Netflix's share of Internet traffic is exploding. The streaming service now accounts for 36.5 percent of all bandwidth consumed by North American Web users during primetime, according to the Canada-based network firm Sandvine. That's way up from even November 2014, when Sandvine estimated Netflix's bandwidth footprint at 34.9 percent of Internet traffic. Sandvine's regular reports on Internet usage -- based on traffic as it passes through its systems -- have become a reliable indicator of which services are taking up the most bandwidth. Both the season five premiere of "Game of Thrones" and the most recent "Call of Duty" downloadable content led to massive spikes in data consumption, the latest report also finds. But it's the Netflix numbers that are the most striking, if only because demand for the video giant seems unstoppable. Netflix no longer takes up just a third of Internet traffic anymore. Now it's edging closer to two-fifths.
benton.org/headlines/netflix-now-accounts-almost-37-percent-our-internet-traffic | Washington Post
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PRIVACY/SECURITY/ENCRYPTION
SURVEILLANCE LAW REALITY CHECKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
As the Senate moves closer to a weekend showdown over whether it will let Patriot Act surveillance powers expire on June 1, supporters and critics of how the government has used those authorities have been using increasingly alarming language. But there is little evidence in the history of the expiring laws — including the one that the government uses to justify the once-secret National Security Agency program that vacuums up Americans’ phone records in bulk — to support the arguments that either side is making. Republican senators who want to keep the program are warning that any lapse in “this critical tool would lead to attacks on the United States,” as Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently put it. Yet throughout the program’s existence, it has never thwarted a terrorist attack, studies and testimony show. At the same time, proponents of ending the program say it poses risks to Americans’ private lives, by permitting the government to know who has been calling psychiatrists or political groups, for example. But despite the discovery of technical violations of the rules several years ago, no evidence has emerged that the program has been misused for political or personal gain. As a result, the privacy-minded critics have had to couch their warnings in hypothetical terms.
benton.org/headlines/reality-checks-debate-over-surveillance-laws | New York Times
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NSA PHONE RECORD TROVE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Christi Parsons, Brian Bennett]
The National Security Agency will mothball its mammoth archive of Americans' telephone records, isolating the computer servers where they are stored and blocking investigators' access, but will not destroy the database if its legal authority to collect the material expires on schedule. The NSA's determination to keep billions of domestic toll records for counter-terrorism and espionage investigations adds another note of uncertainty to a debate that pits the Obama administration's national security team against opponents who argue the government data trove violates Americans' privacy and civil liberties. The political and legal dispute will come to a head May 31 when the Republican-led Senate returns to work a day early to seek a resolution — hours before the law used to authorize the controversial NSA program, and several other key counter-terrorism provisions, expires at 11:59 p.m. The final eight hours — starting at 3:59 p.m. Sunday — will see a flurry of activity at U.S. phone companies and at the NSA as engineers take down servers, reconfigure monitoring software and unplug hardware from the main pipeline of telephone data traffic, according to several senior administration officials. If the Senate stalemate pushes past 7:59 p.m., holes in the incoming data will begin to appear — and will grow — until nothing is collected after midnight, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
benton.org/headlines/if-nsa-surveillance-program-ends-phone-record-trove-will-endure | Los Angeles Times
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UN REPORT: ENCRYPTION IS IMPORTANT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
A new report from the United Nation's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says digital security and privacy are essential to maintaining freedom of opinion and expression around the world -- and warns that efforts to weaken security tools in some countries may undermine it everywhere. The report written by special rapporteur David Kaye says that encryption -- the process of digitally scrambling information so that only authorized persons can access it -- and anonymity tools "provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age." The report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in June. The report recommends against backdoors, saying "[s]tates should avoid all measures that weaken the security that individuals may enjoy online, such as backdoors, weak encryption standards and key escrows."
benton.org/headlines/un-report-encryption-important-human-rights-and-backdoors-undermine-it | Washington Post | Human Right Council doc
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OWNERSHIP
AT&T, DIRECTV PUSH BACK AGAINST RESTRICTIONS ON PROPOSED MERGER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
AT&T and DirecTV are pushing back against conditions other companies want to impose on their proposed merger. “Opponents continue to propose a laundry list of additional conditions that are unrelated to this transaction, unnecessary to address any transaction-specific harm, or both,” the companies said in a filing posted by the Federal Communications Commission on May 27. The filing comes after Dish and backbone Internet service provider Cogent Communications asked that the post-merger company be required to offer stand-alone broadband service -- Internet service that customers can buy without a voice line -- at certain speeds and prices for seven years AT&T has already agreed to offer stand-alone broadband for three years. But the company says they should not be forced to do so for a longer period, because they will not be getting more broadband infrastructure when it buys DirecTV. “In the absence of any increased consolidation of broadband ownership, there can be no justification to require AT&T to provide standalone broadband at below-market prices for an extended period, as some Opponents have urged,” the companies said in their filing.
benton.org/headlines/att-directv-push-back-against-restrictions-proposed-merger | Hill, The
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AVAGO AGREES TO BUY BROADCOM FOR $37 BILLION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dana Mattioli, Dana Cimilluca, Shayndi Raice]
Chip maker Avago Technologies Ltd. agreed to buy rival Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion in cash and stock, the latest in a wave of deals for the companies that supply parts to power smartphones, tablets and other gadgets. Avago will pay $17 billion in cash and about $20 billion of its own shares. Broadcom investors can choose to receive $54.50 a share in cash or about 0.44 shares in a newly formed Singapore holding company, among other options. They will own about 32 percent of the combined company. After the deal closes, expected by the first quarter of next year, the company will adopt the name Broadcom Ltd. and continue to be led by Avago Chief Executive Hock Tan.
benton.org/headlines/avago-agrees-buy-broadcom-37-billion | Wall Street Journal | USA Today
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COMPANY NEWS
NETFLIX AND REGULATORS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Stewart]
[Commentary] Whatever the outcome of the latest proposed mergers and acquisitions in the media industry, a clear winner has already emerged, and it’s not even a party to any of the deals: Netflix, the streaming television pioneer. To many in the cable and broadband businesses, the invisible hand of Netflix has been apparent in the failed Comcast-Time Warner Cable combination; in likely restrictions on the merger between AT&T and DirecTV; and in the Obama administration’s embrace of net neutrality, to cite just three prominent examples. Indeed, the corporate philosophy of Netflix, which was once thought to be outgunned in Washington by the East Coast media conglomerates and their vast lobbying forces, now seems so pervasive that the Federal Communications Commission is being referred to by some media executives — half-jokingly and half-enviously — as the “NCC.” But Netflix is hardly the only corporate beneficiary. To varying degrees, an array of Silicon Valley powerhouses — including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple — gain from an open Internet and net neutrality, the notion that broadband service providers should treat all data equally, no matter its content, source or volume. That these views have prevailed over long-entrenched telecommunication and cable interests is yet further evidence of the technology industry’s growing political clout inside the White House and on Capitol Hill.
benton.org/headlines/how-netflix-keeps-finding-itself-same-side-regulators | New York Times
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GOOGLE LAYS OUT ITS AMBITIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Google made clear that it's still fighting a multifront war against its old rival, Apple -- and that the battles are as heated as ever. Top Google executives took to a San Francisco (CA) to tout their agenda for the next year to a crowd of excited developers. In a series of reveals, Google sketched out ambitious plans to challenge Apple's ever-expanding reach on mobile devices by bringing the Android mobile operating system into just about everything we use -- from watches to televisions to cars. "We are taking computing beyond mobile," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of products, specifically touting the launch of Android Auto, an in-car Android system that's now available on Hyundai, General Motors and other major car brands. In the home, Google is introducing a new lightweight operating system, Brillo, for smart appliances such as thermostats, security systems and smart locks. That ubiquity is important for Google and Apple as more everyday objects become "smart," or capable of connecting to the Internet. That trend that carries the two companies' bitter gadget rivalry far beyond the smartphone, as they try to match each other feature-for-feature. Apple is expected to release home hub software at its own developers conference, which will take place at the same convention center next week. Google also took a decisive stand against Apple in the realm of mobile payments, introducing its own "Android Pay" system, which will be built into the operating system to allow users to pay for items by tapping their smartphones at the register. Google is also adding support for fingerprint authentication for all Android phones, a key feature of Apple's competing Apple Pay program.
benton.org/headlines/google-lays-out-its-ambitions-your-phone-your-home-your-car-and-your-wallet | Washington Post
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