July 2015

Verizon: Let us install fiber -- or we’ll shut off your phone service

A union of Verizon workers recently accused the company of failing to maintain copper landlines. Customers and consumer advocacy groups have been making similar allegations for well over a year. Verizon denies the allegations and argues that phone customers will get more reliable service when they’re switched to fiber. “Verizon’s goal is to serve customers over the best facilities we have available and, for a growing number of our customers, those facilities are all-fiber,” a company spokesperson said.

Despite the power limitations, Verizon and similar companies are allowed to shift customers from copper to fiber as long as they continue providing traditional landline service over the fiber lines. Verizon's fiber network can handle either VoIP, which is lightly regulated, or the more heavily regulated circuit-switched phone traffic. Despite its statement that fiber is superior to copper, Verizon has slowed fiber deployments due to the cost, leaving millions with copper phone lines and DSL Internet as the only options. Switching to fiber lowers Verizon's maintenance costs, but the initial construction is expensive. In Herndon (VA), Verizon isn’t switching all customers to fiber immediately -- just those who complain about service problems. “We’re migrating customers on our copper-based network with repair issues to fiber on a case-by-case basis,” the company said.

CBO Scores the Emergency Information Improvement Act of 2015

The Emergency Information Improvement Act (S 1090) would codify an existing policy allowing broadcasting facilities to be eligible for certain government assistance following a disaster. Under current law, private nonprofit facilities are eligible to receive grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for damages resulting from a disaster if the facility provides critical public services or is ineligible for a Small Business Administration loan. According to information provided by FEMA, nonprofit broadcasting facilities are eligible for such assistance under current agency policy.

S. 1090 would explicitly list in statute that those facilities are eligible providers. Because the bill would not affect eligibility for FEMA grants, CBO estimates that implementing S. 1090 would have no federal cost. Enacting S. 1090 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.

Obama administration policies exacerbate spectrum exhaust

[Commentary] Given the significant benefits of licensed spectrum to the US economy, why is the Obama Administration making things worse by actively promoting policies that exacerbate spectrum exhaust? Like it or not, the federal government's failure to reallocate more spectrum to commercial providers and its alleged protection of consumers with poorly conceived network neutrality regulations forces providers to respond to demand with price changes. And when mobile broadband prices do rise, will the Administration claim success? It won't, but it is to blame anyway; higher prices are the inevitable consequence of the Administration's actions.

Fortunately, the carriers will try to offset prices increases (their customers don't like them), but they must do so with their hands tied behind their backs. The Obama Administration's spectrum policies, at present, point only to higher prices for mobile broadband services. Consider yourself warned.

[Lawrence Spiwak the president of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies]

Comcast: Let Us Be Your ‘Co-Pilot’

Comcast unveiled a new component in its ongoing effort to vastly improve customer care, a tool that lets customers show service representatives exactly what their service problem is. Called “Co-Pilot,” the tool is part of its X1 platform and is currently being trialed in about 1 million homes. In a nutshell, Co-Pilot allows a customer care rep or technician take control of a user’s screen -- after receiving a verification code -- and walks them through the process of solving the problem.

“Customers often call us with questions like, ‘how can I set up a DVR recording?’ With Co-Pilot, our tech support can see a customer’s screen and -- after receiving an on-screen verification code from the customer -- ‘take the controls,’ walking them through the various features that come with their service,” said Comcast executive vice president, customer experience Charlie Herrin.

New Detailed Data Add to Understanding of the Net Vitality Index

The Media Institute released The Net Vitality Index In Detail, a companion collection of detailed data used to develop the analysis released in the April 2015 report, Net Vitality: Identifying the Top-Tier Global Broadband Internet Ecosystem Leaders. This new report provides substantial background and additional context for the Net Vitality assessment, which identifies five countries leading in their development of a robust broadband Internet ecosystem.

Harvard Law School faculty member and Media Institute Global Internet Freedom Advisory Council member Stuart N. Brotman authored both reports. Brotman’s composite analysis takes into account 52 indices developed independently to evaluate countries on an apples-to-apples basis. Overarching categories assessed encompass applications and content, devices, networks, and macroeconomic factors. The analysis examines ways to sustain long-term Internet vibrancy, both in the United States and around the world, and inform future government policies that impact the deployment and adoption of broadband technologies.

Hillary Clinton dusts off the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ charge. Does she have a point?

[Commentary] In her interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar that aired on July 7, Hillary Clinton returned to the theme of blaming a vast right-wing conspiracy. Asked by Keilar if she understood why Americans "don't believe that you're honest and trustworthy," Clinton pointed to a "constant barrage of attacks that are largely fomented by and coming from the right." Since 2014, the perception of Clinton as being dishonest and untrustworthy has indeed increased, according to a series of national polls. The question: To what extent is a "constant barrage of attacks" from the right actually responsible for those drops?

Keilar was quick to identify two issues that may have played a role in shifting opinion on Clinton's honesty: Questions about fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and Clinton's decision to use a private e-mail server while secretary of state. Each issue has generated thousands of news articles since they rose to national attention in 2015 -- and each has been explored and expanded upon by both the mainstream and conservative media. There simply isn't enough information to determine clearly when people started changing their minds on Clinton being trustworthy and why they did so. Which allows Clinton to revert to her old defense: That her opponents are to blame.

Invasion of the Innovators

[Commentary] Increasingly, officials say what ails the federal government when it comes to IT -- a Byzantine contracting structure, antiquated technology and ineffectual engineering processes, all thrown into high relief during the HealthCare.gov fiasco -- can be solved by hordes of fresh talent schooled in the fail-fast, agile mind-set pioneered in Silicon Valley. High-caliber talent has heeded the call, swooping into government for “tours of duty” with both US Digital Service and a sister effort launched by the General Services Administration called 18F.

Still, it remains to be seen how this new crop of innovative outsiders will fare in the federal bureaucracy. Government Executive spoke with outside experts, agency officials and some of the leaders of the new digital squads, including at GSA’s 18F team, to get a sense of the scope of the efforts and their long-term plans.

Trying to bring more diversity to the NSA

Debora Plunkett is the senior adviser for equality at the National Security Agency, where she leads the organization's diversity efforts and best practices. She has spent more than three decades in government, holding leadership positions in NSA’s signals intelligence and information assurance missions, and working on cybersecurity issues at the National Security Council during the administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In this interview, Plunkett discusses the challenges of her job, lessons she has learned about leadership and her hobby as a genealogist.

How a subtle change to Facebook icons could make huge difference for gender equality

Facebook just made a subtle design change to its icons that probably won't be noticed by the vast majority of its users but that could profoundly influence perceptions of women. The changes were made to the tiny icons that appear in the upper right-hand corner of the social networking site. For years, the company had used a "friends" icon with a man and woman, with the woman positioned behind the man. And because the company literally used a cutout of the female from the friends, the generic female avatar looked like her shoulder had been lopped off.

The symbolism was glaring to Caitlin Winner, a design manager who spearheaded an effort to change the icons. And in an industry under increasing criticism for its lack of gender and racial diversity, such decisions on designs contribute to the unconscious biases that have made it so hard for women to advance. "As a woman, educated at a women’s college, it was hard not to read into the symbolism of the current icon; the woman was quite literally in the shadow of the man, she was not in a position to lean in," Winner wrote. The changes may be hard to catch for Facebook's 1.4 billion users. But it is exactly these types of subtle culture biases that have contributed to gender inequality for pay, corporate leadership and representation in fields such as tech.

CBO Scores DOTCOM Act

The Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act of 2015 (S 1551) would direct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to retain responsibilities of overseeing the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) for a 30-day period after the agency submits a report to Congress that contains the proposed transition plan and a certification by the agency that the plan meets NTIA"s criteria for acceptance and that certain accountability measures have been adopted by the groups of stakeholders proposing the plan.

Based on information from the NTIA, the Congressional Budget Office expects that the new reporting requirement would not have a significant effect on the agency's workload and would have an insignificant cost. On June 19, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for HR 805, the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act of 2015, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on June 17, 2015. The two bills are similar and CBO’s estimates of the budgetary effects are the same.

Benton

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