September 2015

BT unveils plans for improving UK broadband

BT has promised to support a universal minimum broadband speed of 5-10 megabits per second and extend its superfast fibre networks as part of an investment plan to improve broadband in the UK.

The company, which is fighting calls from rivals for regulators to split off its national broadband network, laid out a list of future investments to bring faster Internet speeds to almost every home and business in the country. BT pledged speeds of at least 5-10 Mbps, although it said the move would be “subject to regulatory support”. The government has already said it wanted a universal broadband obligation to put internet provision in line with utilities such as water, gas and electricity. The company said “much of it” could be in place by 2020, depending on Ofcom's support. This level of broadband speed would be enough, for example, for people to use popular internet services such as high definition video.

In South Korea, a child-monitoring app is raising security concerns. Why?

In many countries, apps that let parents track how their children use smartphones are regarded as a parenting tool that can prevent bullying or a method of tracking what kids do online. But in South Korea, a leading platform endorsed by the government called Smart Sheriff has critical security weaknesses, leaving personal information about parents and children vulnerable to hacking. Korean parents and children have little choice about whether to use such software. In April, the government began requiring all smartphones sold to people 18 and under to include child-monitoring apps, as well as aggressively promoting Smart Sheriff in collaboration with local schools.

Delivering on Broadband Opportunity

In March, President Barack Obama launched the Broadband Opportunity Council, a whole-of-government effort to expand broadband deployment and adoption, with a focus on bringing broadband to underserved communities and encouraging new entrants and new investments to improve broadband quality and service. In August, the Council submitted its recommendations to the President for his review, and now, the White House is releasing its findings. The Council makes four broad recommendations:

Modernize Federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments.
Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and promote meaningful use.
Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to Federal assets.
Improve data collection, analysis and research on broadband.

Broadband Opportunity Council Report and Recommendations

The Broadband Opportunities Council presents four overarching recommendations:

Modernize Federal programs to expand program support for broadband investments.
Empower communities with tools and resources to attract broadband investment and promote meaningful use.
Promote increased broadband deployment and competition through expanded access to Federal assets.
Improve data collection, analysis and research on broadband.

To pursue these objectives, Federal Agencies will take dozens of actions over the next 18 months. These include commitments to:

Modernize Federal programs valued at approximately $10 billion to include broadband as an eligible program expenditure, such as the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Community Facilities (CF) program, which will help communities around the country bring broadband to health clinics and recreation centers.
Create an online inventory of data on Federal assets, such as Department of the Interior (DOI) telecommunications towers, that can help support faster and more economical broadband deployments to remote areas of the country.
Streamline the applications for programs and broadband permitting processes to support broadband deployment and foster competition.
Create a portal for information on Federal broadband funding and loan programs to helpcommunities easily identify resources as they seek to expand access to broadband.

The Council proposes continuing actions in support of its mission, including monitoring agencies’ progress in implementing the action items in the Report and exploring additional steps to further the goals set forth in the Presidential Memorandum.

Strengthening Our Digital Infrastructure Is Key to America’s Path Forward

The White House released a report from the Broadband Opportunity Council, a group established by President Barack Obama that Commerce Secretary Pritzker co-chaired. At the Commerce Department, we will play an ongoing role in ensuring that the Council’s important work is carried out. Assistant Secretary of Commerce and National Telecommunications and Information Adiminstration Administrator Lawrence Strickling will continue to co-chair the Council on Secretary Pritzker’s behalf.

NTIA, under its BroadbandUSA initiative, will continue to work closely with communities seeking to expand their broadband capacity through technical assistance, publications and regional workshops such as the Digital New England Summit on September 28. As part of the Council’s recommendations, BroadbandUSA will create a main access portal to link federal broadband resources, policies, and grant guidance. It is also collaborating with members of the Broadband Opportunity Council on how best to move forward and implement key recommendations to improve broadband access. With these actions and more to come, we can ensure that America’s path forward is built on a foundation designed to accommodate the pace of change in today’s global economy.

Feds invest $3.7 million in securing online data

The government is investing $3.7 million in projects meant to secure online transactions, ensure the privacy of electronic medical information and combat online tax fraud. The pledge comes from the Commerce Department’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, or NSTIC, which launched in 2011 to fund various private sector pilot projects working on new technologies to secure online data. It’s the same initiative that has been funding numerous projects aimed at developing new ways to identify people online without a password.

“The way we represent ourselves online is fundamental to nearly everything we do,” said Mike Garcia, acting director of the NSTIC National Program Office. “We need more -- and better -- tools to make online identity easier and more secure, and to advance the commercial deployment of privacy-enhancing technologies.” The funding round announced Sept 21 -- the department’s fourth -- will go to several different types of secure online authentication projects.

Pandora wins round at US Copyright Office

Pandora Media Inc said it was pleased that the US Copyright Office agreed that the company's pact with Merlin Network, a global rights agency for independent musicians, was admissible as a benchmark in royalty proceedings. Trading of Pandora was halted twice in the morning, and spiked up 14.7 percent to $22.60. In early afternoon, Pandora traded up 5.6 percent at $20.82.

A three-judge panel called the Copyright Royalty Board has been working on setting royalties for Internet radio, companies like Pandora and Jango, and is due to come to a decision in mid-December. Internet radio has urged a lower rate as it struggles to be profitable. In August 2014, Pandora, an Internet radio company, reached an agreement with Merlin over royalties to be paid in the United States. The Copyright Office said that the board may consider the rates that Pandora and Merlin hammered out in reaching its decision on what royalty should be paid for songs streamed on the Internet. "We look forward to the certainty that December’s decision will bring, and are prepared to thrive in a number of potential outcomes," said Dave Grimaldi, Pandora's director of public affairs.

Team Telecom Reviews Need More Structure

The Federal Communications Commission has clarified our past broadcast foreign ownership restrictions and now needs to consider ways to take the next step. I have made the case previously that this means we must clearly permit greater foreign ownership in order to open the doors to new capital and opportunities for US broadcasters while at the same time hopefully laying the groundwork for similar treatment of US investors abroad. And I very much appreciate the Chairman’s commitment to move forward on this issue in the near term.

The biggest obstacle to making improvements quickly, however, is the opaque and sometimes unending review process used by what's commonly known as Team Telecom (i.e., a working group of representatives from the Federal government entities charged with ensuring national security: the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, State, Treasury, and Commerce, as well as United States Trade Representative and the FBI). The way to break the stalemate is to set a definitive process that the FCC will follow in working with Team Telecom.

NAB to FCC: Cable Market Is Anything But Competitive

The National Association of Broadcasters told the Federal Communications Commission that far from being highly competitive, the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD, or pay-TV) marketplace is highly consolidated at all levels and continues along that path at a brisk clip. That came in a reply comment filing on the state of video competition. The FCC is collecting input for its next annual report.

NAB pointed to the merger of AT&T and DirecTV and the proposed merger of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House and said given the recent "massive" consolidation, the FCC should take a hard look at competitive conditions rather than try to fix a retransmission system they say isn't broken. MVPDs have argued they have plenty of competition. NAB said the FCC has been ignoring consolidation at the recent and local levels -- by contrast, the FCC limits local market broadcast concentration. NAB also used some ripped from the headlines fodder, citing last week's announcement that Altice, the owner of Suddenlink Communications, had a deal to buy Cablevision, "resulting in the combination of the seventh and eighth largest MVPDs."

The Allure of an Ad-Free Internet

After 36 hours as the No. 1 paid app in the App store, the programmer Marco Arment is pulling his ad-blocker, Peace, from the market. “Even though I’m ‘winning,’ I’ve enjoyed none of it,” Arment wrote. “That’s why I’m withdrawing from the market. It’s simply not worth it.” Ad blockers are controversial for good reason.

To the person scrolling or clicking through a website, online advertising can feel like trip wire designed to trick you into clicking. Depending on the strength of one’s Wi-Fi connection and the reserve of one’s patience, navigating this ad-speckled landscape can be tolerable or aggravating. On mobile devices, where mere scrolling can trigger the unwanted click of an ad, the experience can be rage-inducing. So it’s understandable that ad-blocking apps seem to be gaining popularity now that iOS9, Apple’s latest operating system, enables such software. In the short term, ad blockers will make web pages cleaner, faster, and more mobile-friendly. “I still believe that ad blockers are necessary today,” Arment wrote. Maybe so. But they won’t be a lasting buffer against advertising. Depending on what they target, ad blockers encourage a more pervasive form of advertising -- a kind that’s harder to avoid, harder to identify, and impossible to shut out.

Benton

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