October 27, 2015 (Data, data, data)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015
On today’s agenda -- Common Carrier Regulation of the Internet: Investment Impacts https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-10-27
PRIVACY
The $24 Billion Data Business That Telecommunication Companies Don't Want to Talk About
Why an Internet of Things Trust Framework Is Needed Now - Craig Spiezle/ Online Trust Alliance op-ed
Facebook Wins Dismissal of $15 Billion Users' Privacy Suit [links to Benton summary]
FTC and Seven International Partners Launch New Initiative to Boost Cooperation In Protecting Consumer Privacy - press release [links to Benton summary]
BROADBAND
AT&T launches new sponsored data program with Aquto to give subcribers data for looking at ads
New York probes broadband speeds
ISPs to NY State Speed Probe: Bring It On [links to Benton summary]
Verizon says it has invested $22.2 Billion in New York, encourages regulatory reforms
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai to the Policy Roundtable of the 2015 Convention of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia - speech
The FCC’s Abjectly Illegitimate Premise for More Cable Regulation [links to Scott Cleland]
Hindery: crazy that the FCC believes that broadband companies should be Title II public utilities - op-ed
The FCC’s Open Internet order on the line as the Supreme Court challenges agency deference - AEI op-ed
Everything you need to know about the vast undersea network that makes the Internet work [links to Washington Post]
What Would It Take To Cut U.S. Data Cables And Halt Internet Access? [links to National Public Radio]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
The Broadcast Incentive Auction: An Overview of the Process [links to CommLawBlog]
House Republican Reps: Auction Success Means Saving LPTVs [links to Benton summary]
What is 5G and why should lawmakers care? - Larry Downes op-ed
5G Wireless is Coming...But What Is It, Anyway? [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
AT&T-Tampnet-Broadpoint Transaction Accepted for Filing Public Notice - public notice
FCC Announces Independent Compliance Officer In AT&T-Directv Merger - public notice
DIVERSITY
Hollywood Women Hire Women, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film Finds [links to Wrap, The]
ELECTION 2016
Why TV partners with social media to cover debates — and how it falls short [links to Poynter]
Candidate, PAC coordination: What it looks like when Jeb Bush and his super PAC backers meet in person [links to Washington Post]
JOURNALISM
Who’s funding women-run media? [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
SECURITY
Senate to Take Up CISA, Amendments on October 27 [links to Benton summary]
Editorial: CISA data sharing can improve security and consumer privacy [links to Wall Street Journal]
Editorial: Tech firms are right to oppose CISA [links to San Jose Mercury News]
ADVERTISING
Are Ad Blockers an Invasive Species or a Catalyst for Innovation? [links to AdWeek]
We Brought Together the Major Players in the Ad Blocker War, and Here's What They Told Each Other [links to AdWeek]
COMPANY NEWS
Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines
With updated notifications, Facebook pulls people down the rabbit hole [links to GigaOm]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU, US Agree in Principle on New Data-Transfer Pact
Editorial: A crackdown on a popular TV station would be a blow for Georgian democracy [links to Washington Post]
PRIVACY
THE $24 BILLION DATA BUSINESS THAT TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Kate Kaye]
UK grocer Morrisons, ad-buying behemoth GroupM and other marketers and agencies are testing never-before-available data from cellphone carriers that connects device location and other information with telecommunication company's real-world files on subscribers. Some services offer real-time heat maps showing the neighborhoods where store visitors go home at night, lists the sites they visited on mobile browsers recently and more. Under the radar, Verizon, Sprint, Telefonica and other carriers have partnered with firms including SAP, IBM, HP and AirSage to manage, package and sell various levels of data to marketers and other clients. It's all part of a push by the world's largest phone operators to counteract diminishing subscriber growth through new business ventures that tap into the data that showers from consumers' mobile web surfing, text messaging and phone calls. The global market for telecom company data as a service is potentially worth $24.1 billion in 2015, on its way to $79 billion in 2020, according to estimates by 451 Research based on a survey of likely customers. "Challenges and constraints" mean operators are scraping just 10 percent of the possible market right now, though that will rise to 30 percent by 2020, 451 Research said. Insiders say phone carriers exploring data-sharing businesses are tight-lipped because they don't want to reveal too many details to competitors, but fear of consumer complaints is always lurking in the background.
benton.org/headlines/24-billion-data-business-telecommunication-companies-dont-want-talk-about | AdAge
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WHY AN INTERNET OF THINGS TRUST FRAMEWORK IS NEEDED NOW
[SOURCE: International Association of Privacy Professionals, AUTHOR: Craig Spiezle]
[Commentary] Following the exponential growth of the Internet, mobile devices and applications, consumers worldwide are being presented with thousands of options and solutions claiming to support the promise of making your home “smart” and tracking your steps to fitness with the latest wearable. With this rapid race to market, all too many of these products and services lack basic security and privacy protections. Connected devices and the applications are just enablers. The real value and threat to the user and business is the data. Perhaps the Internet of Things (IoT) might be better named the “Internet of Data” as the amount of personal and sensitive data being collected is staggering. All this data collection increases risk to consumer security and privacy and raises questions internationally from regulators including the Federal Trade Commission. Faced with the convergence of these issues, and building on our past work convening multi-stakeholder efforts, the Online Trust Alliance formed the IoT working group in January 2015 recognizing the need to review security, privacy and sustainability of these devices and services holistically. The group’s initial focus is on the smart home and wearable technologies. Whether you are part of the IoT Trust Working Group (membership is open to all), a security researcher or a privacy professional looking to learn more, OTA is hosting a public Summit in Washington (DC) on Nov 18th where the final draft of the Framework will be reviewed and next steps explored.
[Craig Spiezle is the Executive Director and President of the Online Trust Alliance]
benton.org/headlines/why-internet-things-trust-framework-needed-now | International Association of Privacy Professionals
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
AT&T LAUNCHES NEW SPONSORED DATA PROGRAM WITH AQUTO TO GIV SUBSCRIBERS DATA FOR LOOKING AT ADS
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
AT&T Mobility is partnering with data monetization firm Aquto on a new sponsored data program that offers customers the ability to get free mobile data if they look at advertising and surveys from marketers and in some cases, by buying products. The program, called "Data Perks," was first disclosed by Aquto in June, but at the time AT&T said it was not officially part of any new program, suggesting that Aquto jumped the gun. Data Perks will be a free app customers can download from Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store, though only consumer postpaid customers will be eligible for the program. According to Aquto, customers who use the app can accumulate data and transfer up to 1,000 MB per bill period -- roughly 1 GB of data -- to their AT&T account through the Data Perks app. They can then use their transferred data during that billing period while using AT&T's wireless networks, though according to AT&T, the earned data needs to be transferred in 25 MB increments. Unused transferred data expires at the end of the billing period in which customers transferred it.
benton.org/headlines/att-launches-new-sponsored-data-program-aquto-give-subcribers-data-looking-ads | Fierce
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NEW YORK PROBES BROADBAND SPEEDS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Sarah Lynch]
The New York attorney general is probing whether three major Internet providers could be short-changing consumers by charging them for faster broadband speeds and failing to deliver the speeds being advertised. The letters, which were sent to executives at Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable, ask each company to provide copies of all the disclosures they have made to customers, as well as copies of any testing they may have done to study their Internet speeds. "New Yorkers deserve the Internet speeds they pay for. But, it turns out, many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. The probe by the attorney general is particularly focused on so-called interconnection arrangements, or contractual deals that Internet service providers strike with other networks for the mutual exchange of data. In the letters, the office says it is concerned that customers paying a premium for higher speeds may be experiencing a disruption in their service thanks to technical problems and business disputes over the interconnection agreements.
benton.org/headlines/new-york-probes-broadband-speeds | Reuters
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VERIZON SAYS IT HAS INVESTED $22.2 BILLION IN NEW YORK, ENCOURAGES REGULATORY REFORMS
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
Following a study made by New York Public Service Commission about the state of telecommunications, Verizon has asked the regulator to implement a series of reforms that it says will promote innovation and investment. This was at the heart of the service provider's response to the PSC's "Assessment of Telecommunications Services" in New York, which it released in June. It also asked the PSC to apply the same rules to any service provider that operates in the same state and that those rules reflect today's competitive marketplace realities. In making its argument, Verizon said that it has invested more than $22.2 billion in its wireline network in New York State since 2000. In 2014, the service provider invested over $1 billion on the network. The service provider cited an economic analysis of the state of telecommunications in New York, prepared by Georgetown University economist John W. Mayo. Mayo's study focused on how current wireline regulations were put in place during a time when voice was the only telecom service consumers used.
benton.org/headlines/verizon-says-it-has-invested-222-billion-new-york-encourages-regulatory-reforms | Fierce
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REMARKS OF FCC COMMISSIONER AJIT PAIT TO THE POLICY ROUNDTABLE OF THE 2015 CONVENTION OF THE CABLE AND SATELLITE BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION OF ASIA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai]
At this roundtable, I've been asked to speak about the American perspective on the regulation of over-the-top video services. The US government has taken a hands-off approach to the regulation of over-the-top video. And I believe that our restraint has yielded terrific results. US regulators have largely left Internet-based video alone. We don’t regulate the content that over-the-top providers offer. We don’t regulate prices. And we don’t regulate business models. We leave those decisions to the market -- to the aggregated choices of millions of Internet-savvy consumers. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, not all US regulators agree with my perspective. Some have proposed extending to over-the-top providers many of the rules that currently apply to cable operators and satellite providers, regulations that in many cases are over two decades old. I strongly oppose this idea. Given the remarkable success of the over-the-top video industry -- success driven in part by regulatory restraint -- I don’t believe we should change our regulatory approach. A leading over-the-top provider, Amazon, put it well when it told US regulators, “There has been no indication that additional regulation is needed to enable this new industry to grow and bring consumers even more benefits.”
benton.org/headlines/remarks-fcc-commissioner-ajit-pai-policy-roundtable-2015-convention-cable-and-satellite | Federal Communications Commission
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HINDERY ON TITLE II
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Leo Hindery]
[Commentary] Having been at the birthing of network neutrality as the important issue it is today, I feel I should clarify my position: Net neutrality should mean only that telephone and cable companies must be prohibited from building out their networks in ways which leave certain regions, towns, neighborhoods and reservations without high-quality broadband access—i.e., no “red lining”; telephone and cable companies owning programming and Internet content must not discriminate against competing content created by third parties, and Internet users using massive amounts of a distributor’s broadband capacity—“bandwidth hogs”—must pay for that high volume above the charges paid by smaller users of the network. It’s particularly crazy that the Federal Communications Commission believes that broadband companies should now be Title II public utilities, and that they alone among all other utilities cannot employ volume pricing.
[Hindery is the former CEO of AT&T Broadband and its predecessors, Tele-Communications, Inc. and Liberty Media.]
benton.org/headlines/hindery-crazy-fcc-believes-broadband-companies-should-be-title-ii-public-utilities | Wall Street Journal
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THE FCC'S OPEN INTERNET ORDER ON THE LINE AS THE SUPREME COURT CHALLENGES AGENCY DEFERENCE
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Daniel Lyons]
[Commentary] A quiet revolution may be brewing in administrative law. For over thirty years, the Chevron doctrine has dominated the legal landscape, requiring courts to give significant deference to federal agency interpretations of the statutes that those agencies administer. But recent Supreme Court decisions, and in particular two cases on the current court’s docket, may signal that the justices are increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of power this doctrine has vested in unelected agency officials – and their decisions may significantly dampen the Federal Communications Commission’s decade-long attempt to construct a law of the Internet. The Internet is unquestionably today’s dominant telecommunications network. But to regulate it, the FCC needs a statute from Congress delineating the purposes and scope of such regulation. The FCC’s attempts to manufacture jurisdiction in Congressional silence ring hollow, and illustrate why the Justices seem to be increasingly reluctant to embrace such a broad reading of Chevron.
[Daniel Lyons is an associate professor at Boston College Law School]
benton.org/headlines/fccs-open-internet-order-line-supreme-court-challenges-agency-deference | American Enterprise Institute
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
WHAT IS 5G AND WHY SHOULD LAWMAKERS CARE?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Larry Downes]
[Commentary] A decision by the Federal Communications Commission to open large swaths of high-frequency radio spectrum for use in next generation wireless networks marks a turning point in the mobile revolution. A new standard, known as 5G, is coming soon. In addition to blazing fast speeds for tomorrow’s mobile devices, 5G networks will be the platform for new innovations, including the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, ultra high-definition video, remote health care, and augmented reality. Along with many disruptors yet to be imagined. On the networking side, 5G differs from earlier standards by the use of multiple radio access technologies depending on the device and application. These include extremely high or “millimeter wave” frequencies above 24 GHz, considered until recently to be unusable for mobile applications. Permissionless innovation in 5G design may also run afoul of overbroad “net neutrality” regulations adopted by the FCC earlier in 2015. Much of the new 5G architecture at both the core and the edges of the network will prioritize traffic that demands low latency, for example, and maintain persistent content throughout multiple virtual networks in what might be seen by non-engineers as faster and slower “lanes” of data traffic. While other economies rely heavily on government funding, innovation in the United States follows a decidedly entrepreneurial model. So getting policies right, and from the start, will be crucial to unlocking private investment for 5G technologies, which could cost almost $2 trillion just for network upgrades.
[Larry Downes is a project director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy]
benton.org/headlines/what-5g-and-why-should-lawmakers-care | Washington Post
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OWNERSHIP
AT&T-TAMPNET-BROADPOINT TRANSACTION ACCEPTED FOR FILING PUBLIC NOTICE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
AT&T, Tampnet, and Broadpoint have filed applications seeking approval of a number of license assignments and long-term de facto transfer spectrum leases, as well as issuance of an international section 214 authorization to Tampnet. The subject licenses cover the Gulf of Mexico. The Applicants maintain that the proposed transaction would provide Tampnet with sufficient spectrum that would enable it to deploy offshore LTE in the Gulf of Mexico. The Applicants assert that the proposed transaction also would allow AT&T to provide better coverage for customers and eliminate burdens associated with frequency coordination and interference consents in the coastal areas around the Gulf of Mexico. The assignment and long-term de facto transfer spectrum leasing applications have been found, upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing. The FCC reserves the right to return any application if, upon further examination, it is determined to be defective and not in conformance with the FCC’s rules or policies. Interested parties must file petitions to deny no later than November 23, 2015.
benton.org/headlines/att-tampnet-broadpoint-transaction-accepted-filing-public-notice | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC ANNOUNCES INDEPENDENT COMPLIANCE OFFICER IN AT&T-DIRECTV MERGER
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
Donald Stern of Affiliated Monitors has been identified as the Independent Compliance Officer to review and evaluate AT&T's compliance with an Order relating to the AT&T-DirecTV merger. Stern is the Managing Director, Corporate Monitoring and Consulting Services of Affiliated Monitors, Inc., and has served as the US Attorney for Massachusetts, the Chief Legal Counsel for the Governor of Massachusetts, and Assistant Attorney General in the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. Stern has been a partner in a number of major law firms as well as a member of the faculty of a number of law schools.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-announces-independent-compliance-officer-att-directv-merger | Federal Communications Commission
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COMPANY NEWS
GOOGLE TURNING ITS LUCRATIVE WEB SEARCH OVER TO AI MACHINES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jack Clark]
When Google-parent Alphabet Inc. reported eye-popping earnings its executives couldn’t stop talking up the company’s investments in machine learning and artificial intelligence. For any other company that would be a wonky distraction from its core business. At Google, the two are intertwined. Artificial intelligence sits at the extreme end of machine learning, which sees people create software that can learn about the world. Google has been one of the biggest corporate sponsors of AI, and has invested heavily in it for videos, speech, translation and, recently, search. Google’s decision to deploy AI into search shows that companies are starting to entrust their most valuable businesses to systems controlled in part by machine intelligence. Facebook uses AI techniques to filter the newsfeed that comprises the personalized homepage of the social network and Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to increase the capabilities of its Bing search engine. Microsoft declined to be more specific about whether it’s using a similar approach to Google.
benton.org/headlines/google-turning-its-lucrative-web-search-over-ai-machines | Bloomberg
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
NEW DATA TRANSFER PACT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Natalia Drozdiak]
The European Union has agreed in principle with the US on a new trans-Atlantic data-transfer pact, as both sides race to complete the deal after the bloc’s highest court junked a previous framework used by thousands of firms. “There is agreement on these matters in principle, but we are still discussing how to ensure that these commitments are binding enough to fully meet the requirements of the court,” Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova told European lawmakers. She didn’t set a hard deadline for a completed deal, but she said she expected both sides to make significant progress on the remaining technical points of discussion by the time she visits the US in mid-November. The commission wants to ensure the new agreement complies “a hundred percent” with the court’s ruling, she said. Among the issues that still need to be addressed, the commissioner said the EU was still looking for clear conditions and limits to the extent to which US intelligence services have access to Europeans’ personal data.
benton.org/headlines/eu-us-agree-principle-new-data-transfer-pact | Wall Street Journal
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