October 2015

Verizon continues to make progress with its copper-to-fiber migration strategy. The service provider, according to a series of Federal Communications Commission filings, is retiring copper network facilities in White Plains (NY), Pittsburgh (PA), Falls Church (VA), and Providence (RI). Similar to other markets like New York City, when the migration is completed Verizon will no longer offer services over copper wires and maintain those facilities. However, it will continue to offer consumers and businesses a 64 Kbps grade public switched telephone network (PSTN) over the fiber connection.

It emphasized that consumers, the majority of which are plain old telephone service (POTS) customers, will not see any effect to the services they use and it is not a transition to IP-based services. Verizon has not revealed whether it would try to upsell these customers with FiOS services now that they will be connected to the fiber-to-the-home network.

2015 marks the end of two major United Nations processes that signify the beginning of a new era in international development, an age when Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet and telecommunications, are considered vital to facilitate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN has recognized how important international development is by adopting the SDGs and initiating a ten-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10). The WSIS+10 process will ultimately produce an outcome document with the potential to steer the course of ICTs for development. Stakeholders input will help preserve the WSIS vision of building a people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society.

The WSIS+10 review has acknowledged the importance of ICTs and critical obstacles to sustainable development, such as the digital divide, which has the potential to exacerbate social and economic inequalities. Connecting the Sustainable Development Goals with the WSIS+10 process will help the international community achieve its development goals. It’s still possible for organizations to engage in the WSIS review by submitting comments to the forthcoming zero-draft document or by organizing and participating in side events during the second interactive stakeholder consultation on October 19. Only involvement from a diverse range of stakeholders and communities can help us achieve a truly inclusive global Information Society.
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The US Justice Department said it’s satisfied Apple put in place reforms to comply with antitrust laws even though it fought with a monitor appointed to oversee its sale of electronic books. The government recommended that the monitoring not be extended. In a letter to the Manhattan federal judge who found in 2013 that Apple illegally conspired with publishers to set e-book prices, the Justice Department said Apple has “now implemented meaningful antitrust policies, procedures, and training programs that were obviously lacking at the time Apple participated in and facilitated the horizontal price-fixing conspiracy found by this court.”

The Justice Department said Apple “never embraced a cooperative working relationship with the monitor.” Apple acknowledged its relationship with the monitor was “rocky at times,” but disagreed that it wasn’t willing to cooperate. Apple said in the joint letter to US District Judge Denise Cote that it’s committed to fulfilling its obligations, including training, antitrust risk assessment and audits. “Over the past two years, Apple has developed and implemented a comprehensive, engaging, and effective antitrust compliance program,” the company said.

Only a small fraction of AT&T customers in areas where the company is conducting time-division multiplexing (TDM) to Internet Protocol (IP) transition trials are voluntarily switching off of traditional voice service, according to data published on the New Networks site provided by AT&T. The trials involve an urban area in Florida referred to as Kings Point (FL) or Delray Beach (FL), and a rural community -- Carbon Hill (AL). AT&T initially proposed the trials several years ago and according to New Networks Executive Director Bruce Kushnick, the trials kicked off over a year ago.

In the trials, AT&T offered to replace traditional phone service with an IP-based alternative -- either an LTE-based fixed wireless service or, where available, a service based on the company’s U-verse fiber-to-the-node infrastructure. Kushnick said AT&T didn’t specify the number of customers choosing either of those options in data released publicly, instead providing a numberless graphic representation. But by laying a grid on the graphic, Kushnick estimated that in Kings Point, AT&T has not met its target take rates for the wireless alternative, known as Wireless Home Phone or VoiceLink, or for U-verse. Kushnick argues that some people in the AT&T trials may be reluctant to switch because they have alarm systems, medical alert systems, fax machines or other equipment designed to operate over traditional TDM lines.