BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015
Today at the American Enterprise Institute -- Domestic surveillance on foreign shores: The case of Microsoft’s servers in Ireland https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-10-06
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Boosts Made in America Exports, Supports Higher-Paying American Jobs, and Protects American Workers - White House press release [links to Benton summary]
TPP Agreement Is a Mixed Bag - ITIF press release [links to Benton summary]
Data Transfer Pact Between US and Europe Is Ruled Invalid
Google Told by Russian Regulator to Unbundle Android Search
The troubling rise of Internet borders - Paul Rosenzweig/Chertoff Group op-ed
Cuba’s really terrible Internet, explained - Vox analysis [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
ISPs: Title II Is FCC Internet Power Grab
Broadband Adoption Metrics Rubric and Instruments - press release
Verizon faces call to expand FiOS from 14 East Coast mayors
AT&T lowers 1 Gig prices in markets where it faces Google Fiber
The troubling rise of Internet borders - Paul Rosenzweig/Chertoff Group op-ed
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Draft Bill Seeks FCC Framework for Federal Spectrum Auction
Speeding FCC Approval of Technological Innovation - Fletcher Heald Hildreth analysis
Study: Wi-Fi calling a 'must have' for global networks [links to Benton summary]
SATELLITES
Eutelsat and Facebook to partner on satellite initiative to get more Africans online - press release
On Oct 4 in 1957, humans sent their first satellite into space [links to Benton summary]
CONTENT
How Race Influences Social-Media Sharing
Why local online sites died: a post-mortem with a possible silver lining - analysis
Babette Boliek asks, ‘What to do about an antitrust “problem” like Google? [links to American Enterprise Institute]
New York State Dept of Financial Services granted a banking charter to bitcoin exchange Gemini, launched as a “hack-free” site [links to Hill, The]
Michael Hiltzik: New TiVo is encouraging customers to "give commercials the finger" [links to Los Angeles Times]
Pithy, Mean and Powerful: How Donald Trump Mastered Twitter for 2016 [links to New York Times]
Scandal Erupts in Unregulated World of Fantasy Sports [links to New York Times]
OWNERSHIP
comScore-Rentrak Merger Will Boost Competition, Cooperation - CIMM op-ed [links to Benton summary]
HEALTH
FCC Chairman Wheeler at FCC-Mayo Clinic Broadband Health Summit - speech
Commissioner Clyburn at the FCC-Mayo Clinic Broadband Health Summit - speech
SURVEILLANCE
US intelligence official: Europe’s justice court is wrong about US intelligence programme - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Don’t Strike Down the Safe Harbor Based on Inaccurate Views About US Intelligence Law - Peter Swire op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Stockton (CA) Mayor Has to Forfeit electronics and passwords to DHS Agents at San Francisco Airport [links to Benton summary]
PRIVACY
Cultivating Appropriate Privacy Risk - op-ed [links to Benton summary]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FirstNet OKs key RFP elements [links to Benton summary]
POLICYMAKERS
FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet Tapped for Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States - White House press release [links to Benton summary]
Twitter gives co-founder Jack Dorsey a 2nd chance as CEO [links to Associated Press]
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP TRADE DEAL IS REACHED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jackie Calmes]
The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent of the world’s economy, from Canada and Chile to Japan and Australia. The Trans-Pacific Partnership still faces months of debate in Congress and will inject a new flash point into both parties’ presidential contests. But the accord -- a product of nearly eight years of negotiations, including five days of round-the-clock sessions -- is a potentially legacy-making achievement for President Barack Obama, and the capstone for his foreign policy “pivot” toward closer relations with fast-growing eastern Asia, after years of American preoccupation with the Middle East and North Africa. The Pacific accord would phase out thousands of import tariffs as well as other barriers to international trade. It also would establish uniform rules on corporations’ intellectual property, open the Internet even in communist Vietnam and crack down on wildlife trafficking and environmental abuses.
benton.org/headlines/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-reached | New York Times | LA Times
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SAFE HARBOR INVALIDATED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Scott]
Europe’s highest court ruled that a widely used international agreement for moving people’s digital data between the European Union and the United States was invalid. The decision, by the European Court of Justice, throws into doubt how seamlessly global technology giants — the likes of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google — can continue to collect, manage and analyze online information from their millions of users in the 28-member bloc. The court decreed that the data-transfer agreement was invalid as of the Oct 6 ruling. Although most big multinational companies and their lawyers have already secured side agreements with the European Union, which should allow them to continue moving data for now, the court’s ruling could hold significant implications down the road. It will empower data-privacy regulators in each of the bloc’s nations to evaluate how data is moved from their countries to the United States, and it will permit national authorities to impose tougher restrictions on specific data transfers.
benton.org/headlines/data-transfer-pact-between-us-and-europe-ruled-invalid | New York Times | Wall Street Journal | Financial Times
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GOOGLE TOLD BY RUSSIAN REGULATOR TO UNBUNDLE ANDROID SEARCH
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Ilya Khrennikov]
Russia’s antitrust regulator has ordered Google to amend agreements with smartphone producers that it said disadvantage third-party applications on devices running the Android operating system. Mountain View (CA)-based Google is abusing its market dominance through Android, the regulator ruled in September after a complaint from local search engine provider Yandex NV, which has been losing market share to its US rival on mobile devices. Google has allowed Android-phone producers to use its application store Google Play on the condition that they also pre-install services from the company, including search, and prioritize those icons on screens, the Russian regulator said Sept. 14. Yandex has said Android’s default options push mobile users to Google services, limiting consumers’ ability to choose such services from Yandex or other vendors. “To restore competition on the market, Google should amend agreements with mobile-device producers within a month and exclude the anti-competitive clauses,” Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said.
benton.org/headlines/google-told-russian-regulator-unbundle-android-search | Bloomberg | Revere Digital
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INTERNET BORDERS
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Paul Rosenzweig]
[Commentary] Something is rotten at the core of our conception of Internet governance. Almost unnoticed, nations are trying to impose – often successfully – sovereign borders and legal demands on a digital realm that is inherently borderless. Left unchecked, this instinct to create sovereign barriers risks fracturing the Web in ways that will jeopardize its economic, political, and social utility. We're facing an inflection point. Inevitably, the authoritarian nations whose life-blood is citizen control will continue to diverge from the small “l” liberal nature of the digital domain. Western democracies need to offer a better alternative – to reinvigorate the freedom of the network, eschew too great a role for governments, and unite to present the uncommitted world in the middle (South America, Africa, much of Asia and the Middle East) with a more attractive option. Authoritarian countries such as China and Iran are unlikely to participate – but at a minimum we can reduce, or eliminate, the conflict between Western democracies, and agree on rules that will keep the network open and free. Our governments owe their citizens nothing less.
[Rosenzweig is a senior adviser to The Chertoff Group]
benton.org/headlines/troubling-rise-internet-borders | Christian Science Monitor
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
ISPS; TITLE II IS FCC INTERNET POWER GRAB
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Major cable and phone Internet service providers (ISPs) say the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet order justification, far from being the expert agency interpretation of statute the FCC asserts, is an "unlawful attempt to assert broad public-utility regulatory authority over the Internet, from the end user all the way to a broadband provider’s connection to an edge provider." They made that argument in filing their latest salvo in the battle against the FCC's Title II reclassification of Internet access service as a common carrier in the FCC's effort to better justify network neutrality rules. That came in a joint reply brief from USTelecom, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the American Cable Association, CTIA: The Wireless Association, AT&T, CenturyLink and WISPA (Wireless Internet Service Providers Association). They say the FCC overturned years of decisions that companies relied on to make business decisions, abandoned 20 years worth of interpretations that provided ISPs additional immunity from common carrier regulations, ignored the court in reclassifying ISPs under Title II, and did not provide the proper notice for changes like applying Title II to interconnections or adding a broad Internet Conduct Standard.
benton.org/headlines/isps-title-ii-fcc-internet-power-grab | Multichannel News
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OTI AND EVERYONEON RELEASE ADOPTION METRICS RUBRIC AND INSTRUMENTS
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: Georgia Bullen, Greta Byrum]
In order to build a holistic understanding of the effectiveness of EveryoneOn’s programs, New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute has examined the factors that influence participants’ choices to engage (or not engage) with Internet service offers. Drawing on our experience evaluating efforts such as the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, as well as scholarly literature and instruments from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), and the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project; state-level efforts such as the California Emerging Technologies Fund (CETF); and the Internet Use Survey at the University of Chicago, OTI has compiled a rubric of standard indicators pertaining to the choices that people make regarding whether or not to use, and/or to subscribe to, digital technologies and Internet services. We have tailored this rubric to emphasize outcomes-oriented indicators related to “meaningful broadband adoption,” a framework developed by OTI that takes into account contextual and historical social factors impacting digital choices. Metrics designed to understand meaningful broadband adoption thus measure not only progress towards achieving broader subscription rates among traditionally underserved and demographically likely non-adopters, but also a more holistic picture of comfort with digital tools and the availability, effectiveness, and impact of support and training resources.
benton.org/headlines/oti-and-everyoneon-release-adoption-metrics-rubric-and-instruments | New America Foundation
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VERIZON FACES CALL TO EXPAND FIOS FROM 14 EAST COAST MAYORS
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
Verizon is facing a call from 14 city mayors on the East Coast to expand its FiOS fiber to the home (FTTH) network into more areas that have limited access to high speed services. This group asked Verizon's CEO Lowell McAdam in a letter to talk about ways the company can more effectively serve its wireline customers and resolve disputes with the Verizon workers represented by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who are in the midst of negotiating a new labor contract. The mayors said in their joint letter that "our consumers have complained that FiOS service is not available to them" and that "there are millions of residents in communities throughout the Northeast who have been left without service, and with no plan or promise for future resolution." In addition to FiOS, the mayors addressed growing complaints that traditional wireline consumers are facing downtime due to claims that the company has not been conducting necessary maintenance on its copper network.
benton.org/headlines/verizon-faces-call-expand-fios-14-east-coast-mayors | Fierce
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AT&T LOWERS 1 GIG PRICES IN MARKETS WHERE IT FACES GOOGLE FIBER
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
AT&T continues to lower the prices of its 1 Gbps GigaPower service, particularly in markets where Google Fiber has established a presence. AT&T prices its 1 Gbps service differently in these areas and the lower rates appear wherever Google Fiber offers its $70 a month service. In some markets like Nashville (TN) and Atlanta (GA) where Google Fiber is present, AT&T's 1 Gbps pricing begins at $70, while in Chicago (IL) and Miami (FL) eligible users have to pay $110 for the same service. Customers in these markets can purchase a lower speed 300 Mbps speed tier for $80. A similar phenomenon has taken place in Charlotte (NC) and Raleigh-Durham (NC) where users play $70 per month for GigaPower.
benton.org/headlines/att-lowers-1-gig-prices-markets-where-it-faces-google-fiber | Fierce
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
DRAFT BILL SEEKS FCC FRAMEWORK FOR SPECTRUM AUCTION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Congress was already looking at incentivizing government spectrum users to share, now it is adding a framework for Federal Communications Commission auction of that reclaimed spectrum for wireless broadband. A draft bill, the "Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2015" is being circulated for discussion in the House Communications Subcommittee that would ask the FCC to come up with a plan to auction federal spectrum for use by wireless broadband. The bill does not identify the spectrum that would be auctioned, but asks the FCC to get together with the head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to come up with a framework for rules and procedures for relocating federal users or sharing of bands with non-federal users, plus a timeline for competitive bidding. It would require the FCC to produce a series of reports to the House and Senate Commerce committees outlining preparations for such and auction process, including draft rules and timelines and specific frequencies. The report also needs to talk about balancing licensed and unlicensed spectrum, a hot-button issue given that any spectrum reserved for unlicensed reduces the auction take to the treasury but also fuels wireless access, including through Wi-Fi hot spots.
benton.org/headlines/draft-bill-seeks-fcc-framework-fed-spectrum-auction | Broadcasting&Cable
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SPEEDING FCC APPROVAL OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: Mitchell Lazarus]
[Commentary] A lot of new products use the buzzwords “wireless connectivity.” In old-fashioned English, they have radio transmitters. This means they must go through an Federal Communications Commission approval process before they can be sold to the public. The FCC understandably writes its technical rules around existing technologies. A device made to comply with those rules can get quick authorization, even if intended for a new application. Sometimes, though, the underlying technology is so novel that the existing rules do not reasonably apply, making compliance with those rules impossible. Such a device requires individualized attention from the FCC before it can reach the market. For a new and different radio technology, the approval process usually takes years -- delays that can seriously impede innovation. More than once, a client has approached me with a concept for a new kind of radio device; but when I explained how long FCC approval would take and what it would cost, the client abandoned the idea. Other clients started the process but ran out of time and money along the way. Even when it ultimately succeeds, FCC approval adds hard-to-predict costs and delays to ventures that already carry inherently high risk. Surely there must be ways by which the proponent of a new technology can secure FCC approval more quickly. These are set out below. Some work better than others in particular situations. The greatest improvements, though, will need a handful of changes in how the FCC goes about implementing its procedures.
benton.org/headlines/speeding-fcc-approval-technological-innovation | CommLawBlog
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SATELLITES
EUTELSAT AND FACEBOOK TO PARTNER ON SATELLITE INITIATIVE TO GET MORE AFRICANS ONLINE
[SOURCE: Eutelsat, AUTHOR: Press release]
Eutelsat Communications and Facebook announce they are partnering on a new initiative that will leverage satellite technologies to get more Africans online. Under a multi-year agreement with Spacecom, the two companies will utilise the entire broadband payload on the future AMOS-6 satellite and will build a dedicated system comprising satellite capacity, gateways and terminals. In providing reach to large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Eutelsat and Facebook will each be equipped to pursue their ambition to accelerate data connectivity for the many users deprived of the economic and social benefits of the Internet. Scheduled for start of service in the second half of 2016, the Ka-band payload on the AMOS-6 geostationary satellite is configured with high gain spot beams covering large parts of West, East and Southern Africa. The capacity is optimised for community and Direct-to-User Internet access using affordable, off-the-shelf customer equipment. According to the terms of the agreement, the capacity will be shared between Eutelsat and Facebook.
benton.org/headlines/eutelsat-and-facebook-partner-satellite-initiative-get-more-africans-online | Eutelsat | Washington Post
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CONTENT
HOW RACE INFLUENCES SOCIAL-MEDIA SHARING
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Li Zhou]
According to the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll, 60 percent of people on social media platforms have used them to share information about a local issue or event. This makes sense given one of the poll’s other findings: People actually spend more time engaging on social media with those live near them (64 percent) than with those who live farther away. The frequency of sharing is pretty consistent across individuals of different racial backgrounds. However, the topics people discuss differs greatly when the data is broken down by race. White respondents were most likely to have posted about events or entertainment, with 60 percent having done so. Black respondents, on the other hand, were most likely to have shared information about education or schools, at 67 percent. Hispanic respondents were most likely to have shared a post on crime or public safety, with 62 percent posting on this topic. On both the subjects of education or schools and crime or public safety, white respondents were significantly less likely than their non-white counterparts to have shared any information related to the topic.
benton.org/headlines/how-race-influences-social-media-sharing | Atlantic, The
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WHY LOCAL ONLINE SITES DIED: A POST-MORTEM WITH A POSSIBLE SILVER LINING
[SOURCE: Poynter, AUTHOR: James Warren]
Hyperlocal online news startups can resemble the bloody wars convulsing the Middle East. “In the world of community news, you win or you die,” said David Boraks, founder of the Davidson News and Cornelius News in North Carolina. Boraks died, or at least his sites did a few months ago, he recounted to the Local Independent Online News (LION) annual gathering in Chicago. “I’m totally at peace with the decision to shut down,” Boraks said. The auditorium at Columbia College in Chicago’s downtown South Loop might have been draped in black for a gathering whose de facto predecessor was called Block by Block. There was, after all, a distinctly funereal air to a session titled, “Turning out the Lights.” The local news journalists shared distinct commonalities. When they started, they saw a potential market. They were proud of their work. And, in hindsight, they weren’t especially good businessmen and wish they had given more disciplined forethought to that element of their enterprise. By the time they came to that realization, it was too late.
benton.org/headlines/why-local-online-sites-died-post-mortem-possible-silver-lining | Poynter
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HEALTH
FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER AT FCC-MAYO CLINIC BROADBAND HEALTH SUMMIT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler]
Today’s broadband networks – wired and wireless – have the potential to revolutionize healthcare like no technology before. Our collective challenge is how do we seize the opportunities of broadband communications to improve the quality of healthcare, save lives, and lower costs? It starts with making sure that we have fast, fair, and open broadband networks available to all Americans. But an open Internet and faster networks are not sufficient to assure the development and widespread adoption of digital health solutions. We at the Federal Communications Commission must stay engaged with providers and the healthcare system but also consumers, caregivers, and other key stakeholders in the health space so that we can best understand all the challenges that must be overcome, the infrastructure needs that exist, and, most importantly, the opportunities that broadband might be able to support in the health space.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-fcc-mayo-clinic-broadband-health-summit | Federal Communications Commission
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COMMISSIONER CLYBURN AT THE FCC-MAY CLINIC BROADBAND HEALTH SUMMIT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
Earlier, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke about the impact of infrastructure networks and the potential of broadband networks to enable integrated, collaborative and comprehensive “smart” health systems. As important as these future systems could be, the Chairman and I do not believe them to be the goal. Said another way, it is not about the systems, but rather, how these systems empower consumers. Broadband can serve as a bridge between this expanding chasm of diminishing resources and increasing need. Not only can it serve to connect needs to resources, but by interconnecting systems, broadband can be a force-multiplier to achieve positive health outcomes. Bottom line -- “smart” health systems enabled by robust wired and wireless broadband networks could significantly improve consumer health management and care giving experiences and usher in an era of “smart care” which today is simply not possible.
benton.org/headlines/commissioner-clyburn-fcc-mayo-clinic-broadband-health-summit | Federal Communications Commission
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