1. Monthly archive
  2. November 2015

November 2015

Don’t Forget About High-Speed Broadband

[Commentary] More than 80 percent of American adults use the Internet, a number that will continue to increase alongside consumer demand for broadband-enabled devices and applications. Given this trend, the US should expand its current definition of physical infrastructure beyond local and national water mains, electrical grids, roads, bridges and highways to include high-speed broadband. And, it’s imperative that broadband is widely available to every citizen, regardless of who they are and where they live.

Generally, the private sector has been critical in scaling and sustaining broadband networks, making government incentives only part of the solution. Regulatory certainty is of equal importance as industry works toward adequate returns on their investments. Despite years of fluid investment in broadband infrastructure, some economists argue that the Federal Communications Commission’s recent reclassification of broadband Internet as a Title II service, will see a corollary decline in the building and enhancing of networks, despite increased government incentives. President Barack Obama has outlined aggressive goals for wireless infrastructure, prompting immediate actions to alleviate the current strains on this platform. Yet, without sound legislation and public policies that incentivize the continued development of robust broadband and the repurposing of federal spectrum from government to commercial uses, wireless infrastructure will not evolve into a more sustainable and reliable asset. Going forward, we must support policies and investments that encourage, not limit, broadband infrastructure investments.

[Nicol Turner-Lee is the vice president and chief research and policy officer at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council]

Tech Year In Review: Compromise Wins the Day

[Commentary] Here we look aback at the recent year of accomplishments, or lack thereof, of the GOP-controlled Congress in tech. Republican leaders saw their tech policy success hinge on compromise with Democrats. Their projects lived or died based on bipartisan cooperation. On the plus side of the ledger, the Senate passed a long-debated cybersecurity bill after significant pushback from Democrats (and some Republicans). The bill’s supporters got to yes when they listened to the naysaysers’ concerns and responded to them. It is now on track to be conferenced with the House and sent to the President’s desk before the end of this Congress.

On the other side, Republicans in the Senate and House Commerce Committees didn’t even get off the ground in their attempts to overhaul of the 1934 Communications Act. The Federal Communications Commission dashed Republicans’ hopes at an Internet-era rewrite when it published “net neutrality” rules that would regulate broadband connections like telephone services. With a Democratic majority at the agency, and a president who supports that kind of rule, any bipartisan movement on communications law was halted.

Kids These Days: They Might Just Pay for Digital Content

[Commentary] Our survey found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, younger customers are more willing to pay for content, possibly because they are more comfortable with mobile payments. Among customers younger than 26 in developed markets, 30 percent are already paying for some forms of digital video (compared to only 23 percent of those 26 and older); 34 percent pay for digital music (compared to only 18 percent of older peers); and 40 percent paid for games (compared to 28 percent of older customers). So how can media companies monetize this powerful trend? They must move beyond traditional advertising strategies or the landgrabs pursued by YouTube, Netflix and others that aim to build enormous user bases.

Long-term success depends first on understanding Generation #hashtag and its media preferences and then upgrading capabilities in three areas: 1) Rethink content strategy 2) Embrace the new rules of advertising 3) Capture and make good use of consumer data. Just as traditional media companies need to embrace native models, native upstarts may also have to learn some of the old dogs' best tricks.

[David Sanderson is a Bain partner in Los Angeles, where he leads the firm's Global Media practice.Laurent Colombani is a partner with Bain & Company in Paris]

House Judiciary Committee
December 1, 2015
10 am
http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/hearings?ID=5EF9186D-CCF3-4460-B72A...

Witnesses

Mr. Andrew J. Ceresney
Director, Division of Enforcement
United States Securities and Exchange Commission

Mr. Steven Cook
President, Board of Directors
National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys

Mr. Richard W. Littlehale
Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigation Division
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

Mr. Chris Calabrese
Vice President, Policy
Center for Democracy and Technology

Mr. Richard Salgado
Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security
Google, Inc.

Mr. Paul Rosenzweig
Founder
Red Branch Consulting

Summary of the Email Privacy Act:

Amends the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 to prohibit a provider of remote computing service or electronic communication service to the public from knowingly divulging to a governmental entity the contents of any communication that is in electronic storage or otherwise maintained by the provider, subject to exceptions.

Revises provisions under which the government may require a provider to disclose the contents of such communications. Eliminates the different requirements applicable under current law depending on whether such communications were: (1) stored for fewer than, or more than, 180 days by an electronic communication service; or (2) held by an electronic communication service as opposed to a remote computing service.

Requires the government to obtain a warrant from a court before requiring providers to disclose the content of such communications regardless of how long the communication has been held in electronic storage by an electronic communication service or whether the information is sought from an electronic communication service or a remote computing service

Requires a law enforcement agency, within 10 days after receiving the contents of a customer's communication, or a governmental entity, within 3 days, to provide a customer whose communications were disclosed by the provider a copy of the warrant and a notice that such information was requested by, and supplied to, the government entity. Allows the government to request delays of such notifications.

Prohibits disclosure requirements that apply to providers from being construed to limit the government's authority to use an administrative or civil discovery subpoena to require: (1) an originator or recipient of an electronic communication to disclose the contents of such communication, or (2) an entity that provides electronic communication services to its employees or agents to disclose the contents of an electronic communication to or from such employee or agent if the communication is on an electronic communications system owned or operated by the entity.

Allows the government to apply for an order directing a provider, for a specified period, to refrain from notifying any other person that the provider has been required to disclose communications or records.

Directs the Comptroller General to report to Congress regarding disclosures of customer communications and records under provisions: (1) as in effect before the enactment of this Act, and (2) as amended by this Act.


First Responder Network Authority

National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Department of Commerce
December 8-9, 2015
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-11-30/pdf/2015-30273.pdf

The Board of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will convene an open public meeting on December 9, 2015, preceded by open
public meetings of the Board Committees on December 8, 2015

On December 8, 2015 between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. CST, there will be a joint meeting of FirstNet’s four Board Committees. The meeting of the Governance and Personnel, Finance, Technology, and Consultation and Outreach Committees and will be open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. CST. The FirstNet Committees will then go into a closed session from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The full will hold an open public meeting on December 9, 2015 between 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. CST.

FirstNet will post detailed agendas of eachmeeting on its Web site, http://www.firstnet.gov, prior to the meetings.


FCC Could Ease Telecom Unbundling Requirements

Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission is considering eliminating certain network unbundling requirements for the nation’s largest telecommunication service providers. Senior FCC officials say former Bell companies would not have to unbundle voice-grade channels on fiber links, according to an item circulating within the FCC and scheduled for a vote in December. The former Bells also would no longer have certain wholesale unbundling requirements that previously were eliminated for most local exchange carriers.

The move comes into response to a petition filed by USTelecom in October 2014 that requested the FCC forbear from imposing certain rules which, according to the association, are outmoded and hamper investment in modern communications technology. Despite the relaxing of unbundling requirements, however, companies that resell local exchange services provided by the former Bell companies may still be able to do so. The officials noted that resellers should be able to draw upon other regulations in order to retain their ability to purchase services on a wholesale basis from the local exchange carriers (LECs). This could be important for a company like Granite Telecommunications that focuses on reselling service from multiple LECs and providing customers a single bill.

ITU releases annual global ICT data and ICT Development Index country rankings

The International Telecommunication Union released its flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report reveals that 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 percent of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95 percent of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal. The report also notes that all 167 economies included in the ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015 -- meaning that levels of information and communication technology (ICT) access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.

More people online than ever before; but growth slows: Latest data show that growth in Internet use has slowed down, however, posting 6.9 percent global growth in 2015, after 7.4 percent growth in 2014. Nonetheless, the number of Internet users in developing countries has almost doubled in the past five years (2010-2015), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.

Mobile-network coverage and reaching the last half billion: Over 95 percent of the global population is now covered by mobile-cellular services, meaning that there are still an estimated 350 million people worldwide who live in places which are still out of reach of a mobile network -- a figure that has dropped from 450 million a year ago. But while 89 percent of the world’s urban population is now covered by a 3G network, only 29 percent of the world’s 3.4 billion people living in rural areas benefit from 3G coverage.

In 2015, the Republic of Korea is ranked at the top of ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI), a composite measurement that ranks 167 countries according to their level of ICT access, use and skills. Republic of Korea is closely followed by Denmark and Iceland, in second and third place. The IDI top 30 ranking includes countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions including Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. Almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking in 2015.

The government often doesn’t need a warrant to get your e-mails. But most think it should.

Your e-mails have fewer legal protections than you probably think. Thanks to a 1980s-era law known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, the government generally doesn't need a warrant to get its hands on e-mails stored in your inbox for more than six months. The law dates back to long before storing everything in "the cloud" became the norm: When it was passed, it seemed crazy that digital storage could become so cheap that companies like Google would offer archive all of your e-mails (and much of the rest of our life) online. But even though how people use e-mail has changed dramatically since then, the law has not, despite bipartisan pushes to update it in recent years.

Now new polling suggests Americans are ready for the law to change. Some 77 percent of more than 1,000 registered voters surveyed by pollsters at Vox Populi in Nov said they believe a warrant should be required to access "emails, photos and other private communications stored online." When the voters had the basics of ECPA explained to them, 86 percent said it should be updated, and 53 percent said they'd be more likely to support a candidate who favored "strengthening online privacy" through reforming the law.

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