November 2015

FCC OVERSIGHT HEARING

FCC OVERSIGHT HEARING
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held an oversight hearing to question all five sitting Federal Communications Commission members about the FCC’s adherence to statutory
requirements, its progress on improving the agency and implementing process reform, and the working relationship among Commission members. A fun time was had by all.
Employing sometimes harsh language, lawmakers argued there should be closer scrutiny over the actions of the FCC. The criticisms often reflected a partisan divide present on the Commission itself, which has three Democratic members and two Republicans. With the FCC taking up closely-watched battles over "net neutrality," regulation on set-top boxes by providers such as Amazon and Google, and an upcoming auction for unused portions of the nation’s wireless broadband spectrum, tensions in the frequently-technical debate often ran high. One Republican lawmaker accused the commission’s Democratic majority of violating a commitment to “regulatory humility.” But other lawmakers praised the commission for its action on issues such as capping inmates’ phone rates and working to close the “homework gap” through universal broadband Internet for students across the country.
A hot topic for the day: the status of the FCC's Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) report on set-top box security. DSTAC was created by the Congress in the STELAR Act to come up with a downloadable software successor to the CableCARD set-top security hardware solution. Republicans suggested the FCC had exceeded its STELAR mandate by including a proposal for a device that disaggregated pay-TV video channels and united them with over-the-top offerings. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pointed out that it was a report, that the comment deadline on the report (reports, since there were two) had just ended, that the FCC had not decided what to do, and that, in any event, the commission would not thwart protections for copyrighted content in the process. But he also said the FCC's mandate in Sec. 629 of the Communications Act was clear: Congress told the FCC to "assure" the availability of competitive navigation devices. Chairman Wheeler said that the reality was that AllVid "was an idea from a half-dozen years ago," from which the world had "moved on substantially." He said that goal of DSTAC was to address the issues she raised and that there were "strong opinions" on both sides. "I can assure you it is no one's goal to thwart the security that protects the sanctity of copyrights" and that the FCC would review the record.
All five FCC commissioners vowed they would not force any broadcaster off the air for failing to meet the 39-month deadline for moving to new channels after next year's incentive auction. If meeting the deadline becomes a problem, Chairman Wheeler said, the FCC will "work it out" with the broadcasters. "This is not a drop-off-the-edge-of-the-table situation.... I totally agree on the importance of local community broadcasting and why it has to remain after the auction."
benton.org/headlines/recap-oversight-federal-communications-commission | Benton Foundation | B&C- AllVid | TVNewsCheck | B&C – Auction | B&C – Wheeler | B&C – O’Rielly | Commissioner Pai
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BARTON: CENSOR THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) wants the federal government to shut down the Internet — or at least, the parts of it that are being used by the Islamic State. "They are really trying to use the Internet and all the social media to intimidate and beat us psychologically," he said during a House committee hearing. "Isn't there something we can do to shut those Internet sites down?" Rep Barton conceded that censoring the Web sites might be difficult — "I know they pop up like weeds" — but plowed ahead with his proposal, suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission attempt to shut down the sites. "They're using the Internet in an extremely offensive and inappropriate way against us," he continued.
benton.org/headlines/rep-bartons-plan-stop-isis-censor-internet | Washington Post
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FCC CAN’T SHUT DOWN WEBSITES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler shot down suggestions that the agency could take down websites used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other terrorist groups. Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) asked whether the FCC has the authority to block such websites and social media accounts. "We cannot underestimate the challenge," Chairman Wheeler responded. "I'm not sure our authority extends to [shut down the websites], but I do think there are specific things we can do." Chairman Wheeler similarly told Rep Bobby Rush (D-IL) that the commission does not have the authority to target the social media accounts of gang leaders in the United States that are contributing to urban violence. "We do not have jurisdiction over Facebook and all the other edge providers. We do not intend to assert jurisdiction over them," Chairman Wheeler said. But the chairman said he can use the FCC's bully pulpit to press tech CEOs on the issue, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. "I will call Mark Zuckerberg this afternoon to raise the issue you've raised and the issue Mr. Barton raised. And I'm sure he is concerned as well and he'll have some thoughts," Chairman Wheeler said.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-says-it-cant-shut-down-isis-websites | Hill, The | B&C – shutting down websites
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WHEELER ON LAWFUL INTERCEPT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung, Andrea Peterson]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler told the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology that Congress could do “specific things” allowing the FCC to assist law enforcement more effectively including revisiting the wiretap legislation. The 1994 law, known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, provides for the “lawful intercept” of a suspect’s telephone and online communications. It requires telecom companies and Internet providers, not to mention some online voice services, to build their networks in ways that grant authorities easier access to those communications. Wheeler’s suggestion underscores the FCC’s growing interest in online privacy and security just as intelligence officials are rekindling a debate over government surveillance and encrypted communications. “One of the issues here is the question of, ‘What is a lawful intercept?’, something the Congress can define,” said Chairman Wheeler. “You did it in CALEA. Things have moved on since then. You read in the press that [the attackers] were using PlayStation 4 games to communicate on,” Wheeler continued, “which is outside the scope of anything considered in CALEA, so there's probably opportunities to update the ‘lawful intercept’ concept.” But the suggestion that video-game communications services could someday be covered under CALEA represents a dramatic new development, said Chris Calabrese, a policy executive at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-suggests-expanded-wiretap-laws-response-paris-attacks | Washington Post
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

LEVERS TO INTENSIFY BROADBAND COMPETITION
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
[Commentary] Given the current market, what are the appropriate government levers to intensify competition at this part of the cycle? Earlier, I explored spectrum policy. Now let’s look at the second leverage point; improving the economics of a telco upgrade. We made a number of proposals at the national level in the National Broadband Plan, but frankly, cities have greater leverage to improve the math than the federal government. This has become clear through the Google Fiber effort. Google has turned out to be the cop that has caused the greatest level of defection.
https://www.benton.org/blog/levers-intensify-broadband-competition-part-...
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LANGUAGE AND CITIZENSHIP
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: John Morris]
While the United States has made great strides in recent years to close the digital divide, the latest National Telecommunications and Information Administration data on Internet and computer use suggest that gaps remain among certain groups. The Hispanic community faces some key challenges:
July 2013 data reveal disparities in Internet use based on citizenship status (see Figure 1). More specifically, persons who were born in the United States were 10 percentage points more likely to use the Internet than foreign-born non-citizens (72.5 percent compared to 62 percent).
Additionally, persons living in households where Spanish is the only language spoken were far less likely to use the Internet (see Figure 2). The difference in home Internet use between persons living in households where Spanish is the only language spoken by adults and those in other households was nearly 30 percentage points.
Even when holding a range of demographic factors constant, including family income, education, age, race, sex, disability status, employment status, the presence of school-age children at home, population density, and region, statistical modeling suggests that language barriers and non-citizenship are negative indicators of Internet use.
Controlling for demographic factors, individuals who were 15 years or older and identified as Hispanic were slightly more than 10 percentage points less likely than White non-Hispanics to use the Internet.
When adding citizenship status to the model, the estimated gap in Internet use between Hispanics and White non-Hispanics drops to 7 percentage points. Furthermore, controlling for language barriers in addition to citizenship causes the gap between these two groups to drop further to 6 percentage points.
By comparison, African Americans were approximately 7 percentage points less likely to use the Internet than White non-Hispanics. That estimate does not change substantially when adding citizenship and language to the model.
benton.org/headlines/language-and-citizenship-may-contribute-low-internet-use-among-hispanics | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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PAI ON USF REFORM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai said he is not confident the FCC can keep its pledge to Congress to deal with the issue of subsidizing stand-alone rural broadband by the end of 2015. Currently, the FCC's Universal Service Fund subsidizes traditional telephone service in rural areas, but not broadband-only service, which works against its goal of transitioning phone subsidies to broadband more broadly. In a speech to an NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association policy conference in Washington, Commissioner Pai said that "[t]hrough a quirk of regulatory history, our rules governing small, rural carriers continue to provide universal service support only to networks that supply telephone service, not stand-alone broadband service. That regulatory system has increasingly come under strain as consumers flee landlines in favor of wireless and Internet-based (or 'over-the-top') alternatives." He said rural carriers are not investing for fear they can't migrate to deploying the next generation services their customers want or they will lose the Universal Service funding they need.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-commissioner-pai-pans-overcomplicated-usf-reform-plans | Broadcasting&Cable | Commissioner Pai
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THE BROADBAND FUTURE HAS ENEMIES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins Jr]
[Commentary] T-Mobile’s uncapped video experiment heralds a wireless alternative to cable. But, as usual, the net neutrality eccentrics have managed to upset themselves over the wrong things. Never mind that T-Mobile here functions less as a gatekeeper than as the supplier of an incentive for video operators to make unlimited video manageable on T-Mobile’s capacity-constrained cellular network. This means, mainly, tagging the data so the network can recognize it. It also means allowing a reduced resolution that T-Mobile calls “DVD quality” but is less crystalline than customers are used to getting over a wired broadband connection. The poor, deranged dears should welcome T-Mobile’s experiment. A touch disgraceful is that certain full-time cheerleaders who have spent the past 20 years blogging about the Internet still don’t bother to understand anything about pricing or the deadweight loss that comes from charging different users, with different needs and appetites, the same price for a service. What they should care about is competition, the force that ensures experiments like T-Mobile’s and Comcast’s will end up working for consumers. Happily, T-Mobile’s video offering (which the company calls “Binge On”) is exactly the reason we can expect a more competitive future—the convergence of fixed and mobile. That is, pending the Obama administration’s willingness not to get in the way.
benton.org/headlines/broadband-future-has-enemies | Wall Street Journal
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NEW SUBSCRIBERSHIP NUMBERS
[SOURCE: Leichtman Research Group, AUTHOR: Press release]
The seventeen largest cable and telephone providers in the US -- representing about 94% of the market -- acquired about 645,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the third quarter of 2015. These top broadband providers now account for 89.5 million subscribers -- with top cable companies having nearly 54.3 million broadband subscribers, and top telephone companies having over 35.2 million subscribers. Other broadband findings for the quarter include:
Overall, broadband additions in 3Q 2015 amounted to 92% of those in 3Q 2014
The top cable companies added about 790,000 broadband subscribers in 3Q 2015, representing 134% of the net additions for the top cable companies in 3Q 2014
The top telephone companies lost about 140,000 broadband subscribers in 3Q 2015 -- compared to a gain of about 110,000 in 3Q 2014
AT&T and Verizon added 305,000 subscribers via U-verse and FiOS in 3Q 2015, while having a net loss of 432,000 DSL subscribers
In the first three quarters of 2015, cable companies added about 2,300,000 broadband subscribers, while Telcos lost about 130,000 subscribers
benton.org/headlines/895-million-us-get-broadband-top-cable-and-telephone-companies | Leichtman Research Group
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SPECTRUM REFORM
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Phillip Berenbroick]
As Public Knowledge has often noted, unlicensed spectrum is a key component of the mobile broadband ecosystem. Unlicensed spectrum enables our increasingly Wi-Fi dependent world, and is a “public commons” of sorts for innovators because these frequencies are open for any person and any device to use, for any (legal) purpose. Unlicensed spectrum bands are the innovation bands. That’s why it’s notable that Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the Promoting Unlicensed Spectrum Act. If enacted, the bill would ensure that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers the need for unlicensed spectrum when determining future spectrum allocation and assignments, establishes a national strategy intended to ensure the unlicensed spectrum needs of America’s consumers and innovators are met, and creates a system of evaluation for how unlicensed users could share spectrum bands currently occupied by federal agencies. Senator Schatz’s legislation is the latest of a flurry of bills seeking to figure out new ways to free up more spectrum for commercial uses, unlicensed use, and the combination of the two.
benton.org/headlines/congress-answering-urgent-call-spectrum-reform-and-members-should-combine-efforts | Public Knowledge
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MOBILE NOW
[SOURCE: Verizon, AUTHOR: Peter Davidson]
Unfortunately, after the Federal Communications Commission holds its spectrum auction in 2016, there are no more auctions on the horizon to meet growing needs. That’s a major problem because experts predict the wireless industry will require more than 350 MHz of licensed spectrum to accommodate current projections of mobile wireless demand. Fortunately, lawmakers recognize the problem. As part of Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA’15), Congress took a first step towards creating a long-term supply of commercial spectrum. The Senate Commerce Committee may soon take the next step by working on bipartisan legislation that goes further to bridge the gap between Americans’ demand for mobile broadband and the available airwaves and infrastructure necessary to meet it. The Committee’s draft bill includes:
Completing the President’s 2010 commitment to make a total of 500 MHz of spectrum available by 2020
Expediting state and local approvals for cellular tower siting, as well as tower siting on federal lands.
A “Dig Once” provision that requires municipalities to install broadband conduits during street construction projects, a bipartisan idea endorsed by Sens. Daines and Klobuchar, and Reps. Eshoo, Matsui and Walden.
Offering incentives to agencies to identify opportunities for agencies to improve spectral efficiency.
benton.org/headlines/mobile-now-senate-bill-could-save-internet | Verizon
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SECURITY

NEW DEBATE ON SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Damian Paletta, Siobhan Hughes]
A growing belief among intelligence officials that the terrorists behind the Paris attacks used encrypted communications is prompting a far-ranging re-examination of U.S. policy on data collection and surveillance. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) will launch a review of encryption use after saying it appeared the terrorists used extensively shielded communications. He said encryption was likely because no direct communication among the terrorists was detected. US counterterrorism officials haven’t yet found evidence that the Paris suspects—who are believed linked to Islamic State—used encrypted communications to plan or carry out the attacks. But they expect that as the investigation advances they will find some communications among them were encrypted, according to multiple officials. A renewed push to give law enforcement and intelligence investigators more power to decrypt commercially sold technology could set Washington on a collision course with Silicon Valley. The Paris attacks have also brought the electronic privacy vs national security debate into the Republican primary.
benton.org/headlines/paris-attacks-fuel-debate-over-surveillance | Wall Street Journal | Washington Post | NPR | CSM
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MOVE TO HALT NSA REFORM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR) is seeking to halt a looming expiration of controversial National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, saying the Paris terror attacks prove the value of the spy agency’s data collection. Sen Cotton introduced legislation to delay this month's deadline to end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. The effort is unlikely to be successful, given the support for NSA reform on both sides of the aisle as well as in the White House. Yet the legislation underscores the unease that many defense hawks have with the country’s efforts to rein in intelligence powers in the two years since government whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks, and points to a new stage of the looming battle between privacy advocates and security proponents.
benton.org/headlines/sen-cotton-pushes-delay-nsa-reforms-wake-paris-attack | Hill, The
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PRIVACY

CROSS-DEVICE TRACKING
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Kate Kaye]
A Federal Trade Commission workshop that tackled privacy amid tracking consumers across devices suggested that regulators are struggling to keep up with emerging marketing tech. "While tracking itself is not new, the ways in which data is collected, compiled stored and analyzed certainly is," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said at the workshop, which gathered usual suspects such as technologists, ad industry trade group representatives and privacy wonks. Consumers are no longer only monitored and followed as they surf the web on desktop computers. Now opening a mobile app, watching TV via a set-top box, browsing the internet and even standing near a digital sign in an airport can all create data streams. Companies, some of them software firms helping marketers better track and understand their consumers, are gathering increasing volumes of online and offline data at greater rates than ever with the ultimate goal of linking it back to individual consumers. "They do this under the veil of anonymous identifiers and hashed P.I.I. [personally-identifiable information], but these identifiers are still persistent and can provide a strong link to the same individual online and offline," Chairwoman Ramirez said, in language that challenges the typical rhetoric from companies that track consumers.
benton.org/headlines/cross-device-tracking-creates-new-level-privacy-concerns-ftc-says | AdAge | The Hill
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TELEVISION

WHEN TV TURNS ITSELF OFF
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: James Poniewozik]
[Commentary] Must the show go on? After the terrorist massacre in Paris, as often happens after violent tragedies, a few shows didn’t. Brutal, disturbing, fictional terrorism has been a staple of prime time for years — specifically, since Sept. 11, which spurred a broad, public discussion about violence in popular culture. This is a familiar cycle now: A certain kind of entertainment depicting terrible things becomes briefly inappropriate; then it becomes widespread, practically mandatory. I don’t blame networks for pulling unfortunately timed episodes out of sensitivity. It’s considerate, and they would be pilloried if they didn’t. Calling “too soon” over a story that’s merely coincidence is sanctimony that helps no one, but someone is always ready to do it. But I also wouldn’t have blamed them if they had simply decided to broadcast the episodes anyway
benton.org/headlines/when-tv-turns-itself | New York Times
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JOURNALISM

MEDIA’S BIGGEST PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Katrina vanden Heuvel]
[Commentary] Lately, Republican presidential candidates have found a political target that’s easier to hit than their primary rivals or even Hillary Clinton: the media. Republicans are right to criticize the mainstream media, but they are doing it for the wrong reasons. That’s because the biggest problem with the media today is not their alleged liberal bias. Rather, it’s a corporatized system that is rigged against the public interest and failing our democracy. If they are truly interested in making the media better, here are three principles that politicians from both parties should embrace.
No more mergers
Protect the open Internet
Enforce disclosure rules.
benton.org/headlines/why-biggest-problem-media-not-liberal-bias | Washington Post
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

FACEBOOK ADDS TO FREE SERVICES
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Toby Shapshak]
Facebook Free Basic services will be provided with free mobile data for its users on Bharti Airtel Africa in 17 countries in Africa. Airtel customers will not pay for data for Free Basics, which is a key part of the social network’s Internet.org initiative which aims to spread internet access in the developing world where such data costs are often prohibitive. Bharti Airtel Africa will also offer Free Basics for free in Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Seychelles and Rwanda, where it has already been working with Facebook’s Internet.org initiative.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-adds-more-free-services-africa | Forbes
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November 2015

More women on tech boards, but industry lags

Women and Technology: Increasing Opportunity and Driving International Development

Western Union Offers Mobile Payments on WeChat Social App

Op-ed

Levers to Intensify Broadband Competition -- Part III

November 18, 2015 (FCC Oversight)

Paris Attacks Fuel Debate Over Surveillance

FCC chairman suggests expanded wiretap laws in response to the Paris attacks

Could the Paris Attacks Sway UK Opinion in Favor of Surveillance Law?

Editorial: Mass Surveillance Isn’t the Answer to Fighting Terrorism