1. Monthly archive
  2. April 2016

April 2016

Lawmakers demand briefings on cell network security flaw

Top lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee asked major telecommunication providers to brief them on a security vulnerability in the global cellphone network. The CBS show “60 Minutes” ran a segment in April detailing the weakness in the protocols, known as SS7. Those protocols, used to connect cellphones around the world, allow hackers to listen in on phone calls when they only know a device’s number. The leaders of the House Commerce Committee, Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) — wrote to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications asking them for briefings on the security flaw.

"The seriousness of any such vulnerability cannot be understated,” they wrote to AT&T’s chief executive, for example. “Given the role of SS7 in our global communications networks, these vulnerabilities expose anyone using a phone to a possible security breach. In order for the Committee to gain a better understanding of any security flaws in the SS7 protocol and the risks they represent, we request that the Chief Technology Officer of your company be available to brief the Committee."

Time Warner Cable’s bad behavior helped Charter win merger approval

With Charter Communications set to receive approval for its acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC), regulators plan to impose a series of conditions designed to stop anti-competitive and anti-consumer policies pursued by TWC. Conditions proposed by the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission would prohibit the combined company from imposing data caps and overage fees on Internet customers, charging large online content providers for network interconnection, and stifling growth of online video by demanding restrictive clauses in contracts with programmers.

Time Warner Cable has more aggressively pursued these types of policies than Charter. Charter doesn't have a sterling reputation, ranking nearly as low as Comcast and TWC in consumer satisfaction rankings. But Charter seized on the differences between itself and TWC while arguing its case and suggested some of the merger conditions that ended up forming the basis of the DOJ's and FCC's final proposals.

A Wider Ideological Gap Between More and Less Educated Adults

Two years ago, Pew Research Center found that Republicans and Democrats were more divided along ideological lines than at any point in the previous two decades. But growing ideological distance is not confined to partisanship. There are also growing ideological divisions along educational and generational lines.

Highly educated adults – particularly those who have attended graduate school – are far more likely than those with less education to take predominantly liberal positions across a range of political values. And these differences have increased over the past two decades. More than half of those with postgraduate experience (54%) have either consistently liberal political values (31%) or mostly liberal values (23%), based on an analysis of their opinions about the role and performance of government, social issues, the environment and other topics. Fewer than half as many postgrads – roughly 12% of the public in 2015– have either consistently conservative (10%) or mostly conservative (14%) values. About one-in-five (22%) express a mix of liberal and conservative opinions. Over the past decade, ideological differences across generations also have widened. Millennials remain more liberal than older generations – 45% express consistently liberal or mostly liberal views, which is little changed from 2004 (41%). In contrast, growing shares of the oldest cohorts – Boomers and Silents – have conservative political values. About a third of Boomers (36%) and 40% of Silents have at least mostly conservative attitudes, up from 21% and 23%, respectively, in 2004.

Anger is a business

[Commentary] Anger seems to define the 2016 election. Donald Trump is riding Republican voters' rage to a possible nomination, while Sen Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) fiery call for revolution has rattled his party’s establishment. Anger, however, is not simply an attitude finding an outlet in this year's candidates. Anger is also a commodity, a business product successfully marketed to select customers.

The companies within America's outrage industry are sophisticated enterprises built on modern analytics. Measurement tools immediately convey what content is working to generate "stickiness" with viewers, listeners, and readers. Outrage businesses, particularly Fox and talk radio networks, appeal primarily to conservatives. MSNBC draws only a small audience and there is virtually no liberal presence on talk radio. Outrage discourse involves efforts to provoke emotional responses, (especially anger, fear, and moral indignation) from the audience through the use of overgeneralizations, sensationalism, patently inaccurate information, and belittling ridicule of opponents. Outrage sidesteps the messy nuances of complex political issues in favor of melodrama, misrepresentative exaggeration, and hyperbolic forecasts of impending doom.

[Jeffrey M. Berry is Skuse Professor of Political Science and Sarah Sobieraj is associate professor of sociology at Tufts University.]

Letter of Credit Concerns Delay FCC Rural Broadband Experiments

Sixteen months after initial funding recipients were announced in the Federal Communications Commission Rural Broadband Experiments program, some awardees have been unable to proceed with their projects because funds have not yet been released to them. At issue is a requirement that awardees obtain a letter of credit from one of the nation’s Top 100 banks: Small rural telecommunication companies and utility companies that represent a substantial percentage of awardees typically do not borrow from those banks. The issue is also of concern because the same requirement is included in the rules for the upcoming Connect America Fund reverse auction that will award funding to build broadband to areas of price cap carrier territories where the incumbent carrier rejected funding, noted Doug Jarrett, a partner with Keller & Heckman LLP who specializes in telecom law.

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