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  2. June 2016

June 2016

How Brexit affects the global technology industry

Here are some major issues facing the tech industry in Britain and abroad, in light of the decision:

  • Data flow and data privacy: The US and the European Union are in the process of making the final adjustments to their latest data privacy agreement, which governs the flow of data between US and Europe. With a major player in the E.U. now backing out of the coalition, there are obviously some questions about what happens to data flowing in and out of Britain from the US and elsewhere.
  • Funding: One of the key reasons that many British technology firms said they were against a British exit from the EU was that it would be more difficult for them to secure funding for start-ups. London’s technology industry has been on the rise for the past several years. Britain benefits in large part from funds such as the European Investment Fund, which backs an estimated 41 percent of venture capital investments in Europe. Its majority investor is the European Investment Bank. But if Britain is no longer a part of Europe, that dries up a source of funding just as questions about how a UK shorn of its EU ties will regulate health tech, financial tech and other technology industries.
  • Immigration: British tech firms — and technology firms from around the globe with offices there — have also raised concerns that the Brexit will fundamentally harm the tech industry’s ability to fill positions for highly skilled workers. Without the EU’s allowances to let workers move freely between countries, British companies are now worried about a shortage of qualified workers.

Executive Order -- Global Entrepreneurship

It is in the national interest for the Federal Government to support innovation, global entrepreneurship, and the American private sector. Linking entrepreneurs with capital, new networks, and markets and providing skills and training will allow them to grow their businesses and positively impact their communities. It is also necessary that we help enable our global partners to invest in the tools and infrastructure that make this possible, including high-speed broadband; business incubators and accelerators; regional economic development programs and extension services; international people-to-people exchange programs; and the technical, export, and business assistance and mentoring that entrepreneurs need worldwide in order to drive economic growth and job creation.

Sec. 7: Accelerating Entrepreneurship and Economic Opportunity by Expanding Internet Access Globally: State, in coordination with other agencies, multilateral institutions, foreign countries, and stakeholders, shall work to actively promote global Internet connectivity. Specifically, the Global Connect Initiative shall focus on encouraging foreign countries to prioritize Internet connectivity in development plans, promoting the formation of region-specific multi-sector working groups to ensure technical and regulatory best practices, and encouraging the development of digital literacy programs in developing nations.

US development and financing agencies have surpassed the $1 billion mark over the past year in financing and investment for global ICT and connectivity projects, bringing Internet access to millions around the world. These efforts represent the Administration’s commitment to closing the digital divide and bring an additional 1.5 billion people online by 2020 through the Global Connect Initiative.

FCC's Spectrum Auction May Get Slight Extension

The Federal Communications Commission has signaled it may need to go a couple more rounds with broadcasters as it dickers over the price of their spectrum, but that won’t be enough to affect the current schedule for wrapping up the first-of-its kind broadcast spectrum auction. The FCC said it may need a couple extra rounds to complete the reverse portion of the auction—broadcasters bidding to give up spectrum in exchange for a government payout, low bid wins. If all goes as planned, which means the FCC continues at a pace of three rounds per day as expected, the reverse auction, either phase one or phase “only,” depending on what happens in the forward auction, should wrap up June 29. But while the reverse auction was planned for 52 rounds, the FCC said that it could go 54 rounds depending on whether the final bidding status of any VHF stations has not yet been determined.

Multicultural Media, Telecom and Interent Council Pushes FCC on Pared List of Diversity Imperatives

As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler prepares to circulate the FCC's long overdue quadrennial media ownership rule regulatory review the week of June 27, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) has pared back two-dozen longstanding diversity proposals to five and asked that the FCC take action on them. Those making the list were:

1) Promoting minority ownership as an "integral part" of all FCC rulemaking proceedings. "Due to the very small size of the civil rights and public interest FCC bar, these issues are often not raised in the proceedings at all."
2) "Extend the Cable Procurement Rule to Broadcasting. Congress in the 1992 Cable Act requires cable operators to encourage participation by minorities and women in all parts of their organizations," calling it "one of the FCC’s long-term civil rights success stories."
3) Adopt "tipping point" and "source diversity" formulas for ensuring diversity in local radio markets. The "tipping point" formula "acknowledges the existence of a tipping point in the distribution of radio revenue in a market between cluster owners and independents. When the combined revenues of a market’s cluster owners exceed this tipping point, the independents can no longer survive," which would help the FCC determine when a transaction would hurt diversity. The Source Diversity formula "expresses the consumer benefit derived from marginal increases in source diversity."
4) Create a model for market-based, tradeable diversity credits, likened to the trading carbon credits to reduce pollution, in this case a way to boost diversity and decrease concentration. "If a transaction would increase concentration, the buyer would be expected to return some of its Diversity Credits to the Commission at the close of the transaction. Companies could also buy or sell these credits to one another, thus providing a market-based source of access to capital for SDBs."
5) Create a new civil rights branch of the FCC Enforcement Bureau, which it said would promote "consistency, efficiency and effectiveness."

Net neutrality advocates to FCC: Put the kibosh on internet freebies

Representatives from Fight the Future, the Center for Media Justice and Free Press on June 24 hand-delivered a 6-foot tall package containing 100,000 letters of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission. They ask the agency to take action against AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon for violating the agency's Open Internet order by offering so-called zero-rating service plans.

Zero-rating is a practice in which wireless and broadband providers exempt certain applications or services from monthly data caps. T-Mobile's Binge On service, which allows customers to stream unlimited video from certain services, is one example. Verizon's FreeBee program allows content owners to pay for a customer's data usage while using their service. While the practice offers some benefits to customers, critics say it violates the agency's Net neutrality principles, which requires all services on the Internet be treated the same. They claim it puts smaller competitors at a disadvantage and highlights the fact that data caps are unnecessary. Carriers say they are simply experimenting with new business models that will make their service more affordable for consumers.

How Comcast and Charter are trying to fix their awful customer service

Comcast and Charter told US Senators how they're trying to fix their poorly rated customer service. Executives from the nation's two largest cable companies testified in a hearing in response to a Senate investigation detailing the industry's shortcomings. Comcast Cable Senior VP of Customer Service Tom Karinshak detailed some customer service initiatives, mostly ones that are already in progress. AT&T (owner of DirecTV) and Dish also testified.

"At Comcast, we understand why we are here," Karinshak said. "We and the industry as a whole have not always made customer service the high priority it should have been. We regret that history and have committed to our customers that we will lead the way with initiatives to change it; we are committed to making every part of our customers’ experience better, and we have already begun to do so." Comcast said it has come up with a customer "Bill of Rights" with principles including these: more training and technology for employees; fair prices for customers; being on time and minimizing wait times; enabling self-service; keeping bills simple and transparent; re-assessing policies and fees that frustrate customers; crediting customers proactively for outages and billing errors; allowing customers to end their service without a hassle; [and] measuring employees on customer satisfaction.

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