BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2016
Today's Events:
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Spectrum Auction: Broadcaster Exit Price Is $86,422,558,704
Auction Pledge to Broadcasters May Be Too High for Wireless
Wi-Fi Alliance promises faster Wi-Fi in new products in 2016
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Akamai's State of the Internet Report
AT&T: FCC Appears Driving to Pre-Ordained BDS Destination [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
NCTA: FCC's Business Data Service Regulations Must Focus on Market Power [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
AT&T: Incompas-Verizon BDS Advocacy Is No Compromise [links to Multichannel News]
Public Knowledge Files FCC Comments Supporting Competition in Business Data Services Market [links to Public Knowledge]
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Rep. Allen Regarding Connect America Phase II Funding [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Reps. Russell, Mullin, Cole, Bridenstine and Lucas Regarding the Lifeline Broadband Provider Designation Process [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Google is testing an Internet speed tool built right into search results [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
Sen Warren targets Amazon, Apple, Google in anti-monopoly speech
Commissioner Pai Statement on Media Ownership Proposal - press release
CenturyLink Acquires Active Broadband Network Assets [links to telecompetitor]
AT&T Wraps Quickplay Deal [links to Multichannel News]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
New ACLU lawsuit takes on the Internet’s most hated hacking law
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Rep. Roby Regarding the Second E-Rate Modernization Order - press release [links to Benton summary]
CBO Scores the Federal Information Systems Safeguards Act - research [links to Benton summary]
Five questions Congress should ask the FCC commissioners on July 12 - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
States Band Together for Large-Scale Cloud Purchasing Agreement [links to Government Technology]
CONTENT
Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family
How To Break Open The Web - Fast Company op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Verizon: Online Viewers Expect TV-Quality Video [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
2011: A technology inflection point, five years later [links to Brookings]
ACCESSIBILITY
Protecting privacy and promoting inclusion with the 'Internet of Things' - The Hill op-ed
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
CommLawBlog: EAS Test Reporting System Now Open for Business [links to CommLawBlog]
TELEVISION
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Rep McKinley Regarding the Impact of Retransmission Consent NPRM on Small and Medium-Sized Broadband and Video Voice Providers [links to Federal Communications Commission]
SNL Kagan: Retransmission Fees Rising 20% to $7.7 Billion in 2016 [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
What media companies don’t want you to know about ad blocker - CJR op-ed [links to Benton summary]
TELECOM
FCC Announces Implementation of the Budget Control Mechanism for Rate-of-Return Carriers [links to Federal Communications Commission]
AGENDA
FCC Announces Technological Advisory Council Meeting On September 20, 2016 [links to Federal Communications Commission]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Fox News on Pace for Most-Watched Year in Network History [links to Wrap, The]
How social media has changed the landscape for editorial cartooning [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
ADVERTISING
Amazon will start subsidizing Android phones with ‘special offer' ads on the lock screens [links to Verge, The]
JOURNALISM
It’s time for a new set of news values. Here’s where we should start. - Poynter op-ed [links to Benton summary]
LABOR
Trump: TPP trade deal ‘pushed by special interests who want to rape our country’ [links to Washington Post]
DIVERSITY
Film Academy Broadens Voting Pool After Oscars Criticism [links to New York Times]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Facebook Wins Belgian Court Case Over Storing Non-User Data [links to Bloomberg]
This Map Shows Where and Why Local Canadian Newspapers Are Shutting Down [links to Vice]
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM AUCTION BROADCASTER EXIT PRICE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
If wireless companies and other forward auction bidders cooperate, the government will pay TV broadcasters $86,422,558,704 to reclaim their spectrum in key markets. The Federal Communications Commission will have to collect at least that much in the forward auction to cover what it will have to pay broadcasters at the 126 MHz clearing target it set for the first stage of the reverse portion of the spectrum auction, which closed June 29 after 52 rounds. The FCC announced that much-anticipated and speculated about "clearing cost" figure on the auction website. “Today, bidding concluded in the reverse auction, establishing the cost for clearing 126 MHz in the TV band for wireless use," said Gary Epstein, chair of the FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force. "Strong participation from broadcast stations made this initial clearing target possible. Now the action shifts to the forward auction, which will give wireless bidders the opportunity to compete for this beachfront spectrum to meet America’s growing mobile data needs.” The FCC was able to clear that much spectrum thanks to the robust participation by TV broadcasters looking for a big payday. Actually, the FCC will need to make a couple billion dollars more than that figure in the forward auction to cover the $200 million-plus in projected auction expenses and another $1.75 billion to cover the cost of repacking broadcasters in their tighter spectrum quarters after both parts of the two-sided auction are completed.
benton.org/headlines/spectrum-auction-broadcaster-exit-price-86422558704 | Broadcasting&Cable | Fierce
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AUCTION PLEDGE TO BROADCASTERS MAY BE TOO HIGH FOR WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields, Scott Moritz]
US officials announced a price tag of $86.4 billion for TV station airwaves being sold in a government auction, an amount that wireless providers may balk at -- sending the process into a second round. The figure from the Federal Communications Commission amounts to a pledge to pay TV station owners such as Comcast’s NBCUniversal, 21st Century Fox and CBS for giving up airwaves that are to be sold to wireless providers. Now the months-long auction turns to the next phase when wireless providers such as AT&T and Verizon will bid to buy the frequencies and convert them to carrying smartphone signals instead of television shows. The figure exceeds many pre-auction estimates of bidding by wireless companies. If their spending falls short of the pledged amount, the FCC will extend the auction and try again, this time paying broadcasters less. In response to the clearing cost for broadcasters to exit spectrum—at least in the first round of the FCC's auction and at the highest spectrum clearing target of 126 MHz—Wells Fargo senior analyst Marci Ryvicker said, "This is way, way, way above what we had been expecting ($35B) and also way, way, way above what consultants had been saying ($50-60B). Our quick take is that the broadcasters showed discipline - investors were fearful that this would be a race to the bottom and it clearly was not; rather this was an orderly auction that came out with prices much higher than expected. That said, this creates a challenge for the forward auction as we have struggled to see more than $30B being spent by the wireless companies. This clearly means, to us, that the entire incentive auction will run through multiple stages and could go into 2017 unless the FCC will pursue a quick forward process; i.e. allowing multiple (and when I say multiple, I mean multiple) rounds per day."
benton.org/headlines/auction-pledge-broadcasters-may-be-too-high-wireless | Bloomberg | B&C
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WI-FI ALLIANCE PROMISES FASTER WI-FI IN NEW PRODUCTS IN 2016
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Jacob Kastrenakes]
The tech world is ready for better Wi-Fi, and in 2016 we may start to get it. The Wi-Fi Alliance is announcing an update to its certification program for modern Wi-Fi devices, which will require all new products to support faster speeds and for routers to do a better job of handling multiple devices at the same time. Going forward, routers and devices that want to comply with its latest certification program will have to support three key new features: wider channel bandwidth, an additional spacial stream, and perhaps most importantly, MU-MIMO. That latest one has a horribly convoluted name, but it essentially just means that a router can send data to multiple devices at the same time. That's right: right now, routers are generally sending data to one device at a time. They switch back and forth between our devices fast enough that we don't necessarily notice — only sending a bit to each at one time — but MU-MIMO should deliver a more consistent result for everyone. Newly certified Wi-Fi routers should be capable of sending data to four devices at a time, potentially delivering a faster result when combined with other Wi-Fi improvements. "A given device that supports all these features will be capable of delivering three times the speed of [802.11ac] devices even a year ago," says Kevin Robinson, the Wi-Fi Alliance's marketing VP.
benton.org/headlines/wi-fi-alliance-promises-faster-wi-fi-new-products-2016 | Verge, The | Wi-Fi Alliance
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
AKAMAI'S STATE OF THE INTERNET REPORT
[SOURCE: Akamai, AUTHOR: ]
The average Internet speed in the United States has made significant gains over the past year but still trails behind a number of smaller, heavily urban countries. According to a new report out by Akamai, the average Internet download speed in the United States is 15.3 Megabits per second (Mbps). To put that in context, Netflix recommends 5 Mbps to stream HD movies and the government has set a goal of 25 Mbps for high-speed Internet service. Those speeds, measured in the first quarter of 2016, are well above the global average. But they don’t put the United States in the top 10 fastest countries, led by South Korea, Norway, Sweden and Hong Kong. Most US states saw double-digit increases in speed. Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Utah, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Washington had the highest US Internet speeds. The city of Washington (DC) had average download speeds of 24 Mbps, the fastest when compared against the 50 states. Mobile Internet speeds used on smartphones are much slower around the world. The average mobile download speed in the United States is 5.1 Mbps. That is slower than most countries in Europe, which is led by the United Kingdom with an average mobile speeds of 27.9 Mbps. The report also looked at the frequency of cyberattacks in the first quarter of 2016. The retail industry was by far the most frequent target of attacks to their web applications. Distributed Denial of Service attacks were most frequently directed at the gaming industry.
benton.org/headlines/akamais-state-internet-report | Akamai | The Verge | The Hill
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OWNERSHIP
SEN WARREN TARGETS AMAZON, APPLE, GOOGLE IN ANTI-MONOPOLY SPEECH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)) laid into a handful of major US technology companies, saying they are examples of concentrated corporate power that can thwart competition. "Google, Apple and Amazon provide platforms that lots of companies depend on for survival," she said during a speech. "But Google, Apple and Amazon also in many cases compete with those small companies so that platform can become a tool to snuff out competition." Sen Warren said the European Union's citizens "may soon enjoy better protections than US customers" after the EU decided to push forward with anti-trust charges against Google's search business, while the United States dropped its probe a few years back. She also highlighted the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into whether Apple has improperly harmed rival music streaming companies in its app store. And she brought up allegations by authors that Amazon is using its dominant book-selling position to steer consumers away from rival publishers. And though regulators recently blocked Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, Sen Warren called out the nation's largest Internet service provider, saying Comcast has been buying out its rivals over the years to the detriment of consumers. "While big telecom giants have been consuming each other, consumers have just been left out in the cold facing little to no choice in service providers and paying through the nose for cable and internet services," she said. Sen Warren conceded that major tech companies have changed the world and "deserve" their large profits and success. But she said they shouldn't be able to thwart their rivals. "The opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors who want their own chance to change the world," she said.
benton.org/headlines/sen-warren-targets-amazon-apple-google-anti-monopoly-speech | Hill, The | Revere Digital
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PAI STATEMENT ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai]
The Federal Communications Commission’s rules should reflect the media marketplace of today. Unfortunately, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s media ownership proposal reflects the world that existed in the 1970s. In May, the FCC had no problem approving not one, but two multibillion dollar cable mergers. In 2015, it signed off on AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV. Yet, it now gets the vapors at the prospect of a newspaper in Scranton (PA) owning a single radio station. Whatever the motivation for the Chairman’s proposal, it has nothing to do with the evidence in the record, principled decision-making, or the law. Indeed, given current trends, it is likely that the Commission’s newspaper broadcast cross-ownership restrictions will outlive the print newspaper industry itself.
benton.org/headlines/commissioner-pai-statement-media-ownership-proposal | Federal Communications Commission | B&C
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
ACLU LAWSUIT TAKES ON INTERNET'S MOST HATED HACKING LAW
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Russell Brandom]
For decades, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has been one of America’s most dangerous laws for anyone doing "unauthorized" things with a computer. Used to prosecute Aaron Swartz, Sergey Alenikov, and jailbreaker George Hotz, the law has long been criticized as a blank check for prosecutors. Under the law’s current interpretation, anyone breaking a website’s terms of service to collect information is guilty of a federal crime. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging that. The group brought a suit against the Department of Justice on behalf of a group of researchers, who say the CFAA is a legal threat to their research. The plaintiffs specialize in algorithmic research: bombarding closed algorithms with a range of different inputs to study their hidden biases. Those techniques often involve breaking a websites terms of service, potentially exposing them to prosecution under the CFAA. "Being able to run socially beneficial studies like ours is at the heart of academic freedom," said the lead plaintiff, University of Michigan professor Christian Sandvig. "We shouldn’t have to fear prosecution just because we’re doing our jobs." The ACLU’s case is based on a First Amendment argument, and even if it succeeds, it would leave many aspects of the CFAA untouched. Legislators have offered a number of bills to restrict the CFAA’s powers, most recently Aaron’s Law in 2013, but so far none have made it through Congress.
benton.org/headlines/new-aclu-lawsuit-takes-internets-most-hated-hacking-law | Verge, The | Washington Post | The Hill
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CONTENT
FACEBOOK TO CHANGE NEWS FEED TO FOCUS ON FRIENDS AND FAMILY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac, Sydney Ember]
For years, Facebook has courted publishers of all sizes, asking them to depend more and more on the social media giant to expand their audiences. Now, Facebook has a new message for publishers: Tamp down your expectations. Facebook said that it planned to make a series of changes to its news feed algorithm so that it will more favorably promote content posted by the friends and family of users. The side effect of those changes, the company said, is that content posted by publishers will show up less prominently in news feeds, resulting in significantly less traffic to the hundreds of news media sites that have come to rely on Facebook. The move underscores the never-ending algorithm-tweaking Facebook undertakes to maintain interest in its news feed, the company’s marquee feature that is seen by more than 1.65 billion users every month. It is also a reminder that while Facebook is vastly important to the long-term growth of news media companies, from older outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post to upstarts like BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox Media, publishers rank lower on Facebook’s list of priorities.
benton.org/headlines/facebook-change-news-feed-focus-friends-and-family | New York Times | Facebook Press Release | NYT analysis | Revere Digital
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ACCESSIBILITY
PROTECTING PRIVACY AND PROMOTING INCLUSION WITH IOT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jules Polonetsky]
[Commentary] In comments we filed recently for input into a new Department of Commerce green paper on shaping the future of the Internet of Things, we discussed ways IoT technologies are improving the day-to-day quality of life for people with low income, people with disabilities and traditionally underserved populations, among others. For example:
The OrCam is a wearable video camera that is designed for the visually impaired, translating text to audio in real time
The Dot, the world's first braille smartwatch, features a series of dull pins that rise and fall at customizable speeds and allows users to read text messages and e-books
The Ring, a connected doorbell and home security solution, alerts users to motion as soon as it is detected, so they can remotely monitor their door
Some airports, like the Miami International Airport, have rolled out programs that use beacons to help users find the correct gate and send push notifications for restaurant and store deals when travelers are walking around
M2M technology, integrated with new payment platforms, is expanding access to credit by enabling two new payment methods: pay-as-you-go (PAYG) asset financing, which allows consumers to pay for products over time, and prepaid, where consumers pay for services on an as-needed basis.
It is important that we do not lose sight of the broad hope that IoT technology will not simply be more gadgets for the affluent, but also a platform for improving quality of life for the traditionally underserved. As government policymakers and regulators examine, understand and embrace emerging IoT technologies, they must encourage strategies that benefit everyone, while at the same time apply commonsense privacy protections that build trust in IoT technologies to help ensure that consumers enjoy the full benefits of IoT sensors and devices.
[Polonetsky is CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices.]
benton.org/headlines/protecting-privacy-and-promoting-inclusion-internet-things | Hill, The
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