AT&T v. FTC Decision and Media Ownership Rules Review
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2016
A look at next week’s events https://www.benton.org/calendar/2016-09-04--P1W
No Headlines on Sept 5, we will return on TUESDAY, Sept 6. Happy Labor day.
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Republicans Are Coming Around to This Public Internet Idea - analysis
That SpaceX explosion blew up one of Facebook’s most ambitious projects
CBO Scores Digital GAP Act - research
Does Broadband Matter for Rural Entrepreneurs and Creative Class Employees? - research
The Fastest ISPs of 2016 - research
ELECTIONS 2016
Hillary Clinton is right on infrastructure, but more is needed - The Hill op-ed
Tim Kaine says protective pool coming 'in about a week'
Donald Trump and the president of Mexico are fighting on Twitter [links to Vox]
Techies Donate to Clinton in Droves. To Trump? Not So Much [links to Wired]
Melania Trump Charges That She Was Libeled by The Daily Mail [links to New York Times]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Who's In Charge of Regulating the Internet of Things? [links to Benton summary]
Verizon will soon include unlimited super slow data with all plans [links to Verge, The]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Niantic: Pokémon Go Kid Info Stays [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
ACLU urges FCC to crack down on cell phone trackers [links to Hill, The]
TELECOM
FTC Update: Telemarketer Fees for the Do Not Call Registry to Rise Slightly in FY 2017 [links to Federal Trade Commission]
CONTENT
How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics for Artificial Intelligence [links to Benton summary]
Apple to begin removing old, unmaintained apps from the App Store [links to Ars Technica]
Why YouTubers are accusing the site of rampant ‘censorship’ [links to Washington Post]
ADVERTISING
Facebook Tells Advertisers to Speed Up Sites or Don't Bother Asking for Clicks [links to AdAge]
SATELLITES
SpaceX Explosion Destroys Facebook Satellite [links to Wall Street Journal]
RESEARCH
Book Reading 2016 - Pew research [links to Benton summary]
APPLE/EU
Apple's Tim Cook says EU tax ruling is 'total political crap' [links to Los Angeles Times]
Tim Cook Says Apple Could Send Cash Back to U.S. Next Year [links to Wall Street Journal]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU: Europe needs to invest $800 billion in digital infrastructure to catch up with US [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
MUNICIPAL BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Henry Grabar]
[Commentary] Barring an act of Congress to modify Federal Communications Commission powers (don’t hold your breath), the battle over municipal returns to the statehouses. But it won’t be as hopeless there as many local control issues are. In most cases, pre-emption disputes pit rural Republican state legislators against progressive urban policies like the minimum wage or a fracking ban. In Tennessee and North Carolina, there’s a twist: Chattanooga and Wilson already have high-speed internet, both public and private. It’s their rural neighbors that suffer from telecom companies’ reluctance to expand good service into low-density areas. In Tennessee, for example, municipal broadband remains legal—but expanding it beyond the provider’s existing coverage area is not allowed. Chattanoogans are allowed to keep their lightning-fast internet; it’s residents outside the EPB’s coverage area that suffer. “For several years we’ve been fielding requests from neighboring communities who have hardly had access, asking: ‘Would you guys bring services to us?’ ” explains Danna Bailey, vice president of communications at EPB. “And we’ve said: ‘We’d love to, but Tennessee state law prohibits it.’” That turns the traditional political calculus of state-vs.-city pre-emption bills on its head. In Tennessee, a state law to loosen the regulation of public broadband is being sponsored by a pair of Republicans: Sen. Janice Bowling and Rep. Kevin Brooks. And it was a Republican state senator, Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga, who said, “AT&T is the villain here.” Proponents of public broadband see a parallel to the rollout of the electrical grid, which ignored rural areas in favor of population clusters where electricity provision was more profitable. “We see broadband in the 21st century as electricity was in the 20th,” said. Bailey. “To participate in this economy you’ve got to have access. Consumers are really starting to demand it, so legislators are hearing from their constituents: ‘I’ve got to have broadband. I have to drag my kid five miles down the street to McDonald’s to do her homework.’ ”
benton.org/headlines/republicans-are-coming-around-public-internet-idea | Slate
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SPACEX AND FACEBOOK'S INTERNET PROJECT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
SpaceX is reeling after an early-morning explosion took out its rocket on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. The incident is a major setback for chief executive Elon Musk. But odds are the tragic news is disappointing another U.S. tech billionaire, too. The rocket destroyed Sept 1 was bearing a satellite that Facebook intended to use to beam Internet access to developing nations. When the rocket went up in smoke, so did the cargo inside, according to SpaceX. In 2015, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said he was eager to use the AMOS-6 satellite to deliver broadband connectivity to hard-to-reach parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook has some 84 million users in the region. "As I'm here in Africa, I'm deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well."
benton.org/headlines/spacex-explosion-blew-one-facebooks-most-ambitious-projects | Washington Post | Zuckerberg Post | The Guardian
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DIGITAL GAP ACT
[SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office, AUTHOR: Sunita D’Monte]
The Digital GAP Act (HR 5537) would codify many of the guiding principles and practices of the federal government’s efforts to promote Internet access in developing countries. In addition, the bill would require the President to report to the Congress on his policy to promote such access and on partnerships between federal agencies to provide access and expand infrastructure. On the basis of information from the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000 over the 2017-2021 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply because enacting H.R. 5537 would not affect direct spending or revenues. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5537 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027. H.R. 5537 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
benton.org/headlines/cbo-scores-digital-gap-act | Congressional Budget Office
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RURAL BROADBAND STUDY
[SOURCE: Review of Regional Studies, AUTHOR: Kelsey Conley, Brian Whitacre]
Efforts to attract entrepreneurs and “creative class” workers have become important components of economic development strategies for rural communities. One commonly held perception is that broadband access is important for these types of employees; however, empirical research on the relationship between the two is generally lacking. This study uses county-level data from the continental US to estimate spatial and first-differenced regression models on the association between broadband and measures of entrepreneurship/creative-class employees in rural areas. The results suggest that high levels of broadband adoption may in fact serve to reduce the numbers of entrepreneurs and creative class employees in rural America. These findings serve as a reminder that broadband is not a panacea for all issues of importance to rural communities and provide evidence that there may be negative implications associated with efforts to increase levels of rural broadband access and adoption.
benton.org/headlines/does-broadband-matter-rural-entrepreneurs-and-creative-class-employees | Review of Regional Studies | Daily Yonder
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FASTEST ISPS
[SOURCE: PC Magazine, AUTHOR: Eric Griffith]
Internet service providers (ISPs) in the US are getting faster on average all the time. Most ISPs show gains in our PCMag Speed Index score year to year. There are only a couple of notable exceptions. If we narrow things down to the "major" ISPs—those with the biggest footprint nationally, and the biggest customer base, we see a major change in our Fastest ISP coverage that dates back to when we started the series in 2010. This is the first time that Verizon FiOS isn't a clear winner. FiOS certainly is a winner—but FiOS's PCMag Speed Index is in an almost perfect tie with Comcast's Xfinity service. Comcast has been pushing speeds ever faster in the face of growing competition and regulation that prevented its merger with TWC. That has translated into great things for customers, obviously. The differences between the two services are stark, of course: FiOS fiber has symmetrical speeds (in fact, its national upload speed average is higher than its download speed!); Xfinity's cable-based service is all about download speed, reaching a 59.4Mbps number; it's the 10.6Mbps upload that drags down its index. It all leads to a mathematical tie that's almost too close to call.
benton.org/headlines/fastest-isps-2016 | PC Magazine
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ELECTIONS 2016
INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Dan Glickman]
[Commentary] Secretary Hillary Clinton published a plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure earlier this year, and is now making infrastructure investments a key part of her economic pitch to the American people. Her plan focuses on key needs like road and bridge repair, investing in public transit, increasing freight rail capacity, renovating airports and the air traffic control system, increasing broadband access, upgrading water and sewer systems, and modernizing the nation’s antiquated power grid. Her proposal costs $275 billion and is a good start, but a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers says that the country actually needs $1.6 trillion in infrastructure spending at all levels by 2020 to bring us up to date and to make America competitive with the rest of the world. Years ago, the Chicago architect Daniel Burnham wisely said “make no small plans, for they do not have the power to stir men’s souls.” The country’s needs are indeed great, and Secretary Clinton, as president, can address those needs, and make a transformational decisions, by following Daniel Burnham’s wisdom.
[Glickman is a former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture and currently is a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center]
benton.org/headlines/hillary-clinton-right-infrastructure-more-needed | Hill, The
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PROTECTIVE POOL
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Hadas Gold]
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen Tim Kaine (D-VA) confirmed that the Clinton campaign will establish a "protective pool," at least for his own campaign travel. The Clinton campaign has been using Donald Trump's total lack of a normal press pool to delay ramping up their coverage to a full protective pool--the group of reporters that travel with the candidate on the same plane. The campaign has indicated to some reporters it would not establish the protective pool before Labor Day. "We are not on the plane together," Sen Kaine said about his traveling press corps. "But that is going to change in about a week. And I think that is fairly common during campaigns that you often fly in small planes and that you get to the end, you start flying in larger planes. I think that is something, yeah, as we get into the thick of the campaign in Labor Day, that is going to change. I don't even think Donald Trump allowed the American press to go with him yesterday when he went to Mexico. Which was highly unusual."
benton.org/headlines/tim-kaine-says-protective-pool-coming-about-week | Politico
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[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Robbie McBeath]
On August 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit announced its decision in AT&T Mobility v. The Federal Trade Commission. On August 25, the Federal Communications Commission released a report and order closing its review of broadcast ownership rules which dates back to 2009.
Five of the world’s largest tech companies are trying to create a standard of ethics around the creation of artificial intelligence. While science fiction has focused on the existential threat of AI to humans, researchers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and those from Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft have been meeting to discuss more tangible issues, such as the impact of AI on jobs, transportation and even warfare. Tech companies have long overpromised what artificially intelligent machines can do. In recent years, however, the AI field has made rapid advances in a range of areas, from self-driving cars and machines that understand speech, like Amazon’s Echo device, to a new generation of weapons systems that threaten to automate combat.
The specifics of what the industry group will do or say — even its name — have yet to be hashed out. But the basic intention is clear: to ensure that AI research is focused on benefiting people, not hurting them, according to four people involved in the creation of the industry partnership who are not authorized to speak about it publicly.
So, who governs the Internet of things? Who ensures connected and self-driving cars don’t put their passengers in danger, that security cameras don’t relay video feeds of their users to third parties, or that data collected from billions of consumer devices can be used without compromising personal information? For now, it’s still not clear. Today, several agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Highway Traffic Security Administration have authority over some aspects of the Internet of things.
Experts say the regulatory framework isn’t well defined and that agencies will likely need to work together as cases arise that expose the potential downsides of widespread connectivity. As more IoT-related cases begin to test the regulatory framework, “the main thing that connects them is they’re going to have internet connectivity of some sort,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Regulating a Fitbit is very different from regulating an automobile or regulating an implantable medical device like a defibrillator.” Here’s a look at some of the discussions federal groups are having about regulating the Internet of things.
SpaceX is reeling after an early-morning explosion took out its rocket on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. The incident is a major setback for chief executive Elon Musk. But odds are the tragic news is disappointing another U.S. tech billionaire, too. The rocket destroyed Sept 1 was bearing a satellite that Facebook intended to use to beam Internet access to developing nations. When the rocket went up in smoke, so did the cargo inside, according to SpaceX.
In 2015, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said he was eager to use the AMOS-6 satellite to deliver broadband connectivity to hard-to-reach parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook has some 84 million users in the region. "As I'm here in Africa, I'm deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "Fortunately, we have developed other technologies like Aquila that will connect people as well."
Europe needs to invest close to $800 billion in its digital infrastructure to catch up with the United States and China, said European Union Commissioner Guenther Oettinger. He also urged fellow Austrians to reject populist views that could deter technology experts from migrating to Europe to help drive development. If Europe can’t develop fibre-optic networks and next-generation high-speed 5G wireless applications and networks fast enough “we will lose, because important technological applications will not be possible any longer in our industry”, Oettinger said. Amazon and Google benefit from a US-wide data standard and have been able to collect data that gives them much broader knowledge of their customers’ needs than most European companies, he said. “Investments of €600-700bn ($670-780bn) are needed in the European area, according to our calculations,” Oettinger said.
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