September 2016

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Today's Events:

• Encryption and Cyber Matters, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing -- https://www.benton.org/node/246652
• Protecting the 2016 Elections from Cyber and Voting Machine Attacks, House Science Committee hearing -- https://www.benton.org/node/246651

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   AT&T to change policy of charging poor customers more for super-slow Internet
   Cleveland and the Return Of Broadband Redlining. - Harold Feld blog [links to Benton summary]
   FCC Business Data Services Decision Could Determine Viability of Rural 5G
   Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics - AT&T blog [links to Benton summary]
   A virtual reality future means changing broadband reality today - Revere Digital op-ed [links to Benton summary]

E-RATE/EDUCATION
   Modernizing the E-rate Program for Schools and Libraries - public notice
   Connecting America’s Classrooms - US Dept of Education [links to Benton summary]
   Apple Offers Free App to Teach Children Coding -- iPads Sold Separately [links to New York Times]

TELECOM
   Proposed Fourth Quarter 2016 Universal Service Contribution Factor is 17.4 Percent - public notice

ELECTIONS 2016
   Do presidential debates matter? Here's the political science evidence. - analysis
   Donald Trump calls for no debate moderators a week after praising them, because Donald Trump [links to Washington Post]
   Why moderators aren’t the best option for fact-checking debates [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
   Jim Lehrer’s advice for this year’s moderators [links to Politico]
   Already-low voter satisfaction with choice of candidates falls even further [links to Pew Research Center]
   Opinion: When it comes to transparency, there’s no comparison between Clinton and Trump [links to Washington Post]
   Rieder: Why press needs access to candidates [links to USAToday]
   Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take the campaign back to late night TV [links to Politico]
   Hillary Clinton’s Hollywood Fundraisers Still On, With Bill Subbing for Candidate [links to Wrap, The]
   Silicon Valley built an app to beat Trump where it matters [links to Benton summary]
   Yes He Can? Here's How Trump Could Win [links to AdAge]
   The liberal failure of political reform [links to Vox]
   Political Campaign TV Ad Spending Is Surging in North Carolina. Ohio? Not So Much [links to AdAge]

CONTENT
   House to vote on 'Consumer Review Fairness Act', a bill protecting customers' online reviews [links to Hill, The]
   Facebook and Israel to work to monitor posts that incite violence [links to Guardian, The]
   Facebook loses legal bid to prevent girl suing over naked picture [links to Guardian, The]
   Twitter partners with finance news startup Cheddar for its first daily streaming show [links to Verge, The]
   In praise of the Internet's best festival, XOXO, which is going away [links to Verge, The]

TELEVISION
   Industry puts pressure on Rosenworcel over set-top box [links to Hill, The]
   Rep Pallone Concerned FCC Chairman Wheeler Set-Top Plan 'Won't Work' [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   App Developers Have Issues With FCC Set-Top Approach [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
   #UnlockTheBox: It’s Now Or Never [links to Public Knowledge]
   Coming soon: The FCC chairman’s set-top box app - AEI op-ed [links to Benton summary]
   Cable Providers And Hollywood Blast Plan For Mandatory Apps [links to MediaPost]

OWNERSHIP
   Rep Walden Vows Congressional Review of Crossownership

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Incentive Auction Second Stage: Same as the First? Not Exactly. - FCC

SECURITY/PRIVACY
   Long-Secret Stingray Manuals Detail How Police Can Spy on Phones [links to Intercept, The]
   Judge rules a police ‘hack’ can be a search [links to Benton summary]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Unleashing Digital Talent in the next administration - nextgov op-ed [links to Benton summary]

SURVEILLANCE
   The ACLU is launching a campaign to pardon Edward Snowden [links to Verge, The]

JOURNALISM
   Networks Focus Less On Poverty As Coverage Of Inequality Drops [links to Media Matters for America]
   Muhammad Ali’s life offers lessons in journalism, good and bad [links to Columbia Journalism Review]

ADVERTISING
   Study: Digital Video Ads Generate Sales [links to Broadcasting&Cable]

LABOR
   Entrepreneurship is more than IT—and that’s good news for policy [links to Brookings]

POLICYMAKERS
   Meet the US's First Ever Cyber Chief [links to Benton summary]

COMPANY NEWS
   HP buying Samsung Electronics' printer business for $1.05 billion [links to Associated Press]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   The Highways of Tomorrow - ITU op-ed [links to Benton summary]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

AT&T TO CHANGE POLICY OF CHARGING POOR CUSTOMERS MORE FOR SUPER-SLOW INTERNET
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Chris Isidore]
AT&T has been charging some of its poorest customers top dollar for its slowest Internet service. But after criticism from a public interest group and press coverage about the disparity, the company said Sept 9 it plans to change the policy. Federal regulators require AT&T to provide discounted high-speed Internet service to families who are eligible for food stamps. But AT&T has been exploiting a loophole to refuse those discounts to some qualified families. The reason: AT&T says its broadband service in low-income neighborhoods is too slow. The program, known as Access from AT&T, costs $5 or $10 a month, depending on the speed of AT&T's service. Those customers who can get service of 3 to 5 megabits per second only have to pay $5, while those who can get service with 5 Mbps or faster pay $10. The average broadband speed in the United States is 15 Mbps, according to Akamai. But there are many neighborhoods in which AT&T's service doesn't reach even 3 Mbps. And people who live in those neighborhoods have to pay full price -- an introductory rate of about $30 a month -- for the inferior service. AT&T agreed to the discounts in order to win FCC approval of its DirecTV purchase. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a public interest group, pushed AT&T to make the $5 a month offer available for customers whose service doesn't reach 3 Mbps. AT&T at first said it would stick to the strict terms of the FCC order. But, after a series of stories appeared in tech media, the company changed course.
benton.org/headlines/att-change-policy-charging-poor-customers-more-super-slow-internet | CNNMoney | NDIA
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FCC BUSINESS DATA SERVICES DECISION COULD DETERMINE VIABILITY OF RURAL 5G
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The impact of the impending Federal Communications Commission business data services (BDS) decision could be critical for rural wireless carriers, argued Raul Katz, president of telecommunication policy consulting firm Telecom Advisory Services, LLC, at a Washington DC event. The BDS decision will impact carriers’ ability to provide sufficient network capacity and to deploy next-generation 5G wireless services, said Katz, who based his remarks on a Telecom Advisory Services study on the impact of rural wireless carrier backhaul costs on network investment. The Federal Communications Commission is considering whether to impose price controls on BDS providers in areas that the commission previously deemed to be competitive, but which BDS purchasers say are not competitive. BDS purchasers include business and government users of data services, including schools and libraries, as well as carriers and others. The FCC business data services decision could call for decreasing BDS pricing in markets where costs have increased since the markets were deregulated. Backhaul costs will become even more critical for 5G, which will use high-frequency spectrum that can support higher bandwidth but less range in comparison with today’s technology. In surveying rural wireless carriers for the Telecom Advisory Services study, Katz noted that “every carrier said 5G is nowhere near our short-term or long-term plans because backhaul is so expensive."
benton.org/headlines/fcc-business-data-services-decision-could-determine-viability-rural-5g | telecompetitor
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E-RATE

MODERNIZING THE E-RATE PROGRAM FRO SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public notice]
In this Order, the Wireline Competition Bureau adopts the proposals we made in the ESL Public Notice and releases the eligible services list (ESL) for funding year 2017 for the schools and libraries universal service support program (more commonly referred to as the E-rate program). We also authorize the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to open the annual application filing window no earlier than 60 days after release of this Order.
benton.org/headlines/modernizing-e-rate-program-schools-and-libraries | Federal Communications Commission
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TELECOM

PROPOSED FOURTH-QUARTER 2016 UNIVERSAL SERVICE CONTRIBUTION FACTOR IS 17.4 PERCENT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this Public Notice, the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the fourth quarter of 2016 will be 0.174 or 17.4 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the Federal Communications Commission (Commission). The Commission calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications revenues, net of projected contributions. USAC submitted projected collected end-user telecommunications revenues for October through December 2016 based on information contained in the Fourth Quarter 2016 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-Q). The amount is as follows: Total Projected Collected Interstate and International End-User Telecommunications Revenues for Fourth Quarter 2016: $14.215126 billion. To determine the quarterly contribution base, we decrease the fourth quarter 2016 estimate of projected collected interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues by the projected revenue requirement to account for circularity, and decrease the result by one percent to account for uncollectible contributions. Accordingly, the quarterly contribution base for the fourth quarter of 2016 is as follows: Adjusted Quarterly Contribution Base for Universal Service Support Mechanism Fourth Quarter 2016 Revenues - Projected Revenue Requirement - 1% ($14.218126 billion – $2.083590 billion) * 0.99 $12.013191 billion.
benton.org/headlines/proposed-fourth-quarter-2016-universal-service-contribution-factor-174-percent | Federal Communications Commission
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ELECTIONS 2016

DO PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES MATTER?
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Andrew Prokop]
How much do the debates even matter, anyway? The evidence isn’t entirely conclusive, but in my read of it, debates have the potential to make a small but real impact on the race. Polls have often shifted by a few percentage points during debate season, and in a close race, that could really matter. Now, the effect of general election debates has been overhyped by some. There’s little historical evidence that they’ve ever swung polls by more than a few percentage points. General election debates aren’t like primary debates — there are strong partisan loyalties, the vast majority of debate viewers have already made up their minds about who they’re voting for, and few are willing to change their minds because of what happened in one debate. But, in a close race, with a very polarized electorate, a shift of just a few percentage points could matter a great deal. And even if debates don’t swing the presidential outcome, if they help or hurt a presidential candidate by a few percentage points, that could have a domino effect in down-ballot races — such as the battle for the Senate. If the media judges Trump by extremely low expectations, or if his outrageous conduct is normalized, that could really affect how some viewers understand what happened. Overall, if Hillary Clinton were still leading Trump by 9 percentage points, then she and her supporters could feel confident that the debates would be highly unlikely to change that. A lead of about 3 percentage points is a different story, though.
benton.org/headlines/do-presidential-debates-matter-heres-political-science-evidence | Vox
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OWNERSHIP

WALDEN VOWS CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW OF CROSSOWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) vowed that Congress is ready to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's recent ruling that prohibits broadcasters from buying newspapers in the same market. "I believe their view of media ownership is about as outdated as... the brick (mobile) phone," Chairman Walden said on Sept. 7. "We will be introducing legislation soon to repeal the media crossownership rule. The time has come to recognize that it is completely unnecessary in the marketplace that exists today. If the FCC can't figure it out... we will help them do that with legislation to repeal the crossownership rule." Chairman Walden also alluded to "issues at the FCC" and vowed "you're going to see some legislation," but he offered no details. A spokesman for the House Commerce Committee later said that there is no specific timetable for such legislation. He said Chairman Walden ad-libbed those remarks during his address about technology developments to the National Association of Broadcasters' "Broadcast Innovation: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond" briefing at the Newseum in Washington, DC In his remarks, Chairman Walden chastised the FCC for not even being able to produce its quadrennial media ownership review on time.
benton.org/headlines/rep-walden-vows-congressional-review-crossownership | Broadcasting&Cable
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

INCENTIVE AUCTION STAGE 2
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Gary Epstein, Melissa Dunford, Margaret Wiener]
On September 13 at 10:00 AM ET bidding resumes in the Incentive Auction with the opening of Stage 2. We wanted to take a moment to preview what happens next and describe how this stage will be different from Stage 1. For Stage 2, the Auction System set the clearing target at 114 megahertz, the next-highest target that meets the Commission’s standards for setting a clearing target in a stage (explained in the Bidding Procedures Public Notice). Compared to the 126 megahertz clearing target, the 114 megahertz clearing target generally clears nine blocks of spectrum in each partial economic area (PEA) instead of 10 blocks and adds two additional channels to the TV band. Adding more channels to the TV band allows more stations to be repacked in their pre-auction band. Thus, some stations that were provisionally winning after Stage 1 will become “unfrozen” in Stage 2 and will be presented decreasing price offers during the bidding rounds. This process will result in lowering the overall costs of clearing spectrum for wireless use.
benton.org/headlines/incentive-auction-second-stage-same-first-not-exactly | Federal Communications Commission
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