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  2. October 2016

October 2016

The Authoritarian Internet Power Grab

[Commentary] The future of the internet could be at stake at a conference in Tunisia, where diplomats from more than 100 countries will debate United Nations jurisdiction over the web.

What emerges from the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly will affect geopolitics and global economic growth, and possibly internet freedom for billions of users. Diplomats will discuss the emerging Internet of Things, which will soon connect tens of billions of devices and people to the global network. A new navigational and addressing technology, Digital Object Architecture (DOA), could enable the real-time surveillance and tracking of each device and individual connected to the web. Some governments are advocating that DOA be the singular and mandatory addressing system for the Internet of Things. They also want this system to be centrally controlled by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, which has contractual rights to the underlying intellectual property. China is working to join the leadership of the global study group on DOA and the Internet of Things.

America must quickly move beyond the divisive argument about ICANN and regain its internet-policy footing. Many more consequential battles over internet freedom loom—conflicts that will shape the digital future. It is time for the US to unify again behind a bipartisan vision and common strategy to safeguard internet freedom for tomorrow.

[McDowell, a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Goldstein is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.]

Google Curbs Expansion of Fiber Optic Network, Cutting Jobs

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is signaling a strategy shift for one of its most ambitious and costly efforts: bringing blazing-fast web connections to homes across America. The company is curbing the expansion of its high-speed fiber optic internet network and reducing staff in the unit responsible for the work.

Alphabet did not provide an exact number for the jobs that will be cut. Craig Barratt, chief executive of Access, the Alphabet division containing Google Fiber, also said he planned to step down because the company was shifting to new technologies and methods of deploying high-speed internet. No replacement was announced. Barratt, an Alphabet senior vice president, said he would remain an adviser to the company. The company’s fiber optic internet and television are currently available in eight metro areas, including Kansas City, Atlanta, Nashville and Salt Lake City.

Comcast offers a model for AT&T-Time Warner deal scrutiny

If US regulators impose conditions on an eventual approval of the proposed AT&T-Time Warner tie-up, they are likely to start with the more than 150 provisions they required for a similar transaction five years ago.

In its most significant orders, the US Department of Justice in January 2011 forced a merger between Comcast and NBCUniversal to license programming to other distributors, refrain from retaliating against content providers who supply rival cable companies and give equal treatment to competing online products on its internet network. The head of DoJ’s antitrust division at the time applauded the compromise. “The conditions imposed will maintain an open and fair marketplace while at the same time allow the innovative aspects of the transaction to go forward,” says Christine Varney, now head of the antitrust practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which is representing Time Warner in the AT&T deal. But technology, markets and politics have all changed since 2011, potentially complicating the AT&T-Time Warner union, according to antitrust specialists in Washington.

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