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February 2017

Meet the man who'll dismantle net neutrality 'with a smile'

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai often goes out of his way to be nice. He always has a kind word for colleagues, even when they stand on the opposite side of the aisles. "He made the chairman's life miserable," said Gigi Sohn, a former adviser to the previous head, Tom Wheeler, in reference to their constant ideological clashes. "But I like him. Everyone likes him."

This nice guy is no pushover, though. The 44-year-old chairman has already introduced a number of programs and steered the FCC in a different direction from his predecessor. And he's still gearing up for his biggest move: the takedown of many of the regulations that protect net neutrality, the concept that all internet traffic must be treated as equal. Supporters of the regulations say loosening the rules will only tighten the control that broadband and wireless companies wield today, likely resulting in higher prices for consumers and fewer choices in services. "He's a great guy to have a beer with," Sohn said. "But don't be fooled. He's in favor of dismantling net neutrality and other consumer-friendly policies, and he'll do it with a smile."

The Unlimited Data Party Will Last Until the Big Four Become the Big Three

Verizon is finally bringing back unlimited plans. Yes, the plans come with catches. But they’re great news for Verizon customers who want to stream or upload lots of video. At least as long as the company faces enough competition to keepthe competition might not last. T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, has been trying to sell the wireless carrier for years, and T-Mobile’s aggressive pricing has always looked in part like a ploy to grow its subscription base to make itself more attractive to potential acquirers. If Deutsche Telekom were finally able to sell T-Mobile, its new parent might get stingier with pricing and pizzas. If not, its current parent might do the same.

Wireless Broadband Continues to Serve as Complement for, Rather Than Replacement of, Robust Wireline Networks

Wireless technologies like 5G may offer much promise, but they will rely even more deeply upon and serve as a complement to robust wireline broadband technologies rather than a replacement for them, according to a technical report by telecommunications engineering and consulting firm Vantage Point Solutions and filed with the Federal Communications Commission by NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association. The study, “Evaluating 5G Wireless Technology as a Complement or Substitute for Wireline Broadband,” reviews wireless technologies’ capability to meet current and future demands of America’s broadband customers. Vantage Point found that although there is much anticipation about possible speeds for 5G wireless networks, a 5G network relies on an extensive and robust wireline network and even then is a poor substitute for a wireline connection in terms of performance, reliability, and investment.

The report also contains a checklist of questions that should be asked in evaluating and validating the capabilities of any potential wireless deployment. Among the report’s key findings are:
Spectrum: 5G networks will require massive amounts of spectrum to accomplish their target speeds. At the very high frequencies proposed for 5G, the RF signal does not propagate far enough to be practical for any wide area coverage, which is particularly important for rural areas.
Access Network Sharing: 5G wireless technologies are not a good solution for the sorts of data-heavy uses and applications that are driving much broadband demand.
Economics: When compared to the costs associated with deploying a 5G network, especially in rural areas, fiber-to-the-home is often less expensive (particularly given how much fiber will be needed in any event for 5G) and will have lower operational costs.
Reliability: Wireless technologies are inherently less reliable than wireline, with significantly increased potential for environmental and line-of-sight impairments with the high frequencies used by 5G.

Edward Snowden's New Job: Protecting Reporters from Spies

Nearly four years after his leaks, Edward Snowden has focused the next phase of his career on solving that very specific instance of the panopticon problem: how to protect reporters and the people who feed them informa­tion in an era of eroding privacy—without requiring them to have an National Security Agency analyst’s expertise in encryption or to exile them­selves to Moscow.

“Watch the journalists and you’ll find their sources,” Snowden says. “So how do we preserve that con­fidentiality in this new world, when it’s more important than ever?” Since early in 2016, Snowden has quietly served as president of a small San Francisco–based nonprofit called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its mission: to equip the media to do its job at a time when state-­sponsored hackers and government surveillance threaten investigative reporting in ways Woodward and Bernstein never imagined. “Newsrooms don’t have the bud­get, the sophistication, or the skills to defend them­selves in the current environment,” says Snowden. “We’re trying to provide a few niche tools to make the game a little more fair.”

Journalism Fights for Survival in the Post-Truth Era

[Commentary] The news media is in trouble. The advertising-driven business model is on the brink of collapse. Trust in the press is at an all-time low. And now those two long-brewing concerns have been joined by an even larger existential crisis. In a post-fact era of fake news and filter bubbles, in which audiences cherry-pick the information and sources that match their own biases and dismiss the rest, the news media seems to have lost its power to shape public opinion. We have gone from a business model that manufactures consent to one that manufactures dissent—a system that pumps up conflict and outrage rather than watering it down.

The Best Way to Quash Fake News? Choke Off Its Ad Money

Moat calls itself the “Nielsen of digital.” It’s a service advertisers use to make sure the right people are seeing and clicking on their ads. And those advertisers today have a problem: Because of the automated nature of so much online advertising, cash is increasingly flowing to sites that peddle fake news, often without the knowledge of the advertisers themselves. That’s not the kind of news brands want to be seen paying for. But Moat says it’s got a fake-news fix that could dry up ad dollars that keep fake news sites in busines

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