press release

The Federal Communications Commission took significant steps toward implementing the next phase of its program for expanding robust broadband in rural America, the Connect America Fund.

Phase I of the Connect America Fund has already invested over $438 million to deploy broadband service to 1.6 million previously unserved Americans. Phase I also invested $300 million to expand advanced mobile wireless service and nearly $50 million for better mobile voice and broadband on Tribal lands.

Phase II the Connect America Fund will result in a nearly 70% increase in annual support for broadband and voice service in areas served by the nation’s largest traditional local providers -- known as “price cap” carriers.

The effort will expand broadband access to an additional 5 million Americans who are currently unable to benefit from the opportunities of 21st century communications. Over five years, Phase II of the Connect America Fund will provide nearly $9 billion to expand broadband in rural areas.

The American Library Association announced the 10 public libraries chosen to undergo an intensive 18-month, team-based community engagement training program as part of the Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) Public Innovators Cohort.

The cohort, selected through a highly competitive peer-reviewed application process, is part of ALA’s LTC initiative, a national plan to help librarians strengthen their role as core community leaders and change-agents. The selected libraries represent the range of American communities in terms of size, location, ethnic and racial diversity and socioeconomic status, and they all face challenges including illiteracy; unemployment; a “digital divide” in their community’s access to information technology; an influx of new and immigrant populations; and disparate access to services.

Through in-person training, webinars and coaching -- valued at $50,000 -- teams from each library will learn new community engagement techniques and apply them within their communities. Each library also receives an $8,000 cash grant to help cover the cost of their new community-engagement work. In partnership with The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, Libraries Transforming Communities addresses a critical need within the library field by developing and distributing new tools, resources and support for librarians to engage with their communities in new ways. The following libraries make up the LTC Public Innovators Cohort are:

• Red Hook (NY) Public Library (pop: 1,900)
• Columbus (WI) Public Library (pop: 5,000)
• Knox County (IN) Library (pop: 33,900)
• Suffolk (VA) Public Library System (pop: 85,000)
• Hartford (CT) Public Library (pop: 125,000)
• Springfield (MA) City Library (pop: 153,000)
• Tuscaloosa (AL) Public Library (pop: 195,000)
• Spokane County (WA) Library District (pop: 255,000)
• San Jose (CA) Public Library (pop: 980,000)
• Los Angeles Public Library (pop: 3.8 million)

Syniverse announced that Julius Genachowski has joined its Board of Directors. Based in Washington (DC), Genachowski is a Managing Director in The Carlyle Group’s US Buyout team, focusing on acquisitions and growth investments in global technology, media and telecommunications, including Internet and mobile.

He previously served as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2013. Syniverse President and CEO Jeff Gordon said he looks forward to working with Genachowski and believes his extensive experience overseeing mobile and telecom initiatives will benefit Syniverse greatly.

Genachowski, who has held senior leadership positions in the private sector for more than a decade, said he is honored to join the Syniverse board. Under Genachowski’s leadership, the FCC took major actions to extend broadband access, accelerate the roll-out of advanced mobile networks, free-up spectrum for wireless communications, preserve a vibrant Internet and media landscape, foster competition and enhance public safety communications.

Genachowski worked for more than a decade in the private sector prior to his FCC appointment. He helped build IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owned and operated multiple Internet and media businesses, including Expedia, Ticketmaster and USA Network. As a senior executive he helped grow it through acquisition and organically to a company with more than $6 billion in annual revenue and more than 25,000 employees globally. During this period, BusinessWeek named Genachowski one of 25 “managers to watch” in the media sector.

AT&T announced a major initiative to expand its ultra-fast fiber network to up to 100 candidate cities and municipalities nationwide, including 21 new major metropolitan areas.

The fiber network will deliver AT&T U-verse with GigaPowerSM service, which can deliver broadband speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second and AT&T’s most advanced TV services, to consumers and businesses. AT&T will work with local leaders in these markets to discuss ways to bring the service to their communities.

Similar to previously announced metro area selections in Austin and Dallas and advanced discussions in Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, communities that have suitable network facilities, and show the strongest investment cases based on anticipated demand and the most receptive policies will influence these future selections and coverage maps within selected areas.

This initiative continues AT&T’s ongoing commitment to economic development in these communities, bringing jobs, advanced technologies and infrastructure. The list of 21 candidate metropolitan areas includes: Atlanta, Augusta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Jose. With previously announced markets, AT&T now has committed to or is exploring 25 metro areas for fiber deployment.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released the first three of 15 public computer center (PCC) and broadband adoption case studies.

These focus on the impact of grants in Delaware, Texas and Michigan.

The case studies were conducted for NTIA by an independent research firm, ASR Analytics, which analyzed the impact these PCCs are having in their local communities. What kinds of impact are these expanded libraries having in their communities?

The case studies, based on site visits, interviews, and publicly available data from the awardees’ quarterly reports to NTIA, tell a story of increased demand for library services that have helped the country continue to turn the corner on the economic recovery. The libraries are meeting an urgent need by giving people access to information and job skills they need to be competitive in a 21st century workplace.

Members of two different piracy groups engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android mobile device applications have pleaded guilty for their roles in separate schemes, each designed to distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted apps.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, US Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge Britt Johnson of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office made the announcement. Thomas Pace, 38, of Oregon City (OR), pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and is scheduled for sentencing on July 9, 2104.

According to the information filed on Jan 24, 2014, Pace and his fellow conspirators identified themselves as the Appbucket Group, and from August 2010 to August 2012, they conspired with other members of the Appbucket Group to reproduce and distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted Android mobile device apps, with a total retail value of over $700,000, through the Appbucket alternative online market without permission from the copyright owners of the apps.

Two other defendants charged in the information -- Thomas Dye and Appbucket Group leader Nicholas Narbone -- pleaded guilty to the same charge in the information on March 10 and March 24, 2014, respectively.

The Federal Communications Commission terminated a Notice of Inquiry that explores issues relating to allegations that certain fixed-satellite service operators are "warehousing" satellite orbital locations and foreclosing competitors from purchasing capacity on their satellites.

The record the FCC received in response to the questions raised in the Notice of Inquiry was sparse and came only from two commonly situated stakeholders -- FSS satellite operators Intelsat and SES. They argue that further action by the FCC regarding vertical foreclosure is unwarranted.

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released a report detailing the association’s senior delegation to Portugal last October (October 18-26, 2013). Titled “Reinventing Learning in Portugal: An Ecosystem Approach.”

The resource explores how the European country has transformed education and society through technology investments and provides delegates’ first-hand accounts and lessons learned throughout the weeklong trip. CoSN’s Portugal delegation continued the association’s long-term strategic efforts as a global leader in promoting a conversation around issues related to the successful use of ICT / technology in schools.

The report includes the key takeaways:

• Policies and strategies promoting ICT use in schools and at home are integrated into a larger economic and social vision for change in Portugal.
• Portugal adopted a comprehensive approach to transforming education by using ICT as a catalyst. This approach included hardware, software, teacher training, curriculum development and digital content in a holistic approach.
• The Portuguese thought in terms of an ecosystem.
• Public-private partnerships are foundational to this strategy and key to the success of the Portugal program, particularly for long-term sustainability.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Travis LeBlanc, Acting Enforcement Bureau Chief of the Federal Communications Commission, announced the unsealing of two complaints seeking the forfeiture of radio transmission and production equipment allegedly used in the illegal broadcast of pirate radio stations on a total of four different FM frequencies, and further announced that on April 2, 2014, FCC agents and Deputy US Marshals, pursuant to warrants, seized the radio transmission and production equipment identified in the two complaints.

Libraries continue to transform to meet society’s changing needs, and more than 90 percent of the respondents in an independent national survey said that libraries are important to the community.

But school libraries continue to feel the combined pressures of recession-driven financial tightening and federal neglect. School libraries in some districts and some states still face elimination or de-professionalization of their programs.

Libraries witnessed a number of developments in 2013 in the area of e-books and copyright issues. E-books continue to make gains among reading Americans, according to another Pew survey, but few readers have completely replaced print with digital editions -- and the advent of digital reading brings with it a continuing tangle of legal issues involving
publishers and libraries.

“Print remains the foundation of Americans’ reading habits,” the Pew researchers found. Most people who read e-books also read print books, they reported, and only 4 percent of readers described themselves as “e-book only.” After years of conflict between publishers and libraries, 2013 ended with all the major US publishers participating in the library e-book market, though important challenges, such as availability and prices, remain.

Other key trends detailed in the 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report:

• More and more public libraries are turning to the use of web technologies, including websites, online account access, blogs, rich site summary (RSS) feeds, catalog search boxes, sharing interfaces, Facebook and Twitter.
• The economic downturn is continuing at most institutions of higher learning, and academic librarians are working to transform programs and services by re-purposing space and redeploying staff in the digital resources environment.
• President Barack Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill in January that will fund the federal government through September and partially restore funding to the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) -- the primary source of annual funding for libraries in the federal budget -- that were dramatically cut in the 2013 fiscal year under sequestration.