Elton Spitzer, 84, Who Helped Turn WLIR Into a Radio Destination
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2016
Will Lifeline Modernization Be CURB-ed?
INTERNET/BROADBAND
AT&T is reaching out to low-income Americans with $10 Internet service
Broadband Rate-Blocking Bill on Senate Calendar [links to Benton summary]
Google Fiber Vision: ‘To Create Abundant and Ubiquitous Networks’ [links to Benton summary]
Google Gets Beaten to the Punch by AT&T on Super-Fast Broadband
Frontier Communications is facing a flurry of customer complaints after acquiring millions of phone, television and Internet accounts in three states from Verizon [links to Benton summary]
EDUCATION
At schools with sub-par Internet, kids face a poor connection with modern life
Schools are helping police spy on kids’ social media activity [links to Washington Post]
TELEVISION
ACA: FCC Set-Top Proposal Is Illegal
Comcast Pans 'Expansive,' 'Harmful' FCC Set-Top Proposal [links to Benton summary]
FCC's Set-Top Proposal Draws Crowd [links to Benton summary]
Disney, CBS, Viacom worry FCC cable box proposal would do to TV what iTunes did to music [links to Verge, The]
Gus Hurwitz: Why did the FCC jump into the privacy area with an NPRM as opposed to a more modest Notice of Inquiry (NOI)? [links to American Enterprise Institute]
Study: Connected TV Devices Eclipse Pay TV Set-Tops [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Larry Downes: The future of TV is arriving faster than anyone predicted [links to Washington Post]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Justice Department withdraws another demand for Apple’s help with passcode
National Security Letters are now constitutional, judge rules [links to Benton summary]
Tech’s plan to encrypt web now covers ‘millions’ of sites [links to Benton summary]
Over 1 million using encryption software to access Facebook [links to Hill, The]
Op-Ed: A century after the Titanic sank, cyber risks are the new icebergs [links to Revere Digital]
ISIS Targeted by Cyberattacks in a New US Line of Combat [links to New York Times]
Blacklisted Terrorism Financiers Still Active on Social Media [links to Wall Street Journal]
Schools are helping police spy on kids’ social media activity [links to Washington Post]
Op-ed Europe’s Web Privacy Rules: Bad for Google, Bad for Everyone [links to New York Times]
Why does our privacy really matter? [links to Christian Science Monitor]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
The 2016 Democratic primary has been unusually substantive and low-key [links to Vox]
Facebook pulls back the veil (ever so slightly) on political ads [links to Benton summary]
Hollywood Conservative Group Friends of Abe Disbands on Eve of California Primary [links to Wrap, The]
Five Internet powerbrokers who could shape the election [links to Benton summary]
TELECOM
Identifying emerging core technologies for the future: Case study of patents published by leading telecommunication organizations [links to Telecommunications Policy]
CONTENT
Becoming a digital bank [links to McKinsey]
A digital crack in banking’s business model [links to McKinsey]
ADVERTISING
Facebook pulls back the veil (ever so slightly) on political ads [links to Benton summary]
OWNERSHIP
ABC Pulls Out of Fusion Partnership [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
JOURNALISM
Former Al Jazeera Executive Files Bias Suit [links to New York Times]
DIVERSITY
Differences in Values Are Reason Women Are Leaving STEM Jobs [links to Fast Company]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
When it comes to engagement with citizens, the government is finally paying attention - nextgov op-ed [links to Benton summary]
OPEN GOVERNMENT
Stonewalled by NSA, Members of Congress Ask Really Basic Question Again
AGENDA
Broadband Rate-Blocking Bill on Senate Calendar [links to Benton summary]
Senate Commerce Committee Tees Up FCC Bills [links to Benton summary]
POLICYMAKERS
Sen Udall to Sen McConnell: Call Up Rosenworcel Nomination [links to Benton summary]
Protect Internet Freedom Names Drew Johnson Executive Director [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Google's Remarkably Close Relationship with the Obama White House
COMPANY NEWS
Microsoft, Google End Regulatory Disputes [links to Wall Street Journal]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
New EU data protection rules show how not to build trust online [links to American Enterprise Institute]
Smartphone schools could help Syria's child refugees [links to Benton summary]
Is social media the newest front in Uganda’s war with the press? [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Turkey’s Crackdown on Critics of Erdogan Snares Dutch Journalist [links to New York Times]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
AT&T IS REACHING OUT TO LOW-INCOME AMERICANS WITH $10 INTERNET SERVICE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
AT&T says it is now offering discounted Internet service to low-income Americans who receive food stamps, following in the footsteps of some of its biggest rivals. The program, called Access from AT&T, lets eligible households sign up for basic wired broadband that starts at $5 a month for download speeds of 5 Mbps. It also offers faster speed tiers of 5 Mbps and 10 Mbps, both of which cost $10 a month. Access from AT&T resembles low-cost Internet programs run by other Internet providers. Comcast, for instance, runs a service called Internet Essentials that offers 10 Mbps download speeds for $10 a month, primarily to households with children who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. And Google Fiber, meanwhile, has been actively working with the Obama Administration to put its high-speed services in public housing. It's currently revamping its program for low-cost Internet; the new plans will cost $15 a month for speeds of 25 Mbps. The program from AT&T could help some Americans connect cheaply to the Web. With Access, AT&T is following through on a voluntary offer it made during discussions with regulators as it was trying to secure approval for its merger with DirecTV, according to officials from the Federal Communications Commission. There is a catch to the program, though. For starters, customers who've demonstrated their eligibility for Access will be automatically assigned to the fastest speed tier available in their region — they won't be able to choose a slower, cheaper plan even if that's what they would prefer. Meanwhile, Access from AT&T is a time-limited program; it'll run only until April 2020 before customers will presumably need to find another plan.
benton.org/headlines/att-reaching-out-low-income-americans-10-internet-service | Washington Post
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GOOGLE FIBER
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Google Fiber has yet to bring its super-fast broadband service to the city of Atlanta. But Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. know it’s coming, and they’re offering the 1 gigabit Internet speed Google promised -- and signing up new customers. It’s been six years since Google announced it would lay a fiber network to compete with cable providers and telephone companies. Although it’s now in only four markets, competitors are lowering rates and building faster lines to keep customers from defecting to the technology giant. Because Google needs consumers to have robust Internet speed in order to sell more expensive ads on its search engine, that may be what it had in mind all along. “There’s a lot more bark than bite” behind Google’s strategy, said Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC. When Google first announced its plans, 1 gigabit speed was a novelty. “The gigabit movement has become stronger,” said Kamalini Ganguly, an analyst at researcher Ovum. “Google is feeling a little bit of competitive heat as a result.” While Google has only entered four cities serving fewer than 100,000 customers combined, according to Entner, AT&T now offers its GigaPower service in 20 metro areas. Including AT&T, the nation’s other carriers now have as many as 1 million gigabit users, he said. “Any time Google is doing three, AT&T is doing 30 cities,” Entner said.
benton.org/headlines/google-gets-beaten-punch-att-super-fast-broadband | Bloomberg
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EDUCATION
DIGITAL DIVIDE AND EDUCATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Chico Harlan]
The financial decisions of telecom companies have put rural students at a disadvantage, leaving some without basic digital abilities that many in America take for granted. Federal regulators are working toward a fix for these out-of-reach of schools, but it’s unclear to what extent these efforts will solve the problem. The schools with sub-par Internet are scattered around the country, spanning from the far-flung communities of Alaska to the desert towns of New Mexico. The danger is that students who attend these schools will struggle for years with the critical tasks that now require online fluency: applying to colleges, researching papers, looking for jobs. “This is essentially the definition of the digital divide in education,” said Evan Marwell, EducationSuperHighway founder and chief executive. “Students on the wrong side don’t have the same opportunity to compete.” Marwell added that “the providers are kind of done building to all the areas they can rationalize on their own. So we need to figure out how to get it to those last places.”
benton.org/headlines/schools-sub-par-internet-kids-face-poor-connection-modern-life | Washington Post
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TELEVISION
ACA: FCC SET-TOP PROPOSAL IS ILLEGAL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The American Cable Association says it thinks the Federal Communications Commission's new set-top box proposal is an illegal overreach of its authority and warns the commission not to proceed, but adds that if it does, it should only apply that illegal proposal to larger multichannel video programming distributors, not its smaller members. ACA did not promise to sue the FCC if it does exempt smaller MVPDs from the proposal, but signaled that was the likely outcome. ACA SVP Ross Lieberman said he wanted to make it clear that the FCC should not adopt the proposal, period. But that if it does, it could still achieve the notice of proposal rulemaking's goals by applying the regulations only to larger MPVDs. He pointed out that those larger players serve 93% of pay TV subs, which is more than enough to make a new technology self sustaining, and that those players were historically the ones to roll out new devices. Asked whether ACA was saying it was OK with illegal regulations so long as they were applied to larger MPVDs, Lieberman said no. "We're saying the FCC should not adopt its proposal. But if the FCC moves forward with what we believe is an unlawful proposal, it should only apply the unlawful proposal to larger MVPDs." He added that he was sure the larger MVPDs would then take the FCC to court.
benton.org/headlines/aca-fcc-set-top-proposal-illegal | Broadcasting&Cable
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PRIVACY/SECURITY
DOJ WITHDRAWS DEMAND ON APPLE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The Justice Department notified a federal court in Brooklyn that it no longer needs Apple’s help in pulling data from a drug dealer’s iPhone after someone came forward with a passcode. The surprise notice marked the second time in less than a month that the government withdrew its demand for Apple’s help and brought to a close a closely-watched legal battle over the government’s authority to force technical assistance from a tech firm. The unnamed individual provided the passcode and the government was then able to gain access to the iPhone, US Attorney Robert L. Capers wrote in a one-paragraph submission to Judge Margo K. Brodie in the Eastern District of New York.
benton.org/headlines/justice-department-withdraws-another-demand-apples-help-passcode | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
GOOGLE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE RELATIONSHIP
[SOURCE: The Intercept, AUTHOR: David Dayen]
Over the past seven years, Google has created a remarkable partnership with the President Barack Obama White House, providing expertise, services, advice, and personnel for vital government projects. The Intercept teamed up with Campaign for Accountability to present two revealing data sets from that forthcoming project: one on the number of White House meetings attended by Google representatives, and the second on the revolving door between Google and the government. Google representatives attended White House meetings more than once a week, on average, from the beginning of President Obama’s presidency through October 2015. Nearly 250 people have shuttled from government service to Google employment or vice versa over the course of his Administration. No other public company approaches this degree of intimacy with government. According to an analysis of White House data, the Google lobbyist with the most White House visits, Johanna Shelton, visited 128 times, far more often than lead representatives of the other top-lobbying companies — and more than twice as often, for instance, as Microsoft’s Fred Humphries or Comcast’s David Cohen. Google’s dramatic rise as a lobbying force has not gone unnoticed. The company paid almost no attention to the Washington influence game prior to 2007, but ramped up steeply thereafter. It spent $16.7 million in lobbying in 2015, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and has been at or near the top of public companies in lobbying expenses since 2012.
benton.org/headlines/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-obama-white-house | Intercept, The | Vox | The Hill
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OPEN GOVERNMENT
Stonewalled by NSA, Members of Congress Ask Really Basic Question Again
QUESTIONS AND PRISM AND UPSTREAM
[SOURCE: The Intercept, AUTHOR: Dan Froomkin]
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is none too happy that the executive branch is asking them to reauthorize two key surveillance programs next year without answering the single most important question about them. The programs, authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are called PRISM and Upstream. PRISM collects hundreds of millions of Internet communications of “targeted individuals” from providers such as Facebook, Yahoo, and Skype. Upstream takes communications straight from the major US internet backbones run by telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon and harvests data that involves selectors related to foreign targets. But both programs, though nominally targeted at foreigners overseas, inevitably sweep up massive amounts of data involving innocent Americans. The question is: How much? The government won’t answer. Fourteen members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper asking for at least a rough estimate.
benton.org/headlines/stonewalled-nsa-members-congress-ask-really-basic-question-again | Intercept, The
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