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BROADBAND
Will Sticks Lick Broadband Fix?
Telecoms' Quest for Customers Follows Path to Internet TV
San Francisco Moves Forward on Wi-Fi Plan
The Quest For A Municipal UTOPIA
Mars Orbiter takes Broadband to Space
INTERNET
States Push Tax Plans for Web Sales
The Book on Google
The Birth of Murdoch.com
SECURITY
'Spear Phishing' Tests Educate People About Online Scams
Dueling Hackers Hit Firms' Computers
QUICKLY -- .xxx Vote Delayed; Local Info Websites may Widen UK's Rich-Poor
Gap; Fewer commercials on the horizon?; Landscape changing for broadcast
licensing; E911 Proposals Trouble Small Ops; Eligible Services List for
E-rate; Qwest Reaches Labor Pact; Clear Channel Wins New Trial; Time Warner
Unlikely To Spin Off Entire Cable Unit
BROADBAND
WILL STICKS LICK BROADBAND FIX?
[Commentary] The sticks are getting shafted when it comes to broadband. The
Pew Internet and American Life Project study reports that rural users are
only half as likely as urbanites to use high-speed Internet service, and
that two thirds of rural dial-up users either don't know of their options
to get the fast stuff or have checked it out and learned for sure they
can't get it. There are just too many areas, where cable companies never
bothered to lay wire and telcos haven't made the "final mile" investment to
extend broadband to their phone customers. High-speed Internet is quickly
becoming an essential, just like electricity and phone service. A century
ago our government pursued a policy of "universal access" to make sure that
those technologies would be available to all. In that spirit, President
George W. Bush has set a goal of high-speed Internet access available in
every home in America by 2007. But where's the beef? "It's one thing to set
a goal, and another to create policies to make it happen," says Sen. Byron
Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota. "Everybody understands that universal
access is broken." Sen Dorgan, along with Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, is
sponsoring a bill that would direct up to $500 million from the telephone
Universal Service Fund to building out broadband in unserved areas. A good
start, but compared with the highway bill President Bush signed last week
-- a breathtaking porkfest that designated $286 billion for overpasses,
museum renovations and bridges to nowhere -- it seems comically modest.
[SOURCE: Newsday, AUTHOR: Steven Levy]
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8938152/site/newsweek/
TELECOMS' QUEST FOR CUSTOMERS FOLLOWS PATH TO INTERNET TV
With cable TV companies angling to take away phone customers, the telecom
industry is responding by spending billions of dollars to outfit their
networks with the latest in video technology. Their chief weapon is an
infant, unproven technology with a geeky name: Internet Protocol TV, or
IPTV for short. The beauty of IPTV? Phone companies can use their existing
networks, outfitted with new gear, to offer a rich assortment of advanced
video services. The range is practically unlimited, from "live" TV such as
pay-per-view to high-definition programming, video conferencing, gaming and
distance learning. The rush to embrace IPTV is global. Dozens of telephone
companies, from industry giants such as Bell Canada to state-owned carriers
such as Swisscom of Switzerland, are moving rapidly to deploy the new
technology. All share a common goal: to fortify their competitive flanks.
With cable operators moving quickly to add VoIP -- short for Voice Over
Internet Protocol -- telephone companies need a counterpunch.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Leslie Cauley]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050817/iptvcov.art.htm
* How does this thing work?
The toughest hurdle for people using Pioneer's IPTV service has nothing to
do with technology, the Internet or even IP, short for Internet Protocol.
It's the remote control.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050817/pioneerside.art.htm
* SBC's $4 billion investment into IPTV 'not much money for us to burn'
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050817/sbcside.art.htm
SAN FRANCISCO MOVES FORWARD ON Wi-Fi PLAN
The city of San Francisco wants ideas for making the entire 49-square mile
city a free - or at least cheap - Wi-Fi zone. Taking a step toward bridging
the so-called digital divide between the tech-savvy and people who can't
afford computers, the city government on Tuesday issued guidelines for a
plan to "ensure universal, affordable wireless broadband access for all San
Franciscans." The invitation, extended to nonprofit groups and businesses
that could eventually bid on the project, puts San Francisco among a
handful of major U.S. cities tackling the technological and political
challenges of offering Internet service to its residents on such a wide scale.
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Lisa Leff]
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/12399473.htm
FCC Order Builds Momentum For Wireless Auction
The FCC made some tweaks to the rules governing the largest-ever auction of
cellular radio frequencies, which is set for June 2006. The order,
unanimously approved at the FCC's Aug. 5 meeting, made minor revisions in
the size of the frequency parcels to be auctioned for advanced wireless
services. For example, the FCC decided to slice the 90 megahertz of
spectrum into six chunks instead of five. The changes dictate that there
will be 1,122 licenses available in the auction, instead of 946,
potentially allowing smaller carriers entry to the market. The agency was
urged to make the move by the Rural Communications Association, a group of
cellular carriers, and T-Mobile USA, the smallest of the country's four
nationwide wireless companies.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-LIWX1124224076060.html
THE QUEST FOR A MUNICIPAL UTOPIA
An inter-local government agency comprising 14 cities, since 2002 UTOPIA
has been building a fiber-optic infrastructure to reach all 170,000 homes
and businesses in the cities that span the fast-developing region between
Salt Lake City and Provo. What sets UTOPIA apart from other municipal
broadband deployments is its size and "wholesale" business model. Once
completed, UTOPIA will be the largest deployment of fiber in the country.
UTOPIA is not offering service directly to citizens. Instead, it is selling
bandwidth on its network to private companies that offer voice, data or
video services to consumers. "It is absurd to require each and every
company to require it to lay exactly the same infrastructure, just as it
would be absurd to have seven airports," said Keith Wilson, chief executive
officer of Dynamic City, the private company building the network. Provo,
the state's third-largest city, is not part of UTOPIA because it already
had a fiber network. Salt Lake City was a member but withdrew.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-JLQZ1124223622523.html
MARS ORBITER TAKES BROADBAND TO SPACE
NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter last Friday, in part to lay
the foundation for an Internet in outer space. Besides conducting basic
science research, NASA officials say, the orbiter will become part of a
high-speed telecommunications link between Earth and the Red Planet. After
the orbiter approaches Mars in 2006, it will join the Mars Global Surveyor
and Mars Odyssey to create a three-node network, which could become a
component of the InterPlanetary Internet. The InterPlanetary Internet is
NASA's solution to the speed-of-light delay in data transmission that has
hung up space communications, NASA scientists say.
[SOURCE: Federal Computer Week, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
http://www.fcw.com/article89922-08-15-05-Print
Also see, from April 2004
* PRESIDENT REVISES BROADBAND GOAL
Combining two popular recent proposals, President Bush urged Congress to
adopt as a national goal broadband access on Mars by 2020. "Look," the
President said, "we're already planning on sending scientists, astronauts
and Al Gore to Mars; they will need information flowing across cables and
telephone lines in a fast way. We can help. That's what broadband
technology is. It means we'll open the interplanetary highways of knowledge
-- new interplanetary highways of knowledge." The President added later in
the day that broadband access on Mars should not be taxed.
http://lists.benton.org/lists/arc/headlines/2004-04/msg00000.html
INTERNET
STATES PUSH TAX PLANS FOR WEB SALES
States will lose about $1.4 billion this year from estimated Internet
tobacco sales of $5 billion, according to the U.S. General Accounting
Office. So they are stepping up their efforts to extract taxes from smokers
who avoid tobacco taxes by buying cigarettes online. The Supreme Court
ruled in 1992 that states could require only merchants that have a store or
office in the buyer's state to collect a "use" tax, equivalent to the
state's sales tax. A 1949 federal law known as the Jenkins Act, however,
requires vendors that ship cigarettes to another state to provide state tax
authorities with the names and addresses of purchasers. Until recently,
states didn't aggressively pursue customers' names. Targeting online
cigarette sales raises the larger question of how to collect sales tax on
other online purchases when retailers aren't required by law to report
interstate sales. As online retailing grows, states are trying harder to
collect some of that revenue, though they are "hamstrung by the law," says
CCH's Mr. Logan. Moreover, with more than 7,500 state and local
jurisdictions imposing a sales tax -- ranging from 4% to 9% -- it is an
administrative nightmare to collect from businesses, he says. Online retail
sales for clothing, books, software, music and other consumer items should
reach $79 billion this year, up from $53 billion in 2003, according to
JupiterResearch. By 2008, that figure could jump to an estimated $118
billion. Missing out on tax revenue from those purchases is maddening for
state governments. A 2004 study by University of Tennessee economists found
that state and local governments in 2003 lost an estimated $15.5 billion in
uncollected taxes from Internet sales. That is expected to rise to $21.5
billion or more by 2008, according to the study.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kerry Hannon]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112302940574703290,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
THE BOOK ON GOOGLE
[Commentary] Google's goal is to organize all the world's information. It
has run into several hurdles along the way, however, as copyright holders
objected to their works being duplicated in the Google database without
payment or permission. According to Google, users who search for a word or
phrase will receive links to custom-made Web pages, each of which offers
three short excerpts from a book that contains the item being sought. The
pages will also offer ways to order the book or to search for it in a
library nearby. If this is in fact what Google does, it would be a boon not
just for publishers but also for readers. The project amounts to a 21st
century card catalog, helping people find relevant books online with the
kind of precision that Internet users have come to expect. To make this
service a reality, though, Google is skating dangerously close to the line
between fair use and piracy. Google should show more respect for
publishers' rights -- and publishers should not make the mistake of using
the strictures of copyright law to tie their own hands. Building a guide to
the contents of books is hardly the same as making bootlegged copies or
plagiarizing. It's a monumental and costly task, and publishers have given
no reason to believe they can do it for themselves. Unless their works are
as well integrated with the Net as other forms of information and
entertainment, they may be left waiting on the shelves for an audience that
no longer bothers to walk through the stacks.
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-google17aug17,1,7...
(requires registration)
THE BIRTH OF MURDOCH.COM
News Corp is trying to make its mark on the Internet. The media giant spent
$580 million to acquire Intermix/MySpace.com and recently announced the
acquisition of Scout, a leading college sports site. Once the Intermix deal
closes, News Corp. Web sites will have an aggregate 50 million unique
visitors a month, the sixth-largest audience on the Web. "There is no
greater priority for the company today than to meaningfully and profitably
expand its Internet presence and to properly position ourselves from the
explosion in broadband usage that we're now starting to see," Rupert
Murdoch recently told investors. The world is changing and Murdoch is ready
to change with it. The younger viewers at the core of the company's
audience are drifting away from TV, spending more time online. They're
using the Web to socialize and communicate, downloading songs, listening to
Internet radio and podcasts, and playing online games. It won't be long
before they turn to the Web for longer-form video and TV, thanks to the
rise of broadband. About 35% of the U.S. population has broadband, which is
getting faster and cheaper every year. And advertising dollars are shifting
from TV and print to the Web. Worldwide, online advertising is expected to
soar 50% this year, to $13 billion, from $9.6 billion in 2004, according to
Ken Marlin, managing partner of Marlin & Associates, an investment bank and
advisor to media companies. Most TV and print categories are growing at
single-digit rates. "Murdoch has shown a remarkable ability to adjust and
adapt his company to the moment. He's a smart guy. He's got to be looking
around, saying, 'There's an opportunity to be a major player on the Web,
and it's closing,'" Marlin said. News Corp. wants to merge the content of a
big media company with its own portal. It won't be easy. Time Warner still
struggles to make its AOL deal work. But Murdoch may just succeed, just as
he succeeded in upending the TV business in the 80s and 90s.
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Steve Rosenbush]
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050816_5029_t...
SECURITY
'SPEAR PHISHING' TESTS EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT ONLINE SCAMS
Hackers are increasingly exploiting the weakest link in computer security
-- humans. Most computer users have become savvy enough to avoid obvious
attempts at what security experts call "phishing" -- phony email messages,
often purportedly from financial institutions, that ask for personal
information such as account or Social Security numbers. But many are still
succumbing to a new wave of more sophisticated attacks, dubbed "spear
phishing," that are targeted at specific companies and government agencies.
In such exploits, attackers create email messages that are designed to look
like they came from the recipient's company or organization, such as an
information-technology or a human-resources department. More than 35
million of these targeted email messages to steal critical data and
personal information were launched in the first half of the year, according
to a report this month from IBM. And use of these scams is soaring: The
number of such email messages sent rose more than 1,000% from January to
June. To fight computer crime, the good guys are masquerading as bad guys
pretending to be good guys. Some computer-security experts say the bogus
phishing exercises can help "inoculate" users against falling for real
phishing scams, much like vaccines use a broken version of a real disease
to provide immunization.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Bank david.bank( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112424042313615131,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
DUELING HACKERS HIT FIRMS' COMPUTERS
Rival computer hackers exploited a newly disclosed flaw in Microsoft's
Windows operating system to attack dozens of companies in what security
experts said was an Internet-crime turf war. Among the companies hit hard
by fast-spreading computer worms were a number of media outlets, including
Time Warner's CNN unit, New York Times Co. and ABC, a unit of Walt Disney
Co. Computers crashed at Kraft Foods yesterday afternoon and United Parcel
Service reported that a "very small" number of computers in various
locations were affected by a worm. The worms, small computer programs with
instructions for replicating themselves, clogged computer networks as they
sought out new machines to infect. Some companies reported that their
computers sought to continually restart themselves.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Bank at david.bank( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112423554861414993,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
* Media Outlets Hurt by Internet Worm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR200508...
QUICKLY
VOTE ON .XXX PUSHED BACK A MONTH
A final decision on the fate of the highly controversial .xxx domain, which
was intended to be reserved for online pornography, will not happen until
September. The board of directors of the nonprofit group that oversees
domain names said on Tuesday that it would delay a vote until its next
meeting on Sept. 15. That decision follows last-minute opposition to the
creation of .xxx from the Bush administration and other national
governments. The vote was originally supposed to take place on Tuesday. The
move by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was
expected after ICM Registry, the Florida company that plans to operate
.xxx, agreed on Monday to a month's delay, saying the additional time would
permit it to assuage concerns about the creation of a virtual red-light
district.
[SOURCE: CNET|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
http://news.com.com/Vote+on+.xxx+pushed+back+a+month/2100-1028_3-5835702...
LOCAL INFO WEBSITES MAY WIDEN UK'S RICH-POOR GAP
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is warning that websites offering
information on the social make-up of neighborhoods could increase the
divide between the richest and poorest places in Britain. "Until recently
these segmentation processes have been largely invisible to the public, but
with the emergence of [Internet-based neighborhood information systems] it
is entirely possible that people will start using them to sort themselves
out into neighborhoods where their neighbors are less diverse and more like
themselves," said Professor Roger Burrows, who led the research team from
the Universities of York and Durham.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID...
FEWER COMMERCIALS ON THE HORIZON?
Consumers are increasingly frustrated by all the commercials they have to
sit through when listening to the radio or watching TV and the ads they
have to wade through when reading a magazine or newspaper. And that's led
many people to less-cluttered media -- mostly cable television, satellite
radio and the Internet. Clear Channel has responded by saying it'll sell
less ad time in the hopes of gaining higher rates since ad time will be
scarcer. But analysts think people may be drawn to new media because of
content, not less commercials.
[SOURCE: CNN|Money, AUTHOR: Paul R. La Monica]
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/15/news/fortune500/advertising/index.htm
LANDSCAPE CHANGING FOR BROADCAST LICENSING
In a marketplace being driven by empowered consumers, whose demands and
habits already are altering industry economics, how much leverage will
broadcasters and cable networks continue to have to command cash
retransmission fees and carriage for new program services? And what will
that do, in turn, to their established business relations with program
producers and advertisers? How much economic disruption will occur as a
result of the deterioration of allegiances that used to assure financial
security for broadcast networks and their TV station affiliates, between
broadcast and cable operations owned by the same media conglomerate,
between program networks and advertisers, and programers and consumers?
What new content production and distribution options will offset the
weakening traditional financial metrics with, perhaps, more lucrative and
reliable revenue streams? Over the next five years, we will begin to know
the answers as many of the licensing agreements with major distributors
held by News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group and Viacom's CBS Corp. expire
and are renegotiated according to a new set of economic and technology
considerations.
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Diane Mermigas]
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/mermigas_display.jsp?vnu_co...
E911 PROPOSALS TROUBLE SMALL OPS
Small cable operators are expressing concern about the scope of emergency
calling rules the Federal Communications Commission may put into place for
the personal protection of consumers using voice-over-Internet-protocol
services. In a filing Monday, the American Cable Association warned that
some FCC proposals, however well-intentioned, were inappropriate for VoIP
services provided by cable companies, especially capital-constrained small
companies.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA635588.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
ELIGIBLE SERVICES LIST FOR E-RATE
Dora the Explorer Backpack -- check. Thomas thermos -- check. Batman pencil
holder -- check... The FCC is seeking comment on what telecommunications
services should be eligible for E-rate support. On December 23, 2003, the
Commission adopted a rule that formalizes the process for updating the
eligible services list for the schools and libraries universal service
support mechanism. Under this rule, the Universal Service Administrative
Company (Administrator) is required to submit annually a draft eligible
services list for the following funding year. The rule also requires that
the Commission issue a Public Notice seeking comment on the Administrator's
proposed eligible services list. Finally, at least sixty days prior to the
opening of the window for the following funding year, the rule requires the
Commission to issue a public notice attaching the final eligible services
list for the upcoming funding year. For a list of the purposed services and
instructions on how to share your comments with the FCC, see the URL below.
iPod -- check...
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-158A1.doc
QWEST REACHES PACT WITH UNION, AVERTING STRIKE
The Communications Workers of America says it has reached a contract
agreement with Qwest, removing the threat of a strike by 25,000 telephone
workers in 13 states. The agreement includes a 7.5% wage increase over
three years, changes to healthcare coverage to reduce overall costs for
many employees, and an eight-hour cap on mandatory overtime. It still must
be ratified by workers across the 13-state region including Colorado,
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico, Arizona,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa and Utah.
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-qwest17aug17,1,793137...
(requires registration)
CLEAR CHANNEL WINS NEW TRIAL
Clear Channel Communications, the largest producer of concerts and live
entertainment events, won reversal of a $70-million punitive damage award
in a lawsuit brought by a smaller competitor, Jam Sports & Entertainment.
Jam Sports claimed that Clear Channel intimidated the American Motorcycle
Assn. into reneging on an agreement with Jam Sports to promote Supercross
events nationwide in 2003.
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News]
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-clear17aug17,1,132599...
(requires registration)
TIME WARNER UNLIKELY TO SPIN OFF ENTIRE CABLE UNIT
Despite urging by investor Carl Icahn, Time Warner is unlikely to spin-off
its cable division.
[SOURCE: Forbes.com]
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2005/08/16/time-warner-icahn-0816markets08...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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