BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2010
Today's agenda benton.org/calendar/2010-01-21
Headlines updated throughout the day http://bit.ly/2C0hLW
THE STIMULUS
More BTOP Grants Announced
Will broadband stimulus round 2 lure bigger telcos?
NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
A 'National Broadband Plan' -- One more solution in search of a problem
Will FCC's National Broadband Plan address reliability?
Broadband users more likely find jobs, study says
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Crafting A Comprehensive, Pragmatic Solution For Net Neutrality
Game developers warn FCC of "balkanized" Internet
NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC Issues Order Promoting Competition in the Video Distribution Market
FCC Launches Consumer Task Force
Genachowski: new media better suited to educating kids than a broadcast model
FCC Proposes Tougher Restrictions on "Robocalls"
FCC Approves Airport Body Scanning Device
WIRELESS
Defending DOJ Dropping Text Message Inquiry
The War Between Apple and Google Has Just Begun
Verizon Wireless-AT&T 'Price War' May Boost Revenues
AGENDA & POLICYMAKERS
Congress to Hold Hearings on Comcast-NBCU Deal
FCC Forum on Wireless Service
Obama Art, Humanities, Library Nominees
TechAmerica CEO Steps Down
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Web Access Is New Clinton Doctrine
China Paints Google Issue as Not Political
How Google mirrors China
Even a censored Internet has opened up a world for Chinese users
Sharing Ideas From the Forum on Modernizing Government |Backing Up Twitter and Facebook Posts Challenges Governments | White House Anywhere | White House details new e-mail archiving system | Agencies to use Ideascale software for online forums
JOURNALISM
Reporters feel jilted by President Obama
Furchtgott-Roth: Government Support Of Media Unwise
New York Times to Charge for Some Web Content in 2011
Charge for news or bleed red ink
Why All Media Soon Must Be Social
Time the Conquerer
MORE ONLINE
Microsoft calls for regulations over cloud computing
Apple Courts Publishers, While Kindle Adds Apps
Apple Sees New Money in Old Media
NBC Said to Tell Comcast of Leno Troubles Before Reaching Deal
Parents face a new frontier: Setting electronic limits
If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe
What Do TV Stations Need In 2010? Less National Programming, For One
Connected Consumer Tuned In to TVs in Q4
Why the Power Buildout Will Mirror Cell Phones in Developing Nations
Phone texting 'helps pupils to spell'
Online, It's the Mouse That Runs the Museum
Report details coming trends in campus technology
THE STIMULUS
More BTOP Grants Announced
MORE BTOP GRANTS ANNOUNCED
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced grants totaling $63 million to expand broadband access and adoption in Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, enhance and expand public computer centers, and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. 1) Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts-Lowell: $780,000 broadband adoption grant with an additional $196,000 in applicant-provided matching funds to promote broadband awareness and computer literacy among vulnerable populations. 2) Michigan, Merit Network, Inc.: $33.3 million infrastructure grant with an additional $8.3 million in matching funds to build a 955-mile advanced fiber-optic network through 32 counties in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. 3) Michigan, Michigan State University: $895,000 public computer center grant with an additional $235,000 in matching funds to expand 84 existing library computer centers and establish four new computer centers. 4) North Carolina, MCNC: $28.2 million infrastructure grant with an additional $11.7 million in matching funds and in-kind contributions to build a 494-mile middle-mile broadband network passing almost half the population of North Carolina in 37 counties.
benton.org/node/31470 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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WILL BROADBAND STIMULUS ROUND 2 LURE BIGGER TELCOS?
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
Now that the rules have changed for the second round of broadband stimulus funding awards, will incumbent telco carriers get more involved? None of the three former Bell carriers applied for the first round of funding. And of the biggest rural telcos CenturyLink, Windstream and Frontier Communications, which might have the broadest reach into unserved areas only Frontier applied for stimulus in the first round, and only in one state (West Virginia). Carl Russo, chief executive officer of Calix — a broadband equipment vendor that counts at least one first-round stimulus winner among its rural telco customer base predicted last summer that carriers that had sat out the first round would join in the second. Upsetting that prediction to some degree was the fact that there wasn't much opportunity to apply lessons from the first round to second-round rules changes. Not many first-round winners have been named yet (the batch announced last month represents only about 9% of first-round funds, though, in total, applicants asked for more than four times the amount available). And second-round applications are already due March 15.
benton.org/node/31455 | Connected Planet
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NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN
A NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN -- SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] As part of last year's stimulus package, Congress asked the FCC for a plan to ensure that everybody in the country has access to broadband. That's a worthy goal, but the idea of a government plan is based on a false presumption that the spread of broadband is stalled. The reality is that broadband adoption continues apace, as does the quality and speed of Internet connections. Between 2000 and 2008, residential broadband subscribers grew to 80 million from five million, according to a study by Bret Swanson of Entropy Economics. Broadband penetration among active Internet users at home is 94%, and nearly 99% of U.S. workers connect to the Internet with broadband. A typical cable modem today is 10 times faster than a decade ago. Wireless bandwidth growth per capita has been no less impressive, showing a 500-fold increase since 2000. Meanwhile, U.S. information and communications technology investment in 2008 alone totalled $455 billion, or 22% of all U.S. capital investment. Nominal capital investment in telecom between 2000 and 2008 was more than $3.5 trillion. Those who favor more government control of the Internet ignore this private progress and point to international rankings. Doesn't the Obama Administration have enough to do than mess with a part of the U.S. economy that is working well?
benton.org/node/31462 | Wall Street Journal
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WILL NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN ADDRESS RELIABILITY?
[SOURCE: FederalComputerWeek, AUTHOR: William Jackson]
The National Broadband Plan that the Federal Communications Commission is readying for Congress could include programs to ensure greater reliability and visibility into IP networks on which the nation's public safety agencies increasingly depend, the chief of the FCC's Communications Systems Analysis Division said Tuesday. One of the jobs of the division, which is part of the commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, is to assess the condition of communications infrastructure to help ensure that they are available during emergencies, Jeffrey Goldthorp said during a conference on cybersecurity policy hosted in Washington by the Stevens Institute of Technology. Such information is available for traditional carriers, but not for IP-based networks, Goldthorp said. There also is a lack of visibility into conditions of the Internet's core, he said.
benton.org/node/31460 | FederalComputerWeek
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BROADBAND USERS MORE LIKELY TO FIND JOBS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
According to a new study from the Phoenix Center, job seekers who use the Internet are more likely to keep actively looking for jobs and less likely to drop out of the labor pool than those without Internet access. The correlation between employment and Internet access is even stronger among broadband users. At a time when lawmakers are trying to ease unemployment, which now hovers over 10 percent, and increase Internet access, the study shows an explicit link between the two.
benton.org/node/31461 | Hill, The | Phoenix Center press release | Phoenix Center press report
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
CRAFTING NET NEUTRALITY SOLUTION
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Daily offers what he sees to be the key components to crafting a comprehensive, pragmatic solution for network neutrality: 1) Make providers be transparent to their customers. 2) Set strong rules against slowing down traffic anti-competitively. 3) Don't dissuade innovation in the network to speed up traffic. 4) Keep a close eye on how the prioritized market evolves. 5) Fund testbeds to prove if open networks can work.
benton.org/node/31457 | App-Rising.com
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GAME DEVELOPERS AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
A team of online game developers and boosters told the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday about worries that the big ISPs could fragment the Internet with "pay-for-priority" arrangements, causing economic troubles for the gaming industry similar to those created by mobile access providers. "Software platform developers like Microsoft and Facebook pose less of a threat to innovation than infrastructure owners," one developer told the agency, according to notes of the meeting. He added that "if the Internet were balkanized, and developers had to negotiate separately with each ISP, that would be a substantial drag on innovation because it would divert resources from development." The game makers included Asheron's Call producer Dan Scherlis, Jon Radoff of GamerDNA, Christopher Dyl of online world-maker Tubine, Matthew Bellows of voice chat developer Vivox, and Darius Kazemi of the International Game Developers Association. Kent Quirk also attended, speaking for himself and not his employer, Linden Lab.
benton.org/node/31456 | Ars Technica
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NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC VOTES TO CLOSE TERRESTRIAL EXEMPTION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Cable operators who do not share their owned terrestrially-delivered regional sports networks with their competitors will be presumed to be in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules against unfair acts or practices. They get to rebut the presumption, but the FCC majority made clear Wednesday (Jan. 20) it was taking action against what it saw as a loophole for multichannel video providers to withhold must-have programming from competitors. As expected, the FCC voted to close, or at least narrow, the exemption of terrestrially-delivered networks from program access rules. The vote was 4-1, with FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker joining the Democratic majority and Republican Robert McDowell dissenting with the advice that he expected to see the decision challenged in court. Media Bureau staffer David Konczal said there were three reasons for the FCC's action. He said cable continues to have incentive and ability to engage in unfair practices; that there is evidence of withholding programming, including must-have cable-affiliated regional sports nets in San Diego, New York.; and Philadelphia; and that there is evidence that such withholding depresses satellite subscribership, and thus reduces competition.
benton.org/node/31454 | Broadcasting&Cable | Multichannel News | FCC News Release | Read the Order
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FCC LAUNCHES CONSUMER TASK FORCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the launch of a Consumer Task Force to advance the Commission's consumer agenda and promote collaboration across the agency. Joel Gurin, Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, will head the cross-agency task force. "The goal of protecting and empowering consumers is among the Commission's most important responsibilities," said Chairman Genachowski. "As communications networks and technologies become increasingly complex and essential to Americans' everyday lives, the Commission must be a vigilant watchdog for the consumer. While we have one bureau with 'consumer' in its name, consumers are vital to the work of each of our bureaus and offices. Cross-agency collaboration is critical to this effort and that's why I am so pleased to launch the Consumer Task Force." The Consumer Task Force will play a critical role in ensuring that Commission proceedings take account of consumer interests, that consumer protection and empowerment policies apply consistently and reasonably across technologies and bureaus at the FCC, that the public is able to engage fully in FCC processes, and that the agency enhances the public's understanding of Commission work through state-of-the-art consumer information programs, seizing the opportunities of information technology. The Task Force will include every Commission Bureau Chief, the Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the General Counsel, and the Managing Director.
benton.org/node/31453 | Federal Communications Commission
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GENACHOWSKI SPEAKS OF DANGERS POSED BY YOUTHS' INCREASED SCREEN TIME
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday spoke about the dangers to youth of proliferating media and increased screen time in front of them, but he also said there was potential to educate and engage future world citizens in that media mix by combining regulation, technology, and new business models. He also suggested that new media might be better suited to educating kids than a broadcast model based on aggregating eyeballs. Chairman Genachowski was the opening speaker at a Kaiser Family Foundation event in Washington announcing the release of a third in a series of studies on media usage by young people. The study found that usage had gone up dramatically among 8-18-year-olds, with TV still the dominant screen time. The chairman, who worked to implement the Children's Television Act as a top FCC staffer in the 1990s, said the release of the study underscores the FCC's effort to update that act for the digital age--it launched an inquiry in October. "When I think about the challenges, I think about more screens, more time in front of screens, and more dangers from [both]."
benton.org/node/31452 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC PROPOSES TOUGHER RESTRICTIONS ON ROBOCALLS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission proposed revisions to its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to further empower residential telephone subscribers to avoid unwanted telephone solicitations. The proposals would require sellers and telemarketers to obtain written consent from recipients before making prerecorded telemarketing calls, commonly referred to as "robocalls," even when the caller has an established business relationship with the consumer. Additionally, the FCC proposes to make it easier to opt out of receiving robocalls. These new restrictions would harmonize the FCC's rules with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) recent amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule. Because the majority of entities that use prerecorded telemarketing calls are subject to both agencies' telemarketing regulations, most regulated entities must comply with the FTC's current, more restrictive standards. However, entities outside the FTC's jurisdiction, such as telephone companies, airlines, banks, and insurance companies, are currently subject to less restrictive standards.
benton.org/node/31468 | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC APPROVES AIRPORT BODY SCANNING DEVICE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote innovative technology that furthers homeland security objectives, the Federal Communications Commission affirmed a rule waiver permitting the certification and subsequent marketing and operation of L 3 Communications SafeView Inc. (L 3 SafeView) ProVision 100 security portal full-body imaging devices. This system is used to detect weapons or contraband carried on an individual's person, including non metallic objects or explosives, which might otherwise require intrusive manual searches or be missed entirely by existing metal detectors. "National security is one of the Commission's top priorities and the agency has an important role in promoting the development of innovative technologies to ensure the safety of the public," said Chairman Julius Genachowski. "With this action, we are helping to ensure that security personnel have access to the most cutting-edge equipment for protecting the public, while still preventing interference to other vital interests."
benton.org/node/31459 | Federal Communications Commission
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WIRELESS
DEFENDING DOJ DROPPING TEXT MESSAGING INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Last week, the Department of Justice indicated it has dropped an investigation into text message rates. seems exactly right under existing antitrust law. Does this leave consumers helpless? No. As we occasionally remind the Federal Communications Commission, we have a pending petition to classify SMS text messaging as a Title II "Telecom Service" that we filed way back in December 2007. If the FCC granted this Petition, it would require that carriers charge only "reasonable rates" and engage in "reasonable" practices under Section 201 of the Communications Act. This would not require the FCC to impose "heavy handed regulation" or any of the other usual nonsense that gets brought up whenever someone suggest the FCC actually look at the legal criteria in the statute and do its job.
benton.org/node/31467 | Public Knowledge | www.benton.org
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THE WAR BETWEEN APPLE AND GOOGLE HAS JUST BEGUN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
Consumers are witnessing the beginning of a new war between computer companies. Instead of the Apple-Microsoft conflict of the early 1980s, this fight is taking place between Apple and Google. The latest skirmish: BusinessWeek reported Wednesday that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone's Safari Web browser. The article said the two companies have been negotiating for weeks over a possible partnership on the iPhone. Apple and Google weren't always "frenemies." The companies seemed to band together against any number of competitors, Microsoft's Windows Mobile included, in 2007 when Apple's iPhone launched with numerous Google applications built in, including GMail, the Google search engine and Google Maps. But the friendship turned sour last year during a conflict over the Google Voice application and Apple's refusal to allow the software into the iTunes App store.
benton.org/node/31466 | New York Times | Bloomberg
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VERIZON WIRELESS-AT&T PRICE WAR?
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
Don't be fooled by the latest round of price cuts by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The two biggest U.S. mobile-phone companies said on Jan. 15 they'll cut monthly prices on unlimited voice calling packages by $30. While the decreases make voice calling cheaper, they and other price moves announced the same day are designed to get subscribers to opt for data plans that typically carry higher price tags and fatter margins for mobile-phone service providers. So the net effect may be increased revenue, analysts say. "We could see a move upwards rather than downwards," says Jennifer Fritzsche, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in Chicago, who recommends buying shares of AT&T and Verizon Communications. "Any kind of voice pricing is very much a commodity," Fritzsche tells Bloomberg News. "Data is the future." Verizon Wireless, for example, may sacrifice $540 million in voice revenue while generating an additional $630 million in data plan sales, according to Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin. That suggests a net gain of $90 million. Only about 2% of wireless subscribers will see lower bills as a result of the price changes, according to estimates by JPMorgan. Effective Jan. 18, Verizon Wireless and AT&T will charge about $70 apiece for unlimited voice calls.
benton.org/node/31448 | BusinessWeek | C|Net
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
WEB ACCESS IS NEW CLINTON DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
The US will make unrestricted access to the Internet a top foreign-policy priority, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to announce Thursday. The announcement, which has been scheduled for weeks, comes in the wake of accusations last week that Chinese hackers penetrated Google's computer networks. The attack, which also targeted Chinese dissidents, is the kind of issue Sec Clinton aims to address, said Alec Ross, a senior adviser. The growing role of the Internet in foreign policy became clear last year during protests in Iran after allegations of election fraud. The government tried to crack down on protesters' Internet communications, but they circumvented digital blockades to send out video and Twitter messages about violence against demonstrators. In one new initiative, the State Department plans to offer financial support to grass-roots movements that promote Internet freedom, Ross said. Sec Clinton also hopes to diminish the "honor" beatings and killings of women in the Middle East by family members who discover they are using social media on the Internet, such as Facebook or Twitter, he said. Sec Clinton sees Internet freedom as critical to America's longstanding promotion of democracy abroad, Ross added. She aims to shrink the proportion of the global population, now 30%, who live in countries that censor the Internet, he said.
benton.org/node/31480 | Wall Street Journal | New York Times
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CHINA PAINTS GOOGLE ISSUE AS NOT POLITICAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wong, Jonathan Ansfield, Sharon LaFraniere]
The Chinese government is taking a cautious approach to the dispute with Google, treating the conflict as a business dispute that requires commercial negotiations and not a political matter that could affect relations with the United States. Officials were caught off guard by Google's move, and they want to avoid the issue's becoming a referendum among Chinese liberals and foreign companies on the Chinese government's Internet censorship policies, say people who have spoken to officials here. There have been no public attacks on Google from senior officials or formal editorials in the newspaper People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece. Instead, most official statements and state media reports on Google's surprise announcement that it intends to stop complying with Chinese censorship rules and might shut down its China operations criticized Google as trying to play politics and suggested that its business troubles in China were the real reason for the dispute.
benton.org/node/31479 | New York Times
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HOW GOOGLE MIRRORS CHINA
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Ted Fishman]
[Commentary] The successes of Google and of China share some common attributes. They both derive their present strength from their skill at appropriating and organizing information according to the rules that suit them. They both have compelling stories about whom their rules serve. Google says it prospers by democratizing information for its users. China says it prospers by aligning its leadership with the needs of the Chinese people to advance economically. China and Google take for their own purposes all the information in the world they can get their hands on. Is it really surprising then that some smart Chinese people — no one has definitive proof they are affiliated with the government — have been poking around Google's service, grabbing information from human rights activists' e-mail, and perhaps stealing valuable intellectual property from the U.S. search giant and from other major corporations? Here's another question: When Google now threatens on principle to stop kowtowing to Chinese government censors, might it be that commerce, not principles, is the soul of the matter? That when Google says it means to protect its search clients and e-mail customers, that it really means to protect archaic algorithms and other secret sauces that are central to Google being Google?
benton.org/node/31478 | USAToday
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EVEN A CENSORED INTERNET HAS OPENED UP A WORLD FOR CHINESE USERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Steven Mufson]
Even a circumscribed Chinese Internet has had a liberating effect on many citizens. That's likely to continue both as a result of popular techniques for circumventing what's known as the Great Firewall of China. The advertising and research firm Ogilvy China estimated last year that 47 million bloggers existed by the end of 2007 and that the number was rising by 25 percent a year. "When traditional media dominated the public opinion arena, Chinese citizens had trouble finding ways to express their ideas or views on various social issues that might involve their own interests," said Hu Yong, an associate professor at Beijing University's School of Journalism and Communication. "But with the advent of the Internet, Chinese netizens found outlets of expression." To be sure, not everyone has been left to enjoy such freedoms. In December, a Chinese judge sentenced the dissident literary critic Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for his writing and for his role in a pro-democracy petition called Charter 08, which sought to rally support for political reform.
benton.org/node/31477 | Washington Post
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