BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 2010
A look at this week's agenda http://bit.ly/9NooJK
Headlines will not arrive in your In Box tomorrow morning -- you'll see a special PM edition instead.
INTERNET/BROADBAND
FCC: 4 out of 5 Americans Don't Know Their Broadband Speeds
National Broadband Plan will hurt rural America, 40 House members say
China Telecom Set To Singlehandedly Match US Fiber Deployment
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
New AT&T smartphone users won't get one-price Net
4G wireless: It's fast, but outstripped by hype
India's Government to Reap New Broadband Bonanza
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Obama and the press: Who said they were cozy?
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
Campaign Finance Reform: Experiences of Two States That Offered Full Public Funding for Political Candidates
CONTENT
FCC asked to monitor "hate speech," "misinformation" online
HEALTH
The Doctor Will See You Now. Please Log On.
ED TECH
New assistive technology research focuses on iPad, communication skills
Researchers: Even violent video games can be learning tools
CYBERSECURITY
FISMA Reform Passes House
OWNERSHIP
House Judiciary To Hold Field Hearing On Comcast/NBCU
MORE ONLINE
Inside the Gates Foundation
INTERNET/BROADBAND
WHAT'S YOUR BROADBAND SPEED?
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission released the results of a survey on the consumer broadband experience. The survey found that 80 percent of broadband users in the United States do not know the speed of their broadband connection. The survey is part of the agency's overall broadband speed initiative, which involves several bureaus and offices and is being coordinated by the FCC's Consumer Task Force. Through the initiative, the agency will also measure the actual speeds that consumers receive and compare them to the speeds that broadband providers advertise.
The Consumer Task Force announced two initiatives that will help the FCC determine the broadband speeds consumers are getting in their homes and on their mobile devices, a key recommendation in the National Broadband Plan. In the first of these initiatives, the FCC is asking today for 10,000 volunteers to participate in a scientific study to measure home broadband speed in the U.S. Specialized hardware will be installed in the homes of volunteers to measure the performance of all the country's major Internet service providers across geographic regions and service tiers. The FCC is partnering with SamKnows Limited in this effort, the same firm that successfully conducted a similar test in the United Kingdom. A Public Notice asking for comment on the test plan was released in April 2010. This study will culminate in a "State of Broadband" report to be released later this year.
Next, the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is issuing a Public Notice today to look at ways to measure mobile broadband speed. More and more consumers are using mobile wireless devices to access the Web, sometimes as a primary Internet connection. The Public Notice asks for input on the best ways to measure mobile broadband speeds, the ways that speed measurements can be used to help improve service, and the information consumers should have about the speed of mobile broadband coverage. The FCC welcomes comments from all interested parties and the general public on this Public Notice. Comments can be filed through the agency's Electronic Comment Filing System.
Ultimately, the FCC hopes to develop tests that help each individual consumer in the U.S. determine his or her own broadband speed.
benton.org/node/36481 | Federal Communications Commission | read the survey | FCC consumer tips | read the Public Notice | FCC blog | Washington Post | The Hill
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BROADBAND PLAN WILL HURT RURAL AMERICA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
The Federal Communications Commissions' decade-long blueprint for increasing broadband Internet access could widen the digital divide between rural and metropolitan areas, according to a bipartisan group of 40 House members who sent a letter to agency Chairman Julius Genachowski on Friday. "The plan as written will lead to job loss, less investment in rural areas, a further erosion of state and local economics, and the deterioration of communications services for our constituents," the members wrote. The FCC's plan, which Congress mandated in the stimulus act last year, is not ambitious enough when it comes to underserved, rural communities, the members said. The FCC calls for 4 megabits per second (Mbps) connectivity in rural areas while aspiring to 100 Mbps in the nation's most densely-populated spots, according to the letter. Such a capacity goal is not enough "for the next several years, let alone the future demands of commerce, education, energy, and public safety," wrote the members, led by Reps. Betsy Markey (D-CO) and Sam Graves (R-MO). The letter also criticizes the plan's proposed changes to the Universal Service Fund, a pot of FCC cash that subsidizes telephone service in underserved areas. The plan seeks to transition this money to instead subsidize broadband infrastructure, adoption and service. Such a transition would "abandon a successful policy approach," the letter says.
benton.org/node/36497 | Hill, The
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CHINA VS US IN FIBER DEPLOYMENT
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] In yet another sign of the gaping chasm between America's broadband trajectory and the rest of the world, China Telecom has announced that they're going to install a fiber network that passes 18 million homes this year. To put that into context, there are barely 18 million homes passed by fiber in the entire US today. The vast majority of those passings have been made by Verizon, but Verizon's publicly indicated its intentions to slow down and even stop their fiber deployment. While there are lots of other deployers and cities considering fiber, we have no clearcut champion ready to pick up Verizon's slack. Because of this America's year-to-year growth of fiber penetration is expect to slow. So while America hits a plateau of next generation networks at about 18 million passings, China's ramping up to see 18 million homes passed in a single year.
benton.org/node/36479 | App-Rising.com
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
NEW SMARTPHONE PRICING
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
AT&T will become the first major mobile phone company to stop offering new smartphone customers a single monthly price for unlimited Internet access — likely presaging an industry shift to charges based on how much people use their phones to access videos, music and data. AT&T expects the new pricing to boost sales. "Some customers, up until now, have been hesitant to sign up for a $30 monthly data plan" for unlimited access, says Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. Existing customers can switch to the new pricing or keep their current all-you-can-eat service. Newcomers will have two options: Under the DataPlus plan, subscribers can pay $15 a month for 200 megabytes of data; that would handle about 400 photos or 100 minutes of streaming video. The DataPro plan offers 10 times that capacity, 2 gigabytes, for $25. AT&T will send text alerts to customers near their limits. DataPlus customers who go over will be charged $15 for an additional 200 MB. DataPro users will pay $10 for an extra 1 GB. AT&T says 65% of its smartphone customers use less than 200 MB a month, and 98% use less than 2 GB. But, largely due to the success of the iPhone, AT&T "has the most loaded and most used data network in the U.S.," says Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen. And just 3% of AT&T's smartphone customers account for as much as 40% of its data traffic, contributing to slow transmissions and dropped calls. AT&T must control heavy users, or at least get them to pay more, Entner says.
benton.org/node/36502 | USAToday | Fast Company
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4G HYPE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
Cell phone companies are about to barrage consumers with advertising for the next advance in wireless network technology: "4G" access. The companies are promising faster speeds and the thrill of being the first on the block to use a new acronym. But there's less to 4G than meets the eye, and there's little reason for people to scramble for it, at least for the next few years. Sprint Nextel is the first carrier to beat the drum for fourth-generation wireless technology. It's releasing its first 4G phone, the EVO, on June 4. In the fall, Verizon Wireless will be firing up its 4G network in 25 to 30 cities, and probably will make a big deal of that. A smaller provider, MetroPCS, is scheduled to introduce its first 4G phone around the same time. So what is 4G? Broadly speaking, it's a new way to use the airwaves, designed from the start for the transmission of data rather than phone calls. To do that, it borrows aspects of the latest generation of Wi-Fi, the short-range wireless technology. For consumers, 4G means, in the ideal case, faster access to data. For instance, streaming video might work better, with less stuttering and higher resolution. Videoconferencing is difficult on 3G and might work better on 4G. Multiplayer video games may benefit too. Other than that, it's difficult to point to completely new uses for 4G phones -- things they can do that 3G phones can't.
benton.org/node/36480 | Associated Press
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INDIA TO REAP BROADBAND BONANZA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dhanya Ann Thoppil]
Fresh from its 3G spectrum auction windfall, the government of India stands to rake in another tidy sum from the auction of wireless broadband Internet. The bidding began for the wireless-broadband airwaves auction last Monday. Bid prices for one slot covering the whole of India have sailed past expectationsmore than triple the starting price. The starting price for one slot for offering services nationwide was 17.50 billion rupees. The government is auctioning two bandwidth slots for broadband services in each of the country's 22 service areas. If it goes on like this, the government stands to earn 188 billion rupees (about $4.1 billion) from the auctions, up from an original target of around 150 billion (about $3.3 billion), says analyst Harit Shah of brokerage Karvy Stock Broking in a note. That would add to the 677.19 billion rupees ($14.6 billion) the government earned from the top dollars paid by the country's telecommunications firms for 3G services in the world's fastest-growing telecom market. The participants in the broadband wireless auction are the usual big Indian names: India's Bharti Airtel Ltd., Vodafone Essar Ltd. and Idea Cellular Ltd. They are joined by other prominent bidders such as U.S. chip maker Qualcomm Inc., which is looking to tie up with local partners to build a network if it becomes successful.
benton.org/node/36498 | Wall Street Journal
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
OBAMA AND THE PRESS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Linda Feldmann]
By the time President Obama stepped up to the podium last Thursday in the East Room, the news media were fully primed - not only with questions about the BP oil disaster, but with this factoid: It was President Obama's first full press conference since July 22, 2009. The public may have felt Obama entered office with an adoring press corps, but if that was ever true, it certainly is not now. Frustrations over access have been widespread. And it's not just the infrequency of hour-long press conferences (six since taking office, including just four during prime-time). Obama has had far fewer short question-and-answer sessions with the press pool than did his two immediate predecessors: only 53 in his first 15 months in office, versus 176 for President Bush and 312 for President Clinton, says Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University. Analysts of White House communications say the buck stops with Obama himself. If he was interested in having more daily give and take with reporters, it would happen. Obama's approach speaks to the type of person he is - as a policy person, an academic, a lawyer -- and his strategic view of the presidency.
benton.org/node/36501 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS
GAO CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: William Jenkins Jr]
The 2000 elections in Maine and Arizona were the first in the nation's history where candidates seeking state legislative seats had the option to fully fund their campaigns with public moneys. In 2003, GAO reviewed the public financing programs in Maine and Arizona and found the programs' goals were to (1) increase electoral competition; (2) increase voter choice; (3) curb increases in campaign costs; (4) reduce interest group influence; and (5) increase voter participation. GAO reported that while the number of candidates who participated in the programs increased from 2000 to 2002, it was too soon to determine the extent to which these five goals of the programs were being met. Senate Report 110-129 directed GAO to update its 2003 report. This report: (1) provides data on candidate participation and (2) describes changes in five goals of Maine's and Arizona's programs in the 2000 through 2008 elections and the extent to which changes could be attributed to the programs. To address its objectives, GAO analyzed available data about candidate participation, election outcomes, and campaign spending for the 1996 through 2008 legislative elections in both states, reviewed studies, and interviewed 22 candidates and 10 interest group officials selected to reflect a range of views. The interview results are not generalizable to all candidates or all interest groups. (GAO-10-390, May 28)
benton.org/node/36492 | Government Accountability Office | Highlights
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CONTENT
HATE SPEECH
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Over thirty organizations (including the Benton Foundation) want the Federal Communications Commission to open up a probe on "hate speech" and "misinformation" in media. "Hate has developed as a profit-model for syndicated radio and cable television programs masquerading as 'news'," they wrote to the FCC earlier this month. As for the Internet, it "gives the illusion that news sources have increased, but in fact there are fewer journalists employed now than before," they charge. "Moreover, on the Internet, speakers can hide in the cloak of anonymity, emboldened to say things that they may not say in the public eye." The groups who want this new proceeding include Free Press, the Media Access Project, Common Cause, the Prometheus Radio Project, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. Their statement, filed in the Commission's Future of Media proceeding, comes in support of a petition to the agency submitted over a year ago by the National Hispanic Media Coalition. "Hate speech against vulnerable groups is pervasive in our media -- it is not limited to a few isolated instances or any one media platform," NHMC warned the FCC in 2009. "Indeed, many large mainstream media corporations regularly air hate speech, and it is prolific on the Internet. Hate speech takes various forms, from words advocating violence to those creating a climate of hate towards vulnerable groups. Cumulatively, hate speech creates an environment of hate and prejudice that legitimizes violence against its targets." The coalition has asked the agency to request public comments on hate speech in the media, inquire into its extent, explore "the relationship between hate speech in the media and hate crimes," and look into options "for counteracting or reducing the negative effects of such speech." In addition, the groups wants the FCC to examine "the prevalence of misinformation" in the media, since misinformation "creates a climate of prejudice."
benton.org/node/36478 | Ars Technica | see the National Hispanic Media Coalition et al filing
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HEALTH
TELEMEDICINE IS GROWING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Milt Freudenheim]
Spurred by health care trends and technological advances, telemedicine is growing into a mainstream industry. A fifth of Americans live in places where primary care physicians are scarce, according to government statistics. That need is converging with advances that include lower costs for video-conferencing equipment, more high-speed communications links by satellite, and greater ability to work securely and dependably over the Internet. "The technology has improved to the point where the experience of both the doctor and patient are close to the same as in-person visits, and in some cases better," says Dr. Kaveh Safavi, head of global health care for Cisco Systems, which is supporting trials of its own high-definition video version of telemedicine in California, Colorado and New Mexico. The interactive telemedicine business has been growing by almost 10 percent annually, to more than $500 million in revenue in North America this year, according to Datamonitor, the market research firm. It is part of the $3.9 billion telemedicine category that includes monitoring devices in homes and hundreds of health care applications for smartphones.
benton.org/node/36499 | New York Times
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ED TECH
NEW ASSISTIVE TECH
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Meris Stansbury]
In what might result in great new strides for assistive technology, the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) has announced the winners of its "Tech in the Works 2010" competition, which funds innovative projects that pair researchers with industry vendors to improve educational outcomes for all students—and especially those with special needs. NCTI will award $20,000 to each of four researcher-developer teams this year. Each winning team has pledged to match this amount to facilitate its research project. "Tech in the Works," which began in 2005, promotes collaborative research in developing innovative and emerging assistive technologies. Funding for the competition is provided by NCTI's own grant money, which comes from the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). "The key part of this program is collaboration," said Heidi Silver-Pacuilla, deputy director of NCTI. "What's crucial to getting these projects from the lab to the people who need it most ... is the partnership between researchers and vendors."
benton.org/node/36493 | eSchool News
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VIDEO GAMES AS ED TECH
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
Playing video games might improve your vision and other brain functions. "People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention, and better cognition," said Daphne Bavelier, an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester. Bavelier was a presenter at a daylong symposium on the educational uses of video and computer games from NYU's Games for Learning Institute. The event was another indication that electronic games are gaining legitimacy in the classroom. President Barack Obama recently identified the creation of good educational software as one of the "grand challenges for American innovation."
benton.org/node/36494 | eSchool News
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CYBERSECURITY
FISMA REFORM PASSES HOUSE
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Jill Aitoro]
The House passed on Friday by a 229 to 186 vote the Defense authorization bill, which included an amendment to overhaul federal cybersecurity policy. Inclusion of the amendment's information security provisions in the Defense bill is an obvious attempt to speed passage of existing measures from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to update the Federal Information Security Management Act, which dictates agencies' information security processes, and establish a National Office of Cyberspace in the White House with budget authority and governmentwide coordinating responsibilities.
benton.org/node/36491 | nextgov
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OWNERSHIP
COMCAST FIELD HEARING
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House Judiciary Committee will go on the road for a June 7 hearing on the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. The hearing will take place in Los Angeles.
benton.org/node/36496 | Multichannel News
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