BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016
Check out the Digital Beat blog for unique perspectives on communications policy debates -- https://www.benton.org/blog
FCC OVERSIGHT
Cellphone subsidies block fails in House
Rep Pallone Pounds GOP Over Lifeline Bill
Wireless industry blasts bill blocking cellphone subsidies
Leadership Conference Targets Anti-Lifeline Bill [links to Benton summary]
CBO Estimates for HR 5525 End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act [links to Congressional Budget Office]
House Oversight Hearing Scheduled for FCC Commissioners July 12
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Brotman: Tangled up in the legal web of net neutrality [links to Brookings]
Free Internet Isn’t Broadband Access - analysis
Internet Association CEO: We Support NTIA’s Transfer of Internet Power [links to Wall Street Journal]
White House Hammers FCC-Targeted Appropriations Riders [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
OWNERSHIP
Altice may seek more US growth after Cablevision deal [links to Benton summary]
A Conversation With Cablevision’s New Owner [links to Benton summary]
Charter Tells FCC to Reject Zoom Deal Challenge [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
DOJ and FTC OK Comcast/NBCU DreamWorks Deal [links to Multichannel News]
Is it a mistake for Verizon to buy Yahoo? [links to CNNMoney]
Podcast: How incumbents become digital disruptors [links to McKinsey]
CONTENT
Free Internet Isn’t Broadband Access - analysis
There’s a new tool to take down terrorism images online. But social media companies are wary of it. [links to Benton summary]
Apple is returning money to ebook buyers after losing price-fixing lawsuit [links to Verge, The]
What a ban on online … um, er… adult content can teach us about Internet law [links to Benton summary]
Social media is on the rise, but not like you’d expect [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
Verizon's go90 Starts Casting to TVs [links to Multichannel News]
How an Archive of the Internet Could Change History [links to Benton summary]
Twitter upgrades video limits to court creators [links to USAToday]
Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Report - research [links to Benton summary]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Cable news channels prepare for ad revenue windfall during conventions [links to Politico]
RNC demands Clinton aides’ e-mails be released before election [links to Hill, The]
No Matter Who's in White House, Relationship With Press Will Get Tougher [links to Benton summary]
Science policy positions reveal candidates’ views of America [links to Benton summary]
Why Apple can take a bigger stand against Trump than its rivals [links to Benton summary]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Sens push first responder network on rural service [links to Benton summary]
FirstNet CEO: ‘$7 billion Doesn’t Go as far as It Used To’ [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
Internet service providers Know All - analysis [links to Benton summary]
Podcast: What you need to know about doxxing, the average Internet user's nightmare [links to Verge, The]
ACLU mobilizes against surveillance amendment [links to Hill, The]
TELEVISION/RADIO
NAB: Spectrum Auction Shouldn’t Delay Deregulation [links to Benton summary]
Sen Reid (D-NV): Set-Top Plan Lacks Content, Privacy Protections [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
Chairman Wheeler's Response to Members of Congress Regarding Current Rulemaking Efforts to Comply with Mandate for Consumer Choice in Television Navigation Tools [links to Federal Communications Commission]
Video: Orlando radio station drops all programming to take calls and help community grieve [links to Washington Post]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Op-Ed: Be Prepared: We're Entering A Post-Device Era [links to Fast Company]
LABOR
City Mayors Worldwide Forge Alliance in Response to Airbnb, Uber [links to Benton summary]
JOURNALISM
Who owns the news consumer: Social media platforms or publishers? - CJR [links to Benton summary]
How billionaires, corporations and secretive governments curtail press freedom - WaPo opinion [links to Benton summary]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
New Congress.gov Enhancements including Advanced Search [links to Library of Congress]
Digital Communities Special Report: The Ideal Digital City - Gov Tech [links to Benton summary]
COMPANY NEWS
SoftBank President Nikesh Arora Leaves Company Abruptly [links to Wall Street Journal]
Facebook Signs Deals With Media Companies, Celebrities for Facebook Live [links to Wall Street Journal]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
In proposed, new charter, UK’s GCHQ will be licensed 'to hack a major town' [links to Guardian, The]
Relaxed government rules could open Apple Store doors in India [links to USAToday]
FCC OVERSIGHT
LIFELINE BILL FAILS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
The House failed to pass a bill that would block federal subsidies from paying for cellphone service for poor people. The bill, called the End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act, failed to pass under suspension of the rules, 207-143. Suspension bills must get a two-thirds majority to pass. They are generally brought to the floor only when the House's Republican leaders believe they will succeed. The bill also did not receive a simple majority of House members. The bill would have made it impossible for wireless carriers to receive the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline subsidies to provide either voice or Internet service to low-income people.
benton.org/headlines/cellphone-subsidies-block-fails-house | Hill, The | B&C
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REP PALLONE POUNDS GOP OVER LIFELINE BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In debate before a vote on the End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act of 2016 (HR 5525), House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) took to the House floor to slam Republican backers of the bill, which would disallow low income Lifeline telecommunication subsidies for mobile broadband phones or service. "[House Speaker Paul] Ryan and the Republican majority is bringing a bill to the floor that would eliminate the successful Lifeline program that provides millions of low-income Americans access to basic communications services," said Ranking Member Pallone. He said Republican lawmakers are looking to gut a Lifeline program created in the Reagan Administration and expanded to wireless in the Bush Administration. He said the claims of waste, fraud and abuse come despite the Obama Administration's elimination of nearly $750 million of that. The bill would continue to collect the same fees from ratepayers used for the subsidy but not allow any to be used for wireless, which Ranking Member Pallone says does nothing to help taxpayers. "The American people know that if Republicans were really serious about battling poverty and shrinking the size of Lifeline, they would work with us to create more jobs for those that are unemployed or under-employed. The best way to lower the costs of the Lifeline program is to lift people up, not to take away their connection to a better life," he said.
benton.org/headlines/rep-pallone-pounds-gop-over-lifeline-bill | Broadcasting&Cable
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WIRELESS INDUSTRY BLASTS BILL BLOCKING CELLPHONE SUBSIDIES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: David McCabe]
The wireless industry is criticizing a bill set for a House vote June 21 that would make it impossible for wireless companies to get subsidies that pay for service for low-income people. CTIA - The Wireless Association criticized the proposed legislation as unfair because its members are paying into the Universal Service Fund (USF) which finances the Lifeline program providing subsidies for poor Americans. “This approach is inequitable and if it is Congress’ desire to end wireless provider access to the USF programs, that effort should be matched with a dollar-for-dollar reduction in what wireless providers pay into the USF,” the group’s president, Meredith Attwell Baker, said in a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “It also ignores America’s inexorable shift away from wireline and toward wireless service, and the reality that many of those the Lifeline program aims to help, like the homeless, simply cannot be served with wireline connections,” she said. “CTIA recognizes the limits of the Lifeline program, but eligible low-income consumers, not policymakers, should choose where that support is used.”
benton.org/headlines/wireless-industry-blasts-bill-blocking-cellphone-subsidies | Hill, The | B&C
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HOUSE OVERSIGHT HEARING SCHEDULE FOR FCC COMMISSIONERS JULY 12
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Citing its investigation into waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline low-income Universal Service Fund program, the House Communications Subcommittee has scheduled an Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing, one of numerous FCC oversight hearings Republicans have called since the beginning of 2016. The subcommittee said the July 12 hearing will feature all five commissioners. It left no doubt about where Republican leadership stands on the program. The hearing notice said the members of the committee "will seek an update from the commissioners on the mismanagement of the Lifeline program." Likely at least some of the members of that FCC witness panel will not concede what they are updating is mismanagement. The hearing will also look at proposed broadband privacy rules, the set-top box proposal and what the committee leadership say are "ongoing" FCC transparency lapses, a charge leveled by FCC Republican members as well. “The FCC continues to push the limits of congressional patience, grab jurisdiction from other agencies, and leave the marketplace bewildered and confused. Pledges of openness and transparency have failed to materialize. Meanwhile, it appears not just Republicans on the commission are kept in the dark on major policy proposals. This is not make believe – the consequences are real and the FCC must do better,” said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). “The upcoming hearing will provide our members an important opportunity to once again conduct oversight of an agency that needs reorganization."
benton.org/headlines/house-oversight-hearing-scheduled-fcc-commissioners-july-12 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CONTENT
PORN AND FREE INTERNET SERVICE
[SOURCE: Tales of the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] LinkNYC decided to install filters to block porn sites. Free access sites can block porn (or otherwise filter) no problem. Indeed, as others have observed in the past, free access sites (like coffee houses or libraries) do not count as broadband Internet access providers and free Internet access is not Title II broadband Internet access service (BIAS). The Communications Act defines a “telecommunications service” as “the offering of telecommunications for a fee to the public.”
benton.org/headlines/free-internet-not-porn-and-isnt-broadband-access | Tales of the Sausage Factory
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