Reporting

Comcast shares have tripled over the past five years even as network neutrality was debated and then approved by President Barack Obama's Federal Communications Commission in February 2015. Yet despite a pronouncement from President Donald Trump's new FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, that he plans to kill net neutrality rules that regulate internet service providers as public utilities, the outlook for Comcast's stock going forward isn't nearly as bright, media analyst firm MoffettNathanson LLC said in a reported published June 20.

That's partly to do with Comcast's prosperous run-up -- sales grew to $80 billion in 2016 from $55 billion in 2011 -- as well as accelerating declines in cable TV subscribers and a flattening picture for internet growth. For MoffettNathanson, it all comes down to pricing power. Yes, your friendly neighborhood (monopoly) broadband provider can be expected to use Washington's deregulatory mood to raise prices. But it's unclear whether Comcast and other broadband providers will be able to hike prices enough to offset broader slowdowns in their core businesses: internet services and pay-TV.

An ad industry watchdog says it will refer Verizon to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission for refusing to participate in an investigation of ads touting broadband service. The move by the National Advertising Division, a self-regulatory unit administered by the Better Business Bureau, stemmed from cable company Comcast's challenge to Verizon's ad boasts, including claims that "Only FiOS gives you equal upload and download speeds" and that FiOS is the "fastest" and "most reliable" Internet service. Comcast argued to the NAD that Comcast speeds were "faster and more reliable" than Verizon's, according to tests by the FCC. Comcast also said that its top-tier service offers 2 Gbps in both directions, which would contradict Verizon's claim of being the only service to offer equally fast upstream and downstream speeds.

The Lake County (MN) board of supervisors recently unanimously voted for a Lake Connections sale, offering the municipal broadband network up to what they hope is the highest bidder. Lake Connections was formed seven years ago and obtained $66 million in funding to build the municipally owned broadband network serving Lake County in Minnesota. The sale process will “… be a highly structured, collaborative process between the county and the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), the lender that provided the majority of the funding for the network’s construction.” The county promised to kick in $15 million to fund the “drops” for the FTTP network. The Federal Communications Commission also provided a $3.5 million grant, according to the news report. On the one hand, the Lake County government feels strongly that this was the only way to bring advanced broadband services to their community, and apparently, would do it again if given the chance. On the other hand, it also reveals the financial commitments building and operating broadband networks requires, and the risk associated with it. Some argue that local governments shouldn’t take on that risk. The leadership of Lake County seems to think the private sector is better suited to finish and operate the network, probably due in large part to the financial obligations it requires.

President Donald Trump will commit on June 21 to improving internet access in the country’s hardest-to-reach rural areas as a part of his forthcoming push to improve the nation’s infrastructure.

President Trump will outline his pledge during a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shortly after visiting Kirkwood Community College, which specializes in fields like precision agriculture. In the eyes of the White House, farmers can’t use emerging big data tools that track crops in real time without faster, more reliable broadband internet service — so the Trump administration intends to tackle that challenge as part of its campaign to upgrade the country’s roads and bridges. “Even in American agriculture, technology is the key to better yields and more returns,” said Ray Starling, the special assistant to the president for agriculture, trade and food assistance. Those farmers in the coming years will have to learn “not only how to turn a wrench,” Starling said, “but also how to write code and rewire circuit boards.” But Starling did not offer any specifics as to how Trump planned to improve broadband in the country’s agricultural heartland.

Driving around rural Erie County, Pennsylvania, what you notice — aside from rolling hills, old farm houses, and the occasional small town — are the movie rental stores. There are a lot of them. Jamie Buie is the manager of Family Video in Erie City. As she rang up a customer with a towering stack of DVDs, she said her decision to take a job here five years ago came down to internet access. "For the longest time, we had satellite internet," Buie said. "And with satellite internet, you have no way to stream movies at all. So that was why I originally picked my job with Family Video, so I could get cheap rentals." Thirty-eight percent of people in rural Erie County don’t have access to fixed broadband, according to the FCC’s 2016 Broadband Progress Report. Nationwide, almost 40 percent of rural Americans lack access to fixed broadband, compared to just 4 percent of urban Americans. The movie rental business might benefit from lack of broadband, but it’s hurting many others.

As the Trump administration kicked off its effort to modernize the dated functions of the federal government — a long-term campaign that could someday spell big bucks and better regulations even for the Trump-wary tech industry. In front of the cameras — and seated alongside the president in the White House — the likes of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos offered rare praise of Trump’s tech agenda. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, even seemed to suggest President Donald Trump helped foster “a huge explosion of new opportunities” on the horizon. Behind the scenes, though, those companies and others huddled with senior White House officials on issues like emerging technology and federal procurement, offering potential federal fixes that could open doors to new business opportunities for them. A day later, the chief lobbying groups for Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and others paid their own visit to the White House for a meeting focused on the tech industry’s tax bills. For some, like Apple CEO Tim Cook, the White House’s so-called “tech week” offered an opportunity to convey his personal views about health care and immigration.

A bipartisan group of attorneys general from 35 states is urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject a petition from the cable and broadband industry asking the agency to take away state authority to investigate claims of false advertising over broadband speeds.

“The Petition represents nothing more than the industry’s effort to shield itself from state law enforcement,” the group wrote in a document to the FCC. “As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, a federal agency may pre-empt state law only when and if it’s acting within the scope of its congressionally delegated authority,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “The states’ consumer protection powers must be left intact to protect customers from providers who make false claims about broadband speed.”

No matter what Americans do to protect their digital privacy, especially on our handheld devices, it’s impossible to keep up with new threats. Now, there’s a new risk to our privacy and security: Our cell phone numbers are being used increasingly by information brokers as the window to personal information that’s kept by nearly all corporations, financial institutions, and, yes, social media networks.

Among those sounding the alarm bell is private investigator and former FBI agent Thomas Martin, who recently wrote an article titled, “Your cell phone number is your new Social Security number.” Martin’s message was clear: We are way too lackadaisical about keeping our numbers private. “If someone you had just met asked you for your social security number, you would likely not give it to them. What if the same person asked you for your cell phone number? My guess is that you would readily tell them the ten-digit number,” he writes. Well, too many of us are likely to divulge our ten-digit number in a flash, as millions of us do in stores and online on a daily basis. Your cell phone number, unique to you, is the gateway to your identity. It provides an entrance to all the data contained on your phone, and can connect your other information to you – your email address, physical address—everything.

A Q&A with former Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps.

CBS CEO Les Moonves said it best: “I don’t know if Donald Trump is good for the country. but he’s damn good for CBS.” The election was just a glorified reality show and I do not think it was an aberration. Until we get that big picture straightened out and we get a civic dialogue that’s worthy of the American people and that actually advances citizens’ ability to practice the art of self-government — that informs citizens so they can cast intelligent votes and we stop making such damn-fool decisions — we’re in serious trouble. To me, that remains the problem of problems, it remains at the top of the list. Journalism continues to go south, thanks to big media and its strangulation of news, and there’s not much left in the way of community or local media. Add to that an internet that has not even started thinking seriously about how it supports journalism. You have these big companies like Google and Facebook who run the news and sell all the ads next to it, but what do they put back into journalism? It isn’t much. I don’t think right now that commercial media is going to fix itself or even that we can save it with any policy that’s likely in the near-term, so we have to start looking at other alternatives. We have to talk about public media — public media probably has to get its act together somewhat, too.

President Donald Trump called for “sweeping transformation of the federal government’s technology” during the first meeting of the American Technology Council.

Eighteen of America’s leading technology executives – including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet – convened at the White House for the summit. “Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution,” said President Trump. “America should be the global leader in government technology just as we are in every other aspect, and we are going to start our big edge again in technology – such an important industry.” The tech leaders spent four hours meeting officials including Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross before meeting with the president. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was also present.

They discussed modernizing the government’s technological infrastructure, cutting fraud and government costs and improving services for taxpayers. The White House believes these measures could save up to $1 trillion over 10 years.