Friday, January 10, 2020
Headlines Daily Digest
Don't Miss:
US Probe of T-Mobile-Sprint Deal Was ‘Cursory,’ States Say
US Funds Free Android Phones For The Poor — But With Permanent Chinese Malware
Agenda
Broadband
Wireless
Platforms
Privacy
Security
Emergency Communications
TV/Radio
Philanthropy
Stories From Abroad
Agenda
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the January Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 30, 2020:
- Establishing the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would adopt a two-phase reverse auction framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, committing $20.4 billion in high-cost universal service support to bring high-speed broadband service to millions of unserved Americans. (WC Docket Nos. 19-126, 10-90).
- Hearing Aid-Compatible Handset Rules – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would propose to incorporate a new technical standard for determining whether a wireless handset is hearing aid-compatible and to simplify and update the Commission’s hearing aid compatibility rules. (WT Docket No. 20-3)
- At-Home Call Handling for Video Relay Service – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would adopt regulations on the handling of Video Relay Service, or VRS, calls by communications assistants working from their homes. (CG Docket Nos. 10-51,03-123)
- Electronic Delivery of Notices to Broadcast Television Stations – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would modernize certain cable and satellite television provider notice provisions in Part 76 of the FCC’s Rules by requiring certain notices to be delivered to broadcasters by e-mail instead of on paper. (MB Docket Nos. 19-165, 17-105)
- Enforcement Bureau Action – The Commission will consider an enforcement action.
The US Department of Agriculture has invested $48 million in high-speed broadband infrastructure for more than 22,600 rural households in Virginia. Wilkes Telephone Membership Corporation Inc. will use a $48 million ReConnect Program loan to construct a fiber-to-the-premises network encompassing 1,847 square miles. The service area is expected to reach 22,604 households, 19 educational facilities, eight critical community facilities and one health care center in Halifax, Charlotte, Lunenberg, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, King and Queen, Bedford and Pittsylvania (VA) counties.
The $226.8 million investment American electric power and telecommunications company EPB launched in 2009 on fiber optic technology has helped to transform EPB and Chattanooga (TN). By boasting the fastest citywide internet service in the Western Hemisphere with Gig service in 2010 and 10 Gig service by 2015, EPB secured Chattanooga's claim as "the Gig City" and has helped anchor the Innovation District, with many businesses developed or drawn to Chattanooga by the fast internet links. High-speed connections from EPB helped attract and grow such online startups as the moving service Bellhops, the code builder and development platform builder Skuid, the online counseling service WeCounsel and the global ship security startup International Maritime Security Associates to Chattanooga. "The fiber optic infrastructure in Chattanooga has already brought tremendous value to the community," says University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Economist Bento Lobo, who estimates EPB's fiber optic network generated $1.3 billion of community benefits in its first five years. "I expect that we are likely to benefit even more in the future as the need for greater bandwidth and cyber security increases," Lobo says.
[This story was published Dec 31, 2019]
Mike Bloomberg's All-In Economy agenda – one that works for All People in All Places – puts more Americans to work in better paying, higher-quality jobs, reinvigorates communities through strategic investments and public-private-academic partnerships, and provides education and training to millions of community college students. His plan will include improving rural America’s connection to growth centers – for example, by investing in rural broadband access. These areas will be provided with technical assistance to help reap benefits from efforts to connect them with educational institutions, entrepreneurial projects and the online information economy.
States suing to block T-Mobile's proposed acquisition of Sprint urged the federal judge overseeing the landmark antitrust trial not to defer to the Trump administration’s approval of the $26.5 billion deal. Lawyers for NY and CA, which are leading the lawsuit for the states, said in a filing late Jan 8 that the deal’s approval by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t carry any special weight and should be ignored by the judge. “The federal government approved the merger with what appears to be only a cursory examination of the approval conditions,” the states said, and the decision was “inconsistent” with its past opposition to consolidation in the wireless market.
Department of Justice Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim is facing congressional scrutiny over his recently revealed texts with DISH Chairman Charlie Ergen, according to a set of questions for the record from House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI). In the texts from last year, Delrahim appeared to urge Ergen to lobby senators and the Federal Communications Commission to approve DISH as a buyer for assets being shed as part of the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger. The messages came to light during a trial in which state attorneys general are trying to block the mega-deal. “Do you believe it is appropriate for the Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division to offer merging parties political advice on how to secure approval for their merger?” Chairman Cicilline asked. “Why did you undertake this action?”
It was the biggest corporate merger in history, and it stunned the markets. On Jan. 10, 2000, America Online, the world’s largest internet service provider, bid $183 billion for Time Warner, the world’s largest content provider. But the merger tanked. Time Warner cast off AOL in 2009. Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, less than 1% of its 2000 value, adjusted for the S&P 500 index. AT&T bought Time Warner in 2018 for 20% of the adjusted price AOL paid in 2000. The merger’s failure is often attributed to executive mismanagement and clashing corporate cultures. But the episode holds lessons for politicians and antitrust regulators, who too often view market rivalry too narrowly.
[Hazlett is an economics professor at Clemson University]
By the end of the 2014 election, campaigns and political committees had directly spent about $8 million on Facebook advertising, less than half the amount they’d spent on Google. Through September of 2019, that figure neared $46 million, 50 percent more than what Google took in. And that’s only direct spending, excluding spending by political consultants on behalf of candidates or campaigns. In the 2016 campaign alone, Donald Trump’s team spent somewhere around $70 million on Facebook through a digital firm run by Brad Parscale, who is now Trump’s campaign manager.
On Jan 9, Facebook announced that it would not significantly revise its rules regarding political advertising. Instead, users will be given the choice of seeing fewer political ads or opting out of targeted marketing — advertisements from campaigns and companies that use the personal information collected by Facebook to identify who should see them. It’s hard not to assume that part of that decision derived from the close business relationship between President Donald Trump's campaign and Facebook. The campaign, which raised half a billion dollars in 2019 across multiple political committees, spends heavily on Facebook ads even now. The Trump campaign’s Tim Murtaugh praised Facebook’s decision not to revise its policies on political advertising.
No company has been more effective at leveraging Facebook for its own dominance than Facebook. Its constituency is larger than President Trump’s, and its global scope is, in some senses, larger. That’s part of its value proposition, too. It’s powerful enough to perhaps deserve credit for getting a president elected. Should it be?
Reps Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Tim Walberg (R-MI) introduced the Preventing Real Online Threats Endangering Children Today (PROTECT) Kids Act. This bipartisan legislation modernizes the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to better protect our nation’s children from the myriad of threats posed by an ever-evolving digital landscape. The PROTECT Kids Act:
- Raises the age of parental consent protections from children under the age of 13 to children under the age of 16;
- Adds precise geolocation information and biometric information as two new categories of personal information which are protected under COPPA;
- Affirms that rules under COPPA also include protections to children on mobile applications in addition to already existing rules for websites and online services;
- Provides parents the ability to delete any personal information about their child, a feature never before afforded to parents under COPPA to protect their children; and
- Requires the FTC to conduct a study on the knowledge standard found in COPPA and report recommendations to Congress.
For years, low-income households have been able to get cheap cell service and even free smartphones via the US government-funded Lifeline Assistance program. One provider, Assurance Wireless, offers a free Android device along with free data, texts and minutes. It all sounds ideal for those who don’t have the money to splash on fancy Apple or Google phones. But according to security researchers at cybersecurity cmopany MalwareBytes, there’s a catch: the Android phones come with preinstalled Chinese malware, which effectively opens up a backdoor onto the device and endangers their private data. One of the malware types is impossible to remove, according to the researchers. The researchers said that they had tried to warn Assurance Wireless, a Virgin Mobile company, but that they had received no response. The devices likely remain vulnerable today.
[Editors note: The government does not provide any funds for these phones; carriers provide them as a perk for a subscription.]
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) and five other lawmakers pressed the Federal Communications Commission to do more to protect consumers from scammers who hijack phone numbers to hack bank accounts and other personal information. Sens Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), and Ted Lieu (D-CA) joined Sen Wyden to urge FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to use the agency’s authority over wireless carriers to protect consumers against these so-called SIM swap scams.
The Federal Trade Commission has received hundreds of complaints about SIM swap fraud, which are used to steal telephone numbers and undermine cybersecurity measures that rely on text messages (known as two-factor authentication). Media reports indicate SIM fraud has caused tens of millions in damages to victims. In their letter, the members urged FCC to write new rules to protect consumers against these scams.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. 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 sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2019. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
727 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-3049
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2019