What's on the agenda for policymakers.
Agenda
Sinclair preps to challenge Fox News
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which for months has denied any interest in challenging Fox News while awaiting approval of a merger with Tribune Co., is gearing up to do just that. As part of the $3.9 billion Tribune deal pending before the Federal Communications Commission, would acquire WGN America, a cable network that currently reaches 80 million homes.
What the life and death of Cambridge Analytica tells us about politics — and ourselves
Politics and data are now inextricably linked. Cambridge Analytica was part of a world increasingly fueled by vast troves of personal data that billions of Internet users emit every day. Politicians now have the tools to target us each individually — based on data suggesting our race, religion, income, shopping habits, sexual orientation, medical concerns, personality traits, current location, past locations, pet preference or Zodiac sign if they'd like.
Is Facebook going to use satellites to corner markets in the developing world?
There's some evidence that Facebook formed a subsidiary satellite company called “PointView” on the down low (the companies seem to share a number of assets, including staff and land).
Foundation Explores Telecom Utility Broadband Partnership Economics
Post Road Foundation, an organization funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, will fund studies in five rural communities to explore the economics of the telecom utility partnership.
How voters lost the freedom to access the campaign website of their choice
[Commentary] The Senate may soon be voting on net neutrality. The net neutrality debate is driven in part by the fact that Internet service providers (ISPs) have the technical ability and financial incentive to act as gatekeepers, picking winners and losers in the Internet marketplace. Perhaps an ISP will favor a particular airline reservation website or an online newspaper by blocking access to its competitors, or simply by making access to competitors’ content painfully slow.
The BDAC, 5G and Cities: The Power and Perils of Asymmetry
[Speech] On of the two historic accomplishments of the current Federal Communications Commission is that it is the first FCC to interpret its statutory mandate to say it doesn’t have much legal authority or policy rights to regulate broadcasters, telephone companies, cable companies, or wireless companies. Instead, its principal regulatory mandate is to regulate another set of enterprises: local governments.
Tech Giants Feel the Squeeze as Xi Jinping Tightens His Grip
For the last decade or so, China has defied the truism that only free and open societies can innovate. Even as the Communist Party has kept an iron grip on politics and discourse, the country’s technology industry has grown to rival Silicon Valley’s in sophistication and ambition. President Xi Jinping’s tilt toward strongman rule could put all that to the test. As Mr.
Sprint and T-Mobile: There is a better 5G solution than reducing competition
[Commentary] The proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile once again focuses the nation’s attention on next generation 5G wireless service. Burdened with the fact that the current vibrant competition among four wireless companies has benefited consumers greatly (decreasing prices by 13 percent in the last year alone), the companies assert that their merger will accelerate the deployment of 5G. The “China is winning on 5G” argument of Sprint and T-Mobile is creative, and probably the only rationale they could concoct after the government twice before rejected their proposal to reduce nat
A symposium focusing on the development and implementation of national spectrum policies to support continuing U.S. leadership and innovation in wireless telecommunications and other spectrum-dependent technologies.
Welcoming Remarks: Paige Atkins, NTIA Associate Administrator and head of the Office of Spectrum Management
Keynote Address: Advancing the Nation’s Spectrum Strategy
David J. Redl, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator