Ownership

If the rumors are right, a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint has already been agreed in principle, and we should see an announcement by the end of October. While a merger might not instantly wreak havoc and see prices shoot up for 200%, there’s a lot of very valid reasons for anyone who pays a cellphone bill to want T-Mobile and Sprint to remain separate.

The wireless landscape resulting from a merger would be very different to what it was in 2011. The three remaining wireless companies, in the case of a merger, would have nearly equal networks and numbers of customers. There would be zero incentive for networks to compete for customers against each other, as any competition would have to come from reduced pricing, and the game theory says that networks would quickly realize that the profit-maximising solution is to offer similar plans at similarly high prices, and reap the profits.

Barry Lynn has been pushing the government to crack down on corporate power for 16 years, but his ideas never received as much attention as when they cost him his job at a Google-sponsored think tank. After parting ways with New America over the summer, Lynn has launched a new independent group to raise awareness about the threats posed by corporate giants. Lawmakers are increasingly willing to confront tech leaders on a growing list of issues, and Lynn’s transition comes as authorities are investigating whether Russians used Google, Facebook and Twitter to sow division during 2016’s election. “I think people are understanding just how poorly structured these institutions are, how sloppily they were built,” Lynn said. “It’s not just a matter of the fact that these people have too much power, it’s also that they are sloppy in the use of their power.”

In the crucial early hours after the Las Vegas mass shooting, it happened again: Hoaxes, completely unverified rumors, failed witch hunts, and blatant falsehoods spread across the internet. But they did not do so by themselves: They used the infrastructure that Google and Facebook and YouTube have built to achieve wide distribution. These companies are the most powerful information gatekeepers that the world has ever known, and yet they refuse to take responsibility for their active role in damaging the quality of information reaching the public.

BuzzFeed’s Ryan Broderick found that Google’s “top stories” results surfaced 4chan forum posts about a man that right-wing amateur sleuths had incorrectly identified as the Las Vegas shooter. This is playing an active role in the spread of bad information, poisoning the news ecosystem. The machines have shown they are not up to the task of dealing with rare, breaking news events, and it is unlikely that they will be in the near future. More humans must be added to the decision-making process, and the sooner the better.

Black and Latino representation has declined in Silicon Valley, and although Asians are the most likely to be hired, they are the least likely to be promoted, according to a new study exposing persistent racial prejudice in the tech industry.

The research from not-for-profit organization Ascend Foundation, which examined official employment data from 2007 to 2015, suggests that people of color are widely marginalized and denied career opportunities in tech – and that the millennial generation is unlikely to crack the glass ceiling for minorities. “There have been no changes for Asians or any other minority over time – men or women,” said Buck Gee, the study’s co-author and an executive adviser to Ascend, a US-based research group that advocates for Asian representation in businesses. For some groups, he added, “It’s actually worse.”

While women and people of color are employed at tech companies in larger numbers than they used to be, their upward mobility at those companies has stagnated. From 2007 to 2015, white men consistently composed a higher share of executive roles than professional roles at tech companies, the study found. It’s the reverse for Asians, Hispanics and blacks, especially if they’re women.

The Justice Department has said it is OK with CenturyLink's proposed merger with Level 3, contingent on the spin-off of some dark fiber and metro network assets. CenturyLink said the conditions had been outlined in a consent decree to which it has agreed. The deal is still subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission. CenturyLink must divest CenturyLink metro network assets in Albuquerque (NM), Boise (ID), and Tucson (AZ), but can still serve those customers if they choose the combined company over the buyer of the divested assets. The merged company will also divest 24 strands of dark fiber (not currently in use).

“We are pleased that the Department of Justice has conditionally cleared CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3,” said CenturyLink SVP John F. Jones. “It is an important milestone in our overall approval process. We anticipate court approval of our agreed resolution with the Department of Justice as early as this week. We are focused on meeting our targeted transaction closing timeframe of mid-to-late October.” The merger, which was filed last December, is valued at $34 billion including debt.

Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA), who is probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, wants Facebook to release at least some of the controversial political ads purchased by Kremlin-backed sources.

Facebook turned over those ads — roughly 3,000 of them in total, valued at more than $100,000 — to investigators on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees earlier Oct 2. Some of the posts specifically sought to stoke racial, religious or other social tensions by stirring conflict around issues like Black Lives Matter, gun control and gay rights. Rep Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House’s panel, said he planned to work with Facebook to release “a representative sampling” of the ads to the public — just in time for a hearing slated for October on the extent to which Russia spread misinformation through social networks. The goal, Schiff said, is to “inoculate the public against future Russian interference in our elections.”

T-Mobile USA has agreed to stop claiming its 4G LTE network is faster than Verizon Wireless', after the advertising industry's self-regulation body agreed with Verizon that T-Mobile's claim was unsupported. The National Advertising Division (NAD) "recommended T-Mobile discontinue claims that it has the fastest 4G LTE network" and "also recommended that T-Mobile discontinue claims that its LTE network is 'newer' than Verizon's and that Verizon's LTE network is 'older,'" the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council said. T-Mobile agreed to comply with the NAD's recommendations.

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to urge the FCC not to rush a decision on the $3.9 billion merger of Sinclair Broadcasting and Tribune Media, saying to do so gave the impression of impropriety. Ruddy has expressed numerous concerns about that deal and his conservate news network is on the record in opposition to the deal.

Ruddy suggested the FCC was rushing a decision before the ownership cap was thoroughly vetted. Chairman Pai and fellow Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly voted to reinstate the UHF discount, which helps Sinclair, saying that the FCC would consider it again as part of a broader look at the 39% ownership cap. Ruddy told Chairman Pai it appeared that Sinclair and Tribune had foreknowledge of the UHF discount decision and challenged Pai's suggestion the 39% cap is less relevant because of technology. He also said the broadcast market is not competitive because of the limits on spectrum and significant barriers to entry, among other things.

US cable operators, led by the biggest one of all, Comcast, are about to make a lot more on residential and business broadband. That’s the conclusion of New Street Research, which just released a rather bullish report this morning on the cable industry.

Led by analyst Jonathan Chaplin, New Street concedes that the previously torrid pace of cable broadband marketshare growth has slowed a bit in recent quarters, due to factors such as aggressive triple-play promotions by AT&T. But those headwinds will soon clear, the investment research firm concludes, and with that will be increased ARPU for cable operators. “We have argued that broadband is underpriced, given that pricing has barely increased over the past decade while broadband utility has exploded,” New Street said. “Our analysis suggested a ‘utility-adjusted’ ARPU target of ~$90. Comcast recently increased standalone broadband to $90 (including modem), paving the way for faster ARPU growth as the mix shifts in favor of broadband-only households. Charter will likely follow, once they are through the integration of Time Warner Cable.” New Street added that “broadband pricing could double from current levels.”

Mark Zuckerberg had just returned from paternity leave, and he wanted to talk about Facebook, democracy, and elections and to define what he felt his creation owed the world in exchange for its hegemony. A few weeks earlier, in early September, the company’s chief security officer had admitted that Facebook had sold $100,000 worth of ads on its platform to Russian-government-linked trolls who intended to influence the American political process. Now, in a statement broadcast live on Facebook on September 21 and subsequently posted to his profile page, Zuckerberg pledged to increase the resources of Facebook’s security and election-integrity teams and to work “proactively to strengthen the democratic process.”

There are real consequences to our inability to understand what Facebook is. Not even President-Pope-Viceroy Zuckerberg himself seemed prepared for the role Facebook has played in global politics this past year. In which case, how can we be assured that Facebook is really safeguarding democracy for us and that it’s not us who need to be safeguarding democracy against Facebook?