BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2010
Busy day in wonkland http://bit.ly/adZi4S
OWNERSHIP
FCC Launches Media Ownership Rules Review
Governors From Three Key States Back NBC-Universal Deal
Apple to Face Inquiry About Online Music
Tribune proposes $14.9 million more in executive bonuses
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Outlook for broadband policy and network neutrality grim
GOP Responds to Call to Update Communications Act
New Mexico's Delegation Weighs in on National Broadband Plan
DHS official stresses cybersecurity is industry's responsibility
The Top 10 Cities With the Best Broadband
Google says it has generated $54 billion in economic activity [Video]
See also:Google tries its hand at influence in Washington
PRIVACY
Facebook user phone numbers freely available on the Web
WIRELESS
Digging into AT&T's new $325 early termination fee
Under settlement, AT&T to unlock phones - but not the iPhone
Bill Shock Comments Due July 6
SATELLITES
Space trash threatens satellites, Pentagon warns
Cable TV Interruption Avoided as Satellite Scare Passes
Pinpoint precision and the new Internet
DIGITAL CONTENT
Game Consoles to Challenge Pay TV
Charges set to cost Times 90% of web readers
Republicans' new Web site not exactly what they hoped it would be
HEALTH
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services propose less burdensome telemedicine credentialing rules
Working on IT
MORE ONLINE
Pennsylvania AG Dropping Twitter Subpoena
Cisco Launches First Smart Grid Products
'Sesame Street' hits highest ratings in years
OWNERSHIP
MEDIA OWNERSHIP NOI
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) as part of the 2010 quadrennial review of its media ownership rules. The NOI [MB Docket No 09-182] initiates a fresh look at the current rules to determine whether they promote the Commission's goals of competition, localism, and diversity. The responses to the questions asked in the NOI will help the Commission define the analytical framework for the review of its media ownership rules, further refine the scope of the proceeding, and provide insight on how media ownership structure will affect the accomplishment of the Commission's public interest goals today and into the future.
The NOI specifically asks for input on a number of issues, including:
Whether the current rules continue to foster competition, localism, and diversity;
How to define, measure, and promote competition, localism, and diversity and how ownership structure affects these goals; and
How to weigh these public interest goals if they conflict with each other.
The NOI also asks whether and how to use bright line rules, adopt a case-by-case approach, or adopt a broad cross-media approach to media ownership if the Commission determines the current rules no longer serve the public interest goals. The NOI additionally seeks comment on the costs and benefits of outlet-specific rules, as compared to rules that apply to all media together, and how the Commission's Broadband Plan may bear on its review.
[more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/36289 | Federal Communications Commission | read the NOI | FCC Commissioner Copps | FCC Commissioner McDowell | TVNewsCheck | MediaWeek | B&C | TechDailyDose
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GOVS BACK COMCAST-NBC
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
The governors of California, New York and Pennsylvania wrote the Federal Communications Commission May 25 to voice support for the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, urging the federal regulators to move quickly to approve the deal without "extraneous conditions." "We hope you will agree that the significant economic benefits associated with the creation of this new joint venture far outweigh any potential harms, and that you will join us in supporting timely government approval of the Comcast NBCU transaction," Govs. David Paterson (D-NY), Ed Rendell (D-PA), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) said in their letter to the FCC's five commissioners. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, while NBCU is based out of New York and also has major operations in California.
benton.org/node/36276 | CongressDaily
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APPLE TO FACE INQUIRY ABOUT ONLINE MUSIC
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Apparently, the Justice Department is examining Apple's tactics in the market for digital music, and its staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies. The antitrust inquiry is in the early stages and the conversations have revolved broadly around the dynamics of selling music online. But people briefed on the inquiries also said investigators had asked in particular about recent allegations that Apple used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give the online retailer Amazon exclusive access to music about to be released. Though the Justice Department's inquiry is preliminary, it represents additional evidence that Apple, once the perennial underdog in high tech, is now viewed by government regulators as a dominant company with considerable market power.
benton.org/node/36296 | New York Times | WSJ | LATimes
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TRIB BONUSES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Oneal]
Tribune Company plans to pay 35 of its top executives $14.9 million in additional 2009 bonuses, a court filing revealed late Monday, despite pointed opposition from several key constituents in the company's 17-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, describes the bonuses as rewards for steering the company through Bankruptcy Court while generating total operating cash flow of $494 million in 2009. The payments, devised as two plans, would supplement $42.1 million in management incentive bonuses the court allowed Tribune to pay in February to about 670 managers, including most of the executives included in the most senior group. The two new plans also anticipate paying $1.3 million in discretionary bonuses to a group of 50 managers deemed to have made valuable contributions to the restructuring. None of those awards can exceed $65,000, the document said. The total of $58.3 million in bonuses represents $5 million less than the maximum the company could pay under the proposed plans, which are tied to management's exceeding performance targets. The company said several operating executives failed to meet their targets or exceed them by enough in 2009 to merit the highest rewards. Tribune's push to pay the bonuses, even though it is in bankruptcy and still facing declining revenue, has been controversial from the start.
benton.org/node/36291 | Los Angeles Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
OUTLOOK FOR BROADBAND POLICY AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY GRIM
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
[Commentary] As if the U.S. is not already dangerously behind the rest of the world when it comes to high-speed Internet access, the outlook for a possible remedy has gotten grimmer. This is particularly bitter following a burst of optimism during the first year of the Obama administration. The best laid plans of President Barack Obama and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski were derailed by an unexpected court ruling in April that questioned whether the FCC had the legal authority to regulate issues related to broadband. That far-reaching conclusion put into doubt whether the FCC can move ahead on its ambitious policy agenda, whose most important parts are a national broadband plan and what's known as network neutrality. What's distressing is that there doesn't appear to be a simple way to move forward. The two avenues for possibly getting things back on track seem to only promise more uncertainty that could stymie progress for years. Let's look at both options and the reasons each leaves me pessimistic.
benton.org/node/36297 | San Jose Mercury News
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RESPONSE TO COMMUNICATIONS ACT UPDATE
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)]
In response to the May 24 call of by leading Democrats in the House and the Senate to update the Communications Act, Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said, "Congressional action to update the Communications Act is a clear signal to Chairman Genachowski to stand down on his recently announced plans to reclassify broadband services. Instead of an antiquated regulatory scheme imposed by the FCC, Congress will work to develop a legal and regulatory framework appropriate for our modern communications market. Our nation has experienced robust investment and innovation in the telecommunications sector, and is a global leader in online content and applications because our country does not have a burdensome regulatory environment. Congress is stepping in to address this issue because without our intervention, the FCC's proposed regulations could stifle future investment in broadband services."
Sen John Ensign (R-NV) urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon its proposal to redefine broadband as a telecommunications service. "Much of our communications law is based on 19th-century railroad regulation, and the last significant update, 14 years ago, barely mentioned the Internet," Sen Ensign said. With the announcement by commerce committee chairmen to revisit the laws, "the FCC should abandon its misguided attempt to upend settled and successful Internet policy by reclassifying broadband service as a common carrier."
benton.org/node/36288 | US Senate Commerce Committee | Washington Post
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CYBERSECURITY IS INDUSTRY'S RESPONSIBILITY
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Jill Aitoro]
Contractors that fail to live up to security requirements in federal technology contracts should be held accountable, even if the vulnerabilities originated in products or capabilities provided by suppliers, a top Homeland Security Department official said. In most business situations, "if we have a contractual arrangement and you fail [to meet the requirements], I have legal recourse," said Richard Marshall, director of global cybersecurity management at DHS. "Why wouldn't the same be true when the supply chain [is involved]? I'm buying a product from you, and you represent that it's a product with the following characteristics. If you fail, I have a right to sue you." He noted a number of examples where failures in the supply chain led to serious security implications, including a wave of hard drives infected with viruses that infiltrated the U.S. market from Asia in 2007 and a recent case in which thumb drives were shipped preinstalled with malicious software, eventually leading to the Defense Department imposing a temporary ban on the storage devices. "Buy from an authorized vendor and make sure that vendor has purchased from an authorized vendor," Marshall advised.
benton.org/node/36287 | nextgov
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FASTEST US CITIES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Ookla has introduced a broadband index that tabulates results from the more than 1 million speed tests done each day around the world. It's found that the average global broadband speed is 7.69 Mbps while the U.S. speeds average out at 10.12 Mbps. The company's goal is to move the testing beyond the tech-savvy market (we use it!), so as to get a better sense of how broadband speeds really play out across the world. The FCC is encouraging consumers to use the sites (Ookla also runs a site that tests jitter and packet loss at pingtest.net) as part of its nationwide testing goals, and many of Ookla's ISP customers also offer the test to their customers and host Ookla's servers. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/36275 | GigaOm | Connected Planet
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GOOGLE'S ECONOMIC IMPACT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Revealing estimates for its economic contributions to the American economy for the first time, Google said it generated $54 billion in activity for businesses, Web publishers and nonprofits last year. More than $14 billion of that economic activity was in California, more than any other state, according to a report Google released Tuesday. Google has its headquarters and employs more than 9,000 in the state, it said. The company claims that businesses bring in $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords, Google's online search advertising program. Businesses receive five clicks on their search results for every one click on their ads, it estimated. According to the calculation, businesses get $8 in profit for every $1 they spend on AdWords. Analysts say Google is emphasizing its role in creating jobs and economic development to counter a growing perception on Capitol Hill that it abuses its dominant position in online advertising. That is a tactic commonly employed by technology companies campaigning for support in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
benton.org/node/36279 | Los Angeles Times | Google | Video | TechDailyDose | Washington Post
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GOOGLE INFLUENCE IN DC
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha, Cecilia Kang]
When someone as influential as Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV requests your presence at a hearing, Washington insiders know it's more of a summons than an invitation. So for two hours on the morning of April 29, Microsoft, Facebook, the Federal Trade Commission, and experts from academia, think tanks and privacy groups dutifully came to answer questions about children's online privacy. But another invitee, Google, the biggest online company of all, was a no-show. Over the past year, Google's critics have expressed concern about the company's growing influence in Washington -- its close ties to the Obama administration and the millions it spends on lobbying. Last week, the nation's deputy chief technology officer, Andrew McLaughlin, was reprimanded for continuing to e-mail with his former Google colleagues about issues related to his White House duties. On the ground in the nation's capital, though, Google's reputation is more that of a scatterbrained graduate student than of a political operative.
benton.org/node/36292 | Washington Post
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PRIVACY
FACEBOOK AND PHONE NUMBERS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Don Reisinger]
A developer that's trying to highlight the dangers of forgetting about personal privacy has unveiled a new service that shows how easy it is for users to have their phone numbers acquired by Facebook visitors. The service, called Evil, sifts through Facebook groups to find posts left by users that include their phone numbers. It then displays the person's name and all but the last four digits of their phone numbers on the site. The issue, according to Tom Scott, the tool's creator, is that there are a slew of Facebook groups that are created each day by folks who lose their phones and need their friends' numbers back. Rather than e-mail each person individually, those people create groups where users can simply post their numbers to the group's wall. From there, the group owner can take the numbers and put them into their new phone. It's a simple, useful process for the group owner. But what those who are adding their numbers to the wall might not realize is that the majority of those groups are set to "public." And, according to Scott, a public group is viewable by anyone anywhere in the world, regardless of whether they're a Facebook user or not.
benton.org/node/36278 | Los Angeles Times
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WIRELESS
DIGGING INTO AT&T'S ETF
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
We put the question to AT&T: if the early termination fee (ETF) is just about recovering the cost of the cellphone handset subsidy, why doesn't it prorate cleanly? After two years, shouldn't the ETF prorate to zero? An AT&T representative said, "ETFs help customers by offering a lower-cost way to fulfill their contract obligations, while allowing carriers enough certainty about service revenue to induce them to offer handset discounts. AT&T has chosen to offer a two-tiered ETF to allow it to recover a higher amount from early terminating customers who typically generate the highest revenues (and who typically receive the highest equipment discounts) like users of smartphones and netbooks, and reduce the ETF for everyone else." This of course does not answer the question. If AT&T and others were concerned only about revenue "certainty," they could simply divide the subsidy cost by 24 months and prorate the ETF by that amount each month. No matter when a customer exits a contract, the company would recoup its entire subsidy. When the ETFs remain high even toward the end of a contract, though, the obvious effect is to keep users onboard for a few more months. It works, too—a recent government study found that ETFs served as effective lock-in tools. "Among wireless users who wanted to switch carriers during this time but did not do so," said the Government Accountability Office, "we estimate that 42 percent did not switch because they did not want to pay an early termination fee." A second question: if the subsidy cost is built into AT&T's monthly wireless plans, surely customers who purchase unsubsidized handsets should pay less for service? AT&T did not answer that question.
benton.org/node/36273 | Ars Technica
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AT&T TO UNLOCK PHONES
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Mike Dano]
According to the terms of a proposed class action settlement, AT&T Mobility will be required to provide the codes to unlock just about any of the phones it has sold during the past decade--except for the Apple iPhone. The issue centers on software locks that wireless carriers routinely apply to the mobile phones they subsidize, locks that prevent subscribers from using the phones on the networks of other carriers. Locking phones down to a particular network ensures that carriers can recoup the subsidy they apply to those devices. However, the lawsuit against AT&T centers on whether the carrier "properly disclosed" that restriction to consumers. Under the terms of the settlement, AT&T denied any wrongdoing but agreed to provide unlock codes for most of the phone it sells.
benton.org/node/36272 | Fierce
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SATELLITES
THREATS TO SATELLITES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Tirone]
Trash in space may bring commerce and communications on Earth to a halt unless policymakers and executives take steps to prevent satellite collisions with orbiting junk, according to a Pentagon report. Potential crashes between satellites and debris -- refuse from old rockets, abandoned satellites and missile shrapnel -- are threatening the $250 billion space-services market providing financial communication, global-positioning navigation, international phone connections, Google Earth pictures, television signals and weather forecasts, the report says. Space is "increasingly congested and contested," said the Defense Department's interim U.S. Space Posture Review, which was sent to Congress in March and not publicly released. Scientists are warning that space collisions could set off an uncontrolled chain reaction that might make some orbits unusable for commercial or military satellites because they are too littered with debris. The February 2009 crash between a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and an Iridium Communications Inc. satellite left 1,500 pieces of junk, each whizzing around the earth at 4.8 miles a second and each capable of destroying more satellites.
benton.org/node/36294 | Washington Post
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THIS SATELLITE, TOO, SHALL PASS
[SOURCE: CBS, AUTHOR: Charles Cooper]
Earlier this month, Intelstat's Galaxy 15 satellite began drifting out of control. At the time, the owner of a satellite that transmits programming to all US cable systems expressed concerns that the rogue satellite would disrupt cable programming across the United States. Although there was virtually no risk of an actual physical collision between the spacecraft, there still was the possibility of interference. Not to worry. The company, SES World Skies said that programming transmitted by its AMC 11 satellite would not be affected as no collision -- or near collision -- occurred. Ditto for Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision Systems.
benton.org/node/36285 | CBS
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GPS AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
Some of the most important hardware in our mobile data world doesn't sit under cell towers or on the shelves of electronics retailers. It's up in the sky in geosynchronous orbit, keeping precise atomic clock time and beaming latitude, longitude and altitude down to billions of devices, vehicles, cell towers, ATMs and even pets around the globe. In wireless, the GPS network of 24 satellites was crucial long before the advent of the first navigation phone. It used to work in the background, providing the time stamp needed for wireless networks to sort out encoded conversations, but it has since become a key element in the mobile services and applications we use on a daily basis. GPS isn't just powering our mapping and navigation services, its eking into our social networks apps, it's fueling new presence and social location services, it's helping to make restaurant recommendations, and even enabling new classes of network games and Internet dating services. We've squeezed every possible use out of GPS imaginable, right? Far from it. As GPS becomes more accurate, what seems like a wealth of location-based applications will seem trivial. Ultimately it could fundamentally change the Internet, turning a virtual information world into one that is physical and very real.
benton.org/node/36274 | Connected Planet
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DIGITAL CONTENT
GAME CONSOLES TO CHALLENGE PAY TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Nat Worden]
Sony has agreed to offer on-demand access to HBO programming through its PlayStation 3, the latest example of a videogame-console maker aiming for a bigger role in the digital living room. Sony and its chief competitors in the videogame-console market, Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co., have struck a series of distribution deals recently with leading media providers, including cable networks, major film studios, Netflix Inc. and Major League Baseball. The agreements position the console makers to challenge pay-TV service providers like cable and satellite companies. "The game console as a set-top box does have legs," said Ben Piper, analyst with market-research firm Strategy Analytics. "From a revenue perspective, it represents just a sliver at this point, but cable companies and other pay-TV operators would be ill-advised to ignore this as a threat." Owners of Playstation 3 consoles, known as PS3s, will be able to pay to download episodes from 11 HBO series, including "Big Love," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Entourage," as soon as they become available for sale in the DVD format, roughly 11 months after premiering on the network. Sony plans to add new HBO material every Tuesday to expand the offering.
benton.org/node/36295 | Wall Street Journal
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TIMES OF LONDON PAYWALL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw, Esther Bintliff]
The Times and its sister paper, The Sunday Times, could lose more than 90 per cent of their online audience when they introduce charges to read their websites next month, research has found. The study, to be published on Wednesday by Wiggin, a media law firm, came as News International's newspapers unveiled their redesigned websites before the first big test of charging consumers for online news. In a survey of 1,592 people in the UK this month by Entertainment Media Research, more than 90 per cent said they were unwilling to pay £1 a day or £2 a week, the pricing planned by the Times newspapers, to access a range of news websites. More people said they would rather pay for BBC online news than the nine newspaper sites they were questioned on. Asked about TimesOnline, the newspaper's existing website, 9 per cent said they would pay.
benton.org/node/36290 | Financial Times
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MORE ON AMERICA SPEAKING OUT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Dana Milbank]
[Commentary] Republicans want to take over the House in the fall, but there's a problem: They don't have an agenda. So on May 25, they set out to resolve that shortcoming. They announced that they would solicit suggestions on the Internet, then have members of the public give the ideas a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Call it the "Dancing With the Stars" model of public policy. Republicans were very pleased with their technological sophistication as they introduced the Web site, America Speaking Out, in a ceremony at the Newseum. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who created the program, said that to get software for the site, "I personally traveled to Washington state and discovered a Microsoft program that helped NASA map the moon." Using lunar software is appropriate, because the early responses to the Republicans' request for ideas are pretty far out.
benton.org/node/36293 | Washington Post
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