Cloud and mobile innovation will remain the “most disruptive technologies” in the market over the next three years, advisory firm KPMG said Thursday in an analysis of the results of a survey of 811 tech business leaders. Continuing innovation in the cloud and mobile space, “and the interplay of these technologies, is enabling new business models that take advantage of economies of scale, provide virtual access to supply chains and allow physical products to operate in the Cloud,” said Gary Matuszak, KPMG global chair-technology, media and telecommunications, in a news release (http://bit.ly/1aeeuk4).

Broadband Illinois took a look at the patterns of how broadband pricing relates to speeds. Its 37-page report (http://bit.ly/12tDHRc) took data from the state’s providers in May and paired it with data collected for the National Broadband Map. Speeds range from under 768 kbps to more than 100 Mbps. “As the speeds have increased, the prices seem to be holding steady or dropping when you compare the cost per megabit of bandwidth,” said Telecom Manager Brian Webster in a statement. The study will be updated in a year, it said.

The onset of Verizon’s Voice Link prompted 134 New York municipal officials to protest before the New York State Public Service Commission. The signatories comprise “County Executives, Legislators, Mayors, Supervisors, Councilors, et al. who represent residents and businesses in 68 municipalities in New York State,” said the comments, posted Thursday. “It is premature to embrace Voice Link as an adequate substitute for Verizon’s wireline service,” the officials’ comments said (http://bit.ly/176pmhZ). “If the Commission were to grant Verizon the excessive discretion that the company seeks, that broad latitude would hamper municipalities’ ability to fulfill their public safety and economic development responsibilities.” The officials encouraged only a careful experimental offering of Voice Link and a scenario in which the PSC issues “an unambiguous directive to Verizon to cease and desist offering Voice Link except on a temporary basis on Fire Island.” Voice Link creates public safety threats, allows Verizon to let its copper deteriorate, doesn’t support broadband access or point-of-sale transactions and hence hurts economic development, doesn’t support LifeAlert, and isn’t as reliable as traditional service “since wireless signal is often weak, spotty, or overburdened by other network traffic,” the officials said. “Municipalities do not oppose migrations to new technological platforms, but the transition should be managed in such a way as to prevent unnecessary threats to public safety, raise prices for broadband services, and cut off various services such as LifeAlert and credit-card processing,” the officials said. “Our telecommunications infrastructure should not diminish municipalities’ ability to protect their citizens.” Verizon has strongly defended the fixed wireless alternative to copper as cheaper, reliable and safe and has begun deploying it on Fire Island and as an optional service elsewhere in New York. The PSC docket on the proceeding has now attracted more than 400 public comments, many expressing concerns. “It’s important to note that we did not attempt to force service on anyone just to ’trial’ a new product,” Verizon Policy Senior Vice President Tom Maguire wrote in a Thursday blog post (http://vz.to/1dnKEJt). Voice Link is “an excellent option” for “voice-only customers experiencing chronic problems” on the copper network, he added. “Voice Link is not intended to replace well-functioning copper or fiber network connections.” He lamented inaccuracies in the public commentary surrounding the service and said there’s “no place for misinformation or hyperbolic commentary” in such serious situations as the one on Fire Island. He said Verizon won’t offer Voice Link to customers with DSL “or any sort of electronic medical or legal monitoring” or pull data service from customers if it works. He downplayed the service’s inability to handle faxes, alarm systems and other technologies: “Voice Link will evolve over time to be a more comprehensive service just like copper did.” Fewer than 5 percent of Verizon’s copper lines will be eligible for Voice Link replacement, he said.

EU antitrust officials carried out unannounced inspections Tuesday at several telecom companies that provide Internet connectivity services in Europe, the European Commission said Thursday (http://bit.ly/18b5pLw). The EC is concerned that the telcos may have breached antitrust rules that prohibit the abuse of a dominant market position, it said. Internet players interconnect with each other through a combination of wholesale services to cover all possible Internet destinations, the EC said. Connectivity allows market players such as content providers to connect to the Internet in order to provide their retail services or products, it said. That service is “crucial for the functioning of the Internet” as well as for end-users’ ability to reach online content with the necessary quality of service, regardless of where the provider is located, it said. Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step toward determining if certain activities are anticompetitive, it said. The fact that such raids are carried out doesn’t mean the companies are guilty of antitrust behavior or prejudge the outcome of the investigation, it said. The EC won’t publish the names of the companies at this point, it said. The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association had no comment. ISPs under investigation include Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica, wrote independent telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna Thursday on his radiobruxelleslibera blog (http://bit.ly/12p0UbP). The EC “intend[s] to verify the peering policies of such dominant operators because there are suspects [sic] that they may refuse peering (i.e. exchange of Internet traffic with other ISPs, normally for free) for anticompetitive purposes,” said Genna, who’s also council officer of the European Internet Services Providers’ Association. The case has a “strong connection with the net neutrality debate,” because the refusal of peering may cause artificial scarcity of Internet bandwidth, since the interconnection between the various ISPs is kept at a level that’s insufficient for the quantity of Internet traffic, he said. That results in congestion, interruptions and delays affecting users, he said. The possible goals of such alleged anticompetitive behaviour are questionable, he said. Dominant ISPs could be trying to force other operators such as carriers or rival ISPs to pay a potentially abusive price for peering directly with them, he said. The traffic of ISPs for whom peering is refused will be directed to other destinations via transit agreement and will reach the dominant ISPs through a longer path, with a negative impact on users’ quality of service, he said. Another reason for the alleged behavior may be to force hosting providers such as Google to move their servers to the dominant ISPs’ networks in order to give the latter’s clients better quality, he said. Genna stressed that Orange, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom aren’t dominant in the peering market, but they are in the broadband access markets. The EC intends to verify whether they're leveraging that position to get higher prices in the competitive peering market, he wrote. Orange spokesperson said: “A number of Orange premises are currently subject to inspection by the European Commission and these inspections could take several days to complete. Orange is extending its full cooperation to the European Commission and at this point the Group’s working practices have not been called into question in any way. We are confident about the eventual outcome of this matter, given the French Competition Authority decision regarding Cogent which exonerated our Group. The company’s business activities are continuing as normal during the inspections.” The EC probe apparently arises from a dispute between Orange and Cogent last year, Genna wrote. Cogent was refused a free peering agreement and lost a case before France’s competition authority on the basis that Orange was allowed to charge for peering to avoid a strong imbalance of traffic from Cogent, which was hosting, among other things, the Megaupload cyberlocker service, he said. Orange was, however, required to clarify its peering policy, he said.

FirstNet released 10 requests for information seeking potential deployment options for the national public safety network (http://1.usa.gov/1djYooF). “These RFIs will enable FirstNet to gather input from equipment manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders on possible models and partnership and technology platforms,” said Bill D'Agostino, FirstNet general manager, Wednesday. “We need to hear about innovative, cost-effective solutions for delivering the coverage, capacity, connectivity, cybersecurity and resiliency that a high-speed network dedicated to public safety demands.” Questions from respondents are due July 22 and responses Aug. 30. Requests for proposal are to follow. “These detailed RFIs reflect the diversity of uses and applications as well as the extensive broadband wireless needs of first responders and public safety professionals,” said FirstNet board member Craig Farrill, acting chief technology officer.

T-Mobile US’s new Jump plan will allow subscribers to upgrade to a new device two times per year for a $10-a-month service charge, the carrier said Wednesday. Subscribers who use the service will also need to pay up to a $170 deductible if the upgrade is due to an existing phone being damaged or lost. Subscribers will also still need to pay standard charges for a new phone, T-Mobile said. The carrier also said it will begin offering its Simple Choice family plan on Sunday. The plan would provide unlimited voice calls, text messages and 500 MB of mobile data usage per month for about $100 per month. T-Mobile said its 4G LTE network footprint now covers 116 metropolitan areas with a potential 157 million customers, above its goal to expand the network to reach 100 million potential customers by the middle of the year (http://t-mo.co/11CUA1O).

The FCC proposed a total of $72,000 in fines for TV stations missing deadlines to file kids’ programming reports, in Media Bureau notices of apparent liability released Wednesday. Western Slope faces a $25,000 penalty because Colorado stations KRGS-Rifle and KRVG-Glenwood Springs were missing program lists for 20 quarters (http://bit.ly/14JxMvo). Gunter Marksteiner faces a possible $12,000 fine because WYDT-CA in Naples, Fla., and WHDT in Miami, missed filing deadlines for seven quarters (http://bit.ly/12EFi7y). Unity Broadcasting faces a $15,000 fine because W39CA in Fulton, Miss., didn’t file on time for multiple quarters between 2007 and 2010 (http://bit.ly/10NtDG9). Victory Communications faces a possible $20,000 fine because K48MRD in Bentonville, Ark., missed multiple filing deadlines (http://bit.ly/1bp3DVT).

If the FCC adopts the changes to the Connect America Cost Model proposed by Alaska Communications Systems, it can “achieve a truly historic policy victory, transforming Alaska from among the most underserved states in the nation into a vibrant leader in broadband availability,” ACS told agency officials, according to an ex parte filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/16rJKba). Without the adjustments proposed by ACS, the cost model will not accurately capture the forward looking costs of an efficient carrier building and operating broadband-capable networks in Alaska, the carrier said. If that happens, Phase II of the Connect America Fund will fail to provide a sufficient amount of support, it said. ACS proposed changes to the plant mix inputs; changes to reflect Alaska-specific soil types; incorporation of a capex adjustment to reflect higher Alaskan costs; reclassification of ACS as a “small” company for the opex calculation; and incorporation into the model of costs of necessary undersea fiber cable.

Tech entrepreneurs shared how the future of technology will affect mobile app development at a Minority Media and Telecom Council conference Wednesday. Around the Way is an app for people to find black-owned businesses near them. The application has 17,000 businesses available to customers and the company plans to develop new apps related to Hispanics and women-owned businesses, said Eric Hamilton, Around the Way chief marketing officer. “We're interested in the efficiency of processes,” he said. “We are trying to help you find businesses that you have an affinity for and make it more efficient to find those businesses.” NextGen Media President Lisa Jones Johnson said the Internet is getting so large that people need help finding information. “We're interested in human creation,” said Johnson. Bruce Lincoln, Urban Cyberspace Company chief design scientist, emphasized the company Silicon Harlem and their Gigabit Harlem initiative as the future of the Internet. “We need social ventures like telework where we can digitally convey that we have people in the U.S. that can do this kind of work,” Lincoln said. Apps need to be continually upgraded and privacy issues need to be addressed, panelists agreed. “Apps need to think in the long term, like Around the Way, and they need to diversify,” said Ember Media President Clayton Banks.

A draft outline of the preliminary Cybersecurity Framework the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released last week will be the basis for most of the discussion that occurs through Friday at NIST’s third framework development workshop, NIST officials told participants Wednesday at the University of California-San Diego. The draft outlines portions of the preliminary framework, set to be released in October for public comment (CD July 8 p9). A final version of the framework will be released in February in accordance with deadlines set in President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (CD Feb 14 p1). NIST hopes participants at the San Diego workshop will help the agency refine the outline and fill in “gaps” where NIST has not been able to collect what they feel are sufficient standards and best practices, including addressing privacy and civil liberties issues, said Donna Dodson, NIST division chief-Computer Security Division. NIST didn’t receive many responses to its initial request for information that included best practices on privacy; while the agency has since received further information, it wants to ensure it receives “enough to fill that gap,” Dodson said. NIST wants to ensure the framework that emerges from the development process is one that is “truly industry-led” and can result in strong voluntary implementation programs, said Adam Sedgewick, NIST senior information technology policy adviser. The output from the San Diego workshop will form the basis of discussion at NIST’s final framework development workshop, which is to occur in September.