Suddenlink applauded the introduction of the Television Consumer Freedom Act (S-912) for putting a spotlight on “a real industry problem,” said a news release Monday. “There is clearly a need for greater flexibility on the part of distributors like us, to offer smaller, more-economical packages of channels that are better targeted to diverse consumer interests and incomes,” said Suddenlink CEO Jerry Kent. “The ability of powerful TV network owners to force more channels and higher costs on distributors and consumers threatens to price some households out of the multichannel video market. We welcome an open-minded discussion about ways to fix the current, unsustainable system.” The bill, introduced last week by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., aims to encourage video programmers and distributors to offer a la carte video to consumers, deter broadcasters from downgrading their over-the-air services and amend the sports blackout rules (CD May 10 p1).
The FCC’s proposal for three trials of narrow Internet Protocol transition issues is “more likely to discourage future investment in Internet infrastructure than to accelerate it,” said Fred Campbell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Communications Liberty and Innovation Project, in a blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/16vifm4). The commission Friday said its Technology Transitions Policy Task Force was seeking comments on potential trials relating to the transition from copper to fiber, wireline to wireless, and time-division multiplexing to IP (CD May 13 p1). But those trials “wouldn’t address the full range of issues raised by the IP transition,” Campbell said. The three “limited issues” addressed by the trial -- VoIP interconnection, next-generation 911, and wireless substitution -- “omit the most important issue of all,” he said: “The transition of the wireline network infrastructure itself.” The trials are unlikely to yield much data about the challenges of shutting down legacy technologies, he said. All three issues are already being examined in ongoing proceedings, he said. “I expect the FCC was unwilling to propose a comprehensive trial that could jeopardize its assertion of regulatory jurisdiction over the Internet, especially its potential authority to impose Title II regulations if it loses the net neutrality case pending in the DC Circuit.”
Author and broadband activist Susan Crawford emphasized her message of faster bandwidth, during an event with the Code for America Peer Network Monday. Code for America is intended to connect local governments. Crawford, a law professor at the Yeshiva University Cardozo School of Law and former White House telecom adviser, criticized what she considers to be a lack of competition in the telecom world, split between cable companies on the one hand and a duopoly of wireless companies. “There’s nothing evil about any of this,” she said. “It’s not bad, it’s not evil.” But she said when consolidation is possible, competition is impossible. She advocated for certain regulatory oversight, and said providers need to be made to connect with one another. Her presentation advocated for communities’ freedom to build their own broadband networks and showed the many states that have restricted that ability. “We need to preempt those barriers,” she said. U.S. politicians need to address these challenges, which should become a greater part of the country’s dialogue, said Crawford: “I'm hoping Code for America can play an important role.”
The FCC should ignore a Department of Justice filing (http://bit.ly/16S6zag), which suggested that the commission limit spectrum ownership in the interest of competition, the Phoenix Center said in a new paper. “While the DOJ’s ex parte is long on self-promotion about its purported expertise regarding the economics of mobile wireless markets, the DOJ’s pleading is remarkably short on substance,” said study co-author and Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak. “The FCC should accord the DOJ’s pleading little probative weight.” DOJ’s “notion of ‘foreclosure value’ is not a sufficient justification for rigging the auction,” the paper said (http://bit.ly/10J4zBb). “The efficiency of an auction’s outcome should instead be based on relative ‘use value,’ and there are good reasons to suspect the use value of larger carriers exceeds that of smaller carriers. Economic theory therefore suggests the presumption should be in favor of non-interference.” DOJ’s filing is also “inconsistent with its own depiction of the mobile wireless market, where firms ... face spectrum exhaust, and realize a type of economies of scale in the use of spectrum,” the paper said. “Published research shows that under such conditions, spectrum exhaust turns the standard antitrust analysis on its head -- namely, that more competitors may, in fact, lead to higher prices and lower quality."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Alice Corp. can’t claim four of its patents on a computerized currency trading platform because they're too abstract. Friday’s ruling prevents that trading risk management and investment firm from suing CLS Bank International for patent infringement. Alice had argued that even if the four patents in question were based on abstract ideas, they could still be patentable because of the computer’s role in the invention (http://1.usa.gov/Yz3Yjh). Multiple companies filed amicus briefs in the case. A Google-led group including Dell, Facebook, HomeAway, Intuit, Rackspace, Red Hat and Zynga had said software patent standards were too low. BSA/The Software Alliance said the court shouldn’t limit protections on software patents because software plays a “critical role” in the U.S. economy. The court was divided in the ruling, with five of the nine judges issuing opinions that partially or fully dissented from the majority opinion. Judge Kimberly Moore wrote in a partial dissent that she was concerned the ruling could mean the “death of hundreds of thousands of patents, including all business method, financial system, and software patents as well as many computer implemented and telecommunications patents.” Adam Perlman, a partner with the law firm of Williams & Connolly who represented Alice, said his client had no comment. A CLS Bank spokesman said the company was pleased with the ruling, which “strikes an appropriate balance between innovation and competition, and allows CLS Bank to continue its important operations."
The FCC should establish a metric for measuring the number of a carrier’s towers that are non-functioning in each county during disasters, and the percentage of the carrier’s cell towers in that county that the number represents, for use following future disasters. That’s in light of problems seen last year following Superstrom Sandy, Consumers Union wrote commissioners on Monday. “This measurement could be taken and reported one or more times each day, until all towers are restored to full function,” CU said. “Another cornerstone metric would similarly measure a carrier’s performance in maintaining and restoring backhaul and other connectivity for which the carrier is legally or contractually responsible. The Commission could use this metric to set a schedule for phasing in improved performance standards as rapidly as practicable, with appropriate incentives for achieving them and appropriate penalties for unexcused failure to achieve them.” CU also said the FCC should make such information available to the public “in a reasonably timely manner, so that mobile phone users can assess for themselves how well each carrier is meeting the applicable standards."
The latest version of the FCC’s mobile broadband smartphone app reduces the default data cap to 100 MB and collects “only passive metrics during scheduled tests once data cap is reached,” the agency said in a filing discussing its app (http://bit.ly/100RDW5). The app is still in beta, and hasn’t been made available for general release. The connectivity type of the active tests is now identified in the archived results. Location technology used for observations, and units of measurement of the location accuracy, are identified in the passive metrics, the FCC said.
Cox Enterprises completed two solar energy projects at subsidiaries in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the company said Monday (http://bit.ly/13VtkJq). The release said the two solar installations together annually prevent close to “3,600 tons of carbon from entering the environment.” The projects are part of Cox Conserves, the company’s national sustainability program. The release said the North Dighton, Mass., project included ground- and roof-mounted collections of solar panels that produce enough energy to annually power 400 homes. Cox’s Rhode Island project generates enough energy to power 77 average-sized homes, the release said. Cox Enterprises has also completed alternative energy projects in Arizona, California and several other states, it said.
The European Commission will develop an online database for monitoring Internet policy, regulatory and technological developments across the world, it said in a Monday release (http://bit.ly/166T7CF). The Global Internet Policy Observatory will collect academic information, briefings, reports and monitorings of Internet-related policy developments, it said. “The objective of GIPO is to increase expertise and understanding among all actors, including countries, NGOs and interest groups which may have so far been marginalised in Internet debates and decisions,” the commission said. Brazil, the African Union, Switzerland, the Association for Progressive Communications, DiploFoundation and the Internet Society have said they will be involved, the commission said.
The FCC Media Bureau granted a Time Warner Cable petition this week to exempt the cable provider from municipal rate-setting for basic-video and some other prices in 18 Wisconsin communities, said filings posted in FCC docket 12-1 (http://bit.ly/1011QC7). TWC’s petition cited video competition from AT&T Wisconsin. The deregulation includes the communities of Bayside, Oak Creek, and South Milwaukee. The bureau also granted effective competition petitions for Comcast in Freeport, Ill. (http://bit.ly/13Vn2cG), and three communities in New Mexico (http://fcc.us/YRrMkQ). Comcast’s petitions cited video competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The deregulation in Freeport will affect about 11,000 households. The deregulation in New Mexico will affect just over 23,000 households in Portales and McKinley and Roosevelt counties.