Short-form videos from Discovery Communications are coming to AOL’s online video network -- AOL On, the companies said. Excerpts from shows and content from the Discovery and Revision3 news series DNews are included in the deal.
MediaMath acquired Akamai’s Advertising Decisions Solutions business, the companies said. The companies also entered into a multi-year deal giving MediaMath exclusive rights to Akamai’s pixel-free technology for ad and marketing applications.
Data analytics provider Guavus completed its acquisition of Neuralitic Systems, a Canada-based mobile analytics and data intelligence company that works with mobile network operators to understand subscribers’ data usage, it said. The purchase of Neuralitic means Guavus can provide telecoms and mobile operators “with a single, integrated solution that is scalable to carrier-class environments, offers an immediate return on investment, and makes timely decision-making a reality,” said Louis Brun, founder of Neuralitic Systems and Guavus’s senior vice president following the purchase, in a news release late Wednesday: “Carriers no longer need to invest in large systems integration projects, cross their fingers and wait 12 months to see if their investment pays off.” Guavus has not released financial details of the purchase, which was agreed to in December and closed Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bob63q).
A draft privacy notice for the FCC’s mobile broadband smartphone app tells the user about what kinds of information the app collects, and who has access to it. The draft, sent via email to members of the mobile broadband measurement group, says it identifies the location and unique ID of the cell tower that’s providing the service, as well as the GPS location of the mobile device; the times when data are collected; and handset type and operating system version. The app also collects cellular performance and characteristics, such as the strength of the radio signal and whether the connection is 3G or 4G, the draft privacy notice said. The notice also contains language on the speed information collected: “The app tests your mobile broadband upload and download rate, round trip latency, and packet loss measured between your handset and servers managed by the FCC, the FCC contractor, and other project partners,” it says. The privacy policy also discusses the U.K.-based measurement company SamKnows, involved researched platforms such as Measurement Lab, and the possibility of academic analysis of the data. The FCC may share the data collected with law enforcement where required by law or regulation, the draft says.
Skype users face “persistently unclear and confusing statements about the confidentiality of Skype conversations, and in particular the access that governments and other third parties have to Skype user data and communications,” said privacy advocates in an open letter to the Microsoft-owned company on Thursday (http://xrl.us/bob636). The letter’s authors call for “a regularly updated Transparency Report” that includes Microsoft and Skype data collection and retention policies, Skype’s understanding of how third parties may intercept user data and how Skype responds to third party requests for user data. Signatories include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Reporters Without Borders and Dan Gillmor, director of Arizona State University’s Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and an early journalism blogger.
A group of broadcasters which plan to sell some spectrum in the planned incentive auction said the FCC should make sure broadcasters receive “the market value of any spectrum they relinquish.” The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition (http://xrl.us/bob62i) said the initial bids in the reverse auction must “exceed the expectations of potential sellers.” Secondly, the commission should avoid adopting unnecessary conditions that might keep bidders on either side of the auction away. It said a descending clock auction with intra-round bidding would be the best way to let stations realize a market value for the spectrum they contribute. Initial bids in the reverse auction might exceed the expected forward auction value in the largest markets, the coalition said. But by encouraging stations in the largest markets to participate, the commission has the best chance of creating a nationwide 120 MHz spectrum band, it said. “The only way the Commission can err is by selecting initial prices that are too low,” it said. The coalition said stations should have the flexibility to convert their bids to different “exit options” each round. And it argued against a proposal in the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking on the auction in which a station could bid to accept additional interference on its spectrum. “This option would counteract the agency’s efforts to simplify the auction process,” it said. Furthermore, the commission should act quickly, it said. “Neither the broadcast industry nor the wireless industry will benefit from the uncertainty resulting from an unnecessarily drawn-out auction process,” it said.
Comments are due Feb. 22 on a petition by Consolidated Communications of Fort Bend Co. for waiver of a filing deadline, a public notice said (http://xrl.us/bob62x). The telco wants a waiver of the deadline for certain ILECs to file true-up data with the Universal Service Administrative Co. to be able to receive local switching support, the notice said. Reply comments in WC docket 08-71 are due March 11.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said promoting online privacy and cybersecurity will continue to be priorities for the committee in the 113th Congress, according to a recent news release (http://xrl.us/bob62g). Rockefeller, who said he would retire at the end of 2014, said he will continue investigating the business practices of data brokers, examining Do Not Track standards, and improving cybersecurity rules. The chairman touted the success of his E-rate program and said the committee will work to further expand high-speed and wireless Internet access in schools. Rockefeller said he will also seek to expose consumer abuses including misleading telephone billing, among other issues.
The FCC should require emergency information be carried on a secondary audio channel and by closed captions for people with sight and hearing problems, several deaf groups said. That’s a “viable means to serve the diverse needs of the more than one million people who are blind or visually impaired and deaf or hard of hearing,” Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network, Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and others told Consumer & Governmental Affairs and Media bureau officials implementing the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The agency should also “adopt emergency information and apparatus rules consistent with the CVAA and the IP Captioning Order” and “reject various industry proposals to the contrary,” they said on Internet Protocol captioning (http://xrl.us/bob6zs). Their filing was posted Wednesday to docket 12-107, where those groups had sought the audio channel and captioning tack in comments last month (CD Dec 20 p12). Some people with both hearing and vision problems “rely on a Braille display or other tactile device fed with textual emergency information, such as through closed captions,” the new ex parte filing said. “Some people with limited vision may be able to enlarge or otherwise manipulate closed captions to view emergency information on a video screen."
The Fiber to the Home Council Americas launched its online community toolkit (http://xrl.us/bob6w7) Thursday. The site features information about how to make requests for proposals, business plans and other elements associated with starting and running broadband networks. The council worked with Gig.U to develop parts of the toolkit, it said (http://xrl.us/bob6xh), associating its efforts with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s recent call for gigabit communities in every state (CD Jan 22 p1). It’s also planning “a major event in the Kansas City area at mid-year at which a broad range of local civic and business leaders will have the opportunity to learn from communities that have already deployed all-fiber networks, as well as other experts who will offer guidance on getting their FTTH [fiber to the home] projects underway” and will reveal more details soon, it said.