Tuesday, September 07
By IIA
Originally posted last Thursday.
We commend the FCC for responding to the recommendations of expert analysts, economists, civil rights organizations, industry groups and members of Congress by continuing to seek consensus rather than pursue burdensome and unnecessary regulations.
The Commission deserves credit for seeking additional input from interested parties, including actual market participants who are innovating, investing and deploying networks. As a bipartisan majority of Congress has urged, on such an important issue we should take the time necessary to get this right and to base policy on facts and reality rather than fear and political rhetoric.
— David Sutphen
Over the past decade, minimal regulation has led to extraordinary investment and adoption of broadband by more than two-thirds of American citizens. The shared goal of an open Internet is best served by a thoughtful, fact-based, targeted and bipartisan approach to new policy directions.
It is critical that processes to find consensus continue. With a well-planned strategy based on input from industry players across the spectrum, we can get every American online and build a world-class Internet ecosystem that makes our country a better, more prosperous and fairer society.
— Bruce Mehlman
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By Brad
In a must-read piece for the New York Times, Joe Nocera takes a look at the current net neutrality gridlock and comes to a sensible conclusion:
Net neutrality is in limbo because the public interest purists believe that any compromise is a sellout, and because the F.C.C. so badly shot itself in the foot by pursuing the Comcast case. It is difficult to see how we’re ever going to get net neutrality rules.
Then again, maybe the current snarl isn’t such a bad thing. “If everybody just walked away, the probability of anything bad happening is quite small,” said [Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig] Moffett. I agree. Consumers have come to expect an open Internet, and companies will violate net neutrality at their peril. That is just the way the Internet has evolved.
But don’t spread that around, O.K.? With so many hours spent on this thing, who really wants to admit that it’s much ado about very little?
Read the whole thing, as they say.
By IIA
40% of Americans say that they get most of their news from the Internet.
— “September Commission Meeting” of the Federal Communications Commission, September 29, 2009.
Learn more facts in our ever-growing Broadband Fact Book.
Thursday, September 02
By Brad
At an event yesterday, Apple showed off revamped versions of its popular iPod and its less popular Apple TV. Tucked in among the announcements was a music-oriented social networking service called Ping. At GigaOm, Om Malik explains why the new service is a big deal:
With 12 million songs and 250,000 apps, the best way for Apple to enhance the iTunes store – aka its shopping experience — is through the use of social. Back in 2007, I argued that social networking was merely a feature that had to be embedded into applications to enhance their value. Apple has done a great job of that, but it’s also gone one step further, not only by adding a social networking layer to iTunes, but by meshing it with its commerce engine, the iTunes Store. And it’s made this experience available on both the desktop and its devices.
With 160 million iTunes users worldwide, Malik expects the new social sharing network to send music sales on iTunes soaring.
By Bruce
Yesterday, the FCC announced it was delaying a decision on Title II regulations for Internet providers in order to seek more comment on two sticking points in the debate: managed services and whether wireless should be included in new regulations.
Here’s the FCC’s Public Notice about the need for more inquiry (PDF).
By Brad
While Congress works to put together a cybersecurity bill, rumors keep circulating that it will contain a so-called Internet “kill switch,” which some believe will give the president the power to essentially turn off the Internet. Now, as Gautham Nagesh from The Hill reports, congressional leaders are attempting to clear up misconceptions about the bill:
At the heart of the issue is whether the president already has the authority to intervene in private-sector networks in the event of such an emergency. [Sen. Susan] Collins and other supporters of the bill contend the president has had that authority for some time under a little-known provision of the Communications Act passed one month after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
“The president’s had that authority for a while,” said a senior Senate aide, who asked not to be identified. The aide said the “kill switch” is a misnomer because the infrastructure that supports the Internet in the U.S. makes it impossible to take down the entire network from one location. But the aide said the storyline has picked up steam because it’s very difficult for the public to conceptualize the severity of the cyber-threats facing the United States.
Wednesday, September 01
By Brad
The Information Technology Industry (ITI), an industry group formed in the wake of the FCC’s Title II announcement last May, continues to hold discussions. From Juliana Gruenwald at Tech Daily Dose:
Information Technology Industry Council President and CEO Dean Garfield put out a progress report Tuesday on his group’s efforts to find some middle ground among the stakeholders battling over the issue of network neutrality, saying there has been “significant progress” while declining to provide any details.
Among ITI’s members are Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Internet providers.
By Bruce
Sara Jerome at the Hill reports that the FCC will likely seek more comment on proposed net neutrality regulations. Specifically, managed services and whether wireless traffic should be included.
By Brad
Via Switched, the U.S. State Department has started using Twitter in an attempt to open a dialogue with North Korea. The one problem: So far, the country’s Twitter feed isn’t following other feeds, which means the State Department’s efforts are so far falling on deaf ears.
By IIA
In a recent study, the U.S. Commerce Department estimated that differences in income and education accounted for about half of the gap in Internet usage between whites and Hispanics and African-Americans.
— Shapiro, Robert and Kevin Hassett. “A New Analysis of Broadband Adoption Rates by Minority Households.” Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. Washington D.C. June 22, 2010.
Learn more facts in our ever-expanding Broadband Fact Book.
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