FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks

WIRED

Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday intended to prevent home recording of new movie releases.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as Selectable Output Control. Hollywood requested SOC powers as a condition of allowing providers for the first time to release movies to their in-home customers while the film is in theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America said its member studios would not authorize the early movie releases unless it won the ability to deploy Selectable Output Control. The reason: Analog video signals can easily be recorded, while digital video standards include a copy protection scheme that lets providers set a no-copy flag on the signal.

Digital rights group, Public Knowledge, said millions of older televisions, including 11 million HD sets, would be affected, a number the MPAA disputes. Owners of those devices would not have the luxury of being able to view the latest theater blockbuster at home through video on-demand services.

“The FCC is allowing the MPAA to control your television,” John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge staff attorney, said in a telephone interview.

Howard Gantman, a Motion Picture Association of America vice president, said in a telephone interview that, while some consumers may be left out, “It’s not going to stop you from getting what you get now.”

The FCC said it sided with the MPAA in the name of “public interest,” and granted SOC controls for no longer than 90 days per title.

“We believe that providing consumers with the option to view films in their homes shortly after those films are released in theaters will serve the public interest,” the FCC said in its order. It added that permission to deploy Selectable Output Control “is necessary to provide adequate protection against illegal copying of the proposed service.”

Gantman said it’s now about four months between theater debut to home or DVD release. With Friday’s decision, he said, it was not immediately clear how much shorter that span would become.

Agreements between studios, producers and the cable and satellite providers need to be worked out, he said.

“We’re not breaking anybody’s TVs,” he said.

Beyond the FCC's Push for 100 Mbps to 100 Million

Business Week

The challenge will be to deliver universal service, telehealth, a smart grid, school broadband, and digital literacy

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has outlined his vision for broadband in the U.S.: delivering 100 Mbps connections to 100 million homes.As part of an update on the National Broadband Plan due before Congress in mid-March, Genachowski sketched out a plan that would keep the U.S. competitive with other nations and enable 90% of the population to have and use broadband, up from about 65% today.

The proposed speeds seem pretty exciting, but the devil is in the details. Currently, at least 55 million homes have the infrastructure to get 100 Mbps deployments through fiber to the home or through a cable DOCSIS 3.0 deployment (the ISP may not offer 100 Mbps to the home, but it could be delivered). The time frame for getting 100 Mbps connections to 100 million homes wasn't defined, although Genachowski called this a "2020 vision." While I think a decade is too long to wait for 100 Mbps to a third of the nation, getting that much deployed is by far the plan's easiest aspect.

Speaking at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Conference in Washington, Genachowski said:

"Our plan will set goals for the U.S. to have the world's largest market of very high-speed broadband users. A '100 Squared' initiative—100 million households at 100 megabits per second—to unleash American ingenuity and ensure that businesses, large and small, are created here, move here, and stay here.

"And we should stretch beyond 100 megabits. The U.S. should lead the world in ultra-high-speed broadband test beds as fast or faster than anywhere in the world. In the global race to the top, this will help ensure that America has the infrastructure to host the boldest innovations that can be imagined. Google announced a one-gigabit test bed initiative just a few days ago—and we need others to drive competition to invent the future."
a broad range of needs and goals

In addition to delivering 100 Mbps to almost a third of the population, Genachowski laid out several areas where the FCC would act to provide small businesses and rural areas with broadband. There were also hints as to how the FCC will convince laggards that broadband is a good thing. It sounds as if some of that convincing will come from lower access costs in some areas, combined with an overall shift in delivering services—from medicine to schooling—via broadband networks. The plan outlined by Genachowski includes the following recommendations:

• To improve the E-Rate program for Internet connections in classrooms and libraries.

• To modernize the FCC's rural telemedicine program to connect thousands of additional clinics and eliminate bureaucratic barriers to telehealth.

• To take the steps necessary to deploy broadband for the smart grid.

• To develop public/private partnerships to increase Internet adoption, so children can use the Internet proficiently and safely. Programs like the NCTA's new A+ program are a model.

• To free up a significant amount of spectrum in the years ahead for ample licensed and unlicensed use.

• To use government rights of way and conduits to lower the cost of wired and wireless broadband deployments.

• To build an interoperable public safety network to replace the current system.

Genachowski also said that while other countries with broadband plans have universality goals whose speeds range as high as 1-to-2 megabits per second, the U.S. goal for universal service will be higher. He talked up digital literacy as well, saying every child must be digitally literate by the time he or she leaves high school. He also offered scary statistics that Om Malik and I called on the FCC to address last year:

• Right now, roughly 14 million Americans do not have access to broadband.

• The U.S. broadband adoption rate is about 65%, compared with 88% in Singapore and 95% in South Korea.

• The U.S. adoption rate is even lower than 65% among low-income, minority, rural, tribal, and disabled households.

• Some 26% of rural business sites do not have access to a standard cable modem and 9% lack DSL.

• More than 70% of small businesses have little or no mobile broadband.

So this appears to be a decent sketch, although it's far less revolutionary than it might seem. Filling in the details around lowering costs and delivering actual services are where the plan could have the most impact. Getting a 100 Mbps pipe to a few million more people over the next decade will happen whether or not the FCC puts it in the National Broadband Plan. Delivering faster universal service to rural and low-income areas, real telehealth, a smart grid, broadband to schools and creating a digital literacy programs will be the real challenges.

An Inconvenient Truth: Broadcast Spectrum Is A Finite Resource

Associated Press

Wireless devices such as Apple's iPhone are transforming the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the go. All this has a price - in airwaves.

As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive more data over the airwaves. But the spectrum of wireless frequencies is finite - and devices like the iPhone are allowed to use only so much of it. TV and radio broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks and other communications services also use the airwaves. Each transmits on certain frequencies to avoid interference with others.

Now wireless phone companies fear they're in danger of running out of room, leaving congested networks that frustrate users and slow innovation. So the wireless companies want the government to give them bigger slices of airwaves - even if other users have to give up rights to theirs.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency's broadband plan.

"Spectrum is the equivalent of our highways," says Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group. "That's how we move our traffic. And the volume of that traffic is increasing so dramatically that we need more lanes. We need more highways."

That won't happen without a fight. Wireless companies are eyeing some frequencies used by TV broadcasters, satellite-communications companies and federal agencies such as the Pentagon. Already, some of those groups are pushing back.

That means tough choices are ahead. But one way or another, Washington will keep up with the exploding growth of the wireless market, insists Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. He is sponsoring a bill that would mandate a government inventory of the airwaves to identify unused or underused bands that could be reallocated.

"It's not a question of whether we can find more spectrum," says Boucher, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. "We have to find more spectrum."

CTIA, the industry group, is asking the government to make an additional 800 megahertz of the airwaves available for wireless companies to license over the next six years. That would be a huge expansion from the industry's current slice of roughly 500 megahertz. The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to make more frequencies available for commercial use, but has just 50 megahertz in the pipeline.

Two trends are driving the demand.

First, advanced new wireless applications - such as mobile video and online games - devour far more bandwidth than voice calls or basic text messages, says Neville Ray, senior vice president for engineering operations for T-Mobile USA Inc.

Second, consumers are flocking to wireless Internet connections, in some cases dropping landline accounts altogether. ABI Research projects U.S. mobile broadband subscriptions will climb to 150 million by 2014, up from 48 million this year and 5 million in 2007.

The predicament, says Jamie Hedlund, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, is that many users "assume the wireless experience should be the same as the wired experience, but the capacity is just not there for that."

The industry's concerns are finding a sympathetic ear in Washington.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency's broadband plan. That plan, mandated by the 2009 stimulus bill, is due in February and will propose using wireless systems to bring high-speed Internet connections to corners of the country that are too remote for landline networks.

"If we are going to have a world-leading broadband infrastructure for the nation, wireless is an indispensable ingredient," says Genachowski aide Colin Crowell.

Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that manages the federal government's use of the airwaves, says the agency is also hunting for more frequencies the wireless industry can use.

Some of the crunch can be addressed with technologies that make more efficient use of airwaves and new equipment that lets users share bands. The FCC also wants to promote greater use of frequencies that aren't licensed to anyone, such as the "white spaces" between the bands used by TV channels.

But such solutions alone won't solve the crisis, the wireless industry warns.

The FCC's attention for now is on TV broadcasters, which hold nearly 300 megahertz of airwaves that are mainly used to serve just 10 percent of American homes - those that still rely solely on over-the-air TV signals.

The FCC is exploring multiple options, most of which would leave broadcasters with enough capacity to deliver a high-definition signal over the air. One possibility, which might require congressional approval, is a voluntary program that would let broadcasters sell excess bandwidth through an auction, to either the government or directly to wireless companies. Although the FCC awarded spectrum licenses to broadcasters for free many years ago, those licenses are worth millions today.

"Fewer people are getting over-the-air TV and at the same time, more and more people are using mobile broadband," says Blair Levin, the official overseeing the FCC broadband plan. "So it only makes sense ... to get that asset into the hands of whomever can realize its greatest value."

The idea faces opposition from the powerful broadcast lobby. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, says the proposal would stunt the industry's plans to make innovative use of the airwaves that became free when it turned off analog broadcasts and went entirely digital in June. Broadcasters have already returned more than 100 megahertz of those airwaves to the government and plan to use the rest to transmit high-definition signals, "multicast" multiple channels and deliver mobile TV to phones, laptops and cars.

"The FCC proposal would kill many of our future business plans in the cradle," Wharton says.

Wireless carriers are also setting their sights on frequencies held by companies that deliver voice and data services through satellites.

Hedlund, of the Consumer Electronics Association, notes that some of these companies have a lot of bandwidth but not a lot of customers. TerreStar Corp., for one, launched its satellite in July and is just building a subscriber base. And ICO Global Communications, which is running tests on a satellite launched last year, has not announced when it will begin commercial service.

But TerreStar General Counsel Doug Brandon believes the company has a strong argument for keeping its airwaves: Satellites can provide a critical lifeline in emergencies when other communications links go down and in rural areas where other carriers don't offer service.

If anything, added ICO Vice President Christopher Doherty, satellite phone companies are ideal partners for cell phone companies that want to expand coverage. TerreStar, for one, has a deal for AT&T Inc. to resell the satellite service.

More potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations. The Defense Department, for instance, needs the airwaves for such critical equipment as radars, precision-guided weapons and drone planes.

The Pentagon has vacated some frequencies and is developing technology that can make more efficient use of airwaves. It also says it is committed to finding compromises that work for the government and commercial sector, so long as those don't jeopardize military capabilities.

Karl Nebbia, head of the NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management, points out that federal agencies may be open to moving to different bands because the government is "a huge user of commercial broadband services." But one challenge will be to ensure federal users get the resources to relocate - including new equipment, potentially paid for with spectrum auction proceeds.

For now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings in the airwaves.

"There is no open space anywhere," says Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.

Verizon Must Answer To FCC, Customers

PC World

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sent a letter to Verizon demanding answers about why it increased early termination fees for smart phone users as well as whether customers are charged for inadvertently accessing Verizon's Internet services.

At dispute is that Verizon doubled early termination fees (ETF) for new customers that signed up to its wireless services with a smartphone. The company also charged a fcc verizon$2 fee of a number of customers who accessed its mobile Web by inadvertently loading their browsers.

A Verizon spokesperson responded to the inquiry, telling Gigaom, "Nobody is required to pay an ETF. You always have the choice of buying a mobile phone at full price with no ETF. Or you can buy a device at a discount with a 1- or 2-year contract. If you stay with your contract, you don't pay a fee at all. We've heard from very few customers who accidentally accessed their web browsers, and we immediately credited them $1.99 per month for the problem."

Of course, that response dodged the question about ETFs doubling for smart phone customers. This is just my guess, but it might have something to do with the recent availability of the Droid.

However, Verizon will have to respond to the FCC, which has increased its role as a consumer watchdog. If this is how the FCC is going to act going forward, I'm pleased -- so long as the industry's position is respected as well.