You’d be hard pressed to find many fooled that Internet.org is anything but a Trojan horse for some big tech companies to access new customers.
Why don’t Facebook and Google just embrace that they’re monetizing the third world?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Yet More Media Consolidation is not the Cure to the Problems Caused by Media Consolidation
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
People are buzzing about possible new consolidation in the cable industry. The reason isn't hard to see: in a market that is already very concentrated, only the strong survive. Programming costs keep rising and larger cable companies would have more leverage in negotiations against media giants like Viacom and Disney. As ISPs, larger cable companies would be better able to drive hard bargains with Internet content companies when it comes to interconnection agreements, or operate their own online video services. But bigger is not better for the public.
AT&T CEO: Data Caps Are About Charging Content Providers
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The quest to determine why data caps really exist may be starting to wind down. Internet service providers (ISPs) have admitted, either explicitly or implicitly, that monthly data caps have nothing to do with network congestion. And, while some have started to portray data caps as legitimate forms of price discrimination, that argument did not hold up to close scrutiny either. So what's left?
AT&T and Google’s plans to give Austin a gigabit is an experiment. Is it a good one?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
AT&T executives will meet with Austin and Texas officials seeking the same concessions that Google is getting in order to build out its gigabit network. As someone who has followed telecom in Austin, and in Texas, this mostly means the ability to cherry pick where it will deploy its gigabit network. And that points to both the upside and downside of Google’s influence.
Will 21st century broadcasting use the airwaves?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The number of people watching broadcast TV with the aid of an antenna is a fraction of what it used to be; about 90% of U.S. homes tune in these channels via some form of pay TV. If Fox decided to shut down its transmitters tomorrow, it would cut off only 10% of its viewers, many of whom might quickly sign up for cable just so they could keep watching "American Idol." And doing so would not only end the threat Aereo poses to the retransmission fees Fox receives from pay-TV operators, it could conceivably enable them to demand higher amounts from those operators -- and from the Aereos of the world.
No, free Wi-Fi isn’t coming to every US city
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
It all originated from one Washington Post report with the less-shouty headline "Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public Wi-Fi networks." The report had some bold, inaccurate claims, notably this one: "If all goes as planned, free access to the Web would be available in just about every metropolitan area and in many rural areas."
Battle lines drawn in online search war
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The battle lines in the new search wars have now been drawn.
The Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction: A Staff Summary
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Congress, in passing the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 in early 2012, authorized the FCC to conduct incentive auctions, with the first auction to be of broadcast television spectrum. Congress further directed that certain net proceeds from the broadcast incentive auction are to be deposited in the Public Safety Trust Fund to fund a national first responder network, state and local public safety grants, and public safety research, and the balance is to be used for deficit reduction.