Blog - Page 19

Verizon Wireless and Google plan to co-develop several devices based on the Android system that will be preloaded with their own applications — plus others from third parties, a possible contender to Apple’s huge iPhone application store. They will market and distribute products and services, with Verizon also contributing its nationwide distribution channels. If the network neutrality mandates in the Markey-Eshoo bill were to become law, I don’t see how VZW and GOOG could preload applications, if the applications favor certain content on the Internet when they are used. That would seem to violate the “duty” of Internet access service providers to not block, interfere with, discriminate against, impair, or degrade the ability of any person to use an Internet Read More ›

Phil Kerpen observes If you thought Washington–which already took over banking and autos, and is fast-tracking attempts to take over health care and energy–would leave the Internet alone, you were dead wrong. The Internet (perhaps our greatest free market success story in recent years) is squarely in the cross-hairs of the administration and it’s not waiting for Congress to act. * * * * the agenda … is to transform access to the Internet into a government entitlement project, with all the necessary government intrusion and control in order guarantee it to everyone–in the world. * * * * We’ll have nowhere to go if the government turns out to be not quite as benevolent as some have hoped. One Read More ›

A must-read from Bret Swanson: Despite the brutal economic downturn, Internet-sector growth has been solid. From the Amazon Kindle and 85,000 iPhone “apps” to Hulu video and broadband health care, Web innovation flourishes. Mr. Genachowski heartily acknowledges these happy industry facts but then pivots to assert the Web is at a “crossroads” and only the FCC can choose the right path. The events of the last half-decade prove otherwise. Since 2004, bandwidth per capita in the U.S. grew to three megabits per second from just 262 kilobits per second, and monthly Internet traffic increased to two billion gigabytes from 170 million gigabytes–both tenfold leaps. * * * * At a time of continued national economic peril, the last thing we Read More ›

Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty believes iPhone sales could double if Apple ends its exclusive partnership with AT&T. Huberty cites a 136 per cent increase in the iPhone’s French market share after the überpopular smartphone became available from SFR and Bouygues Telecom after initially being limited to Orange. * * * *”In the top six iPhone markets that are still exclusive,” she writes, “we believe that Apple’s market share could rise to 10 percent, on average, in a multiple carrier distribution model from 4 percent today.” The FCC shouldn’t follow the French example of prohibiting iPhone exclusivity. Appearances to the contrary, this isn’t a regulatory success story. Regulation just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Read More ›

The FCC staff estimtates it would cost $350 billion to achieve universal access to the fastest broadband speeds, or $700 billion to build ubiquitous competing networks. One way to raise this kind of money — without requiring a vote of Congress to raise taxes — is to impose a user fee on broadband subscribers. Assuming you are a politician and you don’t want to be blamed for raising taxes or for increasing broadband rates in an election year, this plan would have to be paid for by Chinese and other foreign investors buying Treasury bonds which would increase our national debt. But what if a massive investment in the fastest broadband speeds of today turns out to be an investment Read More ›

The Economist’s special report on mobile phone service in developing countries notes that in Africa cellphone service has been more successful in war torn countries than in nations who practice heavy regulation. There is clear evidence that liberalisation drives adoption (see chart 3). The most vivid illustration comes from a comparison between two African countries: Ethiopia and Somalia. Ethiopia is one of the few remaining countries where mobile telecoms remains a government-run monopoly. By the end of 2008 the country had a “mobile teledensity” of 3.5% (ie, 3.5 mobile phones per 100 people), compared with 40% for Africa as a whole. By contrast, in war-torn Somalia, a similarly poor country with no functioning government and a completely unregulated telecoms market, Read More ›

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, is planning to introduce legislation to ensure privacy protection for Internet users. According to Boucher, Industry is to be commended for its recent advancement of self-regulatory principles. However, while proactive, these entirely voluntary principles do not go far enough, and there is no guarantee that every company that collects information from the Internet-using public will abide by them. * * * *The structure I have set forth should not prove burdensome for Internet-based businesses that rely on targeted advertising. In fact, it is in line with the practices of reputable service providers today. More importantly, by giving Internet users a greater confidence that they have Read More ›

The Economist has a great special report on mobile phone service in developing countries. For one thing, “mobile money” is transforming the lives of ordinary people in areas with poorly-developed banking systems. … a new opportunity beckons: mobile money, which allows cash to travel as quickly as a text message. Across the developing world, corner shops are where people buy vouchers to top up their calling credit. Mobile-money services allow these small retailers to act rather like bank branches. They can take your cash, and (by sending a special kind of text message) credit it to your mobile-money account. You can then transfer money (again, via text message) to other registered users, who can withdraw it by visiting their own Read More ›

Tim Doyle at SNL Kagan has discovered that large telecom firms are not under investigation, as the Wall Street Journal reported in July they were for — and this choice of words was a surprise — “abusing the market power they have amassed in recent years.” See this. Doyle dug deeper and found that the WSJ got it wrong. Despite a previous report that indicated otherwise, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has not undertaken an investigation of AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. The Department of Justice could not find any records of correspondence between the telecom giants and the Antitrust Division during 2009 regarding their market power and possible abuses of it, according to a Sept. 2 Read More ›

FCC Chairman Julius Genochowski’s recent net neutrality speech failed to persuade the Washington Post, which editorializes … ISPs, which have poured billions of dollars into building infrastructure, would have little control — if any — over the kinds of information and technology flowing through their pipes. * * * *Mr. Genachowski claims that the FCC “will do as much as we need to do, and no more, to ensure that the Internet remains an unfettered platform for competition, creativity and entrepreneurial activity.” He will advance this goal by insisting on transparency; he will jeopardize it — and stifle further investments by ISPs — with attempts to micromanage what has been a vibrant and well-functioning marketplace.