Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks

Ra Energy Fdn.
Raleigh Myers
Worksheet bio
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/bio.html
Blog
http://raenergy.blogspot.com/

Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks

I suppose I should just say it: Now do you believe that Corporatism-Fascism is here ?????

Making free communication illegal was an anticipated event. We could have had free communications since the advent of the CB radio. Now we can get with it and make it happen. Most of the out of patent components are in place we just need to bundle them.  These technologies are is the key to the virtual global direct democracy synergy.
http://raenergy.igc.org/wireless.html

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for DECEMBER 1, 2004

For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm

TODAY'S QUESTION: Is it really a good idea to give phone companies the
right to deny municipalities the ability to deploy their own networks? (see
first story below)

TELECOM POLICY
       Law Restricts Municipal Wi-Fi Networks
       TV Stations Urge Go-Slow Approach on Wi-Fi
       NCTA Raises TV-Interference Concerns
       Nation's Advocates Propose Wireless Consumer Protections
       Bright House Seeking 'Naked' DSL Ruling
       FCC Should Embrace 'Dynamic Deregulation'

MEDIA POLICY
       APTS Applauds the Continued Growth in Federal Support
               for Public Television
       PBS Deal With Comcast Seen as Militating Against
               Mission & Values
       Fighting FCC on Indecency
       TV Executives Urge Taking Wider View of Family Friendly Programming
       EchoStar Says It Can't Provide Local Emergency Alerts
       Libel Case Could Chill Speech Online
       The Fight for Docu-Democracy

WORTH A LISTEN? -- Digital Generations; Payola Persists

FROM THE BLOGSPHERE -- Pegasus News; Media as Election '04 Loser

TELECOM POLICY

LAW RESTRICTS MUNICIPAL WI-FI NETWORKS
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D) said late Tuesday night that he had
signed into law a large telecommunications bill placing severe restrictions
on the ability of cities and towns to offer telecommunications services, an
item that was heavily lobbied by Verizon and other big telephone companies
in similar legislation across the country. The legislation signed by Gov.
Rendell gives phone companies the right to deny municipalities the ability
to deploy their own networks, which could hinder the deployment of Wi-Fi
networks throughout the state. Gov. Rendell said that the bill's provision
limiting municipal competition was a "problem." However, he pointed to
Verizon's agreement to waive its right to stop Philadelphia's plan for a
Wi-Fi network, and said the state would "work with other municipalities on
projects that they have established or propose to establish in order to
ensure that, to the extent that they are now viable, they will also have
the opportunity to succeed." The legislation also contains a potentially
lucrative provision giving phone companies like Verizon large incentives to
promise to modernize their networks. Some have criticized that provision
since companies would be eligible for the incentives after filing the
modernization plans, but before the upgrades have actually taken place.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jesse Drucker jesse.drucker@wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110185892280287396,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
(requires subscription)
See also:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23826-2004Nov30.html

TV STATIONS URGE GO-SLOW APPROACH ON WI-FI
Public and commercial broadcasters are asking the FCC to delay plans to let
wireless local area computer networks (known as Wi-Fi) and other unlicensed
communications devices operate on vacant TV channels. The FCC proposal
"would produce many detrimental and unintended consequences to America's
free, over-the-air television service but fails to present any meaningful
method for resolving such problems," the National Association of
Broadcasters wrote in comments filed with the FCC Tuesday. "The public
would be ill-served by its adoption." The Association for Public Television
Stations agrees with that assessment. Until broadcasters have picked their
permanent channels and real-world testing of the devices proves that there
will be no interference, introduction of the new service puts at risk the
billion-plus dollars that public stations have invested in construction of
digital television facilities. The Wi-Fi Alliance, an association that
certifies interoperability of wireless local area network products,
however, is eager for the FCC to move forward. It asked the Commission to
allow telecom companies great leeway in choosing which
interference-mitigation techniques they believe work the best rather than
forcing a particular method on the industry.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA484384.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

NCTA RAISES TV-INTERFERENCE CONCERNS
Allowing unlicensed wireless-Internet providers to share broadcast-TV
spectrum could disrupt cable-system access to TV stations that have
mandatory carriage rights, the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association said Tuesday. NCTA said the FCC's proposal, particularly in
urban areas, could foster so much congestion that "an electromagnetic
cloud" could emerge, "making it nearly impossible to identify a single
source of interference in the presence of many such sources." Each TV
market is allocated 402 megahertz of spectrum -- enough bandwidth to
accommodate 67 TV stations. But the average consumer has access to about
seven stations due to market conditions and interference issues that
require channel spacing among stations.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA484376.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)

NATION'S ADVOCATES PROPOSE WIRELESS CONSUMER PROTECTIONS
An organization of the nation's consumer utility advocates believes that
over 160 million wireless customers need to be protected from unscrupulous
advertising, poor service and anti-competitive practices. The National
Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) unanimously passed
a resolution earlier this month at its annual meeting in Nashville,
Tennessee, calling for state and federal action to adopt and enforce
service quality and consumer protection standards for wireless companies.
NASUCA believes that the important areas that should be applied to all
wireless companies and made mandatory include: 1) Clear and uniform
disclosure of all rates and charges at the point where a consumer is
purchasing a service plan. Customers need to know up front about any
activation, airtime, roaming, long-distance and early termination fees; 2)
Providing customers with the full terms and conditions of service. This
information should include equipment return, cancellation and replacement
policies, contract extension guidelines and a method for agreeing or
declining inclusion in directory assistance listings; 3) Itemized billing
to clearly separate company-imposed charges from those fees and taxes
mandated or authorized by a federal, state or local government. Customers
need the ability to make educated decisions, including knowing which fees
are comparable; 4)Distribution of accurate calling area maps and disclosure
of coverage gaps; and 5) Details of how emergency 9-1-1 services are
accessed, including variations from customers' expectations from
traditional home telephone service.
[SOURCE: Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates]
http://www.nasuca.org/newsroom/PR-wireless%20resolution.doc

BRIGHT HOUSE SEEKING 'NAKED' DSL RULING
Cable companies are asking the FCC to direct every incumbent phone company
"to port numbers without delay and to offer 'naked' DSL, i.e., DSL on a
line without voice service also on it." Doing so would make it easier for
cable companies to sell their Internet telephone services to current phone
company customers. Verizon and BellSouth require customers of their DSL and
local-phone services to drop both if the customer just wants to change
local-phone providers and will not transfer customers' telephone numbers to
new phone providers until both local service and DSL are dropped.
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA483829.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)

FCC SHOULD EMBRACE 'DYNAMIC DEREGULATION'
Randolph May, senior fellow with The Progress & Freedom Foundation, has
developed a new scorecard designed to measure whether the Commission is
acting in a deregulatory, pro-competitive manner. To act consistently with
the "Dynamic Deregulation Vision" (last seen on Batman), May set four
benchmarks for the FCC; it should: 1) finish freeing broadband facilities
from unbundling obligations, 2) remove local switching from the unbundling
requirements, 3) remove high capacity loops from the unbundling regime, and
4) take specific actions to ensure prompt implementation of its UNE decision.
[SOURCE: Progress and Freedom Foundation Press Release]
http://www.pff.org/news/news/2004/112904troscorecard.html


MEDIA POLICY

APTS APPLAUDS THE CONTINUED GROWTH IN FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC TELEVISION
In the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005, funding for
public broadcasting grew by more than $11 million, with the most
significant increases coming in the form of federal support for digital
infrastructure. While advance funding for the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting remained steady at $400 million in FY 2007, pre-rescission
funding for the new satellite system to interconnect local stations was $40
million, up from $9.9 million the previous year. Congress allocating $40
million to CPB to support the digital transition of local stations, $21
million for the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP), and
$10 million for public television stations serving rural populations to
build out their digital infrastructure. Congress also provided
pre-rescission funding levels of $23.5 million for Ready To Learn, an
increase of nearly $1 million, and $14.4 million for Ready To Teach, two
important educational programs that support curriculum-based content and
community-based outreach.
[SOURCE: Association of Public Television Stations Press Release]
http://www.apts.org/news/approps05.cfm

PBS DEAL WITH COMCAST SEEN AS MILITATING AGAINST MISSION AND VALUES
Public TV stations are mostly ambivalent about PBS's decision to lend its
name to a commercial children's channel being launched in partnership with
Comcast, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop. Comcast and HIT would
invest $75 million in the channel, set for launch in fall 2005. PBS and
Sesame Workshop will put up no cash but will get 15% equity each for the
PBS brand, broadcast cross-promotion and goodwill. But some stations fear
the unabashedly commercial nature of the venture will give lawmakers on
Capitol Hill and in the states an excuse to drastically cut or even
eliminate funding for public broadcasting. PBS COO Wayne Godwin says some
producers were ready to take there shows to the new network with or without
PBS, but now PBS and Sesame Workshop are in position to shape the
programming philosophy of the new channel and have influence over the kinds
of commercials that will be show [Arthur juice box, anyone?]. Critics
include Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting which warns that
commercialism "corrupts" PBS's mission.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Dinesh Kumar]
(Not available online)

FIGHTING FCC ON INDECENCY
Has the FCC, in its string of rulings this year, confined itself to the
powers defined by the Supreme Court in FCC vs. Pacifica (the 1978 case that
featured George Carlin and the prohibition of seven dirty words)?
Broadcasters believe the agency has exceeded its bounds. In Pacifica, the
court had reprimanded the Pacifica Foundation for allowing Carlin's riff to
play on its New York radio station during the afternoon when a young boy
was listening. The high court in a 5-to-4 vote affirmed the agency's power
to regulate indecent broadcasts. The court's majority emphasized "the
narrowness of our holding." Its dissenters expressed fear the court had set
broadcasting on a path toward airing "only what is fit for children." The
high court said broadcasting has limited free-speech protections only for
two reasons: It is "uniquely pervasive" because it reaches into homes, and
it is "uniquely accessible to children, even those too young to read."
There is little doubt the environment surrounding broadcasters has changed
since the ruling.
[SOURCE: MediaWeek.com, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000727210
There's more on the recent indecency campaign at:
The Great Indecency Hoax
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/arts/28rich.html?oref=login
(requires registration)

TV EXECUTIVES URGE TAKING WIDER VIEW OF FAMILY FRIENDLY PROGRAMMING
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Family Friendly
Programming Forum (FFPF), and the National Council for Families & TV held
the Family Friendly Programming Symposium on Tuesday at which broadcast
executives warned that care should be given when seeking programming with
family oriented appeal because the definition of family has changed. They
also noted that although many people say there needs to be more safe,
family programming on the air, when asked if they would watch it, the
answer is no.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Valerie Milano]
(Not available online)

ECHOSTAR SAYS IT CAN'T PROVIDE LOCAL EMERGENCY ALERTS
EchoStar said it can't receive, process and relay emergency alerts to the
550 Emergency Alert System (EAS) local areas. "The difficulties of
obtaining this capability are likely insurmountable," EchoStar said in
reply comments on the FCC's review of EAS. The company wouldn't specify the
costs of such a system, an EchoStar
spokesman said, saying only that the price in resources and bandwidth would
be "nearly inestimable."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Tania Panczyk-Collins]
(Not available online)

LIBEL CASE COULD CHILL SPEECH ONLINE
Last week the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU) filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in a case that could undermine a federal statute protecting the free
speech of bloggers, Internet service providers, and other individuals who
use the Internet to post content written by others. The case in question is
a libel suit filed against women's health advocate Illena Rosenthal after
she posted a controversial opinion piece on a Usenet news group. The piece
was written not by Rosenthal, but by Tim Bolen, a critic of plaintiff Terry
Polevoy. In their brief, EFF and the ACLU argue that Section 230 of the
federal telecommunications Act of 1996 protects Internet publishers from
being held liable for allegedly harmful comments written by others. Similar
attempts to eliminate the protections created by Section 230 have almost
universally been rejected, until a California Court of Appeals radically
reinterpreted the statute to allow lawsuits against non-authors. The case
is being reviewed by the California Supreme Court
[SOURCE: Electronic Frontier Foundation]
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_11.php#002132

THE FIGHT FOR DOCU-DEMOCRACY
[Commentary] Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 demonstrated that there is a
large global market for dissenting perspectives that can compete for
mainstream movie goers and attention. Beyond the proliferation and success
of compelling well made films there is a deeper meaning to this phenomenon
that directly impacts on the media and democracy fight. The docu-explosion
is part of the emergence of an oppositional culture responding to the
decline of quality in our media system, the uniformity of its approach to
news and information and growing distrust it has spawned.
[SOURCE: Mediachannel.org, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter]
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert293.shtml


WORTH A LISTEN?

DIGITAL GENERATIONS
Monday: A report on how some rural communities are installing their own
high-speed Internet connections. New research indicates that speed is the
determining factor in who uses the Internet.
Tuesday: Cell phones, PDAs, computers and MP3 players may seem a bit
confusing to the average adult but for kids born in the digital age, these
devices are second nature. A 13-year old and his family talk about what it
means to grow up as a part of the Net Generation.
[SOURCE: Morning Edition]
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=29-Nov-2004
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3&prgDate=30-Nov-2004

PAYOLA PERSISTS
In 1960, legendary disc jockey Alan Freed was indicted for accepting music
industry money in exchange for radio air time. The scandal sparked
anti-"payola" legislation, but loopholes have persisted. Last month, New
York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation into modern
forms of pay-for-play by the major record labels. Brooke speaks with New
Yorker columnist James Surowiecki about "spot buys" and the gaming of the
Billboard charts.
[SOURCE: On the Media]
http://www.onthemedia.org/stream/ram.py?file=raotm/otm112604c.ra
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_112604_payola.html


FROM THE BLOGSPHERE

A LOCAL MEDIA REVOLUTION?
A new local news company called Pegasus News is aiming to reinvent local
market content and advertising, according to its Website. The company says
its beta test will take place in Dallas, Texas in late 2005 and eventually
launch in every top-25 U.S. market with a monopoly newspaper. "Within a
month of launch, the most broadly interesting and immediate content from
that site will be published in a daily tabloid print newspaper," the site
says. The core principles of Pegasus News are: 1) Local news and
information is aggressively, inherently, totally local, 2) Users have so
many choices of medium, that we cannot afford not to distribute content
through as many media as technologically possible, 3) Media is a
conversation, not a monologue, 4) Engaged consumers are better than paying
consumers, and 5) All products and services are as precise and precisely
priced as technology will allow.
http://blog.pegasusnews.com/
[SOURCE: CyberJournalist.net]
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/

Writer Says Media is Election's Big Loser: 21 Times
Mega bloggers and syndicated columnists said it. College students and
ranting professors said it. Bob Dole said it. The real loser, the big loser
in '04 was The Media.
[SOURCE: PressThink]
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/
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Ra Energy Fdn.
Raleigh Myers
Worksheet bio
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/bio.html
Blog
http://raenergy.blogspot.com/



Ra Energy Fdn.
Raleigh Myers
Worksheet bio
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/bio.html
Blog
http://raenergy.blogspot.com/

Call to Action blog a virtual seminar for change
http://www.google.com/search?q=Global+Vote+raenergy&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=02Eigc%2Eorg%2Faction%2Ehtml

Newsgroups beginning in the eighties click on date and web
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - - Margaret Mead