Open Standards

This Monday, April 14, is the deadline for submitting reply comments to the FCC on the issue of whether wireless phone companies should be able to block text messages based on their source or content. Several months ago, Public Knowledge, Free Press and a number of other organizations filed a petition asking the FCC to declare such practices to be illegal. The petition arose out of two incidents involving wireless companies: 1) Verizon refused to give a “short code” to the National Abortion Rights Action League to disseminate an action alert text message its members asked to receive, but which Verizon determined to be too controversial; and 2) Verizon, T-Mobile and Alltell refused to carry the text messages of competitive Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers.

Today, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) conference that he is circulating an order at the FCC that would dismiss the petition (pdf) filed by Skype that sought an FCC ruling requiring a wireless network provider to allow the use of any non-harmful device and application on its network.

The rationale behind this decision is one we have heard many times over the past few months: Verizon announced that they are going to be open to third party devices and applications; the FCC already has required the C block of the 700 MHz spectrum recently auctioned to be open (again, controlled by Verizon); the wireless industry is headed in the direction of openness, etc. It’s done, so why do we need a ruling?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Comcast and BitTorrent, Inc. are now working together to “collaborate on ways to run BitTorrent’s technology more smoothly on Comcast’s broadband network, and allow Comcast to transport video files more effectively over its own network.” While we applaud application developers and network operators getting together to figure out how to improve the efficiency of the Internet, this changes nothing about the issues raised in the petitions on network management; the FCC must still act quickly to ensure that its four principles for broadband service have real meaning and that consumers are protected.

The U.S. Department of Justice today approved the merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

The following is the comment of Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge:

“Public Knowledge has maintained that the merger, if it passed antitrust scrutiny, should be approved with a number of conditions. With the Justice Department decision sanctioning them merger, the next move is up to the Federal Communications Commission. We hope the Commission will act accordingly to impose conditions that serve the interests of consumers.”

(image from Engadget)

I just finished reading the live coverage of Apple’s iPhone SDK press conference. There was a lot to like. Apple spent about 70% of the event touting the ability of any Mac developer to use the same tools that are used to create Mac OS X applications on a computer to create feature-rich apps for the iPhone. iPhone applications developers appear to have pretty much the same access to technology that a traditional computer application developer would have. That's empowering.

A half-day panel at this year’s CES discussed the ways in which technology can be used to further global development, by providing education opportunities and creating new solutions to community business problems. Beyond that, though, these new systems for information and communications technology (or ICTs) could easily affect IP policy around the world.

On January 9, CES hosted its first session on technology and emerging countries, a four hour, multi-speaker series on how technology can benefit the developing world. Nicholas Negroponte delivered the keynote address on the One Laptop Per Child project. Following this, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda spoke on a few technology initiatives that were taking place in his country, including an integrated health care information system. Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm, then discussed his company’s efforts in developing countries. These two were then joined for a panel discussion alongside Paul Meyer of Voxvia, the company providing the Rwandan health information service. The session also included a brief showcase of various technologies and their practical uses in the developing world. The session ended with a panel featuring representatives from Microsoft, AMD, Intel, and Cisco who led projects that brought information and communications technology to the developing world.

One of the many panels at CES on Tuesday, January 8 featured a tricontinental group of communications policymakers: David Gross, United States Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy; Viviane Reding, European Commission Commissioner for Information Society and Media; and Tsutomu Sato, Senior Vice Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

I wanted to drop a note on a couple of recent developments since my post on right-to-attach last week. They are:

I’m an analog cable subscriber and was hoping to upgrade to an HDTV this holiday season, and apparently I’m not alone. Before I buy-in, I’ve been considering the freedom that “going digital” should give me compared to the old analog world. The primary reason I haven’t “upgraded” to digital cable up to this point comes down to TiVo, it and the freedom that devices like it that connect to an analog coax cable give me. Digital technology is supposed to deliver more, not less freedom, isn’t it? It’s not clear that upgrading to digital cable gives me the freedoms I’m used to.