Broadband
Court Ruling May Shape Municipal Broadband Debate
     As the battle over high-speed Internet networks run by municipalities reverberates in state capitals, proponents and critics of such networks have turned to allies on Capitol Hill. But Congress may not be able to act on the subject without affecting states' rights. A pending Senate bill would bar states from opposing municipal networks as long as they do not discriminate against private competitors. Two rival bills would bar states from allowing municipal broadband where communities already are served by the private sector. But some observers said Congress may not interfere in the relationship between states and municipalities. They cite the Supreme Court's 2004 ruling in Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League, which upheld a Missouri statute forbidding the state's political subdivisions from offering telecommunications or Internet services. The story is part of a series that is running throughout August in National Journal's Technology Daily. Another story this week examined the municipal broadband project in Grand Haven, Mich.

Broadband
The Quest For A Municipal Broadband UTOPIA
     Something exciting about the future of the Internet is happening in the heart of Utah. It is happening for the technorati of Silicon Valley who crave an "open Internet," for practical businessmen who see high-speed connections as the key to economic development and global competitiveness, and for advocates of civic discourse who see local control as the key to democratic empowerment. It is UTOPIA, the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency. An inter-local government agency comprising 14 cities, since 2002 UTOPIA has been building a fiber-optic infrastructure to reach all 170,000 homes and businesses in those cities. UTOPIA features a "wholesale" business model, which means it is not offering service directly to citizens but instead is selling bandwidth on its network to private companies. In another story, Technology Daily explored the difficult fight over UTOPIA.

Broadband
Lawmakers, Experts Clash Over Municipal Networks
     The battle over municipally owned telecommunications networks continued at the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Seattle, with detractors noting security concerns and economic pitfalls and supporters touting the benefits of more high-speed Internet deployment. Cities offering telecom service is "a bad idea," said Steven Titch, a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute. But it is "a question of fiscal responsibility, not really of technology." As more cities become broadband providers and encounter problems like unsolicited commercial e-mail, piracy, online gambling and pornographic material, those municipalities will become a hotbed of liability, Titch said. He slammed municipal networks as "fiscally untenable."

Telecom
Timetable For E911 Should Be Slowed, Industry Says
     The FCC needs to slow what it has called an "aggressively short" timetable for mandating emergency-dialing capabilities for Internet telephones, most communications companies argued in comments to the agency. The comments focused primarily on the agency's tentative proposals to go further than its June order that gave providers of voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) 120 days to connect to traditional telephones in order to offer "enhanced 911" service. "The commission should not presume that all VoIP services will or need to serve the marketplace in the same way, or that public-safety needs are identical for all service applications," BellSouth said. Industry and nonprofit groups also cautioned the FCC about requiring location-tracking technology within computing devices.

Security
State Lawmakers Flummoxed By National ID Law
     Confusion is mounting over the implementation of a law that sets national standards for driver's licenses and requires states to share electronic access to their records. The law requires federal officials to develop state guidelines in order for driver's licenses to be accepted at airports or other federal buildings after May 11, 2008. But state lawmakers from New Mexico, South Dakota and elsewhere appeared perplexed during a question-and-answer session with a federal official at a state legislative conference. The reaction underscored the frustration felt by state lawmakers, many of whom work part-time as legislators, in trying to communicate with federal officials who have been dealing with the law daily. U.S. House members, meanwhile, will try to convince their Senate colleagues to fully fund state grants under the law. The House approved $100 million for the grants, but the Senate voted to provide only $40 million.

E-commerce
Credit-reporting Site Agrees To Fine, Changes To Ads
     An online affiliate of the Experian credit-reporting bureau agreed to halt misleading advertisements for services and to settle a consumer protection lawsuit filed by the FTC. The FTC had charged in a complaint that the subsidiary, Consumerinfo.com, deceived consumers by advertising offers for free credit reports, persuading them to provide their credit-card information and then charging almost $80 for a year's worth of credit monitoring. Consumerinfo.com agreed to pay a $950,000 fine and to refund money to consumers who requested the reports between 2000 and 2003 and then complained about the charges. The company also agreed to change its advertising practices. The firm will tell consumers that they will be charged for credit monitoring unless they cancel within the timeframe of a free trial.

Lobbying
Conservatives Prep For Round Two Against .xxx Domain
     Conservative groups are reassessing their lobbying efforts against adult Web sites as the Internet's key governing body nears a decision on creating a .xxx domain suffix to label such sites. In June, the Family Research Council urged its members to contact the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Commerce Department to voice their opposition to the Internet address. Now the council is reviving and bolstering its efforts to rally members, Senior Legal Counsel Pat Trueman said. The council will e-mail members to remobilize them and let them know they have until Sept. 15 to contact ICANN. "We're keeping up the drumbeat for the next 28 days and making sure people are bombarding ICANN with input," Trueman said.

Campaigns
Party Committees Revamp Web Sites For 2006 Contests
     Voters still have more than a year before they pick their next slate of federal lawmakers, but political party committees already are prepping online for the 2006 mid-term election. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is the most recent to take action. The committee overhauled its site and is even solicited feedback from the authors of Web logs, the darlings of the 2004 campaign. The recently reworked site of the Republican National Committee includes the hot, new technology: "podcasts" of audio clips that can be downloaded to digital devices like Apple's iPod. And the Democratic National Committee changed its site to reflect the philosophy of new Chairman Howard Dean, who briefly led the Democratic presidential race in 2004 thanks in part to his use of the Web.

Education
Bill Gates: Education 'Trumps It All' For Software Firms
     Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Americans need to buoy their education efforts in math and science but stressed that investment in elementary and secondary education is just as important as improving efforts at the university level. While the United States is "in very good shape" in terms of having some of the top universities in the world, "we are going to fall short if we just focus" on the college level, Gates said at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting. Raising standards for high school "will keep us in the strong position that we want to be."