Broadband
City-Driven Network War In The City Of Brotherly Love
     The heightened national controversy over high-speed Internet networks managed by municipalities can be traced to Philadelphia's experiment with wireless broadband that was announced in 2004. Cities from San Francisco to Corpus Christi in Texas are rushing to follow Philadelphia's lead, while statehouses are rushing to repeat action in Pennsylvania, where the commonwealth barred cities and towns from offering Internet access to consumers for a fee. After protests from Philadelphia Mayor John Street and others, however, the state exempted Philadelphia from that statute. That is how Wireless Philadelphia came into existence. The story is part of an August series in National Journal's Technology Daily. Another story notes that a federal loan program for broadband in rural communities so far is shutting out municipally owned networks.

Broadband
Illinois Municipal Experiment Meshes With Residents
     Some residents of Urbana, Ill., pay nothing to access the high-speed Internet service offered by the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWin). CUWin is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers seeking to prove that broadband in America is vastly overpriced. The project has been offering free connections since 2002. Network volunteers must spend about $350 to buy cards and antennas to morph their computers into "nodes" on the network, at a total cost of about $50,000. With properly designed networks, CUWin Project Coordinator Sascha Meinrath argues, it is cheaper to give away connections to a network based on the Wi-Fi technology than to create a costly billing system and mete out access megabit by megabit. Technology Daily also reports on the move in Manassas, Va., to deliver broadband over power lines to the entire city.

Broadband
Experts Criticize America's Lack Of 'Profound Vision'
     America lacks a "profound vision" for deploying high-speed Internet services, Nortel Networks CEO William Owens said Tuesday. Citing the rocketing advances in wireless broadband networks in China, India, Pakistan and South Korea, Owens expressed concern that there is not enough high-level leadership to drive robust broadband deployments in the rural United States. He made his remarks at the Progress and Freedom Foundation annual conference in Aspen, Colo. The former admiral spoke extensively of his business travels in Asia and said the regulatory structures there are far more helpful to telecommunications build-outs than those in the United States. "States fragment us so much we end up fluttering to get through their regulatory hurdles," Owens said. In a panel following Owens' remarks, several academic spectrum experts also criticized the Bush administration on its policies.

Broadband
Internet Providers Pitch Principles For Self-regulation
     An association of Internet service providers (ISPs) has proposed 10 principles of self-governance for high-speed Internet companies. Issued by the U.S. Internet Industry Association, the principles take the five consumer-oriented principles of "network neutrality" proffered by two FCC chairmen and suggest that they be enforced by an inter-industry body. The group, which is supported by board member Verizon Communications, adds five more principles about the rights of telecommunications companies. Separately, Verizon Vice President Link Hoewing urged an effort similar to the self-regulatory approach to online privacy backed by the FTC. Under that system, companies are urged to post privacy policies. If they fail to abide them, the FTC can take action. The 10 broadband principles outlined by USIIA include guaranteeing consumers access to legal Internet content, fostering competition among network providers, and operating "without interference from local governments or political subdivisions."

Campaigns
Publisher Of Democratic Blogs Seeks Media Exemption
     A company that publishes four Democratic Web logs asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to decide whether it can receive a media exemption from reporting laws related to campaign finance. The agency is mulling draft rules on how to apply a 2002 campaign-finance law to Internet communications. The request for an "advisory opinion" from Rolla, Mo.-based Fired Up aims to force the commission to take a stand on the issue, legal experts said. "We have asked a very simple question," Fired Up attorney Marc Elias said. "Should blogs committed to news coverage be granted the media exemption?" Conservative blogger Mike Krempasky of Redstate.org praised Fired Up's strategy and considers it a test case for all political blogs. But former FEC lawyer Allison Hayward, who now blogs at Skeptic's Eye, questioned the timing of the request because the commission is down one member right now. She said Fired Up's letter could generate a weak response that satisfies nobody.

Lobbying
Digital Group Changes Its Stance On 'Broadcast Flag'
     A nonprofit technology policy organization that opposed the anti-piracy "broadcast flag" in December 2003 has reversed course and endorsed a more consumer-friendly version of the technology. The Center for Democracy and Technology report says, "Congress should require the FCC's flag rules to focus narrowly on the goal of preventing indiscriminate distribution of flagged digital content over digital networks." In a subsequent interview, report author David Sohn said, "This should not be read as an overall endorsement of the flag." But he conceded that if Congress "were to do all the things we say here, we wouldn't be opposing it." The broadcast-flag standard was created in 2001 in an effort to stop consumers from pirating digital television broadcasts.

Digital Television
FCC Order Covers 'Multicast,' High-definition Issues
     The FCC ordered the satellite companies DirecTV and EchoStar Communications to carry all of the "multicast" digital channels that broadcasters transmit in Alaska and Hawaii. The agency also ruled that satellite companies must carry their high-definition programs. The decision, although applying narrowly to Alaska and Hawaii because of special language in last year's Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA), could be a harbinger of good news for broadcasters under FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Martin was the only member of the commission to dissent when former Chairman Michael Powell in February steered the commission to reject broadcasters' argument that cable operators must carry all multicast digital signals. With regard to this week's decision, Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy dissented on that point, and the vote for it was 3-1. Enacted Dec. 8, SHVERA requires the two main satellite companies to retransmit all local broadcast signals to almost all subscribers in Alaska and Hawaii within a year.

Intellectual Property
Report: Patent Office Should Become Federal Corporation
     The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) should become a government corporation headed by a CEO with strong business experience, according to a yet-to-be-released report from the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). In a report summary obtained by National Journal's Technology Daily, NAPA recommends incorporating PTO as the best way to improve its performance. The tech industry advocates PTO reforms designed to speed patent awards and improve the quality of submissions. "As a self-sustaining federal entity that performs a direct service for fee-paying customers, [the patent office] needs to be able to function like a business and report to Congress and the administration with a bottom-line set of financial statements," the memorandum said. The CEO position should take the place of a board of directors, NAPA said, and an "advisory board could provide stakeholder input" from people interested in patent policy.