Weekly Wireless Report WEEK ENDING February 27, 2015 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: This Week’s Stories FCC Adopts Historic Internet Rules THIS WEEK’S STORIES February 27, 2015 FCC Adopts Historic Internet The FCC has passed a historic measure to more strictly regulate the Internet. Rules The new rules, based on the principles of "net neutrality," act to provide equal opportunity for Internet PRODUCTS & SERVICES speeds and access to websites. Swiss Watch Makers The central question was whether network owners -- like Comcast or Time Warner Cable -- can Announce An Activity Tracking discriminate what runs on their cables. The FCC's answer on Thursday was: No. System Designed To Hide The Democratic-led commission approved 3-to-2, split along party lines, to assert extra government Inside Fancy Watches authority over the Internet. YouTube Has A New App Just Now for the wild claims on both sides: "We saved the Internet!" or "We've destroyed it with government For Kids bureaucracy!" EMERGING TECHNOLOGY Don't believe the hype. Take a deep breath. It's a long, tricky road ahead. PhotoMath Brings Its Awesome Math Equation The FCC rules won't be official until maybe summertime. Then major telecom companies will challenge Solving App To Android new rules in court. A judge might put the rules on hold. The next president, if Republican, could let this fizzle away. Comcast Hints At Wi-Fi-Based Mobile Service Following That's why, in the near term, nothing changes. No, Netflix won't suddenly stream any faster. No, AT&T Cablevision's Freewheel and Comcast won't abruptly stop laying down high-speed fiber cables in your neighborhood as Entrance retaliation. And yes, Netflix can still cut deals with broadband companies for faster access to a network. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS So what just happened, exactly? The FCC just granted itself the power to defeat a raging, fire-breathing monster: the monopolistic network owners who can kill Internet freedom by blocking websites -- or by Wearable Maker Fitbit Is In creating an Internet fast lane for the privileged, few, rich tech companies that can pay for it. Talks To Buy Fitness App Startup FitStar But this monster is actually a phantom menace. Sure, in the past, telecoms have been bullies. Verizon blocked Google Wallet. AT&T blocked video chatting apps. Comcast slowed down file-sharing services Google Acquires Softcard To like BitTorrent. Rural telephone provider Madison River blocked Vonage's over-the-Internet phone calls. Challenge Apple Pay However, the FCC used existing rules to fix those problems. INDUSTRY REPORTS The new rules essentially maintain the status quo. The Internet sure feels free today. It'll feel the same way tomorrow. Google Play Is Making More Money Than Apple’s App Store That's why some worry about how the FCC just ensured net neutrality. To enforce fairness rules, the — In Germany agency will regulate network owners by scooping them up under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act, a specific set of regulations that apply to phone companies. Telecoms say the Apple Ordered To Pay $533 rules don't match the services they provide. They don't trust the FCC's promise that it will apply only a Million In iTunes Patent tiny fraction of those rules and won't regulate rates and increase taxes. Lawsuit "Assurances like these don't tend to last very long," warned Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. "Expect ... regulation to ratchet up as time goes on." Meanwhile, Tom Wheeler, the FCC chairman who ditched his original dialed-back plan for this one, assured this isn't a government power grab. "This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech," he said. "They both stand for the same concept: openness, expression and an absence of gatekeepers." Connect with Us www.ksrinc.com Page | 2 How did we start caring about this? Credit comedian John Oliver, who got enough viewers of his HBO show that a record 4 million Americans sent comments to the FCC. He framed it from the point of view of the average person dealing with their Internet service provider. Plans are expensive, service is inexplicably spotty and you have little choice. Clearly, the network owners are the bad guys. During Thursday's hearing, the testimony of those who spoke in favor of the FCC's new rules all took that populist tone. Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson thanked the FCC for "protecting the Internet as an engine for economic opportunity." Celebrated technologist Sir Tim Berners-Lee said this ensures modern entrepreneurs the same opportunity he had when he created the World Wide Web 26 years ago. After the vote, President Obama issued this statement via Twitter: "Today's FCC decision will protect innovation and create a level playing field for the next generation of entrepreneurs." But wait, there's a third option. As this fight makes its way through the courts, Congress has the opportunity to stand up and write rules that work too. After all, both network owners and the websites that flow data through them have a point. Outright blocking and anti-competitive behavior is unfair and should be illegal. On the other hand, for technical reasons, network owners need to manage traffic. Your video stream needs to move faster than your email for your experience to feel smooth. That's why critics call the Title II approach -- what the FCC did today -- a blunt instrument. But it's not clear that it's as wonderful -- or terrible -- as everyone says. Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank, laments how the conversation has spiraled out of control. "This has become a debate about a false choice: letting carriers do whatever the heck they want and overly burdensome regulations," Atkinson said. cnn.com Products & Services Swiss Watch Makers Announce An Activity Tracking System Designed To Hide Inside Fancy Watches February 27, 2015 If you’ve been wondering how Switzerland was going to react to the coming of the Apple Watch, ponder no more: two smaller luxury watch companies, Alpina and Frederique Constant, have added electronic components to otherwise staid analog watches, essentially turning a fancy timepiece into a sort of mechanical Fitbit. The platform, called Manufacture Modules Technologies or MMT, is embedded inside Swiss-made cases and powers the hour and minute hands as well as, in the current version, a subdial that tracks your activity. The crown on the side of the watch is actually a pusher and everything is set from your smartphone rather than by turning the crown. The internal battery lasts two years and syncs via Bluetooth. The modules are made by MotionX, the same company behind the motion trackers in Jawbone’s products. A separate app shows your health data as you saunter from meeting to meeting or nibble a madeleine. The central face tells the accurate, quartz time while the surface can display various pieces of data. In its current incarnation the system is basically an activity tracker similar to the Withings Activité. The functionality has been simplified so that companies are able to hide the complexity behind a traditional dial, a feature that should please Luddite watch lovers. But what about the rest of us? This solution is a far cry from the recharge-once-a-day smartphone expanders available for Android and iOS and the decision to avoid an on-wrist screen altogether is a bold one. As Ariel Adams at ABlogToWatch notes, “The question MMT is trying to answer is how the traditional watch industry will react to timepieces no longer being about only tradition, luxury, and style, Connect with Us www.ksrinc.com Page | 3 but also (once again), functionality.” This attempts to meld style with function and I’m not quite sure it succeeds. This will be a period of experimentation (and failure) for the Swiss watch industry. Alpina and Frederique-Constant are both owned by innovator Peter Stas and they are decidedly lower on the haute horology food chain than, say, a Patek Philippe or Rolex, allowing them a bit of room to try new things. However, these more expensive watches – expect them to cost in the $2,000 range or more – are a hard sell in the face of $200 activity wearables that the chic and traditional can hide under one French cuff while they burnish a mechanical watch with the other. Furthermore, companies like Kairos and Montblanc are adding smart features to your band, allowing you to have your almond financier and eat it too. This space is exploding and the fact that a traditionally mechanical watchmaker is embracing the equivalent of a microchip attached to a big battery is telling. While MMT is decidedly not for everyone, I wouldn’t discount interest just yet. There is still a subset of watch buyer out there that looks in disgust at the Apple Watch and is still wary of wearables. The overlap of that Venn diagram is still bracingly small but, to paraphrase P.T. Barnum, there’s a watch lover born every minute. techcrunch.com YouTube Has A New App Just For Kids February 23, 2015 Google is releasing a sanitized YouTube app just for kids. “Called YouTube Kids, the mobile app only plays age- Called YouTube Kids, the mobile app only plays age-appropriate videos and has a simplified design that even young children who can't read will be able to navigate. The app, which will carry ads, is appropriate videos and has a available in the U.S. for Android and iOS devices. simplified design that even young children who can't read YouTube says it has seen nearly 200% growth in family entertainment over the past year.