The latest issue of The Wavelength, a bi-weekly e-news digest put together by The Media Consortium's Eric Arnold, rounds up: the latest updates on the AT&T/T-Mobil deal; the lawsuit by the unpaid bloggers against the Huffington Post; expansion of broadband in rural America; and the story of an Oakland community's opposition to the installation of a powerful cellular antenna close to two schools.
Eric Arnold has picked the news story by Jamillah King that appeared in Colorlines regarding the AT & T's acquisition of T Mobile. King says in its official filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), "AT&T spends nearly 90 pages describing T-Mobile's weaknesses, while detailing the roadblocks it says it'll face if federal regulators don't green light the deal." If federal regulators block the deal, AT&T argues, its customers "would face a greater number of blocked and dropped calls, as well as less reliable and slower data connections. And in some markets, AT&T's customers would be left without access to more advanced technologies."
In an article in The American Prospect, Nancy Scola says AT&T's 381-page FCC filing essentially comes down to this: "you can have the benefits of competition without actual competitors." Scola traces the history of the telecommunications industry, touching on the 1982 antitrust case, which resulted in the break-up of Ma Bell (aka AT&T) into seven Baby Bells, as well as analyzing current media policy in Washington.
Arnold refers to Truthout's Nadia Prupis article that looks at reactions to the class-action lawsuit recently filed on behalf of Huffington Post's unpaid bloggers. HuffPo was recently sold to AOL for $315 million. The report says the merger – and the lawsuit – highlights one of the biggest issues facing contemporary journalism: The devaluation of intellectual property.
Another report included in this week's The Wavelength is a story from Public News Service in which Mark Scheerer tackles the issue of broadband access in rural communities – an important topic in a down economy, since faster connectivity could result in economic stimulus for small businesses, such as livestock farmers. It refers to a new report (PDF at link) issued by the Center for Rural Strategies, which concludes that "communities without broadband service could be hobbled economically, losing the race to those with faster connections." Mark says the report essentially mirrors the FCC's 2010 findings: "broadband providers are not expanding their services in a timely and satisfactory fashion."
Arnold has picked an interesting report by Oakland Local's Dennis Rowcliffe about a Verizon proposal to install a powerful cellular antenna close to two schools and several residential units that has been met with opposition by community groups.
"The residents, school parents and teachers express concerns about the potential health effects of sustained nearby exposure to increased levels of the electromagnetic frequency, or EMF, radiation emitted by the antennas," Rowcliffe writes, adding that a group called East Bay Residents for Responsible Antenna Placement (EBR-RAP) has suggested several alternate sites, all of which were rejected by Verizon.
Check out the latest issue The Wavelength. You can link or repost for free.
