A National Advertising Review Board panel recommended Boost Mobile discontinue the claim it offers “unlimited data” on its “Go Unlimited” data plans based on a finding that it “failed to provide proper support for the use of the ‘unlimited data’ claim as reasonable consumers understand that term,” the Better Business Bureau affiliate said Wednesday. AT&T challenged the claims, the NARB said. Customers are throttled from 4G to 2G for the remainder of the month after reaching a cap, NARB said: “Throttling to 2G makes standard data operations virtually unusable, in contrast with consumer expectations about how the availability of ‘unlimited data’ enables them to use their phones.” Boost parent Dish Network didn’t comment.
Charter Communications should end or modify some comparative speed claims for its Spectrum internet service in its "Welcome Back Party" and "Great Offers" TV ads, BBB 's National Advertising Division said Tuesday. AT&T challenged the ads, it said. NAD said Charter indicated it will comply with the decision and clarify the basis for its "fastest download speeds" claim in any future advertising. NAD said that alternatively, Spectrum, as Charter's brand is called, can modify the claim to clarify that it's based on having the fastest download speeds at the introductory and intermediate levels and the equivalent download speed at the top tier. Charter didn't comment.
The FCC should conduct an "actual market power and pricing power analysis" with granular data on broadband prices, Free Press told staff to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said a filing posted Friday in docket 10-90. Free Press asked the commission to "publish granular data on actual prices paid" because researchers have to rely on "second-best" data. It has slammed some industry figures (see 2105280053).
ACA Connects said it would cost the federal government $106 billion-$179 billion to fully fund buildout of “future-proof” broadband networks in all unserved areas lacking 100 Mbps symmetrical. That’s above President Joe Biden’s $100 billion request in his initial infrastructure spending proposal (see 2103310064), a pair of Democratic broadband funding bills and a scuttled $65 billion proposal from Senate Republicans. ACA said $61 billion-$118 billion would allow full buildouts in areas lacking 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. Also Thursday, AT&T CEO John Stankey told the Economic Club of Washington (see 2106100046) he doesn’t “think it’s optimally the best thing for the American taxpayer to think about putting fiber to every farmhouse in the United States when in fact, we can do it a variety of different ways with a variety of different technologies.”
Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security rules and procedures raise technology concerns, the department's Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting (see 2106090049) was told. The industry is especially concerned by BIS rules on military uses, said Tina Termei, an Amazon lawyer speaking on behalf of CompTIA members. The rules impose “unreasonable” obligations on companies that may not have the expertise and resources to do necessary due diligence, Termei said Tuesday. “Unlike the United States government that has these resources, that's not what these companies do,” Termei said: “They're not investigators, they are not experts on the complicated world of” military intelligence. She urged BIS to consider making its military end-user list “exhaustive”: “This way, everybody will have the same rule book, which means people and companies can actually follow it. They'll have the list, and they can comply.” Termei said CompTIA members complain about lengthy licensing times. Average license processing in FY 2020 was 23 days, a BIS spokesperson told us. "Each license application is evaluated on its own merits and decisions are made on the merits." Officials didn't comment Wednesday on the other tech concerns.
Treat Google as a public utility, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said Tuesday, asking Ohio Common Pleas Court in Delaware County to declare that in a lawsuit. Yost is one of 38 AGs in a separate federal antitrust case (see 2012170063). The new complaint “accepts Google’s dominance of internet search as a fact (be it good or bad),” and “is narrowly focused on establishing that Google’s provision of internet search is properly classified as a common carrier and/or public utility,” it said. Ohio is “entitled to declaratory relief that" the platform "cannot self-preference on its Results Pages.” It seeks “injunctive relief that ends Google’s self-preferencing in Ohio by providing access to enhanced features on Results Pages that Google affords to its other business lines.” The American Economic Liberties Project applauded. The platform didn’t comment.
Universal Service Administrative Co. data for the first three weeks of the emergency broadband benefit showed more than 2.3 million households enrolled, with more than 61,000 tribal households. USAC said Monday $3.14 billion remains. California has the most households, with 219,675. “The great need for affordable broadband support is being met,” said FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. USAC data will help “inform any long-term efforts to address broadband affordability,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC says 1,000-plus providers are participating.
The European Commission and U.K. Competition and Markets Authority are investigating Facebook's use of advertising data, they said Friday. The EC launched an antitrust probe to determine whether Facebook violated EU competition law by using data gathered from advertisers to compete with them in markets where it's active, such as classified ad services. The CMA said it's considering whether the company gained an unfair advantage over rivals in providing services for online classified advertisements and online dating through its methods for gathering and using data. The competition bodies said they will "seek to work closely" together. Facebook said it will "continue to cooperate fully with the investigations to demonstrate that they are without merit."
Fifty of 72 federal websites checked passed an accessibility test for their homepages, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported Thursday. But nearly half “failed the test on at least one of their three most popular pages,” ITIF said. “This creates obstacles for millions of Americans, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has moved many government services online.” Recommendations include that the General Services Administration create a federal accessibility testing lab and add to its Digital Analytics Program “real-time accessibility testing.” The report didn't include independent agencies such as the FCC and FTC, “since they are not necessarily obligated to follow OMB requirements or guidance,” ITIF co-author Daniel Castro emailed.
Generation Z is gradually spending more time and money in virtual shared spaces, Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Thursday, after its pre-E3 Future of Gaming conference. “Metaverse tools are expected to emerge and democratize the creation process." He noted metaverses are expanding to more areas. AR and VR could augment the immersive nature of metaverses, said the analyst: Cross platforms within gaming metaverses remain “a challenge because of the walled gardens set up by IP owners.” Advertising is expected to become more important to gaming companies, though conference speakers were cautious about the ability of advertising to reach its maximum potential within videogames “given that it could take away from the immersive experience (and break from reality),” he said. New iOS privacy controls likely create opportunity for new winners “that appeal to users by leveraging compelling social elements, with contextualized ads also seen as a key workaround,” said the analyst. Epic Games v. Apple (see 2010090015) “increased the focus on the uphill battle faced by many small developers,” and Apple and Google showed more flexibility on such platform fees, Pachter said: “If the 30% platform fee generally charged by Apple and Google does not change, there could be more scaling up to that figure based upon the size of the underlying developer,” and “more leeway around content curation.”