Restrictions on Internet freedom continue to grow -- and the threats against it are shifting, said human rights group Freedom House’s 2012 report on worldwide Internet freedom. The report said Estonia had the most Internet freedom in the past year, followed by the U.S. and Germany. Iran was found to have the least online freedom, followed by Cuba, China and Syria. The report, released Monday, assessed events and shifts in the Internet freedom situation in 47 countries between January 2011 and May 2012. Researchers evaluated the situation in each country and assigned a numerical score, with 100 being the worst possible score. Estonia scored 10, while Iran scored 90; the U.S. scored 12, according to Freedom House (http://xrl.us/bnq8xh).The more repressive governments on the list continue to use traditional censorship methods like filtering and blocking content, but they are now supplementing those with “nuanced” tactics, Sanja Kelly, the report’s lead author, said at a Freedom House event Monday. Governments are increasingly engaging in proactive manipulation of online content, including hiring pro-government bloggers to attack anti-government bloggers’ credibility and paying people to bombard anti-government blogs with false information, she said. That tactic had previously only been found in Russia and China, but has now spread into countries like Iran and Belarus, said Freedom House. The report said 19 of the 47 assessed countries had passed new laws impacting Internet freedom since January 2011. Those have included a new law in Malaysia that holds intermediaries like ISPs responsible for “seditious” comments users post online, Kelly said. “As a consequence, in some of the environments we've seen some of the intermediaries almost voluntarily taking down the content they fear will get them into trouble."

The Poker Players Alliance is unhappy that an Internet gambling bill draft allegedly isn’t being shared with stakeholders. Sponsoring Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., haven’t responded to the group’s outreach, PPA Executive Director John Pappas said. “We've asked for the language multiple times and it’s not being shared with us or anyone that I'm aware of,” he said Friday (http://xrl.us/bnqtxp). “Even other key Senators in the process do not have the language.” The poker group is worried based on the “vagueness of the wording” in a summary text of the draft leaked the week before, PPA said. Worrisome provisions in the summary include “player penalties, an excessive blackout period, a lack of international liquidity” and a “five-year penalty to companies that offered online poker in the U.S.” following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, the group said. One section says “any property involved in or traceable to a gambling transaction in violation of the new act (including winnings) is subject to forfeiture,” a possibility that “usually” only applies to criminal conviction, the group said: That could either mean that players can’t get their funds back from a shuttered unlicensed site, or the government will actually pursue players on those sites. “There was nothing like that in the 2010 bill” (WID Dec 8/10 p4), “so it was surprising to see in the summary,” Pappas said. “The devil will be in the details, and we're trying to get to the bottom of that.” A 15-month blackout period intended to help tribal casinos “catch up” to Las Vegas casinos in federal licensing should be shortened to six months, Pappas said, and the bill shouldn’t foreclose the possibility of U.S.-based sites accepting foreign wagers from “other legitimate and regulated marketplaces.” The PPA said it has given up on trying to return to an automatic opt-in for states that previously allowed poker, a provision of the 2010 bill, and can live with the summary’s requirement that states individually opt in through their legislatures. “It’s a fight we're never going to win” and some states will probably “immediately opt in,” while for others the PPA will have to “go in and work to get that done,” Pappas said. It’s better to compromise on federal legislation than let states devise their own laws, including proposed player penalties in California and Florida bills, he said. We couldn’t immediately reach the offices of Reid or Kyl for comment.

Boomerang Wireless amended its application for designation as an eligible telecom carrier to add Florida to the list of states where it hopes to offer service under the Lifeline program, in a filing at the FCC. The carrier also defines its proposed service area by providing a list of study areas, revises Boomerang’s proposed Lifeline service offerings and “notes the approval of Boomerang’s Compliance Plan,” in the filing (http://xrl.us/bnqncc). “Boomerang seeks ETC designation in order to provide handsets and domestic voice services to low-income customers under the brand enTouch Wireless,” it said. “Boomerang also intends to provide Lifeline-only service to residents of Tribal lands. Boomerang has direct, network carrier contracts with Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and has a contract in place to resell service from GSM carriers. The multi-carrier wireless network platform provides robust wireless service coverage across the entire ETC footprint. Boomerang has direct, in-depth experience with building voice, data and broadband products directly with carriers.” Boomerang previously sought ETC designation in Washington, D.C., Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Verizon is completing power audits of all facilities, a review expected to conclude in the Washington region by the end of October and nationwide by March, Senior Vice President Kyle Malady told House lawmakers Wednesday. The telco will have better monitoring equipment in place by 2013, he said. Verizon understands the need to communicate better with public safety answering points and the public during disasters, he said. The Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications held the hearing on the challenges and future of resilient communications, which emphasized the problems of Verizon as well as the new technologies emergency responders are facing. Its prime focus was Verizon’s June 29 failure to maintain power in Northern Virginia during the derecho wind storms and subsequent 911 outages.

The FCC Office of Native Affairs sought comment on a USTelecom petition for reconsideration of the Further Guidance Public Notice regarding the Tribal government engagement obligations adopted in the USF/intercarrier compensation order (http://xrl.us/bnnedk). Comments are due Sept. 26 in WC docket 10-90; replies Oct. 11.

Amateur radio can play a major role during disasters and could prove even more valuable if there were more cooperation on training protocols among the federal government, public safety, emergency management officials and amateur radio emergency communications associations and groups, the FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus said in a new report to Congress (http://xrl.us/bnmo2t). The report recommended that the Department of Homeland Security “work with state, local, and tribal authorities to develop disaster area access policies and qualifications for trained amateur operators who provide emergency communications support.” The report cited news reports and various case studies of how amateur radio operators have already been important to sustained communications when disaster strikes. Responses to an FCC public notice “indicate agreement between the amateur radio community and public safety community as to the utility of amateur radio in emergency response situations,” the report said. “Amateur radio communications are suited to disaster response in a way that many more advanced forms of communication today are not, thereby allowing it to supplement other emergency communications activities during disasters.” Because amateur networks are generally spread across wide geographical areas “they have the ability to spread critical disaster-related information to areas far from the disaster area,” the report found. “Because they can utilize different frequency bands and emission types, amateur radio networks can operate under a wide variety of conditions. The flexibility and geographical dispersion of amateur radio networks provide advantages for relaying information out of localized disaster zones and into outside jurisdictions coordinating recovery efforts."

The federal government won’t allow states to apply for FirstNet implementation grants until 2013, the NTIA said Tuesday. The agency released a notice on the requirements for the State and Local Implementation Grant Program. The grants, amounting to as much as $135 million set for disbursal in two phases, are intended to kickstart states’ involvement with FirstNet, which named its board on Monday (CD Aug 21 p1). The grant program will be “a formula-based, matching grant program to assist states, in collaboration with regional, tribal, and local jurisdictions, with activities related to planning for the establishment of a nationwide public safety broadband network,” NTIA said (http://xrl.us/bnmof7). “NTIA expects to issue a FFO [Federal Funding Opportunity] and open the application window during the first quarter of calendar year 2013.” It noted it’s not yet accepting applications. The agency will calculate a formula weighing numerous factors and won’t release the “exact contents of the application package that applicants must submit” until the FFO is issued, it said. States can begin preparing based on “likely” requirements, such as establishing the state coordinator of grant funds, establishing methods of local jurisdictional input and determining how existing governance bodies may be leveraged into FirstNet activities, NTIA said.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The FirstNet board is well positioned to represent the needs of public safety, state and local organizations, NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling told the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials conference Tuesday. He and Deputy Administrator Anna Gomez went into detail on the selection process, next steps, and NTIA’s future role.

The 2012 version of the FCC’s annual Section 706 report released Tuesday said once again that broadband “is not yet being deployed ’to all Americans’ in a reasonable and timely fashion.” Commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai issued blistering dissents. McDowell said the FCC majority has “co-opted” the 706 process, using it to justify a “'cynical cycle’ of regulation,” including the approval of net neutrality rules in December 2010.

Lawmakers and rural telcos continued to protest the high costs and burdensome requirements of the FCC’s USF/intercarrier reform waiver requirements, which they say will curb broadband deployment in areas where people need it most. House and Senate members told us the FCC must do something to reduce the cost of waiver applications, which they said can exceed $100,000. A commission spokesman said it’s considering some changes to the waiver process, but emphasized that the waiver requirements are necessary to properly evaluate each company’s ability to use the money in a fiscally responsible way.