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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 18 Issue 40
Volume 18, Issue 40 Atari Online News, Etc. October 7, 2016
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2016
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1840 10/07/16
~ Yahoo Data Breach Info ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee News Update!
~ Firebee - Board Status ~ NSA Contractor Busted! ~ Online Anonymity?
~ Hacked Steam Accounts! ~ Firebee Working Boards ~ Facebook Free Basics!
-* Anarcho Ride - New Horizons! *-
-* Flashback 7 & Ultimate Game Player! *-
-* Atari Sales and Marketshare - Comparisons! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What a week as far as the weather goes on the East Coast! Here
in New England, we've had a lot of cold mornings with the warmth
returning during the day. As you're likely aware, the Southeast
is getting hammered by Hurricane Matthew. Earlier reports have
changed drmatically over the past day or so, and the hurricane
will not get to our area at all. Good for us here, but not for
our friends on the southeast corner of the counry! We're hoping
for the best for them!
Politics? Pretty much sticking to the script with the usual
attacks on each other. The second debate is this weekend. I
may opt to watch football and baseball, and catch the debate
"highlights" on the news!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Firebee News Update - 1
Board Status
2016-09-30:
Switching out the bus driver from a TI- to an NPX-model
unfortunately did not solve the problems. This presents a true
challenge for Medusa, since some of the behaviours of the board
still are a mystery. You can probably imagine the enormous
pressure this puts mostly on Fredi Aschwanden, in order to
finally begin delivery of the computers. Nevertheless, we will
only start with that as soon as all problems are actually
solved. We want the computers to work a 100%, just like the
first series. For this reason, we would like to thank all of you
end-users for your infinite patience. Especially those, who have
made a down payment a long time ago already.
As next steps, we will try to tackle the issue with two
measures. On the one hand, the thermal pad of the bus driver
will be removed from one of the boards. The "thermal pad" is a
metal surface on the lower side of the chips which is connected
with 3V3. It serves to dissipate the heat over the layer
surface, in this case 3V3. This "pad" should not have contact to
any other connector of the chip, according to the specification.
But apparently there is contact as soon as the chip is powered
on; contact which heates the chip, and leads to an increase in
power consumption so strong that the power supply collapses. On
the other hand, we will have one of the boards fitted with an
identical bus driver instead of the current one, but one which
contains internal pullups, preventing the inputs from falling
into undefined states. The reason is that there is a suspicion
that these inputs start to oscillate or assume irregular states
during power-up, and by doing so, destroy the chip.
We hope that one of these two measures will lead to a solution
for the problem, but at this point, we cannot make any promises.
Additionally, Wolfgang Förster has just recently offered his
help, being one of the few with deep hardware knowledge.
Since there was a question in a forum about the technical
realisation of such a "component exchange", we want to assure
you that this is carried out absolutely professionally by the
assembly company. It would be wrong to think of this as some
manual tinkering and soldering. There are several highly complex
automatic machines for such tasks used by the assembly company.
As a result, a user will not even notice if any component of the
board had been replaced. This wouldn't even be possible to do in
any different way, with close to 1000 SMD parts on an 8-layer
curcuit board. Here is an infomercial of such a machine:
https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY2MFbk-bN0, in this case a
Zevac Onyx. As was always the case, the boards will be
delivered by Medusa with a 2-year warranty!
FireBee News Update - 2
By Fred Horvat
Not a whole lot going on with me and the FireBee since last
installment. I have done a little bit more messing around with
some of my network equipment at home to try and resolve my EasyMiNT
installation issue of not being able to connect to the Internet
properly. So far nothing has worked yet. What I did do with
EasyMiNT though was to replace the standard Thing Desktop with
TeraDesk Desktop. Because I like TeraDesk better but mostly
because it was in English! Yes there are resource files available
to make Thing English but since I like TeraDesk better I just
changed Desktops. I do not have the AV Server configured properly
for TeraDesk so I need to get that configured properly. I also
added some of my most used software to EasyMiNT but I need to
install NVDI 5.0 to use some of it like Atari Works and HighWire.
I still have a ways to go with tweaking EasyMiNT to my
preferences but at least now I know that networking does work but
the issue is with my home network somewhere and not with EasyMiNT
itself. I am moving forward but slowly.
Until next time.
Firebee News Update - 3
Working Boards
2016-10-06:
This week Medusa Computer Systems received a first fully
functional board from the assembly company.
The bus drivers had been removed from the computer, isolated with
Kapton tape and soldered back on afterwards. The system is now
running perfectly and the chips are not getting warmer than
45 degree celsius even after several hours of operation.
As we had supected, contrary to the spec sheet, the bus drivers
had become conductive after a few minutes runtime. The Kapton
tape currently in place on the bottom side of the thermal pads
isolates them completely, while still allowing for heat
dissipation. A more detailed technical explanation will follow
as soon as we are in the mood for an in-depth article in the
coming weeks. ;)
The good news, then, is: Provided that there will be no other
unexpected catastrophies, we will be able to deliver the first
computers end of October! The newly equiped systems will be
delivered to us in 2-digit batches every two weeks, and then
checked thoroughly one by one, before they are sent out. The
pre-orders will be processed in the order they were made. So all
those who pre-ordered will soon be contacted by us.
Again, kudos to all of you - the best community in the world! In
the last months of uncertainty there was not a single bad word,
only encouragement, understanding and trust from your side.
Thanks!
New Anarcho Ride V1.04 - New Horizons Out Now
Post by simoncam ª Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:56 pm
ANARCHO Ride V1.04 ñ New Horizons
The time has come for a bigger ANARCHO Ride Update for the ATARI
STe/Falcon! ìANARCHO Ride - New Horizonsî bringsÖ wellÖ new
horizons! One thing that was always missing in ANARCHO Ride was
a proper horizon projection. Now it is here! And it comes with
Expansion Pack 2! New tracks mainly made during the OFAM2016
ATARI Party. And this will be a growing expansion packÖ
Hopefully while visiting more ATARI Parties I get more
inspirations for more craziness!
https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xW1YtMyNWg
And there is even more! Laserball has a new language update!
Czech! And ANARCHO Ride is expected to get a Czech version as
well very soon!
http://www.hd-videofilm.com/anarcho
http://www.hd-videofilm.com/laserball
Enjoy!
Atari ST Computer Sales and Marketshare: A Comparison
In the late 1980s there was a ìcreative trinityî that emerged in
the 16-bit home computer market. Appleís Macintosh went after
the desktop publishing market; Commodoreís powerful Amiga aimed
for the video and motion graphics designers; and Atariís ST line
of computers captivated music professionals with built-in MIDI.
All three of these platforms shared similarities between each
other as they all leveraged Motorolaís 68K processor, but each
found strong support in their creative niche. And, of course,
they all battled for a dwindling marketshare with video gamers
who had begun to migrate to PC clones in mass numbers.
A fascinating twist in the annals of Amiga and Atari in
particular is that Commodore was ultimately fighting against ìone
of their ownî in Jack Tramiel. Tramiel had founded Commodore, and
the PET, VIC-20 and Commodore 64 computer lines were released
during his leadership there. He left Commodore in 1984 and later
that year purchased the Atari division from Warner Brothers,
which owned the struggling brand at the time. Tramiel then formed
Atari Corporation and lead the company to focus on the 16-bit
Atari ST line of computers. Those computers, ultimately, became a
direct competitor to Commodore's Amiga. And so the circle was
complete.
Jeremy Reimer for Ars Technica in 2005:
ìJack Tramiel had left the company in a dispute with his
financial backer, and had purchased Atari's computer division.
He spearheaded the rapid development of the Atari ST, sometimes
called the "Jackintosh." It also used a 68000 [like the Mac and
Amiga] but lacked the Amiga's advanced custom chips and
multitasking operating system. Nevertheless, it was still
capable of playing great games, and its cheaper price (it
originally retailed for US$799 with a monochrome monitor) hurt
Amiga sales.î
Tramiel's shocking departure made headlines and is still
archived online at the NY Times.
The Amiga was released in the summer of 1985 and began to make
some waves by 1986. By 1987, Commodore finally released the
Amiga 500 and 2000 under pressure from competition by Atari
attacking its very similar market.
Jeremy Reimer again for Ars:
ìMeanwhile, the Atari ST's momentum tailed off, with sales
slowly declining as better games started coming out designed
specifically for the Amiga 500. Atari did not release any new
models of the ST except for a version with extra RAM
preinstalled. Thanks to the inclusion of a MIDI port with
every model, however, the ST became the computer of choice for
digital musicians.î
Ultimately, this is where a bit of the Amiga vs. Atari fan-wars
emerged and still exist today, although with much less fervor
and teeth gnashing. Time cures all, right? The truth is the two
fanbases share much more in common than they realized back in
the pre-internet days.
So how do the Atari ST sales and marketshare actually stack up?
According to research by Reimer, who gathered his figures from
various annual reports, International Data Corp (IDC) forecasts,
Gartner Dataquest research, as well as a few magazine articles
from the 1980s (most of which have gone dark online since
originally compiled, unfortunately). The numbers were pretty
grim for both platforms when looking at the larger overall
marketshare picture.
See the chart below (numbers are in 1,000s) for Reimerís
original analysis of quantities sold for the Amiga and ST
lines. I include the Amiga, itís step-brother of sorts, for
comparisonís sake.
To try and validate these figures, I took a look at Atari's
10-Q filing from 1989. While the numbers aren't an exact
match (the 10-Qs don't explicitly show sales figures for
specific product lines), the numbers do seem to follow the
proper trends. Atari reported a slowing down for 1989
compared to 1988, which is reflected correctly in Reimer's
data.
In the 10-Q filing:
ìThe decline in total sales for 1989 as compared to 1988
can be attributed to the decline in the United States of our
traditional video game line. European markets continue to
out-perform all other markets in both computers and video
games.î
Atari wasnít the only company feeling this shift in
consumerism, as we all know. What ultimately was witnessed with
the Amiga in the US mirrored Atariís ST experience as PC clones
flooded the US market. This gave a short lifeline extension to
both brands in the European markets in the early 90s before
both companies finally fizzled out.
1988 looks like an insanely rough year for Atari in the Net
Income graph below, but much of the drop was due to a previous
acquisition of 67 Federated electronics retail stores, which was
thought would dramatically expand Atari's distribution for its
well-regarded, inexpensive line of personal computers while
enhancing Federated's ability to compete.
From the NY Times in August, 1987:
ìAtari has essentially decided to buy distribution in the
United States because it has been stymied in its attempts to
persuade established retailers to carry its wares. Two-thirds
of Atari personal computers are sold in Europe. Major American
dealers, such as Computerland and Businessland, have declined
to carry Atari machines, partly because Atari has an image as a
video game company whose machines would not appeal to corporate
customers.î
[...]
ìThe retailers perhaps are also wary of Atari's chairman,
Jack Tramiel, who, in his days as head of Commodore
International, undermined his dealers by slashing prices and
moving his computers to mass merchandisers such as K Mart.
Atari now has 800 dealers, Mr. Pratt [Atari's chief financial
officer] said. That is about a half to a third the number of
Apple and I.B.M. dealers, and many Atari dealers are not
computer specialists. Atari recently began recruiting music
stores to carry its machines, for instance.î
That was surely a Hail-Mary attempt to keep a foothold in the
music industry since their fortunes in the computer industry
were fading.
What Atari didnít know was that the debt Federated brought with
it was much higher than had been originally reported. This, on
top of a DRAM shortage in 1988 helped fuel the fires that were
smoldering at Atari HQ.
On page 27 of the 1989 financial report, Atari said ìSales of ST
and PC products [emphasis mine] increased by 9% to $322.0
million, or 76%, of total net sales in 1989, from $296.5
million, or 66%, of total net sales in 1988.î This doesnít give
us exact sales figures for the particular product lines, but a
glommed together sales revenue picture. So the report says sales
revenue increased slightly overall, while Reimerís data shows a
slight decrease in the ST lineís sales. This certainly could be
the case, as 1989 also saw the introduction of the Portfolio,
Lynx, and STACY products.
By 1993, Atari ceased development of the ST computers to focus
on the Jaguar game console - the last console to bear the Atari
brand. The Jaguar was discontinued three years later as Atari
Corp began to exit from existing as an independent company and
its hardware days were over.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Hacked Steam Accounts Used As Attack Vector!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Flashback 7 and Ultimate Portable Game Player!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Watch Out, Hacked Steam Accounts Used As An Attack Vector
Malware researcher discovered a Reddit user which is warning of
the existence of hacked Steam accounts used to spread a Remote
Access Trojan (RAT).
This week the popular malware researcher Lawrence Abrams from
Bleepingcomputer.com has found a worrisome message on Reddit. The
Reddit user with the moniker Haydaddict was warning of the
existence of compromised Steam accounts spreading a Remote Access
Trojan (RAT).
ìQuinn Lobdell hacked on Steam. Please be aware if others try to
send you sketchy links. Scrub Killa and Jessie affected as well.î
reads the post.
The accounts were used to send chat messages containing links to
videomeo.pw to watch a video.
ìWhen the target went to the page, they would be greeted with a
message stating that they needed to update Flash Player in order
to watch the video.î explained Lawrence Abrams in a blog post.
The trick is quite simple and leverages on the userís curiosity
when it downloads and executes the Flash Player installer
apparently nothing happens, but in reality the victim has opened
its machine to the attacker.
The Flash Player installer executes a PowerShell script
(zaga.ps1) that downloads a 7-zip archive, 7-zip extractor, and
a CMD script from a remote server (http://zahr[.]pw).
The PowerShell then launches the CMD file, which extracts the
sharchivedmngr to the %AppData%\lappclimtfldr folder and
configures Windows to automatically start an instance of the
NetSupport Manager Remote Control Software, renamed as
mcrtvclient.exe, when the victim logs in.
When the victims will log in the infected machine, the
NetSupport Manager will connect to the NetSupport gateway at
leyv.pw:11678 and await commands, at this point the attacker has
complete control over the victimís machine.
ìFor those who are concerned they are infected with this Steam
Trojan, I suggest they check the %AppData% folder for the
specified folders.î suggests Lawrence Abrams in order to check
if the system is compromised.
Every time you visit a link be careful, and make sure to have
installed up to date defense solutions.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Atari Flashback 7 and the Atari Ultimate
Portable Game Player Announced
Atari Flashbacks are extremely popular with all gamers and
theyíre not slowing down either, as just announced that coming
to FunstockRetro.co.uk ñ in November 2016 ñ is the Atari
Flashback 7, and not only that weíre going to see the Atari
Ultimate Portable Game Player too!
The officially licensed Atari Flashback 7 will feature 101 games
and again comes in the classic Atari 2600 design, along with two
separate controllers. Whilst the Atari Ultimate Portable Game
Player not only has 60 built in games, but also comes with an
SD-Card slot so you can tap into the Atari 2600 homebrew scene
and play games like Halo 2600. Both main console and handheld
device contain ñ in amongst the added games ñ such classics as
Asteroids, Missile Command, Centipede, Pong and many more!
ëAtari Flashback 7 Game Consoleí Features:
Plug & Play for your TV
Authentic Atari 2600 style design
101 built-in games
Two user friendly wireless controllers
Includes AV cable
Includes AC adapter
Click here to view the full games list
ëAtari Ultimate Portable Game Playerí Handheld Console Features:
60 built-in games
SD card slot (for expanding your collection)
Includes USB charging cable
Click here to view the full games list
For more information and to pre-order the Atari Flashback 7 or
the Atari Ultimate Portable Game Player pop over to
Funstockretro.co.uk now. Remember to use the code FMYTH5 (on
checkout) to get 5% of you final purchase price.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Uh oh, Yahoo! Data Breach May Have Hit Over 1 Billion Users
The massive data breach that Yahoo! confirmed to the world last
week is claimed by the company to have been carried out by a
"state-sponsored actor" in 2014, which exposed the accounts of
at least 500 Million Yahoo users.
But, now it seems that Yahoo has downplayed a mega data breach
and triying to hide it's own security blunder.
Recently the information security firm InfoArmor that analyzed
the data breach refuted the Yahoo's claim, stating that the data
breach was the work of seasoned cyber criminals who later sold
the compromised Yahoo accounts to an Eastern European
nation-state.
Now, there's one more twist in the unprecedented data heist.
A recent advancement in the report indicates that the number of
affected Yahoo accounts may be between 1 Billion and 3 Billion.
An unnamed, former Yahoo executive who is familiar with the
company's security says that the Yahoo's back-end system's
architecture is designed in such a way that all of its products
use one main user database (UDB) to authenticate users, Business
Insider reported Friday.
So all usernames and passwords that users enter to log into
services like Yahoo Mail, Sports or Finance goes to this one
central database to ensure they are valid, allowing them access.
This central database is what got compromised, and therefore,
it's quite difficult to believe that the hackers who compromised
the whole database walk away with just a small bunch of "the
core crown jewels of Yahoo customer credentials."
Whoever carried out the hack not only stole usernames and email
addresses of affected users but also pilfered other personal
information, including their dates of birth, phone numbers,
hashed passwords, and unencrypted security answers.
So, it's unclear how Yahoo come up with the 500 Million number.
The company had not commented further on how the data breach
happened or when it was discovered, citing an active
investigation.
Yahoo! could have saved you, but decided not to:
A lengthy report published by the New York Times seemingly
explains that the company did not reset the passwords of its
users after the breach due to the decisions made by Yahoo's CEO
Marissa Mayer, who seemed to prioritize developing new products
over making security improvements.
The reason sounds stupid, as the article reads:
"The 'Paranoids,' the internal name for Yahoo's security
team, often clashed with other parts of the business over
security costs. And their requests were often overridden
because of concerns that the inconvenience of added protection
would make people stop using the company's products."
If Yahoo had reset the passwords of its affected users, proper
security measures would have been taken by users to protect
their personal data from hackers.
Let's see what new advancements come to this unprecedented data
breach.
Already, the Yahoo hack is believed to be one of the biggest in
history, and the company is still trying to negotiate a deal to
sell its core business to Verizon for $4.8 Billion.
Yahoo! has yet to respond to the recent revelation by the
insider.
Data breach news has already magnified company's problems, but
if breach number reaches Billion, would the company be able to
save its acquisition deal?
NSA Contractor Arrested After Stealing Classified Computer Code
The NSA was thrust into the limelight once again today following
reports that yet another agency contractor was found to have
illegally absconded with classified NSA materials.
According to a report originally published in the New York
Times, an NSA contractor by the name of Harold T. Martin was
recently arrested after authorities discovered that he had
stolen classified materials that may have included ìhighly
classified computer codes developed to hack into the networks of
foreign governmentsî like China, North Korea and Iran.
According to the Times, a raid on Martinís house revealed a
large number of classified documents on various storage devices
that were never authorized to be taken off-site.
Interestingly enough, Martin was a consultant that worked with
the NSA via Booz Allen Hamilton, the same consulting firm that
employed Edward Snowden. Also interesting is that the NSA over
the last two months has taken steps to keep Martinís arrest as
hush-hush as possible, largely to prevent Martin from becoming
ìanother NSA martyr.î
The investigation into Martinís motives, along with the full
extent of the information he had in his possession, remains
ongoing. At this point, itís unclear if Martin was perhaps
involved in the recent leak of NSA hacking tools that made
waves just a few weeks ago.
The Times notes:
As investigators look into Mr. Martinís case, it is almost
certain that they will focus on whether the contractor was
behind a leak in August that exposed a collection of electronic
tools used by the N.S.A. to break into networks around the
world. That material, released by a group calling itself the
Shadow Brokers, was thought by outside experts to have been
obtained by hacking rather than from an insider. Now, in light
of the arrest, that assumption may have to be revised. The code
released by the Shadow Brokers was dated to 2013, meaning that
it almost certainly has been overtaken by more recent code.
Recently, we reported that those tools were acquired when an
NSA operative inadvertently left them behind on a computer.
Perhaps, in light of the above, the dissemination of the
aforementioned hacking tools was decidedly purposeful.
Academics Put Another Dent in Online Anonymity
The Internet may make many promises, but anonymity isnít always
one of them. Users, for example, who covet their privacy often
turn to Tor and other similar services to keep their activities
on the web from prying eyes, yet that hasnít stopped the FBI and
researchers from trying to uncloak people on that network.
On the open Internet, users leave behind breadcrumbs as to their
interests and locations on the sites they visit, data that is
tracked by advertisers and other services interested in
delivering targeted advertising in the browser.
A team of academics from Princeton and Stanford universities has
gone a step further and figured out how to reveal a userís
identity from links clicked on in their Twitter feed. The
researchers built a desktop Google Chrome extension called
Footprints as a proof of concept that combs a userís browser
history for links clicked on from Twitter.
The extension sends all Twitter links from the last 30 days that
are still in a userís browsing history through the tool. The
user is given the opportunity to review the links before sending
them. The tool then returns, in less than a minute, a list of
15 possible Twitter profiles that are a likely match; the
extension then deletes itself, the researchers said.
ìWe were interested in how much information leak there is when
browsing the Web,î said Sharad Goel, assistant professor at
Stanford in the Department of Management Science and Engineering.
Goel along with Stanford students Ansh Shukla, Jessica Su and
Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan, developed Footprints.
ìWe want to raise awareness and inform policy,î Goel said. ìThis
is more of an academic demonstration. Weíre not trying to make
the tool available to other people, itís mostly about raising
awareness.î
A tool like this would allow a business already tracking a
userís information to correlate it with Twitter traffic to make
a best guess as to the userís identity. It would do so, Goel
said, by analyzing the anonymized browsing history and running
a similarity match against Twitter traffic to rank the overlaps
and arrive at a conclusion.
In a post published to the Freedom to Tinker website, Su wrote
that peopleís social networks are distinct and made up of
family, friends and colleagues, resulting in a distinctive set
of links in oneís Twitter feed.
ìGiven only the set of web pages an individual has visited, we
determine which social media feeds are most similar to it,
yielding a list of candidate users who likely generated that
web browsing history,î Su wrote. ìIn this manner, we can tie a
personís real-world identity to the near complete set of links
they have visited, including links that were never posted on
any social media site. This method requires only that one click
on the links appearing in their social media feeds, not that
they post any content.î
The researchers said there were two challenges to be worked
out. First was their ability to quantify how similar a social
media feed would be to web browsing history, which seems simple,
but does not take into account users with an excessively large
number of followers that could also include bots. Goel said
those feeds were penalized in this exercise because of their
size and the number of links they may contain could skew
results.
ìWe posit a stylized, probabilistic model of web browsing
behavior, and then compute the likelihood a user with that
social media feed generated the observed browsing history,î Su
wrote. ìIt turns out that this method is approximately
equivalent to scaling the fraction of history links that appear
in the feed by the log of the feed size.î
The demonstration uses Twitter feeds because they are for the
most part public. The researchers heuristically narrowed the
number of feeds to be searched and then applied their similarity
measure to arrive at the final result, Su said.
Goel said he expects the tool to remain available for the time
being as they continue to collect data and refine the demo. A
paper is expected to follow in the next few weeks, he said.
Free Basics: The Best Way To Improve Americansí Internet Access?
In the wake of controversy abroad, Facebook hopes to introduce
its Free Basics app to underserved communities at home.
The app, which offers users access to certain internet services
for free, would target low-income and rural Americans for whom
reliable, high-speed internet is currently out of reach.
Facebook is seeking partnerships with wireless carriers to
ìzero-rateî these services, allowing users to stretch their
data plans out for longer. The company hopes the White House
will be supportive of adding the United States to the 49
countries who already have access to Free Basics.
For advocates, the app is a much-needed tool to connect
millions more Americans to the internet in an increasingly
electronic world. But others are concerned about implications
for net neutrality and the future of the service. India, the
worldís third largest internet market, banned the app in
February, adding further fuel to the debate.
Recommended: Are you savvy about social networks? Take our quiz
to find out.
ìIt wouldnít be a bad idea to bring that here, because we face
many of the same challenges in historically disadvantaged
communitiesî as developing countries do, Nicol Turner-Lee, a
vice president at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet
Council, told the Washington Post.
A 2016 report by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
found that rural America and tribal lands were lagging behind
in broadband provision. Fully two-thirds of those in US
territories do not have adequate fixed broadband service, the
report found. The FCC has not yet set a benchmark for the
quality of mobile internet service, due to insufficient data.
But it seems likely that the commission, which is bound by the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 to take ìimmediate actionî if
advanced telecommunications capabilities are not available to
all Americans, is considering ways to make progress. The FCC
does have the Connect America Fund, which ìsubsidizes some of
the initial costs of [internet service providers] entering
rural markets, helping to bridge the divide in broadband
access,î according to the Brookings Institution think-tank.
Free Basics may be a way to boost Americansí connectivity. But
similar services, intended to improve the access of low-income
families, have had limited success. Internet Essentials,
offered by Comcast, is one such program.
"I had [Internet Essentials] because [my children] had
assignments that they needed the computer for," one Colorado
parent told researchers from Rutgers University and the Joan
Ganz Cooney Center. "I hated it. It wasn't working. It was too
slow, it would freeze and they couldnít get anything done. We
had it for almost a year. I just got rid of it. I was paying
$10 (a month) to not use it."
T-Mobileís Simple Choice plans come with unlimited video
streaming and other ways to stretch data caps. Critics argue
that having certain websites that users can access data-free
violates net neutrality because it pushes users to access some
sites and blocks them from accessing others. Regulators have
expressed some concerns about such practices, while endorsing
the expansion of internet access.
In India, a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi may
have spurred the country to ban Free Basics. ìThe Internet is
not a marketplace where government licensed access providers are
allowed to act as gatekeepers choosing what the citizens of our
nation can access and on what terms; it is a neutral platform,î
a group of more than 500 startups and venture capitalists wrote.
Learning from this, Facebook now allows all websites that
refrain from using data-intensive video or images to
participate in Free Basics. That could make Free Basics a
valuable tool in connecting Americans with government
education, financial, and healthcare services, which are
increasingly available online, supporters say.
But the availability of Free Basics may still be skewed toward
organizations who can afford to modify their websites in line
with Facebookís rules, opponents worry. And questions remain
about whether the company would, in the future, demand payment
from mobile carriers that offer Free Basics.
In an interesting twist, the portal may or may not actually
save low-income families money.
ìMore than 35 operators have launched Free Basics and 15 million
people have come online. And half the people who use Free Basics
to go online for the first time pay to access the full internet
within 30 days,î Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Times of India
editorial in 2015.
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