Blue Global Media, which the FTC said "enticed" consumers to complete online loan applications, agreed to settle charges that the company sold sensitive information to other entities with "little regard to how it would be used," said the agency in a Wednesday news release. The commission voted 2-0 to file the complaint and proposed stipulated order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The complaint said the Arizona-based company and CEO Christopher Kay operated at least 38 websites that solicited loan applications and collected information including names, addresses, email addresses, birth dates, bank routing numbers, driver's license and state identification numbers, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. The FTC said the company then sold the consumer information "indiscriminately without consumers' knowledge or consent." When consumers complained, the company didn't investigate or take action, the agency said. The company is barred from misrepresenting that it can provide favorable loan rates and terms. It must also secure personal data, identify and verify the types of businesses with which it shares the data and must get consumers' consent for disclosures, the FTC said. The order includes a $104 million judgment, which is suspended because of defendants' inability to pay, said the agency. A company website didn't work Wednesday and a phone number rang several times before disconnecting.
Microsoft urged the FCC to not allow an expanded class of wireless mic users to block unlicensed use in the TV white spaces. The proposal is part of the draft order on reconsideration and Further NPRM before commissioners for a vote at next week’s FCC meeting, Microsoft said. The company met with aides to all three commissioners, it said in a filing in docket 14-166. “Licensed wireless microphone users now have access to almost 160 MHz of additional spectrum that the Commission made available less than two years ago -- more than the entire new 84 MHz of spectrum for LTE in the 600 MHz band and the necessary 18 MHz of White Spaces channels combined,” Microsoft said. “These new frequencies can accommodate expanded classes of wireless microphone licensees without the need to displace wider consumer broadband access by the public in the White Spaces.” Mic companies disagreed. “In a last-ditch effort to obtain more white space spectrum for its unique purposes, after failing to achieve that during earlier proceedings, Microsoft incorrectly portrays wireless microphone technologies as antiquated and professional wireless microphone users -- entities that include the Ford’s Theater and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra -- as untrustworthy,” emailed Joe Ciaudelli, director-spectrum affairs for mic-maker Sennheiser. “Microsoft completely misunderstands wireless microphone technology and the Commission’s licensing processes.” CP Communications, which sells mics and related equipment, fired back in a filing at the FCC Wednesday. “Microsoft attempts to paint a picture whereby the Commission is opening up new spectrum that will fully accommodate the needs of wireless microphone users of all sizes, but it neglects to mention how much television spectrum that is now used and relied on by wireless microphones is being taken away by reallocation of Channels 38-51 away from TV broadcasting,” the company said.
Direct broadcast satellite and cable interests, which clashed over DBS regulatory fees in FY 2015 and 16 (see 1507080013 and 1607060023) are doing so again with the FCC FY 2017 fee proposal, as expected (see 1706050038). wireline interests -- saying they bear a disproportionate regulatory fee burden compared with other industries -- are backing FCC plans for reallocation of Wireline Bureau full-time equivalents (FTE), though the satellite industry is opposing. Comments on the fee proposals were due Thursday, replies July 7. The FCC Received support for its plan to hike the de minimis regulatory fee threshold and pushback on hiking the submarine cable regulatory fee.
Direct broadcast satellite operators likely will return to familiar arguments -- that they don't require as much oversight or impose as big a regulatory burden as other MVPDs -- in opposition to the FCC's proposed DBS regulatory fee hike, lawyers with satellite experience told us Monday. Comments on the NPRM are due June 22, replies July 7, said a notice to in Tuesday's Federal Register.
The U.S. had an average internet connection speed in Q1 of 18.7 Mbps, among the top 10 countries, Akamai reported Wednesday. The U.S. average connection speed increased year-over-year and was up 8.8 percent over Q4, when it was 14th-highest at 17.2 Mbps. South Korea had the highest average speed in Q1 at 28.6 Mbps, Norway No. 2 at 23.5 Mbps, Sweden No. 3 at 22.5 Mbps and Hong Kong No. 4 at 21.9 Mbps. The global average peak speeds in Q1 stood at 44.6 Mbps, with Singapore registering the highest at 184.5 Mbps. The U.S. ranked No. 16 for average peak speed for the quarter at 86.5 Mbps. Global adoption of connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose to 12 percent for Q1, with the U.S. having 38 percent adoption of that minimum speed, Akamai said.
Verizon beat out AT&T to buy Straight Path and its high-frequency spectrum for $3.1 billion -- almost twice what AT&T bid (see 1704260041). The FCC must review the deal and some observers believe it could face questions given the dominant millimeter wave position it establishes for Verizon, which previously bought XO and its high-frequency licenses. Buying Straight Path gives Verizon 39 GHz spectrum, one of the bands the FCC is teeing up for an auction and which is expected to be a spectrum building block for 5G.
AT&T offshored more than 12,000 in-house call center jobs since 2011, or about 30 percent of its U.S. call center employees, and closed about 30 call centers, Communications Workers of America reported Thursday. Over the past two years, AT&T used 38 call centers in eight other countries, it said. The report’s authors surveyed and interviewed call-center workers from the U.S. and abroad, CWA said in a news release. The union is bargaining with AT&T on contracts including for wireless workers (see 1704280048). "From Pittsburgh to Bakersfield, AT&T has shuttered dozens of call centers, stripping communities of thousands of jobs that are shipped over to vendors in the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and other countries,” District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor said. AT&T provides "more good-paying full-time U.S. union jobs than any company in America," and CWA and members "have benefitted from that greatly,” a company spokesman emailed: AT&T has 200,000 U.S. employees.
The apparent fight between AT&T and Verizon over Straight Path and its high-frequency spectrum is heating up. Straight Path last week said it received a superior offer of $1.8 billion, compared with AT&T’s $1.6 billion bid (see 1704260041). Wednesday, Straight Path said its board reviewed the unsolicited counteroffer and found it to be “superior.”
Verizon is likely the mystery bidder that made a rival bid for Straight Path, a company AT&T planned to buy to increase its portfolio of high-frequency spectrum for 5G (see 1704100037), industry officials said. Verizon isn’t commenting. Verizon appears to be maneuvering to maintain its advantage over AT&T in the new 5G bands, analysts said.
The percentage of consumers who prefer to watch television shows on a TV plunged from 52 percent to 23 percent in 2016, said a global Accenture report Monday, tracking a four-year trend. Consumers in 26 countries indicated a preference for watching television shows on non-TV devices, with 42 percent saying they would rather view TV shows on a PC, up from 32 percent the prior year, and 13 percent said they prefer watching shows on a smartphone, up from 10 percent, said the study. In 2014, two-thirds of consumers preferred watching shows on a TV, it said. Just 19 percent of consumers prefer to watch sports on a TV, down from 38 percent in the 2015 survey, said the report. Driving the rapid shift in consumer preferences is the “growing convenience, availability and quality of more personalized and compelling content on laptop and desktop personal computers and smartphones,” said analyst Gavin Mann. The report showed a particularly steep decline in India, where consumers preferring to watch programs on TV sets fell from 47 percent to 10 percent. In the U.S., the number dropped from 59 percent to 25 percent, it said. The online survey was done between October and November with about 26,000 consumers ages 14 to 55 and over.