Bitcoin mining operation Butterfly Labs reached agreement with the FTC to settle the agency's case against the company, the commission said Thursday. The FTC sued Butterfly in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Kansas City, Missouri, claiming the company was misleading its customers by delaying or failing to deliver bitcoin mining computers (see report in the Sept. 24, 2014, issue). Butterfly and two of its operators -- General Manager Darla Drake and Vice President-Product Development Sonny Vleisides -- will be prohibited as part of the settlement from “misrepresenting to consumers whether a product or service can be used to generate Bitcoins or any other virtual currency, on what date a consumer will receive the product or service, and whether the product is new or used,” the FTC said in a news release. Butterfly and Vleisides are also barred from taking upfront payments for Bitcoin machines or other machines used to mine virtual currency unless those products are available and can be delivered within 30 days, the FTC said. Butterfly agreed to pay $15,000 of a suspended $38,615,161 settlement against the company and Vleisides, while Vleisides agreed to pay $4,000. Drake will surrender the cash value of all Bitcoins she obtained using Butterfly's machines in exchange for a suspension of a $135,878 judgment against her. The FTC agreed to suspend the monetary judgments because of the defendants' inability to pay, but said those judgments will take effect if the FTC finds Butterfly and others “misrepresented their financial condition.” The Kansas City district court will need to approve the FTC's settlement for it to take effect.
CTIA wants responses by March 7 to its request for proposals for the creation and operation of a Mobile Device Information Portal (MDIP), which it hopes will be fully operational in just under 16 months. CTIA released the RFP Monday following recommendations to the FCC Technological Advisory Council from the mobile device theft prevention working group. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had said in December he was pleased with the efforts (see 1512090067).
AT&T received nearly 143,000 demands for customer information from federal, state and local criminal and civil government agencies for the second half of 2015, about 2,000 fewer requests than during the first half, it said in a transparency report Tuesday. During the period, the company said, it acquired DirecTV, which has been included in the report but accounts for less 1 percent of total demands received by AT&T. Of the demands for the second half, more than 105,000 were subpoenas, more than 18,700 were general court orders and more than 19,000 were search warrants or probable cause court orders. AT&T said it rejected or challenged nearly 2,500 demands while providing partial or no information on more than 35,000. The company also said it provided more than 38,000 "location demands," nearly 63,000 emergency requests, and a range of 500 to 999 requests for national security letters. Due to a required six-month delay in reporting Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act information order requests, AT&T said it received between 0 and 499 FISA orders for both content and noncontent during the first half of 2015.
Freight railroads have spent $6 billion on positive train control, and PTC should be complete by 2018, meeting a revised congressional deadline, the Association of American Railroads said in a report released Wednesday. But AAR President Edward Hamberger warned on a call with reporters that meeting the new deadline is no slam dunk. “There are a lot of challenges, which doesn’t mean we’re not going to make it,” Hamberger said. The report also highlighted the use of drones and the importance of big data to enhanced rail safety. Congress last year passed a law extending the deadline for building out PTC nationwide from the end of 2015 until the end of 2018 (see 1510290069). Investigators found in May that the lack of PTC was partly responsible for a deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia (see 1505150047).
The global healthcare IoT market is expected to grow at a nearly 38 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2015 to 2020, P&S Market Research said in a report released Tuesday. The global healthcare IoT market was valued at $24.67 billion in 2014, said P&S, and the "system and software" segment is expected to have the fastest growth through 2020, with a projected CAGR of almost 41 percent. "The global IoT in healthcare market is growing at a significant rate, due to increasing demand for advanced healthcare information system[s], and a growing prevalence of chronic and lifestyle associated diseases," P&S said in a news release. North America "dominated" the global healthcare IoT market in 2014, while the Asian market is expected to have the fastest growth during the forecast period, with a CAGR of nearly 42 percent, P&S said.
With the number of connected devices and sensors making up the IoT expected to experience dramatic growth in the next few years, and the September announcement by the American Registry for Internet Numbers that it has officially run out of IPv4 addresses, industry experts expressed mixed opinions in interviews this week on whether an influx of devices into the IoT suite will be a catalyst for a more rapid transition to IPv6. Experts also floated several potential motives of companies that have decided to delay moving to IPv6.
Intelsat -- followed by SES, Eutelsat, EchoStar Satellite Services and Telesat -- was No. 1 on the World Teleport Associations' 2015 rankings of the top global teleport operators, WTA said in a news release Wednesday. The annual rankings are compiled based on revenue and revenue growth by publicly held companies and surveys of teleport operators, WTA said. The seven top companies in WTA's Fast 20 rankings all reported double-digit growth over the past year, the industry group said. Emerging Markets Communications topped the Fast 20 rankings with 97.14 percent revenue growth, followed by Global Data Systems at 68.89 percent and SpeedCast at 32.56 percent, WTA said. Among independent operators -- excluding firms whose primary business is owning or operating a satellite fleet or terrestrial network -- 62 percent of those surveyed saw year-over-year revenue growth, with that growth averaging 25 percent, while 38 percent saw revenue declines, with that decline year over year averaging 7 percent, WTA said.
Senior appropriators on Capitol Hill may wrap in at least one key FCC-related policy rider into the FY 2016 omnibus funding bill -- a rider that would grandfather in broadcaster joint sales agreements from before the agency limited them in March 2014. One Republican Senate staffer told us Friday that he still hopes the proposal can become part of the omnibus legislation under negotiation now and potentially voted into law this week, and sees little reason why it couldn’t be.
AT&T plans to expand its gigabit Internet service to homes, apartments and small businesses in parts of 38 additional metropolitan areas across the country, the company said in a Monday news release. The 38 metro areas include cities in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler took several shots at ISPs Thursday during the FCBA annual dinner speech at the Washington Hilton, speaking hours before Friday’s net neutrality challenge oral argument (see 1512040058) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He joked that the “light of my life” and the “person who inspires me every day to get up” is Judge David Tatel, seen as a key judge in that case (see 1510280052). Wheeler called the dinner the “pre-argument tailgate” for the telecom lawyers in the room. He referred to Uber surge pricing likely that evening, and said NCTA Chairman Michael Powell “blames it on Title II,” the part of the Communications Act that Wheeler reclassified broadband under in the net neutrality order, which is under legal challenge. Title II was a running joke of Wheeler’s through the night. He singled out Comcast attendees within the first five minutes of a 38-minute speech. “If they want more wine, it’s $35 a bottle,” Wheeler declared. “And don’t consider it a wine cap. Just think of it as a wine usage plan.” He mocked ISPs again on the FCC’s order to pre-empt state laws limiting municipal broadband networks, saying ISPs opposed the order in the “hotly debated” issue. “And on the other side, you had elected officials, small business owners, innovators, entrepreneurs, policy experts, competition advocates, teachers, doctors, parents, social workers, nuns, puppies, kittens and the original Broadway cast of Hamilton.” He tallied off different industry consolidation proposals under consideration, rejected and approved from the past year. “I just worry that if Time Warner gets hurt again, they could just lock themselves in their room, listen to Adele, eat ice cream straight out of the carton and read John Malone’s old love letters,” Wheeler said of Charter Communications’ proposed buy of TWC after a failed bid by Comcast. Malone is Charter’s largest shareholder. Wheeler joked that Dish Network Board Chairman Charlie Ergen was a victim of the extramarital dating website Ashley Madison hack: “Poor Charlie Ergen … no one responded.” Wheeler judged “hilarious” Verizon suing to overturn the FCC’s old net neutrality order only to return and advocate for the very proposal when confronted later with the Title II possibility. He also alluded to the FCC’s forthcoming website electronic comment filing system: “It’s the finest ECFS in the world,” he said, assuming the bombastic rhetoric of GOP presidential contender Donald Trump. “It’s huge! We’re going to make ECFS great again.” He ribbed FanDuel and DraftKings, saying they sponsored the evening, and showed a video of “a new business venture” called “Fanta-CBA,” an imagined fantasy league showing telecom lawyers. The video featured cameos from NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling, Wheeler Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman, CTIA President Meredith Baker, Powell and Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Georgetown Institute for Public Representation. “No more guard bands to cut down interference,” Wheeler said of Trump’s imagined spectrum plan. “Instead he’s gonna build a wall. Mexico will pay for it.” He said Trump was “a very big proponent of white spaces.” Other Wheeler bits included playing Drake’s “Hotline Bling” alongside a video clip of Wheeler’s hand gestures on repeat from a congressional hearing -- he accused Drake of picking up the gestures as dance moves. He donned a smoking jacket in front of an imaginary fire at one point to tell a bedtime story: “'Twas the night before argument, and back at his home, my poor general counsel sits fretting, alone … .”