T-Mobile US is getting the lower band spectrum it has long coveted, buying Verizon Wireless’s 700 MHz A-block licenses for $3.3 billion, in a deal announced Monday. The transaction must clear the FCC and get antitrust approval from an agency that’s expected to be the Department of Justice. Most FCC watchers we asked don’t expect that to be a major hurdle. Combined with the low-band spectrum T-Mobile already has in the Boston area, the carrier said it would have low-band spectrum in 21 of the 30 top U.S. markets -- including nine of the top 10. Major markets in the new spectrum include New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The spectrum covers an area with 158 million potential subscribers, T-Mobile said.
LAS VEGAS -- Public safety’s main focus on 911 is to move emergency calling into the 21st century, said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes during a presentation at the CES Monday. But Trey Forgety, head of government affairs at NENA, warned that public safety remains conservative and slow to change.
Recent court opinions on National Security Agency phone surveillance indicate that understanding of the Fourth Amendment may need to change, argued Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. She pointed to two federal court decisions from December, one calling phone metadata bulk collection likely to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment and another upholding the practice. She favored the reasoning of the former and examined the broader legal context. “A consensus seems to be emerging that the Fourth Amendment must evolve along with technology and government surveillance capabilities, and that it is the job of the lower courts to investigate and to rule accordingly,” she wrote in a Just Security blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/KmNnv5). “If lower courts slavishly follow the closest analogous Supreme Court case on hand, rather than seriously consider whether facts, policies and practices on the ground have changed, higher courts will not benefit from the best fact-finding and the best legal reasoning incubated in the lower federal courts.” She predicted courts will ultimately find the Fourth Amendment prohibits such bulk surveillance, which she called an “unprecedented power” of the government.
Recent court opinions on National Security Agency phone surveillance indicate that understanding of the Fourth Amendment may need to change, argued Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. She pointed to two federal court decisions from December, one calling phone metadata bulk collection likely to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment and another upholding the practice. She favored the reasoning of the former and examined the broader legal context. “A consensus seems to be emerging that the Fourth Amendment must evolve along with technology and government surveillance capabilities, and that it is the job of the lower courts to investigate and to rule accordingly,” she wrote in a Just Security blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/KmNnv5). “If lower courts slavishly follow the closest analogous Supreme Court case on hand, rather than seriously consider whether facts, policies and practices on the ground have changed, higher courts will not benefit from the best fact-finding and the best legal reasoning incubated in the lower federal courts.” She predicted courts will ultimately find the Fourth Amendment prohibits such bulk surveillance, which she called an “unprecedented power” of the government.
Pressure is growing on the FCC to make some decision on what to do with LightSquared’s spectrum, as the company’s bankruptcy case plays out in federal bankruptcy court in New York under Judge Shelley Chapman. Chapman scheduled the next hearing in the case for Jan. 9.
Accounts of the status of a long-awaited surveillance bill differed drastically last week, with top Republicans suggesting the bill may hit the House floor in 2014 while a Democrat declared it dead. Don’t expect any major House Intelligence Committee surveillance proposals any time soon, a Democratic committee member told us. House Republican leadership killed an overhaul the committee was developing, choosing instead to defer to the House Judiciary Committee, where the more “aggressive” USA Freedom Act is under consideration, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. The Intelligence and Judiciary committees share jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Republicans have pushed back against this idea and insisted the bill will be alive and well in 2014.
Accounts of the status of a long-awaited surveillance bill differed drastically last week, with top Republicans suggesting the bill may hit the House floor in 2014 while a Democrat declared it dead. Don’t expect any major House Intelligence Committee surveillance proposals any time soon, a Democratic committee member told us. House Republican leadership killed an overhaul the committee was developing, choosing instead to defer to the House Judiciary Committee, where the more “aggressive” USA Freedom Act is under consideration, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. The Intelligence and Judiciary committees share jurisdiction over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Republicans have pushed back against this idea and insisted the bill will be alive and well in 2014.
President Barack Obama suggested the U.S. might be able to accomplish its intelligence goals by other means than the Patriot Act Section 215 phone metadata surveillance, he told reporters at a news conference Friday before leaving for Hawaii. He had received 46 recommendations from a five-member review group he appointed on Wednesday (CD Dec 19 p4) -- recommendations that criticized the efficacy of the National Security Agency program, urged industry or a third party to hold the metadata and to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow for a public advocate, among other changes. AT&T, meanwhile, followed Verizon’s lead (CD Dec 20 p1) and said it will also post transparency reports.
President Barack Obama suggested the U.S. might be able to accomplish its intelligence goals by other means than the Patriot Act Section 215 phone metadata surveillance, he told reporters at a press conference Friday before leaving for Hawaii. He had received 46 recommendations from a five-member review group he appointed on Wednesday -- recommendations that criticized the efficacy of the National Security Agency program, urged industry or a third party to hold the metadata and to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow for a public advocate, among other changes. AT&T, meanwhile, followed Verizon’s lead and said it will also post transparency reports.
U.S. officials are continuing to plan for the upcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference, although the ITU hasn’t announced a new locale for the conference. The WTDC, held every four years, sets the agenda and guidelines for the ITU’s Development Sector for the following four years. The WTDC had been set for March 31-April 11 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, but the ITU decided to move the conference because of continuing political instability in the country, an industry observer told us.