Despite “a substantial strain of caution in the initial comments received” by the FCC, consumers can’t wait seven to 10 years for text-to-911 to become “a reality,” the National Emergency Number Association said in a filing at the FCC. NENA CEO Brian Fontes and others from the group recently met with FCC officials, the group said (http://xrl.us/bmraw8). No review of existing text-to-911 solutions has been undertaken in sufficient detail or sufficiently absent artificial constraints to permit NENA to articulate specific recommendations about which solutions are operationally and economically viable for public safety answering points, consumers, and carriers, NENA said: “NENA committed, however, to conducting such a review with respect to PSAPs (at a minimum) and to communicate its findings to the Commission in short order.”
NARUC’s telecom committee passed its resolution on VoIP outage reporting requirements at its winter meeting Monday. But the risk of VoIP service outages doesn’t justify the burden on VoIP providers to report outages to the FCC, industry officials said at a committee meeting Sunday. Meanwhile, the 1996 Telecom Act is “growing long in the tooth” and there would be heavy discussions about what comes next over the next year, said Michael Powell, head of the National Cable Telecom Association, during a general session Monday.
U.S. and international privacy and data security rules could significantly affect Facebook’s business and profitability, the company said in its initial public offering documents. Facebook’s Form S-1 SEC registration said the company earned $1 billion in profit during 2011 and had $3.71 billion revenue. The company’s regulatory obligations will only increase as federal and international lawmakers continue to focus more attention on issues of online privacy, data protection, copyright protection, mobile applications and protection of minors online.
Gameloft said sales for Q4 ended Dec. 31 grew 18 percent from Q4 the prior year, to 47 million euros ($60.87 million at $1=0.7721 euros), due to strong demand for recent mobile game releases. New games that did especially well included Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, Six-Guns and Dungeon Hunter 3, it said. Gameloft revenue for all of 2011 grew 17 percent to 164.4 million euros ($212.92 million). Europe accounted for 30 percent of total sales, North America 29 percent and the rest of the world 41 percent, it said. Its growth “continues to be driven by sales in emerging countries and by the massive success” of games on smartphones and tablets globally, it said. Q4 sales on smartphones and tablets soared 64 percent and represented 41 percent of total sales. “The dynamism of the smartphone and tablet market, driven by the success of Apple and Android, should continue sustaining Gameloft’s growth in the upcoming quarters,” it predicted. The company said it expects to report “solid top-line growth” for 2012.
GENEVA -- Wider discussions on cybercrime are ramping up to evaluate existing legal instruments and to assess whether new measures are needed, speakers said at a high-level panel on cybersecurity and cybercrime Tuesday. A “universal convention on cooperation” is needed for the fight against cybercrime, a Russian official said. “Divergence of views” between governments is “very significant,” a U.N. official said. The panel was organized by the U.N. Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the ITU and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
GENEVA -- Wider discussions on cybercrime are ramping up to evaluate existing legal instruments and to assess whether new measures are needed, speakers said at a high-level panel on cybersecurity and cybercrime Tuesday. A “universal convention on cooperation” is needed for the fight against cybercrime, a Russian official said. “Divergence of views” between governments is “very significant,” a U.N. official said. The panel was organized by the U.N. Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the ITU and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Creation of a next-generation public safety communications network will require leadership “from a single non-profit organization devoted to this purpose,” said a report released Tuesday by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT). The report also said any network should “incorporate commercial technology where appropriate” and find ways to “extend commercial technology to achieve robustness.” It emphasized the importance of ease of use and affordability in any network used by public safety (http://xrl.us/bmqc8z).
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for January 30 -- February 4, 2012:
On January 30, 2012, the Senate Banking Committee announced that on February 2 the Committee will mark-up (i.e., consider and vote on) a draft bill which would provide for a range of new measures for the President to employ to increase pressure on Iran to comply with its international obligations. The marked-up bill would then be introduced in the Senate.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the agency’s increased efforts on cybersecurity “are showing results.” Her remarks came during a speech at the National Press Club Monday. “We continue to work with the private sector, other government national security and law enforcement agencies and the international community to mitigate the risks and reduce the potential for a malicious actor to be successful. Last year, our Computer Emergency Readiness Team responded to more than 100,000 incident reports, and released more than 5,000 actionable cybersecurity alerts to our federal, state, and private sector partners,” she said. “These efforts are showing results. In the last year alone, the U.S. Secret Service prevented $5.6 billion in potential losses through financial crime investigations and $1.5 billion through cybercrime investigations.” Last May the White House urged Congress to expand DHS authority to address and modify the U.S. response to cybersecurity threats (CD May 13 p10). But industry members and some House Republican leaders including Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, remain hesitant to give DHS the power to scrutinize the cybersecurity plans of American businesses (CD Oct 12 p12). Nevertheless, DHS is “deploying the latest tools across the federal government to protect critical systems while sharing timely and actionable security information with public and private sector partners to help them protect their own operations,” Napolitano said.