The FCC would be required to auction unused spectrum to build a nationwide wireless broadband network in a bill introduced Thursday by Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Christopher Cannon, R-Utah. The network, to serve at least 95 percent of the country within 10 years, would offer free service tiers to consumers and public safety users. Obscene and indecent material would be banned on the free service tier.
Documented abuses of federal authority to gather phone and Internet records fall short of constitutional violations, an FBI official told the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Tuesday. The government issues National Security Letters (NSLs) during terror investigations and bars service providers from disclosing the requests, but in the past year problems have been documented in reports by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine (CD March 29/07 p5). Former FBI and DoJ officials recommended reforms to narrow NSL provisions and add oversight, but split on what the standard should be for obtaining issuance of NSLs.
Documented abuses of federal authority to gather phone and Internet records fall short of constitutional violations, an FBI official told the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Tuesday. The government issues National Security Letters (NSLs) during terror investigations and bars service providers from disclosing the requests, but in the past year problems have been documented in reports by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine (WID March 29/07 p2). Former FBI and DoJ officials recommended reforms to narrow NSL provisions and add oversight, but split on what the standard should be for obtaining issuance of NSLs.
Next generation E-911 is needed because “more people rely on wireless as their primary service” than have wireline only, said Willis Carter, president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. He addressed an event held in honor of National Public Telecommunications Week. Each year about a third of 911 calls in the U.S. are wireless, according to the FCC, and 14 percent of households have only wireless phones, while 12 percent are wireline only, CTIA said. The main problem is that public safety answering points are “unable to receive multimedia information from wireless consumers,” though text messaging is gaining popularity, as is use of picture and video sharing on wireless phones, said Jason Barbour, president of the National Emergency Number Association.
The FCC released a notice of inquiry on E-911 calls from “uninitialized” phones - discarded handsets without service plans -- a growing problem for public safety answering points. National and state public safety groups called attention to the matter. PSAP officials have complained of myriad prank 911 calls made from old, untraceable phones. APCO, the National Emergency Number Association and the National Association of State 9-1-1 Administrators filed a petition at the FCC seeking action (CD March 5 p5).
Analysts expect MetroPCS and Leap Wireless merger talks to resume after an FCC “anti-collusion” date expired last week. A deal emerging by year-end is highly possible, analysts said in interviews. The FCC “anti-collusion” rules were in place during the 700 MHz auction and prevented auction bidders from making deals. A Leap Wireless and MetroPCS discussion “will begin shortly” since those anti- collusion rules are no longer in effect, said Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson, adding he suspected discussions already had begun. “I could see the deal happening by the end of this year,” he said. He predicted “a several-billion- dollar-synergy.” If there is a deal, it will benefit both companies and “the new joint venture will become a national service provider in the low-income market,” Nelson said. “A deal is going to happen, and the only thing is when,” because “all ingredients are there,” said William Ho from Current Analysis. He said he'd expected discussion to begin before the spectrum auction. The biggest issue is the valuation, as Leap turned down an unsolicited bid of $5.3 billion from MetroPCS last summer, said Ho. In response, Leap Wireless stuck to its original statement. “We think there could be merit,” said a Leap Wireless spokesman on the possible combination. MetroPCS officials didn’t immediately return messages to comment.
The FCC was poised to approve an order implementing the WARN Act, which would set up a national program allowing wireless carriers to broadcast emergency alerts to their subscribers, as we went to press. The FCC has a statutory obligation to act by Thursday. As a result, there likely will not be an agenda meeting Thursday, though the commission had not made an announcement to that effect by our deadline. The FCC can fulfill its obligation to meet this month instead at next week’s network management hearing at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Commissioners don’t object to the meeting being postponed, sources said.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Security professionals attacked as misguided Homeland Security Department emphasis on increasing awareness to fight botnets. A senior FBI agent agreed on an RSA Conference panel late Tuesday that federal legislation is needed to battle botnets -- armies of thousands of zombie consumer or business PCs subverted for nefarious purposes ranging from spam and fraud to denial of service attacks and, in theory, terrorism. But the FBI official didn’t go as far as consultant and author Ira Winkler, who argued that the U.S. should ban from the Internet computer users who don’t take security precautions.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated a tentative list of witnesses for the commission’s Stanford University hearing on network management April 17. Unlike at an earlier hearing on the subject in Cambridge, Mass., the list doesn’t include representatives of network operators. But, the chairman is considering a representative of “the creative community,” which probably means the Hollywood studios. The first panel is on network management and consumer expectations. Witnesses include Stanford law Professor Lawrence Lessig, Ben Scott of Free Press, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America and Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Panel two is on consumer access to emerging Internet technologies and applications. Witnesses are to include Barbara van Schewick of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, Harold Feld of the Media Access Project, a panelist from the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies, as well as representatives of RealNetworks and either Sling Media or Vudu. The list probably will change as the meeting approaches, sources said. - HB
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Truck Manifest and Automated Broker Interface CSMS message stating that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Certification Environment will be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 and cancelling its previous message which stated that it would not be available for trade testing on April 15, 2008 from 7:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 p.m. EDT. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/31/08 news, 08033145 1, for BP summary of CBP's previous CSMS message.) (CSMS 08-000047, dated 04/07/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17054&page=&srch_argv=08-000047&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby.)