U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman should prioritize dismantling “protectionist” data flow policies through Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and Trade in International Services Agreement negotiations, said 18 House members in a Friday letter (http://1.usa.gov/1cxbuhJ). Some EU officials are pushing initiatives that undermine the U.S. ability to compete in the European market, such as an EU-only information sharing cloud and an EU information technology conglomerate, said the lawmakers. Protectionist EU IT policies threaten the $2.1 trillion in U.S. investment in the EU, the lawmakers said. “This mutually beneficial relationship would not be possible without constant streams of data between the EU and the U.S,” said legislators. “Halting cross-border data flows will, by many measures, simply stifle cross-border trade.” Congressional High Tech Caucus co-chairs Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., led the letter. The lawmakers listed issues of concern both in and out of the U.S. After issuing a decree that requires Brazilian federal government agencies use only federally provided telecom and IT services, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is pursuing data localization legislation, said the lawmakers. “Meanwhile, some German officials have called on the EU to review Safe Harbor, the only mechanism through which U.S. and European companies can exchange information in compliance with the laws of the nations in which they conduct business” (CD Oct 24 p10), said members of Congress. “Canada has increased the number of federal government Requests for Proposals (RFPs) invoking a ‘national security exemption’ and requiring IT vendors who bid for projects to keep all or portions of data within Canada.” U.S. Lawmakers recently introduced the Digital Trade Act of 2013 in an effort to prevent or eliminate cross-border Internet data flow restrictions by establishing negotiating principles for digital trade issues in future U.S. trade agreements.
Globalstar again said adopting the rules proposed in the NPRM on allowing it to provide a terrestrial low-power broadband service would “quickly add 22 MHz to the nation’s wireless broadband spectrum inventory,” in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-213 and RM-11685 (http://bit.ly/1cMSuzh). It also would “ease the congestion that is diminishing the quality of Wi-Fi service at high-traffic 802.11 hotspots and other locations,” it said. Globalstar continued to urge the FCC to maintain its prohibition on outdoor operations in the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band, it said. It repeated that reassignment of Globalstar’s spectrum to Iridium “would have a disastrous effect on Globalstar’s global MSS operations and cause significant harm to public safety and the customers who rely on Globalstar’s services,” it said. The proceeding on Iridium’s petition, which seeks reallocation of Big low-earth orbit spectrum from Globalstar is still pending (CD Nov 5 p5).
The FTC filed a complaint seeking permanent injunction against Lin Miao and Andrew Bachman, and companies they own, for allegedly placing charges on wireless subscriber bills in violation of federal law. “Defendants have been engaging in a widespread scheme to place unauthorized third-party charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills, a harmful and illegal practice known as ‘cramming,'” the FTC said (http://1.usa.gov/1bLidqK). “Defendants have been operating a scam in which they have been billing consumers for text message-based subscription services even though the consumers did not authorize any purchase of the services.” Mobile subscribers targeted by the companies have been charged for celebrity gossip alerts, “fun facts,” horoscopes and “similar kinds of information,” the FTC said. Many subscribers paid their bills without noticing the charges, the agency said.
DirecTV, Dish Network, Hughes and EchoStar emphasized to the FCC that changes to fee categories must reflect changes in law and regulation, and “must correspond with the number of full time employees performing specified regulatory functions for particular classes of payors,” they said in an ex parte filing in dockets 13-140, 12-201 and 08-65 (http://bit.ly/1bL8AID). The cable operators’ “parity” arguments are defective “because the commission does not regulate these two industries equally,” it said. In a separate ex parte filing in those dockets, SES, Inmarsat and Telesat cautioned the FCC against requiring non-U.S.-licensed satellite operators serving the U.S. market to pay space station regulatory fees. Foreign-licensed satellites don’t obtain Title III licenses “or receive the benefits that come with grant of a U.S. space station license,” the ex parte said (http://bit.ly/1997qZT). The only commission efforts that are solely focused on foreign satellites involve processing requests for market access, “a one-time expenditure of resources that the satellite companies argued does not justify a recurring regulatory fee,” it said. The FCC’s earth station licensing database doesn’t permit determination of whether an earth station is communicating with foreign-licensed satellites, it said. During a separate meeting, Intelsat supported reassessing fees for indirect full-time employees “that rarely work on behalf of satellite operators,” it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/IQf4Mw). It also reiterated that regulatory fees should be collected from non-U.S. satellite operators with U.S. market access, it said. All the satellite companies met last week with staff from the Enforcement and International bureaus and the Office of Managing Director.
Ruckus Wireless is partnering with the city and county of San Francisco to deliver free public Wi-Fi for the city’s Market Street Corridor, said the company in a news release Monday (http://yhoo.it/1bUtENR). San Francisco’s Department of Technology and Ruckus worked in a public-private partnership to design, build and deploy the network, said Ruckus. The outdoor network will be available starting at the intersection of Market and Castro streets and continuing to the pedestrian corridor at the Embarcadero, it said. The city selected the company because it “overcomes” the physical and technical challenges of bringing wireless connectivity to outdoor environments with its high-capacity coverage requirements, Ruckus said. Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi technology is able to extend Wi-Fi signals over longer distances while adapting signals to changes to environmental conditions, said the company.
The Minority Media & Telecom Council again said it doesn’t object to some modest relaxation of the cross-ownership rule in large and medium markets, “so long as relaxation would not diminish minority ownership.” Comments were contained in an ex parte filing in dockets 09-182 and 07-294 (http://bit.ly/IQ3pwY). MMTC doesn’t believe the FCC “should further relax the television duopoly rule since that would deter growth of diverse ownership in broadcasting,” it said. “MMTC similarly feels that most shared service agreements are detrimental to minority ownership.” The filing pertained to a meeting with Maria Kirby, legal adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler, it said.
Cable, satellite and telco customers can now verify their subscriptions in order to live-stream the Sochi Winter Olympics exclusively on NBCOlympics.com and via the NBC Sports Live Extra app at no extra charge, said NBC Olympics in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1hX8pig). All competition across all 15 sports will be live-streamed, and customers will also have access to exclusive content, real-time results, medal standings, event highlights and analysis, athlete interviews and profiles and rewinds of all event coverage, said the company. Customers will also gain online access to the coverage of U.S. Olympic Team Trials by verifying their subscriptions, it said. Customers verified 9.9 million devices during the London Olympic Games through the website or on the app, said NBC Olympics.
The public would “get nothing good” out of a rumored Sprint/T-Mobile US merger, Free Press President Craig Aaron said Friday in a statement. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Sprint was considering making a bid for T-Mobile in Q1. A Sprint spokesman declined to comment. “The public doesn’t need fewer competitors and fewer choices -- not when the wireless market already has so little competition,” Aaron said. “As they did in blocking the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, the FCC and Justice Department must carefully and closely scrutinize this deal and its impacts on consumers and their wallets."
Parties will have more time to respond to the FCC further notice on inmate calling, said a Wireline Bureau order (http://fcc.us/19HSoVb). Comments in docket 12-376 will now be due Dec. 20, replies Jan 13. The bureau said it found “good cause” to grant the request by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for a “modest time extension for all parties.” The Ohio DRC had argued the additional time would allow for “a more complete factual and legal record in this proceeding."
The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute is “reserving judgment” on the White House’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies report on the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, said OTI Policy Director Kevin Bankston. The report is due this weekend, but The Wall Street Journal (http://on.wsj.com/JesFgv) and The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1fblhgr) published advance looks at the report Friday. OTI Policy Director Kevin Bankston said in an email statement that the report “recommends some important, common sense reforms, like separating the NSA’s code-making and code-breaking missions to avoid a dangerous conflict of interest, introducing a public advocate into the processes of the secret surveillance court, and establishing some level of privacy rights for people outside the United States.” But the review group “as we feared would be the case ... has urged that the NSA continue with its bulk collection and analysis of American phone records, just with the companies rather than the NSA holding the data,” Bankston said.