Orbcomm partnered with Sumitomo Construction Machinery to provide wireless data connectivity for Sumitomo’s global original equipment manufacturers telematics solution. Sumitomo, based in Japan, will use Orbcomm’s satellite communications network “to track and monitor the location, status and performance of their equipment anywhere in the world,” Orbcomm said in a press release (http://bit.ly/X3kIeE). Through the partnership, Sumitomo plans to increase its market share in heavy equipment telematics, Orbcomm said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation will represent two bloggers -- the anonymous operators of FightCopyrightTrolls.com and DieTrollDie.com -- in a case against Paul Duffy and his copyright enforcement law firm Prenda Law, EFF said on its website Monday (http://bit.ly/13Sf729). It said Duffy sued the two bloggers for defamation last month after the blogs criticized Duffy and his firm for “targeting large groups of anonymous ‘John Doe’ defendants for downloading files on BitTorrent, seeking their identities, and exploiting the massive damages in copyright law in order to pressure defendants into settling quickly.” EFF Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz called the lawsuits “a blatant attempt to abuse the legal process to punish critics.” Duffy also served a subpoena on Automattic, the company that owns the Wordpress blogging platform, seeking “the IP addresses of everyone who ever visited the two websites, threatening the privacy of the bloggers and their readers,” said the EFF release. The subpoena is “improper under the First Amendment” and “fails to comply with the simple rules for pre-trial discovery,” said EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo.
Eutelsat and OneAccess developed satellite-based virtual private network services through Eutelsat’s KA-SAT satellite. The service will start this month to serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Eutelsat said in a news release (http://bit.ly/W5SZxN). The companies developed a dedicated One1520 satellite router “that incorporates integrated traffic acceleration, IP routing and IP-VPN secure transport to deliver 20 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload,” Eutelsat said Tuesday. It said the services based on this platform are ideal for delivering Internet access to businesses with dispersed networks of offices “where maintaining a high-speed, secure, inter-branch communications network is critical.”
Skype’s failure to declare itself an electronic communications operator in France could be classified as a criminal offense, telecom regulator the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP) said Tuesday. Skype is headquartered in Luxembourg but offers VoIP services to French users. If not all of those services are e-communications services, “this does not seem to be the case for the service that allows Internet users located in France to call fixed and mobile numbers in France and around the world” via computer, it said. While a company isn’t required to obtain administrative approval to become an e-communications provider in France, it must declare itself as such, ARCEP said. The fact of engaging in the business of electronic communications, and particularly of offering a telephone service to the public, requires compliance with certain obligations, which include routing of emergency calls and putting in place the means to perform legally ordered interceptions, it said. ARCEP said it notified the Paris public prosecutor of Skype’s failure.
The House Judiciary Committee announced the witnesses scheduled to testify at the Wednesday cybersecurity hearing to be held by the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations. The witnesses listed in a news release Tuesday are: Jenny Durkan, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington; John Boles, deputy assistant director for the FBI’s cyber division; Robert Holleyman, BSA-The Software Alliance president; and Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said the witnesses will help lawmakers understand how to protect U.S. networks from cyberattacks, which are “stemming largely from China,” according to the joint news release. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said the hearing will assist lawmakers as they “examine the current tools we have to make sure that they keep pace with modern technology and protect sensitive data from future cyber intrusion.” The hearing will be at 11:30 a.m. in Room 2237 Rayburn.
Transition to a replacement for the text telephone (TTY) system for emergency communications for the disabled should last 12 years, the FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee’s (EAAC) TTY Transition subgroup said in a draft report. That timeline would include three years for getting the TTY replacement “commonly available,” three years until “no more legacy TTYs should be deployed,” and an additional six years until TTY support can cease, the subgroup said. That timeline can be sped up or slowed down depending on conditions in the overall transition from the public switched telephone network to Internet protocol, the subgroup said in the report. The subgroup recommended implementing the National Emergency Number Association i3Detailed Technical specification 08-003 and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) request for comment 6443 to achieve interoperability between service providers when at least one uses IETF Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call control. The default interoperability protocols include: IETF RFC 3261 SIP for call control, ITU-T Recommendation T.40 for real-time text presentation and IETF RFC 4103 for real-time text transport, as well as “suitable audio and wide-band audio codecs” commonly used in the implementation environment and supported by Next-Generation 911 (N-G9-1-1). For IMS, the profile specified in GSMA PRD ir.92, including its Annex B, specify a “similar set suitable” for TTY replacement, the subgroup said. That profile also recommends IETF RFC 3261 SIP for call control and IETF RFC 4103 for real-time text, but also requires 3GPP TS 26.114 IMS Multimedia Telephony Codec Considerations for audio. A “suitable combination” with video as specified in GSMA PRD ir.94 should be considered, the subgroup said. Other real-time text protocols can also be used within each service provider’s network or between service providers, provided the functional goals for TTY transition are still met and other protocols are supported as a fallback, the subgroup said. For interoperability of calls between PSTN’s TTY and the TTY replacement, the subgroup recommended placing gateways in the network -- and that calls that may contain text should automatically be routed through the gateway. Other alternatives should also be considered and further investigated, the subgroup said. Recommendation T6.3, which allows for conversion of TTY to IP-carried real-time text at the point of entry to IP networks, is the “realistic solution” for TTY access to N-G9-1-1, the subgroup said. There should be coordination with the U.S. Access Board, the Telecommunications Equipment Distribution Programs and the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program, the subgroup said. TSR rules should be updated to “specifically support relay calls based on the protocols used in accessible interchange with N-G9-1-1,” including information requested in the NENA i3 technical specification, the subgroup said. Videophone and VRS service providers should implement TTY replacement features in combination with video, the subgroup said. NENA recommendations to provide 9-1-1 access to instant messaging users should be encouraged separately from TTY replacement activities “in order to provide 9-1-1 access for current users of these services related to both accessibility and general needs,” the subgroup said. The draft report includes two possible versions of a recommendation for a move toward TTY replacement in industry practice and FCC regulations, as the EAAC “could not come to an agreement” on a common version (http://bit.ly/Y5tvjC).
T-Mobile and the Greenlining Institute each filed letters at the FCC on T-Mobile’s proposed combination with MetroPCS. “We believe it’s urgent that the FCC put on the brakes and not fast-track this deal,” said Greenlining Energy and Telecommunications Policy Director Stephanie Chen. “The companies’ delaying tactics and efforts to keep crucial information from consumer groups raise serious concerns about the truthfulness of the claimed public interest benefits of the proposed deal. Our initial review of the confidential documents they finally handed over indicates that those materials don’t support some of their claims, and in some cases contradict them.” The FCC should ignore the group’s objections, T-Mobile said. On March 8, “over three months after the close of the FCC’s established comment period, The Greenlining Institute filed an ex parte letter asserting, for the first time that the … proposed transaction would harm the public interest and that the Commission should deny the application,'” T-Mobile said. “Greenlining provides no justification for its failure to comply with the Commission’s established deadlines for opposing or commenting on the proposed transaction and utterly fails in its effort to blame the Applicants for its own tardiness."
The House Communications Subcommittee named the witnesses Monday who plan to testify at the panel’s upcoming FirstNet oversight hearing. Witnesses on the first panel will be: FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn; Ray Lehr, director of the Maryland Statewide Communications Interoperability Program; Chris McIntosh, interoperability coordinator for the Virginia Office of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security; James Barnett, co-chair of the telecommunications group at Venable; and Declan Ganley, chairman of Rivada Networks. Witnesses on the second panel will be: Christopher Guttman-McCabe, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs; National Emergency Number Association Director-Government Affairs Trey Forgety; Diane Kniowski, president and general manager at WOOD TV, WOTV and WXSP; and FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky. The hearing is scheduled for March 14 at 10:30 a.m. in Rayburn room 2123.
The auction of 112 FM construction permits had 88 complete applications, among the 109 applications received for Auction 94, the FCC Wireless and Media bureaus said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/ZBz35M). To become a qualified bidder, applicants with incomplete applications can resubmit their applications with corrected deficiencies by March 18, the notice said. The auction will begin April 23. The commission “is not sympathetic to bidders that wait until the last day,” said Fletcher Heald attorney Raymond Quianzon. Historically, it disqualified late-paying bidders “who claimed that their lateness was the fault of their banks,” he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/14OT8oG). The anti-collusion rules are very strict and “the FCC enforces them rigorously,” he said.
Congress should oppose the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), privacy advocates said in a letter to members Monday (http://bit.ly/XjLTI1). Signatories include the ACLU, Center for Democracy and Technology, Demand Progress, Electronic Frontier Foundation and browser maker Mozilla. “A carefully-crafted information sharing program that strictly limits the information to be shared and includes robust privacy safeguards could be an effective approach to cybersecurity,” but CISPA does not have those necessary safeguards, the groups wrote. The bill could “allow companies that hold very sensitive and personal information to liberally share it with the government, which could then use the information without meaningful oversight for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity,” the letter continued. The groups urged members to vote no on the bill until “fundamental changes” have been made “to address the many civil liberties problems."